WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 177

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Brett Lloyd (3)

Brett Lloyd.

Her closest friend and, at the same time, her most annoying nuisance.

When she'd heard his explanation for why he was lying there bleeding, the strongest thing Judith felt was disbelief.

'If that's it, just say it with words!'

Why did he have to push himself half to death just to show her?

Sure, showing it beat just blurting it out, at least when it came to clearing up a misunderstanding, but Judith didn't think he needed to hurt himself to make the point.

She felt a flicker of irritation too. It seemed like Brett had ended up like this because of her own narrow-mindedness.

And she didn't like that she felt irritated about that either. It made her feel even more small-minded.

But every one of those thoughts vanished the instant the next words left Brett's mouth.

"I like you."

"...?"

Judith's face went blank.

She couldn't process it.

Like her?

Who?

Wait, her?

There wasn't another way to take it. The only people around were the two of them, her and Brett.

'No, wait. Maybe he's talking about something else.'

Judith swallowed and forced her thoughts down a different track.

When her own training stalled, she sometimes muttered nonsense without meaning to.

Swearing, random thoughts, sometimes even naming whatever food she wanted to eat.

That had to be it.

His condition was bad enough that some unrelated thought had slipped out without him realizing...

"I like you, Judith."

"Waaaugh!"

She shot up.

Thud!

"Ngh...!"

"Ah! Sorry, wait, ow...!"

Brett's words hit like a punch, and Judith bolted upright.

His head, which had been resting on her knee, cracked against the ground, and he groaned. The pain in it sounded real.

Watching him, Judith's face twisted with worry, and she pulled his head back onto her knee.

For a moment she considered just running off, but leaving behind someone who'd gotten hurt because of her didn't sit right.

And besides...

She wasn't entirely against hearing the rest of what Brett had to say either.

'No, seriously, what is going on in this guy's head?'

Honestly, she couldn't make sense of it.

Judith didn't think she had any kind of romantic appeal.

Did she?

Her personality was a mess, and the only things she knew how to do were swing a sword and pick pockets, a skill from childhood.

She didn't think she was ugly, but she wasn't strikingly pretty like Illia either, and her background was about as miserable as it got.

There wasn't a single reason a young lord through and through like Brett should like her.

'This idiot, is he messing with me?'

That felt like the more likely explanation.

She glared at him, her voice sharp.

"Hey. You seriously like me? Give me a reason."

"..."

"If you like someone, there's usually a reason. Just, actually, in case this is a joke, tell me now. If you say it now I'll go easy when I hit you..."

"Not a joke."

"Then what."

Judith glared at Brett.

He didn't answer right away, just let the silence stretch.

She didn't like that one bit.

Part of it was assuming he was stalling because he had nothing to say, and part of it was how ridiculous she felt for being even a little disappointed by that.

But what Brett said next was enough to wipe all of that away.

"Give me a minute."

"Ha, why? You can't think of anything to say, so..."

"That's not it."

"Sure it's not..."

"I don't want to say it carelessly."

He pushed himself up.

Their eyes met level with each other, and Judith got a clearer look at Brett's face.

A little arrogant, a little smug looking, honestly.

But the young lord's face, objectively handsome as it was, looked back at her now with something serious in his eyes.

Then he spoke.

"I plan things out for pretty much everything, but today's confession wasn't planned. I just, out of nowhere, thought you looked pretty..."

"Ugh!"

"...and the words came out before I even realized it. So I need time to get my thoughts straight."

"No, right now, just, ha..."

"So just wait a little. I want to think it through properly, so you'll know for sure this wasn't a joke. That I meant it."

"...!"

Judith's face flushed even redder.

She understood now, for certain. She didn't even need to hear the rest.

She wasn't a Sorcerer, didn't have eyes that could see into someone's heart, but there was no missing the feeling leaking from his eyes like water.

This wasn't a joke. Brett meant it.

That realization sent ripples through Judith's chest.

"...I'll, I'll hear it later!"

Unable to bear it, she fled the training ground at a terrifying speed.

"...Hm."

Brett watched the direction she'd disappeared in for a long moment before pulling himself up.

What a mess. Like he'd said, he'd had absolutely no intention of confessing to Judith today.

It had been so long since they'd had a proper conversation that he would have counted himself lucky just to patch things up.

But somehow, without meaning to, it had happened, and Judith had left without giving him an answer.

Still...

'Not bad, though?'

Brett decided to look at today's events in a positive light.

The best possible outcome of a confession was obviously acceptance.

So what was the worst outcome?

Rejection. A cold expression, or maybe a forced smile out of pity, followed by the word "sorry" slipping out.

That was the result Brett most needed to avoid.

Just avoiding that much meant today's confession hadn't been a failure.

'Being that flustered means Judith's plenty aware of me too.'

"...This actually works out."

An unplanned confession.

An unplanned turn of events.

But the mood afterward wasn't all bad.

Sensing that, he allowed himself a faint smile and headed back toward his quarters.

Starting tomorrow, he'd have to make his move a little more boldly.

The inside of his mouth stung, but the pain barely registered next to how full his head was of Judith.

* * *

Four months had passed since Airen Farreira's group entered the Durkali tribe's fortress.

The seasons had turned, and a cool early autumn breeze had begun to blow.

Of course, the season wasn't all that had changed. Airen's group, almost without exception, had made no small amount of progress.

The one who'd grown with the best balance was Brett Lloyd.

