novelraw Chapter 25 : Felix vs Robin
Chapter 25 : Felix vs Robin
Chapter 25: Felix vs Robin
Felix stood hunched over like an old man with a bent back.
It seemed he had overexerted himself when he dodged Brandok’s dagger.
‘He needed to land an effective strike quickly.’
Robin decided he had to make the most of this opportunity.
He closed the distance—until the quarterstaff blocked his path.
“……!”
The tip of the quarterstaff obstructed the path straight ahead where Robin was charging.
He had expected at least this much and twisted his trajectory diagonally, but the quarterstaff followed him all the same.
Drrrrrk.
He struck the quarterstaff down with his dagger and pushed off with force.
Just an arm’s length away—he could have grabbed Felix’s collar.
Smack.
A shock struck Robin’s back as if he had been hit with a switch.
His body toppled forward.
‘He pulled the quarterstaff back after lowering it and targeted the opening I created.’
Felix’s movement, seen through accelerated thought, flowed as naturally as water.
With one pull of his hand, half the long quarterstaff slid into Felix’s grip.
“Oh dear, did I hit too hard? Are you alright, Robin?”
“I’m fine.”
Despite his worried expression, Felix widened the distance.
His dragging, sluggish steps resembled an elderly man’s stroll—there was no tension in sight.
‘I shouldn’t rush in recklessly.’
Robin stood, corrected his stance, and glared at Felix.
After a deep breath, he charged again.
As before, he struck the quarterstaff downward, but this time he aimed for the wrist.
Felix simply let go of the quarterstaff and instead snatched Robin’s wrist in return.
“Ugh.”
“Robin, your attacks are too predictable.”
Felix applied slight pressure and twisted Robin’s wrist; the dagger fell far too easily.
Robin glanced at Calimacos with a look asking if that was enough, but Calimacos merely shrugged and didn’t declare the result.
Felix narrowed his eyes at that, but Calimacos looked to Paul for guidance.
Paul also remained silent.
‘An opening.’
Robin kicked upward toward Felix’s groin.
Startled, Felix hurriedly released Robin’s wrist and retreated.
“Robin! This is just a spar! There’s no need to go that far!”
“But Felix is too strong.”
As Felix backed away, he retrieved his quarterstaff, and Robin picked up his dagger.
At a glance Felix seemed full of openings, but Robin had realized through the exchange just now—
He was anything but an easy opponent.
“Felix, give me a hint.”
“A hint? I can’t think of anything to say.”
“Aren’t you using too much strength against a kid?”
“What’re you talking about? I’m already going easy on you.”
Robin tossed his dagger upward.
It rose to eye level and landed back in his hand.
To someone else, the action might have looked pointless, but Robin gauged many things from it—
The dagger’s weight, his current strength, Felix’s gaze.
He improvised a technique on the spot to defeat Felix.
Tap. Tap.
Tossing and catching the dagger left and right, he closed the distance.
Felix—and the mercenaries—stared at him in confusion.
This confirmed it.
Even if he was a child, no one could ignore a weapon in an opponent’s hand.
Felix’s gaze followed the dagger.
Tatadadat!
Robin rushed into Felix’s guard.
This time he went for a thrust.
Drrrk.
He brushed aside the tip of the quarterstaff with his dagger.
Though he had deflected it, the quarterstaff still swung toward Robin’s flank.
A small opening emerged.
Very small.
Too small to imagine he'd try anything.
‘This is enough.’
Felix, who had been treating the match lightly, widened his eyes.
The dagger surged toward Felix’s right side.
If this had been real combat, Felix would have taken the hit and secured a sure win, but he remembered it was only a spar.
Felix blocked the attack with his quarterstaff.
At that same moment, a smile formed on Robin’s lips.
The dagger that had been heading toward Felix’s right flew through the air in the opposite direction.
“…….”
Felix looked down at his waist in disbelief.
Robin’s dagger had touched him.
Felix hadn’t expected Robin to throw the dagger with his other hand mid-thrust.
Even if he had expected it, it would have been difficult to respond.
He had never encountered such sleight-of-hand before.
