WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 229: A Way to Walk Long (2)
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“I heard you carry a grand ambition for the world.”
“Pardon?”
“My son told me.”
“Ah...”
About ten minutes had passed since they had set out for a walk to sober up.
Lord Philip Lloyd suddenly brought up a new subject.
Airen could not think of anything to say for a moment.
He felt a little embarrassed.
It was not that he was ashamed of his ambition.
Still, he could not help but wonder how someone like Lord Lloyd would see a person like him speaking of such a grand purpose...
The thought lasted only a moment. Airen soon nodded with a serious expression.
“That’s right. It’s also why I took up the sword.”
“Splendid.”
Philip Lloyd nodded as well.
He walked in silence for a while. Airen followed half a step behind him, and before he knew it, they had left the lord’s castle and were walking through the streets.
Had this not been meant to be a light stroll?
Was Lord Lloyd planning to show him something?
Just as those thoughts crossed his mind, Lord Lloyd spoke again.
“My dream was not as great as yours, Airen, but I had similar thoughts in my youth. I wanted to create a good territory where no one suffered. It may sound laughable in these harsh times, but back then, quite a few people thought as I did. I remember sharing drinks with them.”
‘They must have had it hard too.’
The thought briefly crossed Airen’s mind, but he did not say it aloud. The mood was too serious for that.
Airen listened in silence as Lord Lloyd continued.
“When I heard about you from my son, when I heard that you had many things you wanted to ask me... I gave it much thought. What should I say to such an upright, admirable young man? What should I show him? Nothing came to mind. But... after spending even this short time with you today, I thought of something.”
“What...?”
“Let’s walk a little farther. The place I want to show you is just ahead.”
With that, Lord Lloyd fell silent again, and Airen had no choice but to follow quietly.
Of course, all kinds of thoughts filled his mind.
What was he going to show him?
The beauty of the well-maintained city?
A large hospital that would be difficult to find elsewhere?
Or perhaps another source of pride in the city that Airen had yet to see?
Whatever it was, he could barely wait to find out.
His pace quickened a little, but that was fine. Lord Lloyd was walking faster than before as well.
Yet the place that unfolded before Airen a short while later was nothing like what he had imagined.
“This is...”
“The Slums.”
“...”
“The place in my territory I least want to show anyone. A place I want to fix, but one for which I cannot yet find a good solution.”
“...”
“Shall we take a look around? Ah, if anything dangerous happens, protect me, Airen. I have no talent for the sword.”
“...Yes.”
Airen nodded with a dazed expression and slowly walked on, surveying the darkness of Lloyd territory.
He had heard of such places.
No matter how excellent a territory was, poor security and filthy back alleys were bound to exist somewhere.
He simply had never experienced them because he had never gone looking for them.
Still, he had never dreamed a place like this existed even in Lloyd territory.
Perhaps it was because he had formed such a favorable impression of it.
The contrast made the shock hit even harder.
The stench of garbage and vomit everywhere. Cracked and crumbling walls. The eyes and breaths of unknown people hiding in the shadows, watching them...
Fortunately, nothing happened. Lord Lloyd and Airen left the Slums without incident.
Still, Airen’s heart was darker and heavier than before.
He looked at Philip Lloyd.
Why had the lord brought him to such a place?
“When I was young, I was full of enthusiasm. My parents passed away early, but I was overflowing with confidence. I had inherited a vast fortune passed down through the family, and I could put all the knowledge I gained at the Royal Academy to use... I even felt a little excitement.”
“...”
“The beginning was not bad. Simply lowering taxes a little and paying more attention to security brought life back to the faces of my people. After only three years of effort, the results were so great that I lost sleep thinking I could become the finest lord on the continent if I kept at it for ten years. But...”
“I came to realize with time that the world was not so simple.”
Even Airen, who knew nothing of Lord Lloyd’s circumstances, could hear the bitterness in his voice.
When he lowered taxes for the people, neighboring territories began subtly pressuring and obstructing him.
When he supplied grain during a poor harvest to maintain good relations with them, he came into conflict with a ducal house.
For the family that owned the kingdom’s largest grain-producing region, House Lloyd’s actions could only lead to losses.
Diplomacy was not the only problem. Internal affairs were also different from what he had expected.
The world he had learned about through study alone was entirely different from reality. Whenever he solved one problem, two or three more would suddenly arise as a result.
It was an endless cycle of worries.
He worked for the territory twenty-four hours a day.
Even while eating or walking through the Garden, the ever-growing list of tasks never left his mind.
He could not even sleep properly.
Until every problem in the territory was resolved, rest and a life of his own did not exist for Lord Lloyd.
