Rai Is an Amazing Guy
Rai-kkang is an amazing person.
Rai-kkang is an amazing person.
While staying in the Treier territory for a short time, the other children explored the city or went to meet people, but Abigail rented a practice field alone and only trained.
Her red hair and red eyes made her stand out in the Treier lands, so when she trained alone at the practice field, Juan’s soldiers and knights couldn’t help but notice her.
But Abigail ignored them, not even answering when they tried to talk to her.
Even though the Empire had recognized the Treier territory, they couldn’t just let skilled knights gather in a powder keg like this place.
Juan also knew the Empire’s unease, so he didn’t accept knights from the old Caelen Kingdom and built up military strength just enough to operate the territory without any discomfort.
Their clumsy skills didn’t catch Abigail’s eye at all.
She only had one person in mind to beat—Rai.
She didn’t swing the sword out of revenge, nor did she hate him, but for Abigail, defeating Rai had become the goal of her life.
She had no intention of burning down the Philburg family or anything like that.
She just had to beat him.
With that one thought, Abigail kept swinging her sword.
To beat an opponent whose true strength she couldn’t even gauge, she had to quickly raise her own skill level.
“Jealousy… no, it’s a sword of love that’s close to obsession.”
At some point, Juan approached and casually sat behind Abigail, taking a swig from a bottle and laughing heartily.
Abigail stopped swinging the sword, glared coldly at him, clicked her tongue, and turned her head.
“Stop staring, you pervert old man.”
“Hahaha— That tongue of yours is just like his. If you added a bit more wit to your words, you’d be exactly the same.”
Despite the rude words, Juan laughed loudly and compared Abigail to Rai.
Abigail, who had stopped swinging the sword because she was distracted, frowned and glared at him.
“You guys always just look at my hair color. You miss that loser that much?”
“You guys… I guess you saw the guys who were once your comrades.”
After guessing from Abigail’s words, Juan laughed and threw the bottle at her.
“Take a sip. I drink a lot of medicine, but as long as you don’t drink too much, it helps settle your stomach.”
Abigail silently took the bottle, brought it to her mouth, and chugged it down.
But the alcohol was quite strong, and she coughed and spat it out, scrunching her face. Juan laughed.
“You’re still too young to drink that.”
“Is your tongue paralyzed from old age? Why drink something like this?”
“It’s medicine. I’ll bring some when I leave. Drink it when you get injured to recover.”
“I don’t need it. Is this because I’m red-haired that you’re taking care of me? I’m not a demon guy.”
Abigail had heard about it from Rai, but facing it directly made her attitude even more cutting than the explanation, which made Juan feel a bit bitter inside.
She had endured so many bad things in her life that she didn’t even trust a light kindness and tried to push it away.
Thinking that a child with deep wounds might be like that, Juan hid his expression and spoke.
“Who did your old comrades meet?”
“Melanie, and… I don’t know if I can call them comrades, but Joshua.”
“Oh, I see. Most of the guys who bowed their heads to the Empire have been seen already.”
Juan received the bottle Abigail threw and drank it.
“You guys always look at my hair and make a face like you’ve met your master.”
“It’s inevitable. It’s not common to have someone with red hair and red eyes. How was Melanie treating you?”
“She got hit and passed out.”
“Khhahaha! That’s just like her. With the two of them, you could guess what happened without even listening.”
Juan laughed loudly, and Abigail looked away, embarrassed.
Abigail recalled the memory of not knowing who it was, getting cocky, and then being suppressed in an instant. She pondered for a moment and asked.
“How did you all become so strong? Was it thanks to the training of the Ten Thousand Evils?”
“I did learn some useful techniques, but I was already strong before I met the devil guy. Joshua and Melanie were the same. They were all guys who could hold their own.”
She had asked hoping to get a hint to reach a higher level, but Juan’s answer was disappointing.
Seeing Abigail’s disappointment, Juan revealed an even more disappointing fact.
“Probably, you won’t be able to reach the level of the guys who were active in the Era of Strife.”
“To raise a faded pride?”
“It’s not about pride at all, it’s about talking about one system.”
Juan looked at Abigail, who didn’t understand, and extended both hands.
“Whether you have more talent than me or have learned more doesn’t matter. The Era of Strife was a pigsty gathered from guys who wanted to fight, guys who didn’t want to fight, guys who wanted to protect, and guys who wanted to take.”
After lightly shaking his hand as if holding a basket, Juan grinned.
It was clearly a kind smile, but the cruelty hidden in it made Abigail unconsciously pick up the sword she had lowered.
“When the ones who die and kill in the pigsty remain a handful, they mix with other pigsties and kill each other again. They’ve been doing that for decades. You were really lucky to have survived, weren’t you?”
“… … I was a mercenary. I have a lot of real combat experience too. The experiences you mentioned, I’ve gone through a few more times.”
Abigail, thinking he was talking about the lack of intense real combat, answered.
“I stopped fighting after going over 50 times.”
“… …”
Abigail frowned, unable to believe Juan’s words.
“Whether it’s Edelian or Melanie, the remnants of the Era of Strife who are still alive are all the same. Sometimes you meet someone stronger than you, sometimes someone weaker than you but you get into fights, and there are times when you fight all night while holding dripping intestines.”
Juan’s eyes, sunk in memories, looked desolate, making it hard to dismiss as boasting.
“The guys who survived like that and survived are the ones you’re seeing now. Guys who survived by killing guys who thought they had extremely good luck, even if the gods were chasing their backs.”
