WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 153

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What Do You Do (2)

"...!"

An unfamiliar ceiling.

That was Judith's first thought when she opened her eyes.

Head still fogged with sleep, she spent a good while wondering why she was lying in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room, staring up at that unfamiliar ceiling.

She stayed like that, dazed, for a full minute.

Then, snapping back to herself, she bolted upright and muttered under her breath.

"...Shit."

Yesterday came back to her.

Well, not all of it.

She remembered the drinking bet with Illia Lindsay, that infuriating woman, clearly up through the first glass. After that, everything blurred like a painting left out in the rain.

But even that much was enough to justify a curse.

There was a real chance she'd lost the bet.

'No, wait, maybe I just don't remember it. Maybe she got drunk first, and I kept going because I was having fun, and that's why I blacked out?'

Clinging to that one shred of hope, Judith frowned and tried to dig through her memories of the night before. When nothing surfaced, she sighed.

Yeah. Probably nothing happened.

Just as she was settling into that thought.

Creeeak.

"..."

"..."

The door swung open with an ugly grinding sound, like it hadn't been oiled in ages.

And through it, quietly, came a black cat.

Lulu had been carrying a glass of water toward the table when her eyes met Judith's, and she looked away without a word.

That reaction alone was enough to send Judith's anxiety spiking.

She kept her eyes locked on Lulu and asked, voice a little tense.

"Lulu."

"Huh? Yeah?"

"Do you happen to know what I did yesterday? Like, did I say anything weird while I was drunk, anything like that?"

"Huh? No, not really. I don't know. You and Illia had your own table."

"Someone must have carried me back here. I don't think I climbed the stairs myself."

"Oh! Yeah, Brett brought you up. You were drunk and sleepy, but nothing really happened."

Lulu insisted nothing had happened.

But she kept avoiding Judith's eyes the whole time, and that only made the anxiety worse.

Judith shot to her feet and stalked toward Lulu.

The cat trembled, watching the huge shadow bearing down on her.

She thought about bolting with Sorcery, but the look in Judith's eyes was too sharp to risk it.

"Lulu."

"Yeah."

"Tell me the truth."

"What, what are you talking about. I told you the truth."

"I won't do anything to you."

"..."

"I mean it. Really, it's fine, just tell me exactly what happened yesterday. Whether I said anything weird or not, whether I did anything weird or not, and if I did, who heard it and who didn't. Every single thing."

"...I think Brett and Airen and Kubharu were too busy talking among themselves to hear what you said. Except for the part at the end, when you stood up and started singing. That part everyone in the whole inn heard, because you were so loud."

"...Really."

"...Do I have to keep going?"

"Yes. Keep going."

Judith answered with a faint smile.

Faced with that terrifying expression, Lulu had no choice but to spill everything she'd seen and heard, down to the last detail.

* * *

"...So you're saying you got too drunk too, and you don't remember anything either?"

"That's what I said. How many times do I have to repeat it?"

"Then the bet's a draw. We're settled on that?"

"...Fine, sure."

"Okay, good."

Fierce eyes.

But her expression eased a little, a hint of relief showing through, and Judith rose from her seat and left Illia's room.

"You really don't remember, right?"

"..."

"Fine, I'm going. I'm going."

Click.

"Whew."

Watching Judith actually close the door and leave this time, Illia let out a quiet sigh.

Truth was, Illia remembered exactly what had happened the day before.

She'd gotten drunk too, but her tolerance was clearly higher than Judith's, and she hadn't lost consciousness.

Quietly, she replayed the conversation from the night before.

'...What?'

'Come on, it's obvious. You're always staring at Airen in the carriage, and when we make camp you always lay your bedroll right next to his without even thinking about it, and when you cook, you always serve him first.'

'...'

'Just be honest. You've got a thing for him, don't you?'

'I don't.'

'What do you mean you don't, I've got sharp eyes, I can tell...'

'I'm just closer to him than to the rest of you. It's not that kind of feeling.'

'Ha! Don't even try lying to me...'

'...If that's how you're counting it, you're exactly the same.'

'Huh?'