This was only possible because Robin, with his accelerated thought, could see even minute movements.
“Whew~ Robin, that was incredible.”
Calimacos whistled, impressed by Robin’s improvisation.
Felix, wearing a dazed expression, looked back and forth between Robin and Calimacos.
The other mercenaries, who had expected Robin to lose, also wore dumbfounded looks.
“I won.”
“Haha… I really didn’t think you’d win.”
Felix might have been injured, but he was still skilled in spear techniques.
A quarterstaff was similar in length to a spear, and he handled it with ease because of that.
He had thought he only needed to play along casually, but Robin proved far more cunning than expected.
Strictly speaking, Felix could have defeated Robin several times, but he accepted the result.
The fact that Robin managed even once to land a dagger on Felix was astonishing.
Felix dusted off the dirt as he rose.
“There’s no such thing as an absolute outcome in a match, but this is quite a shock. Losing to a ten-year-old kid.”
“I took advantage of your bad back, Felix. Sorry, it’s my fault you got hurt.”
“No, you did well. Identifying and exploiting your opponent’s weakness is fundamental in battle. You’ve got talent.”
Felix was shocked, but at the same time proud of Robin’s growth.
Felix picked up Robin’s dagger for him and looked to Calimacos.
“At this level, I doubt he’ll be easily beaten if he goes outside. Isn’t that right?”
“Someone should keep their word. Robin, do as you wish.”
“Thank you.”
Robin felt proud of his own growth.
‘Though there was still a long way to go.’
Even after his spar with Felix ended, Robin did not take a break from training.
He swung his sword until he drained every bit of strength from his body and could no longer lift his arms, only then falling asleep.
The mercenaries quietly kept an eye on Robin as he trained.
In front of the lodging as evening fell, Calimacos and Paul tidied up after training and recalled Robin’s spar.
“That kid’s too talented to be stuck in some countryside village.”
Paul crossed his arms as he watched Robin head inside the lodging.
Calimacos extinguished the firepit and nodded.
“Reminds me of the old days.”
Calimacos and Paul reminisced about past memories—
The days when they struggled to grow stronger.
That black-haired little boy overlapped with the image of their younger selves, making their forearms ache faintly.
The “mountain” Bellif led him to was really just a slightly tall hill.
Robin found it puzzling that something so small would be called a mountain.
“Do herbs really grow in a place like this?”
“To be honest, the area around Butterhills isn’t a very good environment for herbs.”
Butterhills had no high mountains nearby, only gentle rolling hills.
Rare herbs grew deep in mountain ranges, so even after searching for herbs all day, harvests were typically meager.
“But there were all kinds of herbs in your apothecary. Where did they all come from?”
“There are ways, of course. It’s a business secret, but I’ll show you specially.”
Only after quite some time walking beyond the village did Bellif arrive at the destination.
Atop the hill, a single rounded peak rose gently.
When they climbed to the highest peak in the area, dozens of herbs were growing there.
Robin’s eyes widened, his mouth dropping open.
“How is this… how is this even possible?”
“Everyone’s shocked when they first see it. For some reason, herbs grow extremely well on this land.”
Dozens of herbs Robin had seen in Bellif’s book were gathered here.
Herbs with completely different natural habitats growing together in one place—he could hardly believe it even as he saw it with his own eyes.
“My guess is that this land is blessed. It’s wide open and people rarely come here, making it a good place for spirits to play.”
“Have you ever seen a spirit?”
“No, but a traveling spirit-caller once told me this.”
A spirit—something only those beloved by nature could see.
Robin had known of them only from fairy tales, never believing they actually existed.
Perhaps seeing through Robin’s thoughts, Bellif continued.
“Spirits are beings ordinary people can’t see, so it’s hard to believe in them. But isn’t the idea comforting?”
Bellif lightly tapped Robin’s back.
“There’s a story that the souls of the dead sometimes transform into spirits. I’ve always liked that idea.”
Robin repeatedly grasped and released his necklace.
Spirits were nature itself—
But no one knew where they came from or where they went.
People embellished them with romantic stories born of imagination.
That the death of a loved one wasn’t an end, but a new beginning.
