Chapter 21 - Highly Skilled Schemer or Just a Fool
Highly Skilled Schemer or Just a Fool
Translator : Elizabeth
Chapter 21. Highly Skilled Schemer or Just a Fool
Long silence.
As the silence lengthened, sweat beads formed on the back of Danel's neck.
But no one thought of opening their mouths.
Danel eventually had to seek a way out himself to escape this crisis.
"Uh… um… so, how should I take this?"
He barely opened his mouth.
His usual sly composure disappeared somewhere, and bewilderment filled the spot.
"What you just said…… is a metaphorical expression to solidify our contract relationship, something like that, right?"
Instead of answering, Lorraine stared at Danel intently.
Her cheeks were flushed red.
Lorraine turned her head away abruptly with an expression unknown whether she was ashamed of her feelings being caught or angry at Danel's denseness.
"Y, yes! Of course it's about the contract! Since you contracted with me, it means you have to stay only by my side!"
At Lorraine's urgent shout, Danel secretly sighed in relief.
'Phew, thank goodness. Still making a hole to escape.'
Danel was relieved.
Because a noble imperial Lady giving her heart sincerely to a gutter-born mercenary like him was something that could absolutely not happen in the hellish reality he had experienced.
'If it's sincere, it's more of a problem.'
Interpreting Lorraine's words as strong obsession towards the one who became her ally for the first time, he regained his usual attitude.
"Isn't that obvious. It's all thanks to the Lady that I entered Ashuhalt and receive this much treatment. I seem to say this many times, but I'm not a guy without manners to that extent. I will fulfill the contract conditions risking my life."
However, Danel's 'business-like' answer, far from extinguishing Lorraine's feelings, rather fanned the flames.
Lorraine bit her lip tightly, then threw a powerful fastball as if determined to completely block Danel's retreat this time.
"Then… what about saying I, I am your ideal type? Was that remark you made in front of Brother Vince also just part of the contract to escape the situation?"
"Well… that is true."
"Yes?"
Danel's answer had no hesitation.
Because there was no reason to mix lies.
"Yes, honestly speaking, I haven't seen a woman more beautiful than the Lady. That pure yet noble atmosphere…… very close to my ideal type. Is this enough for an answer?"
Lorraine's face turned red like a carrot in an instant.
Vitality returned to her frozen eyes, and her clenched fingertips trembled thinly.
"E, enough. If it's that much of an answer……."
Lorraine smiled as if she had gained the whole world.
Danel should have stopped here.
Although his wits grew like a ghost during 10 years of mercenary life, his 'romance intelligence' to fathom a woman's heart hit rock bottom, so he ended up attaching a fatal superfluity he didn't have to say.
"And originally, they say you can't be with your ideal type. Reality is originally like that."
Instantly, the temperature of the office plummeted.
The blooming pale pink current was nowhere to be found, and the chill of the Northern eternal snow filled the room.
Danel was flustered feeling the cool cold sweat flowing down his back.
'What the, why is it like this. Did I do something wrong? I just politely said we don't match because our status and circumstances are different?'
"Hmph, understood. Since business is done, you may go."
Lorraine's tone was now cold as an icicle.
"Um… Lady? Did I perhaps say something rude?"
"N.o. How could the perfect Danel possibly make a mistake? If there is a fault, it would be my fault for daring to insert myself into the topic of ideal type. It's done, so get out. Right now!"
Danel tilted his head and rose from his seat.
Judging that leaving this uncomfortable place was the best policy, he added the last business.
"Then I will go for training. Ah, may I take Kailey with me too? I have something to talk about with Kailey alone."
'Alone.' That word threw the last bomb on Lorraine's patience.
She retorted nervously flipping documents without even raising her head.
"Take her or not. Do as you please!"
Danel left the office as if chased out.
Kailey followed behind him as if astounded.
Walking down the hallway for a while, Kailey eventually stopped and looked at Danel pathetically.
"Are you a really highly skilled schemer? Or just a fool?"
"Why, what did I do again?"
"No… Ha… Man…. Forget it."
Kailey strode ahead. Danel shouted in injustice chasing her.
"Why! What is it! You have to tell me so I know! Not making a fool out of a person!"
"As expected, acting smart as if knowing the whole world, you were just an idiot too."
"No, I mean why!!"
Corner of the training ground, a secluded place where people's eyes don't reach.
Danel adjusted his grip on Hayang and stared at Kailey standing in front.
"Kailey, you know you are weak for a Lady's guard, right?"
At Danel's blatant provocation, Kailey flinched her sword tip.
"Didn't you also yield your neck to my sword once?"
Danel smirked.
"You know I went easy on you then. Want to try for real? Whether you can land even one effective hit on me or not."
"Y, you arrogant bastard…."
Kailey's pride fluctuated.
Although from a ruined family, she was a knight who received orthodox swordsmanship education.
