The Duel (1)
'Feels like I've aged ten years.'
I'd overexerted my mental energy. All I'd done today was negotiate with the dean and face Irene, yet I was already exhausted. Being saddled with an impossible task and then hounded on top of it... I didn't pity Aslan, but this was excessive.
'I just want a peaceful life where I don't have to worry about someone trying to kill me or getting blackmailed...'
Wealth? Surrounded by beauties? I didn't desire any of that. My only wish was to live out my natural lifespan without being murdered. Was that really such a modest dream? Why did it have to be so difficult?
As I sighed heavily and wallowed in self-pity, the carriage stopped in front of the mansion and the door flew open. ...That was far too quick for the coachman.
"Mister, Mister!"
"What is it?"
"You're back! I have something to show you! Come on, hurry!"
...
Charlotte leapt into the carriage and grabbed my hand, pulling me along. She was so excited she couldn't stay still for a second. Come to think of it, I was already living the life of being surrounded by beauties. Except these beauties were from the future and might one day try to kill me.
"What on earth is going on?"
"It's urgent! Hurry, hurry...!"
Dragged along by Charlotte's strangely frantic hand, I used the skill Appraise once more.
Charlotte
Age: 13
Favorability: -1
She wants to believe you are a good person.
Her favorability had risen considerably from -5 on the first day... but it was still negative? How absurd. What exactly did I need to do to make it positive?
'She seems to trust me on the surface, but not enough to go beyond that.'
At first glance, Charlotte looked like a carefree, innocent child with no worries. But the fact that she "wanted to believe" I was a good person meant she still didn't fully trust me. The wall in her heart remained firmly in place—perhaps even sturdier than Julia's.
Careful approach was necessary.
"Look! Watch carefully!"
...!
She dragged me to the training ground where Silvia was waiting and picked up a wooden sword. Both of them were drenched in sweat; they must have been training all this time.
Charlotte took a deep breath, assumed her stance, and her demeanor changed completely. It was the first time I'd seen such a serious expression on her face. Silvia's expression was equally grave.
Was she about to show me something? Just as I swallowed nervously—
"Supreme Strike! Downward Slash!"
Whoosh.
It was a swing that truly matched the onomatopoeia "whoosh." There was a sense of proper form, like a trained person's downward slash, but was it really that impressive?
If asked, well... Having already seen Yuri's flashy skills in the game, I felt no particular excitement.
'Is this actually amazing? Am I just not recognizing it?'
Wondering if it was because I had no connection to swordsmanship, I glanced at Silvia. She was clutching her forehead and sighing as if the ground might swallow her up.
When Charlotte turned around to check Silvia's reaction, I quickly called her name to make her look at me instead.
"Charlotte."
"How was it!? I practiced that downward slash all day!"
"Excuse me for a moment. I have something urgent to discuss with Silvia..."
"Mister, where are you going...!"
I gestured for Silvia to follow and left the area. The sun was too harsh in the middle of the training ground for Aslan's skin to endure. Once we reached the shade beneath the building, Silvia wiped her sweat and caught up.
"May I speak freely, Young Master?"
"You speak as if you've ever cared about my opinion before. Say what you want."
"Charlotte has no talent as a swordsman. Further sword training would be meaningless. I believe it would be best to stop."
...
Just as I'd expected. No talent... Watching Charlotte swing her sword relentlessly under the blazing sun made my heart ache.
"As you know, Young Master, I was once called a genius. I've seen not only myself but countless other geniuses around me. I can't find even a trace of the talent they possessed in Charlotte."
...Really? None at all?
"I will acknowledge her persistence. Youngsters these days lack endurance. Back in my prime..."
"Enough. Get to the point."
"Ahem. Charlotte is diligent, unlike most children her age. She wakes me before dawn, skips both breakfast and lunch, and swings her sword all morning. Thanks to that, her posture and fundamentals are already at a decent level. However, she cannot use mana at all—the most crucial quality for a swordsman. When I examined her heart, her mana core's responsiveness was worse than my own injured one. This might be a body that is congenitally incapable of using mana..."
