Chapter 255: Lest I Forget (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 255: Lest I Forget (2)
He slept for a long time.
He spent an entire day completely unconscious.
After that, he drifted in and out of sleep. Though he woke occasionally, it would be more accurate to say he was still half-asleep.
In a state that felt like dreaming, or perhaps like being on the verge of waking from one, he endlessly relived his fight with Evan. Sometimes Evan was right before his eyes; other times, he was alone. Regardless of whether anyone was there, he kept swinging his swords.
Was he clinging to the one thing he could focus on to block out the pain? Or was he terrified of forgetting his own swordsmanship? Calian himself did not know the exact reason.
After spending such a long time alone in his dreams, he finally woke up.
He opened his eyes after grasping something that could have been swordsmanship, or perhaps reality.
Growl.
Upon waking, he felt a bit relieved to find himself hungry.
If he could open his eyes after being in so much pain only to find his hunger eclipsing the soreness, he was as good as fully recovered.
So, Calian sat up.
“I’m hungry…”
As he muttered blankly, something was suddenly thrust before his eyes.
“Ah.”
Something yellow.
A sudden sweet scent wafted over.
“A banana.”
Calian’s face lit up with joy, and he took it with a silly grin. He was so distracted by the banana that it took him a moment to realize the one handing him the bright yellow fruit was a figure clad in fresh, light green.
“Ah.”
It’s the pea.
Unable to say it out loud a second time, Calian swallowed the thought and smiled.
“It’s been a while, Brother.”
He didn’t know how long he had slept, but it felt like quite a while, so he greeted him accordingly.
Franz stared at Calian for a moment, then gave a brief nod and stood up. It was unclear how long he had been sitting nearby, but he seemed to generously overlook the fact that his younger brother had reached for a banana before even showing proper manners.
Franz didn’t ask Calian if he was alright, tell him how long he had been asleep, or explain the current situation. Nor did he blame Calian for the crazed outburst he’d had right before collapsing.
“Hina is sleeping.”
“Yes.”
He merely said this, telling him to keep quiet so as not to wake the exhausted Hina, before walking out of the treatment room.
On second thought, Calian decided to let it slide that Franz called Hina by her name; it would have been far stranger to hear “Sir Bern” come out of Franz’s mouth anyway. He silently began to eat the banana.
Since Yan would never leave anything by Calian’s side without checking if it was safe to eat, Calian grabbed more of the many bananas of unknown origin lying nearby, chewing them thoroughly. Remembering Hina’s past warning that eating too much too suddenly was bad for him, he ate a moderate amount rather than stuffing himself.
Hina will definitely scold me when she wakes up.
She’ll tell me to stop eating bananas, too.
Knowing this all too well, Calian even cast Silent magic to ensure he didn’t wake Hina as he ate cautiously.
Afterward, he used his mana to tidy himself up to a presentable state before staggering outside. He returned to Chermil Palace with Yan, who wore a face that was half-crying and half-smiling as he filled Calian in on what had happened while he was asleep.
“…So, most of the Kaera Knights have been reinstated, but the order will be reorganized and given a new name. His Majesty is currently working in Arpia Palace, and Count Manasil went to the Mage Association to meet Sir Seiren. Prince Randel is staying in Chermil Palace for no particular reason, and Prince Franz just left for the Royal Prison, saying he had someone to meet.”
“I see. Thank you.”
“You’re going to the training ground, aren’t you?”
To Yan, who asked with a resigned look as if he already knew the answer, Calian replied without any useless platitudes like telling him not to worry.
“Yes. I must.”
“Understood. I’ll let you know when Prince Franz arrives.”
“No need. He’ll probably come on his own.”
Thus, after confirming that no urgent emergencies had arisen, Calian stood in the training ground. Sure enough, Franz sought him out shortly after.
Calian gripped his swords.
Humm—!
Hum—!
Two swords.
Since the single-sword style was less important, he immediately showed himself wielding both.
He slowly replicated Evan’s swordsmanship step by step—the very techniques he had organized in his mind and swung endlessly in his dreams. How to grip the sword, how to slash, thrust, and block. How to use the shoulders and arms, how to move the legs, and when and where to step.
Franz did not hastily reach for his own sword or try to follow along; instead, he focused on committing everything to memory, just as Calian had instructed. This was to prevent his own clumsy attempts from corrupting the memory.
Having demonstrated every single movement, Calian paused and looked at Franz. The light-green eyes stared at the dark-red tip of the sword for a long moment before shifting to meet Calian’s red ones.
“Should I show you one more time?”
“No.”
My brother really is incredibly smart.
Calian’s lips curled into a smile. “Now, I’ll show you the sequence of our fight.”
The sequence of the fight.
At the mention of replicating the offense and defense against Evan exactly as it had happened, Franz nodded.