Being treated like this by a mercenary who only rolled in actual combat was an insult hard to bear.
"Big talk when we haven't even fought properly!"
"That's why I brought you here to fight properly."
Danel's eyes sank seriously in an instant.
The reason he brought Kailey wasn't simply to tease her.
In the storm to come, he needed a 'comrade' to safely protect Lorraine when he vacated his spot.
And the qualified person was definitely only Kailey.
"Need for long words? Come at me. Let's see the result of that 'Unique Training Method' where the same hand and same foot go out."
Kailey's face turned red. Where would such a unique training method be.
"I'll make you regret it! Real swords are fine, right!!"
Danel smirked.
"What an obvious question."
Kailey's figure shot out like the wind.
Clang—!
Danel grinned and received her sword.
Heavy pressure transmitted through the sword.
'The first blow is scary fast. If I didn't have my level of detection ability, my head would have flown off in this one hit.'
"Tch!"
As the first blow was blocked, Kailey quickly widened the distance.
But Danel's eyes had already pierced her weakness.
'Not good. If the first blow is blocked, the next move collapses rapidly. One hit one kill. As expected, my prediction was right.'
The moment Kailey tried to rush again, Danel raised his hand to stop her.
"Let's stop."
"What? It's just starting, what do you mean!"
Danel pointed to his heart and said.
"Meaningless to do more. You felt it too the moment the first blow was blocked. That I didn't extend my sword on purpose. Your heart side was empty then. Very wide open too."
"……Kuh."
Kailey knew too. That Danel went easy on her. And unbelievable words flowed from Danel's mouth.
"One hit one kill swordsmanship, Baron Roman family, right? You're a survivor of that house?"
At that moment, Kailey's figure rushed at Danel again with terrifying speed.
Claaang—!!
This time, the killing intent was enough to make Danel's blocking arm tingle.
'Whew— it's a bit different when serious?'
Kailey's voice distorted.
"You, what are you. How do you know that name? What is your identity!"
Danel leisurely struck her sword away and answered.
"Whoa, calm down. I just know it by chance."
Danel's words were not a lie.
For the past 10 years, there would be no one who studied the Empire's noble families as madly as Danel.
It was just that the rumor of 'Baron Roman' family caught the ear of a crazy guy who offered all his earned money to information brokers and studied every move of nobles by chance.
"What? By chance? You expect me to believe that?! It might be something you say calmly, but it's not for me!!"
Then Danel's gaze sank coldly.
"Making a fuss as if family ruin is such a great deal."
Kailey ground her teeth.
"Don't blabber carelessly!!"
"Don't blabber carelessly? Hey, this shabby mercenary you're looking at lost his parents to bandits right in front of his eyes when he was five. The mercenary corps that raised me like family instead of parents was also massacred 5 years later. My past was as much a gutter as your family's ruin. What great thing did you experience alone."
Kailey's killing intent scattered powerlessly.
"…Damn it."
She swept her hair back roughly and sheathed her sword.
"So what do you want to say. Are you going to tell on me to the Lady now that you know my identity? Useless. The Lady already knows everything and…."
Danel waved his hand and cut Kailey off.
"Why would I do such a meaningless thing? And your family isn't that great of a family. In the North, no one cares about the Roman family."
'This son of a bitch….'
Kailey trembled her fists and felt a strong urge to beat up Danel in front of her.
"…Then why bring up that name…."
"Hand over your Aura Cultivation Method to me."
"What!?"
Quiet dining hall inside Ashuhalt Castle.
Danel and Kailey sat facing each other in a corner seat with bread and meat soup in front.
"You, do you even know what that meant earlier…?"
"Yeah, I know. But don't worry. I'm already using a much higher cultivation method your cultivation method can't even follow. Not doing this because I covet it."
Kailey tore the bread and put it in her mouth grumbling.
"Damn it… no wonder it was strange. No way I'd lose to a mere mercenary… But why do you want to see my cultivation method?"
"To make you strong."
"What?"
"You know Aura cultivation methods can be improved too, right? Finding a more efficient mana circulation path and overlaying it."
"……Theoretically possible. But that's something only masters who reached the state of Master can do."
Danel grinned and ate a spoonful of soup.
"No, precisely, improving only the cultivation method can be done by anyone if they have a higher Aura cultivation method and genius sense."
Kailey stopped tearing bread and asked back with an absurd expression.
"That means… your Aura cultivation method is much higher than mine and you possess genius sense?"
Danel grinned.
"Oh, correct. Kailey wasn't a fool."
"Isn't this a crazy bastard…."
"Baron Roman family. Aura Cultivation Method name, 'Rapid'. Aura cultivation method focused on instant killing enemies centering on super-speed movement skills. Classified as low-grade Aura operation method because many users use daggers and can only operate it for a moment."
Kailey stared blankly at Danel.
"…What is your identity…?"
"Why ask when you know? Mercenary."