Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: The Dam That Was Blocked Bursts (4)
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“No, I…”
I had to spend some time explaining my own inadequacy.
“…Hey, I think he actually believes it.”
“It doesn't seem like he's being deceptive…”
Perhaps my efforts paid off, as the fierce expressions on the kids' faces softened considerably.
“So you really believe you're a dunce?”
Nod, nod.
“A guy who beat a mage and passed the Cradle's exam after just one year as a squire believes he's a dunce? I don't know how to take this.”
“The fact that it's not deception makes it even more bewildering.”
In truth, I hadn't been a squire for just one year, but fifteen, and I'd spent about ten of those years practically living on the battlefield.
Based on experience alone, I was at the level of an esquire, not a squire.
The problem was, I couldn't reveal that fact.
“Frustrating. So frustrating. Frustrating.”
As I threw a fit, the kids stared at me in disbelief.
Honestly, as someone who had struggled to death's door and then actually died, the word "talent" didn't sit well with me.
It felt as if that single word, "talent," negated all of my efforts up to now.
But I couldn't say that.
Thump, thump.
I pounded my chest, trying to soothe my frustration.
How long had I been groaning to myself like that?
“My family.”
Taking advantage of the moment I'd calmed down, one of the kids spoke up.
“Is not a martial family, but a merchant one.”
It was that Udo fellow.
“It's not huge, but we own a fairly large merchant ship, so we had no trouble making a living.”
A sudden confession of his family history.
“Normally, I should have helped my older brother and become an executive in our merchant group, but my father paid a hefty donation to send me to be a page for a knight in a provincial order. It seems he decided it would be good to have a knight in the family because of the pirates, who were growing more rampant by the day.”
The kids murmured among themselves.
Not only was the confession of his family history out of the blue, but everyone also seemed shocked to hear that Udo, whom they'd all assumed was from a martial family, was actually from a merchant family.
“At seven, I began my life as a page, and only after a full three years could I become a squire. They called it being a page and a squire, but it was no different from being a servant.”
Ahem. After clearing his throat once, Udo pretended not to notice and continued his story.
In short, it went something like this.
Seven years spent being scorned by a master who had been saddled with a troublesome kid because of a hefty donation.
After all that servitude, the only thing he learned was how to look after others.
“One day, my master hinted to me. Wasn't it about time I prepared to become a knight? I was thrilled. I was finally going to become a Starseeker. I could become a knight.”
But the excitement was short-lived.
Udo's master had apparently demanded a rather large donation in exchange for the Starseeker ritual.
So large that Udo's father, who ran a fairly prosperous merchant group, had to consider whether or not to sell their merchant ship.
“Still, I was lucky. Through his connections in the merchant world, my father managed to get me an opportunity to be evaluated for admission to the Cradle.”
After that, it was as I already knew.
“Damn it, how am I supposed to end this?”
Anyway, that was the story of how he came to be at the Cradle.
Trying to hide his embarrassment, Udo let out a needless curse, squeezed his eyes shut, and crossed his arms.
His face was flushed red.
“Wait, Udo.”
Chuckling at the sight, I belatedly realized something.
“You started as a page at seven, and with your squire experience, it's been seven years? So you're fourteen now? With that face?”
“Huh?”
Only after hearing my words did the other kids realize Udo's age, letting out a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a jeer.
But our prematurely aged Udo ignored it all to the very end.
“I'm similar to Udo. Except I'm from a knight family, not a merchant one.”
“Just because you're from a knight family doesn't mean all the children get benefits. Usually, only the eldest son can even dream of becoming a Starseeker.”
Dario and Peter, who had been snickering, followed Udo and began their own stories.
“A single Starseeker ritual can uproot the pillar of a decent family, so there's no way that benefit would extend to the second son or younger.”
“Just in case, I looked into the Cradle…”
“My father and older brother scoffed, saying a punk like me had no business at the Cradle, but as you can see, I passed with flying colors.”
