She Becomes The Hero In Another World 110 She Rescues Skye

"What?" He asked, feeling somewhat embarra.s.sed as he withdrew a s.h.i.+rt to wear from his magic bag.

"Hmm...Just trying to figure out your training regimen from the size of your muscles." Robin replied in an interested manner.

"Oh, that?" Christian laughed. "It wasn't much. Just getting beat up by my combat instructor, being chased by the instructor's monster pets, being beat up by the instructor's obstacle course, and having a good team of healers on standby to make sure that I didn't die."

"Is that all?" Robin asked, disappointed.

"What were you expecting?" Christian asked.

"I dunno, maybe handicap challenges, speed runs, and melee training." Robin sighed.

"Handicap challenges?" The prince asked.

"You know: say, perhaps, that your dominant arm was disabled, dislocated or cut by a sword. In order to be prepared for such an event, you could practice sword fighting with your non-dominant arm." Robin explained.

"Hmm, and melee training?" Christian asked, pulling his s.h.i.+rt on, over his head.

"Ah, that's fighting against multiple people at the same to help train your sense of fighting outside of one on one duels." Robin replied. "Start out with one person, then progressively add more and more throughout the fight, as if you got caught in one great big brawl. Adding people of differing strengths can raise the intensity."

"Hmm...I might have done something similar, come to think of it." Christian muttered as he mulled over the near deadly training he had received from that spartan muscleman.

Then he recalled a particular incident.

"So, is that how you managed to decimate the a.s.sa.s.sins league?" He asked, recalling the scene of carnage.

Robin turned her head away. "My teachers didn't teach me those kinds of techniques." She bashfully admitted.

"Hmm?" Christian realised something. "Perhaps...you didn't learn how to fight like that through getting into actual brawl fights, did you?" He asked, a sly grin on his face.

"Of course not!" Robin replied. "Well...It wasn't an actual brawl."

---

It was true, it wasn't a brawl. Robin's gamer neighbor had roped her into joining a live contest with her to re-enact street fighter II in real life. Her gamer neighbor would give the commands, and she would follow through with the live action combos. Those were fighting moves that the character she played used.

Admittedly, she had been stupidly foolish in doing so. But, that was the first time someone had asked her to join them, not because of who she was, but because they valued her for the occupation that she had put so much effort into. In hindsight, it was a completely reckless and dangerous thing she had signed up for, even though they had won first place in the compet.i.tion.

And, after that, she never saw her neighbor again. It turned out that the whole street fighter re-enactment had been an event created by that neighbor's family, as she was sick with a terminal illness. The day after the event was the day of her death. Robin hadn't even realized her gamer neighbor had died until she saw the photo in the daily news obituary notice.

Robin had wanted to drop by and visit, but upon second thought, what reason did she have to intrude? She couldn't just say, "Hey, I'm the person who your daughter teamed up with the day before her death." to the bereaved parents.

Robin was not that insensitive. Instead, out of her own volition, Robin took it upon herself to use her brother's connections, and have their house mortgage secretly paid off.

She didn't even really know that girl's name that day. But she felt she had learned a valuable lesson. Instead of moping to herself, doing things to help other people out was far more enjoyable. She hadn't even realised it before then.

And that was the real beginning of Robin the hero. It didn't begin with fanfare or pulling a s.h.i.+ning sword out of a stone. It didn't begin with the outrages of war, or even rescuing a cat out of a tree. It began with an impression, and was followed up by action. Without that first impression, there would be no Hero Robin. There would just be a talented, yet scarred young prodigy.

----

"But, in order to practice such things, you would need to have a group of opponents, right?" Christian insisted.

"Perhaps..." Robin answered vaguely, turning to look out the window at the pouring rain. Christian shook his head. He could read Robin enough to realize that he wouldn't get any more information out of him for the time being.

"Do you think they'll be holding a grudge against me?" Robin asked. "I did take out a lot of their a.s.sa.s.sins, after all."

"Oh, I don't think so. Most of them were bronze grade a.s.sa.s.sins, the lowest tier of a.s.sa.s.sin." Christian replied. "Therefore, they wouldn't have any information about the headquarters location. Now, if it was a group of gold a.s.sa.s.sins, that might be different."

"It's too bad I was in a rush..." Robin murmured. "Else I wouldn't have merely decimated them."

"Hey, hey! Leave some of the glory for the city guards to claim!" Christian joked. "It's their job to rid the city of a.s.sa.s.sins, not yours."

"Well, yeah. But a job half-done creates twice the mess, and four times the work." Robin muttered. This caused Christian to laugh.

"I think that is the truest thing I have heard yet!" He chuckled.

"Oh? You must be experiences in the art of mess-making." Robin snorted. All of a sudden, the conversation was cut short when Skye called out through their link.

"Master, please save me!"

"What's wrong?" Christian asked, following along as Robin suddenly left the room. Thinking it might be an emergency, Robin was prepared to fight. But, when she arrived in the dining area, she paused, confused.

Skye was surrounded by a group of young women, who were intent upon thoroughly petting the cute little cat.Even the innkeeper's wife, who looked to be somewhat in her 30's, was involved. Being cornered by so many bright-eyed ladies had caused Skye to panic. The look in their eyes seemed predatory to the small flying cat.

"Master, please help!" Skye begged. "I can't hold back my strength. If I fight, they'll die. But, look at their eyes! They surely are having no good thoughts about me, right now!"

Somehow, Skye managed to extricate itself from the corner, and whizzed over to Robin's shoulders, in a flash, s.h.i.+vering a bit as it tried to hide behind Robin's head.

Robin stood there for a moment, as she witnessed the cat's antics. finally, she couldn't hold it in anymore.

"-Pffft! Ahahahahaha!" She leaned against the wall as her lungs started to ache from laughter and lack of oxygen. Seeing the situation, Jasmine, and Chelsea, and even Christian couldn't help but chuckle. Wiping a tear from the corner of her eyes, Robin addressed the young ladies who now had their full attention on her.

"My apologies, ladies. This little cat here is rather shy, and doesn't like anyone else holding him. In order to protect your fair hands from scared scratches, I would ask that you refrain from petting my cat."

"So this is your cat? How beautiful she is!" One of the women exclaimed.

"Is it a foreign breed?" Another one asked. "I do want to have one of them for my own!" All the ladies agreed that cute things like cats are meant for petting.

"S-stay away from me!" Skye hissed from where he hid. "I'm warning you!"

Robin asked them. "Have you never seen a flying cat before?"

"No, never!" They shook their heads.

"Well, I can't say much about raising them, since I picked this one up on the road," Robin began. "But if you've never seen one before, then it's highly likely that there aren't any in the surrounding area."

At those words, Robin witnessed the hopes of the younger ladies deflate when confronted by reality.

"Then, we'll simply have to enjoy only the sight of this lovely thing for the duration of your stay." The innkeeper's wife sighed.

"Come on, you two. We've yet to wash the dinner dishes." She motioned towards the two girls that were employed under her, and headed back into the kitchen. The other ladies began crowding in towards Robin, asking more questions about Skye.

While Skye and Robin were preoccupied dealing with this curious bunch, Christian looked on, with a chuckle. "So, it looks like it's true that spirit beast companions generally look similar to their owners."

"Oh? Then I wonder if your spirit beast wiuld be a pixie." Jasmine jabbed.

"A pixie isn't a beast, cousin." Christian deftly defended. "I'm surprised. I thought you'd be smarter than make a mistake like that."

Jasmine frowned. "They ARE little beasts. Brutez, the whole lot of em!"