WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 45

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The Elements of Effort (1)

"You. Become my disciple."

".........."

Airen Farreira couldn't focus on what the cat Sorcerer Lulu had just said.

He knew it wasn't one of her usual throwaway lines. He knew it carried real weight.

But it wasn't the proposal itself that held his attention.

It was her eyes.

It was the atmosphere seeping out of her, quiet and unmistakable.

'Heavy.'

Incredibly heavy.

And thick, too.

He'd felt something like it before.

The pressure Instructor Ahmed had radiated from the platform, back when Airen first set foot in Krono Fencing Hall, had felt like this.

The air around Instructor Karaka, who usually laughed like an easygoing old man but occasionally flashed a startling look in his eyes, had felt like this too.

No, actually, this was heavier.

For a moment, just the briefest moment...

'Heavy enough to remind me of Hall Master Ian.'

Airen shook the thought off immediately.

That was absurd. Hall Master Ian was spoken of as one of the finest swordsmen alive, arguably the finest on the entire continent.

No matter how remarkable Sorcerer Lulu might be, she couldn't compare to that.

But the fact that the thought had crossed his mind at all, even briefly, told him something. It told him exactly how extraordinary this black cat really was.

'What in the world...'

His thoughts on Lulu didn't get to run any further, though.

The Sorcerer, who had drifted right up to the silent Airen, spoke again.

Several times, actually.

"Hey."

"Hey, hey."

"Hey, hey, hey."

"Are you even listening? I said become my disciple."

"I'll teach you all sorts of things. Let's go off together into the exciting world of Sorcery!"

"........."

Lulu's tone had gone light again, completely at odds with the weight she'd carried a moment ago.

Airen, finally shaking off his daze, took a step back and answered.

"No."

"What? Why not!"

"Why not, obviously. I'm not a Sorcerer."

"That's fine. You just learn Sorcery starting now. I'll teach you."

"No, I mean, it's not even magic, it's Sorcery... Sorcery isn't something you can just decide to learn, is it? I mean, magic is hard too, but..."

That much was true.

Swordsmen, mages, Sorcerers.

Reaching the highest level was difficult for all three, but getting started wasn't the same across the board.

The sword was the easiest to pick up, magic came next, and Sorcery was said to be something heaven handed down to a chosen few.

Refining a power that had already awakened in you was one thing. Deciding to learn it from scratch was close to impossible.

And Airen had no particular interest in Sorcery to begin with.

Just finding his own sword was already giving him a headache. He had absolutely no intention of taking on another discipline on top of that.

The boy laid out his thinking as gently as he could. It counted as a polite refusal.

But the black cat had no intention of backing down.

"What's wrong with being a swordsman?"

"Huh?"

"To begin with, nobody suits Sorcery better than a swordsman with a strong will, and besides, you've probably got a good chance of awakening a power that supports your swordsmanship."

"What are you..."

"You really don't know much, do you? Do you even know how swordsmen, mages, and Sorcerers differ?"

Airen Farreira fell silent.

Lulu was right. He didn't know much at all.

Tsk, tsk, the cat clicked her tongue. She floated down to the ground and tapped the floor with a paw.

Her paw was too small to actually make any sound, of course. But the meaning came through clearly enough.

Sit down.

The boy obediently sat, and Lulu settled in front of him and cleared her throat.

Then, from the cat's mouth, came an explanation of swordsmen, mages, and Sorcerers.

* * *

Every martial artist, swordsmen included, focused inward, on their own body, their inner universe.

They trained endlessly, honed themselves endlessly, seeking growth of body and mind alike.

In the process of understanding themselves more clearly and pushing toward something better, they came to grasp that mysterious force, Aura.

Mages, by contrast, focused outward, on the world around them, their outer universe.

They worked to analyze Mana, the mysterious force woven into all things, striving to understand the principles, the laws, the logic of the world.

The closer they came to that truth, the higher their level rose, and the greater the power they could wield.

So what about Sorcerers?

People tended to say things like this.

'Sorcerers? Aren't they all just tantrum throwers?'

Beings who threw fits at the world.

