Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Others' Stories (3): Their Circumstances - Sia Nel Caruan's Situation
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# 30
4. Others' Stories (3)
#5 Their Circumstances: Sia Nel Caruan's Situation.
"Are you awake?"
"Ah..."
Her familiar subordinate's voice made her eyes flutter open, revealing a black ceiling.
Yes, he's gone. He's really gone...
That thought kept circling in her mind.
-When you wake up after sleeping, you'll find yourself home.
Still a bad person.
Saying that to an orphan with no home, no place to return to.
There's only one place she wanted to go back to.
"You weren't caught by the princess, were you?"
"No, ma'am. The one who defeated the Sword Saint was identified as Sir Ast—no, Instructor Naruan—and we pursued, but it turned out to be Lane, the captain's old comrade."
"Huh? Lane beat the Sword Saint? He was the weakest among us."
"That's what the witnesses saw."
By the time they got here, her master must have already taken down the Sword Saint. Lane wouldn't have carried him off if he was fully conscious. Still, it was the Sword Saint.
No way Lane could beat an awake Sword Saint.
Probably...
"He must've handed over the bat."
"Pardon?"
"You know, humanity's ultimate weapon."
That made sense.
A single strike from it could neutralize even the Sword Saint.
The ones she'd secretly raised got help from the emperor's shadows and even the princess.
And their total number was 200.
She'd deliberately used fewer torches to hide in the darkness, luring them into underestimating her forces.
But her master was always one step ahead. And the sad truth was, he was even one step ahead at the most crucial moments.
She had been anxious, truthfully.
Her master, who wasn't superior to anyone else, became superior to everyone because of it. The one who wasn't the most meticulous became the most meticulous.
He eliminated weaknesses by any means and constantly nurtured new strengths.
Easy to say, but in reality, her master always did the hard things.
That's why, honestly, she'd been uneasy about this operation too. In a way, it had gone exactly as expected.
"Any casualties?"
"Surprisingly, none. Even those hit by friendly fire in the chaos have been treated. Honestly... we still don't know what we were up against."
"Well, yeah."
Getting hit hurts, after all.
Even she, who'd built up tolerance through all sorts of training, couldn't escape that pain. But hilariously, that pain was the treatment.
Once, during training, Maren had a severe injury by mistake, and her master came with the iron bat.
Oh, come to think of it, that was the first time she'd seen the iron bat.
-I-Instructor! That's too much, even for you!
-Sending him off comfortably... Huh?
-You're going to make him suffer for not finishing training... Huh?
They all had to watch with wide eyes.
Even in a state where his side was torn open and guts spilling out, the guy who'd laughed and said he'd go first was now screaming in agony. The wound from the blows healing bit by bit was a phenomenon beyond miracle.
-K-Kill... me... Just kill me...
"Listen up, disciples. Wounds heal. And there's a way to treat them. So relax."
At that moment, her master's smile made even her—who loved him more than anything—step back. And soon after, the shock of the bat turned her affection into murderous intent in an instant.
Maren, who crawled on the floor after that bat "treatment," came back to life. Perfectly fine.
He even woke up the next day more refreshed than them. Incidentally, the trauma from that made Maren ignore recruitment from countless armed groups, insisting on a desk job, and he ended up in finance. He feared getting injured.
"Heh... hehehe... hahahaha... Yeah, right. You wouldn't know."
"Miss Sia?"
She let the laughter flow as she stared at the ceiling.
It might look unladylike, but for some reason, she wanted to keep laughing.
"Yeah, Master is... unknown."
"Unknown?"
"Yeah. Master is the unknown itself! Incomprehensible."
No logic could explain him. Even after watching so long, she couldn't figure him out.
Honestly. Was his name Naruan? Ast? Herman? Esed? Or something else she didn't know?
She knew nothing.
The territory where her master had lived was burned to the ground by the empire, leaving no records. His movements, which she'd secretly tracked, always varied. Even stealing and checking records from others investigating him, they all differed.
Sometimes, she felt self-loathing for knowing nothing about her master.
Sometimes, she feared she meant nothing to him.
Sometimes, she felt emptiness wondering if the master she loved even existed.
So, embarrassingly, she went to ask him directly.
-Master! Master!
-It's Instructor.
-Yes, Instructor. I came because I have a question.
-I already finished your training, but fine. What is it?
-What is love? Does love exist? If it does, why does it change?
-Sigh... You come out of nowhere with this.
He seemed tired, or perhaps exasperated. But he answered her question seriously.
