WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 31

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The Calm Before the Storm (3)

"Judith?"

"Why'd your voice go up at the end? Is it that weird that I came?"

"No, it's not that, it's just..."

"I was just saying something. You know I've got a rotten personality, but you always react so seriously. You're a funny one."

Judith kept grumbling, unhappy about something.

Not that she kept it up all day.

Before long she'd wandered closer, pointing at the bench.

"If you've got time, want to talk for a bit?"

"Um..."

He didn't exactly have time.

Then again, he wasn't that busy either.

And this was the first time Judith had ever set a mood like this to talk, so out of curiosity alone he didn't want to refuse.

Airen nodded and sat down on the bench. Judith plopped down beside him.

For about a minute they said nothing, just looked up at the night sky, until the girl finally spoke.

"How's the prep going?"

"Huh? Prep for what?"

"The Final Evaluation, obviously. Less than two weeks left, what else would I be talking about?"

"Ah..."

Honestly, he hadn't been thinking about it.

He knew, of course. He knew how important the Final Evaluation was.

Depending on the result that day, the past year of effort would either pay off or turn out to have been for nothing.

But right now, Airen had something on his mind that mattered far more than that.

"Just doing my best, I guess."

Of course, he wasn't foolish enough to say that and leave it there.

"That answer had no energy in it at all."

"Mm."

"Well, that's how you always are, I guess."

"...What about you? Confident?"

This time Airen asked, and Judith shot the question right back.

"Confident about what?"

"That you'll pass?"

"Passing's a given, why even ask that. You should be asking if I can beat that little witch Illia."

"...Can you beat her?"

Saying Illia's name outright felt like admitting the insult was deserved, so he just left it out.

He knew the others disliked her, but that didn't change the fact that she'd been the first person to help him, someone precious to him.

To Judith, though, Illia was simply a nasty piece of work.

Judith answered in a growl.

"Obviously. Do you know how hard I've worked? Actually, wait, hard work alone isn't enough, is it? Whatever. I'm winning. I'm winning, period."

"Sure."

"What, is that all? React a little more."

"How am I supposed to..."

"Ugh, forget it. You're seriously no fun."

"Sorry."

The boy's apology left silence hanging between them.

Judith tapped her feet against the ground one after another without a word. Airen, following her lead, gave his own feet a timid little kick.

It was the red-haired girl who spoke first.

"I'm sorry too."

The word that came out of her mouth was, of all things, an apology.

Startled, Airen couldn't even answer. Judith, apologizing? With her personality?

And besides, what did she even have to apologize for?

The boy stared blankly at her, and Judith kept talking with her head down.

"I haven't really looked out for you in a while, right? At first I sparred with you, taught you when your movements were awkward, all that."

"Huh? Oh..."

"But after the Hall Master's sword dance, I feel like I basically stopped paying attention to you. That's why I felt bad, so I came out here."

"No, you really don't need to feel bad about something like that..."

"I'm an orphan."

The statement cut in out of nowhere.

Airen shut his mouth.

He'd lost his own birth mother, but he had no idea how to respond to Judith saying she had no parents at all.

She didn't seem to be waiting for an answer anyway, and kept talking.

"I'm not saying this to get pity or anything, just... when a kid's clawing to survive, the only work around is pickpocketing, petty theft, stuff like that, and once you're living like that, everyone around you ends up the same way too, adults and brats alike, no exceptions..."

"..."

"Anyway, so there was never anyone to be grateful to, never anything to say thanks for. That's why when you pulled me out during the Mid-Term Evaluation, I couldn't say thank you. Honestly, even now, saying it straight to your face is too embarrassing, I can't do it."

"That's..."

"So instead, I tried to pay you back my own way, looking out for you, teaching you things, whatever I could manage, but then I looked up and realized it'd turned into this. So... that's why I'm saying sorry."

Judith exhaled after getting that out.

Her expression looked a good deal more at ease than when she'd first arrived, as if she'd let something off her chest.

Airen still couldn't think of anything to say and just stared blankly at her face. Because of that, the moment Judith turned her head, their eyes met.

The girl spoke again.

"Pass."

"Huh?"

"You have to pass. The Final Evaluation. Pass it, drop the probationary tag, get properly enrolled at Krono Fencing Hall, become a real trainee, and then..."

"..."

"I'll help you out properly after that, more than enough to make up for this awkward feeling, so no matter what, pass. Got it?"

Airen found himself nodding without meaning to.

He must have looked ridiculous. Judith let out a short laugh, stood up, and brushed off her backside.

Then she gave the boy's back a couple of firm pats.

"Alright, I'm off. Work hard."

With that she walked off without a backward glance.

Her short red hair swayed as she grew smaller in the distance. Airen watched her back for a long while, then lowered his gaze and thought it over carefully.

No matter how he turned it over, there really was nothing Judith needed to apologize for.

If anyone owed an apology, it was him.

"These past two months, I haven't looked out for anyone either..."

She'd said she'd been neglecting him, but Judith still came to check on him once a week, still made time for all sorts of small things.

