Danmachi: Westward Cloud [Complete]

Quest 17- Knights Training

When Cirrus next woke up, he looked up at a wooden ceiling.

“…”

He looked to find the room only had Hermes.

“Hermes,” Cirrus spoke up.

“Hm, hm!” Hermes woke up. “You're awake! It's been a few hours since the Knight of Knights knocked the daylights out of you!”

“Ugh!” Cirrus tried to stand up. “Yeah… my whole body is in pain. Is there anyone else here?”

“They're all sleeping here.” Hermes hands Cirrus a sword.

“What’s this?” Cirrus goes and holds it.

“It’s a replacement from the one Lance broke during your spar.”

“Ah… fuck, she’s gonna kick my ass for breaking it.”

Cirrus gets out of bed, and his magic circle appears.

“(Exousía, Adorn).”

The armor quickly heals Cirrus and as soon as it healed all major injuries, he quickly disengaged it.

“It always is a sight to see you don that armor. Shame you have to put it away so fast.”

“Hmm… well, maybe you will. I found another interesting detail about it.”

“Oh? Did you now?”

“Yup.”

Cirrus then walked out of the room.

“W-wait, you are not gonna tell me!”

“You have sharp eyes and yet you didn’t see any major lacerations on my body, did you?” Cirrus said, leaving the room.

“Laceration…!!”

Remembering the slash Lance sent at Cirrus, Cirrus himself had no actual cuts in him, just bruising.

“Well… seems that magic of yours is very special indeed.”

Leaving the room as well, Hermes joined Cirrus in a late-night snack.

“Oh, by the way, Knight of Knights is going to train you while we're in Melen,” Hermes said, as he takes a bite of the food provided by the inn.

“W-what!”

The next day.

“Seems you're all healed up,” Lance said as he sits on a box.

“You held back enough for that, so you wanted to train me?”

“Yes, during our spar I found you had a lot of potential, so I thought why not help further polish you, seeing as there is time for me to train you a bit?”

“Oh, I see.”

“So tell me, who taught you? Was it your Familia?”

“My swordsmanship is self-taught. I work on it in the dungeon. My spearmanship was taught by my blacksmith.”

“Hmm… so Autolycus didn’t teach you? She is your captain.”

“I’m actually not in their Familia.”

“Your not? Then why are you with them?”

“My god asked me to help with their investigation of Evilus.”

“Hmm… well then.” He gets up and picks up his long sword, a rather simple-looking weapon, but Cirrus could see the various scratches on the hilt and handle of the weapon and even on the spine of the sword. “I will not pry any further what your Familia situation is yours. Now, shall we begin you on some swordsmanship?” He holds his blade as he did before with Cirrus’s short sword.

“Yes, teacher.”

The two would train for hours on end, and Lance would instill in him his form of swordsmanship. To his delight, Cirrus didn’t complain and simply worked on improving. When they took their break, he even decided to teach him to fish something. Hermes joined in to pass the time.

“Say, do you know anything about using a shield?” asked Cirrus, practicing some sword swings.

“A shield, huh? hmm… not so much. I simply worked on my swings. Why? Did you wish to add the shield to your skill set?”

“At one point, yes, but I found it rather uncomfortable to use, so I worked more on evasions.”

“That’s a shame. Well, if you really wish to learn, I’m sure you can. You taught yourself the basics of swordsmanship, so using a shield shouldn’t be too much trouble.”

“Hm, I'll try to see about it one day.”

Day after day went by as Lance was teaching him and even sparing with him. Cirrus’s skill with the sword on rare occasions Poseidon would give him pointers on his spearmanship and even some of his techniques. Cirrus asked why he was teaching him, and he simply replied that no one wished to learn spearmanship from him.

After nine days, the merchants arrived in Melen, Hermes and Poseidon got to ask them, and thankfully one of the merchants told them that a new Familia has taken over the city Santorio Vega, and another took control of Solingen.

“Well, this is troublesome,” Hermes said.

“They took two very important cities at such a speed,” Lydia said.

“No… it's reasonable given that they said it was the Vritra and Chernobog Familia both have 1st class adventures, they must have taken over the smaller Familia building up their fighting force and taking the reins from the previous Familia in an aggressive takeover.” Said Cirrus.

“Well, for now, we have two places we need to go dismantle,” Hermes said, thinking of what to do. “But… which one needs to go down first?”

“… Mmm… we should head back to Orario and get information on the two Familia’s,” Cirrus said.

“Hm, we do lack the information…” Lydia said.

It stumped the whole Familia on what they were going to do.

“Then let's gather the information?” Cirrus said. “Some of us will go to one city and begin gathering information.”

“I see… but who will g—“

“Can I go to Solingen?” asked Cirrus. “I have some experience in blacksmithing.”

“Well, aren’t you skilled Zephyr,” Hermes said. “For now, we shall go and get information on the Vritra Familia in Santorio Vega, Cirrus. Can we trust you to gather information on the Chernobog Familia until we arrive?”

“Of course, I'll simply act like a weak child.”

“Hah! Weak!” Lydia said. “You’re a tough kid!” she then slapped his arm, and he began to cry out.

“S-s-s-s-she hurt me!!!! Ooooowwwww!!!!” with tears rolling around on the ground.

Cirrus then immediately stopped and brushed himself off.

“Like I said acting, maybe that example was overdramatic, but you get it.”

“Well, then.” Hermes made a big smile. “Now, since that’s settled, we will meet at Solingen in a few months.”

“Then the operation begins.”