“Thirty years passed like that.”
“...”
“And the territory is still full of problems. Things that cannot be seen on the surface continue to pile up.”
“...”
“Airen.”
“Yes.”
“I did not bring you here to say that either the things I have done or the purpose you carry are pointless.”
“Then...?”
“I wanted to tell you that the purposes we carry are not so easy that we can sprint at full speed every moment.”
“...”
“Is that not right? Mine is one thing, but your dream is so difficult and vast that even if you devoted your entire life to it, there might not be any visible progress. It cannot be achieved through one person’s effort, nor through the effort of a single generation. Only when effort continues from generation to generation might things improve, even a little. Yet what are your heart and actions like?”
“...”
“You live each day as if everything must be resolved at once or disaster will strike. That is not effort.”
“Not effort?”
“That’s right. You are only throwing a tantrum. As if it were not enough to take on alone a task that may or may not be possible even with the efforts of hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of people, you are trapped by the thought, ‘Why isn’t it working?’ If that is not throwing a tantrum, what is?”
“...”
“Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying your worries and actions thus far had no value. I only mean that when something must be viewed over the long term, you should move forward with a little more ease. Ah, do not say that is not the case. I have not spent much time with you, Airen, but I can tell. You have not rested properly lately, have you?”
“I have been trying to make some time to relax lately.”
“Do not lie to me. No, perhaps it is not a lie. But from what I can see, that doesn’t count as rest. Sitting comfortably and looking at the sky or lying down in a soft bed does not count as rest. Because...”
“Even in the moment you decided to rest, you were probably still consumed by the purpose you carry, unable to escape it.”
...The moment he heard Lord Lloyd say that, Airen had no choice but to erase every rebuttal he had prepared in his mind.
They walked in silence for some time.
Past the plaza, cleaned unlike the Slums.
Past the well-maintained streets without a single chipped brick.
When they arrived back before the lord’s castle, Philip Lloyd spoke.
“Airen, have you been sleeping well lately?”
“Pardon?”
“I do not think so. When I was young, I could not sleep properly either. Even while sleeping, I was filled with tension, anxiety, and worry... When I woke in the morning, my stomach always burned. It felt as if something unpleasant had filled me up.”
“...”
“It may be strange for a middle-aged man who can barely manage thirty minutes of exercise a day to worry about the health of a young Sword Master, but the Airen I have seen looks terribly exhausted.”
Lord Lloyd smiled.
His eyes remained sharp and fierce.
Yet his smile was so warm, so full of concern and encouragement, that it made his sharp, fierce eyes barely noticeable to Airen Farreira.
“It is no great boast, but I put quite a bit of care into the guest rooms. I hope you can lie down in fine bedding tonight and get a good night’s sleep, a very deep one.”
“...”
“Can you promise me that?”
“...I’ll try.”
“Haha, Airen, the problem is that you try too hard at everything. Still, I like that answer.”
Philip Lloyd laughed aloud for the first time and stepped ahead.
Airen thought for a moment before following him. Of course, his worries had not ended.
Lord Lloyd’s words continued circling through his mind.
In a way, his advice was no different from Ian’s teaching.
It was no different from what he had realized from the Jester Demon within the Dark Barrier.
Yet it dug deeper, more intensely into Airen’s heart.
‘Why is that?’
As he was lost in thought, he saw someone wildly swinging a sword in the center of the training ground.
It was none other than Brett Lloyd.
It did not look like ordinary sword practice. His movements were too different from his usual style.
The sword swung wildly, as though he were venting his frustration.
Philip Lloyd watched quietly for a while before slowly approaching his son.
“What are you doing in the middle of the night?”
“I am cutting down loneliness.”
“...”
“...”
“Please understand. Since he started dating, my son has become a little strange.”
He should have been happy that his eldest son had found a lover, yet watching him like that left Philip Lloyd feeling strangely conflicted.
Brett continued swinging his sword without paying any attention to Philip Lloyd’s grumbling. Airen watched him and slowly shook his head.
Before long, Airen returned to his room and washed up. Then he lay down on the bed.
Just as Lord Lloyd had claimed, it was incredibly comfortable.
He had already known that. He had been staying in the territory for a full week.
Yet Airen only then realized that during that entire week... he had never once slept deeply.
At most, two or three hours.
He could not sleep longer than that. His eyes opened on their own.
Only then did he think he understood.
Why Lord Lloyd’s words had struck him so deeply.
Lost in thought, he quietly murmured to himself.
“Let’s get a good night’s sleep...”
Airen Farreira gently closed his eyes.
A short while later, he fell asleep.
“...”
And he dreamed.
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