-The person who first falls in love is usually captivated by something special about the target. Something novel, fun, different. They fall for that. But they don't care if it's real or fake. Why do you think that is?
-Answering a question with a question. That's cheating.
-Knowledge learned lightly is forgotten lightly.
She pondered deeply.
Why did she like her master?
Right, at first. She cursed him.
-You crazy bastard! Why didn't a guy like that die in the great war and survive to pull this crap?!
A veteran among veterans who'd fought in the great war on a mission, the legend among instructors.
But from the start, getting hit by the empire's barely developed magic bombardment—no one could avoid cursing.
And after that? What was it?
Yeah. Still cursing.
-Argh! What the hell is this?! Seriously! Is that bastard even human?!
But it couldn't be helped. First time hit by the bat, anyone would react like that. Wait, how did she end up liking her master?
-Do you know? What? What do you even know about me, Instructor! I don't even know who I am! What makes you think you know me! Got any proof you know me?
Ah, that was it. Looking back now, endlessly embarrassing, puberty stuff, unavoidable.
The day she could only think that way.
And she was already in a foul mood, with her period hitting too, making her nerves razor-sharp—a shameful day that still haunted her dreams, kicking off the covers.
-I don't know.
So indifferently. So perfunctorily. But that answer pierced deepest into her heart.
-I can't claim to know a you that even you don't know. Or rather, from the start, in an evil organization where we met as instructor and disciple, we don't need emotional bonds. I teach you, you grow—that's it. And truth itself isn't something visible. So I can't show you proof of truth.
Wow, thinking about it, she couldn't understand herself. Which part had she fallen for? Oh, she remembered.
-So you don't know yourself, and I don't know you. We're the same.
Ridiculous.
What kind of nonsense was "we're the same"?
That word "same" was her salvation.
Later, by chance while investigating him, she stumbled on her own ridiculous birth secret.
She learned her father had been absent since birth.
And the events after were beyond imagination.
Yet she felt she'd come to know herself a bit. But her master? Still a mystery.
-Don't get it?
The instructor's leisurely voice snapped her from her reverie.
She'd stammered a flustered reply.
-I-It's... I'm not used to it?
Honestly, she wouldn't fall for lines like that now.
Her love for her master remained, but she couldn't understand her past self. Her master just nodded.
-Yeah, because you're not used to it. You want flashy, skillful love. So you chase young and beautiful people, or try to make great ones yours to boost your influence, mistaking elevating your value for love. That's why you tire quickly, decide they don't match, or leave for someone better.
-Then... does love change once you get used to it?
To her question, surprisingly, the instructor smiled faintly and patted her head.
-Exactly. More precisely, when you mature, not just get used to it. When people mature, they willingly love the depth of truth they once ignored as plain or boring. They realize that truth, without flair or skill, speaks the highest value to a person.
-That's hard.
-Huh, who was it that asked me something so hard?
-M-Master?
-Instructor.
Messing up her hair wildly, he was utterly different from his usual self.
Later, investigating people who'd worked with him in the organization, they said his normal personality was nothing like during missions.
The master she knew was attractive, but this side was too.
She heard many stories from him then, but at the time, she couldn't fully grasp them.
Just realizing, while talking, how much she liked this man.
That was it.
Ah, except one thing. She always kept this.
-I permit love. Love permits greed too.
"Urgent report! Instructor Naruan's destination is a remote village at the continent's edge, for a farming life. And it seems the imperial family has the princess moving personally."
Ah, it's been a while.
She'd been reminiscing fondly. But now that princess was moving.
Someone who'd lived a completely different life from hers, but shared the same goal.
"Looks like she's decided to move herself now."
Farming, for the instructor? It didn't suit him, yet somehow it did—what was this feeling?
"What will you do, ma'am?"
"We move independently, excluding the princess's side. Have her people return. Tell His Majesty I'm taking some vacation."
"We don't get vacation."
"Hm? I've got a ton backed up. The empire has great benefits."
"We're irregulars."
"Pfft, true. You're not officially assigned. Fine, I'll handle it."
So the imperial shadows were gig workers.
Thinking that, she flashed a bright smile.
"First vacation: a continent-spanning trip. Destination: that remote village."
"Vacation sounds harder than duty."
"Not my problem."
Orders were orders.
That's why His Majesty gave them to her.
Her beloved master had said it.
I permit love. Love permits greed too.
So she'd indulge her greed.
"If you can run, then run."
She would catch her master, as her greed demanded.