It was now the third day of their journey to Canville.

  So far though, Marcus and Stella took the scenic route. Or, to be more precise, the route with the most enemies.

  “Alright,” Marcus grinned a bit as he looked through his telescope. “Begin combat operations. Eliminate them in three minutes.”

  “Roger.”

  Behind him, Stella jumped high using [Fly]. She was holding a sword, with four [Purification Bolts] flying above her.

  Ahead of them, seven monstrous red orcs charged in. They were all silver-ranked, except for two, who were gold-ranked.

  In other words, with this line-up, the enemy was slightly evenly matched with Stella. That wasn’t what mattered, though; Marcus knew that Stella would defeat them.

  No, what mattered was to hone her tactical acumen.

  Marcus lowered his telescope and pulled out his pocket watch.

  I need her to defeat them quickly.

  As her sword met the gargantuan axe of the first monster, Marcus’ gloved hands pressed a button to initiate his watch’s timer.

  For days now, he had been training Stella’s ability to follow simple plans in combat. Quite frankly, Marcus had no reason now to train her strength yet. Nor did he need to teach her novel tactics that he learned from the underworld.

  Instead, what he wanted to hone in on was her ability to stick to the letter of her commanding officer’s plans. Start with the basics.

  He wanted her to use the strength she had right now effectively first.

  In this case, he gave her the specific instructions to first engage one of the silver-ranked orcs on the left flank, thereby dragging the rest of the silver-ranked orcs to her—before jumping and disengaging to target one of the gold-ranked orcs, sowing chaos among the survivors.

  Once eliminated, she would retreat to make space and do the same thing again until the second gold-ranked orc was six feet under. Once done, she would be free to slaughter the rest, as they would be routed into a retreat once they saw the two strongest red orcs fall.

  He watched as she followed his plan to the letter. She struck one of the silver-ranked orcs, chopping its left arm off after parrying its axe, before swooping down to slice its feet.

  Right as it fell, the other red orcs swarmed her, all of them bringing down their axes on her while she was on the ground—when she suddenly flew up high.

  Then, she landed near one of the gold-ranked orcs. It roared as it raised its battleaxe on her. With its hulking mass and its six-meter height, it was a behemoth compared to the elf.

  Yet, Stella faced it with gritty determination. She dodged it in the blink of an eye before flying straight into the monster, her [Purification Bolts] slicing into its limbs to prevent it from counterattacking.

  And finally—

  As Stella swung her sword for the final kill, the second gold-ranked red orc struck her sword, parrying it off and sending her flying straight into the silver-ranked orcs.

  Marcus felt his blood pumping.

  Now the real test begins.

  This was what Marcus always wanted to instill in any soldier. Two things mattered to any effective soldier in combat. One was the ability to understand and execute plans given by their superior.

  The second—was to break it once necessary.

  Yesterday, Stella battled a horde of bullhogs while they were traversing a nearby forest. Like today, he gave her specific instructions to defeat them.

  She followed everything down to the letter, even when a complication arose. As a result, while she won, she was mildly injured, and she didn’t finish the battle quickly.

  His prescription yesterday was to train her a bit more in using her sword effectively, alongside training her a bit in repositioning. But, it was all a red herring. It improved her raw abilities, but it didn’t address the core issue that she was struggling with. She had to learn the ability to create a new plan mid-battle, on the fly.

  Most of all, he wanted her to grow the guts to defy her superior officer on her own.

  The best lessons are learned in the middle of the battle, after all.

  They were the lessons that usually only appeared when a combatant played between life and death. It was why all those trained heroes, knights, and even [Saints] failed where the glorious expedition succeeded.

  Their abilities and training were defined by strengthening themselves from the rear. Marcus and his comrades, on the other hand, grew and improved as they learned their lessons in the frying pan.

  In this world, where peace is a given…

  He watched as Stella tried to reorient herself to follow his instructions again, attacking the golden-ranked red orc she had nearly killed earlier.

  The fighters are not true combat veterans.

  She failed. She was now getting surrounded, a slight panic appearing on her face. At this point, most teachers would step in to save their struggling student. Quite frankly, pitting a rookie against a bunch of monsters that a company of mercenaries wouldn’t even touch was crazy enough.

  But Marcus was Marcus.

  And Stella was the [Saint].

  You’ll find your way out of this one.

  After all, she was a student who learns fast. That was why he was sure that now that she was cornered on all sides, her mind would see things clearly at last. And she did.

  [Purification Bolts], [Noble Blade Strike].

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Eight [Purification Bolts] appeared around her, striking straight in the direction of the silver-ranked red orcs. Then, as the monsters roared in pain and stopped their charge, she swooped in, her body spinning like a tornado.

  Two of the silver-ranked orcs were sliced dead as she flew past them. Meanwhile, the two gold-ranked orcs bashed straight into the wailing silver-ranked orcs, killing them.

  Stella sidestepped as she landed and turned herself to face the charging gold-ranked monsters. She gritted her teeth as she gripped her sword hard before dashing forward again.

  This time, it was a display of raw power. She battled the battleaxes of the two monsters at the same time, parrying and holding them off as she used [Fly] to reposition.

  Until she found an opening, stabbing her sword into the eye of the red orc she had injured earlier. The second orc angrily swung its axe at her, but she jumped away just in time, and the injured orc was sliced in the head instead.

  Landing on the ground, she spun elegantly, slicing the feet of the uninjured orc, causing it to collapse on the ground. Two [Purification Bolts] then pierced the monster at the back of its head, killing it instantly.

