3
## Chapter 3
The meal continued for about thirty minutes.
“Follow me to the head’s office.”
Once the silent meal was over and only the empty dishes remained on the table, Giovan spoke to Ethan.
“Yes, Father.”
Ethan nodded at Giovan’s words.
‘The moment I’ve been dreading has finally come.’
At the same time, he sighed inwardly.
‘If I ever went back to the past, I was supposed to show everyone that I’d changed completely from who I used to be…’
This was not the situation he had wanted.
Had he not vowed that if he were given a second life, he would live differently from his first?
‘Come to think of it, I did change. Just in a completely different way.’
There was no denying that this was a different life.
The problem was that it was not heading in the direction Ethan had wanted.
“Dad. I want to go with you too.”
Arin looked at Ethan as he stood up.
She said that she wanted to go with him.
“The child will stay with Sebastian. There is something I need to discuss with you alone.”
But Giovan, the head of the household, did not allow it.
“Understood.”
Ethan answered politely.
Then he met Arin’s gaze.
“Stay and play with Sebastian. I’ll be back soon.”
He persuaded Arin in a gentle voice.
Along with a kind smile he had never once shown during his former days as a wastrel.
“Mm. But I want to stay with Dad.”
“It won’t be long.”
“You’ll definitely come back, right?”
Arin spoke to Ethan in a trembling voice.
What if Ethan disappeared forever just like this?
That anxiety was slowly creeping into Arin’s mind.
“…Of course.”
Ethan flinched for a moment at the sight of Arin like that.
A sad memory from before his regression had resurfaced.
His beloved sword had once lost its master.
From a child’s perspective, that must have been no different from losing a parent right before her eyes. So it was understandable that Arin felt anxious about being separated from Ethan.
“I promise.”
That was why Ethan answered Arin sincerely.
“Yes!”
Arin smiled brightly.
She had been reassured by Ethan’s answer.
“Now, Lady Arin, why don’t you come with me and have a look around the garden?”
At that moment, Sebastian naturally approached Arin.
Then he held out his right hand, covered by a white glove.
“What’s a garden?”
“It is a place where beautiful flowers and trees are grown. I believe you will like it very much, Lady Arin.”
“Wow… I like it!”
Arin tightly grasped Sebastian’s hand and left the dining room with him.
“Come.”
Giovan stood up after watching them leave.
He opened the door behind him and headed toward his office.
“…Phew.”
Ethan sighed as he watched Giovan’s back.
Then he followed him toward the head’s office.
And then—
“I will send that child to an orphanage.”
Ethan heard the worst possible thing he had expected Giovan to say.
---
An orphanage was a facility that cared for children who had either been born without parents or had been abandoned for one reason or another.
“It is obvious that this will cause a major problem for the family’s reputation. There is no need for me to explain the reason as well. You know it yourself.”
Giovan said that he would send Arin to such a place.
‘It’s a good thing I didn’t bring Arin with me.’
Ethan inwardly breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that.
It certainly was not something Arin, who had only just become human, should hear.
“You may later complain that you were treated unfairly, so I will hear the circumstances first. Explain how this happened.”
“…It isn’t something I can explain.”
“What did you say?”
“I mean that I’m not confident I can convince you if I explain it myself.”
“Hah.”
Giovan inhaled at Ethan’s answer.
Then he narrowed his eyes and looked at Ethan.
“Disappointing.”
He said the words with genuine disappointment.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
Ethan felt suffocated by Giovan’s attitude.
No. To put it more bluntly, he felt like he was going insane.
After all, Arin was not actually his child.
Yet he was being misunderstood like this.
Anyone would go crazy in his situation.
“I will send the child to a facility. You have no objections to this either, I assume.”
Giovan spoke to Ethan in a low voice.
His tone made it sound as though the entire matter had already been settled.
Rustle.
As he spoke, he pulled out the documents that needed to be handled that day from the table.
“……”
Looking at Giovan, Ethan remembered Arin, who had been with him earlier.
Her innocent eyes as she followed him with a bright smile.
The way she relied on him for everything remained vivid in his memory.
‘Besides, she was the beloved sword who was with me in my previous life.’
He had known Arin as a human for less than a day.
But if he included the years she had spent as a sword in his previous life, they had been together for several years at the very least.
‘And besides, if I want to use that power again…’
There was also the power Arin had given him right before his death.
In order to obtain that power again, he absolutely needed Arin, who had now become human.
‘I can’t send her away.’
It was only natural that he had grown attached to Arin.
Even if she had become a human rather than a sword in this life.
‘And there may be even more abilities that I don’t know about.’
Even if he removed his emotions from the equation and simply calculated the situation rationally—
Keeping Arin with him was the logical choice.
She was the being known as a legendary sword.
‘Although she can’t even handle a knife right now… That’s probably because she hasn’t adapted to having a human body.’
Now that she had a physical body, she would certainly struggle to adapt for a while.