“I can't wait to see the looks on my father's and brother's faces when I return to the family. Hehe.”
Next were the sisters, Selma and Emma.
“…Our family has run a swordsmanship school in the east for generations.”
“It wasn't big or small, and there weren't many students, but our reputation wasn't bad. Our dad was a knight with combat experience, which is rare in the provinces.”
“We inherited our talent from him, too.”
“The problem was, Dad didn't want us to become knights.”
The sisters grumbled.
Saying it was ridiculous to be told they couldn't become knights just because they were girls in this day and age.
In my opinion, that decision likely stemmed less from old-fashioned thinking and more from his experience in war.
No parent who has experienced war would want to push their own child onto the battlefield.
“Isn't it absurd? We're his only children, so what was he planning to do with the school that's been in our family for generations? He's so thoughtless, our dad.”
“Anyway, we left a letter and immediately went to find our aunt, who was active in a fairly well-known knightly order in the central region.”
In other words, they ran away from home.
“After living as squires under our aunt, we somehow ended up here.”
Having glossed over the actual reason they came to the Cradle, the sisters finished their story and looked at the remaining three.
Pon the commoner, timid Boen, and Lian of the prestigious Kart family.
“B-but why are we suddenly introducing ourselves…?”
To timid Boen's pale-faced question, I found myself nodding inadvertently.
It was true that this self-introduction session, which had started with Udo's family story, was rather sudden.
“Who cares?”
It's interesting.
Besides, the mood wasn't bad.
“Hoo.”
Pon sighed and began to speak.
“As you know, I'm a commoner. I was lucky enough that an old knight passing by took a liking to me, and I started my life as a squire following him.”
Perhaps because he was a commoner.
Pon's past wasn't much different from my own.
If there was a difference.
“As my master was passing away, he told me to head to the Cradle, so I came here without a second thought. But I was lucky enough to get a chance to take the test, and I passed.”
It was the fact that, unlike me, Pon's master had passed away.
“Ah, ahh.”
“Hmm…”
The atmosphere suddenly turned solemn.
“You don't have to look like that. My master passed away peacefully. He worried about me until the very end, but now that I'm in the Cradle, I'm sure he has closed his eyes in peace.”
Despite Pon's composed words, the somber mood didn't lift for a while.
“I, I.”
Unable to bear the atmosphere any longer, Boen shouted.
“I-I came to the Cradle because I want to learn how to get along with p-people!”
Starting with the conclusion was a bit bewildering, but in any case, it must have been the best introduction timid Boen could manage.
“I see. So our Boen came to the Cradle to learn how to get along with people.”
I patted the shoulder of Boen, who was panting as if he'd just run a full sprint, despite having said only a few words.
Now, only Lian was left.
“As you know, I am a direct descendant of the Kart family. Even if I hadn't come to the Cradle, I would have had no problem becoming a knight.”
It sounded like boasting, but neither the speaker nor the listeners took it that way.
Because it was the truth.
The Iron Wall Kart family, while not one of the Eight Great Families, was counted among the most prestigious.
It was one of the few families in the Empire to have produced an Ascendant on its own, and its bloodline was guaranteed the protection of those ancestors who had ascended to the heavens.
So everyone was curious.
Why Lian, from such a blessed family, had come all the way to the Cradle.
“I came to the Cradle to see and experience as many different swords as possible. It helps in forming an iron wall.”
It was a more trivial reason than I'd expected.
As for me, who had hoped to perhaps hear why the children of the Eight Great Families and other prestigious houses, including Lian, had entered the Cradle at this particular time, I was disappointed.
The other kids were also disappointed, though for different reasons.
“Did you think I had some grand purpose? Disappointed that I don't?”
As if he had expected such a reaction, Lian asked with a smirk.
His attitude was, as always, refreshingly straightforward for someone from a prestigious family.
For a while after that, various conversations came and went.
Chatter, chatter, murmur, murmur.
