Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Watch Me (2)
The next day, the Punishment Corps entered the training grounds for the first time.
Until now, the other knight orders had been using the place, so we had not been allowed access.
Punishment Corps Commander Vergor ordered each of us to choose a weapon and a sparring partner.
The training grounds were noisy.
Some bastards looked excited just to be holding wooden swords, while others treated the grounds like a playground.
A few of them were too busy mocking my face.
“Look at that bastard.”
“Heard Balon’s group stomped him yesterday.”
“So much for being from House Allen.”
“Well, there’s a huge size difference. Of course that happened.”
I ignored their whispers as much as possible.
Early that morning, I had received treatment from Scholar Krellyn, leaving me wrapped in bandages here and there.
But more than the wounds beneath the bandages, my throat still felt strangely uncomfortable from where Vivian had grabbed it yesterday.
“...”
Feeling unsettled, I kept touching my neck.
Vergor shouted,
“Alright, alright! Move faster! Grab your weapons, find opponents, and start sparring!”
I scanned the Punishment Corps and found Balon, Willas, and Martin—the same roommates who had beaten me yesterday.
All three were snickering as they stared at my face.
I walked over to a wooden crate at one side of the training grounds.
Various weapons had been prepared there.
Naturally, I picked up the weapon I was most familiar with.
The weapon carried by the men of House Allen.
A greatsword.
Then I approached Balon, Willas, and Martin.
“Pick up your weapons.”
“Young master, are you really alright? Your face looks worse than yesterday.”
They burst out laughing mockingly.
At that moment, Vergor shouted,
“Salute the head of the family!”
-Clack!
At the command, the entire Punishment Corps saluted the person approaching the training grounds.
Vivian Rondor.
Her blazing red hair announced her presence even from afar.
Maybe because of what happened yesterday, my heart pounded hard once.
She stood outside the training grounds, looking down at us.
The Punishment Corps murmured among themselves.
“Why... is she here?”
“Did she come to watch us?”
“Isn’t this the first time?”
Meanwhile, Vivian and I locked eyes.
It seemed she had also spotted my black hair among the crowd.
We held each other’s gaze for a long time.
Her eyes were definitely different from usual.
Sharp eyes burning with spirit.
Yesterday, she had looked dazed when I left her room, but now there was strength inside her again.
“Resume training!”
At those words, I looked back at the trio.
“Hurry up and grab your weapons.”
The moment Vivian’s eyes landed on me, my own competitive spirit ignited too.
If someone like her, who had locked herself away in her room, came all the way here to watch me, then she probably carried the same competitive instinct I did.
So all I needed to do was show her that I could endure.
I just had to suffer enough that she would become ashamed of crying over her own problems.
At the very least, then her talking about death would stop leaving such an unpleasant feeling in my chest.
The trio lazily dragged things out before finally picking up their weapons one by one.
Martin, the one covered in acne, stepped forward first.
“Kylo Allen, I get that you’re frustrated, but calm down, alright? Unless you want another beating like yesterday. You’re only fourteen, small, weak, and yet somehow you still think you can—”
-Crack!!
“AAARGH!!”
Martin collapsed rolling across the ground while clutching his ankle.
I had succeeded in dragging Vivian out of her room, but at the same time, it had become undeniable that she now considered me a complete enemy.
That fact alone had pushed my frustration beyond reason.
I needed somewhere to vent it.
I looked at the trio.
I might lose in a fistfight.
But with swords, I was confident.
Taking a deep breath, I spoke to them.
“...Guess I was a little late introducing myself too, huh?”
“Surrender...! AAGH!!! I surrender!! I said I surrender!!”
“Get up!! I’m not accepting it!!”
From afar, Vivian quietly watched the training grounds.
There stood Kylo Allen, enthusiastically beating a Punishment Corps prisoner with a wooden sword.
Around him, more than a dozen boy soldiers already lay sprawled across the ground.
Every one of them had crossed swords with him, been thoroughly beaten, and surrendered.
