Chapter 120: While Staying in the Capital (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 120: While Staying in the Capital (4)
It was a hair's breadth.
Lauren launched a surprise attack aimed directly at the chin, but William Castro retracted his sword with beast-like reflexes to block it. There was a reason he was considered a cut above Class D. His face twisting into a furious grimace, William batted Lauren's blade aside.
"You bastard!"
It was a total humiliation. To think he had almost been caught off guard by a loser like Lauren.
But just as he prepared to launch a furious counterattack, a heavy impact slammed into his abdomen.
Thud!
"Urgh."
A decisive blow.
Lauren had fully expected his initial strike to be blocked. William Castro was a towering 188 centimeters tall, while Lauren was a full twenty centimeters shorter. That was exactly why Lauren had targeted the abdomen the second his sword was deflected. In a swordsmanship duel, using hands and feet was perfectly legal. William swallowed a groan as a fist sank into his gut. Determined not to give his opponent a single second to breathe, Lauren immediately pressed the advantage with a follow-up attack.
Clack!
Cl-cl-clack!
'I have to keep this momentum going.'
He was different from his usual self.
Normally, Lauren's timid personality prevented him from displaying his true skills, but today, a fierce determination to win burned in his eyes. He didn't know exactly what "qualification" Roman had been talking about, but he clung to a desperate hope. If he could prove his worth by winning this swordsmanship exam, maybe—just maybe—he could become like Roman Dmitry.
The Fool of Dmitry.
The incredible transformation of a man who had once been mocked and pointed at by everyone had set Lauren's heart ablaze.
Whoosh!
Tap-tap.
It was a clean combination. Feigning a strike to the head, Lauren stepped forward and slashed at the chest. Still breathless from the blow to his gut, William barely managed to parry the attack. Seeing the match unfold completely contrary to their expectations, William's friends exchanged anxious glances. At this rate, they realized, Lauren might actually win.
Lauren could taste the victory, too. Meeting Roman had given him courage, and with that newfound strength, he was actively pushing back his nemesis.
It felt like destiny. Brimming with confidence, Lauren launched another strike.
"You little shit."
Swoosh.
The attack hit nothing but air.
It wasn't because Lauren's reach was too short. Moving with surprising fluidity, William evaded the strike and lunged straight forward.
Crack!
Thwack-thwack-thwack!
Lauren's breath caught in his throat as an explosive barrage of attacks rained down on him. Every time their wooden swords clashed, Lauren was thrown further off balance. William didn't offer him even a sliver of an opening to counter.
Lauren hadn't known. He hadn't realized that William Castro had never once gone all out against him. The moment William stopped toying with him and took the duel seriously, Lauren was rendered utterly helpless. A swordsmanship duel wasn't won simply by having good form. Overwhelmed by the sheer difference in their physical specs, Lauren could do nothing but frantically block the onslaught until his stance finally broke.
He stumbled.
It was over.
A fatal opening was exposed in an instant, and William Castro didn't miss it. He drove his attack home, and that was the last thing Lauren remembered.
Thwack!
* * *
When he opened his eyes, his surroundings were incredibly quiet.
He tried to sit up to get his bearings, but his head throbbed violently and a searing pain shot through his forearms.
"It was a near miss. The moment William's attack was about to strike your head, you instinctively raised your arm to block it. If you hadn't, you wouldn't be waking up right now, even if it was just a wooden sword."
It was the swordsmanship professor. The man who had supervised the exam had remained behind in the training ground after dismissing the rest of the students.
"...So, did I lose?"
"Of course. Did you actually expect to win against William?"
Defeat. A bitter look of disappointment washed over Lauren's face. In the end, he hadn't achieved his goal. He had wanted to proudly prove his worth, but the world wasn't so kind.
Then, the professor spoke again. "Still, you did quite well today."
Lauren's eyes widened. The swordsmanship professor was notoriously stingy with his praise. Considering the man had deliberately paired him with William Castro, Lauren had honestly assumed the professor held a grudge against him.
But to receive a compliment?
As Lauren blinked in surprise, the professor offered a rare smile.
"From what I've seen, Lauren Dmitry, your talent isn't bad at all. You have plenty of potential to grow, but you always cowered in fear and failed to show your true skills. That's exactly why I purposely paired you with William Castro—both in the last spar and in today's exam. I knew William made a habit of bullying you, but I believed you had to overcome that hurdle to ever succeed as a swordsman."
"...Are you being sincere?"
"Would I lie to a student? You need to believe in yourself a bit more. At your age, kids who are simply tall and physically strong might seem like the strongest people in the world, but in truth, there isn't much of a gap between you and William. Neither of you can use Aura. If either of you possessed some overwhelming, unreachable talent, you wouldn't be lingering here in Class D; you would have advanced to Class S like your brother. So please, don't defeat yourself before the fight even begins. In swordsmanship, if you lose the mental battle, you have already lost the duel."
It was completely unexpected. Lauren had no idea the swordsmanship professor thought so highly of him.
The pain in his arms was still severe, causing his face to grimace even as he tried to smile, but the more he chewed on the professor's words, the more a silly, genuine laugh bubbled past his lips.
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
Suddenly, he missed Roman. How would his older brother have evaluated that duel?
But no matter how much he looked around the empty training ground, Roman Dmitry was nowhere to be seen.
* * *
Crash!
"Fuck!"
William viciously kicked a chair across the lounge. As if that wasn't enough to vent his boiling rage, he began to smash whatever objects caught his eye.
"Calm down!"
"William, please, calm down!"
