Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble - Chapter 221

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

Chapter 221: A Favor to Ask (1)

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A day after Airen Farreira officially graduated from Krono Fencing Hall, the group made their way to where Kun and Judith were.

“I’ll pass. I do not particularly want to see that fellow right now.”

Ian did not accompany them.

Kiril looked disappointed at those words.

Though she was not a swordsman, the decades-long rivalry between Kun and Ian was something anyone would find interesting.

Of course, she could not say that aloud, so only Airen, Kiril, and Lulu rode the Griffin.

Sitting on the Griffin’s fairly stable back, Airen quietly closed his eyes.

His thoughts naturally turned to the Heart of Water he had recently learned.

‘I had been thinking about it wrong all this time.’

Why had he wanted to learn the Water Sword?

To control the fire that had grown beyond control.

The Flames that had spread to him from Ignet, been stirred by Illia, and been fed by countless other events, experiences, and people had been harming him.

Yet because that thought had taken such deep root, he had greatly neglected trying to understand water itself.

He only wanted to restrain the Flames.

He wanted to gain water. To do so, he wanted to cut water. So he forced it. He became obsessed.

Only near the end of the dark barrier had he finally realized that was not a healthy state of mind.

“Hoo...”

With a long exhale, Airen pictured his Mental Realm.

The towering sword greeted him once again. So did the flames surrounding it.

Their intensity was no longer as great as before, though. He could handle them now.

It was thanks to the energy of water.

Watching the stream trickling across the field of his heart, Airen nodded to himself.

‘It was wrong to forcibly bring in water to restrain the fire.’

His memories of the dark barrier returned once more.

Excessive attachment had made his emotions stagnate, and stagnant emotions had given rise to all kinds of negative thoughts.

Disappointment, self-loathing, and exhaustion had all gathered together and caused his heart to rot.

It had taken him a very long time to realize that was not healthy effort.

‘They’re still there. The stagnant emotions in my heart.’

Watching the stream flow freely instead of remaining trapped, Airen shifted his gaze farther away.

He had made a channel in the largest puddle, but some still had none. He had created them himself.

As he blankly stared at one such puddle, a loud noise broke his concentration.

Airen opened his eyes and turned around. Lulu, transformed into a Sorcery Girl, was breathing fire from her mouth.

Kraaaaaaash!

“Aah! Argh! I can’t do this! It’s so frustrating!”

“...”

“Don’t bother her, Brother.”

Hearing his sister’s words, Airen nodded. Lulu was clearly on edge.

The reason was obvious. Analyzing the Five-Spirit Amulet she had borrowed from him did not seem to be going well.

‘Lulu said the amulet was likely the reason I came out of the barrier so quickly.’

The Five Elements, the five standards through which spirit mages viewed the world.

They had supposedly all been one in the beginning.

The primordial whole, the Universe, which had contained not only the five energies but all things in the world.

‘Gorha told me it even contains the concepts of time and space! So if a talented Sorcerer observes and analyzes this amulet using her intuition, she’ll surely discover something!’

Airen remembered Lulu saying that proudly, her chest puffed out.

She did not look that way now.

Seeing Lulu so tense she looked ready to explode, Airen quietly asked Kiril,

“I thought you would be the one to scold her. You’re being surprisingly considerate.”

“...What do you take me for, Brother? Did you think I wouldn’t understand another Sorcerer doing research?”

“No, I...”

“Right? You didn’t, did you? Then show some sincerity and prove that wasn’t what you meant.”

“...”

Airen fell silent.

It was clearly his mistake, so he had no excuse.

After thinking for a moment, he answered in a meek voice.

“Can I think about it a little longer?”

“Of course. The longer you think, the more likely you’ll come up with something I like.”

“...”

Airen looked at Kiril, then quietly averted his gaze.

Regardless, the Griffin diligently flew through the sky at its owner’s command.

* * *

Thud!

“Huff, huff.”

Judith had been swinging her sword until sweat poured off her as if it were midsummer, then she collapsed onto the field.

Even she could not push herself any further. Staring blankly at the sky, she soothed her exhausted body and mind.

A breeze swept past, cooling her overheated body.

An ordinary Master might have watched that sight with a pleased expression.

Kun, who had been swinging his sword beside her, was not like that.

“You little brat! You’re exhausted already? Don’t you have passion for the sword, the competitive drive to defeat your sworn rival, or the burning will to become the best in the world?”

