WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 143

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I'll Be Back (1)

"Judith."

"Yeah. Lady Judith, that's me."

Judith answered in a proud voice.

Her tone rode higher than usual, her whole reaction bigger.

Airen worked out the reason right away. His senses, sharper lately than they used to be, had caught a smell that didn't belong.

"Have you been drinking?"

"Yeah, I drank. Not much though, just this much."

Judith narrowed her eyes and held her thumb and forefinger apart, leaving barely any gap between them.

It looked like she meant to say she'd barely had any, but Airen didn't buy it.

Smirking, he stepped closer and forced her fingers wider apart.

"Looks more like this much to me."

"No, I really didn't drink that much. My head's clear, my body's fine... look, I'm walking straight and everything."

Judith frowned and marched forward in an exaggeratedly straight line to prove her point. That wasn't the end of it either.

When Airen kept looking at her with obvious doubt, she launched into a light back tumbling routine.

"See? I'm totally fine."

"...Sure."

Airen nodded, though he clearly didn't mean it.

Doing that kind of thing in the first place already proved she wasn't fine, but it wasn't anything worth worrying over either.

He watched quietly as she kept tumbling, and when she showed no sign of stopping even after a good while, he just sat down on the floor.

That made Judith stop immediately.

She walked over with a face like nothing had happened and plopped down right beside him.

"....."

"What."

"Nothing."

"Okay."

Airen gave up trying to understand Judith.

Her personality was hard to read at the best of times, and with a little alcohol in her system, it only got worse.

'Well, might as well take a break, then.'

Still sitting on the floor, Airen thought it over.

Ever since the match against Ricardo Pinto ended, he'd spent every waking moment, except for eating and sleeping, entirely focused on forging an Aura Sword.

But the Sorcery sword kept right on drinking up his aura, indifferent to whatever trouble he was having.

That had gotten him wondering again whether he should switch to a different blade, and he'd actually tried it. Of course, it failed.

Maybe it was because the sword didn't fit his hand the way the Sorcery sword did, but the results turned out even worse than when he used it.

As that pattern repeated itself, a quiet unease had started sprouting in Airen's heart.

'I've got a sword that can hold an Aura Sword, and eyes that can see straight through an opponent's insides.'

'My swordsmanship's improved a ton, and my total aura's clearly grown too. I can actually see a path to winning now.'

'But is that really enough?'

'Illia's never once shown her full strength. Even the Sky Sword, she hasn't used it seriously.'

'Can I actually win?'

'Me?'

'Really?'

A flood of thoughts chased each other's tails and gnawed at him.

It was strange.

Back when the gap between them had been absurdly wide, he'd been able to throw himself into training without a single thought clouding his head. But for the past two weeks, focusing fully on his sword had gotten hard.

Maybe it was the pressure.

The closer the day came, the more the weight of this decisive battle pressed down on him, and that weight kept feeding a growing fear of losing.

A desperate wish could summon up impossible resolve, but it worked the other way too, planting a matching fear right alongside it.

Longing for victory.

And anxiety over defeat.

He was fighting hard to keep the scale from tipping too far toward the latter when Judith, who'd been staring blankly into empty space beside him, spoke up.

"Don't be anxious."

"...How'd you know?"

"Idiot. You think I wouldn't notice? It's written all over you."

"It shows?"

Airen said, flustered.

As always, he wasn't exactly someone whose face gave much away.

He'd kept his emotions hidden since childhood, and that old habit had stuck, meaning nobody besides Lulu could really read what was going on in his head.

'How did she figure it out?'

'Was it really that obvious?'

'Am I really that anxious right now?'

The stone Judith had thrown sent ripples through his heart.

Airen scrambled to find something to say back, but the words just circled in his mouth without ever making it out.

Judith must have found that funny, because she smirked once and spoke again.

"You're a real bastard, you know that?"

"....."