His friends tried to placate him, though none of them dared to actively hold him back. Once William lost his temper, there was no telling what he might do—even to those he called friends. Hadn't one of their own been severely beaten in the past just for stepping out of line? While they offered half-hearted pleas, William proceeded to completely trash the lounge.
"Lauren Dmitry. That little bastard dares to look down on me?"
The impact to his abdomen? It was nothing. It had only hurt in the moment; he was perfectly fine now. The real issue was that after showing just a momentary flash of weakness, Lauren Dmitry had looked at him as if he had already won.
"That bastard Lauren doesn't know his place. He doesn't even realize I've been going easy on him this entire time! Just because he gained a bit of momentum, he dared to look at me with those eyes. Fuck, and you guys are exactly the same! Did you actually think I would lose to a piece of trash like Lauren Dmitry?"
"No way."
"Of course we believed in you."
His friends hurriedly waved their hands in denial. They were nobles from the capital as well, but the Castro family was a full tier above their own. They couldn't afford to displease William.
William's eyes shifted, gleaming with raw murderous intent. His father had always taught him that in life, he must never allow himself to be looked down upon by those of lesser birth.
"I can't just let this slide. I'm going to break at least one of Lauren's arms."
"A-are you really going that far?"
"Yeah, that's a bit much. Don't you know who Lauren Dmitry's older brother is? It's Roman Dmitry, the man who recently defeated the Hector Kingdom. They're calling him the Hero of Cairo. If things go wrong, this could escalate into a major conflict between our families."
It was now Roman, not Rodwell, who truly represented the Dmitry family. His friends were right to be cautious. However, this immature child, who knew nothing of how the real world worked, still looked down on the Dmitry name.
"Hero of Cairo? Fuck that. What are they going to do even if I cripple Lauren? Are they going to lay a finger on me, the eldest son of the Castro family? My father and Marquis Benedict have been close friends since childhood. No matter what kind of crazy shit I pull, absolutely no one in Cairo can touch me."
Throughout his life, situations like this had occurred more than once or twice.
William Castro had faithfully followed his father's teachings, thoroughly crushing anyone who dared to slight him. Among his victims were individuals with quite a bit of renown. They had rushed in, threatening to kill William, but in the end, blocked by the harsh wall of reality, they had all knelt and begged for mercy.
That was the power of the Central Government. As long as the Castro family maintained their foothold in the Central Government, William had absolutely nothing to fear.
He sneered.
"Bring Lauren Dmitry to me right now. If he resists, knock him out. Bullying Lauren is something we've all participated in anyway, so let's make the hierarchy crystal clear this time. In the end, there are limits to a provincial noble's birth. I'll show him that even if his brother is paraded around as the Hero of Cairo, it's completely meaningless in the face of real power. I won't be satisfied until Lauren is crawling on his knees."
His friends exchanged hesitant glances, but the decision had already been made. Though they called each other friends, the political dynamics between their parents meant they ultimately served William as their absolute superior.
It was then.
"Say that again."
Swish.
Everyone snapped their heads toward the sound.
A man was standing at the entrance of the lounge. The stranger, whose face was completely unfamiliar to them, spoke with a chillingly cold expression.
"Say again what you plan to do to my brother."
* * *
The word "brother."
They instinctively knew.
'It's Roman Dmitry.'
The hero who had just returned to the capital. Even William Castro, who had been acting so high and mighty just a moment ago, found his throat running dry when actually standing face-to-face with Roman.
However, the die was already cast. Forcing a venomous glare into his eyes, William spat, "Fine, I'll tell you if you want to hear it so badly. I'm going to drag that bastard who doesn't know his place right here and—gasp?!"
Grab.
Roman's hand shot out, his fingers clamping like an iron vise around William's jaw.
There wasn't even a fraction of a second to dodge. William's face instantly drained of color, sheer terror replacing his arrogance as Roman stared down at him with dead, freezing eyes.
"Do you know what mistake you just made?"
"Mmph, mmph... mmph!"
"Bullying Lauren is fine. Lauren is a fool who doesn't even realize the kind of background and power he holds, choosing to just stupidly take the abuse. I am not a babysitter who steps in to coddle someone like that. If you bastards had stopped at bullying Lauren like usual, I might not have ever intervened. But."
Lauren. He had passed Roman's test. From the moment the boy had shown the will to stand up and fight, Roman had fully accepted Lauren as his brother.
"The problem is that I saw it. I heard your words—mocking Lauren and looking down on Dmitry. You insulted me, Roman Dmitry, and by extension, you insulted the entire Dmitry family. So, what kind of price should I extract from you now?"
Squeeze.
Roman tightened his grip.
William felt like his skull was going to crack open. His vision blurred, and he didn't even dare to launch an attack, merely flailing his arms in a desperate, pathetic struggle to break free.
Thud.
Roman released his face, letting the boy collapse to the floor. Staring down at William, who was clutching his throat and gasping for air with a deathly pale face, Roman issued a single command.
"Lead me to your family."
"...What?"
It was perfect timing. Roman had been looking for a pretext. Now that the status of the Dmitry family was rapidly changing, he needed an incident to firmly establish their new standing.
"I'd like to experience what your so-called 'real power' is. So, lead me to your family right now. If an immature child makes a mistake, shouldn't the parents be the ones to take responsibility for it?"
If only he could have turned back time, William Castro would have never, ever brought Roman Dmitry to his family's doorstep.
"Fine, you son of a bitch. Let's see if you can still spit those words when you're standing in front of my parents."
He still believed it. He still believed in the absolute difference of their births. With his face twisted in a mix of fury and humiliation, William turned and stormed out of the lounge.