Juan, who had shown madness in his eyes like Rai, soon hid his gaze, laughed emptily, took a sip of the alcohol, and threw it to Abigail.
“In the Era of Peace, it’s impossible to grow through such experiences anymore. Even if you could, don’t think that the guy with extremely good luck is you. It’s no different from gambling on dice, regardless of skill. If I were to challenge you again, I’d run off to the eastern end of Kuchenland without looking back.”
Abigail’s initial thought about intense real combat was correct.
But the wars were even more intense than she thought, and to survive and return, you had to cross the path of death dozens, hundreds of times, and that was how these warriors were completed.
Abigail understood why Rai insisted on close-to-real-combat sparring even indirectly.
“Ah, of course, the young ones who participated in the end are not included. You have to be filtered out of the pigsty for at least 10 years or more.”
“How many years did Rai experience the Era of Strife? That guy is too young to be called an Era of Strife person.”
“Well, maybe it’s better to ask him directly.”
After spilling all his stories, Juan kept quiet about Rai.
Abigail recalled Rai’s age.
Mid to late 30s, and 10 years have passed since the Era of Strife ended, so thinking about his age then, no matter how you look at it, he couldn’t have been active for more than 10 years.
Thinking he didn’t meet Juan’s cutoff, Abigail asked him.
“If you and Rai fight, who wins?”
“You’re asking too much from an old man? I’m over 60 now. My prime was before the Era of Strife ended. I can’t ask too much from a pure mage like me.”
Abigail, who knew he could be proud, watched Juan easily admit it, and bowed her head respectfully.
“Viscount Juan Trayer, may I request a spar?”
“Hah— You want to use me as a combat meter? It’s annoying to be respected when you want something. No matter how you look at it, you sound just like the devil guy.”
“Viscount, Viscount. I’ll also request a spar.”
Diana, who had been hiding in the gap of the building, came out with a bright laugh.
Abigail, who hadn’t noticed her, frowned, but Juan, who had already noticed her existence, was nonchalant.
“Yeah, was there something to gain from our conversation?”
“Yes, it was really helpful.”
Although it included words of criticism for eavesdropping, Diana approached with her usual confident stride and sat next to Juan.
“I’ll also get a sip. This place is really fun. It’s the first place where it’s fun just to watch people because there’s a place this fun in the world.”
“It seems you liked the fight between the north and south.”
“Ugh… Yeah. The people here are really fun. When fighting over the Ten Thousand Evils, each saying their own is right, it feels exotic even within one city. The north draws the face of the Ten Thousand Evils as a demon, and the south draws it as a saint…”
Diana chatted about her experiences, as if she had enjoyed touring the city.
Abigail, who found her long story annoying, sighed and trained alone, while Diana, who had been chatting sociably, looked at Juan with eyes like seeing a cute granddaughter.
“I’m really curious because we all think our own words are right, but is there any book or self-portrait of the Ten Thousand Evils here? Or something he wrote. I really want to see it.”
“If it’s something like that, you’d better ask Tepes. He’s the witness of the Trayer family.”
“Ah, I see. Then I should chat with the butler. Before that. Please give me one move.”
Diana, who was about to leave, drew her sword and lay it horizontally, greeting Juan respectfully.
No matter how you look at it, she was someone who dreamed of being a knight, and sparring with a survivor of the Era of Strife was an exciting thing.
“I’ll go first, slime head.”
“Yes, yes. You go first. You’re really greedy.”
While watching the two clash, Juan stood up from his seat and picked up a wooden shield and a mace.
“Eh? You’re not using a flail?”
“I don’t know why the Empire people think my main weapon is a flail.”
“But dragging a flail and smashing a magic-concentrated castle with one blow is a famous anecdote, you know.”
After sighing at Diana’s words, Juan extended the shield and pointed the sword at Abigail.
After that, the three continued sparring several times, and eventually Aslan joined in, and they sparred until the sun set.
After everyone gathered for dinner, Diana listened to Tepes about the Trayer family.
But Tepes, who couldn’t reveal everything to Diana who didn’t know Rai’s true identity, didn’t mention what he had to hide, and unlike Philia, he didn’t open the attic either.
Still, Diana was happy with Tepes’ stories, and she returned to the room with a bright smile and closed the door.
“… …”
Unlike her usual self, Diana had a blank expression as she placed empty paper and pens from the city on the table.
“It was really helpful, Viscount Juan.”
Abigail muttered, and Diana drew a picture of the demon she had seen in the north on the paper.
Next, Diana drew the picture of the saint she had seen in the south, and copied many pictures she had seen while walking around the city onto the paper.
She drew faces from puppet shows, faces of people in the north who burned, faces in famous paintings hung in high-end restaurants, faces in book illustrations, and countless faces she had seen onto the paper.
With a self-deprecating laugh, Diana realized that the time she had spent pretending to be good at sword or art had barely shone, and she laid out dozens of pictures on the floor and started drawing again.
This time, it wasn’t copying pictures she had seen in the city.
Among the many pictures hanging in the north and south, she found common points and drew each facial feature one by one.
Like drawing a montage, she drew eyes and noses repeatedly and fitted them together, and when she looked at the finished picture, she drew Rai’s face on the last one.
When Diana matched the picture of Rai with the completed montage, her eyes sparkled.
“Huh— I expected Rai-kkang to be an amazing person…. It turns out he was even more amazing than I thought.”
Abigail burned the two almost identical pictures with a small laugh.