How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 173

173. Until We Return From This Business Trip (2)

I asked Sylvester in the morning if he could spare some time to watch me practice swordsmanship.

I was worried he might refuse, but he surprisingly agreed without hesitation.

He said that since time was short, he couldn’t give me a full-fledged swordsmanship lesson, but he could at least observe my fundamentals.

The problem is, my fundamentals are quite terrible.

I often miss or fall after only a few exchanges, and I’ve already broken several wooden swords.

“Do I just not have the aptitude for swords?”

“That’s not what I mean, Aileen. You’re mistaken.”

Sylvester clarified that wasn’t the case.

“You seem to have been diligently practicing the basics… Your strength, reflexes, and dynamic visual acuity are all quite good. It’s hard to believe you’re a beginner.”

“Considering that, why can’t I land a single hit on you?”

I couldn’t land a single hit on Sylvester during our practice.

Not only that.

Once our swords clashed, I’d get entangled and unable to break free, or he’d disarm me, or knock me down.

He’s completely toying with me.

“Well, that’s because we’ve practiced for different amounts of time.”

He says it with such confidence.

Well, there’s bound to be a difference between someone who’s been wielding a sword obsessively since before they could think and someone who’s just picked up a sword now.

Before aptitude, the time invested can’t be ignored.

“Aileen, it’s not that you can’t do it. If you train in swordsmanship properly from now on, you’ll definitely achieve considerable results.”

“…This is a bit of a mercenary question, but if I were to learn swordsmanship, how long would it take to master it to the point where it’s useful in the world?”

“Even for a particularly outstanding genius, you’d have to train for at least eight years.”

“Eight years.”

“Eight years is only possible for exceptional geniuses. Considering the actual experience you need to accumulate, it might take even longer.”

I know that too.

But eight years? I’ll only grasp the true value of the sword around the time the original story ends.

Well, even this is a blessing.

Sylvester praised my basic abilities and physical abilities, but that’s because my body has been enhanced by the synergistic effects of acquiring multiple abilities.

At least, I’ve gone from a body with no foundation to a body with aptitude.

“If I master Aura [a type of life energy], will it be somewhat useful in actual combat?”

“Well…”

Sylvester trailed off, seeming hesitant.

I guess it doesn’t suit me.

Even if I try to force close combat, with my current combat sense and experience, I’ll only be toyed with like now.

It’s much more likely I’ll win if I keep my distance and bombard them with spirit magic or magic, overwhelming them with firepower.

Furthermore, using Aura, spirit magic, and magic all at once is not easy.

Even Lucell is only imitating the basics of the sword that Sylvester taught him.

‘Especially in close combat, experience sometimes determines victory or defeat more than skill or talent.’

I can acquire abilities. I can increase my power as much as I want.

But I can’t acquire experience.

Even if I can acquire and master abilities as easily as eating, the entity that controls them is only my ego.

It’s not always best to acquire everything I covet.

‘If I had a proper teacher, I don’t know…’

That’s not easy either, and I don’t have any idea where to find one, so let’s be satisfied with experiencing it little by little like this.

Just as I was about to ask Sylvester for another match after organizing my thoughts.

“You guys, are you doing this here again?”

“Wow… look at the number of broken wooden swords. Did you have a brawl with these?”

Alnix and Lucell called out to us as they came in, half bewildered.

The fact that the two of them came means practice is almost over.

“Ah, you came just in time.”

In addition, we called those two.

I didn’t call Lucell, but he must have come along. His injuries seem to have healed, and he seems bored.

“Then let’s start distributing what we got back then.”

The distribution of the spoils obtained after attacking the Demon’s ritual site hasn’t been done yet.

In the meantime, we had other things to do, and we had to ask the Grand Duke about these things first.

The Grand Duke had just replied that he wouldn’t interfere with the spoils.

He allowed us to take everything on the condition that we don’t distribute what we obtained from the suspicious demons within the Duchy.

So now it’s time for a fun and enjoyable distribution.

