The Full-fledged Babysitter? (2)

The duel with Naruan was set to take place today, a week after our first meeting, at the training ground behind the mansion.

Perhaps because they understood that representatives killing other representatives was a common occurrence, or maybe because they knew it was a training period, no one tried to stop the duel between Naruan and me.

Maybe because I allowed our companions to observe, the noisy chatter of representatives and magic tower mages who flocked with Naruan could be heard behind me.

Did they sense the dense aura as soon as they entered the training ground? Hazel and Naruan looked at me with surprised faces.

Naruan inhaled and exhaled repeatedly, as if savoring the thick aura, her small belly puffing in and out.

After focusing on breathing exercises for a moment, Naruan soon started warming up her small body, even making ‘hup, hup’ sounds, while Lee Hyo-ju and Mae Young-ryeong watched her with wide smiles.

After making noise for a while as she warmed up, Naruan seemed ready, clapping her right fist into her left palm while glaring at me.

“Are you all set?”

“Yes!! Let’s fight!”

Even though she could be heard if she spoke softly, she answered loudly, as if it was a habit, right in front of me.

Every time she did that, the female mages from the magic tower who came to watch would scream, ‘Eek, eek!’ Occasionally, I thought I heard a man’s panting… Huh?

“Alright, bring it on.”

“Great. I’m… ugh!”

Just as Naruan was about to say, ‘I’m coming!’ she was slapped across the face by my palm, commonly known as a smack, and rolled across the training ground before getting back up.

A vacant look in her eyes. As if unaware of what just happened.

Silence descended on the training ground. The spectators’ faces were etched with disbelief.

“You just charge in because you’re told to? And you even announce it beforehand? Such childish behavior is like asking to be killed on the ‘Battlefield of the Gods.’ If I had a sword in my hand, or rather, I wouldn’t even need a sword. If I unleashed my divine power at full strength, you’d be dead. Want to continue?”

“…Yes!”

She boldly stood up, brushed off her pants a couple of times, clenched her tiny fist, and stomped the ground. As she harnessed her force, a white glow surrounded her body.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Being small isn’t always a disadvantage in a fight.

If you’re as small as Naruan, it can actually be advantageous because it creates a wider blind spot for the opponent.

Like now.

Naruan’s body, which was approaching in a straight line, suddenly dropped down. Visually, it seemed to disappear completely. At the same time, a killing intent targeted the left flank.

In that brief moment, heightened cognitive ability allowed for the consideration of whether to block or dodge, and equally heightened reflexes provided an astonishing response speed that could wait for the decision to be made.

The sound of the small body darting here and there, bursting through the air, was quite fierce.

However, since the unique unarmed combat style of the Battle Puppet Naruan hadn’t fully begun, Naruan’s physical stats were poor.

Moreover, her combat sense could be described as the worst. Instead of arranging her force strategically, she just circulated it throughout her body, busy darting here and there, throwing small punches.

Such straightforward attacks could be blocked by any decent representative, not just me.

As Naruan’s attack reached its target, I moved my hand back and gently clasped her tiny hand.

Bang! Pow! Pop!! Pa! Thud!

“Huh?”

When her hand, wrapped in divine power, was caught by my bare hand, she made a strange yet cute sound, looked up, and stared at me.

Naruan looked up at me with cat-like eyes. Her face seemed to say, ‘Are you really going to hit someone as cute as me?’ Of course…

Whack!! Crash.

I hit her. What nonsense is this?

I come from Earth, where the Child and Youth Sexual Protection Act prevails.

No matter how cute her cat-like eyes are, Naruan’s tiny body doesn’t evoke any affection from me, just goosebumps.

“Oh my! Oh my!”

“Eek!!”

“What should we do?!”

The women watching around caused a commotion, but I indifferently stared at Naruan lying on the training ground.

Naruan didn’t get up for a long time.

“Are you done?”

“……”

There was no response, so I wondered if she had fainted and circulated my divine power, but no. Her muscles were moving and twitching; she was definitely awake.

Just then, someone entered the training ground, thinking Naruan was hurt.

“Get out.”

“What? She seems to have fainted, though?”

“Who said you could come in when one side hasn’t given up? If this were a fight with divine power, you’d be dead.”

The only ones who didn’t agree with my harsh words were Arun and this woman, Mae Young-ryeong.

Just as Mae Young-ryeong was about to shout in disagreement, I sensed a shadow flickering behind her.

“Tsk.”

“What… Eek!!”

Thud!!

I threw Mae Young-ryeong out of the training ground as she began to speak and slammed the small shadow that pounced on me straight into the ground.

No one could speak due to the sudden turn of events. They were so shocked that not even a scream escaped their lips.

As soon as Mae Young-ryeong, who had been thrown out of the training ground, got up, she shouted, “Hey!” intending to argue with me, but she was so stunned by the scene revealed as the dust settled that she couldn’t continue.

“Naruan, does this mean that what we’re doing now isn’t just a sparring match?”

“…Uh? Well, that is…”

Naruan hesitated.

