Chapter 31
Words are powerful. But they are not as powerful as what can be seen with the naked eye.
Even if one could hear a hundred explanations, it was better to witness the scene firsthand. Such was the power of sight.
Hearing, smell, touch, taste. No matter how many senses one possessed, none was more dominant than sight. One scholar had even claimed that seven-tenths of all human sensory perception depended on vision.
That was why an even heavier silence settled over the swordsmanship training grounds.
Because the most blatant visual evidence imaginable was right before them.
His name was Tean. With his battered, swollen lips, he finally managed to speak.
“You’d better be careful too. That bastard’s completely insane……”
He trudged over to the three women who had mocked Seria. The closer he came, the paler their faces grew.
They began hurriedly stringing together excuses, though no one had even asked them anything.
“W-w-who said anything?”
“W-we didn’t say anything, we were just talking about someone we know……!”
But their excuses did not continue for long. Tean, standing before them, tossed out a single sentence in a sighing voice.
“That’s what I said too……”
Tean pointed his index finger at his own face. Tap, tap, he reached to prod one of his wounds, but soon frowned and stopped. Even that seemed painful.
Cold sweat beaded on the foreheads of the three women who had mocked Seria. It was a warning.
A chilling warning that they could end up the same way.
Tean gave a dry chuckle at the women whose faces were turning deathly pale.
“……They made me look like this. Do you think I was the only one?”
He gestured over his shoulder. Behind him, the gang that usually accompanied Tean was limping in to attend the lecture.
They had one thing in common: they were limping, had wounds on their faces, or otherwise looked like they were in pain. At the very least, it was clear their injuries had not been self-inflicted.
Their faces showed that their pride had been badly wounded. Understandably so. No one wanted to advertise far and wide the evidence that they had been defeated by someone.
Even so, they forced themselves to come here.
That fact implied only one thing. Calming someone’s anger was more urgent than protecting their pride.
This was Tean’s notoriously prideful gang, after all. The students had no choice but to keep a chilly silence.
A chill ran down their spines. The disaster they had secretly feared even while mocking Seria had taken visible form before them.
One of the girls who had mocked Seria swallowed hard. Then she asked in a trembling voice.
“D-did he take you down one at a time?”
“No.”
Her fearful voice was cut off before she could continue, because Tean flatly declared it so with a bored expression.
The women’s faces had long since gone deathly pale. Their eyes, full of fear, trembled violently.
They were swordswomen as well. They were just as accustomed to knocking others down as to being knocked down themselves. Yet what terrified them so much was the vivid memory of a certain day that still remained in their minds.
The so-called ‘Yurdina’s Half-Death Incident.’
They still remembered that one-sided, brutal assault clearly. What if they were standing in that place?
The thought alone made gooseflesh rise. Wasn’t he someone even Tean’s gang had been unable to handle?
As though offering comfort, Tean patted the shoulder of the woman standing closest to him. He spoke in a low voice.
Quietly, but clearly enough for everyone eavesdropping on the conversation to hear.
“We swarmed him, and still got beaten. I told you, didn’t I? That bastard’s insane… Be careful, all of you.”
As he spoke, Tean cast a sidelong glance at Seria. Seria still looked dazed.
“……Because I have a feeling you’ll be next.”
The women hiccupped and sent fear-filled gazes toward Seria. Their eyes seemed to plead for something, though even they did not know what they were begging for.
The tables had turned in an instant. With Tean’s appearance, the mocking and condemning gazes directed at Seria were immediately colored by fear.
Those who had knowingly or unknowingly joined in harassing Seria stole glances at her, gauging her reaction. The same was true of Tean’s gang, of course.
They were living textbook examples of what happened when someone messed with Seria.
Unable to bear it, one of Tean’s gang shouted.
“What the hell are you bastards looking at?! Is this a sideshow?!”
Only then did the students flinch and withdraw their gazes. There was nothing to gain from needlessly provoking a wounded beast. That was common sense.
Tean finally trudged away, sighing as though the unpleasant business were over. His footsteps carried him to a place directly before Seria.
Tean looked slightly displeased, but soon lowered his head. It was a sign of apology.
“I’m sorry about everything. I won’t bother you anymore.”
“……Why?”
Seria asked blankly. Tean slightly raised his head.
“How can you change your attitude so completely, all at once? And you didn’t have to humble yourself so much……”
“You seem to be mistaken.”
Tean said it in a whisper. It was the exact opposite of his attitude moments ago, when he had shouted for everyone to hear.
It meant he was sharing a secret meant only for Seria. Curious about his intention, Seria pressed her lips tightly together.
“I’m not doing this because of you or Ian. If word gets around that we got beaten so pathetically, we’re the ones who’ll be screwed… You understand? We’d be the idiots who ganged up on some low-to-mid-ranking nobody and got smashed.”
