WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈
Chapter 24: Ambush
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Lady Noel had a hobby of collecting alcohol, or so Aiden had vaguely known for some time. Even her office was decorated with all kinds of liquor.
Still, he had never heard that she enjoyed it enough to get this drunk.
“What brings you to my room?”
The strange thing was that, even in this state, she had retained enough reason to hold a conversation.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, idly swaying a glass in her hand and smiling sweetly, she had a gentleness that was impossible to imagine from her usual self.
'She gets kind of cute when she's drunk.'
Normally, she was so stiff and exacting about every little thing that she could almost seem rigid. With her mood softened like this, she looked remarkably brighter by comparison.
“Um...”
The moment Aiden opened his mouth to say something, a glass was set down in front of him with a thump.
Then liquor so strong he could smell it from there was poured into it in a steady stream.
“Would you like a drink too, Mr. Aiden?”
“... I'll pass.”
“Ah, why?”
“...”
He took that back.
She did not become cute when drunk. She was simply the type with terrible drinking habits.
Perhaps it was a reaction to living like a model soldier straight out of a textbook.
Still, she did not press him any further. Instead, she emptied the entire glass she had poured for him into her own mouth. That, too, felt like her.
She never crossed a line. She was kind and good-hearted by nature, a decent person made entirely of responsibility.
“Has anything happened to you yesterday or today?”
“... Pardon?”
“Mr. Aiden, you're someone I brought here. Shouldn't I be responsible for you? If anything happens, please make sure to tell me.”
... Even while horribly drunk, the things she said suited that impression of her perfectly.
“Lady Noel.”
“Yes?”
“Why do people call you a butcher?”
He could not help honestly wondering.
How had she earned such an insulting title, one so utterly unfitting for her?
... Lady Noel froze completely.
'It is rude, though.'
Come to think of it.
The Prince had used that word to pressure her at the banquet, and Katia had used it to thoroughly get under Noel's skin. It was certainly something she found unpleasant to hear.
And if it would be rude no matter how he asked, Aiden preferred being direct.
“...”
After remaining still for a long time, Noel finally spoke in a tightly choked voice.
“... On the battlefield, I killed the most people.”
“Isn't that honorable for a soldier?”
“Because I killed anyone.”
“...”
“Anyone holding a weapon and intending to keep fighting... It didn't matter who they were.”
Noel trailed off and poured herself another drink.
... He could guess the sentence omitted between the lines.
He could imagine it.
The Coalition War had been an unprecedented all-out war, with every nation on the continent fighting for survival. When a desperate country was driven to the brink of defeat, the first things it forgot were humanity and morality.
He did not need to see it to know what such countries would do to hold out a little longer.
Conscripted soldiers who had not even been properly trained.
People who had once held books and tools instead of weapons.
He vaguely recalled hearing of a country that had even conscripted child soldiers.
“...”
As a knight on the battlefield, Noel must have cut them all down.
Lionheart.
An honorific awarded to the knight who always stood at the very front of the battlefield and smashed through enemy lines.
But, thinking about it.
It also meant she had been better than anyone at serving as a human butcher.
That insulting title, Butcher, which changed her demeanor whenever she heard it, must have felt like someone digging into that wound and pouring salt into it.
He could understand why she drank herself senseless like this.
Every time she heard that word.
The things she wanted to forget, nightmares left gathering dust in a corner of her memory, would come rushing back all at once.
“If the fighting goes on for too long...”
Noel poured more liquor.
Aiden's gaze fixed on her fingertips.
“Only more people die...”
They trembled. She seemed to be barely forcing strength into them.
Her face had gone completely pale. The corners of her eyes kept twitching.
She had held herself together despite pouring down all that alcohol, yet she seemed unable to even support herself properly when this subject came up.
“... If everyone fears me, then at least more people will surrender...”
Lionheart. A brave human butcher. The Butcher who killed anyone who challenged her.
“I rushed in first, killed the most people, ended the fighting as quickly as I could, so I could reduce the number of people dying, even a little...”
Clearly not even knowing what she was saying herself, Noel continued rambling.
Her hands shook as though she had tremors, unable to stop. The alcohol pouring into the glass gave off a nauseatingly sharp smell.
“I, um, so...”