"Seriously, a real piece of work. Made second place in the fencing hall in barely a year, then swiped the guts right out of my own swordsmanship without blinking, then got strong enough in four months to give a Sword Master trouble, so fast it doesn't even make sense, I mean it's insane... no, seriously, this is ridiculous. You bastard, do you think that's normal? Huh? Say something. Say something already."

Judith's eyes went round and furious as she huffed and slugged Airen's upper arm.

There was too much force behind it to call it playful, and his upper body actually rocked back with each hit.

Airen said nothing. It felt awkward either to apologize or to tell her to stop, so he just let her get her hits in.

That let Judith vent as much as she wanted, and once she'd gotten it out of her system, her face finally relaxed.

The shift in her mood came startlingly fast, and while Airen was still caught off guard by it, she added one more thing.

"Still... I can't hate you."

"....."

"Illia's probably the same way, that little brat."

That was the truth.

The Airen Farreira that Judith saw was someone nobody could bring themselves to hate.

She was proof enough of that herself.

Back when she'd been just another piece of trash mixed in with the slum's other trash, she'd treated everyone like garbage and looked at everything with nothing but contempt.

But Airen had pulled her out of that water.

Right in the middle of the Mid-Term Evaluation, no less, the one that decided whether she'd get into Krono for real.

And it wasn't just her.

She'd heard it from Lulu and Kubharu too.

He'd soothed Lulu's heart after she'd been shunned over superstition, stepped up to save merchants who had nothing to do with him, and now he was pouring blood and sweat into fixing Illia's wounded heart.

In short, Airen Farreira was a creature capable of acting and thinking sincerely for someone else's sake.

"Well... I don't really know what shape Illia's in. We were never that close... but I bet it's a lot like how I used to be. Head full of nothing but negative thoughts, no room to breathe, tunnel vision, refusing to listen to anyone else no matter what. And suffering the whole time because of it. So you're probably trying to beat some sense into her with a sword, aren't you? Same as me."

"But it's fine, even if you don't win."

"It's fine because it's you. Not just talk, someone who actually, genuinely cares about other people."

"Illia's bound to figure it out no matter what. Why you scraped and clawed your way up here, skipping meals and everything. Whether it was to make her look bad, or because you actually give a damn about her."

"So..."

Thwap!

Judith stood up and smacked Airen on the back with her open palm.

Looking at her training-mate, who was staring back at her with a slightly dazed expression, she smiled and said.

"Just give it your all. Then there's nothing to worry about."

"....."

"Ah, but try to win anyway if you can. She's even more annoying than you are."

With that, Judith brushed the dust off her backside and left the training room.

She felt eyes on her back but didn't turn around. It looked cooler that way.

Once she'd closed the door and stepped outside, she took a deep breath.

"Hoooo! Haaaah..."

Maybe it was the cool night air rushing in and out.

Her mood felt pretty refreshed.

Of course, she knew that wasn't really the reason.

Remembering an old promise, Judith murmured quietly to herself.

"I said I'd help. And I did."

On the day she'd let that petty resentment toward Airen fester in her heart, an old memory had suddenly resurfaced.

She'd promised, hadn't she, that once she got into the fencing hall, she'd make up for all the times she'd neglected him and help him properly.

'And instead of helping, I was busy thinking about hiding my Aura control method from him...'

The shame had cut deep, and the self-loathing had been just as bad.

She'd thought that if she couldn't shake off that feeling, she'd never be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with him for the rest of her life.

But that wasn't true anymore.

She'd taught him Krono's Aura control method directly, and beyond that, given him every scrap of advice she had to offer.

She had no idea how much it would actually help, but at least she could take pride in knowing she hadn't wasted her breath.

Having finally shaken off that debt weighing on her heart, she stretched with a satisfied groan and thought to herself.

Now she could finally look at him with her head held high. Now she could really let her competitive fire burn.

"Hahahahahaha!"

"Are you insane? What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

Judith was laughing heartily, pleased with how much better she felt about herself, when Brett Lloyd, walking toward her from the opposite direction, picked a fight with a face like he'd seen something he wished he hadn't.

