Chapter 41

In the morning of the day when he met Sakura in the Infinite Prison, Ruisha woke up, dragging his aching body.

Since there were no physical wounds, it was clear that he had only been in the Infinite Prison as a spiritual body. However, the consumed magic and qi were undoubtedly his own. If he had lost his life, he would have become a cripple for sure.

"Swordsmanship, I need to study it..."

He muttered softly.

If the opponent was about as strong as him, he could deal with them even if they had a weapon using qi techniques. But what about a superior opponent? Fighting unarmed would be too risky.

Since he had received the Dragon King Sword from Rio, he needed to hone his sword skills as well.

With this in mind, Ruisha went to the open field in front of the Z-class school building. There, despite it being a school holiday, a few of his classmates had already gathered early in the morning.

"Good morning!"

He greeted them cheerfully, and his classmates responded in kind.

Ruisha's close friends would gather here when they had nothing to do, forming the "Ruisha Tutoring Group." Initially, Ruisha taught them various things, but recently, they had started to find ways to improve in their own areas of expertise, so Ruisha had less to teach. Despite this, when Ruisha suggested they stop calling it the "Ruisha Tutoring Group," the idea was unanimously rejected.

"Is he here today... Ah, there he is!"

Ruisha spotted the person he was looking for among the group and ran over to him.

"Hey, Ibuki, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Huh? That's unusual, Ruichi coming to talk to me."

Ibuki, a young man with a helmet, stopped lying on the grass and got up to answer. As the prince's guard, he wasn't always by Yuri's side. When Yuri needed to focus on paperwork in the castle, Ibuki was often sent away because his talkative nature made it hard for Yuri to concentrate.

"So? What do you need from me?"

"Actually, I want you to teach me swordsmanship."

"Swordsmanship? That's surprising, Ruichi. Wouldn't it be better to learn from Sharo instead?"

"I'll ask Sharo too. But Ibuki's defensive swordsmanship is the opposite of Sharo's offensive style, right? I want to learn both!"

With a determined "Hmph!" Ruisha showed his resolve.

Ibuki laughed, "Hehe, that's impressive."

"Of course, the prince's chosen one is impressive. Your drive to improve is something I should learn from."

Ibuki was genuinely impressed. Ruisha's determination to aim higher without being complacent about his own strength made him look dazzling. Despite his natural talent for swordsmanship, Ibuki had a tendency to slack off during practice. However, seeing his classmates in the Z-class pushing themselves, he began to feel that he couldn't continue like this.

(Everyone is working hard. I should too...!)

"Okay, sure. I'll teach you the 'Guardian King Sword' passed down in my family. But in return, can you teach me magic?"

"I don't mind at all, but it's surprising to hear you want to learn magic."

"Hehe, I guess I've been influenced by everyone. Lately, I've been thinking I can become even stronger."

Ibuki smiled under his helmet.

"Got it. Let's get stronger together!"

"Sure, let's work hard, but not too much!"

"Huh!? Not too much!?"

"What? You don't mean not too much!?"

Grasping Ibuki's shoulder in surprise, Ruisha smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Don't worry. People are surprisingly hard to kill, you know♪"

After that, Ibuki gave Ruisha a thorough training session in the Demon King's Hell.