Chapter 21
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 21: Apprentice Knight Irion
If you move forward without giving up, a path will open someday.
Those are words I just made up.
If the future is dark even when working hard, my situation of sweating and trying at this moment becomes too miserable.
So I don't compromise with reality and struggle with all my might. That is the best and most optimal resistance I can do right now.
Recently, I did all sorts of things to catch Renoa’s eye.
Cleaning, stable management, drawing water, dishwashing, chopping wood, pulling weeds.......
It feels like I experienced all labor existing in this mansion as if clearing all achievement challenges.
As a result, the status window went crazy.
Name: Irion
“Really a miscellaneous character.”
They are all products of chores Renoa poured on me. Ordered this, ordered that, then ordered another job when she got bored.
She doesn't leave me alone for a single moment. I can’t grasp what she is thinking.
Thanks to that, I obtained the proficiency fever time reward, but it ended without being utilized properly.
Did I succeed in buying Renoa’s interest though? I don't know that either.
“I... am walking forward, right? Not walking in place, right?”
Please let it be so.
Please let me be moving even one step away from the edge of the cliff.
“Irion, is cleaning all done?”
“Yes. Just finished now.”
“Oh my, really? To finish already. Good work. Come quickly and eat snacks.”
Still, amidst the hellish cycle of labor, there was a ray of light.
Helping with work, I became closer with the maid noonas of the mansion.
Now it’s just a sister-brother relationship commonly seen anywhere.
“The Lady is too much too. Working Irion to the bone like this. Right?”
“Ei, I said I would do it, well.”
“It’s comfortable for us since Irion does our share, but don't overdo it. If you hurt your body here, only you lose.”
“Oh my, this much is fine. Compared to where I was before, this is a total vacation.”
I mean it.
Compared to a place where I didn't know when I would die, this is really heaven.
I can do it all day long.
“As expected of a boy, dependable.”
“Tell me about it. Even though young, mature. And smart.”
“Haa, it would have been nice if Irion was my younger brother. Same boys but why so different.”
“While I’m here, I’ll play the role of younger brother properly. Noonas treat me comfortably like a younger brother too.”
“Such a younger brother is welcome anytime!”
Ah, the air quality is different from the arena reeking of blood and sweat.
The air is sweet, so sweet.
I should practice breathing techniques in a place like this.
“Ah, right! We have to bring snacks to the cadets!”
At that moment, Nina spoke startled. At that one word, the peaceful kitchen turned into chaos instantly.
“Oh my god, I completely forgot! What do we do? Everyone is sensitive so they get super angry even if we are a little late......! Not too late yet, right?”
“Slightly tight....”
There is a training ground behind this mansion where apprentice knights aiming to be knights train.
Most are from fallen families or collateral branches pushed out of succession rights.
They are here to become knights of Edelheid and raise their declining family fortunes again.
One might wonder what knights in a magic family, but originally, balance between damage dealers and tanks must be maintained.
Only then can wizards be active comfortably.
The maids of the mansion are responsible for their meals too, but it seems they forgot while chatting with me.
“If you are short on hands, shall I help a bit?”
“Really? We are thankful if Irion helps but....... You just came back from working, are you okay?”
“I got treated to such delicious snacks, I should do this much.”
“If Irion says so.... Okay! Then can you help make sandwiches? We’ll prepare all ingredients so you just have to stack them.”
“Got it.”
I made sandwiches, put them in a basket, and moved to the training ground behind the mansion with the maids.
That place was completely different from the picturesque villa and lake.
Sweat smell and earth dust rushing in. Shouts and dull impact sounds of wooden swords clashing.
Under the knights’ guidance, dozens of apprentice knights were swinging wooden swords.
A scene similar to the arena.
“Knights! Please eat!”
“Is it already that time? All cadets, stop training! Short break.”
“Yessir!”
Cadets sitting down on the floor as if collapsing at the sound of break.
We moved among the panting cadets and distributed sandwiches and water.
“Here are sandwiches and water.”
“Phew.... Should have moved quickly with some sense. Thought I’d die from exhaustion.”
Cadets receiving sandwiches stuff bread into their mouths like starving ghosts.
To make such a dying face just from swinging a wooden sword a bit.
‘Making a fuss over nothing.’
Back in my day. If I fought a match risking my life, I couldn't move at all the next day.
Let alone snacks, they didn't even give proper meals so I almost starved.
But eating regularly and even receiving snacks, yet panting just from swinging a wooden sword a bit.
‘This is why young people these days won’t do. Lack hungry spirit.’
Tsk tsk.
Weak.
—Tick.
“You there, servant. Give me one more sandwich here.”
Someone threw a pebble at my pants. The moment I turned my head wondering what rude guy it was.
“...Uh?”
I swallowed a gasp inadvertently.
Hair red like blood.
Eyes of the same color.
Sharp but mean impression.
It was a face I knew.
‘Renoa’s escort knight Gerard.’
Currently, Renoa’s escort knight is Zain, but the escort knight I know is this Gerard.
Resembling his master, arrogant beyond compare, and trash who enjoys trampling the weak just because he has some skill.
I wondered where he was, turns out he was here. Seems it’s before he became an escort knight.
“Hey, servant. Can’t you hear me telling you to give one more?”
“It’s one per person.”
“What? Are you telling me to swing a sword eating only this? Are you kidding me right now?”
“Why ask me that....”
“I’ll give it! Irion, there are extras so don't mind and give him more.”
“Okay.”
In my heart, I want to throw it on the floor, but causing trouble isn't good. Anyway, it’s not bought with my money.
