WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 55

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Reunion After Five Years (1)

Training inside the world Sorcery had built for him, Airen Farreira thought most often of his family.

That was natural. His reasons for picking up the sword, and for awakening Sorcery in the first place, had always been his family.

That didn't mean his thoughts of the three at Krono Fencing Hall ran shallow. Far from it.

They were the first people outside his family to believe in him and acknowledge him.

Even if it had been a construct of his own imagination, that presence had helped him train for a very long time.

And there was one more.

No, one more being: the cat Sorcerer, Lulu.

To a boy full of doubt about himself, Lulu had spoken of what it meant to have someone else believe in you, and had believed in him more deeply than anyone outside his own family. A master who had guided him.

The thought that he might see that master again sent Airen searching the bed at frantic speed.

No light in the room, but that didn't matter.

At the level he'd reached, a little darkness was no obstacle at all.

But.

Meow!

What met him wasn't a black cat. It was a white one.

Airen Farreira's face went slack with disappointment.

"Ah..."

He scooped up the white cat as it crawled out from under the blanket.

A back that stretched like taffy, fur groomed clean like it had been worked on for hours, and an expression that gave nothing away.

Strip away the color and it was the spitting image of Lulu.

Of course, it only resembled her. It wasn't actually Lulu.

Holding the white cat, he sank into thought.

'What happened to Lulu after I went into the Otherworldly Realm?'

She probably never saw it coming.

She'd believed in him more than anyone, but even she had warned him not to rush, that this would take no small amount of time.

So if something like this happened without any warning at all, how shocked must she have been?

'And... it probably didn't end at just being shocked.'

She'd likely landed in a genuinely awkward situation.

It couldn't have gone any other way. Even before this, his family, everyone but him, had been wary of Lulu because of the black cat superstition.

And then, out of nowhere, he'd been dragged into the Otherworldly Realm.

No warning at all. And for a very long time.

His time there had been precious, essential to his growth, but his family wouldn't have seen it that way.

To them it would have looked like an unlucky accident that took their son from them, and the blame for it would most likely have landed squarely on Lulu.

'Is she doing alright, Lulu?'

Did she even know he was out?

Where was she staying now?

Was she still on decent terms with his family?

And if something had gone wrong, what then?

If he showed them he was safe, could he smooth things over even if his parents and Kiril had come to resent her?

'Right, first, let's go see my family!'

Meowww!

As if agreeing with him, the cat in his arms let out a loud cry. Airen found it unbearably cute.

He laughed softly and stroked its head, and that was when he heard footsteps approaching outside.

A moment later, the door opened.

The door banged open.

"This blasted cat! I shut the door tight, how did it get back in... huh?"

Marcus, the servant, stood there with a face full of irritation, staring wordlessly at Airen Farreira.

He'd only come to catch the cat.

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that someone other than the young lord, unchanged year after year, might be in that room. He couldn't get a single word out.

"..."

Airen was the same.

Aside from his family, Marcus was the person in the house who'd looked after him most. He should have greeted him with joy right away.

But the changes in the man's face made him hesitate.

'His wrinkles... they've gone a lot deeper than I expected.'

A flicker of unease. And confusion.

Once he'd managed to settle both, Airen drew a deep breath and let it out.

Then he asked first.

"Marcus."

"Huh? Y-yes?"

"How much time has passed since I disappeared?"

"Uh... hold on, let's see... five years?"

...Five years!

Far longer than he'd expected. Airen Farreira's expression turned grave.

* * *

'Thank goodness. Thank goodness! Truly, thank goodness!'

After calming the servant, who had worked himself up to actual sobbing, Airen Farreira made his way to the room where his parents waited.

Marcus should have escorted him, but the man was such a wreck that Airen just left him behind.

Walking the corridor alone, he felt eyes land on him from every direction.

Some people startled like they'd seen a ghost.

Some tilted their heads, uncertain, half recognizing him.

Some watched him with pure curiosity. People who'd never laid eyes on him before.

'A lot of new servants. And the ones I remember have clearly aged. Five years really have passed.'

His chest felt heavy.

He'd braced himself for this, to some degree. Even someone as slow as him couldn't have missed a stretch of time that long.

But five years. Wasn't that too much?

The thought that his twelve-year-old sister was now seventeen made the whole situation feel that much heavier.

'And then there are the promises I couldn't keep.'

