The Villainous Noble Son Wants to Capture His Stepsister! - Chapter 10

Have you ever made a water bottle rocket?

The concept is simple: fill a plastic bottle with water and compressed air, then release a valve to forcefully eject the water and air. The reaction propels the bottle forward at high speed.

When I discovered that my magic affinity was water, I started wondering if I could apply this principle to something useful.

Ideally, I wanted to recreate a water jet cutter, but generating an ultra-thin, high-velocity stream of water turned out to be ridiculously difficult.

A glorified water gun wasn’t going to cut anything.

That’s when I set my sights on Iai.

If I could harness water’s propulsion to accelerate my draw speed, even a bottom-tier mid-boss like Kraut might stand a chance in battle.

Of course, I couldn’t generate compressed air to fuel the reaction, so I thought I could replicate the effect by manipulating water pressure instead…

…which is how I ended up launching my katana into oblivion.

If this had been a game stream, the chat would be flooded with “WWWWWWWWWW”, completely blocking the screen.

In the end, it was a massive failure.

But at the same time, I felt like I was onto something.

There was definitely potential here…

◇

“Master!”

“Young Master!”

Heliotrope and Sebastian scolded the living daylights out of me.

As the heir of a duke, I had never been chewed out by them before.

For a brief moment, I thought, Oh wow, this is a new experience.

Nope. Scratch that. It was terrifying. I was practically in tears.

To be fair, I had taken a full-force strike to the skull.

Even though it was just a wooden sword, I had been completely defenseless.

If Heliotrope hadn’t held back, my brain matter would probably be decorating the floor right now.

That scene would definitely need a heavy mosaic filter.

“Master, you are forbidden from sparring for the time being. Focus only on practice swings.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

What kind of master gets bossed around by his maid?

Not that I had any objections.

Let’s be honest—the only one at fault here was me.

I got way too excited and decided to wing it in live combat.

But can you blame me?! It’s a katana! It’s Iai! As a former otaku, how could I not be hyped?!

And yet, just like a water bottle rocket, my sword ended up soaring into the sky.

Not exactly the part I wanted to replicate.

Now that I think about it, wasn’t that legendary Battōsai guy able to flick his sword into the air with just his thumb?

Let’s be real—that guy was way more OP than I was, even after reincarnating.

Anyway, since my beautiful maid was still visibly pissed, I decided to shut up and train properly.

No magic this time.

And damn, it was tough.

I couldn’t draw the sword smoothly.

If I tried to move fast, it kept catching on the sheath.

So, I slowed down, carefully repeating the motion over and over, focusing on refining my technique.

Standing in the middle of the training grounds, practicing the same movement at a snail’s pace, I could feel the knights sneaking glances at me.

I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Is this how elderly ladies doing Tai Chi in the park feel?

…Probably not.

“I see. A technique focused solely on drawing the sword as quickly as possible… Now I understand what you meant, Master. But where exactly did you learn about Iai?”

“Hm… I can’t quite remember.”

Internally, I panicked.

But thankfully, Kraut, age nine, delinquent skill: “Talk Absolute Nonsense” activated.

Crisis averted.

Though, the fact that I could lie so smoothly without hesitation was… unsettling.

My nose wasn’t growing, was it?

I wanted to keep the fact that I had reincarnated as Kraut a secret.

Not just because explaining it would be a pain (though that was a big part of it).

I had no idea how my knowledge of this game world might affect things.

And again… explaining it would be a pain.

I repeated the motion dozens of times.

Even though the mithril katana was relatively light, swinging a metal weapon over and over was still exhausting.

But I kept going.

Unlike the protagonist, I had no talent.

The only thing I could do was keep moving forward.

Geniuses effortlessly outpace ordinary people and disappear beyond the horizon.

Once Primelia starts growing, she’ll leave me in the dust too—

And she’ll never show up in my rearview mirror again.

That’s why I can’t stop.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow—

I have to keep going.

Because the only way for a tortoise to beat a rabbit…

Is to never stop walking.