Chapter 34
You said you were going to learn etiquette after training?
Yeah.
During a break between training sessions.
I shared the order Renoa had given me with Helena.
Renoa had called me first thing in the morning, so I thought she was going to say something strange, and she had.
She really has a talent for tormenting people. I almost suspect she studies it separately.
“Well, if you’re going to become a knight, it is necessary.”
“I can understand that. But she said not to call the maids noona, right?”
Knightly manners?
I thought it was only natural for a master to say that.
If I ever went out in public, Renoa would be the one getting criticized if there were problems with my behavior.
But telling me not to call the maid sisters noona is too much.
After all, who would bad-mouth us in this isolated mansion? As long as I’m careful when guests come, it’ll be fine.
“She’s definitely trying to torment me. She hates seeing me laugh and joke around.”
“Aw, surely she wouldn’t go that far. The Young Lady isn’t wrong, after all.”
“Helena, you don’t know her.”
Renoa doesn’t show much of what she’s thinking, but if there’s something she doesn’t like, she acts without hesitation.
Especially when she’s bullying the protagonist. I still can’t forget the viciousness Renoa showed then.
She was definitely throwing a hissy fit again this time.
“Then it’ll be hard for us to hang out after training from now on?”
“Looks like it.”
Helena fiddled with her water bottle with a bitter smile.
“Hanging out with Rion after training was fun, though.... Well, if it’s the Young Lady’s order, I can’t help it. It’s not like I won’t be able to see you at all.”
Leaving that regret behind, I quickly washed up after training and came to Renoa’s study.
“You’re late.”
“I came as fast as I could.”
“Next time, come ten minutes earlier than today. And did you actually wash up? You smell like sweat.”
“Well, I ran here so I wouldn’t be late....”
“Don’t make excuses. A knight must maintain a clean and composed appearance at all times, anywhere. That’s basic. Remember it.”
Renoa circled slowly around me, her heels clicking.
She stopped behind me.
She lightly smacked my back.
-Smack.
“Straighten your back.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Tuck in your chin.”
She tapped the tip of my chin with a slender finger.
“Keep your eyes forward. Don’t glance around. Even if a knife is pointed at your eyes, look straight ahead.”
“Nyeh.”
“Keep your answers short.”
The corrections never ended.
Shoulder height, hand position, the angle of my feet, even the rhythm of my breathing.
She was trying to sculpt me from top to bottom, as if she were some kind of sculptor.
“Um... this is knightly etiquette. Wouldn’t it be better to learn it from a knight rather than from a young lady?”
I tried to think my way out of it in my own way, but—
“Is there even a knight willing to teach you?”
“Hmm, Sir Jain?”
“Sir Jain is busy with work too. He only had time to teach you last time because he happened to be free.”
Come to think of it, Helena said he was one of the strongest five in Edelhaide.
As a slave-born apprentice knight, just receiving his guidance was a stroke of luck.
‘That was when my proficiency was really in overdrive.’
Learning from a capable person made my proficiency shoot up like crazy.
Once you get a taste of that, you just can’t quit.
I’d become the kind of body that couldn’t be satisfied with training alone anymore.
“Above all, you’re my knight. What I like comes first. Understand?”
...Yes, ma’am.
Renoa’s etiquette lessons continued.
“A knight should be arrogant. No matter who the other person is, even if it’s the emperor, you need the spirit never to bend. Compared to that, you’re far too frivolous.”
“Mm.”
“Don’t go around grinning like an idiot. Especially—”
Renoa’s green eyes narrowed.
“in front of women.”
“......”
“Do you understand?”
“Yes....”
Starting that day, Renoa’s etiquette lessons continued without a single day off.
From basics like table manners to saluting, escorting, and even dance practice.
For the record, Vivi—not Renoa—was my partner for dance practice.
When I asked if she wasn’t going to do it herself, she shot back, “Are you telling me to have physical contact with a slave right now?”
‘If you’re not even going to touch me, why are we doing this?’
If this isn’t bullying, then what is?