Listening quietly to the kids' stories, I fell asleep without realizing it.
* * *
Human relationships weren't so simple that sharing a few stories about the past would make them inseparable friends.
“If you drag us down, I won't let it slide.”
The first thing I heard upon returning to class the next day was, as always, heartless.
The other kids also greeted me with the same attitude as before.
Thanks to that, I was able to attend class without feeling any particular pressure.
“You…”
Professor Dieter Lissner, who always appeared right on time for class, frowned upon seeing me.
But his frowning face was unusually clean, to the point of looking empty.
The things that should have been there were gone.
His eyebrows, his beard, and even his once-luscious hair had been shortened.
It seemed his resistance to lightning didn't extend to protecting his body hair.
“Let's do well from now on.”
He sighed, glanced at me, and immediately began the class.
“I trust you've all sufficiently absorbed the theoretical lessons up to now. We will begin preliminary practice.”
I had missed many classes for various reasons, but fortunately, I had grasped the basic content, so following the training itself wasn't difficult.
“Everyone, into descent formation.”
“Prepare for descent.”
“Descend in order from the front.”
“When you descend, shout, 'Descent.'”
“Fire the buffer. And you make the 'thump' sound, don't you?”
Following his instructions, we lined up in single file and hopped forward.
“Cadet Yan, descending! Th… Thump!”
Mimicking the sound of the buffer firing with my mouth.
To be honest, the training itself was a simple method of repeating leaps and landings.
Aside from the shame I felt when mimicking the sound of the buffer firing with my mouth, there was nothing difficult about it.
“Again, from the beginning.”
We would stand in a single file line, wait, then jump forward, mimicking the firing of the buffer as we landed.
We had to repeat this simple process countless times.
After a while, even the shame disappeared.
“Cadet Yan, descending! Thuuuuump! Pop! Splat!”
I did my best to recreate the descent situation.
“Good! Cadet Yan! That was a perfect landing! An excellent demonstration that makes me forget all your previous clumsiness!”
“Thank you!”
“All of you, learn from Cadet Yan!”
My squad mates stared at me in bewilderment as I answered excitedly.
Their gazes seemed to ask me.
Did you really have to go that far?
Regardless, I participated in the training with all my might.
The next day was practice for actually handling the buffer and deploying it in the desired location.
It wasn't anything special, really.
All we did was stand in a designated spot and, on signal, fire something resembling a buffer at a target in front of us.
The problem was.
“Agh, agh, agh!”
The assistant instructor's interference, which consisted of screaming into our ears or grabbing our bodies and shaking us violently.
The assistant instructor even went so far as to cover the cadets' eyes.
“Agh-agh-agh! Uwaaaaaa…?”
The assistant instructor, who had been circling me and screaming, said to me with an awkward expression.
“…You're a good shot.”
I shrugged.
For me, who rarely missed a target even on a swaying horse, hitting a stationary target was not a very difficult task.
But unlike me, the kids made mistake after mistake.
“Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead!”
Each time, Professor Dieter Lissner declared them dead.
“Your buffer deployment was completely off, you fired too late. You, on the other hand, were too early. And you didn't even manage to fire.”
Faced with the harsh scolding, everyone wore looks of dissatisfaction.
It seemed they felt the assistant instructor's interference was excessive.
“There's no guarantee what variables you'll encounter during a descent.”
A flying monster might suddenly appear, a flock of birds might charge at you, or a gust of wind might blow.
You must be able to complete your descent calmly, no matter the situation.
“If your concentration breaks over something this trivial, what grounds do I have to trust you with a descent?”
Professor Dieter Lissner yelled at the kids.
The kids became as silent as clams.
For a while after that, the preliminary training for the descent continued.
What began as a simple exercise of verbally recreating the descent scenario on flat ground later became a rather realistic training exercise involving jumping from a considerable height.
There were a few dizzying moments during the process, but in any case, everyone was able to complete the descent training without any major accidents.
And finally, the day of the real thing arrived.