WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 46

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The Elements of Effort (2)

Bad talk about black cats had been around for a long time.

Some said demons released them into the world to help witches. Others said hearing one yowl brought bad luck.

Of course, all of it was baseless superstition, but plenty of people still carried a negative image of black cats around in their heads, that much was true.

In that sense, Lulu had practically been built to soak up every bit of that prejudice.

A black cat that talked like a person, and on top of that, a Sorcerer with a reputation for a strange personality.

The more you thought about it, the more the combination pulled your thoughts toward the negative.

"There's a lot of bad talk about her."

The servant who brought up Lulu felt the same way.

He checked around the room once more, then, keeping his voice low as if worried someone might overhear, laid out what he knew about the black cat.

A rumor that after she'd joined Oracle, a Sorcerer's Guild in the continent's east, the organization had shattered the moment she left it.

A story that the second son of the Jackal territory, where she'd briefly taken shelter, had died in an unlucky accident.

Even a claim that the Balbani Merchant Company, once among the top traders in the southeast, had gone into decline the instant they took in a black cat, and soon after split into seven factions over internal conflict.

Every rumor about Lulu was unlucky, without exception.

"Is any of this confirmed?"

"Oracle and the Balbani Merchant Company actually collapsing, and the Jackal territory actually suffering that misfortune, those are facts. The rest is just talk that's been going around..."

"And the evidence that Lulu was involved in any of those incidents?"

"Honestly, there isn't any. Just that she happened to be there."

"Then..."

"Young master."

The servant Marcus cut Airen off.

He knew full well how disrespectful it was to interrupt his young master, but he felt this was a moment that called for firmness.

"I know. It might not be true. It's possible this is nothing more than baseless rumor, born from the black cat superstition tangled up with a handful of flimsy stories. It's possible that innocent looking Sorcerer never did a single thing wrong."

"........."

"But there's no reason to take the risk anyway, is there?"

The room went quiet.

Airen fell into silent thought at his words, and Marcus watched his young master with a pained expression.

He understood. To Airen Farreira, who'd been little more than a hermit for years, that cat Sorcerer had probably become a genuinely good friend.

'Even so... keeping distance is the right call. A black cat Sorcerer wrapped up in that much bad rumor.'

Distance was the right call.

He nodded, then, choosing his words carefully, asked his young master to slowly pull away from Lulu.

To let the relationship drift apart naturally, until they were nothing more than passing acquaintances.

Airen didn't answer.

Marcus let out a sigh too faint to hear, then moved on to the next matter.

"The second thing concerns the upcoming Subjugation Campaign."

In a few weeks, the Southern Alliance would hold their Subjugation Campaign, and a council meeting about it would take place at their house.

The head of the house would likely bring it up in a few days, so it would be wise to have his mind made up beforehand.

The servant delivered this part briefly, quickly.

In truth, this was the more important of the two matters, but the mood in the room made it impossible to dwell on it any longer.

He spoke with an apologetic expression.

"I'm sorry for bringing up such an uncomfortable subject. I'll take my leave now."

Click.

The door closed. Two people became one, and an even heavier silence settled over the room.

It didn't last forever, though.

After a moment spent gathering his thoughts, Airen Farreira spoke carefully.

"I told you before. I don't love the idea of meddling in my sister's business, but if I'm going to give her advice..."

"I meant that I wouldn't let anything else sway me, that I'd just tell her exactly what I've seen and felt about you. Not sweet talk bought with a bribe. And..."

A monologue, delivered in an empty room.

Except it didn't feel that way. The boy's words carried a nuance that suggested someone else was listening, not the tone of a person talking to himself.

He kept going.

"From what I've seen of you, you don't seem like someone with a personality bad enough to actually hurt people."

"........."

"You're strange compared to most, a bit different from a human, and sometimes you're annoying and ridiculous, sure. But that's it. There's a lot more good in you than that. At least, that's how I see it. So... I'll tell my sister exactly what I think, exactly this. Rumors or no rumors."

"...But what if something bad happens to you or Kiril because of that?"

So she really was there.

At the shrunken, wary voice drifting up from under the bed, Airen nodded.

Somehow he'd figured she would be. And that meant he shouldn't put off saying what he actually meant.

"Let me ask you something first."

"Mm."

"What Marcus just told me, is it true?"

"...Yeah."

"Did those things happen because of you?"

"It wasn't me! I was just having fun, and, and it just happened that way! At Oracle, two grumpy old men got in a fight and the tower came down, and at the merchant company, the owner's kids started fighting, fighting each other, and at the Jackal territory..."

A string of unlucky coincidences.

Or a black cat Sorcerer's lies.

If it was the latter, that was seriously dangerous. Even if it was the former, it was still unsettling. Nothing guaranteed that same run of bad luck wouldn't reach his sister next.

But.

"I'll be fine, I think."

"Huh?"

"I said I'll be fine. Even if I keep being close with you."

"...But I'm a black cat that drags bad luck around wherever I go?"

"You already knew that when you came up to me in the first place, didn't you? Why act surprised now?"

"That's... sorry. That was my fault."

Her voice had gone even more downcast than before.

Airen let out a short laugh.

He'd never seen Lulu, usually so full of confidence, look this dejected, and he found it a little funny, honestly.