Even considering Kylo Allen was the eldest son of a knightly family, the result was surprising.
Because his body was currently far from normal.
Vivian knew that better than anyone after seeing him up close the previous night.
The sheets of the bed Kylo Allen briefly lay upon had become so soaked with blood they needed replacing.
And compared to the other boy soldiers in the Punishment Corps, Kylo’s build was noticeably small.
Most of the boy soldiers were sixteen or seventeen, nearing the end of puberty.
Compared to them, Kylo Allen was only fourteen, just beginning to grow.
And even among fourteen-year-olds, Kylo was probably small.
Even now, he was roughly the same size as Vivian herself.
Vivian had always heard that northerners were large.
Creatures raised in colder regions generally grew bigger, or so she had been told.
That was why the white bears symbolizing House Allen were said to be twice the size of southern black bears.
And the dragons of the north supposedly had tails longer than the southern dragons by an entire segment.
Without realizing it, Vivian asked,
“...I-I heard northerners are l-large.”
Pippin, the head butler, immediately understood her question and answered.
“Yes. Among them, the men of House Allen are apparently especially large. They say even the Unbeaten Knight Jade Allen stands a full head taller than ordinary northerners.”
“But... K-Kylo Allen...”
“Isn’t very big, correct. Apparently that’s normal too.”
“What?”
“They are born small... but once puberty begins, they suddenly grow very quickly. The eldest son of House Allen has only recently entered that stage, so... well, he’ll probably grow quickly too.”
“...”
“You’re scared of adults? Then go ahead and collapse. I’ll endure it. I only need to survive five more years. By then, no one will even dare look me in the eye.”
Even now, Kylo Allen was knocking down people bigger than himself.
If his body grew larger too, it no longer felt like the words he spoke yesterday would remain empty threats.
And because of that, the rest of the things he said suddenly felt possible too.
At that moment, Kylo Allen turned and looked at Vivian.
“...”
Without realizing it, Vivian swallowed hard.
But she didn’t look away.
The insults he hurled at her family last night still echoed in her mind, making that impossible.
“Next!”
Kylo Allen shouted for another opponent.
To Vivian, the action felt like he was telling her to keep watching.
As though he truly intended to show her how strong he was.
“...”
Honestly, Vivian was shaken too.
If she were in Kylo Allen’s position, could she have done the same?
In a body that far from healthy, could she really knock down more than a dozen opponents bigger and stronger than herself?
Forget whether it was possible or not—would she even have the courage to try?
“Looking at how weak you are... I can understand your family now.”
Kylo Allen’s words echoed in her mind.
Vivian clenched her fists tightly and ground her teeth.
The more violently her hatred toward Kylo grew, the stronger her own resolve became.
She never wanted to show weakness in front of her enemy Kylo Allen ever again.
The thought of him secretly looking down on her family filled her with rage.
Pippin spoke to Vivian.
“Lady Vivian, you should return inside now. Lady Linne will be arriving soon.”
Usually, every time this moment came, her heart would sink.
“Yes.”
But not today.
Today, she wasn’t afraid.
As infuriating as it was, Kylo Allen was truly moving forward exactly as he claimed.
If she remained standing still, he would quickly leave her behind and laugh at her.
She couldn’t bear a future like that.
She could not allow herself to fall behind an enemy from House Allen.
So Vivian steeled herself.
And while doing so, prepared to face Lady Linne.
.
.
.
-Smack!!
Despite the tearing pain, Vivian did not let out a single sound.
“T-The Central Church strictly p-prohibits the sur-survival of witches. W-Witches who worship de-devils—”
-Smack!
No matter how hard Lady Linne swung the rod, Vivian focused on keeping even her expression unchanged.
Perhaps because of that small change, Vivian even found herself thinking that Lady Linne’s strikes felt gentler than usual, as though some of her irritation had faded.
Though she couldn’t be sure.
Maybe her resolve had simply hardened enough that the punishment hurt less.
“W-Witches who worship devils survive through their b-bloodline—”
“That will be enough.”
