yemalu

I nodded, half watching her while the other half of my attention was directed to watching our other maids bringing back the cultists that tried to escape back to the manor. They were fast enough to catch them before they even got very far.

"Mmhmm, I\'ve never seen them before, actually."

Katsuki tilted her head slightly, "I was so sure that Mistress would already know about several Valour Skills… To think Mistress has been fighting without them all this time…"

"Err… Is that a bad thing?"

"Hmm… Not exactly, Mistress… But I am quite surprised that Mistress is unaware of it. Has the martial class in the Academy not taught anything about it?"

"I don\'t believe so… I might need to ask Odeta about it since I\'ve been skipping quite a number of the classes before this."

Katsuki seemed like she was about to agree with me when she stopped herself, "Ah… Forgive me Mistress. They would have definitely not taught you about it yet since they are considered rather advanced skills. I would think that you would only get to learn about them in the senior years of your school. Perhaps even only right before you graduate."

"Eh? That long?"

"If I am not mistaken, they had raised the bar for learning these Valour Skills after they realised teaching younger students these skills resulted in a lot more accidents and quite a number of deaths in fact."

"Ah… So I guess it\'s not like I can go and request myself to be moved to a more advanced class to learn it earlier?"

"Mnn… If it\'s Mistress, it is possible."

I shook my head, "Let\'s just say that it isn\'t me and it\'s just some normal student asking so."

"In that case, that is correct, Mistress. They would not allow someone young to learn such skills. That is… Unless they show considerable skill with their martial prowess which would then leave it up for the people in charge to decide."

Hmm… They are scared of teaching a bunch of kids Valour Skills because they think they will just grab the nearest sword and go around slashing each other… But then you guys go ahead and teach them how to cast fireball and burn stuff without question…

Ok, I guess accidentally burning your friend with a small flame is less traumatic than lopping their heads off and there\'s always magic to stop a fire… But still, I still think this is really ironic.

"Does Katsuki know any Valour Skills?"

"I do, Mistress. I knew a few before I met Mistress already."

I gasped, "Eh?! Really?! Does that mean it\'s easy to learn them?"

"On the contrary, Mistress… Learning one takes quite a long time, though I would say it would definitely be shorter than advancing a Magic Skill to the next tier of proficiency."

Hmm… So it\'s still not that easy to learn them…

"So what Valour Skills does Katsuki know?"

Katsuki finished tying up the cultists and stood up to face me, "I think it would be easier for Mistress to see it instead. If I may?"

I nodded of course, already watching her with anticipation.

She patted her maid uniform to smooth out the creases in her skirt before looking forward.

"I shall be running to the manor, Mistress."

She disappeared from my vision and I looked towards the manor, finding her already standing at the doorway and in the midst of turning around.

She then paused for a brief moment before disappearing and reappearing in front of me, almost like she teleported.

I knew she definitely did not teleport since I could see some parts of the ground being disturbed which was where she must have passed through to get here.

"That was Agility Boost, Mistress."

Oh. So unlike spells, you don\'t have to chant or say the skill name out loud? I can see some advantages of this.

"So… That skill increases your speed?" I asked.

Katsuki bowed, "That is correct, Mistress."

"And how would one learn such a skill?"

"For me, I was made to sprint from one position to another repeatedly for several months. It was one of the first skills I learned."

I gasped, "Is that how you are able to move so fast from place to place? Ah! Like whenever I call for you and then you instantly appear?"

Unexpectedly, Katsuki shook her head, "Definitely not, Mistress. It is natural for a maid to appear before her Mistress whenever she is called. I need not use a Valour Skill to do something like that."

I… Don\'t even know what to say to that… Because I actually believe that she could do something like that without using her skill.

I decided to change the topic instead, "So if I wanted to learn how to use a skill like that, I just need to practise sprinting for a few months?"

"That is possible, though there could be many ways to get the same skill."

I perked up, "Oh? Like what?"