“Yes.”
Just before the liquor overflowed, Aiden caught her wrist.
“I understand.”
“...”
Noel blinked blankly.
“You've been through a lot.”
Regardless, Aiden continued calmly.
“This doesn't seem like something we should discuss while you can barely think straight, so I'll keep it simple.”
As the Prince had said before.
Noel might have done terrible things in the course of the war.
He also understood that Noel had been involved in some kind of incident with the Prince and the Lord Protector, who had been her teacher.
Even so.
There was only one conclusion Aiden could draw from her intentions and actions.
“You've worked hard.”
“...”
“I'm afraid I have nothing else to say.”
Noel stared at Aiden with wide eyes for a long time.
For a long time.
For a very long time.
As if something in her mind had finally cleared.
“... Thank you.”
The answer slipped out in a deeply embarrassed voice.
Then.
“No, wait...”
Before Aiden could stop her, Noel swallowed the entire glass of strong liquor in one go.
Unable to bear the awkward atmosphere, she seemed determined to knock herself unconscious...
“...”
As if that had truly been the final blow, Noel collapsed onto the bed as though she had lost consciousness. Aiden sighed.
“Mr. Aiden... I'll protect you...”
Aiden quietly covered Noel with a blanket as she mumbled in her sleep.
“Good grief.”
If Katia was openly immature, then this woman was simply too hard on herself.
Aiden looked around the room.
'... I should at least clean up.'
It was probably necessary to preserve her usual image.
▣
-System Message
▶ You handle the Sub Quest wisely.
▶ Target “Noel Astria Seamus”'s Affinity increases.
▶ Bond Level increases from Level 5 to Level 6.
▶ You receive one additional skill copy!
▶ The accumulated Bond is sufficiently high. The application method of “Weaver of Fate” will soon change!
The one fortunate thing was that, even though they had spoken while she was drunk, it seemed to have helped improve Noel's mood quite a bit.
'... I have three copies from Lady Noel alone.'
He had been saving his copies because he had not needed to use them, and he had already accumulated three.
He had two from Katia as well. If he included the Prince's unused skill copy and the still-locked Skill Shop, he still had plenty of room to grow.
'At this point...'
It would be fair to say he had gathered most of the “ingredients” needed to deal with the upcoming Act One, the Ghost Knight Incident.
Though his skill at cooking those ingredients, in other words, his combat technique, was still woefully lacking.
Still, the hopeful part was that even that seemed to be improving somewhat.
“You die a little less now.”
Meyer said that as he put away his sword.
His voice was remarkably refreshed for someone who had just split Aiden in two.
“Didn't you only die around eighty times today?”
“...”
“I haven't seen someone improve this quickly in just a few days very often.”
Aiden lay sprawled across the floor, silently glaring at Meyer.
'This is ridiculous.'
There was truly no way to deal with Meyer.
Aiden raised his physical abilities with Pure White Ki, threatened Meyer with Divine Power, and even tried escaping with Spiritual Power, but none of it worked.
The Ki was torn apart like cardboard. Divine Power was scattered as though it were a campfire, and he was not even given time to concentrate on Spiritual Power.
Meyer closed in and split him in two.
He died, died, and died again.
Meyer was so obviously not fighting seriously that Aiden could not understand how he was still capable of doing this.
“...”
The funny thing was that Meyer was not lying when he said Aiden had improved.
On the first day, he had died more than a hundred times.
And Aiden himself knew why.
-System Message
▶ The effect of the skill “Analysis” activates.
▶ Target “Meyer Belford”'s combat skills are on par with this skill's level. Analysis of his martial style is impossible!
▶ Instead, the skill gains a function that analyzes the opponent's “weaknesses.”
▶ Efficient response methods are automatically learned.
Analysis itself was a skill copied from Meyer. He could not directly learn Meyer's martial style, but he was still somehow picking up ways to counter it. Thanks to that, it felt as though methods of dealing with Meyer were being automatically imprinted on his body.
And if he did not put them into practice immediately, he died. The learning efficiency was incredible.
Even with all those advantages, the gap between them was so overwhelming that his head still went flying every time.
As that thought crossed his mind, his body, which had been split in two, fused back together with a crack.