“Sir Rion.”
Vivi, pressed close against me, whispered with a blank expression.
“Your palms are quite sweaty. Could it be that your heart rate has increased because you’re pressed against the opposite sex?”
“My hands are usually sweaty.”
“Liar. I can hear your heartbeat even from here.”
As if my reaction was amusing, Vivi tried to press her ear against my chest.
“What are you doing?”
A frost-sharp voice pierced through us.
Renoa was leaning back against the desk, arms crossed, glaring at us.
“I asked what you’re doing.”
“I was checking his heart rate. He must be nervous being pressed up against a beauty like me.”
“Back off.”
At Renoa’s ferocious command, Vivi put some distance between us.
“From now on, do it without touching him.”
“Pardon? It’s an escort, and you want me not to hold his hand?”
“Try leading him without touching him. If you’re a knight, you should be able to guide your partner with nothing but your gaze. Surely you can do even that, can’t you?”
It was a ridiculous demand.
But Vivi nodded as if she understood.
“I see. An air escort. It’s an advanced technique, but it should be possible for Sir Rion.”
“...... Hey, you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
I couldn’t hold back anymore and slipped into informal speech.
Vivi secretly flashed a V sign with her fingers while avoiding Renoa’s gaze.
Wiggle-wiggle.
The two fingers hooked together like scissors.
“Good luck. I’m only following the Young Lady’s orders.”
In the end, I had to repeat the bizarre act of dancing with my hands held out in the air, keeping a 30-centimeter gap between Vivi and me.
Vivi spun around in sync with my empty hand motions and whispered now and then, just loud enough for me to hear.
“The angle of your hand is off by three degrees, Sir Rion.”
That bastard was definitely enjoying this.
***
In the mornings I trained with Helena, and in the afternoons I learned knightly etiquette from Renoa and Vivi.
I was really spending every day with no time to rest.
‘Was becoming a knight this hard?’
Learning swordsmanship is fine, but trying to dance too is driving me insane.
Without a doubt, the mental exhaustion was greater than when I was a gladiator.
“Haa.... Relax.”
I exhaled and collected my thoughts.
Where I was now was the border between the training grounds and the forest.
On the left, the apprentice knights’ training was noisy, and on the right, the leaves rustled restlessly in the wind.
I was meditating with a sword in hand, right in the middle of all that noise.
Mana sensitivity, which had awakened the other day with Renoa’s help. I was trying to control that hypersensitive perception.
‘It’s so damn loud.’
With my eyes closed, my hearing became even more sensitive.
It wasn’t just that sounds got louder; they were stabbing straight into my brain.
I felt dizzy, like I was going to puke.
‘Still, I have to control it.’
If I used it well, it would become an unparalleled weapon. I had to control it no matter what.
Over the past few days, I’d been mulling over how to make full use of this ability.
I came to one conclusion.
‘I don’t need to be aware of every sense.’
Just like I don’t normally think about breathing.
Just like I don’t think about blinking.
Just like a moderate amount of noise can actually help with concentration.
Let unnecessary sensations drift beyond my awareness, and bring only the necessary ones into consciousness.
If I ignore the unnecessary sensations that way, only the truly necessary ones will remain.
Like something flying at me from behind.
I bent at the waist lightly.
-Whoosh!
A wooden sword passed over my head. It sank into the wooden post right in front of me.
I turned toward where the sword had come from. A group of cadets was staring at me.
One of them had empty hands, so he seemed to be the owner of the wooden sword.
“Y-You dodged it? Weren’t you even looking?”
“Do you have eyes in the back of your head or what?”
From their conversation, it wasn’t that the sword had accidentally flown out during sparring. They’d thrown it at me on purpose.
I had dodged after reading the sword’s approach, but there was something I felt even before that.
‘What was that just now?’
My skin tingled as if pricked by a thorn. I could feel that someone was targeting me.
I instantly realized that this was the classic "sensing an enemy's killing intent" trope from fiction.
‘Whoa! Observation Haki!’
