Chapter 16: The Swordsmanship Guild
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16: The Swordsmanship Guild
“Father…?”
Piole was startled to see Andrei standing behind her. Andrei looked down at his daughter with somber eyes. Piole instinctively shrank back.
“Piole. What is all this commotion in front of everyone?”
Only then did Piole realize that everyone in the guild had stopped training to watch. Her face flushed red for an entirely different reason. But only for a moment. She immediately went back to pointing an accusatory finger at me.
“Father! Look who's here! This scoundrel had the gall to show his face, saying he wanted to see you!”
“Piole. You speak as crudely as some ruffian from the marketplace. Had I known you would become such a wild colt, I never would have brought you to the guild. Go home at once and reflect on your behavior.”
“Father!”
“Do you want to be banned from the guild again?”
Piole flinched. With a look of utter indignation, her eyes welling with tears, she glared at me before finally turning away. But not before leaving me with one last remark.
‘You’re dead! Just you wait!’
Even after all this time, her fiery temper hadn't changed. It was that personality that made me mistake her for a boy our age when we first met, wasn't it? When I answered with a smile, Piole's clenched fists trembled with rage.
She was still an amusing friend.
“It's been a long time, Sir Andrei.”
“It really is you, Allen. I thought I would never see you again after that day.”
Andrei's gaze was as cold as ice. It was the complete opposite of Piole's blazing glare, but the meaning behind it was strikingly similar. Even after leading me to his office, he didn't offer me a single glass of water.
An unwelcome guest not even worthy of that courtesy, I suppose.
Considering the scoundrelly things I'd done, even this was him showing great restraint. In this state, he wouldn't accept any proposal I made. I had to unravel our tangled, ill-fated connection first.
I did something I never would have done in the past. Without hesitation, I knelt.
“What is the meaning of this!?”
It was Andrei who was taken aback. The position of an heir to a knightly family, one that held a small territory, was not so much lower than that of a vassal in a small city.
Even if one had made a grave mistake, for one party in such a relationship to kneel was an act that would bring shame even upon the one receiving the apology. After all, weren't nobles the type to protect their honor even in death?
“I came to apologize for my past wrongdoings.”
“Do not speak of that matter again. It is already settled with Sir Maxim.”
“But there was no apology from me, the one directly involved.”
Andrei, who had shot to his feet, sat back down and narrowed his eyes. His gaze held no trust, only suspicion as to what kind of mischief I was planning now.
“Don't you think it's too late for an apology?”
“They say the best time to start is when you think it's too late.”
A flicker of interest crossed Andrei's eyes. Had he realized I was sincere? He adjusted his posture.
“Still, this is bewildering. Isn't this all too sudden?”
But his expression remained suspicious. This was the reaction I had expected. The common thread between the Andrei in my memories and the one in the game was that he was a frustratingly rigid knight. With someone like him, a direct approach was more effective than cunning tricks.
“I want to become stronger.”
“Unbelievable. Weren't you the one who was always looking for a chance to slack off, even during the short time you were registered here? And now you want to become stronger? Why? Did someone steal your favorite prostitute?”
For a moment, I wondered if Andrei knew about Lucy. Fortunately, it seemed he was just taking a shot in the dark.
In any case, his sarcastic tone, so different from his usual reserved manner, revealed just how much resentment had built up.
But since I had expected this, I wasn't too disappointed. The idea of erasing past transgressions with a few words was a fantasy.
“War rages across the continent. My father has been at the front for a long time now. A thought suddenly occurred to me: if my father were to die, what would happen to our family?”
I already knew that future.
“The Tobalts family only became a knightly house in my father's generation. We have no relatives to speak of who could help us. Therefore, in my father's absence, I am the only one who can protect my family.”
This was the same Andrei who, when the Blood Princess, the future castellan of Quaran, fell to corruption, would be torn between his family and his loyalty, ultimately choosing his family.
He wouldn't be able to simply ignore the keyword 'family'.
“I have heard that the war is not going well.”
Perhaps because it was happening in an adjacent territory. Andrei seemed to have some grasp of the war's situation. That made things easier.
I nodded and looked up at him with a sincere gaze.
“The problem is, I don't have the strength to protect them.”
“That debauched life was your choice. You cannot turn back time.”
“Even so, I need strength.”
“For your family? Don't make me laugh! Since when have you cared so deeply for your family?”
Andrei didn't believe me in the slightest. I wasn't disappointed. He wasn't the type of man to continue a conversation with someone he disliked unless his interest was piqued.
The very fact that we were still talking meant things were already halfway going according to my plan.
“I've realized that in the end, family is all you can trust. After my father's death, I'll be the only one to look after my younger sibling.”
My current situation was strikingly similar to Andrei's past. Hadn't he also walked a thorny path to rebuild his fallen house while caring for his only younger sibling?
The reason Andrei doted on Piole so much was because she was the only blood relative of his younger sister, who had died just before becoming a knight. Piole probably didn't know, but she had been adopted.
It was a fact revealed as the game's story progressed.
“You left out your stepmother.”
“…”
I answered with silence. Andrei leaned back in his chair and clicked his tongue.
“Baron Rasino was always greedy and stingy with his vassals. I know this well, as I worked under him for a short time myself. I can somewhat understand the situation you're in.”
As expected of Quaran's foremost vassal. With just a few scraps of information, Andrei had seen right through my circumstances.