She didn't care. She was in too good a mood to let something like that bother her.

Taking a swig from her drink, she jogged over and threw an arm around his shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go have another round!"

"You do realize there's a match tomorrow?"

"Lady Judith here might have plenty of dark history, but hangovers? Never heard of them! I can drink way more!"

"...Suit yourself."

Brett sighed, thought about it for a moment, then draped his arm over her shoulder the same way she had his.

Side by side, shoulders locked together, the two Krono trainees headed back toward the dorms.

* * *

"Whew."

At one in the morning, Airen Farreira, who'd wrapped up training a little earlier than usual, lay down on his bed to try and sleep.

Even though he'd failed, right down to the very last try, to forge an Aura Sword, his expression looked far brighter than before.

He owed that to Judith's advice. Her words had made him realize what actually mattered.

'It's not about winning or losing. It's about turning Illia's heart around.'

Four months ago, right after reuniting with Illia, he hadn't been confused about this at all.

Beating Illia had only ever been a means to wake her up to the mistaken thinking she'd fallen into, never the goal in itself.

'But somewhere along the way, the means and the end got flipped around.'

Showing competitive spirit was good. Burning with a will to fight was good too.

But something else mattered more than either of those.

Having grasped that again, Airen closed his eyes with a faint smile.

'Thanks, Judith.'

Of course, he had no intention of losing. Just as she'd said in her last words, he'd give everything he had to win.

But even if he lost, it would be fine. He'd keep clinging to her, again and again, until his sincerity finally got through.

He'd stick to her, relentless, until her narrowed view of the world widened again, until she found enough room in her heart to look back at herself.

He was still turning that thought over when the scenery around him shifted.

Without realizing it, he'd slipped into sleep.

Watching the man holding his sword, as always, Airen thought.

'He's completely an old man now.'

Ever since he'd become aware that the dream had changed, the man in the dream had kept aging, day after day.

His wrinkles deepened. His hair turned white.

That wasn't the only change.

His eyes.

The anger that had once burned there, intense yet cold, like a flame smoldering deep inside ice, had gradually faded, and Airen sensed that something else had begun to bloom in the space it left behind.

He just couldn't tell what it was.

'Whatever it is, it feels really different from before.'

Had the change in the dream somehow affected the fire energy?

Or had the fire energy grown stronger first, and that was what changed the dream?

He had no way of knowing.

This mysterious dream had never made any sense, not back then and not now.

That was when it happened.

The old man, who'd been swinging his sword the whole time, turned and looked at him.

"....!"

Startled, Airen's mouth fell open.

And then he was startled again. His consciousness wasn't just drifting anymore. He had a body.

He looked down at himself, then lifted his gaze back to the old man.

Still with that unreadable look in his eyes.

Still with that unreadable expression.

The man in the dream approached, slow but heavy, one step at a time.

Just as he opened his mouth, as if about to say something.

Airen woke up with a start, his eyes snapping open.

"....."

The afterglow lingered longer than usual this time.

It couldn't have been otherwise. Today's dream had been completely different from any before it.

It wasn't just the aging happening bit by bit anymore. The man had tried to reach out to him directly, the same way he had right before Airen entered the Otherworldly Realm.

What had he been trying to say?

That, too, was impossible to know.

Airen lay in bed for a long time without getting up, turning it over in his mind, before finally murmuring quietly.

"I'll think about it later."

Right. What mattered right now wasn't the old man in the dream.

Airen Farreira finally rose from bed and threw open the window.

The cool morning breeze and warm sunlight hit him at once. He felt the hazy fog of sleep clear away, his senses coming back sharp and vivid.

"Good."

His body felt good. His mind felt good too.

He forced a grin onto his face, nodded once, and got ready to head for the Proof Land.

Illia Lindsay versus Airen Farreira.

The match everyone had been waiting for was about to begin.

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