Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: The Dam Bursts (3)
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My head was spinning.
An unpleasant ringing echoed endlessly in my ears.
I didn't even have the strength to move a finger.
Limp and drained, I was carried somewhere in Professor Navian’s arms.
“...”
I heard a mumble near my ear.
*Still so small and weak.*
It sounded like a lament of sorts.
Immediately after, a familiar energy seeped into my body.
It was the same gentle, warm energy that Professor Navian had infused into me that one late night in the quiet clearing behind the dorms.
The ringing in my ears subsided.
The spinning world settled back into place.
A sight so familiar it was almost comfortable came into view.
I was in the infirmary again.
“Back again?”
Professor Yuria looked baffled to see me carried in less than a day after I’d left.
“He pushed his body beyond its limits. His vitality must be damaged, so take the appropriate measures.”
Professor Navian explained my condition to her.
Her tone was decidedly commanding.
Professor Yuria’s eyebrow twitched, as if she was offended.
But the raised brow quickly lowered.
I couldn't tell if it was because she didn't want to antagonize the clearly formidable Professor Navian, or if, true to her nature as a White Knight, she decided the patient came first.
It seemed to be the latter.
Light bloomed from her hand resting on my chest, then faded.
“Judging by your state, you’ve coughed up all the bad blood. Fortunately, your body isn't severely damaged.”
Professor Yuria withdrew her hand and produced a small vial from somewhere, placing it to my lips.
*Gulp, gulp, gulp.*
A refreshing liquid trickled down my throat.
The effect was incredible.
My body, which could barely twitch a finger, was instantly filled with vigor.
Which made me uneasy.
It felt like it contained something it shouldn't have.
But I had no desire to ask about its ingredients or components.
Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
“Do not forget today’s sensation.”
After laying me on the bed and gazing at me for a while, Professor Navian vanished with those final words.
“Gaznae people are all the same. Can't even tell a patient to get some rest. It's like they have nothing but swords in their heads. They might as well have been born as swords.”
Professor Yuria grumbled, a rare sight.
“Anyway.”
But she soon turned to me with a mischievous grin.
“Aren't you visiting a little too often? We might get attached at this rate.”
I laughed awkwardly and averted my gaze.
It wasn't just my imagination; since coming to the Cradle, I felt like I’d spent more time in the infirmary than in my own dorm room.
It wasn't something I could just dismiss as a feeling; I really had spent a long time here.
*Creeak.*
While I was lost in thought, Professor Yuria suddenly threw open the infirmary door.
“Ugh!”
“Aah!”
The moment the door opened, the brats tumbled into the infirmary with a clatter.
It was the brats from Squad 3.
“Professor Yuria! Good day! Silver Eagle class, Squad 3...”
“I know. You're Lian, right? No shouting in the infirmary. Be quiet.”
At Professor Yuria's words, the brats clamped their mouths shut.
“Well then, I have other things to attend to. Don't be too loud, and don't stay too long, alright?”
She chuckled at the sight and disappeared somewhere.
Lian, who had been nervously watching the spot where she vanished, belatedly let out a long sigh.
“Phew. Professor Yuria is always so hard to be around. She seems gentle and kind, but for some reason, she's not easy to talk to.”
No wonder he seemed unusually tense; he was uncomfortable around Professor Yuria.
“It's not because you're flustered by the charms of an older woman, is it?”
“That's not it. It's not like Professor Yuria is the only beautiful woman in the Cradle.”
“Even so, the vibe is different. White Knights have this... gentle quality about them.”
Selma and Emma teased him, but Lian himself looked perplexed, unsure why he found Professor Yuria so unsettling.
*I know the reason.*
But there was no need to tell Lian that Professor Yuria was the owner of a twisted desire who enjoyed drawing blood.
“Yan.”
The brats, who had been bickering among themselves, quietly surrounded me.
“...?”
They looked like they wanted to ask something but couldn't bring themselves to say it.
“If you have something to say, say it and go. I need to rest.”
I pressed them, thinking they'd just stare at me all night otherwise, but no one spoke.
I sighed and quietly observed the brats.
*Let's see, who's the easiest target here...*
*Nudge.*
I gently poked the side of Boen, who was probably the second most timid person in the entire Cradle.
“Are you from a prestigious family? *Gasp*.”
Boen blurted out, then clamped a hand over his own mouth.
I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't help but laugh.
I never thought I'd live to see the day someone asked if I was from a prestigious family.
“I'm not.”
It wasn't even a lie.
In both my past and present lives, I'd been far from prestigious.
But the brats didn't believe me.
They gave me looks of disbelief and suspicion.
“Hah. You're not from a prestigious family, but you awakened a Sword's Cry at your age? You expect us to believe that?”
Udo sneered.
Normally, I would have sneered right back, but this time I couldn't.
“...A Sword's Cry?”
My eyes widened at the term 'Sword's Cry'.
“So you really didn't know.”
Lian sighed at my reaction and calmly explained what they had seen.
“I awakened a Sword's Cry?”
“Yeah.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
Apparently, I had awakened a Sword's Cry during my spar with Professor Navian.
I couldn't believe it.
“How?”
“...?”
When I asked, the brats gave me baffled looks and chided me for asking them.
“I awakened a Sword's Cry?”
I asked several times, but the answer was the same.
Which meant I had actually awakened a Sword's Cry.
“Ah...”
I could only let out a dazed sound.
The guided spar with Professor Navian from earlier today flashed through my mind.
Today, for some reason, the sword felt alive in my hands.
The trajectory I was always frantically trying to chase.