“Okay~ everyone, take out everything you’ve collected. Take it all out without hiding anything, okay?”

I decided to reveal everything I got that I thought wouldn’t be a problem to show without holding back.

When I opened the subspace, various materials poured out.

“…Oh my, you’ve gathered quite a bit.”

“…What is this, a walking human bag?”

“…Honestly, at this point, I feel sorry for receiving a distribution from you.”

Alnix was dumbfounded, Lucell was bewildered, and Sylvester seemed somewhat embarrassed, as if he felt sorry.

What they took out wasn’t insignificant, but when compared to my harvest, the amount was overwhelmingly small.

In addition, I was busy collecting while they were attacking the lower levels.

Of course, there will be a difference in the amount harvested since I was doing something else.

“An agreement is an agreement. You’ve worked hard, so don’t hesitate to divide it up.”

I would have insisted on a larger share in normal times, but this time I plan to take care of their share as much as possible.

‘They’ll need money.’

The role of the protagonist costs a lot of money.

It’s hard for the poor to be the protagonist.

This is my personal opinion, but there are three things that are generally needed for the protagonist.

First, appearance.

Second, power.

Third, wealth.

Only when these three are in place can you have the appearance of a typical protagonist.

It’s a very materialistic world.

In addition, Sylvester’s wealth is quite precarious right now.

Sylvester isn’t very talented in business.

His main source of income is from requests or defeating villains and receiving rewards.

He mainly earns profits through commerce much later, after he becomes acquainted with the talent who will lead it.

‘It would be easier to give him some pocket money now with a suitable excuse.’

The protagonist needs pocket money. A lot of pocket money.

But even if I give it to them like a grandmother giving pocket money to her grandson, would they accept it?

‘I wouldn’t accept it if I were them.’

Rather, they would look at me like I was a deviant.

So it’s much more beneficial to have them divide it up under the guise of a fair distribution.

“Besides, I heard that the two of you attacked the inside of the ritual site while I was wandering around. Considering the effort put in, it’s by no means unfair.”

Of course, I completely concealed the fact that I had fought the leader of that secret organization, the Continental Integration Assembly. There’s no point in talking about it.

It’s not like we have some kind of slave mentality where we compare each other’s hardships.

In the end, whether they understood or not, they readily agreed to distribute the spoils.

“But what are all these weeds?”

“They seem to be medicinal herbs that mainly grow in the Demon Realm. I’ve only collected what I roughly know.”

“Medicinal herbs? But purple smoke is rising from them?”

“Well, poison can be medicine if used well, right?”

I pacified Alnix, who was holding plants he had never seen or heard of in his life and was utterly disgusted, and then we divided them.

“There are monster materials too? Wait? Cockatrice [a mythical beast with a rooster’s head and a serpent’s tail]? There was a monster like this inside the ritual site?”

“It seems Sylvester didn’t encounter it.”

“……Can you really say you didn’t suffer at all with something like this?”

We divided the monster materials as fairly as possible.

However, for some rare monsters, we considered who discovered them first, so I took the relatively valuable parts and divided the rest.

That seems to be the basic etiquette.

And it’s not like they didn’t bring anything out either.

They recovered the bones of that young dragon, which the demons were playing with.

“Dividing it like this, it’s quite substantial…… I don’t even know how much all of this is worth. Hey, Sylvester. With this much, you could build a mansion in the royal capital, right?”

“……Do you want to build a mansion or something?”

“No…… I just thought it would be nice to build one rather than living in the dorms? ……It would be nice, a mansion.”

While they were having some pitiful conversation, I roughly calculated the profits in my head.

‘I don’t need the money right now, so I should use most of it for medicine and materials for my equipment.’

Well, even if I sell the leftovers, my pockets will be full too.

It’s a decent temporary income.

Meanwhile, there’s someone who’s envious of us.

Lucell.

“……That’s so unfair. If you were going to such a good place, you should have properly invited me too.”

