WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Malfoid

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◈ I Don't Need a Family ◈

Episode 40

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* * *

I gathered my white hair one last time and tied it tightly.

A wind like the fading sigh of winter chilled my exposed neck.

The sting of ice brushed against my skin, followed by a refreshing lightness.

My body felt light. This was the most comfortable outfit I had worn since coming here.

Normally, I only threw a mage's robe over an indoor dress, but it was nothing compared to a plain shirt and trousers.

“My lady, here!”

Lola beamed as she brought me the cleanest robe.

Winter was nearly over, but it was still fairly cold. I needed something to throw on.

I was about to take the robe when I stopped.

“No. I think it'd be better to go like this.”

“What? Why?”

“Wouldn't it be strange for a knight candidate to show up in a mage's robe?”

Today was the day of the basic test to select candidates for the Isherwolf Knights.

About a month had passed since I submitted my application.

I had practiced tirelessly to build a body that could pass the knight order's basic test without trouble and endure intense training, but whether there had been any meaningful change in just one month was another question.

‘Sir Adam said they look at stamina and strength.’

Those were things that took time to build, weren't they?

At least I had trained hard recently, so I thought my stamina would be decent. Strength was the problem.

Of course, Vivette was naturally strong. Strong even for a girl her age, and for an ordinary person.

‘Strong enough to knock down a gang of street thugs.’

But the people I had to compete against were aspiring knights.

In the Empire, they were anything but ordinary.

People who had held swords since they were seven or eight and devoted their lives to swordsmanship would not have ordinary bodies.

Compared to them, Vivette had never learned the sword or exercised regularly.

The people gathered there must have trained for years while waiting for this day. Could I beat them?

Especially in a woman's body.

Realistically, the odds did not seem very high.

“Even if you pass...”

Sir Adam had trailed off while watching my reaction.

He probably doubted whether I could grow into a knight capable of carrying my own weight, but that was not a problem.

‘Because I'll become an administrator, not a knight.’

The knight order was not my ultimate goal.

So I did not need to go that far.

What mattered was whether I could be selected as a candidate right now.

The knight next door thought even that was hopeless, but I disagreed.

Even Vivette, who could not use magic at all, had confidently passed the Erenston Academy entrance exam.

So why should I necessarily fail at something physical?

I boldly threw open the bolt on the front gate.

* * *

The central training ground of the House of Grand Duke Isherwolf had been opened for use as the test site.

Aspiring knights had claimed spots wherever they could and were already warming up.

Most had gathered with people they knew, but I had come from another city and knew no one, so I merely surveyed the atmosphere from one side.

‘Oh? The range of applicants is broader than I thought.’

I had expected most of them to be well-trained young men.

But there were more women than expected, and even children young enough that it was difficult to tell whether they were boys or girls.

It was something one could only see in Isherwolf, where applicants were not screened through paperwork.

Though I did not know how the group would look after the test.

‘I was worried I'd stand out too much, but that was unnecessary.’

“One line! Form one line in front of me!”

The knights of the grand ducal house directing the crowd had long since developed deep furrows in their brows.

“Names! Places of origin! We are checking them!”

Their voices were as forceful as soldiers'.

The problem was that, to the applicants, they were little more than noise amid the hum of the crowd.

There were many people. Far, far too many. So many that they were difficult to control.

House Isherwolf was a prestigious family that countless people wanted to test themselves against, and it had accepted all those applicants. Naturally, the crowd was enormous.

“Name.”

Before I knew it, my turn had come.

The knight in charge flipped through a file filled with applicants' names and asked dryly.

“Vivette Ashwilt.”

The knight’s indifferent hand stopped.

Then, flip.

The knight, who had been bent over the last page without a word, slowly looked up.

“Ashwilt?”

A miracle happened in that instant.

The crowd, as loud as a swollen river during the rainy season, fell silent as if someone had turned off a tap.

All because of the name Ashwilt.

But it did not last long. Whispers burst out everywhere like a waterfall.

“Ashwilt? From the Erenston region? Why is she here?”

“Isn't that a family of mages? Are they trying their hand at swordsmanship now too?”

“No, is that what matters? A ducal family. A member of a ducal family wants to serve under Isherwolf?”

“Wait, if it's Vivette...”

The last voice was soft and sweet, as though it had been mixed with honey.

But its meaning was nothing like that.

“Isn't she a direct-line Ashwilt who can't use magic at all?”

Vivette really was famous. They recognized her standing from her name alone.

Even though I had only visited Plaford a few times.

“What, direct line?”

“You mean she's the daughter of Ashwilt, the supreme rulers among mages?”

As the chatter dragged on, the knight who had remained silent until then suddenly shouted.

“Quiet! Silence!”

Rubbing a deeply furrowed brow, the knight finally let me go.

“Next.”

I left that spot, but it did not end there.

Persistent gazes followed me everywhere afterward.

Ambiguous looks that could not be called friendly.

Staring would have been one thing, but some people were bold enough to come up and speak to me.

“My lady, you're the Ashwilt duke's daughter?”

She looked about Harris's age.

