WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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Chapter 248: Bound to Admit It (5)
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After Joshua Lindsay’s birthday ball ended, the once-lively household grew quiet again.
Of course, not everyone had left. A few people close to the head of the house stayed another day or two to chat with him.
The high-ranking nobles also secretly exchanged information regarding the appearance of demons.
Naturally, Airen Farreira’s group was among the guests who remained at the estate.
Kiril and Lulu spent peaceful days touring the territory with Lady Elissa Lindsay, while Airen...
“Haap!”
“Hah!”
Clang!
Clang!
...continued his fierce sparring matches with Illia Lindsay from the day after the ball.
‘...She’s gotten incredibly strong.’
Airen took a step back and steadied his breathing.
Over the past few months, he had grown at an unbelievable rate.
The experience and skills he had accumulated from meeting the head of House Lindsay, Hall Master Ian, and Kun had led to Enlightenment through Lord Lloyd’s advice and a bit of good fortune. The swordsmanship of the Holy Kingdom he learned from Quincy Myers afterward had also helped tremendously.
He had not fully absorbed everything yet, but Airen had already struggled to find rivals among his peers. Under normal circumstances, the current Illia should have found it difficult just to parry each strike of his sword.
But that was not the case.
Amazingly, she had grown as well.
Not just a little, either. Looking only at her swordsmanship, he could have mistaken her for an entirely different person.
Had she found some fortunate opportunity in the meantime?
Or had she been hiding her true skill until now?
Neither was true.
‘It wouldn’t have been strange for her to become this strong at any time.’
These days, people everywhere praised Airen’s talent. Even so, the two people Airen considered the most talented were Ignet and Illia.
Illia had only stagnated for so long because she had been lost in her own doubts.
That was no longer true.
‘It looks like she completely shook it off after we parted in Lavath!’
Airen smiled.
It was fortunate.
Still, his feelings went beyond happiness that his friend’s wandering had come to an end.
Holding something stronger, something deeper in his heart, Airen rushed at Illia with terrifying speed.
Then he swung his sword.
Boom!
Bang!
Booom!
A powerful barrage of strikes rained down, as if determined to crush his opponent. High, middle, low, it did not matter.
Pure, forceful swordsmanship without ornamentation appeared on House Lindsay’s training grounds.
Illia did not shrink back.
Smiling just like Airen, she smoothly turned her body.
With only a few steps, she took a favorable position, then launched a counterattack with movements as natural as the wind.
It was the Sky Sword.
This was not the immature Sky Sword he had seen before. Wind, like that unleashed by a hero’s sword in ages past, swirled all around them.
No.
She was not simply imitating her ancestor’s work.
While fully bringing out the power of the ancient swordsmanship passed down through her family, she had also woven the experience she had accumulated into every movement.
Airen could tell.
He had progressed alongside her, experiencing what she saw and felt.
A genius who had crossed a wall.
A true genius who had shattered her limits.
Goosebumps rose at her dazzling talent, and Airen swung his sword with even greater force.
Booooom!
“...Shall we stop here for today?”
“Hm? Why? Are you tired already? Mmm... it doesn’t look like that’s it.”
After the heavy clash, Airen leaped back and sent his Greatsword away with a reverse summon.
Illia looked at him in confusion.
She was curious, of course, but more than that, she wanted the sparring to continue.
Ever since she had heard those words in the Garden on the night of the ball, she had been so excited to spar with Airen that she could barely stand it.
“Mm, sorry. There’s something I need to think about.”
“Mm... All right. We can do it again tomorrow. Get some rest.”
Of course, Airen did not know how she felt.
Illia Lindsay waved with concern and regret in her eyes.
Airen waved back. He stopped several times and looked over his shoulder before hiding somewhere her gaze could not reach.
His longtime friend was still devotedly training with her sword after their spar.
...No.
She was someone he wanted to become more than friends with now.
‘What should I do?’
After several days of worry, he had become certain of a few things.
He liked Illia Lindsay as a woman.
And those feelings would never return to what they had been before.
He loved the time they spent exchanging swords.
But he did not want to share only swords with her.
He wanted to do more things with her. He wanted to have conversations unlike the ones they had shared until now.
But...
‘What should I do from here?’
Realizing how he felt did not accomplish anything on its own.
He had to make an effort.
He had to take another step forward.
He needed to convey his feelings in a way that would let her understand them.
And he had to do it well.
“Haah.”
Airen let out a sigh.
Effort.
It was a word that had never betrayed him.
He had risen from a trainee candidate with terrible stamina to the realm of a Sword Master.
Without giving up, he had kept trying. That was how precious people had gradually gathered around someone who once had no friends at all.
This time, though, things were different.
Until now, no matter how often he failed and fell, he only had to try again, get back up, and keep moving forward.
The path Airen was trying to take now was one where even a single failure was unbearably frightening.
‘...What if I say it carelessly and she rejects me?’
After watching Illia train for a long time, Airen turned away.
