Home Tutoring (3)
"You seem to be confusing Chris with Marbel. Marbel isn't that kind of person."
Marbel had earned recognition for his character from nobles and commoners alike. His Awoken Ability, Song of Growth, meant he was incapable of harming others, and with such a small power base, becoming Duke was hardly within his reach.
"That's exactly the misunderstanding."
Caroi leaned his face in close to mine.
"Listen carefully, runt. A true enemy never reveals himself to your face. Instead, he plays the good guy."
"Do you have any proof Marbel is pretending to be good?"
"A hunch."
"Just a hunch?"
"Not just a hunch — a king's hunch."
The man's eyes flashed white.
"All you can see is that clean mask of his, but I can feel the filthy, sordid impulses lurking beneath it. I can sense it clearly — his reason is walking a razor's edge against those impulses."
"No... how can you judge a man on nothing but a hunch?"
"Think it over again. Do you really think there's someone out there who walks around baring his true heart just to make your judgment easy?"
I cast my mind back to what had happened at the party a month ago.
Marbel had seemed like a good man, but his behavior that day hadn't been purely kind. When Chris attacked him, he had deliberately twisted the topic of conversation.
From me to our youngest.
Was it really necessary to mention that Father had praised the youngest's talent? Did he truly not know that hearing such a thing would send Chris into a fit?
Once the doubt began, the questions came tumbling after it, one linking to the next.
"...There's some logic to what you're saying."
"Finally, the boy learns to listen."
"But Chris is no slouch in the filthy-and-sordid department either. I know that firsthand. So if, as you say, they're both terrible people, then Chris — with the stronger Awoken Ability and the bigger power base — becomes Duke."
"Since we're on the subject of a 'king's hunch,' let me tell you one more thing."
Caroi stretched his legs out and propped them up on the desk.
"You've got quite the unusual talent, I noticed earlier. Looks like a compound Awoken Ability — and I doubt what you showed me was everything, was it?"
I neither confirmed nor denied it.
"If your rival is Chris, your abilities alone will be enough. Counting your hidden cards and your potential for growth, that is. But if your rival isn't Chris — if it's Marbel..."
If it's Marbel?
"...Train your swordsmanship. Hard. Otherwise you might find yourself in a rather annoying situation."
"And are you planning to teach me hard?"
Caroi blew smoke upward and flashed a languid smile.
"Of course, runt. Provided you can keep up with my lessons."
"I'm ready."
"Then I take it you've finished the books I gave you?"
"Of course."
I laid out, briefly, the fundamentals of swordsmanship I'd read in the primer and the basics of physical conditioning.
"Good... your foundation's already in place."
Caroi stretched luxuriously, then rose from the sofa.
"Well then. Shall we begin in earnest?"
From that day forward, the torture known as sword training began.
Some days I ran laps around the garden from morning to night; others I climbed the steps of the secondary palace up and down with heavy weights in my arms. For a long while I wasn't even allowed to touch a sword — nothing but conditioning, day after day.
After a month, I was finally given the chance to swing a blade. But even then, I could only swing it with the strength of my arms alone; the use of Daoist arts was forbidden outright.
And he didn't just teach me how to move my body, either. The place the man reported to first thing in the morning wasn't the training ground — it was the kitchen.
"What is this? Nothing but sweet garbage? Is the plan to fatten you up and make you slower than an assassin?"
Without warning, the man flew into a rage and dumped every dessert the head chef had poured his heart into straight into the trash. The pink juice that had given meaning to my life in this world was mercilessly discarded as well.
What emerged after he'd terrorized the kitchen staff into submission was a diet optimized down to the last nutrient, designed purely to build the body.
On top of that, he would add a single drop of a deeply suspicious red liquid under the name of "secret sauce." I had no idea what it was made of, but the effect was undeniable — every meal left vitality surging through my whole body.
Once I'd eaten, it was back to conditioning. And by conditioning, he meant the pure development of the flesh, with no intervention of any kind of energy whatsoever.