Inside the Mindscape, his body recovered this quickly no matter how he died.
He had hated it so much that it made him shudder the first time he experienced it, but after dying dozens or hundreds of times over several days, he was getting somewhat used to it.
“... But even if this is training, do I really need to feel every sensation this vividly?”
Every death was painfully vivid.
Being cut in two by a sword, burned by Divine Power, having his body explode from Ki, being turned into a beehive by Spiritual Power. Every single one was pain so vivid that it felt entirely real.
“You do.”
But Meyer answered firmly.
“Listen, fledgling. Do you know why I became a great knight whose name went down in history?”
“Pardon?”
“Because my training was harder than actual combat to a fucking awful degree.”
“...”
“I went through hellish training like that and optimized everything. Now I am personally training you one-on-one, so don't complain. We're doing this because you need it.”
... Well.
What Meyer said was reasonable, but was Aiden not simply suffering right now? Aiden was still only getting cut in half by Meyer over and over.
“When I say you've improved a lot, I don't mean it as empty praise.”
“Pardon?”
“Trust me. If you got into a fight right now, you could at least pull your own weight.”
“... Based on what?”
What kind of training was this when he was not actually learning anything and was merely getting split apart again and again?
“Yes, that's the point.”
The words dropped as though Meyer had read his thoughts.
“You've died in every conceivable way over the last few days, right?”
“I have.”
“Think of it as earning that many spare lives.”
“...”
“I can't blame you for looking like you don't believe me. It's true.”
“It just feels like torture...”
“No.”
Meyer answered with a snort.
“It isn't just torture. It's valuable torture.”
... So even Meyer admitted it was torture.
▣
And after spending every night having experiences like that, it was only natural for someone to say this.
“Mr. Aiden. Have you been sleeping properly at night?”
Lady Noel asked him worriedly in her office.
Anyone would be concerned seeing Aiden grow more haggard by the day.
“... Yes, somehow.”
“If there is anything inconvenient, please tell me. I will improve it however I can.”
“... It's all right.”
Unfortunately, it was something no one could help with.
Even knowing that he would not die and that the sensations were artificial, repeatedly going through such experiences could not possibly be good for his mental health.
His body was fine, but it felt as though his mind reached its limit every day. As if it were drying up.
Still, dissatisfied with his answer, Noel pursed her lips and stared at him.
Aiden forced a smile to show her that he was all right, but Noel shook her head.
They held each other's gaze for a moment.
Perhaps because the conversation had started, Noel seemed to want to say something else. After hesitating briefly, she opened her mouth.
“Mr. Aiden.”
“Yes.”
She kept glancing at him as she chewed on her lip.
“You came to my room when I was completely drunk, did you not?”
“I did.”
“Did I do anything improper then?”
“...”
“... I've been told since long ago that I have terrible drinking habits.”
From the sound of it, she did not remember a single thing that had happened.
Should he call that fortunate or unfortunate?
'Well...'
Could he call it improper?
She had shown him several sides of herself she would never reveal while sober.
“... No.”
Aiden scratched his cheek and honestly said what came to mind.
She seemed far too worried, so he intended to put it as nicely as possible.
“If anything, I think you were cute.”
“...”
“Lady Noel?”
“...”
“Lady Noel...?”
“...”
There was no answer.
Lady Noel only pressed her lips together stubbornly, pulled her hat low over her face, and turned toward her desk.
Still, the heat rising all the way to the tips of her ears was impossible to hide.
“Mr. Aiden.”
After staying silent like that for a long time, Noel glared at him with a somewhat resentful look.
“That is forbidden.”
“...”
“Please refrain from saying things like that.”
“... Did it upset you?”
“It didn't upset me, but it is forbidden.”
“...”
“If you must know, I liked it, but don't say it anyway.”
Why was it forbidden?
... Even so, honestly admitting that she liked it was very like her.
'She's weaker to praise than I thought.'
Someone in her position being weak to praise was probably rare. The more he learned about her, the more oddities he found...
“Mr. Aiden, Lady Noel!”
Before he could dwell on that impression, the office door flew open. It was Stella, looking far more rushed than usual.
“Lady Stella? What is it...”
“Her Highness Katia has gone missing!”
Aiden shot to his feet in alarm.
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