Considering that, Ethan concluded that raising Arin himself was the most reasonable choice.
“…I cannot accept that.”
Therefore, Ethan opposed Giovan’s decision.
“What?”
“I will raise my daughter myself.”
“Hah. Are you even in a position to give me an answer like that?”
Giovan stared at Ethan incredulously.
Bang!
Then he slammed his right hand down on the stack of documents on the table.
“You should be grateful that I am not kicking you out of the family right now.”
He warned Ethan in a serious voice.
“I have changed.”
“You have changed?”
“Yes. I am no longer the person I used to be.”
“Are you asking me to believe the words of someone who was still drunk and shouting at the top of his lungs until yesterday?”
“……”
Ethan swallowed at Giovan’s criticism.
‘The person I used to be really was a bastard.’
He cursed his past self from the bottom of his heart.
Then—
“Yes.”
He answered Giovan’s question.
“You bastard!”
Giovan’s eyes widened at Ethan’s response.
At the same time, killing intent erupted from his body in every direction.
The killing intent was so intense that the glass on the table trembled and the windows rattled with soft knocking sounds.
If an ordinary person had been there, they would have already fainted.
Or their legs would have become so weak that they would have collapsed onto the floor.
“But not Ethan.”
He did not become frightened or submit to the killing intent Giovan released.
“I will raise Arin.”
Instead, he calmly endured Giovan’s pressure.
It was possible because he had experienced countless battlefields.
‘This damn body…’
But his body was another matter.
A tremor was running through Ethan’s body.
His physical strength was not enough to withstand killing intent like this.
‘If my mind had been weak as well, I would have already collapsed.’
Even so, Ethan remained standing because of the ‘path’ he had walked in his previous life.
In truth, if he had not regressed, enduring this would have been impossible.
“Hah.”
That was why Giovan could not help looking at Ethan with surprise.
Whoosh…
At the same time, he reined in the killing intent spreading throughout the room.
“You don’t seem to be speaking empty words.”
He pushed the stack of documents aside.
He had judged that Ethan was more important than the paperwork.
“But this alone is not enough for me to trust you completely.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Yes. That is why, Father… No, Head of the Household, I would like to make you a proposal as a member of the family.”
At Ethan’s words, Giovan leaned back in his chair.
Then he raised his chin and looked at Ethan as if telling him to continue.
“One month from now, I will spar with the Captain of the Knights, Valeon.”
“…What?”
“To be precise, I will withstand at least five exchanges of his sword. I believe that will be enough not only to prove that I have the strength to protect my child, but also to demonstrate that I have finally come to my senses.”
“Hmm…”
Giovan’s eyes gleamed at Ethan’s words.
Then he looked Ethan up and down.
“If you disappoint me again this time, I will expel you from the family.”
He warned Ethan that this was his final chance.
“Yes.”
Ethan nodded without a moment’s hesitation.
“Hmph.”
Giovan snorted as though Ethan’s confidence were laughable.
Then he pulled the stack of documents back toward himself.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“Please provide me with a private training room. I don’t want anyone interfering with me.”
“Use the training grounds of the First Knights. At least this way, you won’t be able to make excuses later and claim you couldn’t train.”
“That will be sufficient.”
The training grounds of the First Knights.
It was where the most skilled knights in the family trained.
Ethan was certain there could be no better training room than that.
‘Though I don’t really need such a good training room…’
Ethan already knew how he needed to become stronger.
He also knew exactly which swordsmanship suited him.
So all he really needed was a place where he could train alone.
Still, since Giovan was willing to provide it, Ethan decided not to refuse.
Tap tap tap!
At that moment, the sound of someone hurriedly running outside the office echoed through the room.
Creak!
“Dad!”
Arin opened the door to the head’s office and rushed inside.
“Dad. Are you okay?”
Then she tightly hugged Ethan around the body and looked up at his face.
“I'm fine.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But why did you come here? I told you to stay with Sebastian.”
“I felt a strange presence, so I came. I was worried something might have happened to Dad…”
Ethan blinked at Arin’s words.
‘A strange presence? Could she have sensed the killing intent from that far away?’
He was quite surprised.
The garden was at least forty meters away from the head’s office, and sensing killing intent from that distance was certainly not something ordinary.
“Good instincts.”
Giovan had realized the same thing, so he looked at Arin with an intrigued expression.
“……”
Arin frowned at Giovan.
Then she puffed out both cheeks.
She already knew that he was the one who had released that strange presence toward Ethan.
“Then I’ll go train.”
“I’m giving you one month. I will not permit anything beyond that.”
“Yes.”
Giovan repeated the time limit once again.
It was a subtle warning not to make excuses about not having enough time.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ethan answered seriously.
Then he gave Giovan a small bow.
“Let’s go, Arin.”
He left the head’s office together with Arin.
.
.
.
And not long after they arrived at the training grounds—
‘So this is what it means for a legendary sword to be different?’
Ethan caught a glimpse of a new possibility.