The Cornflower Witch Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Garden Swordsmanship

Madame Faran returned home, and shortly after, she learned about the contract Hylial had signed a few days prior.

“You only sold three hundred bottles? I thought you’d be a bit bolder,” she said, not minding it at all, but rather teasing Hylial.

For this seasoned Level 3 Gardener, truly precious things were rare items of ‘Level 3’ or higher. As for ‘Sunseed Oil,’ it was merely a harvest from sunflowers she casually planted. Even among sunflower oils, she had more refined ‘Level 2 – Blazing Sun’ phase treasures in her cellar, so she didn’t care much for the unused ‘Level 1’ stock.

The day Hylial became her official student, Madame Faran gave the girl the key to the first-floor storage room. This wasn’t a sign of carelessness, but simply that she had no use for those items anymore.

“Since you’ve learned to do business for the first time, I’ll leave this aspect to you from now on.” It seemed this teacher was truly too lazy to handle such miscellaneous matters.

“Just don’t lose too much money. Occasionally, you can even exchange things you want without charging,” she advised Hylial.

“Yes, teacher.” Hylial then mentioned the three chests of Gold Coins collected that day.

“Gold Coins, you say? I see, just put them in the storage room. They’re not particularly useful for now,” the lady mused.

“As for the Jade Tree Spirit Sword you mentioned, I estimate I’ll need to find a suitable craftsman to forge it for you, but people with such skills are not to be found in Burntstone City.”

“I used to think about getting a similar weapon, but after I advanced to Level 3, I no longer needed to fight hand-to-hand, so I didn’t look for one much,” Madame Faran recalled.

“At your current stage, many abilities of the ‘Jade Nectar’ phase cannot yet be learned or developed, so you can only make do with external aids.”

“Since you’ve chosen a sword as your self-defense weapon, let Lining teach you some swordsmanship. She’s very good at it.” Saying this, Madame Faran called for the maid.

“Lining, do you remember the Garden Swordsmanship I taught you years ago? Lia needs to learn it now, so you will teach her.”

“Yes, Madame.” Lining bowed respectfully and accepted.

…

In the afternoon, Madame Faran attended a friend’s tea party, leaving Hylial and Lining to look after the house. At this time, Lining was teaching Hylial about Garden Swordsmanship.

“This set of swordsmanship is a tradition among Gardeners, used to prune excess branches and leaves in gardens, and it can also be combined with some of Jade Nectar’s abilities for self-defense.”

“Overall, this is a swordsmanship that leans towards defense and defensive counter-attacks. Its offensive power is not strong,” Lining said, drawing a black longsword and demonstrating it in front of Hylial.

Her movements were not fast, and most of the time she held the sword with both hands. The overall style was smooth and flowing, without obstructions or major flaws in her movements.

(Garden Swordsmanship proficiency +16)

Garden Swordsmanship Lv.0: A skill still being learned, current progress (16/100)

After watching it once, Hylial also held a wooden sword and followed along. This swordsmanship style was balanced and steady, and indeed, as Lining said, it had few flaws, but its offensive power was not strong. It was clearly different from Military Swordsmanship, which emphasized killing on the battlefield.

While observing Lining’s movements, Hylial couldn’t help but turn her attention to the maid.

Speaking of which, Lining’s strength was probably even greater than that of her previous instructor at the training ground. She even felt that even a Level 3 Knight might not be able to gain a significant advantage over this maid.

Name: Lining

Race: Human (Mortal Body)

Status: Healthy (no abnormalities)

Talent: High Speed [Excellent], your reactions and movements are very fast, difficult for ordinary people to match.

Fate Card: [Sword-wielding Maid] (Level 2 – Blood Discipline)

‘A maid holding a blade, a caretaker of the mansion, a graceful and swift attendant.’

–

Effect [Agile Body Lv.4]: After adjustments through Breathing Method and Power Burst, your body has largely adapted to the flow of ‘Blood Discipline,’ gaining faster speed and reactions.

–

Effect [Demon-Breaking Blade Lv.2]: A special ability achieved by combining ‘Steel Edge Blade’ and ‘Demon-Breaking Blood,’ which can be applied to weapons to break through barriers constructed by supernatural powers.

Ability Cards: [Breathing Method Lv.5] [Swift Shadow Steps Lv.4] [Wind Hearing and Position Discernment Lv.3]

Skills: [Basic Swordsmanship Lv.6] [Blood Leech Swordsmanship Lv.5] [Maid Skills Lv.5] [Garden Swordsmanship Lv.4] [Secret History Knowledge Lv.4] [Gardening Skills Lv.4]

——

No wonder Madame Faran left home with such peace of mind every time, never worrying about robbers. With this maid at home, ordinary people couldn’t possibly win, and even in the entire Burntstone City, few could defeat her.

Level 5 Breathing Method, Hylial now understood why she had never seen this maid sweat or pant. Perhaps those daily chores were as easy as child’s play.

Under Lining’s tutelage, Hylial spent most of the day mastering the basic techniques of this swordsmanship. Lining was quite surprised by this and looked her up and down for a long time.

“You might be a good candidate for learning swordsmanship.” One must know that even she had taken three days to learn it back then, which had already earned Madame Faran’s praise.

Caring for the flower fields, familiarizing herself with the Bloom-Flowering Method, and practicing swordsmanship, Hylial’s daily life was full and orderly. Such days passed quickly.

Time flew to the end of December. At this point, a few snowflakes finally drifted down from the sky, but unfortunately, they melted upon hitting the ground, so no vast snowy landscape accumulated.

In other seasons, this time would usually mean heavy snow sealing the mountains, making transportation and travel very inconvenient.

“Lia, I want to go home for a visit,” Talil said one day.

Since Madame Faran was often not home, Hylial was essentially in charge now.

“It seems it’s been half a year since I came out,” Hylial suddenly remembered when she first woke up in the forest.

“My sister wants me to bring some winter supplies back, and I also want to see how grandpa is doing lately,” Talil mentioned the old village chief.

At this, Hylial also felt a little moved. She had basically stayed in the mansion for the past month and hadn’t gone out. Now she also wanted to go out and walk around.

“I’ll ask Lining, and we can go back together then.” This way, she could also visit the old man and then go back to the place where she woke up to look for clues.

Soon, Hylial’s request was made known to Lining, who nodded slightly in agreement.

“Of course, Miss Lia can go out, but I hope you can return within a week, as if it drags on too long, there might be problems with the flower field and the plants you personally cultivated.”

“Okay, I understand.” A week was enough; she wasn’t planning to stay in Linden Village for long.

Having decided to return to the village, Hylial and Talil first went to the market to buy things. Following Winnie’s list, they bought smoked meat, sausages, salt, jam, as well as thick winter clothes, blankets, daily essentials like soap, candles, medicinal wine, and bandages.

With these preparations made, the two of them hired a Carriage and then set off.

(End of this chapter)