Of course, he wasn't cruel enough to enjoy it for long.

The lazy lord spoke.

"It's fine. I had plenty of bad rumors about me too."

"Huh?"

"I was exactly like you."

Airen Farreira dredged up a past he'd rather not think about.

When his mother died and left a shocked child behind, the first thing that came his way was sympathy, pity, sorrow.

But that lasted only briefly. The longer the boy stayed shut up in his room, the faster public opinion of him crumbled.

A weak person. A fool. A lazy good for nothing. The lazy lord.

And every ugly rumor that came with those names.

None of it had a shred of truth behind it, just malicious talk with no basis at all, but once a rumor started rolling, it grew like a snowball, until it reached a point even the house's influence couldn't stop it.

If he hadn't had the dream's help, if he hadn't found something new at Krono Fencing Hall... he'd probably still be trapped inside those rumors, living out miserable days.

That was why.

"Like I said before, I'll only judge based on what I actually see and feel."

"........."

"And if you're worried about the superstition, then for now, let's just keep meeting in secret, just the two of us. If nothing happens after that, then the superstition's wrong and you can go be around other people too. And if something bad does happen, well, it ends with just me..."

"No it doesn't! Nothing like that's going to happen! It's all coincidence! I didn't do anything wrong! I'm not unlucky, I'm not cursed, none of it!"

Considering she was the one who'd said 'I'm a black cat that drags bad luck around wherever I go' first, getting this worked up about it now was a bit much.

Ridiculous, but it didn't feel bad, somehow.

Airen laughed and answered.

"Right. I think so too. But other people don't know that, so I'll work on clearing it up little by little."

"........."

"Until then, how about we keep meeting in my room, like now?"

"...Here, take this."

A cat's paw shot out from under the bed and vanished again.

An enormous black pearl sat there in its place.

Startled, Airen was about to ask, but Lulu got there first.

"That's really expensive! Better than a Cat's Eye Stone, okay? Take it and say good things about me. Tell them I'm not a bad kid!"

"........."

"Okay, I'm going!"

Shff.

A faint burst of noise, then silence.

Bewildered, Airen climbed down from the bed and checked underneath.

Once he confirmed Lulu had really left, he turned his attention to the black pearl.

'It's really, really big.'

A black pearl so large his sister couldn't have closed one hand around it.

Just like the cat Sorcerer had said. Given its size and quality, it had to be worth far more than a Cat's Eye Stone.

But the reason Airen wore a pleased expression wasn't the black pearl's price.

'This was in Lulu's treasure collection.'

One of the treasures she wouldn't trade away for a fortune.

He remembered her once saying it carried some strange scent of the sea that she liked.

The boy brought his nose close to the black pearl.

'No smell at all.'

Something a human nose couldn't pick up on.

But he could feel Lulu's heart in it, just a little, all the same.

Cradling the black pearl carefully, Airen threw himself onto his bed with a smile on his face.

* * *

The next morning.

Normally he'd have been at sword training at this hour, but right now, Airen Farreira was in the head of the house's room, not the training hall.

A day had passed since Marcus's warning, and his father had called for him.

His father said, "You know what the Subjugation Campaign is, don't you?"

"Yes, I do."

The Subjugation Campaign.

Monsters bred wildly over the course of a year, pushing out of the forests and mountains toward the roads people traveled. Before that happened, elite forces were gathered to cull their numbers.

Held every May, the Six Southern Houses took part together, and barring special circumstances, the lord of each territory, along with any young lord old enough, joined the campaign as well.

Nobles earned respect not from noble blood, but from shouldering the duty that came with it.

That was why children of the other houses set foot on the Subjugation Campaign as young as twelve or thirteen.

In truth, the knights and soldiers handled most of the actual work, so there wasn't much real danger involved anyway.

Naturally, none of that had ever applied to the lazy lord. Even last year, at fifteen, he hadn't shown his face at anything like this.

But.

"This time, I'll take part."

Airen Farreira said, his face serious.

Harun Farreira, watching his son, asked, "Are you sure you can handle it."

"I can do it."

Airen said again, putting weight behind the words.

Whether he could or couldn't wasn't the point.

He'd thought about it, back when he'd returned to the house and run into Aren Gairon.

He wouldn't run anymore. He had to face what needed doing head on, instead of ducking away from it.

Of course it felt like a burden, felt hard, especially in his mind more than his body.

But he understood now that he couldn't keep living that way forever.

To his son, thinking exactly that, his father said, "The Subjugation Campaign isn't a place where you fight monsters."

"........."

"It's a place where you fight other houses."

Not that anyone actually drew swords on each other and drew blood, of course.

He meant something far murkier, a far more cutthroat battle of nerve. Harun Farreira wanted his son to keep that in mind.

Tongues sharper than blades, more lethal than poison, wagged by old men set in their ways.

Could his gentle, still tender son really withstand that kind of pressure?

"I'll do my best."

"...Good."

His father rose from his chair and patted his son's back. Airen took in the touch of his hand without a word.

A week later.

"Ha ha, good to see you. Oh! Airen Farreira... you've grown so much more dignified since I last saw you!"

Viscount Phil Gairon wore a warm, benevolent smile.

With him at the head, the Six Southern Houses of Southern Hale Kingdom gathered at the Farreira territory.

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