Beings who demanded the impossible be made possible.

Beings who ignored the laws of the world, ignored common sense, who wanted nothing but their own will made real, and who somehow, unbelievably, managed to make it happen.

Faced with that kind of talk, the cat Sorcerer Lulu didn't bother arguing much.

"That's more or less accurate. Sorcerers have plenty to say for themselves, but honestly, from the outside it probably does look absurd. It's basically the same as shouting 'I want to be rich!' and having a lump of gold pop out of thin air. But there's one thing you need to understand."

"What's that?"

"That it takes an enormous amount of will to make something that absurd actually happen."

"........."

"We're talking about a will stronger than ordinary beings can even imagine. Which makes sense, right? If someone could single handedly change the world and still be ordinary, that would be the weird part. So, do you get it now? Do you understand what an amazing cat I am?"

"So basically..."

Airen thought he understood, roughly, what Lulu was getting at.

To other people, it might look like she had no real ability, just someone who got lucky over and over.

But that wasn't it. A Sorcerer needed an extraordinary heart, an unmatched will, strong enough to actually work Sorcery.

In other words, a Sorcerer's power was proportional to the strength of their heart.

The cat Sorcerer nodded at Airen's summary.

"Right. You get it. So now you understand, don't you?"

"Understand what?"

"How perfectly suited you are to Sorcery."

Lulu gazed steadily at the boy.

The same expression as always. The same look as always. Naturally. An unfamiliar cat's face always came across the same way to Airen Farreira, no matter what.

But the eyes.

The fire burning in Lulu's eyes right now was unmistakably different from before.

She went on.

"I can feel it. That downward strike you just showed me. The will behind it, this incredibly solid intent to cut through something!"

"........."

"That much will is more than enough. Of course, will alone isn't everything, whether you're naturally suited to Sorcery matters too, but you qualify. You have real talent for it."

"How would you even know that?"

"Because I'm a Sorcerer! What kind of Sorcerer can't spot another one's potential? I'll say it with confidence. You could awaken your ability within the year with just a little help. And it'd be the kind of ability that helps your swordsmanship, too."

So, what do you think? Still no interest in becoming my disciple?

Lulu spoke with a face full of confidence, then crossed her arms.

Airen couldn't quite tell, but right now her expression was brimming with certainty.

The certainty that there was no way he'd refuse this offer!

But Airen shook his head, a bitter smile on his lips.

"Sorry, but it's still no."

"What? Why! Whyyy!"

"It's not that I don't want to learn Sorcery, it's just... that downward strike I showed you a minute ago... that, that one's off limits. It's not my sword."

"Huh?"

"Um... it's kind of hard to explain."

The lazy lord's face twisted into an awkward expression.

He had never once told anyone about his dream.

Someone who'd spent his whole life shut up in his room, if he started talking about something like that, everyone would probably think he'd lost his mind.

'But... I don't think this cat would treat me that way.'

He didn't know Lulu well.

But he wasn't a total stranger to her, either.

From what he'd seen, this black cat was nowhere near narrow minded enough to look at him strangely over something like this.

And there was that insight, too, the way she'd reacted instantly to a single downward strike.

That mattered as well.

'Maybe, if she hears my story, she'll notice some secret I don't even know about myself.'

Airen nodded to himself and slowly began explaining his dream.

About the unfamiliar man who appeared in his dreams every night, and the sword that man swung.

"Wow, fascinating. Something like possession, maybe?"

"Possession?"

"Yeah. I've heard of cases where a completely different soul, or memories, or personality gets layered onto someone. Never seen it myself, though."

"I see."

"It's not exactly the same as your case. But it's similar enough. Hm... but either way, that shouldn't get in the way of learning Sorcery, should it?"

Unfortunately, Lulu didn't have much useful advice to offer either.

Or rather, she didn't seem all that interested in that side of things to begin with.

She seemed far more focused on whether the dream, whatever it was, would interfere with learning Sorcery.

Airen Farreira gave another bitter smile.

'I can't even find a thread to follow for my own sword, and yet the man's sword looks this compelling.'

Obviously, he had no intention of accepting Lulu's offer.

