Chapter 13
A little time had passed since the ranking battle ended.
“Hehehehe!”
“Uahaha!”
The boy who had been cowering behind me claiming everything was scary was nowhere to be seen. Sociable little Maru was already getting along with Blanser as if that moment had never happened.
“I was worried for nothing. That’s a relief.”
But while I had let out a sigh of relief, Teraden’s thoughts seemed to run in a slightly different direction.
Narrowing his eyes to slits, he sidled up to me and whispered.
“Don’t those two seem way too close, though… Hey, wait a second. That bastard isn’t making a move on our Maru, is he?”
Maru is my sister, so why is she suddenly our Maru?
Ah, that wasn’t important right now. Either way, Teraden’s suspiciously plausible suspicion had me staring holes into the back of Blanser’s head right alongside him.
“Hup! Brother Teraden, Brother Haru… why are you looking at me like that?”
Blanser must have felt the heat on the back of his neck, because he glanced over his shoulder and met our eyes.
In response to Blanser’s question, Teraden pointed at the enormous bundle slung across the boy’s back.
“I’ve been wondering for a while now. Why the hell do you have so much luggage? What exactly did you bring?”
Following Teraden’s finger with his gaze, Blanser confirmed that it was aimed at his own bundle, then hid it behind him and answered in a voice that grew smaller with every word.
“Um… this is my rice ball…”
His voice kept shrinking. Was he afraid we’d ask for some?
“Whoa, anyone listening would think I was trying to steal your rice balls. I’m getting hungry anyway. Let’s share.”
…Wait. How exactly was that different from stealing them?
Without another word, Blanser reached into the bundle, rummaged around for a moment, and eventually handed Teraden something unidentifiable.
“Here you go, Brother Teraden. Maru, do you want some too?”
What Blanser pulled out was a fist-sized object wrapped in white paper, still steaming.
The neat packaging made it look appetizing at first glance, but the moment Teraden unwrapped it and saw the contents, his expression did a complete one-eighty.
…Why was the rice blue?
“Haha… Maru’s fine, thanks.”
“What about you, Brother Haru?”
“Thank you, but I’ll pass.”
The smell alone was ominous. Eating something like that would clearly lead to regret.
“Tsk.”
Teraden stared down at the rice ball in his hand, unable to bring himself to put the mysterious food Blanser called a “rice ball” into his mouth.
“Teraden. You’re not thinking of not eating it, are you? You asked for it, so you should at least take a bite, right?”
“Y-yeah. It looks… incredibly delicious… but I think I’m in trouble here.”
His mouth said he was about to eat it, but the cold sweat running down his face suggested he couldn’t find the courage. Haha. He’d finally met his match.
After taking several deep breaths, Teraden seemed to steel himself. With a solemn expression, he took a huge bite of the rice ball, then let out a gasp of admiration.
“Whoa! This is incredible!”
He thought it tasted good? Did Teraden have such peculiar tastes?
“As expected of Brother Teraden! There’s plenty more. Would you like another?”
When Blanser puffed out his chest and started unwrapping the bundle as if ready to hand over more, Teraden—predictably—flung the rice ball at him with a shriek.
“Incredibly disgusting, you idiot! What the hell did you put in this thing?!”
“Huh? What’s wrong? It’s just a normal rice ball?”
“Argh—! You eat it yourself!”
Of course it went that way.
“That’s strange. It tastes perfectly fine to me.”
Munch munch. Chomp chomp.
Blanser took back the half-eaten rice ball Teraden had thrown and muttered to himself in genuine confusion before happily finishing it off.
“Huh? Wha—”
Thud.
But when he was about halfway through, Blanser suddenly dropped the rice ball.
With his mouth hanging wide open, revealing everything inside, he stared at something in the distance. Then he scooped Maru up and came running toward me.
“Hey, what’s with you all of a sudden? What happened?”
Wondering what could make him panic like that, I looked where Blanser had been staring. Something high up in the sky was rapidly growing larger as it plummeted toward the ground.
KWAAAAAANG—!WHOOOOSH.
The unidentified object slammed into the earth. The ground shook violently, and thick clouds of dust billowed upward.
“Ugh, ack!”
All sorts of debris mixed into the dust flew in every direction on a powerful shockwave. I had to pull my clothes tight to protect myself.
“Maru! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Yes. Maru is fine, big brother.”
“Stay behind me just in case. Oh, and…”
Gulp.
Blanser swallowed hard. He looked completely out of his mind.
His eyes, filled with terror, darted around frantically, unable to focus.
I never knew he could make a face like that.
“U-ugh, this is bad. I didn’t think he’d come this fast. I shouldn’t have left that note…”
Come fast? Did he mean the master he had mentioned earlier? But why was he so terrified?
“Don’t tell me it’s more yokai! How long has it been since we left the imperial palace?! Everyone, protect the Lord and these honored guests! Release!”
Release (Gaebang)
Jubern, burning with enthusiasm, didn’t even bother to check who was responsible. He quickly gave orders to the warriors around him and charged boldly into the cloud of dust.
“Jubern, no! Stop!”
Lan’s face had gone deathly pale as he tried to stop Jubern in a hurry… but it seemed a little too late.
“Haaap!”
Whoosh— Clang!
“Wait, this bastard?”
Clang! Crack! Thud! Bam.
“Gurgh!”
Not long after Jubern disappeared into the dust, horrible sounds of things colliding and breaking rang out. After that, only silence remained.
