Chapter 9
"Once."
It was a greatsword sharpened along both edges, but there was no need to worry about killing my opponent.
Well.
Ascal was a knight, after all.
He had undergone House Delphion’s brutal physical training since childhood,
and I wasn’t using aura, either.
Even if he got cut somewhere, a little spit would heal it in no time.
Besides, I had to instill in Ascal at least a little awareness that he could die this way. Then he would work hard to survive.
Ascal’s body folded from the blow that struck him squarely in the side.
I stepped back a couple of paces, giving him a brief respite so he could regain his senses.
The moment Ascal shook off the impact that had traveled all the way to his head and came to, I kicked off the ground again and swung my sword.
Riding the force of the sword he swung to block mine, I slipped inside his guard and drove my blade into his abdomen once more.
"You’ve died twice."
I gazed impassively at Ascal as he retreated, clutching his abdomen, then let out a small breath.
What I wanted was not indiscriminate violence.
It was the realization he gained through the process.
So this wasn’t violence.
If anything, you could call it a loving lesson.
In other words, I was doing all this for the boy’s own good.
“Seven times.”
“Ten times.”
Once the number of times he had died at my hands reached double digits, Ascal’s movements noticeably began to slow.
Clicking my tongue at the sight, I looked down at him.
"Tired already."
I’d had some expectations, since he was the young master of House Delphion, but...
In this state, he was such a mess that he was practically useless.
Clicking my tongue again, I planted the greatsword in the ground, shook my head, and spoke.
"Want to keep going?"
"……"
Ascal couldn’t say anything.
Looking at him, I let out a short laugh and slowly raised one finger.
"If you can’t come at me, run 50 laps around the parade ground."
"……"
"Oh? Not answering?"
"Ah, understood!"
Raising my fist instead of the greatsword as I spoke, I sent Ascal into a panic, and he began moving his legs.
I swear, he really can’t understand unless you put it into words.
Watching Ascal start running around the parade ground like the knights who normally ran there, I let out a long breath.
It’s going to take quite a while to turn him into a proper human being.
"……Um."
"Ah, I put the sword to good use."
"Not at all."
Returning the greatsword to the knight who had come to retrieve it, I slowly began to walk away.
It wasn’t as though I still had plenty of stamina myself.
I might have been in better shape than the people here, but in the end, the ones I had to face were not the people here but magical beasts.
"Phew."
Along with a long exhalation, I kicked off the ground.
The North’s morning began like that, together with beads of sweat.
@
“……That young master of House Delphion?”
“I’m telling you, he couldn’t move a muscle.”
“What a vicious man. I hear he works him until he collapses from exhaustion.”
The wastrels dragged to the North whispered the same story among themselves, casting wary glances around.
They had already been dragged to the North, a place never meant to be part of their lives, and in their own estimation were suffering terribly.
Now some strange eccentric had suddenly put them on edge.
“We mustn’t stand out.”
“If that man catches me, I won’t be able to live out the rest of my life in comfort.”
From Allen’s perspective, however...
Of all the wastrels dragged to the North, there wasn’t a single useful one, so he wasn’t even giving them any real attention.
But the wastrels, unaware of that fact, had no choice but to remain thoroughly tense.
And amid those people,
only one man quietly watched with gleaming eyes.
Light violet hair, and eyes of that exact same light violet hue.
With an elegant appearance befitting the term “beautiful boy,” he began taking in their words with his lowered gaze.
‘Perhaps.’
If the man they were talking about was that person, then perhaps he, too...
After thinking that, he soon shook his head and let out a short breath.
Hasty judgments were out of the question.
He already knew from experience etched deep into his bones that there was nothing to be gained from trusting people.
Moreover,
not one of those who had come here was normal.
Therefore, he would have to move all the more cautiously.
@
Elina Leonhardt.
Her life had always been the same.
Everyone around her doted on and loved her; there wasn’t a single person who didn’t.
Everyone cherished and loved her. Simply put, Elina Leonhardt was someone loved by the world.