Her cheeks were especially rosy, and the soft fullness beneath her eyes stood out.

The way she smiled with her eyes while examining me so closely was somewhat uncomfortable.

“That is right.”

“Oh my! I've wanted to meet you so badly. A young lady from a family of mages.”

The young woman's high-pitched voice quickly drew attention from those around us.

The applicant covered her mouth in an exaggerated gesture like a stage actress and seemed delighted to see me.

‘Even outside Erenston, noblewomen who use magic can't be that rare. What is so remarkable about it?’

For a moment, I wondered that because she was reacting as if she had met a fairy, but before I realized it, I was correcting her.

“Ah, I think you are mistaken. I am not a mage.”

Had she not heard what people were saying earlier? Everyone had been whispering about that behind my back.

“Oh, really? But you're an Ashwilt.”

The woman put on a pitying expression.

It was deliberate, shallow sympathy.

‘Now I understand why she approached me.’

Whether she was trying to put pressure on a rival applicant or indulging some vulgar curiosity about a duke's daughter who rarely appeared in society, I knew there was no goodwill beneath it.

She probably wanted to put me in a bad mood. But she had chosen the wrong target.

It had not even been two months since I entered this body, but I had heard such things so often that I had long since become immune to them.

Even if Vivette had heard those words instead of me, they would not have drawn much reaction from her.

Because the person speaking was not a mage either.

She would have simply found it ridiculous for a moment. Vivette did not feel strongly about non-mages.

Despite my unruffled response, the woman seemed determined to see things through and smiled slyly.

“Is that why you came here? Since magic is not an option, you thought you'd pick up a sword instead?”

That was probably what she really wanted to say.

I glanced around, but everyone merely watched as though they found it amusing. No one stepped in.

A group of girls around her age, presumably her friends, only giggled behind her.

‘They say knights especially dislike mages. It must be true.’

Sir Adam had told me that.

That was likely why he had been so rude at first too.

The reason was probably inferiority.

No matter how strong a knight was, they were still only human. They could not dare contend against a battle mage.

So knights regarded mages as rivals, almost like enemies, though regrettably, it was one-sided competitiveness.

Mages were simply too exceptional.

Knights were not the only profession that considered mages rivals.

Craftspeople who produced all kinds of goods had no way to compete with the delicate work of magical engineering.

Doctors too were helpless before the sacred touch of healing mages.

Tired of enduring all that resentment, mages left the cities and soon built one of their own.

That was the beginning of Erenston.

That was how deep the hostility and inferiority ran.

Had I not felt the same way?

Toward people who walked perfectly well on two legs, so confident in their bodies that they had come forward to compete boldly against male applicants even in women's bodies?

Me, Choi Eunseo, a muscular dystrophy patient who could not walk, sit up, or even breathe, and had collapsed pitifully in my youth?

I must have smiled without realizing it. Their expressions stiffened.

“My lady? What is so funny?”

“You said something so obvious that I couldn't help it.”

“Hmph, so that's true? You came to pick up a sword at least.”

The young ladies aspiring to become swordswomen gave irritating, hyena-like snickers.

“Of course I came to the knight order to hold a sword. Surely I didn't come here to learn some other skill.”

The fingers that had been stroking her tied-up brown hair froze.

“I came to learn the sword too. Just like all of you.”

“Ah, haha...”

At a loss for words, the young ladies only twisted their hair and gave awkward little laughs.

What could they say to someone who had only understood half of what they meant?

Still, after a beat, she responded.

“Oh ho ho, I think you are mistaken about something, my lady. This is not a place to learn, you know. It is a place to prove the skill you've built up so far.”

Even after I had let it go this kindly, she kept pressing the issue.

‘I would like to end this draining conversation now.’

I looked directly into the ringleader's eyes.

“Then I'll prove my skill.”

“Oh my.”

The atmosphere turned strange, and interest flickered in the applicant's eyes.

“I am very curious to see what your skill is like, my lady.”

“It must be remarkable, if you were confident enough to set foot in Isherwolf.”

“Next group! Enter!”

‘...What am I doing arguing with children?’

This was not the time to be doing this. The test was about to begin.

Rather than waste my energy on something pointless, it would be better to use it in the test ahead.

I could not be sure of passing unless I gave it everything I had.

* * *

“The test is simple. Score at least forty percent of the full marks in each category and at least sixty percent of the total score across all categories, and you will pass.”

There were only two categories in all: stamina and strength.

‘If it's stamina, I won't fall behind. I should be able to get over sixty without trouble. But...’

Strength was the issue.

Vivette's body had more stamina than I had expected.

They said mages had good stamina even without exercising because their circulatory systems developed in order to handle mana. Perhaps it was the same principle.

Her mana circulatory system had been normal until she was three years old.

Besides, I had greatly improved my stamina over the past month.

‘When I trained for a long-distance run with Sir Adam a few days ago, I ran almost evenly with him.’

If I was comparable to Sir Adam, an active knight, training would not be a major problem. The same went for this test.

But.

‘Can I lift that?’

Behind the knight wearing an examiner's armband stood barbells with a black sheen that looked especially menacing.

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