But today, I didn't chase the trajectory.
I erased all thought of trajectories from my mind and wielded my sword freely.
I just swung and swung, letting my heart and will guide me.
It was a truly unique experience.
A pleasure that a certain crippled squire, who had to rely on unorthodox improvisation due to his meager innate talent and acquired disability, could never have even imagined.
One who engaged in fights far removed from what knights and squires pursued,
who lived by a method scorned by the world as a 'dogfight',
it was truly a dreamlike experience for a 'fighting dog' who knew no honor.
That was what today's spar meant to me.
The righteous path I had so admired.
The first step toward the right path.
And yet.
“I awakened a Sword's Cry?”
They were telling me it wasn't just one step, but more like ten.
“Hahahahat.”
A burst of laughter escaped me.
“Somehow, this is making me angry.”
“Same. I'm getting strangely mad.”
The brats expressed their displeasure.
I couldn't care less.
“I awakened a Sword's Cry!”
I kept laughing.
***
“I told you if you're here to visit a patient, you should be quiet and not disturb their rest, but now the patient himself is making a racket.”
Laughing my head off like that, I ended up getting an earful from Professor Yuria.
“Hehehe.”
But even after that, I couldn't stop laughing.
So what if I got scolded? I awakened a Sword's Cry.
“Maybe we shouldn't have told him.”
“I'm seriously regretting it right now.”
I could take any amount of envy and jealousy from the brats.
“Ah, so annoying.”
“He's always obnoxious, but he's especially obnoxious today.”
Even with Selma and Emma's nagging, I...
“Alright, that's enough. We know a Sword's Cry is a big deal.”
At the sisters' serious expressions, I sheepishly stopped laughing.
“Anyway, I have no connection to any prestigious family.”
I once again tried to correct the brats' misunderstanding.
Of course, they didn't believe me this time either.
It was only natural.
The Sword's Cry that naturally occurs when a knight manifests their power.
The Sword's Cry awakened solely through the will of a knight who has long dedicated themselves to swordsmanship.
Though both are called a Sword's Cry, there is a significant difference between the former and the latter.
If the former was a phenomenon where the sword screamed, unable to handle the power crudely forced into it by those who couldn't control their strength, the latter was a phenomenon of resonance between the sword and the will of one who had diligently polished their swordsmanship.
Their only similarity was that the sword would tremble and cry out; in reality, they were two completely different phenomena.
And I was not a knight.
That meant I couldn't infuse my sword with so much power it would scream.
This was why the phenomenon I had caused had to be a genuine Sword's Cry, not a fake.
A level that was difficult to reach even with full support and profound swordsmanship training under a brilliant master.
These were benefits one couldn't enjoy without being from a prestigious family.
I could understand why they misunderstood me as being from a prestigious family.
“The ridiculous feat of a squire catching a mage would make sense if you were from a prestigious family.”
“So, tell us. Which one is it? The Ascendant Noble Houses? Or the Ascendant Knight Orders?”
The brats had arbitrarily decided I was some secret weapon raised by a prestigious family or a great knight order and were letting their imaginations run wild.
“Wait, are you...”
Selma and Emma narrowed their eyes, staring intently at me before abruptly asking.
“From the Gaznae family?”
“Could the reason Professor Navian favors you be...?”
The absurd misunderstanding left me speechless.
“Sorry, but I'm not from a prestigious family or a great knight order.”
Unable to watch the misunderstanding grow, I finally revealed my past to the brats.
“And it's not like I've been polishing my swordsmanship since I was a child, like you all think.”
Of course, I had no obligation to clear up their misunderstanding.
But for some reason, today I wanted to.
“I'm from the streets, and the master I served was a free knight.”
I began to unravel my past, somewhat disjointedly.
Excluding the fact that I had died and come back to life, I think I revealed most of what happened after I returned to the past.
“...And that's how I ended up at the Cradle.”
Not a genius raised by a prestigious family, just a squire from the streets.
A common guy with mediocre talent and an unremarkable background, the kind you could find anywhere.
“Disappointed that I'm not as amazing as you thought?”
I asked with a smile, breaking the strange silence.
It was a joke, of course.
But it seemed the listeners didn't find my joke funny.
“A guy who hasn't even been a squire for a full year gets into the Cradle, and you say you're not amazing?”
“That joke about the talent of a guy who awakened a Sword's Cry at your age being mediocre was pretty funny.”
“So you're saying that ninety-nine of the most skilled applicants were completely routed by a guy who's never even learned mercenary tactics or anything of the sort.”
The brats spoke with incredulous expressions.
“Ah, ahh.”
I tried to correct the misunderstanding, but it only piled up even more.
The way the brats looked at me, you'd think I was some kind of once-in-a-generation genius.
It was an unwelcome misunderstanding.
As I'd explained, I was no genius.
If anything, I was closer to a dunce.
Even Roman constantly criticized my talent whenever he had the chance, calling it a rare kind of worthlessness.
The achievements and feats they knew of were nothing more than a temporary advantage stemming from my past life's experiences.
As time went on, I was bound to fall behind the real talents.
Acting all high and mighty now would only make me look pathetic later.
“Even the Sword's Cry was a half-assed version without any light.”
I tried desperately to explain,
“If you're a dunce, then the rest of us should just die.”
but all I got in return were cold stares.
I belatedly shot a look at Lian, asking for help.
“They say excessive humility is no different from an insult.”
But the diligent squad leader who always strove for his team's harmony was nowhere to be seen.
“You're kind of a jerk.”
I was left dumbfounded by the unexpected insult.