The reason he could not tell her how he felt was because he feared she would not feel the same way.
The reason he feared that was because he was afraid even their current relationship would break, leaving them awkward around each other.
When he put all those fears together...
Airen lacked confidence.
He had never thought about whether he had any appeal as a man.
What appeal even was, or how he was supposed to develop it.
It was a problem he had never once considered before.
Airen sighed again.
“Haah...”
He could not do nothing.
Yet he could not recklessly do something, either.
Time passed in that torment, and before he knew it, Airen’s group had spent ten days with House Lindsay.
It was not a short time.
But it was far too short to solve his worries.
The moment of parting crept closer, and Airen Farreira finally made up his mind on the night before the group was set to leave the estate.
Holding a bouquet of Sorcery flowers he had asked his younger sister to prepare, Airen spoke to Illia, who had come out to spar with her usual bright smile.
“This, um... it’s a gift.”
“Huh? Uh...”
Illia Lindsay was deeply flustered.
Every day she spent with Airen had been nothing but happy.
She regretted that he would leave tomorrow, but she had been satisfied with how much closer they seemed to have become.
Then, without warning, he handed her a beautiful bouquet woven with golden and silver light.
Her face turned red at the unexpected gift.
“W-Well, this, ah...”
Naturally, Airen did not notice.
He was far too nervous.
He was not even confessing.
Even though he lacked the courage to take a full step forward and was only managing half a step, his heart pounded wildly.
His mind was a mess, and the words he had prepared were falling apart.
Still, it was all right.
He successfully conveyed that he was sorry he had not given her a gift on the first day he came to the estate.
That the bouquet needed the power of Sorcery from time to time to maintain its light.
And that, if she did not mind, he wanted to visit a little more often so the light of those flowers would not fade.
He had at least managed to make that much clear.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
Sweat poured down Airen’s back after he finished speaking.
Even he thought it was a terribly flimsy excuse.
The belated regret that he should have simply asked honestly whether he could come see her more often kept surfacing.
At the same time, he wondered if she might have felt burdened by that, and whether this was much better.
Of course, the die had already been cast.
Airen waited for her answer in time that seemed to move dozens of times slower than usual. Illia stood still for quite a while, like a figure in a painting.
Then she reacted.
Only a few seconds had likely passed in reality.
“...!”
A brief embrace.
Airen stood there stupidly, feeling a moment he could never forget. By the time he came to his senses, Illia had already fled far away. She turned her head and spoke.
“You might get in a lot of trouble.”
“...”
“If you keep me waiting too long.”
With those words, Illia disappeared in an instant.
Airen blankly watched the direction she had gone.
The bouquet of silver and gold flowers trailed behind her as it vanished into the distance, but he did not find the sight particularly sad.
The touch, the fragrance, the warmth.
Feeling the traces she had left behind for that brief moment, the twenty-three-year-old boy stood in the middle of the summer night for a long time.
Then, after a while...
“...Next time, I’ll be much more impressive than I am now.”
The boy who had suddenly grown into a young man quietly murmured his resolve.
* * *
It was late June, on a morning when the summer heat was at its fiercest.
Airen Farreira’s group left House Lindsay.
There were not many people to see them off. Only Count and Countess Lindsay, Illia Lindsay, Emma Garcia, and a few knights were there.
That did not mean House Lindsay was treating Airen carelessly because the gathering was small.
If anything, the fact that only the core members of the house had gathered meant that he was leaving after receiving more generous hospitality than anyone else who had ever visited.
‘Well, that young man is quite likely to become our lord’s son-in-law someday...’
‘Of course we should treat him accordingly.’
A few veteran knights who had devoted themselves to the family for a long time looked toward Illia with pleased smiles, then flinched and glanced at Joshua Lindsay.
“Ahem.”
“Cough... Then I’ll be off to attend to my duties, my lord.”
The head of the house glared at the knights as they hurried away, then clicked his tongue.
It was not because of them.
It was because of Airen.
The words that boy had secretly told him before leaving would not leave his mind.
‘The next time I come, I’ll return as someone you can rely on even more.’
‘What? Rely on you?’
‘I’ll do my best so you won’t have to worry.’
‘You little... What exactly do you mean by...’
Airen had mounted the Griffin and flown away immediately after saying that.
The head of the house was dumbfounded.
Someone he could rely on?
So he would not have to worry?
It sounded like the arrogant words of someone who had promised a future with his daughter, and Joshua felt both disbelief and a little anger.
‘You punk. You still have a long way to go before I acknowledge you!’
Of course, those were only his private thoughts.
Lady Elissa Lindsay already wore an excited expression as she imagined all sorts of things about the happy future awaiting her daughter and future son-in-law.
And Illia Lindsay...
‘But do I really have to be the one waiting? Maybe instead...’
Thinking something that would make the head of the house spit blood if he knew, she could only gaze longingly at the sky where Airen Farreira had disappeared.
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