The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 188 – The Way of Build Psychological Defense

After that, Cruz came back too, and it was dinner time.

Vallimie was probably worried about Vi-Vi. She asked her right away.

「Vi-Vi, are you okay?」

「I’m fine!」

「You worked too hard!」

「Not at all!」

Vi-Vi forced a smile, but it was clear she was tired.

Vallimie looked at Timi and said, 「First, let me thank you. I’m grateful for how you’ve trained my little sister.」

「Don’t worry about it.」

「However, what did you do to her to make her look so tired?」

「Special training, right? Normal process, I guess.」

「Well tell me about how normal it is then.」

「I just normally shouted magic at her.」

Vallimie seemed to rear back in surprise.

「A...an ancient dragon roaring at my sister?」

「Of course it wasn’t full power.」

「I HOPE NOT!」

Then, Vallimie grabbed Vi-Vi’s shoulder.

「Are you really okay? Getting shouted at by an ancient dragon would kill some people.」

「I was fine.」

「Yeah, I didn’t shout at her full power. Just right up to the amount she could take.」

「ryaa ryaa」

Timi said proudly.

Shiggy also shouted from my pouch. Seems she was saying it was okay as well.

Shiggy stayed in my pouch while we ate.

She usually would eat from my plate, but this time she wanted to eat from my hand.

She must have wanted to be coddled.

It was only a day away, but it must have made her feel lonely.

Vallimie then said, a bit strongly, 「Exercising her by shouting at her over and over...it sounds QUITE dangerous.」

「I was fine, though.」

「Well, I don’t like it.」

「I was the one that asked Timi to do it.」

「Mmmm...」

Then Timi said, to the worrying Vallimie, 「Well, she’s done with it for now.」

「Really?」

Vallimie looked quite relieved.

「Yes. In order to be able to resist the roar of an ancient dragon, it takes way more than a whole day.」

「I understand that, but...」

「Also, you basically have to train yourself psychologically. At least in order to resist a roar.」

Cruz nodded to what Timi said, 「It’s hard to train yourself psychologically.」

As if she had done some training herself. I was very curious.

One reason why is that Cruz’ personality was the polar opposite of the word “training.”

「So did you train too, Cruz?」

「Of course I did. I love training myself!」

「So how did you go about it?」

I could tell everyone else wanted to hear her answer to my question.

Everyone was gazing at her.

「It’s some ruthless training. First you make your bath way hotter than usual.」

「...wha?」

「Then you endure the heat, and count to 100. You want to get out after that point. But you don’t! You count to 100 again!」

Cruz said, proudly.

Cruz did have very high endurance to fire. Maybe that bath did it for her.

「Right?」

No one was replying to her story, so she asked for others to agree.

「Um, Cruz. What’s ruthless about that?」

「Because you want to get out of a really hot bath RIGHT AWAY. But it takes psychological training to stop yourself.」

「Heh...heh...」

It was training that no one knew how to respond to.

Luka looked a bit flabbergasted and said, 「So...the result of that training, or whatever, is what?」

「Um...after that, no dragon’s roar could work against me.」

「Did it work against you before that?」

「I got goosebumps...but after, I didn’t.」

I guess it didn’t really affect her before the training either.

Seems like the bath training had no relation, and she was used to being roared at.

「Vi-Vi, you should try the hot bath too!」

「N...no...I think...」

「Don’t hold yourself back!」

Vi-Vi looked flustered.

「Um, Cruz. Very hot baths aren’t for your body. You should stop.」

「Understood!」

She responded happily to my advice, but then turned to Vi-Vi, 「Sorry, Al told me to stop...I guess you can’t train that way after all.」

「S...sure. No problem. None at all.」

「But there has to be some training that’s also good for you...」

Then Luka said to Cruz, 「Something that easy’s not going to train you anyway.」

「Maybe...」

「I mean just having a hot bath really isn’t training, after all.」

「Hmph. Well, how did you train, Al?」

Cruz asked me, and I thought it over.

I really never trained myself psychologically.

However, it’s true my psychological resistance is much stronger than before.

「I think I naturally became trained by being an adventurer.」

「Is that so?」

「Yeah. Getting stronger in magic is something different, but kind of the same.」

「So, Al doesn’t know either.」

Vi-Vi said with a laugh.

「Yeah, it is hard to define. However, I think adventurers have stronger psychological resistance than most people.」

「Maybe because adventurers actually have to fight beasts...and that’s training?」

「Probably.」

You get nervous fighting enemies. You always fear death.

And when you win, it’s because you had to face that nervousness and fear and bear it every time.

Maybe that’s what makes you stronger psychologically.

So that night, we all talked about our theories of what psychological training meant.

But in the end, no one had the answer.