'You're the same. You talk to Brett Lloyd the most, you lay your bedroll next to his without thinking, and Brett...'

'What kind of nonsense is that all of a sudden?'

'Am I wrong? If I'm wrong, just say...'

'Ugh, shut up! Drink more! What kind of ridiculous nonsense...'

They'd brushed past it in the moment, but Judith's question had sunk deeper into her heart than she'd expected.

Chewing on it now, belatedly, Illia's expression shifted into something complicated. Under her slightly bowed head, her face cycled through expressions unlike her usual composure.

But when she lifted her head again, her face had settled back into its familiar cold calm.

"...I should wash up."

Muttering quietly to herself, Illia Lindsay headed for the washroom.

Cooling her slightly heated skin with cold water, she went back, as she always did, to thinking about the sword.

* * *

A good deal of time had passed since they'd left Aienmarc, the city of duels.

Maybe because they were heading toward the continent's north, the weather stayed cool even as June drew close.

Of course, no matter how refreshing the breeze, it couldn't cool the sweat pouring off the four young swordsmen.

Near-real sparring matches and sword debates followed every lunch and dinner.

Through all of it, the four of them were gaining just as much as they had back in Aienmarc, if not more.

"..."

But Illia Lindsay's heart still felt hollow.

For five years, no, six years since leaving Krono Fencing Hall, she had done nothing but chase after Ignet Crescentia.

Even if that pursuit had been driven less by her own will than by the expectations and chatter of others, losing the goal she'd been chasing left behind an emptiness too vast to put into words.

Maybe that was exactly why she'd been able to slip so naturally into the sword debates with the Krono trainees.

The old Illia Lindsay, once poisoned through and consumed entirely by the sword, had never shared her knowledge with anyone else.

She hadn't wanted contact with other people at all.

But that wasn't true of her anymore, and thinking carefully about why...

'Maybe it's because I've lost some of the hunger for the sword I used to have.'

The sword didn't feel as precious, as desperate, as it once had.

Which was exactly why she could share what she knew now, more easily, more freely than before.

No, she wasn't sure. Even so, she still thought about the sword every single day, still kept sharpening her technique.

'What state am I even in right now?'

'My heart feels more at ease than it used to. But I don't know if that's a good thing.'

'I envy Airen. I envy Brett, I envy Judith. I envy people who push forward so eagerly.'

'Can I become like them? Will I find what I've been looking for by the end of this journey?'

'And if I can't? Then what am I supposed to do?'

'What am I, without any desperation for the sword?'

Countless thoughts churned through her mind, over and over.

Illia walked the northwestern wasteland, one step after another, not even aware of who was around her or where her feet were taking her.

Her eyes had no focus, and her steps carried no strength.

Fwap!

A black cat appeared in front of her.

Startled, but her face still expressionless, Illia opened her mouth to say something, but Lulu spoke first.

"When your head gets too crowded, just stop thinking altogether."

"..."

"It doesn't matter how much you think it over, does it? More thoughts just keep coming, going in circles like a snake biting its own tail, and nothing ever gets solved. So just dump it all out. Empty yourself. Once you do, you'll feel lighter, and once you're lighter, you can start filling back up from there."

Advice she'd heard a few times before, from her father and from the retainers of House Lindsay.

Fortunately, unlike the old days when she'd shut her eyes and ears to the world, Illia's vision now was relatively clear.

She thought it over for a moment, then asked Lulu.

"I've never really been good at that."

"At what?"

"Emptying my head. I feel like I've spent my whole life worrying about something or other."

"That happens. Humans aren't cats."

"Are cats good at emptying their heads?"

"Yep. If I set my mind to it, I can do it for twenty-four hours straight. Want to try it with me?"

Lulu flew off with a whoosh, landed on a flat rock, and sprawled out flat.

Then she gazed blankly at the endless horizon stretching out before them.

Her face showed no worry, no troubled thought, nothing at all.

Looking like she could hold that pose forever, the black cat spoke.

"Come sit next to me and try it too, Illia."

"..."

Illia Lindsay glanced around.

The rest of the group had stopped walking without her noticing and were watching her now.