Occasionally, Kyrie would replicate the movements Calian had shown in spars for Franz. This time, Calian was simply demonstrating Evan’s swordsmanship instead. There would be no difference.
“Go ahead.”
Adopting Evan’s perspective, Franz imagined a virtual Calian in his mind’s eye.
Calian then recreated the swordsmanship Evan had displayed before him—exactly the same, only at a much slower pace. Pushing up, slashing, thrusting, blocking, attacking, and swinging from different directions, all of it identical.
Shhhk!
Wounding Calian, twisting the sword that had pierced the flesh, and pulling it out—every last detail.
Having experienced Calian’s swordsmanship many times, Franz must have easily envisioned the other Calian in his mind. Consequently, his brow furrowed slightly upon witnessing the attack, but he remained silent as Calian’s movements continued without pause.
After laying bare the entire sequence right up to the moment Evan blocked only a single one of Calian’s attacks, Calian straightened his posture.
Realizing the fight was over, Franz narrowed his eyes and spoke.
“You. In the middle of the fight,”
…you got distracted by something.
“Not yet.”
Without needing to confirm what Franz had memorized, Calian cut off his brother’s question and raised his swords again.
“What I am about to show you now is the true Sword of Brissen. It is the most important part, so watch closely and do not forget. I will gradually fill in the missing pieces and teach you again later.”
“…Alright.”
A brief reply came, and a moment later, Calian’s swords began to trace arcs in the air.
Lighter than Evan, heavier than Evan, faster than Evan, slower than Evan.
Not as isolated movements, nor just as practical applications for combat. Though there were gaps here and there, this was the Brissen swordsmanship that Calian had observed, learned, and understood.
He unleashed it.
Dash!
The two swords began to dance.
The blades in his hands repeatedly parted, converged, and drifted away once more.
Before long, they became a single sword, then two blades again. From two separate swords, they transformed into a single long blade with a hilt in the center, constantly shifting their form.
At times, they were swung with more power than the sword Calian currently used; at other times, they pierced more sharply than the sword Demirea wielded. Filling in the gaps and targeting weaknesses, the two swords complemented each other.
Light but not weak, heavy but not sluggish.
As clear as they were fast, as deliberate as they were slow.
They soared through the air without restraint, only to plunge down in an instant. They swung without hesitation, then suddenly aimed for the throat.
The afterimages left by the sword tips were like petals scattering in the wind, like blossoms falling drenched in rain.
A dark-red light bloomed.
The scent of blood wafted, and the flowers blossomed in full.
*
An invisible battle.
Outside, the nobles were on high alert; inside, Lemain was on edge.
“I was just distracted for a moment. It was nothing major, but my concentration slipped.”
Regardless of whether that was true or not, Calian spoke while staring intently at the beef tenderloin steak.
Franz, who was leisurely cutting that very steak, put it in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed before replying slowly.
“You, losing concentration.”
“Yes. Me.”
“Right.”
Having realized why Calian was injured during the fight with Evan, Franz had insisted on asking why he had been distracted. In response, Calian simply glossed over it. He could hardly explain that because their family’s swordsmanship was like a serene, green pasture, he had unconsciously slipped into a deep meditative state.
Directing his words at Franz, who understood perfectly well that Calian didn’t want to answer, Calian changed the subject.
“So, why did you meet with the Kaera knight again?”
“It didn’t add up.”
“Was there something else suspicious about him?” Calian asked again, his face full of anticipation as he stared at the barbecued goose breast. Franz picked up that exact piece, ate it with relish, and delivered his answer.
“His vacation period.”
Soon, Franz ate a salad lightly drizzled with a strawberry-milk-colored dressing, washed it down with carbonated water containing a few slices of orange, and continued speaking.
He directed his words at Calian, who was sitting on a sofa some distance away, unable to eat a single bite, staring intently at the food on the table.
“A native of the Ezron region went home in early July and returned in mid-August. Twice in ten years.”
If he was from the Ezron region, a month and a half was more than enough time for a visit, even factoring in some time spent at home. Calian pondered for a moment what could be wrong with that before it clicked.
“Ah, July. The dates don’t match up. That’s when the Ritz River floods, so he would have had to take a detour.”
He then looked at Franz with an expression that practically said, Oh my, look at my brother, figuring that out. How praiseworthy.
Franz, who had finished eating, caught Calian’s expression perfectly. Consequently, he picked up the fork he had already set down, sliced off another large piece of the steak he had only taken a single bite of earlier, and ate it.
—You must not eat anything until tomorrow. It will be disastrous. Especially meat—absolutely do not eat it.
This was because of the warning Calian had received from Hina.