He'd shown natural aptitude for the water spirit among the five, but that wasn't all. He'd shown a surprising affinity for the others as well.

Water into wood, wood into fire, fire into earth, earth into metal.

And finally, metal into water, closing the loop back to the start.

Completing the Circle of the Five Elements had taken him only a month, an achievement remarkable even set against the continent's most gifted orc warriors.

Of course, his core spirit hadn't changed.

Brett kept the Five Elements cycling to build his foundation, growing the water spirit's strength within a stable balance.

He focused, too, on weaving it into his swordsmanship and his Aura.

Watching him, Gorha nodded, impressed.

"With his core settled, he'll manage fine without me watching over him anymore."

But Gorha's expression soured whenever he looked at Judith.

Unlike Brett, who tended carefully to all five spirits for balance, she poured everything into the fire spirit alone.

"It's fine. I don't need to run the five spirits through Mutual Generation. My way works fine for building up fire."

"But if you don't take in the other spirits' energy and only grow the fire, the balance breaks, and the fire building up inside you will end up burning your own body..."

"That's fine too. I can take it. Actually, I don't even feel the other spirits to begin with."

That last part was true.

Unlike the fire spirit, which had felt familiar to her from birth, as if she'd carried it in her chest her whole life, Judith couldn't sense any of the other four spirits at all.

If she'd had no connection to any spirit whatsoever, that would be one thing, but this was something even Gorha, a great spirit mage, had never seen before.

In the end, only two paths lay open to Judith.

Give up the Five Elements Divine Technique out of fear of breaking the balance.

Or take the risk and focus purely on fire.

Naturally, she chose the latter, and so far, at least, the results hadn't been bad.

'Absurd. This shouldn't even be possible, and yet here it is happening right in front of me. Nothing I can do to stop her...'

Gorha shook his head, watching the endlessly strange human woman.

Of course, Judith wasn't the only unusual one.

Not as extreme as her, but Airen Farreira was plenty special in his own right too.

The one saving grace was that he'd followed Gorha's instructions faithfully.

"Mutual Conquest, not Mutual Generation?"

"That's right. Unlike most people, your energy flows in reverse, not forward."

Those who practiced Spirit Magic, or the Five Elements Divine Technique, generally rode the current of Mutual Generation.

Raising one's level by having the spirits generate and encourage each other, growing stronger through that cycle. Water feeding a tree's growth, or wood burning to give rise to flame, those were examples of Mutual Generation.

But Airen's case was the exact opposite.

To restrain and govern an overwhelming, already-existing energy, he generated new energy to control it, riding what could be called the flow of Mutual Conquest.

"That does track. I used fire energy to hammer the metal energy of the iron stake into a smooth blade..."

"Hm? Iron stake? Blade?"

"Ah, never mind."

"...Sounds like there's a story there. I won't dig into it, but that's a metaphor that lands even without knowing the details. You're right. Refining the crudeness of an iron stake takes fire. And that's not the end of it either. You're fine for now, but once the Five Elements Divine Technique grows your fire energy further, you'll need water to control the heat."

"Understood."

And so his training in the Mutual Conquest of the Five Elements began, and it went smoothly.

Not on Brett's level, but Airen had a knack for handling spirits too.

Of course, no matter how hard he threw himself into the Five Elements Divine Technique, building up water, wood, and earth energy, none of it could catch up to the fire and metal energy he'd built through the memories of his past life, his burning conviction, and hard-won insight.

For the other three to match that, he'd need another breakthrough of his own.

But there was no doubt he'd laid a foundation solid enough to keep advancing on his own.

"Hm..."

"..."

But.

Unlike the three swordsmen who'd shown remarkable progress, Illia Lindsay hadn't made much headway at all.

There was nothing strange about that, really.

The Five Elements Divine Technique and Spirit Magic were skills made by orcs, for orcs.

It made sense that most humans struggled with it. Being a genius with a sword didn't guarantee you'd be good at handling spirits too.

Still, watching her three friends and rivals shine so brightly, it was only natural that she felt some disappointment of her own.

"Is that why?"

"Hm? Why what?"

"Why you said you'd stay longer in Durkali. Because you're worried about Illia and want to stay with her?"

"Hm."

Hearing Brett Lloyd's question, Airen scratched the back of his neck.

He hadn't brought it up in a while, but the reason they were traveling the continent in the first place was to grow as swordsmen.

More specifically, to achieve something worthy of being recognized as a proper graduate, rather than remaining a trainee of Krono Fencing Hall.

'Illia's the exception now, since she's not a trainee anymore.'

Looked at that way, they'd already accomplished their goal.

Through the experiences of the journey and the memories of his past life, Airen had put an end to his long period of drifting.

An unquenchable, burning conviction had taken root in his heart.

Judith, too, had largely overcome the inferiority and self-loathing that had been eating away at her.

The method had been strange, sure, but however she'd gotten there, she'd grown, both outwardly and inwardly, well beyond who she'd been before leaving the fencing hall.

And Brett...

'...Brett already looks like he's not lacking anything.'

At least, that was how it seemed to Airen. Brett felt like someone who never really needed to leave the continent for a graduation trial in the first place.

Of course, that wasn't the point right now.

After a moment's thought, Airen looked Brett in the eye and spoke.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about Illia, but that's not the only reason."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. There's still something I need to learn here. And even without that... I don't plan on going straight back to the fencing hall. Because..."

Before that, there's someone I want to meet.

Hearing Airen Farreira's answer, Brett Lloyd's face filled with confusion.

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