But if they so blatantly displayed their defeat, the story changed.
People who had not understood the seriousness when they heard it passed along verbally would realize it at once when they saw Tean’s gang.
Just how brutally they had been beaten.
Then public attention would turn not to Tean’s gang’s defeat, but to the existence known as Ian, who had smashed them to pieces.
He was the man who had defeated Tean and his entire gang, all of whom were demonstrably skilled. Of course, judging by his absence today, he seemed to have suffered serious injuries as well, but that only made his viciousness and brutality all the more likely to draw attention.
That was advantageous for Tean. Public opinion would be that they had lost to someone worthy of defeating them.
And in the process, Tean’s gang, who had been nothing more than the perpetrators, would of course be transformed into victims as well. In other words, Tean had simply chosen the best option available.
He was clever, after all. If he had been stupid, there was no way he could have continued playing the bully at an academy packed with powerful people.
“To be honest, I still don’t like you. You’re rude, and more importantly, you’re stronger than me and have better connections… It fucking sucks.”
But as he said this, he straightened the back he had bent. He tapped Seria’s shoulder with his elbow.
It was a greeting used in the Southern Kingdoms, signifying that he acknowledged the other person.
“But having a good ally is a skill too. I’ll admit it. This time, I lost.”
With that, he waved and turned away. As though his business were over, Seria, still unable to collect her thoughts, followed his retreating figure with a dazed stare.
Then Tean suddenly glanced back, as though he had remembered something. He left Seria with one final request.
“And make sure Ian hears about what happened today.”
Tean’s gang followed behind him. Their faces still bore signs of discontent, but they continued to follow Tean nonetheless. It must have been because he was a leader they trusted that much.
Seria unwittingly thought that perhaps he was a surprisingly clever man.
“……A mad dog is frightening as an enemy, but reliable as a friend.”
With that, Professor Derek arrived, and the lecture began.
The lecture continued in a heavy atmosphere from beginning to end, to the point that even Professor Derek looked bewildered.
And after that, the mockery and harassment directed at Seria disappeared without a trace.
Instead, several of those who had mocked her openly even approached Seria sheepishly to offer apologies. It almost made the days Seria had spent suffering seem ridiculous.
That was why Seria thought:
If Senior Ian is here, anything can be solved.
Yes, anything.
As long as Senior Ian is here.
As she repeated that to herself, her aquamarine-like eyes sank into a heavy, murky stillness.
**
In the temple’s intensive care ward, I was being scolded by a beautiful silver-haired girl.
With striking light-pink eyes, she was a person of exalted status—the saintess of the Holy Kingdom, no less.
Had I met her outside the academy, she would have been a high-ranking dignitary whose eyes I would not even have dared meet. That was why I kept my head lowered the entire time she scolded me.
I did occasionally sneak glances at her ample chest, but that was male instinct, so it could not be helped.
Whether she had failed to notice my gaze or was simply so accustomed to such things that they no longer affected her, the saintess continued to berate me.
“How can you end up in the intensive care ward three times in two weeks? Brother Ian, do you perhaps have a habit of abusing your own body?”
The saintess, who was always gentle and benevolent, seemed thoroughly angry today.
Her vocabulary was quite sharp. My conscience prickling for no apparent reason, I offered a timid objection.
“No, I… Saintess? It wasn’t intentional.”
“If it wasn’t intentional, then the rumor that Brother Ian assaulted the eight people who visited the temple today must be false too, right?”
I pressed my lips shut. No, how had the rumor spread that far already?
Unless someone had deliberately spread it, there was no way a rumor could have become so widespread throughout the academy in a single day. I could not determine who it was, but thanks to that, my paltry excuse had no choice but to end right there.
The saintess glared at me for a moment with her light-pink eyes, then sighed as though she had no choice.
“Brother Ian, cherish your body. Just because it can be healed does not mean you can treat it carelessly. Sadly, most people who lose their lives that way depart to the side of the Heavenly God.”
“……Yes, I’ll bear that in mind.”
I answered quickly, fearing the saintess might continue scolding me. She looked unconvinced, but perhaps deciding that further words would only be wasted, she fell silent.
She was silent for a moment as though pondering something, then cast a sidelong glance at me.
“I heard that House Rynella is quietly displeased.”
At that quiet single sentence, I sighed as though I had known it would happen. My hand came to rest on my forehead with a thump.
Damn it, I knew it.
Thinking about it, it had been an extremely reckless thing to do. A mere second son of a viscount’s family had picked a fight with a gang that included high-ranking nobles.
And they were opponents I could not have defeated with my own skill. I had no idea why I had been so angry then.
Still, at the time, I had felt a faint certainty. A baseless certainty that I would never be defeated by trash like them.