After he had successfully drilled the Brissen swordsmanship into Franz, Hina had come to find him. He was scolded for devouring three bunches of bananas on an empty stomach, scolded even more for running away after eating them, and scolded yet again for getting hurt in the first place.
A hellish fast had begun.
That was why this damn pea, who looked like a carrot sprout, was stuffing his face with meat so enthusiastically right now. Just to show off eating delicious-smelling meat to his younger brother, who had come upstairs just to catch a whiff of it.
…He was a cruel bastard.
Well, anyway.
“So, without any other evidence or suspicion, you went straight to meet the knight based solely on a single vacation record?”
“Because it’s the fastest way.”
“True. That makes sense. Nothing is faster than meeting them in person.”
Calian chuckled.
A single suspicious point was enough. The rest could be figured out by meeting them face-to-face and feeling them out.
“And you?”
“I didn’t realize it for any special reason… I heard you shattered Viscount Brissen’s jaw, so I figured you wouldn’t want to face him again, and there was no need for you to meet the others. That left only the knight who handed over the poison pouch. So, I guessed you went to meet him because there was something else he was hiding.”
Without answering, Franz placed his hand on the sleeping cats.
“So that’s why he spilled the information about the poison pouch so easily. To keep his more important secret from being discovered.”
“That was what was strange.”
He meant that because it was strange for the man to confess so easily from the start, he had checked his background and ended up digging through ten years of vacation records. It was incredibly persistent and relentless, but thanks to that, they had uncovered the knight’s true identity.
“To think he was a bird of Secritia. Come to think of it, there was already one spy from Secritia, so there was no reason there couldn’t be more.”
After all, wasn’t one of the Valkan knights acting as Chase’s carrier pigeon also a spy who had infiltrated Brissen? Thus, it wouldn’t have been impossible for Devlan’s bird to similarly infiltrate Brissen first, only to be swept up in Evan’s schemes and sent as a Kaera knight.
“I never told my younger brother he was a Secritian spy.”
“Did that bird say anything else? Like cursing you?”
Or leaving behind thorny words like a curse.
“He didn’t.”
“That’s a relief.”
Franz had mentioned going to see the knight because of something suspicious, but he hadn’t yet revealed that the man was a Secritian spy. Nevertheless, Calian spoke as if he were certain of the identity and expressed relief when told the man had said nothing else.
Staring at Calian with a slight frown, Franz spoke in a low voice.
“It seems my younger brother came up here not to smell the meat, but to smell blood.”
Finally understanding why Calian, who couldn’t even eat, had insisted on coming up to the fourth floor to watch him eat, Franz let out a soft sigh. Calian chuckled softly.
“My brother really is incredibly quick-witted.”
“If you’re going to talk nonsense, leave. If you have something real to say, stay.”
“The scent of blood wafting from you wasn’t strong, so I wondered if it had rubbed off from me, but it wasn’t that. It didn’t seem to be from Evan Brissen’s mansion that day, either.”
In place of the silent Franz, Calian continued.
“Birds rarely admit they are spies. They would rather chew up and swallow what’s in their mouths. There are exceptions, but most are like that.”
“So it seems.”
“That’s how I knew. What you did and what you saw when you visited the prison.”
Spies of Secritia hide poison in their mouths.
Franz had gone to the prison to confirm if the knight was indeed Devlan’s bird. If he confronted the man as if he were absolutely certain of his identity, and the bastard swallowed the poison and died, it would prove he was a spy.
Guessing why Franz had resorted to such extreme measures to verify the spy’s identity, Calian let out a short sigh.
“I didn’t mean for you to learn things like that.”
“I know.”
“Even without you going to such lengths, I can still go to Camillon.”
“I know that, too.”
Franz wanted to take responsibility for what had happened because of him.
He needed to inform the nobles of who had killed Evan Brissen as quickly as possible, and he wanted to justify Calian’s intervention.
He believed that if he could prove the knight was a Secritian spy, everything would be resolved. That was why he had gone, and he had verified the man’s identity without wasting any time.
In exchange, he had brought back the scent of blood.
The knight must have died, swallowing the poison and spitting up blood right before Franz’s eyes.
“Don’t overdo it. Next time.”
“I didn’t overdo it.”
To Franz, who had truly been through hell, Calian offered words filled with deeply complicated emotions.
“You went through a lot.”
Franz closed and opened his eyes.
“Forget it.”
“Yes.”
I heard he broke Lennon Brissen’s jaw.
Yet, since Franz seemed surprisingly fine—and somehow even relieved—Calian merely reconfirmed their silent agreement not to thank each other. Then, he stepped outside and staggered toward Arpia Palace.
Evan Brissen, whom Calian had killed.
The bird of Secritia, who had died before Franz.
This was to tell Lemain how to combine both deaths, forge a key to resolve this matter, and turn it into a steaming pile of cat shit to hand over to Devlan.