Their attention weighed on her a little, but she did as Lulu suggested anyway, settling down beside the cat and staring blankly at the empty stretch ahead.

"..."

The worries kept coming, chasing each other in circles just as before.

But the pressure felt a little lighter than it had a moment ago.

Maybe, she thought, if she stayed like this a while longer, someday she'd feel no weight at all.

That was when Brett Lloyd, who'd been quietly watching the two of them, plopped down beside her.

And started staring blankly ahead too, wearing the same vacant look.

"..."

"..."

It didn't stop there.

Kubharu and Airen Farreira exchanged a glance, and then they too dropped down beside the others, one after another. And stared endlessly into empty space.

Watching this with a look of pure disbelief, Judith finally spoke up.

"What is wrong with all of you? Did you all lose your minds at once?"

"Judith."

"What."

"Shut up."

"This lunatic's acting up again after all this time..."

Fuming, Judith marched forward to smack the back of Brett's head.

But she never got the chance.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on the same thing ahead of them.

The vast, endless horizon, and the sheer scale of it seemed, somehow, to wash something clean inside her chest.

"..."

In the end, Judith sat down beside Brett without a word, her own face settling into a similar expression as she stared ahead.

And so Airen Farreira's group spent a long stretch of time, resting without a single thought in their heads, as if all their frantic busyness up to now had been some kind of lie.

That peaceful stretch of time broke about two hours later.

Clop clop clop.

Murmur, murmur.

The sound of horses and carriages, and the sound of many voices chattering.

The noise slowly drew closer. Kubharu turned his head. A merchant caravan.

He thought it over for a moment, then woke the others, still lost in their blank stares.

"That's enough resting for now. What do you say, if that caravan's headed the same direction as us, we tag along?"

"Join up with them?"

"That's right. Our carriage is broken, after all."

As Kubharu had pointed out, Airen's group was currently traveling on foot, without a carriage.

Brett had been driving and got distracted, missing a boulder in the road. Thanks to his surprising reflexes, though, nobody had been hurt.

Still, it had been an unfortunate accident regardless.

Of course, whether they walked or rode, there was no particular reason they needed to travel with the caravan at all.

"To find a new version of yourself, I think you need to try things you've never done before."

"..."

Illia Lindsay nodded at Kubharu's words.

Honestly, it did feel a little daunting.

But it made plenty of sense too.

Just as things had gotten better for her once she'd left behind the isolation of the estate in Aienmarc, bumping into new people might bring her something else worth having.

Of course, she might get nothing out of it at all. But so what if she didn't.

Maybe thanks to those two peaceful hours, her heart felt gentler than before.

"All right, let's go take a look, then."

With everyone's agreement secured, the orc fortune-teller led the way toward the caravan.

The four of them and Lulu had been pitching in with all sorts of tasks lately, unlike before, but this kind of thing was still clearly better left to Kubharu.

A little while later, having secured the caravan's permission as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Kubharu spoke.

"Lucky for us, we're headed the same way. This caravan's not going all the way to Durkali, but it's headed to an orc tribe near there."

"They're not wary of us or anything?"

"No caravan turns down a favor asked by an orc fortune-teller on orc territory."

"Fair point."

As Airen nodded along to Kubharu's words, two people approached from the caravan.

They didn't look like anyone important, more like hands handling odd jobs, and the senior-looking one introduced them first.

"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Kenzal, a caravan hand. This is Frederick."

"Hello there. As I mentioned earlier, I'm Kubharu, a wandering fortune-teller."

"Hi, I'm Airen."

"Brett."

"Judith."

"...I'm Illia. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Lulu, the cat Sorcerer, nice to meet you!"

"Whoa! Ah, I see."

Judith and Brett, apparently used to this kind of thing, responded naturally, while Illia spoke up a little awkwardly.

None of it caused any trouble for joining the caravan, of course.

Like ducklings trailing after a mother duck, the group tacked themselves onto the tail end of the caravan and moved along together.

"..."

A short while after Airen's group joined the caravan.

Frederick, the younger of the two hands they'd just met, frowned as a thought crossed his mind.

'Illia, Airen, Brett, Judith... I feel like I've heard those names somewhere before...'

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