Mobile Fortress Cozette Chapter 28 (Patreon)
Content
Chapter 28 About Miss Cozette
"I want you to train my daughter."
With that being said, I became Lady Cozette's martial arts instructor. There are several names used to refer to me, but... I told Lady Cozette that I was simply her "martial arts instructor".
When we met, Cozette was a lovely, doll-like girl with an expressionless face.
Her clear eyes just pierced through me.
She seemed to be unconcerned, or perhaps even uninterested, in what was about to take place.
Her father, Master Edgar, had told her to be very strict.
So that's what I did.
For the time being, I tried to give her a taste of pain to the extent that she wouldn't have any remaining pain the next day.
The result was that not only did she not cry, but she even had the presence of mind to approach me.
I was inwardly surprised.
Then, I let her run and run until she collapsed.
Even though she was exhausted and wobbly, she kept moving her legs. It was as if something was driving her.
In the end, the maids around me cried and stopped her before she collapsed, just as the sun was turning red.
I had no choice but to finally let her run with a log to strengthen her muscles.
She was sweating, tired, and muttering complaints, but she didn't clearly reject this unreasonable discipline.
Finally, after all these attempts, I gave up the fight.
It must be difficult even for God to break Cozette Izfield's heart.
I gave up trying to break her heart.
Having given up on trying to break her heart, I taught her how to use concealed weapons in a "normal" way. I had always been good at that.
And apparently, Miss Cozette had a talent for it as well.
She also has the ability to be a <Slime Master>.
At first I wondered what kind of job it was, but Slimes were very useful. In particular, it's great because no one cares about Slimes.
She has recently begun to go beyond the realm of martial arts, and has begun to train in assassination techniques, but as long as she is strong, she should be fine.
I'm sure she'll be able to use it well.
As I continued to train her, I began to get to know her a little better.
Unlike my first impression, Miss Cozette seems to be a very interesting person.
First of all, she is a very competitive person. If you give her a difficult task, she can't help but complete it. Even if it is impossible, she will try to see how far she can go.
On the other hand, she is also a rational person.
If the task is not a problem even if it fails, she will go as far as she can, but if failure is not allowed, she is flexible enough to turn to someone who can do it.
No matter how dirty the task is, if she is interested in it, she will try to do it by herself first. Once she is satisfied with her work, she will leave it to others, as is typical of aristocrats, and her somewhat unbalanced behavior is both funny and amusing.
She seems to be somewhat uninterested in herself, and is always concerned about how much she is worth.
In particular, she seems to be morbidly obsessed with what she can do and how she can be useful. It doesn't matter whether she is an aristocrat or not.
In a sense, she is aristocratic, but I wonder if it is healthy for a five-year-old to have such thoughts.
Well, if you have that kind of family and are raised with care and are continuously exposed to those thoughts, you may develop this way of thinking.
As a member of that family, I may not be able to say the same thing.
As it turns out, she's awfully easy to deal with.
Learning this will help. This is necessary training. If I say, "This is necessary training," she will do any task quietly. She almost never asks me why.
For a moment, she furrows her brow in disapproval, but after a moment of thought, she seems to come up with a satisfactory reason on her own and continues with the task.
It's funny, so I tease her a little bit.
She seems to know that she is being teased, and she has become somewhat easygoing, even to the point of throwing knives at me when she is frustrated.
I personally think that children should be as naughty as this.
◇
She's getting better at a very fast pace, and it's been interesting to teach her.
So I brought her to the forest.
There is no deep meaning to it. I didn't intend for her to learn anything from this outing. A new stimulus is necessary for learning anything, you know.
Usually, there is some resistance to the idea of taking a life, to a greater or lesser extent. I was aiming to get rid of that as soon as possible, but...
As soon as we got out into the city, she beat up some ruffians. She even put on an unbelievable collar.
There was no problem in dealing with them. It's just that if you respond half-heartedly, you'll be taken advantage of. But I think it's too harsh for a five-year-old to handle.
There was no hesitation in slaughtering the Goblin when he entered the forest.
In order to let her deal with it on her own, I disappeared and followed her, but after a few complaints, she was satisfied and started walking on her own.
How easy... No, she's an unruly student.
It makes me, the instructor, very happy.
At first, she tried to beat up them up using Slimes, but it was hardly training, so I let Lady Cozette do it herself.
Whether it was a fight with a Goblin or a surprise attack with a throwing knife from afar, she handled it without any emotional turmoil.
She was reluctant to dismantle them, but that was purely because she didn't want to get her hands dirty.
In fact, she even observed the Goblin being melted by Slime without changing her expression.
I can't help but think that there's something wrong with her, but as a teacher, I think it's better than having her screaming at me.
It's a good idea to know which parts of the body you can attack to reduce its fighting power.
I pointed to the skinless Goblin that had been captured by Slime and explained.
Cozette nodded her head in agreement.
◇
As we walked through the forest, Cozette spotted a cave. A Goblin was standing in front of it.
This could be a Goblin nest.
The size is unknown.
There aren't many adventurers in this town.
There are some, but not enough adventurers to eliminate the threat of the forests and mountains.
The reason for this is simply that they don't make enough money. The level of the demons that threaten us here is too low to offer any reward. Once they come out of the mountains and forests, they can only be dealt with by guards and hunters, so the adventurers who specialize in monsters move toward the Demon Forest.
As a result, nests are sometimes built like this.
Now, what will Miss Cozette do?
"Can you defeat that Goblin without making a sound?"
I answer when she asks me to talk.
"I could, but what would you do?"
"If it's a nest, it's too much trouble, so I'm going to deal with it."
Hmm.
Normally, I would have stopped her for being reckless, but if it was just a Goblin nest, I could handle it on my own, or worse, escape.
I guess that's why she thought so, and that's why she wants to take advantage of the current situation where she can rely on me in case of failure, and see if she can handle it by herself.
She is not conceited, not dazzled by her achievements, and of course, not driven by a sense of justice.
She simply deals with the threat in front of her in order to make it part of her own reputation.
Even the Goblin out in the open would find it difficult to defeat her without making a sound with her current abilities, and she would suggest that I could do it.
And she's right.
It can be seen as cocky, but if you ask me which is better, it's the one who moves around as she pleases...
This one.
"Let's see it."
I quickly kill Goblin and urge Lady Cozette to do so.
She nods, thrusts out her hand, and releases a large number of Slimes.
Generate, generate, generate... On and on it goes.
It looks like a brown stream of water, and it rushes into the cave.
"Gigiiiii!?"
"Giiiiii!!!"
"Gegegege!!!"
Miss Cozette seems to have run out of brown and is now releasing Green Slimes.
Just plain and simple.
◇
"I'm done."
"I see. How much damage?"
"About 5,000 Slimes, I think."
"I see... That's... That's a lot... Is it?"
"Is it? What do you think?
"Piiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee."
The mask reverted to its white Slime form, and it squealed... Does it make that kind of sound? At least it responded.
"It seems to be."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand."
"Oh, right. It says [Not much]."
"Hmm, I see... That's..."
What should I say? Should I say, "Well done," or, "That was fine"?
"Well, I was able to make up for it, so it's not a problem."
"Hmm, that's good to hear. --Hmm? Did you make it up?"
"Yes, we've already made up for it. I was a little surprised too, but it looks like the damage has already been covered."
"I see. That's great."
Is that great? That's great, right?
"That's great."
"Yeah, it's awesome."
"..."
"..."
I wonder if there's anything more, anything less. I suppose there isn't.