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Last Embryo Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 3

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Did you hear that just now? The sound that sounded like a glass window shattering into a million pieces and falling onto the floor? That was the sound of Scathach scoring a Critical Hit on Ayato’s pride. But these words were not what hurt her the most.

The thing that hurt the most, what had the biggest impact on her were Scathach’s eyes, which were looking at her with contempt so great that she could only blush with a mixture of annoyance, anger and shame. While she was fighting against Uesugi, she was convinced that taking her weapon away from her would be the best course of action, but apparently she was the only one who thought about it like that.

So according to her master, the right choice here was to keep her distance away form Uesugi, and if that proved to be impossible switch from her sword-whip to her dual spears, or perhaps her bow if she did not have enough time to pull the spears out from the Gift Card they were stored in?

But the more Ayato thought about that, the more impossible it seemed to her. Throughout the whole sparring match, there was simply no time for her to switch her weapon to something other than the sword-whip, even more so when Uesugi began to charge at her, trying to keep her in close distance combat.

But those were just childish excuses she was making after the fact, when she realized her mistake only after it has been pointed out to her by somebody else. She also understood why Scathach was so angry at her.

After all, as someone who trained many a heroes throughout her lifetime and took her in as a disciple, it was perfectly understandable for her to be furious when she saw that disciple losing something so simple as a training battle because she failed to utilize the skills that have been taught to her to their fullest extent because of one successful maneuver that made her think she had this match in the bag, only to have the tables turned on her in the very next second.

When all of that dawned upon her, Ayato felt so humiliated that her heart sunk to the bottom of her chest, leaving her wanting to do nothing more but to crawl into some dark hole and disappear from the shame.

「. . . . . .  Truly, what a waste of potential that was.」

And *STAB!!!* , another Critical Hit, this time like an icicle driven straight through Ayato’s self-esteem, which was already balancing on the edge of a heartbreak so much that she was barely able to stop her shoulders from trembling.

「*Sigh* . . . . Allow me to apologize, Miss Uesugi. I am sorry that my disciple failed to give you a proper battle you were probably hoping for. If you are still feeling unsatisfied after that poor excuse of a sparring match, then perhaps you would like to have a battle with me as a way of making up for the time you lost?」

Picking up Ayato’s sword-whip from the ground with her left hand, Scathach grabbed a hold of its handle and shook it lightly. When she did that, Uesugi’s long-handled spear has been thrown into the air as if it weighted nothing, spinning and rotating like a flipped coin. Was that her idea of how people’s weapons were supposed to be returned to them, or did she simply wanted to show off in front of Ayato.

However, Miss Uesugi simply laughed and shook her head in a declining manner while catching her spinning spear like it was nothing.

「While it would be a great opportunity for me to test my own skills in a fight against the great Scathach, a warrior-queen who is said to have mastered all of the arts of war in existence to perfection, that is not why I came to this training ground today. I only came here because I asked Miss Ayato if she would like to have a sparring match with me so that I could see the extent of her current abilities, and based on what I saw here today I can clearly say that she did not show me all that she is truly capable of. Oh, but do not take this the wrong way, I am not saying that to mock her. I understand perfectly that we all have our moments of ups and downs, so if Ayato herself is fine with this, we will just have to have another match some other day, okay?」

Seeing that Uesugi was not only fine with that farce of a match that just happened, but that she was also smiling with genuine cheerfulness and her words did not contain even the slightest hint of sarcasm within them, Scathach was greatly surprised.

As for Ayato, who was so depressed that she really started thinking if it would perhaps be better for her if she just disappeared on the spot, those words were exactly what she needed to get the wind back into her sails. Pritt has always called Uesugi a “Simple-minded boar-like samurai in a body of a woman”, but her personality as a fellow warrior was truly great.

「Y-Yes, of course, I would like nothing more than to. . . .」

All excited and in high spirits, Ayato bowed to Uesugi deeply and expressed her gratitude, but before she could finish what she wanted to say, Scathach’s cold voice has blocked her off.

「Ayato. This is probably the best opportunity to ask you about it, so just listen to me and then give me a straightforward answer: after coming back to Little Garden, how many of your former memories have returned to you? How much did you manage to remember? Did you feel any kind of discomfort after what happened five years ago? Or do you still have some issues with memory loss?」

「N-No, I did not have any such problems, and I feel fine now. But if you insist that my martial arts prowess has dulled, then who am I to argue with that. . . . . ?」

「Thankfully, the decline in your skills does not look as horrible as I expected it to be, so do not worry about it for now. Form where I am standing, the issues with your apparent dullness are not caused by the problems with your memory, but rather your attitude, and that could only mean one thing.」

With a dejected sigh, Scathach crossed her arms on her chest and leaned against the wall again, looking at Ayato coldly, but somehow in a different sense than before.

「I wanted to avoid asking you about it because of how utterly cliché it is, but it looks like you are leaving me with no other choice. . . . Ayato, could it be that you have lost sight of the reason why you are fighting?」

「T-That’s. . .  w-well, I. . .  I. . . .」

「If you were the same as the girl whom you were back then, the one who was fighting so desperately because she wanted to leave Little Garden and be reincarnated in the Outer World and start a new life there, you would not have fought in such a sloppy manner, even if this was just a practice match. The you from back then would put her all into every battle, no matter how insignificant it was.」

Scathach said in a harsh tone that left no place for any kind of rebuttal, so all that Ayato could do was to clench her teeth and fists, biting on the words that she wanted to spit at her master. The worst part about what Scathach was saying was that she was right with every word, because Ayato herself felt that she could definitely do better, but something was holding her back, like during the battle against the Minotaur, where she definitely could have been much more useful if only she decided to join the battle sooner.

Yes, if she was like her old self, then maybe much of the disasters and crisis that have befallen Little Garden in the recent years: the invasion of Underwood by the Giants, the battle with the Giant Dragon or the appearance of the Demon Lord’s Talons would not have happened, or at the very least maybe the number and scales of casualties those events caused could have been limited.

「The strength of the martial arts that I have taught you lies in the number of arms you can use if you master them and their versatility. With your dual spears, sword-whip and bow you can effectively fight in close, mid and long ranged battles and adapt your strategies as needed. By being able st swiftly switch between those three ranges, you will always be able to control the flow of battle better than your opponents, triumphing even over those evidently superior to you. Was that not one of the very first lessons I gave you?」