Chapter 20: Sir Roland
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 20: Sir Roland
“What are you scheming? Don’t tell me you like being bullied?”
The next day, Piole snapped the moment she saw me, scowling as if something had displeased her. She couldn’t understand why I would want to train with her again after she’d beaten me unconscious.
“Are you admitting you had personal feelings mixed into the training?”
I had neither the desire nor the means to make her understand. I couldn’t exactly tell her it was for the experience points, could I?
“W-What are you talking about? I did no such thing!”
Piole feigned ignorance. She was the type to wear her heart on her sleeve and speak bluntly. Her constant snapping was annoying, but she was easier to deal with than Sophia or Roland, who gave me a headache.
“In any case, our spar isn’t over yet.”
“Huh? What kind of fresh bullshit is that? In case you’ve forgotten, you passed out.”
“That doesn’t mean I gave up.”
Piole’s face crumpled like a sheet of paper.
“You knew I’d hold out, didn’t you?”
“…You’re so annoying.”
“What’s new? So, are you going to do it or not?”
“That attitude is what’s so annoying!”
“Wasn’t your ban from the guild lifted thanks to me? Instead of being grateful, you’re just getting angry. That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
Piole had incurred Andrei’s wrath over yesterday’s incident. If I hadn’t requested her as my instructor, she really would have been banned from the swordsmanship guild this time.
“Hmph. I can’t be a kind instructor.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to be.”
“Argh! You really have a way with words, don’t you!”
Piole mumbled to herself before letting out a deep sigh. She was prickly, but not truly ill-natured. Perhaps it was because she still had feelings for me.
‘She liked me, right?’
Recalling what Andrei had said before I regained consciousness yesterday, I scanned Piole from head to toe.
Her lightly tanned skin, freckles, and short brown hair gave her a healthy beauty. For a woman, her tall, toned physique was a rare advantage around here.
And that husky voice? Desire welled up inside me. I wondered what kind of expression she would make, pinned underneath me, that constantly snapping girl.
While I was organizing my thoughts, Piole began the lesson.
“First, I’ll teach you the basic stances. You heard from my father, right? The essence of the guild’s swordsmanship is the unity of offense and defense. You have to be able to flow from one stance to another like water, attacking and defending simultaneously. So, your first priority is to master all the stances.”
Piole’s demonstration was so slow it almost looked like a series of still poses. She was being considerate, so I could memorize them. When I copied her, she would get right up close to correct my posture.
It was unexpected kindness.
“Yesterday you looked like you were dying to tear me apart.”
“I’m just separating my personal and professional life, okay? I haven’t forgiven you, so don’t you dare, dare get the wrong idea.”
“It’s not because Sir Andrei gave you a good scolding?”
Piole flinched. Seeing her avoid my gaze, I knew I’d hit the mark.
“More importantly, why did you bring her?”
Piole’s finger pointed to Jin, who was in the shade of a tree. More than a few people had seen her yesterday. I figured it would be stranger to leave her behind now, so I’d allowed her to accompany me.
Things were deviating more and more from my original plan. Maybe it had been arrogant of me to think I could use someone as strong-willed as Jin like a pawn on a chessboard.
“This girl has also decided to learn swordsmanship.”
“Says who?”
“Is Sir Andrei not the Guild Master?”
“My father gave you permission? What a lie!”
Piole didn’t believe it. Andrei, the epitome of inflexibility, accepting a prostitute who would obviously disrupt the learning environment? I found that part strange as well.
That’s why I’d asked her earlier, but Jin had feigned ignorance and wouldn’t tell me. Still, I had my suspicions.
Andrei must have recognized Jin’s skill. A master from the East? That was a topic any knight would find fascinating.
“It is the truth. I received Sir Andrei’s permission after you ‘ran away’ yesterday. Why don’t you ask him when he arrives?”
“I did not run away!”
Jin merely shrugged at Piole’s outburst. Besides, my position as a vassal of the castle wasn’t so low that I’d be roped into a prostitute’s lie, so Piole would have no choice but to believe it.
“Ugh, seriously. Dealing with Allen alone is annoying enough, but now a prostitute who doesn’t know her place? What on earth is my father thinking?”
Piole’s scowl didn’t fade for the entire training session. In fact, it only deepened.
“The world must have gone mad! How could a scoundrel like you be given such talent?”
Having ‘excellent eyes’ meant having good powers of observation. Besides, hadn’t Piole kindly demonstrated in slow motion?
I had memorized her every move and perfectly replicated the sword strikes she’d shown me. That was the reaction I got.
“What’s so surprising?”
I already knew I had talent. There was a reason I was taught by a swordsmanship teacher instead of being sent to the lord’s court like the other vassals’ children, and why I wasn’t stripped of my position as heir despite my countless misdeeds. It wasn’t just because I was the only son of the family.
“That ‘of course’ attitude! That’s what’s so annoying! Dammit.”
It seemed I’d provoked her too much. Her annoyance boiling over, Piole started poking me with her scabbard, making excuses like my posture was wrong or my concentration was slipping. Then, as if she’d started to enjoy it, by the end of the training, she was using the excuse that my breathing was ragged.
“If you’re not breathing hard after half a day of training, isn’t that proof you weren’t training properly?”
“Th-That’s… Ah! Are you going to make excuses like that on the battlefield!? Right! You think the enemy is going to give you a drink of water instead of swinging their sword just because you look a little tired?! A knight must always reserve the stamina to swing their sword, no matter the situation! That’s what I’m saying! Yes, that’s right!”