Elina herself had never once doubted that fact.
She had lived that way, and she would continue living that way.
There was only one problem: the person she loved,
the one she cared for so deeply, did not even pay attention to her.
No—to be precise, he did not look at her romantically at all.
He did care about her and look after her, but unlike everyone else, he didn’t see her as a romantic interest; he saw her only as a friend.
Allen Debert.
Since they were young, House Debert and House Leonhardt had visited one another quite often.
Their territories were fairly close, and the heads of the two houses were friendly with each other, making it possible.
That was why Allen and Elina had also been able to remain close.
They grew up nurturing a friendship as the childhood friends everyone talked about.
Because of that, when it came to Allen, Elina knew him better than anyone.
She knew that what people always said about him—that he thought more deeply and acted more maturely than those around him—was strangely true because he really did think and act like an “adult.”
She knew that he was always looking toward something, acting with a much more distant, far-off future in mind.
And because of those traits,
they had perhaps narrowed his field of vision and made him blindly single-minded.
From the smallest details to his deepest thoughts, Elina understood him inside and out.
Thus, Elina had never doubted her belief that she was the person who understood Allen best.
Nor that, in the not-too-distant future, he and she would be together.
But no matter how much time passed, Allen never looked at Elina in that way.
Even when her beauty finally began to ripen and bloom, and she herself began to grow confident in both her figure and her looks,
Allen’s gaze when he looked at Elina hardly changed at all.
Even while everyone else was trying to win Elina’s favor, he continued to say the same thing to her.
‘Become the knight of pure love, Elina Leonhardt.’
Pure love, harem—whatever.
Elina could never understand what he meant by it, but every time she heard those words, she screamed inwardly,
All I want is you.
So please, just look at me.
And so, at eighteen,
when their families were beginning to consider betrothing them to each other, Elina made up her mind.
Rather than relying on the will of their families, she would make him choose and claim her of his own accord.
And so, with the help of the maids around her
and the young ladies she had befriended at various social gatherings, the strategy they devised was
a jealousy-inducing operation.
It was meant to tell Allen Debert—who might have felt secure in thinking she was his—that she was a popular treasure who could be stolen away at any moment.
The jealousy-inducing operation.
Despite Elina’s complete lack of romantic experience, the strategy—supposedly highly effective on possessive men—seemed to be working quite well.
“Go play with your men.”
When Allen said that to her, Elina thought the strategy was proceeding successfully.
Believing that those words from her blunt Allen were born of jealousy, Elina barely managed to suppress her rising smile.
But.
“I can’t go with you anymore.”
As his words continued,
“Nothing changes no matter how much I talk to you, and I don’t think you’ll ever change.”
Elina had no choice but to realize clearly that something had gone wrong.
“Get lost. You’re annoying.”
With those words, Allen turned around and walked away without a trace of lingering attachment.
He was leaving.
He was getting farther away.
Leaving her behind, without a shred of regret.
‘Huh……?’
This wasn’t right.
What I wanted was...
I didn’t want you to hate me...?
As I said, Elina knew Allen’s personality better than anyone.
He never cut people off easily.
But once he decided to cut someone off, he was the kind of person who never held on to any lingering attachment.
If Allen had gone so far as to say something like that,
then his mind must have been completely made up.
Elina’s hand waved helplessly through empty air. The hand she stretched toward Allen’s retreating back could not reach him.
‘I have to go.’
Even now, I have to grab him
and tell him that wasn’t what I meant.
The coldness in his eyes when he looked at her, his expression, his tone of voice—
they were so vividly burned into her mind that her feet simply would not move.
In the end, Elina’s hand, which had been waving through empty air, dropped with a soft thud.
At the same time,
the light went out in her jewel-like eyes.
‘Ah.’
This can’t be.
Without you.
Without you, who saved me and cherished me,
Never.
I don’t think I could ever go on living without you.
Her words...
Those words, filled with sincerity, caught in her throat like a thorn and, in the end, could not be spoken aloud; she had no choice but to swallow them back down.