Asileye whipped a merciless back thrashing the moment she woke up.

 

   Ultimately, after spending a really long time trying to calm Asileye down as she endlessly cried and knocked on my back with enough passion to demolish it, I could barely, barely calm her down only after receiving even Lagnis and Alisha’s help.

 

   ‘No, I mean, that height was incredibly high and rather had room until crashing down, so it was actually saf…’

 

   ‘You wanna see your sis die from an exploding heart attack?!’

 

   ‘Oi you fucking clueless piece of shit!’

 

   ‘Can you not read the mood!’

 

   But then I spoke wrong once at the last minute and then got beat up with the three women’s slaps. It seriously. It fucking seriously hurt.

 

   ‘Can’t believe I even resolved an unbelievable event and got lynched.’

 

   ‘Honestly as someone who has watched from the sides, it was a heroic sight that even bards would cry at, sir, but… it understandably would be heart-dropping when watching through the eyes of a family member.’

 

   The answer Giesse presented with a bitter smile as he listened to my grumbling and complaint was the truth I couldn’t help but concede to.

 

   In the end, Giesse and the drake couldn’t move until Lagnis became an adult and got recognized as a marquis. Because he was someone who greatly contributed to rescuing Lagnis regardless of what our first meeting was like, and thanks to Alisha who had lent him a room for free after hearing his story, he came to stay at her inn.

 

   We did all receive interrogation from the guards, but no particular problem arose. To be exact, it nearly did arise, but didn’t thanks to testimonies by those around us and got passed over.

 

   Like that, time passed and Lagnis’s birthday approached.

 

   “I don’t particularly want to get involved in this at least, though…”

 

   “You did that reckless thing hundreds of meters in the sky and you want to back out at the end?”

 

   As if she heard something seriously absurd, Lagnis, who had been sitting on a chair and feigning calm, spoke with a hollow face.

 

   “End is a word you only use at a grave.”

 

   “Don’t think of changing the subject with nonsense.”

 

   Even though she would’ve casually ignored me if usual, Lagnis took on an absolutely firm stance and held me in place. Of course, it wasn’t as if I couldn’t understand her feeling since this would be the last time we’d see each other’s faces like this, but for something like that, I could have simply talked with her for a bit and then stepped out once the King factions’ people arrived. But she demanded my company to the end saying she was anxious, and because even Asileye echoed her, I helplessly ended up staying still and passing time at Alisha’s Inn.

 

   But what could I possibly do? In the first place, my goal was merely meticulous punishment and retribution on the bastards that touched those around me. Of course, the outcome this time did unintentionally result in apologies through death, but ultimately my business was already finished. And since my body was also confirmed to be fine, I was in a hurry to return to my training days. Even if I did experience a rather big event, the things I would have to do were more dangerous and serious, after all.

 

   That was, even though it was unfortunate that Lagnis’s grand plan to chase up and up the trails and whip the back of the Noble faction’s heads had popped like a sea foam and disappeared due to Delt dying too and each and every one of the captured bastards lacking in information.

 

   “I didn’t plan that far, you know.”

 

   “That kind of soft-hearted attitude isn’t good. And especially so if you are going to live as a marquis.”

 

   It wasn’t a piece of advice to give to a girl barely 16 years old, but, ultimately, she was an adult in this world regardless of what my common sense said. In front of Lagnis who today had officially become the heir and inherited the seat of marquis, it was clear that a significant path of thorns would spread before her. Although she would be a marquis with only the name and fortunes for a while since there wasn’t a fief for her to protect, her influence would grow bigger and bigger as time passed and meticulous schemes incomparable to this time would continuously harass her.

 

   “You have to realize you’re now going into a world without your guardian-angel uncle.”

 

   “It’s not even a big bro but an uncle now?”

 

   “Menta…”

 

   “Yes, Eldmia with over 30 year-old mental age should hold a mind comparable to an uncle.”

 

   I ruffled her hair in return for brazenly stealing my line.

 

   “You know it well.”

 

   “… can’t Eldmia come too?”

 

   “I’m busy ‘cause I have to get trained by Asileye for 2 more years and go pluck the head of the commander bastard that pulverized my village.”

 

   The bastard called Delt dying without exchanging even a single sword swing with me was completely due to the situation at the time. I was merely able to kill him in a single strike by piercing with my strengthened body into the unavoidable confusion and delay in thought arising when faced with an event outside common sense. And even then, if I hadn’t single-mindedly drawn up my magic power and stepped in with my full strength, a counterattack might’ve come through in that split moment of difference.

 

   I could tell the moment I cut his neck, the instant I saw his face that had understood everything a moment too late and accepted his death. Although I had purely felt joy at that time from all those reckless gambles coming together and succeeding on the first try, I now didn’t.

 

   If an honest fight, it was I who would’ve died.

 

   Even though there was a guy like that, even though there should’ve been lots of guys more brilliant than him, the Demon King Army remained the same and, let alone killing the demon king, the war was continuing on for 6 years.

 

   There were too many powerful people to overcome to defend my creed. And following that, the time I hadn’t felt very lacking until now felt far too little. I couldn’t help but feel anxious.

 

   “There are lots of phenomenal knights in the King faction, too. And my position is significant enough for those guys to specially script today’s play to come get me. If you want, I can easily negotiate.”

 

   So that you could formally learn swordsmanship from a knight. Lagnis resolutely stated as she looked at me with an endlessly serious face and firmly determined eyes.

 

   It wasn’t a particularly faulty statement, and they probably wouldn’t be empty words either. And it wasn’t a bad deal, too.