I gave more sandwiches as ordered. Gerard snatched the sandwich as if stealing it.
“Should have given it when asked first. Anyway, you have to swing a sword to know it’s hard. What would a servant bastard know.”
“.......”
“More than that, it’s a face I’m seeing for the first time. Are you new? Why is a woman cross-dressing as a man?”
The gaze he sends while saying so is lecherous.
Right.
This bastard is crazy for women.
In the original work too, borrowing the power of Edelheid, he harassed powerless girls randomly.
He dies with his balls crushed before dying, but unfortunately, it seems they are still attached well.
“Why don’t you answer? Does my word not sound like a word?”
“Irion is a boy. He just looks delicate but his body is firm. He worked as a gladiator before coming here.”
“What? Gladiator?”
“Excuse me, Noona?”
Since he’s a type I hate to deal with, I was ignoring him moderately, but Marie, famous for being talkative usually, answered instead.
She started chattering excitedly as if she became a doting sister boasting about her brother.
“Yes, gladiator. He said he beat a Minotaur, and an Ogre too. Our Irion is amazing, right?”
“Wait....”
“Minotaur? This brat did?”
Hearing Marie’s remark, other cadets and knights show interest in me.
“Come to think of it, I heard a rumor. A rumor that the second Lady sponsors a gladiator slave. Don’t tell me?”
“That guy is this guy?”
“That’s right! That gladiator slave is Irion!”
“Noona.”
Whether she can’t hear my voice or has no intention of listening.
Not caring about surrounding gazes at all, Marie-noona chats diligently.
“Don’t lie. This kind of guy beat a Minotaur? It must have been a calf, not a Minotaur.”
“I’m telling you it’s true? How could I lie to knights. Maybe he’s stronger than the knights!”
“Ah.”
Then she finally caused a huge accident. Other maids by her side sighed deeply and shook their heads.
At this point, isn't she determined to kill me? Otherwise, it makes no sense to be this tactless!
I scream inwardly and appeal, but there is no way it reaches other people.
Apprentice knights glared at me all at once.
“This kind of slave... is stronger than me?”
“You bastard, you smirked looking at me talking just now, didn't you?”
“Dare someone like you receive the Lady’s sponsorship?”
“Pick up a sword. I will test directly if you are really stronger than us.”
This fucker.
***
Irion doesn't like fighting.
He means it.
The given environment just forces him to hold a sword. He had no choice but to fight because he would die if he didn't swing a sword.
After leaving the arena, he didn't give a single glance to a sword.
But.
“Can’t you hear me telling you to get up?”
Gerard, standing up holding a wooden sword, looks down at Irion. The gaze looking at him is full of arrogance and ridicule.
Irion sighed inwardly.
“Excuse me, Knights? You seem to be misunderstanding something, but I am extremely weak. That person was mistaken.”
“What are you saying, Irion! If Irion is weak, why would the Lady have brought Irion?”
“That is something I want to know very much too... anyway, to tell you repeatedly, I am weak as a dog. I have no strength so I can’t even lift a spoon.”
“You have to measure to know what is long and short! Don’t be daunted! Irion, you can do it!”
“Please be quiet.”
Even if Irion explains diligently, Marie performs more than that by the side.
It was far from enough to suppress her cheerful voice.
Thanks to that, apprentice knights harbored hostility, making Irion’s efforts useless.
Here, the apprentice knights relying on the Edelheid Ducal family were no different from the arena’s gladiators, only differing in status.
All those with one flaw each are making desperate efforts to receive Edelheid’s support.
If they fail to become knights, all efforts until now will be in vain. The revival of the family goes down the drain too.
In that sense, catching the eye of the Princess Renoa is very important.
But.
A slave who rolled in from somewhere took the spot. It would be strange not to be hostile.
That was fishier and more intense than the emotion gladiators harbored for Irion.
Of course, the truth would be different from their imagination, but such trivial circumstances were none of the apprentice knights’ business.
Break Irion whom Renoa chose.
Prove that they are stronger and more valuable than him.
Then they might receive Renoa’s choice.
Become a knight with Renoa on their back and revive the family.
Only this series of thought circuits filled their minds.
“Get up, servant bastard. Grip the sword. Let’s compete to see who is more suitable to serve the Lady.”
“No, I’m telling you, you guys are stronger?”
“Pretending not to be. Do you think I don't know you are laughing at me behind that handsome face?”
“Ssp, instead of becoming a knight, maybe you should go to a hospital.......”
Irion refusing Gerard’s sparring request to the end.
Now that the slave skill [Spartacus] disappeared, Irion’s physical ability became weaker than before.
Furthermore, there was nothing for Irion to gain by sparring with a knight.
If he loses, the maids’ reputation he built up with difficulty drops along with ‘As expected, a slave is a slave’.
Even if he wins, cadets’ hostility rises saying ‘How dare a mere slave be stronger than us?’.
A fight where only losses remain.
Just when Irion was suffering and suffering again to somehow pass the situation.
“Hmph! Why spar with such a guy? Looking like a male prostitute, obviously looks weak.”
“Oh my, of course, of course.”
“Looking like a girl, surely that part must be tiny as a dick too. Haha!”
“Maybe he’s really a woman if we strip him? Hahahaha!”
—Jump.
Irion stood up.
His atmosphere, which had been grinning listlessly all along, sank low.
Walking to the training ground, he beckons to Gerard with a nod.
“What are you doing? Not following. Aren't you going to fight?”
Irion.
Born as a man, even if I lose everything else, I absolutely do not lose in a sword fight.
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