If I pushed it to the extreme, wouldn’t I be able to read the trajectory before the opponent even attacked?
“Hey. You guys.”
“H-Huh? It was, it was a mistake. I dropped the sword during sparring, and it just happened to go that way....”
“Throw more.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll turn my back, so throw a sword. No, not a sword. Use pebbles instead. Got it?”
Ignoring the cadets who stared at each other stupidly without understanding what I meant, I turned my back to them.
I closed my eyes and began to focus.
......
Soon, my scalp tingled.
‘Now!’
-Whoosh!
I jerked my head back.
But nothing passed by.
Right after that.
-Whack!
“Agh!”
A blunt impact slammed into my head. I grabbed my head in pain and crouched down.
I quickly turned my head.
I met one person’s eyes squarely.
“Which one of you was that just now? Was it you?”
“H-Huh? No, you told us to throw them....”
“When did I tell you to throw them that hard? You should’ve thrown them with some restraint.”
“Uh....”
“Don’t throw them hard—throw them slowly. But do it with the thought that I’m going to kill this bastard today. Got it?”
I turned back around to face forward—in other words, I showed them my back again.
After a moment of whispered chatter behind me.
‘Here it comes.’
My back prickled.
My right shoulder. A stinging sensation like being poked with a needle.
I twisted my body reflexively.
-Smack!
But even this time, I couldn’t dodge it. It didn’t hit my shoulder, but a pebble struck my back.
It was different from the target point I had predicted.
“I-I threw it gently this time!”
The cadet hurriedly defended himself.
I rubbed the throbbing spot.
‘That was too fast just now.’
Hostility comes before action. The moment he made up his mind to attack me, my senses were already reacting.
But there was a gap before the actual pebble flew. So I should have dodged it, but I got hit.
‘I have to hold back.’
I couldn’t react the moment the signal came.
I had to read the signal, predict the trajectory, and wait until the moment the stone left his hand.
If I moved too quickly, they’d change their target and aim for a new spot.
“Again. This time, throw them all at once.”
“What? Is this bastard really a masochist?”
“Quit yapping and throw them. With plenty of hostility like before.”
The cadets looked at each other in disbelief, then soon grinned and picked pebbles up from the ground.
-Throb.
Red dots sparkled in my closed-off field of vision. Waves of hostility radiating from different points.
Left waist, right shoulder, and the crown of my head.
‘Wait.’
My body, having sensed the killing intent, tried to move reflexively, but I gritted my teeth and held still.
To catch that split second when the killing intent became real.
‘Now.’
Just before I heard the sound of something cutting through the air.
I bent at the waist, took half a step to the right, and tipped my head slightly to the left.
-Whoosh! Swoosh! Thwack!
The three whooshing sounds overlapped at the same time.
But none of them touched my body. The pebbles flew through the air and fell limply to the ground.
“Y-You dodged it?”
“It must’ve been luck. Hey, throw again!”
The stubborn bastards picked up more stones.
But the result was the same.
“Ahem, so this is what it feels like.”
I think I roughly get it now.
The point where killing intent reaches me.
The speed of the stone flying in.
The timing of when I need to move.
The thrill of those three beats locking together like gears was just like playing a rhythm game.
There’s more to pay attention to than what the eyes can see. But in combat, where a split second decides life and death, being able to move one beat ahead is huge.
That value is beyond words. It gives you overwhelming superiority.
-Ding.
======
[Proficiency Level increased.]
[Mana Sensitivity Lv. 3 > Lv. 5]
======
My proficiency jumped by two levels at once.
Proof that the realization I’d just had far exceeded my previous level of proficiency.
‘Ha, that Rion bastard. His instincts really are extraordinary.’
Visible growth was enjoyable. The corners of my mouth kept lifting, but I forced myself to calm down.
It was still too early to celebrate. It wouldn’t be too late to be happy after I made it completely my own.
“What are you doing not throwing them? From now on, throw with all your might. If you can’t land a single hit, then you’ll be the ones getting hit.”