Chapter 10
Chapter 10
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Responsibility and Duty (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There was such a thing as a person's impression.
Called differently as "aura" or "atmosphere."
Though it had no concrete form, no one doubted its existence.
Because they knew how an impression was formed.
For instance, the wrinkles of someone with a nasty temperament were etched just as deeply as the years they'd spent scowling.
Someone who had smiled their whole life would have laugh lines that gave off a friendly vibe.
An atmosphere was ultimately a sculpture carved by the life a person had lived.
From that perspective, Elric's suddenly changed impression stood out.
The moment he revealed his emotions, the shift from just before was stark.
To the Weibin couple, Elric's atmosphere felt razor-sharp. Not prickly, but like a keen blade swinging right in front of them.
An air that seemed like it could kill a person—or had killed before.
It was the truth.
Elric had killed a great many people.
And more than half his life had been spent in a place where such killings were no big deal.
During the time his sense of self was forming, he'd learned to survive by taking the flesh and blood of the living.
He'd learned to weigh money against human lives.
He'd learned that such things weren't a big deal.
Strictly speaking, he was a murderer.
A man who swung his sword so viciously, like a ghost, that he'd earned the moniker Sword Ghost.
It was no wonder the Weibin couple, who had never been involved with such matters in their lives, tensed up at Elric's changed aura.
Wasn't an atmosphere just an extension of looking at someone and thinking, "That person seems kind" or "That person looks dangerous"?
The ability to gauge such traits only grew stronger through experiencing society and meeting all sorts of people.
Having lived as nobles, always scrutinizing others' faces, they felt Elric's shift—if anything, more acutely.
"What can you do about it? Care to answer?"
His face still smiled, but it made them flinch involuntarily.
And in such a situation, a stark difference emerged based on one's background.
It came from the environments they'd lived in.
The soldiers on the battlefields where Elric had fought feared him.
They knew getting stabbed by a sword meant death, that violence had no mercy, and just how sharp Elric's blade was—so when he appeared, they fled in panic.
But the Weibin couple was different.
They had lived their whole lives farthest from violence.
In a society where even scolding informal speech didn't lead to physical harm, where violence was seen as base, and conflicts were resolved with words alone.
They didn't know how terrifying violence was.
They didn't know how easily people died, how simply killing could be handled, or that there were people in the world who did it like eating a meal.
A puppy doesn't know to fear a tiger.
That's why such a saying exists. Why would a pup bark at a tiger twice its size?
Killing intent was alien to them.
In the razor-sharp tension that made their bodies stiffen, they felt wounded pride more than fear.
A pup raised in a safe enclosure its whole life assumes a tiger is just like any big human and won't harm it.
That was the Weibin couple.
"That's all you have to say!"
The shout was the loudest yet.
Eyes bulging, face twisted in a frown—it was unmistakable intent to threaten.
It was an instinctive reaction, born from shame at their own flinching.
A desperate show from a pup bragging how scary it was.
A way to lick their wounded pride.
That was the biggest difference between Elric and them.
"If that's all, then what?"
Elric was calm.
His voice was soft, his expression not harsh, his hips still sunk into the sofa.
Elric didn't put stock in raising one's voice like Joseph did.
Because he knew simpler, surer ways.
Just draw your weapon and end the opponent.
So he didn't bother showing pointless anger.
That was how Elbus Graham had put it.
-Mighty beasts don't flaunt their authority. They know anything that needs flaunting isn't true authority.
Words Elric had heard while guarding him at a hunt long ago.
Now, unlike his boyish days, Elric knew leisure could be the greatest threat.
"I'll ask. Do you have legal grounds to claim ownership of the inheritance? Not emotional—legal grounds."
In truth, Elric had the advantage.
Elric knew the inheritance rights belonged to him.
What right did they have to interfere with the deceased's will?
Their motives were already plain as day.
Clothes flashier than ten years ago, red-rimmed eyes coveting the inheritance, and their faint anxiety.
They were strapped for cash.
"No?"
And even without the inheritance, Elric held power over them.