Lucell Elbeid, she sighed deeply while looking at us distributing the loot with envy.

“You guys completely had fun just among yourselves.”

“We couldn’t help it, Lucell. You would have been in danger even if we had taken you then.”

“……Haa, it’s all because of that strange mercenary.”

Lucell seems to know too, so she doesn’t complain.

If she wants to earn a lot of money like that, she could make quite a bit by using spirit magic for blatant business.

However, she can’t do that because of the pride she still has.

In the original story, there was a description of her worrying quite a bit when she had to raise money in Volume 3.

“If you want, I can give you some of my share?”

“No, no. I was just kidding. I’m not that pathetic. Instead, next time, if there’s a good opportunity, make sure to invite me too. No, just drag me along.”

Seeing that she doesn’t try to cling on shamelessly, it seems she’s not a complete materialist to the core.

Anyway, we’ve divided everything sufficiently, and there doesn’t seem to be any more problems to discuss.

And I’m probably not the only one thinking that.

“Aileen, there’s something I need to talk about.”

Sylvester said this out of the blue.

“……We’re planning to return to the Selvas Kingdom tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? That’s quite sudden.”

“We were originally going to return even earlier.”

Well, that’s true.

Originally, we should have returned as soon as we finished our business, according to the original flow.

Of course, a separate incident occurred due to the emergence of variables, and I had to borrow this guy’s strength a little, so I won’t complain.

“What are you planning to do afterward?”

I asked about his future plans in a casual manner.

He’ll probably tell me at least the way to go.

Now I need to understand this guy’s movements a little.

“I’m going to return to the royal capital first. I still need to be there.”

“Ah…… Come to think of it, you’re enrolled in the academy managed by Marquis Roant?”

“That’s right. Well, I ended up going there somehow.”

The reason why he’s affiliated with a specific group is partly because of requests from those around him, and it’s still beneficial to be there to hear information from around him.

Also, if it’s ambiguous to make a living, he seems to think it’s better to have ties with the kingdom and become a knight or something.

He only starts wandering around the world after all the benefits have been exhausted.

“Aileen, what are you planning to do in the future? You’re not going to stay in the principality, are you?”

“I’m also planning to return to the Selvas Kingdom after directing the merchants here for a few weeks.”

Because there are many things to do.

Whether it’s original elements or non-original elements.

I need to go back at least once to proceed with the next stage of the Aileen settlement plan.

“Maybe I’ll visit the royal capital sometime soon.”

“If that’s the case, contact me when you come to the royal capital someday. You’re always welcome.”

Sylvester gave me a kind smile and told me about the place where they mainly stay.

I guess it’s good to know to some extent since we’ve been helping each other.

“The same goes for me. Um…… If something happens, come find me right away.”

However, what I’m saying isn’t just lip service.

“Whether it’s a money problem or any other problem, I’ll be happy to listen.”

“Hahaha. I’ll keep that in mind.”

No, definitely come find me. Don’t just laugh and listen. I’m serious.

Don’t try to handle it alone after things get twisted and end up getting hurt.

Be sure to come find me.

“I’ll help if there’s anything I can help with.”

Thinking about it, I thought it might be better to appeal openly that I can provide assistance like this.

I was going to donate anonymously or something, but it might be better to reveal my face properly rather than that.

That would look less suspicious.

‘Of course…… The best thing would be if I didn’t have to get involved in the incident…….’

However, I already sense it from experience.

I will encounter that silver-haired boy again soon.

Anyway, it won’t be more than a few months from now.

He’s destined for that.

I guess I’m destined for that too.

* * *

Sylvester seemed to have really left without any regrets the next day.

I also needed to return to the Selvas Kingdom once, so I asked them to prepare for departure.

Still, since we have a lot of people, it will take a few days.

What can I do in the meantime?

Yes, there’s only that.

Let’s go sightseeing, which I haven’t been able to do.

I’ve been living too restlessly apart from personal training, so I won’t be punished for taking a break for a few days.