Lady Linne clapped her hands and announced the end of the lesson.
Setting down the book, Vivian let out a shallow sigh.
Both her arms throbbed painfully.
But unlike before, it no longer felt entirely unfair.
Her anger toward Kylo Allen dulled the sense of injustice.
Lady Linne spoke.
“Your stuttering has not improved at all. I will need to consider whether it is truly incurable, or whether there is some deeper issue involved.”
“...”
“Lady Vivian, when did you begin stuttering?”
“...A-After Mother became bedridden.”
“And before that?”
“...I-I don’t know. I c-can’t say I never stuttered at all...”
“But it worsened after the Duchess collapsed?”
Vivian nodded.
Lady Linne sat upright in thought before asking,
“...Could it be because you lost someone to rely on?”
Vivian could not answer a question without an answer.
Thinking back, there had actually been a brief moment last night when she stopped stuttering.
When her anger toward Kylo Allen became unbearable, her words flowed smoothly.
Not that the information was particularly useful.
It wasn’t as though she could spend every day furious enough to make her head explode.
Still, the realization that there had once been a moment without stuttering gave her a faint sense of hope.
Maybe someday she really could fix this pathetic speech.
While Vivian continued her thoughts silently, Lady Linne asked,
“Lady Vivian, do you have someone you can rely on?”
“...”
Taking Vivian’s silence as a no, Lady Linne continued.
“If not, perhaps you should try finding such a person.”
“...”
Vivian barely stopped herself from laughing bitterly.
Someone to rely on?
Did such a person even exist?
Everyone in Rondor Castle looked at her with hostility.
They all watched her as though waiting for the chance to drag her down.
They always looked at Vivian with disappointment, contempt, and frustration.
No matter how young she was, she understood that much.
She might still lack experience, but she wasn’t blind to people’s intentions.
If anything, now that there was so little she could actually do, she had become even more sensitive to reading the room.
There was no one in this castle the head of House Rondor could truly trust.
If there had been, she would not have been suffering like this, nor would she have shown Kylo Allen such a pathetic side of herself yesterday.
Besides, wasn’t Lady Linne herself the one who taught her never to expose weakness?
Could someone truly rely on others while hiding all their vulnerable parts?
Could you call it trust if you could never reveal your weaknesses?
But Vivian did not voice any of those doubts aloud.
Instead—
“...Yes. I-I’ll try.”
She merely acted as though she agreed with Lady Linne.
“Then I shall take my leave.”
Lady Linne bowed to Vivian and stood from her seat.
Finally gaining some free time, Vivian moved toward the window.
She decided she would calm her weary mind by staring outside again today.
...Or perhaps it would also be acceptable to check how that hateful Kylo Allen was enduring his own days.
After all, she had not been lying when she said she would show him a life more painful than death.
She understood now that he truly was trying his best.
But she still doubted whether he was suffering as much as she was.
So she wanted to watch his daily life, and if he seemed to be struggling less than her, she intended to make things harder until they matched.
She wanted to see whether he could still say the same things afterward.
But just as Lady Linne was about to leave the room, she spoke to Vivian once more.
“Your stuttering remains the same, but your attitude today was excellent.”
It was praise for not making a single sound despite the punishment.
Lady Linne blinked curiously before asking,
“...Did something happen to change you?”
“...”
Vivian thought for a moment before shaking her head.
“Nothing happened.”
She had no desire to reveal her true feelings to Lady Linne.
Hadn’t Lady Linne been the one to tell her never to speak weakly?
There was no way she could admit that she cried and screamed while arguing with Kylo Allen.
Nor did she want to.
“I see.”
Lady Linne gave a small nod and finally left the room for real.
Once again, Vivian drifted into thought.
Come to think of it, last night was the first time in a very long while she had spoken so weakly.
She had poured out everything—how difficult things were, how suffocated she felt.
Maybe because of that, part of her heart actually felt lighter now.
“...”
...Though there was one small flaw.
The person who heard all those weak words had been Kylo Allen.