Katsuki hesitated, "Unfortunately… I am not very well versed in this, Mistress… I am only aware that there are multiple ways to get the same skill. Perhaps you might want to ask Sebastian about this instead?"

Oh right, of course I should ask our Combat Butler about it~

This would be so cool if I could learn how to do all those skills too!

Seeing that the guy knew a skill called [Threefold Multi Slash] and [Fourfold Multi Slash], I\'m also going to assume that there\'s also some kind of progression to these skills as well. So most likely to get to [Fourfold Multi Slash] skill, he had to learn [Threefold Multi Slash] first.

So maybe a skill like [Agility Boost] could be improved to another skill after using it multiple times?

Now I\'m even more excited, what kind of Valour Skills there are out there? That [Sword Flash] skill that he was using was basically an attack and movement skill rolled into one right?

So maybe there\'s skills  that combined magic as well?

"Are there Valour Skills that also combine magic in them?" I asked.

Katsuki seemed to think for a moment, "I have not seen any like that before… But I believe there are such skills, Mistress."

Ohhhh! Then maybe there\'s even a skill that could summon multiple portals that shoots out different swords at your enemies?!

Oh wait… Now that I think about it… Couldn\'t I achieve that by combining Astromancy and Umbramancy? Astromancy to create the portals and then Umbramancy to create shadow weapons to shoot through the portals?

Hmm… Unfortunately I can only create one portal at a time so that\'s not possible yet… But that means I just need to experiment more!

Now I have another question.

"What made Katsuki think that I am able to use Valour Skills?"

"Mistress has been doing those exercises of yours for a long time, so I thought that those were training to gain a Valour Skill of sorts."

"Huh… Is there a skill that can be gained from something like that?"

"I… Do not know, Mistress. But I do know that Odeta has Valour Skills of her own as well, which I had thought she might have gained because of following this training regime."

Eh?

What?

She does? Then what about me?!

"What Valour Skills does she have?"

"I\'m afraid I do not know about the specifics of the skills, Mistress. If Mistress wishes to know, I\'m afraid you would need to ask her directly."

"Nngh… I guess I\'ll have to do that later when we get back… I didn\'t even know about the existence of Valour Skills before today…"

Katsuki actually blinked at me in confusion, "Has… Has Madam not taught you about it, Mistress?"

"Umm… Mo… Mother has not…"

"I see… She must have her reasons then. Unless… She forgot?"

Well… I wouldn\'t be surprised if she actually did forget… Most of her time was spent fawning on me after all. And she would only tell me stuff after I ask her about it.

Maybe she just likes to see me learn about these things myself?

"So… Who else I know has Valour Skills?"

"Umm… Pretty much most of the servants in our family, Mistress… Ah, aside from those who are focused on spell casting of course."

"Hmm… Is there a compatibility for this? Like those who learn magic aren\'t able to or just generally don\'t learn Valour Skills?"

"I would say more of the latter, Mistress. Trying to increase one\'s proficiency with magic is already a daunting enough task. To try and learn Valour Skills on top of that would mean that the person either spends every single waking moment of their lives training or they would just be mediocre at both. Of course, such things do not apply to geniuses like Mistress."

Oh stahp it Katsuki~ You\'re making me blush~

Hmm… But that would mean that there\'s almost no spellswords, are there? Or maybe even a lack of battlemages?

Damn, but I think that\'s cool though… Maybe I can be one of the first to do so?

Oh, that reminds me! I wanted to fluff that tail of yours!

"Mi… Mistress? Did… Did I displease you?"

"Ehehehe~ Don\'t mind me~ I just had an urge to fluff your tail~ So just let me indulge a bit~"

"Ngghh… Un… Understood, Mistress… Ahhh…"

Ahhh~ It\'s so fluffy~ Yeesssss~

I can just enjoy this for now and worry about everything else later~

Fluff~ Fluff~ Fluff~