WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 140

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Alone, I Learned It (2)

The day of Illia Lindsay and Grayson's match.

Airen Farreira wasn't the only one who'd been shaken watching the two of them duel.

Judith headed straight back to her personal training grounds the moment the match ended, her face set hard, and Brett Lloyd picked up his sword to support her.

Days passed like that.

Watching Judith throw herself into training with that same burning hunger, the blue haired young man tossed out a line.

"Hey."

"Hah, haah... what?"

"It's time to eat."

"...Is it?"

Judith glanced up at Brett's words. The sky had already gone dark without her noticing.

She nodded and walked toward the bench in the corner of the training ground.

She meant to eat the bread and sausage she'd set aside earlier, but her classmate's voice caught her again.

"Don't just choke that down. Let's go out and eat something proper today."

"I don't have ti..."

"The hell you don't have time."

"What? You little..."

Judith's eyes narrowed sharply upward. For someone already this on edge, that kind of tone was more than she could stand.

But Brett kept going, unmoved.

"Why are you saving time in the first place?"

"What?"

"Why are you cutting corners even on meals. Is it to get stronger, or do you just like hurting yourself like some pain junkie pervert? Is it the second one? You just want to suffer a little longer?"

"Why are you being like this again?"

"You're the one being like this. Judith, I'll say it once, so listen carefully."

Brett Lloyd took a step forward. Or rather, he closed the distance toward Judith.

Close enough now to reach out and touch her, he looked at her with serious eyes and said,

"First option, keep spending all day doing meaningless nonsense with zero focus, exactly like you're doing now. Second option, eat a proper meal, clear your head properly, shake off all the useless emotions and stray thoughts, and throw yourself fully into your swordsmanship."

"........."

"Which one. Pick fast."

"...Second one. Sorry."

Judith apologized without a fight.

Seeing her mild reaction, Brett let out a quiet sigh of relief inside.

He'd been with Judith for nearly seven years now, so he knew exactly how rough a state she was in.

Whatever negative emotion was churning inside her was probably about to boil over. Of course, Judith was the type to turn even that into fuel to keep pushing forward.

'This time's a little different, though.'

Illia Lindsay.

And Airen Farreira.

Thinking of those two names, Brett almost sighed for real, but he held it back just in time.

Those two were those two.

He was himself.

And Judith was Judith too. Brett knew that no matter how hard this was on her, she'd pull herself together and move forward in the end.

But if he could help even a little along the way...

A word or two, enough to let her catch her breath like this. That much couldn't hurt.

'Right. It's not like I have some ulterior motive.'

Brett nodded to himself.

Finding a decent restaurant, scoping out a dessert shop to hit afterward, all of it was just so Judith could get some proper rest.

If that let her keep training more efficiently, that was reward enough.

"What are you doing? Standing there like an idiot."

Judith's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Brett kept his expression steady and answered.

"Nothing much. Go wash up, let's eat. I've got a good place in mind."

"You're paying?"

"Yeah."

"Is it expensive?"

"...Yeah."

"Oh, nice. Guess I'll look forward to it."

She turned, visibly more at ease now, her expression much brighter.

Watching her, Brett's blank face finally softened into a faint smile.

Of course, it didn't last long. The instant he thought someone might see, he wiped the smile away and looked pointedly somewhere else.

And that was when he found Airen Farreira standing there.

"...When did you get here?"

"Just now. Something good happen?"

"...Just remembered a funny story I heard a while back."

"I see."

Airen nodded.

His expression carried not a shred of doubt.

Brett let out a small breath, and Airen kept talking.

"Judith's around too, right?"

"She is. Why?"

"Thought we could grab dinner together. There's something I want to talk about, and something I want to ask."

"........."

"Oh, wait, did you already eat?"

"...No. Yeah, let's eat together."

Brett nodded a beat late and headed into the building to wash up.

"........."

Airen felt that same strange atmosphere again, for some reason.

But he didn't dwell on it long. His mind was already on what he was about to bring up.

A little while later, the three Krono trainees made their way through a somewhat awkward silence to the restaurant Brett had scoped out.

"........."

And then Airen Farreira's shocking statement dropped them into an even more awkward, heavier silence.

'He's never... learned Aura control?'

'So everything he's shown us so far, all of it, self taught?'

Silence.

Brett Lloyd turned the words over carefully in that quiet.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

Ever since his time as a probationary trainee, Airen had spent five straight years locked away in that Otherworldly Realm space or whatever it was.

There would have been no time for anyone to teach him anything.

And yet the thought had never once crossed Brett's mind, because the swordsmanship Airen had shown, the whole concept of it including his aura control, had been so outstanding.

As if he'd already learned it from someone.

The moment that thought fully landed, Brett felt goosebumps rise on his skin.

'If this is what he's like self taught, with no instruction at all, then add Krono-style Aura control theory on top of that...'

Of course, it wasn't like Krono's approach to aura held some singular, irreplaceable secret.

It was just the commonly known Foundational Trio and Advanced Trio with a handful of original interpretations layered in.

And there was a good chance Airen already knew most of it.

But there was a real difference between building a foundation on theory refined over generations and then stacking experience on top of it, versus piling things on haphazardly with no system at all.

Maybe...

Airen, once he learned Krono's theory...

Brett's thoughts were sinking deeper when.

Screech.

"Ah, it's kind of hot in here. I'll step out for a second."

"........."

"I'll be quick, so wait here. Brett, don't touch my food. You're dead if you do."

Judith rattled that off fast, her voice a touch too high, then walked out of the restaurant.

Airen watched her retreating back with a complicated expression.

