5-16: Picking A Blade

Veronica and Seraph had met outside, in the training yard nearby. The weather was perfect, and on a table close by, was nearly twenty or thirty different swords.

Single edged, double edged, long blade, short blade, one handed, two handed, curved blade and straight blade.

"These are... a lot of swords." Veronica said with a slight nervousness in her throat.

"Yeah... I'm a bit of a collector." Seraph admitted sheepishly.

The two girls stared at the collection of various blades before Seraph cleared her throat.

"Well, go ahead and pick one! We have all day, and longer, to see what kind of sword you feel the most comfortable with." Seraph exclaimed with a smile on her face.

Veronica nodded and approached the table. There were so many blades, which one should she choose? To make the decision, she closed her eyes and picked at random. She could feel that the blade was straight, so she felt her way down towards the sword's handle, eventually gripping it and holding it up before opening her eyes.

It wasn't a very long blade. Rather, it was very short. The hilt didn't leave any room to use with two hands, and the crossguard was rather small, or more like it was specifically made to hold the blade instead of protecting the hands.

"Ah, the ancient gladius. I was honestly surprised to see that it still being made today, considering all the other swords that exist." Seraph explained, placing her hands on her hips. "Go ahead and give that blade a few swings. Let's see the exactly what you'll need."

Veronica nodded and turned towards a safe direction. The first thing that came to her was to slash downwards, then from left to right.

"We can always fix those over telegraphed swings later. But, what do you think of it?"

"It's very light. Not very comfortable in my hand, but it might just be the handle material? I'm unsure yet. But the blade is rather short, I would like some extra reach." Veronica said, giving whatever feedback she could without exactly knowing much about swords. "Not to mention, the crossguard doesn't seem to protect much..."

"Okay... longer blade, and an actual crossguard... and maybe better handle... Let's see what I got." Seraph said to herself as she looked at the table of swords.

The two went through various weapons, from single edged straight swords, like the Messer¹, or a few curved swords, like a Shamshir².

As the two were testing various weapons, Veronica heard a familiar voice.

"Greetings, girls. Doing some training?" The familiar voice of Tisha flowed through the air.

The two turned around, and sure enough, Tisha was there. She seemed rather happy as she joined in.

"Hi there, Miss Tisha! We're not exactly training. Rather, Veronica here got an upgrade to her skill, and it wants her to use swords. So, we're trying to find which one she likes the most."

"I see. Mind if I join in?" Tisha asked.

The two younger girls looked at each other, one nodding to the other.

"Yeah, that's fine by me." Veronsaid, allowing Tisha to help out.

"Great! So, where are we at, at the moment?"

"Well, I do seem to prefer straight swords. But I'm unsure of which one to use."

"I see... Let see here, have you decided how many hands you'd want to use?"

"Uh, no, not yet."

Woth Veronica's answer, Tisha simply nodded her head and went towards the table of swords. She found a couple of straight swords of various handle sizes and took them over to Veronica.

"Let's start with hand-and-a-half swords, first." She said, giving Veronica a longer blade.

She took the blade, replacing what she already had in her hand. Even being vastly longer, it's wasn't much heavier than the previous blades.

Another few hours of testing various swords, she found hand-and-a-half swords to be the most comfortable and easier to use blade for her.

With Veronica finally finding the type of sword she wanted to use, Seraph took the rest back home and was going to go try and get Veronica her first real sword.

Though, that left her alone with Tisha for a while.

"Veronica, do you have a moment to talk?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

Tisha looked around, almost nervously. She motioned for Veronica to follow her, and so she did. They walked to an area that not only gets very little traffic, but a small hidden spot there.

"Uh... why are we so hidden?"

"Remember when we uh... had sex in the classroom?"

"Y-Yeah?"

Tisha didn't say anything else, but instead, grabbed Veronica's hand and put it over her abdomen.

The message was clear to Veronica. She got her teacher pregnant.

'Three... I... I got three different women pregnant... this is... not how I expected any of this to go...'

She was surprised, but it exactly worried.

"I... I don't know what to say..."

"I just thought... maybe I should tell you. I never thought I would ever... you know..."

Veronica nodded in understandment.

"I-I'll try to help take care of it. Don't know how, but I'll certainly try."

"You don't have to worry too much about that. This academy has a surprising amount of benefits for staff and their children. But I appreciate it, Veronica."

Veronica nodded again. Her mind foggy. In the moment, the best thing she could think of was to reach up and kiss Tisha. She didn't fight back, completely subservient in this moment.

'Perhaps... this isn't so bad...' Veronica thought to herself. Though, she realized that at some point, she'll have to open up about making a harem.

She hoped that everything will go fine then. Hopefully.