His voice had softened considerably, but I didn't let my guard down. He was also a wily, seasoned politician. He was not a man who would be moved by emotion.
A brief silence fell. After a short while…
“If what you've said is true, then prove it.”
“How, sir?”
“If your family is so precious to you, you should be willing to bet everything you have. Am I wrong?”
When I fell silent again, Andrei continued with an I-knew-it expression.
“The day Sir Maxim came to see me, I was made out to be a common thief who'd steal from a child. It was an unspeakable dishonor. You want to learn the sword from me? Then pay the price to restore my honor.”
“The price being…?”
“Two hundred gold coins. That should be sufficient.”
Two hundred gold coins was the entire annual budget for our manor. I had been a scoundrel, but I'd never spent that much money at once. If I accepted his offer, Sophia and the other vassals would see their chance and swarm me like bees, tearing me to shreds.
They might even use the excuse that I'd gone mad to have me confined. If news of my father's death arrived in that situation, I'd be finished.
Andrei must have known all of this. It was a proposal he could only make if he knew it was equivalent to the annual budget and that I, as the lord's proxy, had the authority to dispense the funds.
It was, in effect, an offer I had no choice but to refuse.
Furthermore, the fact that I didn't have that kind of money on hand was also a problem. It seemed that even Andrei hadn't calculated that the treasury was empty, thanks to Sophia's extravagance and the aftermath of my own debauchery.
And yet.
“I accept.”
There was a reason I had to accept this offer.
If it were just for experience points, I could probably find a decent fighter for less than two hundred gold coins. But that wasn't all I wanted.
I needed a connection with Andrei, ‘a vassal of Quaran’.
“You… accept? Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“Hah. That's two hundred gold coins. It's a sum you can't easily authorize, even as the heir.”
“With my father away, I am the lord's proxy. As long as I have a proper justification, I can use the domain's funds.”
I emphasized the word ‘justification’.
“Justification?”
“I heard that herring have recently started appearing in the seas off Quaran. The fishing rights would be a sufficient justification for the investment.”
Andrei frowned.
“We already concluded in a meeting that it's a temporary phenomenon. A scholar said it's happened a few times before, but it always returned to normal after a short while.”
The vassals of Quaran were mistaking the anomaly caused by the princess's ability for a temporary phenomenon. Then again, who would think it was the work of a witch? This was good for me.
“It just needs to look plausible to others. Of course, I'll have to part with some of the two hundred gold coins for that.”
I was saying that the fishing rights were merely a pretext. But my real goal was the fishing rights.
I planned to ride on the coattails of the princess's ability to make money. That was also why I had come to see Andrei. To obtain rights like those for fishing, I needed the help of an influential figure among the vassals.
Though I hadn't expected the investment to cost two hundred gold coins. It was an expense I wouldn't have needed if I hadn't been such a scoundrel.
“Hmm…”
Despite the opportunity to gain a large sum of money, Andrei looked reluctant. Like the rigid knight he was, he must have found such schemes distasteful. But wasn't the amount too large to refuse?
“I will discuss it at the meeting.”
Permission from Andrei, the most influential of Quaran's vassals, was as good as a confirmation. However, he looked displeased, as if deeply uncomfortable. He changed the subject.
“What are your plans for training? To make up for lost time, you will need to put in bone-grinding effort.”
Now it was time to achieve my other goal.
“That's why there's something I'd like to ask of you.”
“Ask?”
“I would like to request a guided sparring match.”
Andrei's gaze fell upon my physique and the sword at my hip. From that alone, he seemed to have gauged my skill level.
“I doubt it would be meaningful.”
“We won't know until we try.”
“Such confidence. It's true, you had talent. However, even the greatest talent must kneel before time. Let's do this. Learn swordsmanship at the guild, and if you can dodge my sword even once, I will grant you a guided sparring match.”
Andrei liked confident people, but only when it wasn't arrogance. I knew this when I made my move.
“Let's start that test right now.”
“What?”
“You need to gauge my level first, don't you? That's the only way you'll know where and how to begin my training.”
Just as Andrei was making a dumbfounded face, the door burst open, revealing the eavesdropper.
“I agree! That scoundrel needs to be taught a harsh lesson to realize how reckless he's being! Though I doubt a wastrel who's done nothing but fool around could even see Father's attack!”
It was Piole, who had been ordered to go home and reflect. Andrei put a hand to his forehead. In an instant, he looked ten years older.
“Piole. I distinctly told you to go home and reflect. Not only did you ignore my order, but you barge into my office without permission while I have a guest? What is this insolence?”
“Father, I…!”
“I don't want to hear it. Go home at once. And don't even think about coming to the swordsmanship guild for a week.”
Piole protested with a look of indignation, but Andrei's decision was not overturned.
“This is all your fault!”
Her spirit broken, Piole glared at me with teary eyes, yelled, and stormed out of the office.
Slam.
She didn't leave quietly. Seeing the violently slammed door, Andrei sighed.
“Hah, what am I to do with that little tomboy?”
He only faced me again after shaking his head and letting out a series of sighs.
“Hmph. You've seen an unsightly display. I will discipline her sternly, so I hope you'll understand.”
“Not at all. So, are we having the guided sparring match?”
“Hmph.”
Having been repeatedly rude because of Piole, Andrei couldn't refuse. Piole had unintentionally helped me. Of course, she'd be horrified if she ever heard that.