My sense of guilt toward Seria must have been one of the causes as well. I was partly responsible for the harassment directed at Seria becoming so severe.
Even so, there were several inexplicable aspects to my recent actions. They were all things I had done after losing my memories.
Of course, I had my own thoughts on the matter.
No matter how influential House Rynella was, it could not compare to House Yurdina. And even as an illegitimate daughter, Seria was a member of the family that bore the name Yurdina. There was no way House Rynella wanted its conflict with her to become public.
That was why they had described it as being ‘quietly displeased’—because they could not express it openly. The question was why the second son of a mere rural viscount’s family, not even Seria herself, had gone after their scions.
They did not seem likely to take action in earnest. No matter how great the difference in family influence, I was still a legitimate heir to a noble family. They would not want to make an enemy by recklessly protesting an act of violence that had occurred within the academy.
Instead, a humiliating rumor would spread that they had been soundly beaten by a viscount’s second son. House Rynella’s name might be renowned, but it was not a great house capable of crushing another noble family.
Only a house like Yurdina could be said to possess that degree of influence. One of the Empire’s five great noble houses.
Even so, the warning from House Rynella genuinely bothered me. Not because of me, but because of my family.
I worried that House Rynella might exert pressure on my family, openly or otherwise. Even without that, I was already indebted to my family for the academy’s exorbitant tuition. I could hardly hold my head up if that happened.
The saintess cast a sidelong glance at my complicated expression. Then, pretending it was nothing, she let a remark slip.
“I explained Brother Ian’s circumstances well.”
“……?”
I turned toward the saintess in puzzlement.
She had said she had ‘explained it well,’ but that was merely political rhetoric. The more explicit meaning was as follows.
‘I talked them down and sent them away, so they won’t be able to take action.’
But why on earth? At the questioning look in my eyes, the saintess made the sign of the cross.
“The Heavenly God always protects the righteous. I heard, at least roughly, why Brother Ian resorted to violence. And also……”
The saintess gave me a charming wink as she rose, as though it was time for her to leave.
“There’s also the favor from last time.”
“……What favor?”
“Hehe, if you don’t remember, never mind.”
I still wore a bewildered expression, but the saintess answered with an enigmatic little sound.
She was about to leave the ward when, as though she had suddenly thought of something, she left me with a riddle.
“Come to think of it, your complexion looks much better than it did then.”
“Then?”
“Yes, back then, your eyes looked terribly fatigued. I’m glad you’re better now, but… well, I’ll be going. Emmanuel.”
As for ‘eyes that looked terribly fatigued,’ only then could I roughly piece together what had happened.
It seemed I had done something while I was missing my memories again. But what on earth had I done?
No matter how much I racked my brain, there was no way to find an answer. The memories of that week had long since been cleanly erased from my mind. I could only assume that since she had called it a ‘favor,’ it couldn’t have been anything bad for me.
My unanswered pondering did not last long. The moment the saintess left, someone suddenly poked their head in.
“Ian oppa!”
The bright, cheerful voice let me immediately guess the visitor’s identity.
It was Celine. As always, she waved with a sunny expression and skipped over to me.
“I heard you completely wrecked those bastards from Tean’s gang? Goodness, whose man are you to do something so cool?”
“I’m no one’s man… Aaaagh!”
With a thud, Celine’s palm struck my shoulder. Still injured, I had no choice but to let out a shrill scream and writhe.
Celine’s face instantly turned sullen. She grumbled.
“You still can’t read the mood. Couldn’t you just give a halfhearted answer at a time like that?”
“That’s not something you should say as a joke.”
Hmph, Celine snorted and folded her arms. Open discontent showed in her eyes.
“You went so far as to risk your life for that rude brat, but saying one little line to me is so difficult?”
“Even if it had been you instead of Seria, I would have stepped in. And also……”
I continued speaking, then let my voice trail off. Celine had turned her head away from me as though hurt, but she kept stealing glances at me, apparently curious about what I was about to ask.
A groan escaped me, betraying my hesitation.
Perhaps my hesitation was frustrating, because Celine urged me on in a slightly irritated voice.
“Why, what now?!”
“……You.”
In the end, unable to withstand her prodding, I opened my mouth. Celine’s yellow-brown eyes turned toward me. After hesitating a little longer, I asked,
“Do you perhaps dislike Seria?”
Celine stared at me without any reaction after hearing that.
She merely continued looking at me. As though trying to gauge the intention behind my question, I decided to ask something even more blunt.
“I was wondering if you were the one spreading bad rumors about Seria.”
Only then did Celine’s expression stiffen. She slowly uncrossed her arms.
Our two hardened gazes met in midair. My gaze had sunk deep.
Celine said nothing for a while.