“Crazy. What the hell? Why is it so quiet? This is unsettling. Jubern… sir? Don’t tell me he’s dead?”
“No. That can’t be it. If it were dangerous, Lady Lan wouldn’t be standing still.”
Thud. Thud.
As the dust began to settle, someone climbed out of the crater below, waving a hand.
With the unconscious Jubern dangling limply under one arm and his eyes gleaming fiercely, the man’s appearance made Blanser scream as if he had seen a monster and hide behind Maru.
“Blanser! How dare you try to leave this warm master’s embrace!”
“N-nooooo!”
“Oh ho? You idiot, do you really think that massive body of yours can hide behind such a small child! Get out here right now!”
“Your Grace. Could you please release that friend first?”
Lan pressed a hand to his forehead, let out a deep sigh, and rubbed his face.
At Lan’s request, Blanser’s master—Crow’s Duck—glanced down at the right side of his waist, handed the fainted Jubern to a nearby warrior, and dusted off his hands.
“Ahem. He swung his sword at me, so I may have used a bit of force.”
“…A bit of force. Tsk. Actually, this is good timing. There was something I wanted to discuss with you. Please calm your excitement and speak with me for a moment. The rest of you, look after Jubern for now.”
“Do you think I want to exchange words with you? What kind of smooth-talking trick are you trying to use to deceive me this time!”
“Just give me a little of your time. It concerns Blanser.”
“Ugh… Fine.”
At Lan’s persistent request, Crow’s Duck scratched the back of his head and reluctantly followed him away, pretending he had no choice.
‘You must arrive before you are caught. Please save me.’
I finally understood why Blanser had said those words earlier.
The man had absolutely no hesitation in his actions.
Thump.
“Goodness.”
It had been an incredibly short time, yet it felt as chaotic as if a typhoon had swept through.
“Just how did you coax my disciple into this?”
“Coax? All I did was give Blanser a little information. The rest was his own choice.”
“Seven Pillars, as you know, I must now protect the Ahrirang clan. I can no longer leave my post so easily. Leaving a delicate child like Blanser alone in a remote place doesn’t sit well with me. I think I should take him back after all.”
Someone of Blanser’s caliber would be hard to find a rival for among his peers. And yet he called that hulking boy a delicate child.
Lan wondered if the man was even in his right mind.
“Hm? Why are you looking at me like that? As if you’ve seen something you shouldn’t.”
“…If Your Grace continues to overprotect Blanser like this, he will never be able to move forward. Of course, since he is Your Grace’s disciple, he will grow to a certain level. But that will likely be the end of it. If an unexpected danger strikes in the future, will Blanser be able to overcome it?”
“How could I not have considered that? Still, the thought of that child being bullied somewhere I cannot reach makes my heart ache…”
‘…It’d be a relief if he didn’t go around beating up the other kids.’
The constant nonsense was starting to crack Lan’s smile.
“Then how about this? Let him enroll first, and Your Grace can observe Blanser for a while before making a decision. How does that sound?”
“Ugh…”
Crow’s Duck seemed to think there was some logic in Lan’s words, but he still couldn’t quite make up his mind. Sensing this, Lan drove in the final nail.
“The Danju Selection is next year. If Blanser’s progress is unsatisfactory by then, you can take him back. Wouldn’t that work?”
“Hmm… It does seem that staying with the Ahrirang children would help the boy grow more than staying under my watch. I can’t keep him within arm’s reach forever.”
“Very well. I will take that as approval. Now that I think about it, the fact that Your Grace came here means the ranking battle is over. How did it go?”
“There is nothing to worry about. The seat of the Second Pillar remains unchanged. No one was seriously injured.”
“I see. Understood. Then shall we head to the National Academy together?”
“Very well. Let us do so.”
‘…Wait. Is this really okay?’
As Crow’s Duck followed behind Lan, he suddenly tilted his head and recalled his original purpose for coming here.
He had come to take his disciple back, yet he had somehow ended up enrolling the boy in the National Academy with his own hands.
Realizing he had been tricked by Lan, Crow’s Duck stopped in his tracks and shouted.
“This is outrageous! In the end I fell for your scheme! This Grand Duke is disappointed!”
Inside a dark cavern, a muscular man who looked like a mechanical duke despite being near sixty and his son were sparring.
Bang!
The boy drove his fist with all his might into the mechanical duke’s palm, producing an extraordinary sound.
“Hoho! It will soon be time to depart for the National Academy. Well, how do you feel?”
At the mechanical duke’s question, the boy lowered his stance into a perfectly disciplined posture and answered.
“This son may be lacking, but I will do everything in my power not to bring shame to the names of Father and Mother.”
“Haha! My son! What you should be concerned about right now is not our family’s honor, but the peers who will lead the next generation alongside you, is it not?”
“…”
“It is a shame. If the disciple of His Grace Crow’s Duck had come, he would have made an excellent rival for you. Still, I hear the children of the Ahrirang clan will be attending the National Academy this time. A healthy competition with them should serve you well.”
“This son will definitely live up to Father’s expectations.”
“Haha! Good. Then let us depart. Are you fully prepared?”
“Yes, Father.”
Rumble.
Satisfied with his son’s answer, the mechanical duke operated a device. The cavern wall opened, and light signaling the beginning of their journey poured in.
Not only here, but from every corner of the continent, countless people were heading toward the National Academy, each carrying their own purpose in accordance with the Emperor’s command.