She'd been speaking smoothly until the end, where her words trailed off. A body with no talent for mana manipulation. In this world, without mana, it was difficult to excel in any field. Whether casting magic, swinging a sword, or using healing arts, everything required mana in common.
She was supposed to be the protagonist's companion. How could this be?
'A late bloomer type, perhaps.'
Maybe it was the trope where the character shows no outstanding talent at first but awakens later. To Silvia, who knew nothing of this, she must seem like a hopeless log.
"Does she enjoy it?"
"Pardon?"
"Does she like sword training?"
"Well, yes. I'm the one putting her through it, but she seems to enjoy it so much that I'm the one getting tired."
"Then that's enough. Continue the training. If no talent is visible, then unearth it. Find it somehow. If I catch even a hint of slacking, your pay gets cut by 100%. Act accordingly."
...
Silvia stared at me with a dumbfounded expression. Tsk. I was starting to doubt the whole "former genius" setting for her. If Silvia couldn't do it, should I hire a Sword Master as an instructor? It would strain the family's finances with every lesson, but that was fine. One well-trained Charlotte was worth more than ten Sword Masters.
It was definitely advantageous to pour all the family's resources into Charlotte and Julia. The problem was that there were people who wouldn't let that happen...
"What does a girl need with a sword? Your friend is quietly holed up in the library—go play with her."
"Ah! This wooden sword was made by Sir Silvia...!"
"What, a knight? That mana-less cripple is a knight?"
Just like that bastard. A burly man suddenly approached, snatched the wooden sword, and snapped it effortlessly.
Despair spread across Charlotte's face. What the hell was this guy doing?
Leon Vercus
Age: 34
Favorability: 12
A hereditary knight who has served the Belmont family for generations. His unknightly conduct has earned him the resentment of many.
Ah, that guy. The one I'd made a note of. One of the few employees with positive favorability toward Aslan. High favorability with Aslan meant he was a villain, plain and simple.
Ah, I don't want to leave the shade... it's too sunny.
Unable to hold back any longer, I pulled my hat down and stepped into the sunlight.
"Is there a problem?"
...
Charlotte kept her head bowed in silence, looking crushed. No—not crushed. She was deliberately keeping her mouth shut. It was the look of a child who had learned the cost of tattling many times over. That didn't sit well with me. Children should act like children.
"Young Master. You've arrived. This child was insisting on occupying the entire training ground in broad daylight for sword practice."
"I ordered it. Do you have a complaint?"
"Oh my. Is that true? I had no idea. But Young Master, since she has no talent anyway, why not stop this nonsense and raise her as a useful maid instead?"
"She has no talent!? What do you know about Charlotte, Leon—!"
"Shut your mouth, half-wit. What do you know? A mana-less cripple like you."
What...!
Silvia stepped forward in anger, her face flushing red and blue. She herself had just said Charlotte had no talent... but hearing it from someone else's mouth must have been unpleasant.
That bastard. He's not picking a fight with Charlotte or Silvia—he's targeting me.
His attitude toward me seemed polite at first glance, but it wasn't. He was insulting me by pretending to berate Charlotte and Silvia. It was quite blatant—enough to make me frown.
"Do you have a problem with me, Leon? Stop beating around the bush and speak like a man."
"Ha! Of course not, Young Master. There is one piece of advice I'd like to offer, but I'm worried you'll make a mistake doing something unfamiliar. Why suddenly do something you've never done before?"
"I was wondering what you meant. It was about the paperwork I handled last night."
"Yes, that's right. The work was proceeding fine without you needing to interfere, so please keep your hands off from now on. I'll handle it myself."
Aha. I finally understood the context. I now knew why this old, washed-up bastard whose only achievement in life was inheriting his father's knight position was so furious with me.
"Well, I didn't do anything special. I just noticed that some of the employees' salaries seemed to be flowing into unknown accounts under false names and confiscated all the suspicious accounts. It looked like someone had been embezzling. Do you happen to know anything about it?"
"Young Master!!!"
Leon clenched his fists and shouted. The bastard had been happily skimming funds, got caught, and now he was flipping the script?