Brett's face looked much the same.

He glanced back and forth between the direction Judith had disappeared and Airen, clearly on edge, then let out a breath and stood up.

"I'll be right back."

"Okay. I'll wait here."

Brett was already moving out the door before Airen even finished speaking.

'Where'd she go?'

Out on the street, he scanned the area fast.

But there was no sign of Judith.

It had only been a short stretch of time, but someone already swallowed up by the crowd wasn't easy to find.

Damn it.

Wish I had a Sorcerer's instincts right about now.

Thinking that to himself, Brett moved quickly through the street, not caring who he drew attention from. And as he went, he kept thinking.

Would she be okay?

Probably not.

So what was he supposed to do about it.

Knock some sense into her the way she'd done to him?

Not exactly an appealing option.

But it was also true that nothing better came to mind, so Brett braced himself to be hated for it and quickened his pace even more.

About ten minutes later.

The moment he spotted Judith sitting alone on a bench in a stretch of deep shadow, whatever plan he'd had to shake some sense into her got shoved aside.

Liquid trailing down her cheek.

Brett watched, holding his breath, as hot tears dripped one after another onto her knees, and then a voice came, thick like it was underwater.

"Saying I'd beat Illia. That was a lie."

"........."

"I knew it didn't make sense. I knew it was ridiculous. It's just, Airen said it so casually, saying something completely insane like it was nothing, and so... I didn't want to lose to him, so I said the same thing, but I knew it wasn't going to happen. Not for me, and not for Airen either. But then..."

That bastard actually did it.

Judith paused there for a moment.

The tears were still falling. She let out a breath, then kept going.

"It really doesn't make sense, right? How do you beat a Master. Even four years wouldn't be enough, let alone four months, and even if I trained for seven years starting now and became a Sword Master at twenty five, that'd make me one of the greatest geniuses on the continent. On the same level as Hall Master Ian... that's how insane it'd have to be. It doesn't make sense. Honestly it's absurd. It's like throwing a tantrum."

"But Airen, that bastard, he actually took that absurd thing seriously and went after it."

"While I was doubting, not believing, just going through the motions and pretending to work hard."

"While I spent more time drowning in inferiority and pretending to train than actually training with any real focus."

"He was seriously thinking about how to beat Illia, looking for a way, putting in the effort..."

"Forget talent, I couldn't even compete with him on mindset. Hah, hah, ugh! Ugh, fuck..."

"Calm down."

Judith's emotions spiked even harder. Brett moved closer and reached out a hand to steady her.

Even with his hand on her back, the tears kept coming, and her words weren't finished either.

"You know what's even more pathetic?"

"........."

"When Airen brought up wanting to know about aura control... for a second, I thought about not telling him."

Brett wasn't surprised.

It was an understandable thing to think.

That was just how people were. Even with someone you were close to, when your own pride is on the line, you can't help getting small about it.

Someone as competitive as Judith, probably even more so.

Which meant he could understand the pain she must be feeling too.

She had a rough personality, cursed like breathing, and had a real talent for making people mad, but...

The Judith he knew was someone with a straight backbone.

Not the type to bring someone down through some petty, festering grudge instead of honest competition.

"........."

A gloom so heavy it felt like it was sinking straight through the ground.

In the middle of it, patting Judith's back, Brett racked his brain.

What should he say.

What kind of comfort could he even offer.

Nothing came to mind. Not a single word surfaced, like he'd suddenly turned into an idiot. The anxiety on his face kept building.

Then.

An unexpected line came out of Judith's mouth.

"I'll teach Airen. I'll be the one to do it."

"...You will?"

"Yeah. I'll do it. I'm doing it no matter what."

She wiped her face with both hands. It didn't do much good. The tears were still falling.

Still, it was a better sight than when he'd first found her.

At least, it looked that way to Brett.

"If I keep carrying around this small minded feeling, I'm going to end up too pathetic to live with myself. So... I'll do it."

"........."

"Got it? Huh? Huh? Answer me, now."

Lifting her chin like she was trying to look composed, Judith punched the classmate beside her.

It wasn't a light tap, it actually hurt, so Brett had no choice but to nod.

'Came here planning to smack some sense into her, and here I am getting smacked again.'

He turned his head and looked at Judith, still hitting him.

Her eyes, puffy from crying, looked pretty rough in the short time since he'd found her. One corner of his mouth curled up on its own.

"Your face looks awful. Well, it always did."

"You crazy bastard..."

Thwack!

Thwack!

The force behind her fists got a lot stronger. Sharp enough that it was hard to just laugh off as playing around.

Even so, Brett Lloyd never stopped smiling.

A strange thought, but...

Getting hit felt a whole lot easier on the heart than doing the hitting.

* * *

"If you can't keep up properly, I'll beat some sense into you the Krono way. So get your head straight."

Watching Judith growl threateningly, Airen found himself a little surprised.

He'd assumed Brett would be the one teaching him, not her.

'What's going on in her head?'

He studied her eyes closely, but couldn't tell. The thoughts and feelings tangled up inside them were too complicated to read.

Still, one thing was certain in the middle of it all.

Right now, in this moment, he needed to give it everything he had.

Was it about respecting his teacher?

That wasn't the reason.

'If I slack off even a little... they'll catch up to me right away.'

Illia Lindsay wasn't the only one he couldn't afford to underestimate.

Brett Lloyd and Judith were both people he could never let his guard down around.

"I'll put everything I've got into it."

"Hmph. Obviously you will."

And so, twenty seventh cohort official trainee Airen Farreira came to formally begin studying Krono style aura control a little later than most.

Forty days passed from that point on.

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