While looking outside the window up at the gray cloudy sky, I sat on a couch in Grandfather’s study.
The season is still summer, but cloudy rainy days like this are relatively cool and friendly to chubby people.
Due to the kidnapping incident caused by Aunt and Uncle, a good change has occurred in the Hakusu earldom household.
(Vaguely, it feels like our family’s relationships have improved from before.)
Because of unreliable Grandfather’s actions as head of the family, Ryuze and I, and the relatively new servants as well, began to review with him. The once-strained atmosphere in this poor Earl’s household began to soften.
As his worries had decreased by a small number, my cousin Ryuze’s expression seems to have become a little calmer.
“By the way, Britney. A letter arrived from the Astaru earldom that Ricardo’s state upon his safe arrival was strange, but…”
Grandfather was sitting across from me on the table and began to chat. He and the Earl of Astaru were good friends, and often exchanged letters with each other.
His rage at Ricardo for breaking off the engagement had lessened nowadays, and this topic naturally emerged.
“Uhm, Ricardo was acting strange…?”
Listening to Grandfather, the Earl of Astaru’s letter had read “My son has become possessed by something. He has been doing nothing but sword practice to the point it’s scary.”
Ricardo seems to be a perfectionist, and to this day seems to regret his insta-death in the fight against the kidnappers.
However, he is such a hard worker so I hold a favorable impression. Through that incident, I as well became keenly aware of the importance of defending myself.
“Ojii-sama, related to that matter, I have a favor to ask.”
“What’s this? If it’s a request from Britney, I want to hear it by all means!”
As usual, Grandfather is sweet to me. It’s a good thing, so I gave a proposition to him.
“Actually, I want to learn fencing like Ricardo. I say that, but unlike him, I want to learn the minimum needed for self-defense.”
“Oh? But, Britney is a girl.”
“I thought a little about the recent incident. Were I to have taken lessons in self-defense, I would have been able to escape from the enemy. Once Ojii-sama has handed over the mantle of Earl to Ryuze-oniisama, won’t Ojii-sama have relatively more free time than before? If at all possible, could Ojii-sama please teach me the basics of self-defense during that extra time?”
No matter how old he is, Grandfather is still the hero who defended this land. Even now he is still much stronger than me.
He was worried upon hearing this from me initially, but given a sincere request from his granddaughter, he acquiesced all too soon.
In that way, I began to learn self-defense techniques from Grandfather.
From the start, Ryuze had been taking care of the lions share of the work, but as the remaining amount began getting handed over to my cousin, little by little Grandfather began to have more and more free time.
Right now as well, he is teaching me the basics of self-defense in the garden.
… I have some doubts about its contents.
(These are ordinary self-defense techniques, right?)
Glad to be spending time with his granddaughter, Grandfather is in high spirits and teaches me various self-defense techniques one after another.
For some reason, the old subordinates who idolize Grandfather joined in. In high spirits, they taught me techniques that are clearly beyond the area of ordinary self-defense. (TLN: Calling it now. She’s with the Prince when he gets attacked by an assassin and ends up using these techniques to prevent his death.)
(Ne~, these techniques… are they really for self-defense? Isn’t this excessive self-defense, or even crossing the threshold to be attacks?)
I’m uneasy memorizing these, but as I’m an amateur in martial arts, I can’t say anything to these veterans.
(By any chance, is this really the fundamentals of self-defense?)
Everyone is about the same age as Grandfather, but as expected from active-duty soldiers who have yet to retire, they are quite muscular.
The average life expectancy of this world is sixty- to seventy-years-old.
Although everyone belongs to Grandfather’s generation, given that people can have children at a younger age in this world, most of them are fifty- to sixty-years old. It’s a different feeling from modern-day Japan, so I shouldn’t make light of them for being old. (TLN: I don’t get this sentence. Can anyone explain?)
(Even though I’m just learning self-defense techniques, I’m absurdly tired…! Why is everyone so quick and nimble?)
It seems my hard training with them bore fruit, and as my life as a thirteen-year-old ended, my weight had been cut to 50 kilos (110 lbs). Somehow, it seems I have gained a considerable amount of muscles.
In my heart, I called this training with the elderly soldiers “boot camp.”
My skill with poetry and music was the same as ever, but it seems the boot camp’s muscle training, self-defense training, and fencing instruction were more suitable for me.
Somehow, with my remarkable ability, I am slowly becoming a close-quarters battle reijou.
(Well, my diet has succeeded, so that’s fine with me…)
Translator’s Corner:Congratulations, Britney! She’s reached her goal: 50 kilos! A BMI of 22.2, which is solidly an average healthy weight.
And as we end the 13-year-old arc, there’s an exciting announcement from the author’s twitter!
転生先が少女漫画の白豚令嬢だった (Shiro Buta Reijou) is being adapted to manga and getting published as a light novel!
Manga serialized in: B’s-LOG COMIC (starting 2018 Apr. Vol.63)
Light novel:
Shiro Buta Reijou Volume 1 CoverBritney, Ricardo and Ryuze are so cute! Congratulations to the author!
1938 characters, 42 lines