And it wasn't only her.

Brett Lloyd, busy as he was, had still offered no small amount of advice, and ever since the gift, Illia Lindsay had gone back to looking out for him too.

They might spend less time together than before, but the care behind it had never actually shrunk.

'Meanwhile, I was the one who'd drifted away, not just in what I did, but in my heart too.'

That was the truth. He'd been focused only on his dream.

Buried in that man's sword, he'd stopped paying attention to what was around him.

Not that there was anything wrong with that.

The boy would still do everything he could to get closer to that mysterious man, but separate from that, he couldn't help feeling sorry toward Judith.

'Owing me, what nonsense.'

If anything, he was the one who owed a debt.

He'd received so much, really, from Illia, from Brett, from Judith.

And he'd given nothing back. There wasn't even time left to give anything. The Final Evaluation was only two weeks away now. Airen felt a belated regret settle over him.

'No, it isn't too late.'

Right. It wasn't too late.

That would only be true if he failed the Final Evaluation. If he passed, everything changed.

Just as Judith had said, if everyone got properly enrolled at the fencing hall, the bond between them could go on that much longer.

He could spend the future making up for the past he'd neglected.

Relief settled over him at last. Airen let a faint smile show.

'Strange, isn't it.'

Eyes closed, the boy looked back over the past.

There had been a time when he'd been shut inside his room his whole life. Joy, anger, sorrow, delight, all of it buried under depression and lethargy, never once surfacing.

But life at the fencing hall had changed him completely.

Every single moment, he'd surprised himself.

Pulling Judith out of the water, handing a gift to a sulking Illia Lindsay, standing tall in front of Brett Lloyd when he came asking for a duel... each time, he'd felt that same strange, unfamiliar wonder: so I can do this. So I can feel this.

The past year had been a time of discovering, piece by piece, a version of himself he hadn't even known existed.

Getting to know himself.

Getting to know his own heart.

Unfamiliar, but not a bad feeling at all.

For the first time in a very long while, the lazy young lord spent his time looking not at his body, not at his movements, but into his own heart.

But that lasted only a moment.

A thought crossed his mind, and he shot up off the bench.

Thump.

He grabbed the wooden sword he'd left leaning on the bench. Walked to the center of the training ground where he'd been before. Took his stance and breathed quietly.

Then, belatedly, he chased after what he'd been missing.

'...The problem was I was only imitating the surface.'

That was it.

It wasn't just the outward form that mattered. Just as much, or even more, what lay inside it mattered.

With that sudden realization, the boy closed his eyes and began to meditate.

The cold evening wind brushed past his ears, but the boy didn't so much as twitch, holding his stance without moving.

* * *

"I'm back."

"So you are."

"Aren't you going to ask? Whether he's doing well?"

"Of course he's doing well. Like I said before, that guy's passing no matter what. Even without you fussing over him separately."

"You really do talk like a jerk. Are all nobles this rude by nature?"

"The eldest son of House Lloyd is raised with a full education in manners and refinement from a young age."

"Then why do you turn out like this?"

"If you look rude to everyone you meet, the problem probably isn't them, it's you. Sounds like you need some correcting."

"Are you saying I wasn't raised right, just in a roundabout way?"

"Never mind. Let's start."

Brett Lloyd waved a hand and raised his sword.

The air around him shifted.

An intensely dense sphere of water. It felt like it wrapped tightly around the boy's entire body.

Not a single opening in sight. Even watching felt suffocating.

Judith forced a smile at the sight.

"Never gets old, watching this."

Brett Lloyd and Judith had decided to team up to prepare for the Final Evaluation.

Each thought the other would help sharpen their skills, and each thought the other was a fitting partner to show off their potential against.

In fact, the instructors' evaluations of the two of them had been climbing higher by the day.

But Judith knew.

As she was now, she still fell short of being called Brett's rival.

'I might be able to beat Illia, but this guy...'

Having sparred with him for so long, she understood it all too well.

The boy in front of her now was a monster.

Carving out openings where none existed was the swordsmanship she aimed for, but she couldn't even imagine cracking this guy's composure, breaking his breathing.

Not yet, anyway.

'Once I'm a proper trainee, I'll beat him.'

Illia Lindsay too.

And you too, Brett Lloyd.

Turning her burning frustration into fighting spirit, Judith raised her sword to match him.

Soon a sparring match unfolded that looked close to real combat.

It wasn't only the two of them.

With the Final Evaluation drawing near, every single one of the probationary trainees gathered in the great training hall carried a sharp edge in their eyes.

Shwaaak!

Shwak!

"Hoop, hup!"

"Haah, haah!"

The atmosphere was sharper than anything seen even the day before the Mid-Term Evaluation, and within it, each trainee's understanding of the sword was being honed with precision.

Watching from a distance, the Hall Master and instructors couldn't hide the anticipation in their eyes.

* * *

Two weeks later.

At last, the Final Evaluation began, the one that would decide official enrollment at Krono Fencing Hall.

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