No one explicitly said it was a sparring match, but since I hadn’t even drawn upon my divine power, most would have thought it was. Even I thought so.

It’s a training period, and during this time in Exorsus, you can’t kill or maim.

So I considered it a simple instructional sparring match, and I allowed Arun and Lee Hyo-ju to watch to give them a glimpse of how battles in this world unfold.

But this little one crossed the line.

Though not yet part of the same legion, we’ve been living together in the same mansion for quite some time, and she used someone who approached out of concern as bait to attack.

She even drew her weapon, a long-handled scythe, and a side.

The moment Naruan tried to attack both Mae Young-ryeong and me with the side, I grabbed Mae Young-ryeong by the collar and threw her out of the training ground, while simultaneously stepping closer to Naruan, grabbing the side’s handle, and slamming Naruan into the ground of the training ground. It all happened almost simultaneously.

“Alright, I guess I was a bit serious too…”

As I stirred up my divine power, it wasn’t the four distinct energies anymore, but chaos swirling inside, starting to press down on the surroundings.

Naruan lay on the training ground floor, her chest pressed by the end of the scythe handle, her eyes beginning to fill with fear.

‘Well, she hasn’t experienced death even once yet…’

When I lifted the upper part of the scythe handle, Naruan, who was unconsciously gripping the scythe tightly, was pulled up with it.

Seeing this, I slammed it down.

Clang!!

Originally, Naruan’s chest would have been pierced by the scythe handle imbued with chaotic divine power.

However, protected by the ‘setting,’ Naruan only suffered minor bruises.

Instead, the recoil from attacking Naruan, the representative, caused my right hand, which was holding the scythe handle, to scrape and bleed.

Even with divine power protection, it’s this much. This is the recoil that occurs when trying to break the ‘setting,’ known as ‘Rebound,’ which is also the name of our legion.

I opened my still-bleeding hand and showed it to Naruan, who was lying on the ground.

Naruan, who was at a loss with a dumbfounded expression, tilted her head as she looked at my open palm.

“Can you see it?”

“…Yeah.”

“This is Rebound, the recoil. If you try to ignore the ‘setting,’ this is what happens.”

“…Yeah.”

This tiny gnome clearly doesn’t understand what I’m saying right now.

I sighed briefly and looked around at Lee Hyo-ju, Arun, and the other representatives.

“Ha! Damn Mors, that bastard! Whew… Listen carefully. If you had just hit me and Mae Young-ryeong with your scythe at full force, you’d have received a worse Rebound than this. You’d probably faint, right? Your insides would be shaken from impact, and you might be bedridden for months. Even if you don’t die, in severe cases, your force core could be strained.”

“…Yeah. Yeah?! Really?”

Naruan, who habitually answered, was startled and jumped up, asking. Is she the type who only hears what she wants to hear?

“Yes. ‘The Setting’ is meant to protect the representative. It provides a counteraction, recoil, or rebound to protect against the attacker. There are continentals who attack and kill representatives during the training period, which is why there’s a command from the Creator not to attack representatives during this time.”

“Wow! But then?”

“…But if the attacker is a representative, ‘The Setting’ initially tries to give a recoil but then realizes the target is a representative and tries to minimize the impact. It’s like a driver suddenly seeing someone jump onto the road and making an emergency stop… Damn, I don’t know cars. Then, it’s like seeing someone jump in front of a running carriage and stopping it abruptly, ‘The Setting’ tries to reduce the recoil as much as possible.”

“I see! But then? Huh?”

Now, like a child listening to an amusing grandfather’s tale, she sat on the floor, looking up at me, nodding continuously, urging me to keep telling the story.

Seeing her like this, she is kind of… cute?

“Usually, it’s hard for a running carriage to stop suddenly. So, ‘The Setting’ stops belatedly, but the rebound doesn’t disappear. It just diminishes. This phenomenon, we… no, I call it ‘The Delay of the Setting.’ In other words, it means you shouldn’t attack a representative by wrapping them in force before the four-year training period ends.”

As all the words ended, the gaze of the representatives and the mages, who had been concentrating until the end, changed. Some even let out an interesting exclamation of ‘Oh?’

Especially Hazel, who had been looking displeased, now gazed at me with an expression of admiration for the first time, while Arun, as usual, raised both thumbs and shook them.

Mae Young-ryeong and Lee Hyo-ju couldn’t hide their admiration either, and Lee Hyo-ju, in particular, looked at me with eyes full of respect, her eyes sparkling.

It’s a bit embarrassing to be looked at like that by Lee Hyo-ju.

‘This was a theory she had developed.’

She had explained it to me, comparing it to someone jumping onto the road, which I didn’t quite understand. But my thoughts couldn’t continue.

“Um… um… Kim Han! Kim Han! Kim Haan!!”

Because Naruan, who had been terrified just moments ago, seemed to have regained her energy and was now tugging at my pants, calling my name loudly.

“Ah, what?!”

“I’m hungry! Let’s eat? Okay?”

Damn that perverted Mors! I’ll kill her! I definitely will!!