"Was your ability fire? Or ice? Doesn't matter which. What if you meet someone whose ability nullifies all fire? Or all ice? Or what if you run into some thug who seals every ability you have, clenches a rag between his teeth, and has a rotten temper to boot — what then, I ask you?"
According to the man's doctrine, martial technique was like insurance for one's Awoken Ability.
And technique was nothing but the pure product of blood and sweat. Cut corners, and the very meaning of training it evaporated.
Still, credit where credit was due — the man was a good teacher. We were still repeating nothing but basic conditioning, yet every session left my physical abilities growing at an almost uncanny pace. Effort produced results in kind, so the training wasn't purely miserable.
Then one day, right after a training session. I was sitting on the sofa drinking one of Caroi's suspicious concoctions when Thalia approached and spoke to me.
"It seems that man has gone back."
It was a cautious voice, unlike her.
"I owe you an apology for the other day. To my shame, I failed to restrain my personal feelings."
She bowed her head to me again and again.
Her neat purple bangs were a tangled mess. She must have swept them up hastily in the span of a moment. From someone whose composure never wavered, the sight was strikingly unfamiliar.
"Did something happen with the demons?"
"I am from the city of Lester. Land the demons took from us ten years ago."
For the demons to take the land meant that everyone who had lived there had died.
"Thalia—"
I opened my mouth to say something, but she didn't even give me the chance to offer clumsy comfort.
"It is all in the past now. The person I am today exists only to protect you, Lord Iden. I swear to you here and now that I will never repeat the same mistake."
Thalia pointed the tip of her scabbard at the floor and pressed the hilt to her forehead. I waited for her to finish her oath.
"So is Father fighting to take back the city of Lester, then?"
"He is."
"Since when?"
"Since that day, ten years ago."
"If he's been at it for ten years, who's been running the duchy's affairs?"
"An excellent question."
She nodded.
"You will become Duke in the future, Lord Iden. You should know the state of the duchy better than anyone — but surely some demon whelp... forgive me, no outsider could ever teach you such things."
Her solemn oath was already running into rough waters, barely out of port.
"My answer is that no one is running them. Since the passing of your mother, Lady Ophelia, the duchy has been left to neglect."
I thought back to the party earlier this year. The mountains of desserts no one could possibly finish.
"But... everyone seemed to be doing all right?"
"What you must bear in mind is this: the fate of House Esterzy is not the fate of the duchy."
"What do you mean?"
"The nobles of this land are vassals of the duchy, but also vassals of a far greater domain — the Pelion Empire. If House Esterzy falls, the Empire does not fall with it. And so they are, in fact, counting the days and praying for your father's ruin."
"If our house falls... a new ducal title opens up?"
"Precisely."
Contempt bled thickly from her eyes.
"His Grace knows this well. That is why, however dire the war becomes, he fights his battles with only the bare minimum of support."
"I had no idea."
I truly hadn't. That our household was a sinking one.
"That is because everyone sees you as nothing more than a child."
"Thank you, Thalia."
This was exactly what I wanted to know. Just how much information had slipped through my fingers on the sole excuse of my youth.
"What do you think of Lord Marbel? How likely is he to become Duke?"
"Almost none. His character is admirable, but his talent falls short."
She disagreed with Caroi. Then again, it seemed unlikely anyone would ever side with Caroi's opinion.
"Lord Iden!"
Just then, Vitten kicked open the door he'd only just managed to get repaired.
"Lord Iden!"
He sprinted up to me, breathing hard.
"I-incredible news!"
"Senior. Before you report to your lord, please consider slowly whether it's truly necessary — and if it was necessary, whether it absolutely had to be done this way."
"It is necessary!"
He stared at me with burning eyes.
"They've captured a lava spirit in the city!"
"A lava spirit? What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"Don't you remember telling us last time? That after eating a monster, you gained a new ability. So I gave the guild master strict instructions — if anything useful came in, to send word immediately. And just now—"
"It seems adventurers have brought in a captured lava spirit. A rare commodity indeed."
When Thalia flatly cut him off, Vitten sagged under the shock.
"Then..."
"Yes. If you have the money, it can be bought."