Althea: The Legendary Saintess [Shoujo]

Upon returning from a long journey, they temporarily disbanded.

An hour later, Curio was supposed to come to pick them up, so they quickly wiped themselves down and changed into clothes suitable for swordsmanship.

While Althea was changing, Regalus was explaining to his parents in another room. After hearing the explanation, both parents left the room together.

An hour later, Curio came to pick them up. Althea and the other three followed Curio to the training ground.

When they arrived at the training ground, there were people they hadn't met before, along with Siegfried, and inexplicably, Thomas was there too. Adrian, Titania, and even Clara were sitting in the spectator stands.

"Why are you here, Father?" Regalus asked, to which Thomas replied with a smile, "I heard we were training, so I thought I'd join in for once."

"Wouldn't it disrupt the training if you joined, Father?"

"It'll be fine. I'll make sure to train properly."

"And, Father, who is this gentleman?" Regalus asked, nodding towards a burly soldier who looked very strong.

"Oh, he's the captain of the Royal First Guard."

"What?! Then..."

Surprised, Regalus looked at the man introduced as the captain of the Royal First Guard, who greeted him with a smile.

"I heard Lord Monclair would participate in training, so I wanted to join as well... Nice to meet you. I'm Graham Hulank, captain of the Royal First Guard. I've always heard about your son from His Highness, so I'm really looking forward to today. Hahaha..."

"Lord Hulank... Could it be the Duke Hulank's...? Thank you very much for your kindness. I am Regalus Von Monclair. Please forgive my inexperience."

As Regalus bowed deeply, a young girl who seemed barely of age stepped forward from behind him.

"Nice to meet you, Lord Hulank. I'm Althea Von Monclair."

Graham was surprised to see a girl who seemed out of place in a training ground and exclaimed loudly, "W-Why is such a lovely young lady... here in a training ground like this??"

Thomas patted Graham's shoulder and said, "She's my daughter... And she's quite strong, you know?"

"Huh?"

Turning to Thomas, Graham fell silent, lost in thought.

As Graham pondered, a voice came from the spectator stands.

"Have you all finished introducing yourselves? Let's get started already, or we'll run out of time."

Adrian shouted cheerfully.

"Yes, indeed... Then..."

In response to the voice, Thomas looked around and said, "Jean, you should spar with Curio. It'll be good training for both of you as guards. Lord Graham, please spar with Althea and Laila. And, Your Highness and Regalus, you'll spar with me."

With that said, Thomas took up his sword.

After nodding with Siegfried, Regalus and Thomas faced each other with their swords raised.

"Please take care of me."

The voices of Siegfried and Regalus overlapped as they both rushed towards Thomas. They were quite fast.

Meanwhile, Curio and Jean also began their sword fight.

Watching them, Graham realized that his opponent was the two girls. He turned to look at Althea and Laila slowly.

In front of his gaze were two beautiful girls smiling gently.

Is this okay? Even if they're said to be "quite strong," they're still girls??

As if sensing his thoughts, Laila said, "Don't worry just because we're girls."

Saying so, she lowered her stance.

It's not a normal sword stance... Could she be using concealed weapons? If so, it'll be troublesome if she gets too close. But still, she's just a girl...

As Graham was lost in thought, preparing for battle, Laila, who had entered a combat stance, said, "Well then... Please take care of us!"

Before she finished speaking, Laila ran towards Graham.

Following behind Laila, Althea also began to run.

"Please take care of us, Lord Hulank!"

With Althea's voice, she swung her sword down.

Just as Graham was parrying Laila's dagger that had come rushing towards him, Althea's sword descended without hesitation. Graham managed to deflect her sword with his own, then drew his own sword for defense.