 

   In the case I couldn’t receive help from a knight, she would probably even think of giving me a chance at learning by putting me in the Royal Academy at the capital with her own money. I also already knew well of just how much she felt grateful to me from the series of events. Because of that, it was difficult to lightly accept her offer.

 

   “Who would even teach a bastard that can’t even be used as a soldier and would run off the moment he’s skilled enough saying he’ll get revenge?”

 

   “Even then, there could be someone who sees your talent and grants you their teaching. There’s surprisingly a lot of stories like that, too.”

 

   “Eh. I’ll think about it if someone who’s about King’s 10 Swords or so comes and tells me to learn.”

 

   If I learned from people like that, wouldn’t I learn whatever I need as needed, and then get found out what was considered my talent wasn’t actually a talent and naturally get chased out? Come to think of it, it might be a rather attractive situation.

 

   “They have ranks in their skills, too. Do you simply mean you’ll think about it even if it’s the 10th?”

 

   “I won’t be the one choosing if it’s actually the 10th Sword. If it’s the 5th Sword and over, wouldn’t I have to be begging to please take me without even thinking about it?”

 

   Feeling like we were finally moving away from the little heavy mood and to light jokes, I smiled and answered.

 

   “Those words.”

 

   Then.

 

   “Don’t go back on them.”

 

   Drawing a smile that definitely meant something different than mine, Lagnis threw an ominous line.

 

   That smile was… right.

 

   It was very similar to the smile she had shown me as if she found me laughably comical when I had lied that Lagnis had beat up hooligans. Thanks to that, an incomprehensible chill flowed down my spine.

 

   “Oi, it’s scary so don’t smile like that.”

 

   “To say that my smile full of goodwill is scary. How mean.”

 

   “No wait, what ‘full of goodwill’? Just at a glance it’s a smile full of ‘You dare sillily bet me that kind of condition? You think I can’t do it?’ kind of energy.”

 

   “If I do that and be a benefit to Eldmia, then in the end wouldn’t it be a smile full of goodwill?”

 

   The further brightening smile stroked fear. At the pressure that felt like a carnivore eyeing its prey, even a hallucination of the ground shaking… no wait? It’s actually shaking?!

 

   “I guess they arrived.”

 

   Thankfully as if I wasn’t feeling it alone, Lagnis looked out of the inn and stood up. Having followed her along outside wondering just what they were dragging here for it to be like this, I couldn’t help but doubt my eyes.

 

   “Fucking shit.”

 

   The people on the largest street that led to the inn were moving to the sides and opening up a path.

 

   “This is what you meant by coming to get you?”

 

   Beyond the splitting crowd, five people that even just from a glance looked like nobles and knights and a mage were grandly walking up on horses wrapped in brilliant horse armor.

 

   “I told you. It’s a script with the public’s eyes in mind.”

 

   Lagnis stood next to me and spoke, but I couldn’t dare turn my head and check that she’s there. To do that, the presence of the soldiers thickly lined up and marching in steps behind the five horsemen was far too big. The sight of what looked to be at least tens of soldiers, wearing the official Kingdom Army armor incomparable to that of the city guards, approaching while escorting a single carriage was nothing less than a grand spectacle. Simultaneously, I understood why she finished her goodbyes with everyone but me yesterday.

 

   Today, she wasn’t Levi of Alisha’s Inn, but the last survivor of the Levian House that protected the Ithysiel Kingdom, Lagnis Lien da Levien. She couldn’t even share a proper goodbye with people.

 

   “It has been a while. Sir Ekav.”

 

   Lagnis, who had stepped forwards before I knew it, spoke with the same look as heroes that had carved their names into history to one of the knights among the five people riding on the horses. The knight, who had impressive platinum hair and clear red eyes that couldn’t help but stand out, climbed down from his horse along with the others and then slowly opened his mouth.

 

   “King’s 3rd Sword, Ekav Tusin Orgatorph greets Marquis Levien, the shield of the kingdom.”

 

   Because she was an adult, the knight merely called her marquis without any flowery words and kneeled on one knee.

 

   When he kneeled first, the others who had also gotten down from their horses kneeled the same. When they kneeled, the soldiers who were lined up kneeled, too, and when the soldiers kneeled, even the city’s denizens who were staring with dazed faces kneeled together in the silence that seemed to suffocate.

 

   I fucking got too shocked and missed the timing to kneel.

 

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Translator: CSV

TL note: Hello. It’s been a while. I hope your November had been good, because mine was crazy.

For one, I’m no longer an amateur translator, but a freelance translator hired at a translating agency! I’ll still be translating Eldmia Egga on the side, but I now have a  ‘translator’ title on my resume.

For two, I applied at a post office for a part-time job, and got scammed. Apparently “can’t guarantee more than 35hrs of work over a 6 week period” meant “8 hours per day, 6 day week, beginning at 4am”. And “clerk assistant” apparently didn’t mean a front-desk job, but a “package stacker at the back warehouse”. So yeah, that’s mostly why there weren’t any uploads in November. Too busy sweating in a warehouse and juggling 1.5 jobs.

I still have a week left before my 2-week notice for quitting is up, so the uploads will be unpredictable until then. But after next week, I should be able to upload more regularly. See you guys next week, and have a nice day.

Oh, and do let me know if there’s any mistakes in this chapter. I’ve only been sleeping 4~5hrs a day for a while, and I don’t trust my mind at this point.

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Ch.23

Chapter List

Ch.25