  She won.

  03:59 seconds. Not terrible, but not great.

  Marcus approached Stella as she breathed in and out deeply, her cloak fluttering due to the wind, her glowing sword’s light dying out, while blood dripped off it.

  “Sir Marcus,” she spoke tiredly as he stood beside her. “Did I do well?”

  “No. You’re late. By an entire minute.”

  In combat, every second, every minute, they all counted. Just a little bit of delay could mean life or death, whether that be for Stella or for someone else who could be relying on her finishing the job quickly.

  As a result, she sighed, looking down.

  “I…your orders,” Stella mumbled. “I’m slightly stronger now than yesterday, yet it didn’t improve my results.”

  “Mhm.”

  “That means it’s your orders that are wrong.”

  Marcus mustered an intimidating voice.

  “You think I’m wrong?”

  “Yes.”

  So she’s got the guts now. That’s good to see.

  Marcus walked forward, inspecting her handiwork. Then, he pulled out his dagger, slicing up the orcs to recover their monster cores.

  “I’m not wrong. The situation just changed. Why didn’t you deviate?”

  “I thought…” She looked to her side. “I didn’t want to disappoint you, Sir Marcus.”

  “And why would I be disappointed?”

  “Because I didn’t follow your orders. You’re a soldier. Worse, an officer. I’ve always heard that your kind will be angered if someone below you doesn’t follow orders.”

  “Of course I’d be angry. If you fail.”

  Marcus recovered the core of the first gold-ranked orc. It should fetch a good price later.

  “And I did fail.”

  “And why did that happen?”

  “Because…I hesitated. I should have deviated when that orc parried off my killing blow.”

  “And do you think if you did that and you finished the mission before three minutes passed, I would be angry?”

  “No.”

  Marcus looked down at her from the top of the orc’s corpse. A small smile appeared on his face.

  “Apply that lesson to your next battle then, and see the results for yourself.”

  “We should probably use [Blink Step] again after this.”

  “I suppose so.”

  Marcus and Stella both walked through the streets of Esterton as the sun went down. Esterton was a border town close to the Margraviate of Canville, so they were quite close to their main target.

  Still, it took them nearly five days to get from Almarche to Canville. In that timeframe, Marcus managed to get Stella’s level to improve to fifty-seven.

  It did come at a cost.

  They left quite the grisly trail behind them. Practically, nearly a few hundred monsters were left dead, all to raise her levels a few points.

  It’s only going to get harder the further we go.

  He already knew about this dilemma, but at the very least, the most important part of his opening lessons was now being imparted in Stella’s mind.

  Unlike teaching it in a lecture or training hall, Marcus’ method resulted in quick results, or more accurately, it needed quick results.

  After all, he was training Stella on the battlefield. If she didn’t pick up the slack and get good, incidents were bound to happen, and the soft princess seemed naturally averse to getting hurt. Just the fear of death or injury alone was enough of a motivator to keep someone moving and improving.

  And he was using it to its fullest to push her forward.

  “Hey! Sir Marcus!” Stella cheerily called. “I see a restaurant over there—”

  “Let’s keep moving. We’re supposed to find an inn to stay in.”

  “B-but I’m hungry.”

  “Same, but I don’t want to go to a restaurant or tavern carrying all of this crap.”

  “I suppose that’s fair…”

  Stella languidly followed Marcus from behind as they continued traversing through packed lanes and streets of the town.

  Occasionally though, Marcus had no choice but to stop by at a few street stalls and vendors. They sold various fruits, drinks, and skewers.

  Stella simply had this unstoppable aura that pulled him into testing out food with her, so he was unable to keep himself from spending money whenever she found something new and shiny.

  And she found a lot of new and shiny food around town.

  At least, it tastes good. Marcus thought as he calmly ate a few roasted skewers from a popular local beast animal. White boars, huh? Maybe I should hunt a few myself…

  Stella happily finished her skewers before she bought a second helping from the vendor, who seemed a bit too happy at serving a pretty young woman.

  “At this rate, we won’t have to eat dinner,” Marcus said, as he finished his share. “Don’t you feel satiated already?”

  “Yep! Slightly. Though, I think I’ll still eat later at night.”

  “Hmm…you’re going to wander again to find a good restaurant?”

  “It’s a necessity when visiting a town; I thought I said that enough already.”

  “And you call me a glutton.”

  Before Stella could give her retort, bells throughout the city were sounded. The citizens immediately stopped before continuing on their business as quickly as possible.

  [Mass Surveillance].

  A flurry of voices immediately began to hit his mind, though he of course quickly filtered out the unnecessary chatter from the civilians around them. Instead, his ears picked up the words of two men-at-arms riding horses through the streets with urgency, causing everyone to stand at the side to make way.

  “Why would he want us to face them off? Is he crazy?!”

  “I don’t know, man; they say the cultists aren’t attacking yet. He says we just need a show of force to talk to them.”

  “For fuck’s sake, haven’t people learned not to try talking with them? People are going to die again.”

  “Stop whining. Keep riding.”

  Right then, the men in heavy plate armor rode through a street perpendicular to the one where Marcus and Stella were.

  The civilians, of course, still seemed worried, but everyone tried to look away and carry on. Most likely, no one wanted to be caught in any kind of trouble.

  “Hey,” Marcus called out to Stella, who stopped halfway from chewing a skewer on her stick. “Snap out of it. Cultists incoming.”

  “R-right away!” Stella quickly ate her food as she followed Marcus, who was now walking with equal urgency as those men-at-arms had earlier.