The man's sword was something to be forgotten, not something to hone and refine.

But that didn't mean he wanted to rule out Sorcery entirely, either.

After thinking it over for a moment, the boy spoke.

"Either way, it's a no. I don't want to awaken Sorcery through someone else's will."

"Aah! Come on, don't say that, let's just try it a little! I promise it'll be fun..."

"But if it's about growing my own sword, instead of the man's sword from my dream, I might be open to that."

"Huh? Your sword?"

"Yeah. My sword."

"What counts as your sword, then?"

"Um..."

"Not the one you just showed me, I mean the sword you usually swing. Is that your sword?"

"........."

He couldn't say yes.

He was making an effort to find his own sword.

But that was it. He himself still didn't know what his sword actually was.

'Right back to square one.'

To learn Sorcery, he'd need to first figure out what his sword was, which meant the cat's offer would have to wait.

The boy let out a faint sigh and explained his situation quietly, bit by bit.

He hoped Lulu wouldn't take it badly. He hoped, a little, that she'd cheer him on in his efforts, too.

But what came out of the cat Sorcerer's mouth was nothing like what he expected.

"You've got something mixed up. What you're doing isn't effort."

"Huh?"

"It's not effort."

Airen stared into Lulu's eyes, as if trying to confirm he'd heard her right.

Silence stretched between them. The boy's bewildered gaze met the cat's sharp pupils. Her expression seemed to demand an answer.

To that look, the cat spoke again.

"That's just wasted struggle."

It was a cold answer.

* * *

Late afternoon.

Airen Farreira finished training far earlier than usual and sat down on his bed once he reached his room.

It wasn't that he'd run out of energy. The stamina he'd built up at Krono Fencing Hall wasn't the kind that ran dry this easily.

No.

The reason lay somewhere else.

The boy slowly turned over what the cat Sorcerer Lulu had told him just now.

'It's not effort just because you throw yourself into action, just because you work your body to exhaustion.'

'Do you know the real definition of effort? Effort means putting your whole body and mind into achieving a goal.'

'What I'm saying is, using your heart matters just as much as using your body.'

'Honestly, it's kind of strange. Usually it's the opposite, people whose hearts race ahead of everything else. Someone who wants to be rich starting today without doing any work, someone who wants to draw beautifully without ever practicing, someone agonizing over not losing weight without so much as a lap around the yard... they're all people whose actions don't match their hearts. No matter how desperate people like that feel, you can't call it effort.'

'You're the opposite. Your actions are more than enough. But your heart hasn't stirred at all. Like you wouldn't even be happy if it all came true right this instant.'

'That's not effort either. Because there's no heart behind the action, not enough to back it up.'

'Do you understand now why I called it wasted struggle instead of effort?'

"A devoted heart, behind devoted action..."

Something he'd never once considered.

But something he couldn't argue with, either.

'Nothing to say to that.'

The cat had been right.

Compared to how tirelessly he'd swung his sword, compared to how densely, how relentlessly he'd moved and kept moving... his actual concern for what his sword might be, his actual will to solve that question, had been paper thin.

He'd just been drifting along with the current, going through the motions of trying.

'I...'

But he couldn't afford to dwell on that alone right now.

Airen pictured Lulu's face and murmured quietly to himself.

"What in the world is she, really?"

He'd already heard she was an extraordinary Sorcerer.

But this time he'd truly understood it. Lulu was far more remarkable than he'd given her credit for.

Naturally, his curiosity was piqued.

Of course, someone who'd spent ten years locked in his room probably wouldn't learn much even if he stayed curious...

He was in the middle of that thought when.

Knock knock.

"Young master, may I come in?"

"Yeah."

At the lazy lord's answer, the servant Marcus stepped cautiously into the room. He said he had two things to report, glancing around the room as he spoke.

"That cat Sorcerer isn't in here right now, is she? Lady Lulu, I mean."

"Don't think so. Why?"

"I see. The first thing I wanted to tell you concerns her, actually."

The boy's eyes lit up.

A moment later, from the servant's mouth, came word about the cat Sorcerer.

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