“...”

“Look at me! I’m nearly a hundred years old, and I’m still hotter than you are. Hey, loser! This is what training is! The grit to keep going even if it kills you, without collapsing from exhaustion! The venomous drive to swing your sword even once more than your rival! That is the mindset a disciple of Kun must have! Hah! Hyah! Hah!”

Kun swung his sword like a madman, his voice booming across the field.

Judith was dumbfounded.

She had not known at Krono Fencing Hall that he was such a childish, frivolous person.

She had thought he was a wonderful person, the only one who could understand her desire not to lose to anyone and to stand above everyone else, someone who would willingly endure even a life of suffering and keep moving forward...

“Hah! Die! Ian, die! You bastard! You bald bastard! You’re shorter than me, too! Die!”

Whoosh!

Whoooosh!

‘What kind of person is this?’

She shook her head.

That did not mean Judith could not understand Kun’s behavior.

In a way, it was only natural for a man who had trained with his sword his entire life for a single victory to unleash his rage and competitive spirit toward Ian.

Watching that fiery temperament, Judith had to admit that he resembled her in many ways.

Even so, this was not it.

She wanted to pick a fight with him over something.

Judith pushed herself upright and said to her Master,

“Does insulting people and cursing like a child really help your training?”

“Of course it does! Hup, huh!”

Swish, swish, swish, swish!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Kun answered her sarcastic question without hesitation and swung his sword.

His swordsmanship was dazzling. Even Judith, who had reached the peak of the Expert rank, could not follow the swift blade with her eyes.

That only made her more dumbfounded.

Kun paid no attention either way.

Still displaying incredible swordsmanship, he continued speaking.

“You brat, hup, hup, people with, whoosh, shitty personalities like ours, hup, need to get angry and irritated like this... Hyah! Hah! That gives us more strength, hoo, no, it even gives us strength we didn’t have, huh? So we can at least, hah! Hyah! keep up with those talented bastards, hup!”

“...”

Judith looked at her Master with an unconvinced expression.

Kun was always like that.

He said they had no choice. That people like them, lacking and inadequate as they were, had to save even the time they spent eating and using the bathroom if they wanted to catch up to the talented ones.

Peace of mind?

Rest for efficient training?

He never said anything like that.

He was someone who only thought about how to thrust his sword one more time, how to keep training even a little longer.

That was why he kept hurling insults at his rival, Ian.

He forced himself to draw out his rage, envy, and jealousy toward Ian so he would never let himself rest.

‘Still, calling the Hall Master bald? Bald?’

Judith grumbled inwardly.

Yet despite those thoughts, her body had already risen.

She thought it was childish, but Judith had no choice but to admit that Kun’s method suited her, in its own way.

“Tch.”

She clicked her tongue once, then thought of several people.

Which bastard made her angriest?

Whose face could make the flame in her chest burn bigger, hotter, and longer?

After thinking for a moment, Judith nodded.

Airen Farreira’s face appeared before her.

“Airen, you son of a bitch!”

Whoosh!

Kraaaash!

The Red Sword Tarakhan had given her swung fiercely. A tree struck by the blow burst apart.

Judith did not stop. Instead, she became even more savage and violent, showing off her swordsmanship.

Her insults toward Airen continued without pause.

‘That irritating bastard!’

It was not that she disliked him.

If anything, she was grateful to him. As a friend, she liked him more than anyone, even more than the classmates she had shared five years with at the fencing hall.

Anyone would feel that way after seeing how kind and gentle he was, how foolishly he cared for others.

Whoooosh!

Whoosh!

Still, separate from those feelings, Judith found him unbelievably irritating.

The tremendous potential she did not have.

The brilliant talent that made her feel small.

She pictured the face of someone who had started far later than her, only to run so far ahead that she could no longer even see him. Then Judith swung her sword like a madwoman.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Hm, good. Who are you thinking about? Airen?”

Kun watched her and grinned.

If Ian had seen this, he would likely have looked worried and said they were going too far. Kun thought differently.

That was the driving force that pushed people like them upward. It did not matter if everyone in the world denied it.

For people like them, this alone was the truth.

Judith felt the same.

Still swinging her sword, she answered,

“Yes. Huff, hoo, that son of a bitch, hoo, that’s right!”

“Good. From now on, call Airen a son of a bitch whenever you speak of him!”

“Yes!”

“Good. What do we call Airen?”