"None."
Portman funded the Weibins.
And Elric, the eldest son of Portman, controlled that purse.
If Elric willed it, starving them to death would be trivial.
Of course, Elric hadn't decided to stay in the Weibin territory yet, but they had no way of knowing that.
The Weibin couple was struck dumb.
Elric smiled brightly.
"Excessive greed—looks like that's your game."
"You rotten...!"
"Watch your mouth."
Joseph flinched, his body trembling.
Fear or crisis sometimes linked straight to reason.
It cooled the head, whispering truths overlooked in emotional heat.
They'd raised their voices thinking they could win with naivety or appeals, but it was obvious they were in a position to tremble if he got rational.
Only now did Joseph recall that fact.
Elric rose, leaning on his cane.
"I ran away for ten years, but I'm still a Portman. Father named me the heir. And you're living off Portman money. I figure you understand without me spelling it out."
Suddenly, Elric felt a hollow laugh escape.
"But thinking on it, it's funny. In the first place, the only one qualified to inherit is my wife, isn't it? What was I thinking, assuming it was yours? What, you want payment for raising her?"
A phrase surfaced.
The decisive words from ten years ago that had made Elric decide to run away.
-Pay for what we fed you.
They probably hadn't said it outright to Tiria, but their attitude made it clear enough.
Even unspoken, she'd have sensed it from their demeanor.
Empathy was good fuel for immersion.
What welled up was something close to self-satisfying revenge.
"Pay for what we fed you. Don't get greedy."
Among the words he knew, the ones that most wretchedly crushed a person were his father's.
Ironically, in this moment, Elric was mimicking the father he'd so hated.
"I'll be going."
Thud. Elric turned to leave the drawing room, cane in hand.
That was when it happened.
"You think you'll get away with this! Do you know who I am...!"
Joseph, unable to swing his fist to the end, shrieked in desperation.
Elric turned to look at him.
The flushed face looked somehow pathetic.
Elric smiled as he spoke.
"Go ahead. Do whatever. I'll be waiting."
To the end, Elric responded with leisure.
Because even then, no threat came from them.
Even if they lashed out to strike from behind... well.
He didn't think they'd be worse than the western battlefields.
"Just one thing: I don't like enduring twice."
With that, Elric left the drawing room.
Click. The door shut behind him, followed by
-Aaaahhh!!!
A shrill scream like a girl's echoing out.
*
The carriage headed back to the Portman estate.
Elric reflected on the Weibin affair while watching the passing scenery.
What rose was shame and self-loathing.
His face burned.
'No shame at all.'
Honestly, though he'd treated them that way, Elric didn't see himself as better.
After all, wasn't he just as guilty toward Tiria?
Even if he'd thought she'd already left the mansion, was that an excuse?
If not, it was just cowardly self-justification.
So what must he do to be different from them?
"...Stop for a moment."
At Elric's words, the carriage halted.
It was the Portman wheat field.
Tiria was there.
Her eyes, mid-inspection of the wheat, turned to Elric.
She bowed her head briefly, then turned back to her work.
Elric descended and approached her.
The wheat field soil was unlike the carriage path, making movement awkward.
"Hey."
He couldn't bring himself to call her "wife" out of sheer embarrassment, so he said it like that.
Tiria looked at Elric again.
A puzzled reply came.
"Yes."
Her blunt demeanor was worlds apart from her parents he'd just seen.
It felt novel.
Perhaps that's why he felt less tense than usual.
Elric managed a softer smile than when dealing with her normally.
"Won't you have dinner with me tonight? There's something I really want to discuss."
"Can't it be said here?"
"I don't want to interrupt your work."
He grew a bit tense.
Worried she might refuse plainly.
So Elric waited anxiously for her lips to part, then sighed in relief at her answer.
"If a bit late is fine, then let's do that."
Elric's expression brightened further.
"Thank you. See you at dinner, then."
Better to end it decisively, as they say.
The one who tied the knot must untie it.
Elric intended to apologize tonight for leaving like that ten years ago.