That some of them were reborn as spirits.
“Robin, take as many as you’d like.”
“These herbs must be really expensive.”
“This is blessed land—they’ll grow back quickly. Don’t worry, choose what you want.”
Robin hadn’t expected to obtain herbs so easily.
He hesitated to collect them.
Bellif spoke casually and sat in a sunny spot, enjoying the view.
‘The answer had already been decided.’
A smile formed on Robin’s lips as he gently unearthed the root of a star-shaped white flower.
Bellif’s book had named it “Starflower,” describing it as a herb that helped restore vitality.
‘To think I’d see this treasure here.’
According to the book Robin saw at Burt’s general store, this flower was no ordinary plant.
Starflower was Vitalitis.
Right now it was a simple flower because it was young, but in ten years its root would grow a yam-like fruit.
That fruit was the growth-boosting elixir—Vitalitis worth at least 1 Gold.
After digging up five Starflowers, Robin carefully transplanted them into the prepared pots.
“You have a good eye, Robin.”
“Bellif, do you know what value this flower holds?”
“Of course. It’s the Starflower our villagers brew into tea.”
‘They make tea out of something this precious?’
“They say that if grown long enough, Vitalitis will form, but that’s not easy.”
“But with this land, you could farm Vitalitis.”
Bellif smiled kindly and shook his head.
“If it were that easy, everyone would be growing them. Even here, I’ve never seen a Starflower older than five years.”
Vitalitis was a difficult species to cultivate.
That was why the people of Butterhills frequently dried young Starflowers and used them as tea leaves.
‘Maybe I got too excited.’
“But if you care for them diligently, they might bear fruit someday. There are plenty of Starflowers here, so take some home to grow.”
“Thank you, Bellif.”
Besides the Starflowers, Robin harvested herbs that helped with wound healing, fatigue recovery, sleep, and detoxification.
He was thrilled at the thought of handling all kinds of herbs himself.
During the day he studied herbalism at Bellif’s apothecary, and in the evening he swung his sword while observing the mercenaries spar.
Except when sleeping, he always walked around with poultices stuck to both arms.
It was crude, but surprisingly effective.
He could now swing a longsword reasonably well.
A week passed, and just as Felix recovered enough to run again, a large group of ragged travelers arrived in Butterhills.
They were merchants who had been attacked by bandits.
When Robin returned from the apothecary as usual, the mercenaries were gathered in a circle listening to Calimacos speak.
“…and so we’ll be taking the escort request from the Elize Merchant Company.”
Calimacos, already packed and ready to leave as the time approached, had accepted a job.
The traveling peddler they had saved from the Goblin village—
A man named Palacio—was a well-known merchant from the Elize Merchant Company.
He had submitted an escort request to the Calimacos Mercenary Company.
“We’ll be busy for a while. Kid, it’s time for you to start working.”
“I’m fully healed, Mirian. Feeling great.”
Thanks to the herbs Robin had found, Felix had recovered far better than before.
The herbalism knowledge learned from Bellif had proven useful.
Robin generously shared herbs with the mercenaries, not just Felix.
The herbs cooked with Butterhills’ specialty—butter and honey—lost their bitterness and were easy to consume.
“In Vermilion, our next stop, additional mercenaries will join us. Our final destination is Regiville in Baron Tefir’s territory.”
It was time to leave Butterhills, whose pastoral atmosphere had grown familiar.
Before departing, Robin visited the villagers he had come to know during his stay.
“I hope we can see each other again.”
“I’ll come back someday. Please stay healthy until then, Bellif.”
The black-haired boy with poultices on both arms followed after the mercenaries.
His luggage no longer felt heavy.
“We entrust ourselves to you, mercenaries.”
At the front, Palacio greeted each member of the mercenary group with a voice tinged with worry.
He even approached the one at the very back—Robin—and bowed.
“The rear is a vital position for monitoring the procession’s condition. I look forward to your care.”
He was just a ten-year-old boy, yet Robin’s equipment was nothing like that of other children.
Felix, standing beside him, replied smoothly.
“Don’t worry. We’ll see you safely to the destination.”
The journey resumed.