Spouting nonsense, Piole seemed to find her own excuse plausible and, getting carried away by her own words, raised her voice.
I shook my head and turned away from her. I opened my status window. My stats, which had been merely at the level of an elite soldier, had risen slightly. Was it because my stats were so low to begin with? Or my talent? Or maybe it was because Piole was actually a good teacher.
I didn’t get excited. Physical growth would only get harder, and the rise in stats would eventually follow a gentle curve.
In any case, the right time to invest my bonus points would be when my physical growth hit its limit and my stats no longer rose through training.
Meanwhile, Piole had already begun her own training. I glanced up, gauging the sun’s position. The yellow, sunset-dyed sky was just about to be covered by the curtain of night.
At a time when I normally would have returned to the mansion, I instead took a seat. I was curious to see how a skilled person like Piole trained. Her training was similar to what she had taught me earlier.
The four basic stances and the thirteen supplementary stances that supported them. And the three attack methods executed from those stances.
However, there were various modifications to a single slash, and Piole repeated them hundreds, thousands of times. It was the same for the thrusts and cuts she demonstrated afterward.
I had been able to copy her perfectly after seeing the demonstration just a few times. So at first, Piole, repeating the same movements, looked foolish. My opinion changed a moment later.
‘There was a reason it was so flawless.’
My excellent eyes picked up the subtle corrections in her sword path. Her sword, growing faster as it shed one wasted motion after another, was the very essence of her efforts, built up painstakingly over time.
Her sword strikes were so straight and true they almost felt reverent. In contrast, Piole was dripping with sweat, yet she never lost her focus.
I couldn’t help but admire the sight.
“That’s impressive.”
Piole, who was wiping sweat with the sleeve of her forearm, scowled and glared at me.
“Are you mocking me right now? What? Is it funny watching some talentless bitch struggle desperately to keep up?”
“I’m serious.”
I looked at Piole steadily, my eyes filled with sincerity. The girl who had been so sarcastic flinched and avoided my gaze.
“H-Hah, nonsense! What’s so impressive about this?! Just laugh at me instead! I’m not going to get hurt by something like that. No matter what anyone says, I’m going to become a knight and follow in my father’s footsteps. I will…!”
“That won’t be easy.”
There were no mana-wielding swordsmen or magic like in games or novels. A witch’s power was closer to a superpower. That was why, excluding witches, there were fewer than ten female named characters.
And Piole was not a named character.
“Who doesn’t know that? My father nags me about it until my ears bleed. He says no noble will appoint a woman as a knight, and even in the few knightly orders that accept women, their roles are limited to chores, administration, and medical aid. He says I’d have a better chance of joining an order if I studied grammar, logic, and rhetoric instead.”
A twisted smile had formed on Piole’s lips. Once she’d started talking, it wasn’t easy for her to stop.
“The guild trainees feel the same way. If I weren’t my father’s daughter, they’d probably curse me to my face. Dammit. And they’re all weaker than me.”
“The words of those who find satisfaction in tearing others down instead of trying to improve themselves aren’t worth taking to heart.”
Piole, who had been muttering while staring blankly at the wall, whipped her head around to face me. But when our eyes met, she looked away again, feigning indifference.
“What about my father? He’s the same, you know.”
“Sir Andrei knows better than anyone how difficult your dream, the path you walk, will be. He only says those things because he’s worried. It’s a parent’s wish for their child to walk only on a path of flowers.”
Rustle—
In that instant, we both turned our gazes to the wall. We’d heard a presence on the other side. Our reactions were swift, as it wasn’t a conversation for others to hear, but there was no one where the sound had come from.
Piole came down from the wall and subtly sat next to me, her gaze still turned away.
“What about you? What do you think…?”
“The sight of someone challenging the impossible, even knowing they might fail, is beautiful.”
Piole’s eyes flashed as she turned to me.
“B-Beautiful?”
But only for a moment. She quickly scowled and snapped.
“Wait, so in the end, you’re being negative too!”
“Reality is always harsh.”
“Hey, you…!”
Just as Piole was about to shout, a shadow fell over her. She reflexively threw herself forward, simultaneously drawing her sword and aiming it at the owner of the shadow behind her.
But the sword was quickly lowered. Piole straightened her posture and sheathed her weapon.
“You startled me! When did you get here?”
The one who had concealed his presence and appeared behind her was Andrei. He was stroking his beard with a strange smile.
“Just now.”
“You’ve arrived.”
I also stood and greeted him. Andrei waved his hand.
“I wonder if the training went well. My offer to assign you a different instructor is still valid.”
“I did a proper job today!”
Piole answered for me. Andrei paid her no mind and waited for my response. Pouting, Piole turned her back to Andrei and glared at me.
“Personally, I believe that those without talent teach better than those with it. The talented often have trouble explaining the intermediate steps. In that sense, I believe Piole has the makings of an excellent instructor.”
Piole tilted her head.
“Wait, I don’t think that was a compliment…!”
Before Piole could figure it out, I bowed to Andrei and turned away. The world had already grown dark, so it was too late to ask for a guided spar.
“Let’s go together!”
Jin, who had been dozing off, hurriedly followed. It was then that Piole’s harsh voice echoed from behind me, having belatedly realized it was a backhanded insult. I let out a small laugh.
But my good mood didn’t last long. It happened as I was seeing Jin off and passing through the gates of Quaran.
“Lord Allen. Where have you been?”
There was someone waiting for me, sitting on the stone bridge in front of the gate. A knight dressed stylishly in a navy blue surcoat over his chainmail, complete with a belt and cape.
It was Roland.