His promise to Ian, that he'd return to Krono Fencing Hall within a year.

His promise to Illia Lindsay, to visit her family before that.

No, before any of that, he'd missed the Monster Subjugation entirely.

The more he thought about it, the more his chest tightened, and his expression hardened further.

But all of that got shoved aside the instant he saw his parents' faces.

"Son!"

"Airen!"

His father and mother shot to their feet.

Airen Farreira flew across the room and wrapped his arms around both of them at once. And wept.

None of them were the crying type as a family, but not one of them stayed composed.

They spent a long while like that, lost in the raw force of the reunion.

"...The house is fine. No troubles."

Once the emotions had settled a little, Harun Farreira spoke first.

He was desperate to hear his son's story, but he wanted to ease his son's worries before satisfying his own curiosity.

"The Subjugation ended without incident this year, same as every year, and nothing's gone wrong since. The territory's actually doing better. The glasswork guild's reputation has grown, trade's picked up because of it, and the new knights and soldiers we've taken on are skilled. On top of that..."

What Harun said was true.

House Farreira's prospects had always been decent, but its growth had only accelerated.

Despite being a mere barony, its standing now outpaced plenty of viscount houses.

"Even Viscount Gairon's family, and the others, they've started watching their step more than they used to."

"...That's a relief to hear."

Airen nodded, his expression brightening.

Of course, he didn't take it entirely at face value.

However much the house's power had grown, there was no way Gairon would have left them alone.

That family's malice had run long and thick for no reason at all, and it wasn't the kind of thing that just stopped.

'They probably used my disappearance to dig at the family even harder.'

Most likely. The stronger the light, the deeper the shadow it casts.

And however much House Farreira had grown, it likely still fell short of the combined influence of the three houses, Gairon included.

His father had probably dressed things up a little, to put him at ease.

While he was thinking that, his mother's voice picked up the thread.

"Your sister is in Cesar Duchy."

"What?"

"She became the disciple of a wonderful Sorcerer. Skeena Kitten, have you heard the name?"

He had.

Skeena Kitten. Ranked among the top five most powerful Sorcerers even in Cesar Duchy, a place famous for Sorcery.

Not because his own knowledge ran that wide.

He'd heard the name from Kiril, once.

'I don't even like her, but she keeps bothering me.'

A Sorcerer who'd pursued Kiril with a persistence rivaling Lulu's, maybe surpassing it.

And yet his sister had refused her, all the way to the end. He never knew the reason.

His sister's likes and dislikes occupied a territory too complicated for him to map.

A question mark rose in Airen's mind.

Still, why would Kiril have become the disciple of someone she'd found so bothersome?

The question dissolved almost as fast as it came.

Because he thought he understood. Why his sister had made that choice.

'Because of me, probably.'

To pull him out by force, after years passed with no sign of him returning, she must have thought, 'I need to grow stronger. And to do that, I need to become the disciple of a powerful Sorcerer.'

That was very likely how she'd reasoned it out.

And if Lulu had been left out of that process along the way... it probably meant the two of them weren't on good terms.

'I've caused trouble again.'

Airen bowed his head low.

Guilt and sorrow rushed in like a tide.

But that lasted only a moment. A very brief one.

He reset his thinking at once and made a silent vow.

'It's fine.'

His parents' years of gloom in the past had come from his own failure to be the son he should have been.

His sister's unwanted life in Cesar now, too, came from his failure to be the older brother he should have been.

So what was he supposed to do about it?

Stay chained to past mistakes, digging himself deeper into the same hole?

No.

'I just have to do it right, starting now!'

Not every question in the world had a clean answer, but this time, that thought was the right one.

If his family had suffered because of him, then from here on, he'd make them happier than ever.

If the house's honor had been tarnished because of him, then from here on, he'd show them something to be proud of.

He didn't need to worry about his promise to the Hall Master, or his promise to Illia.

He could go right now if he wanted, and he was confident he could explain himself. Once he'd cleared up the mess here, he'd visit without delay.

The boy who had become a young man steered his thoughts down that straight, steady path.

A world away from the lazy lord he used to be.

"Father. Mother."

Resolve settled, Airen Farreira lifted his head.

Harun Farreira and Amel Farreira froze in surprise.

An appearance grown almost unrecognizable in five years.

An even more striking shift in his expression, his bearing.

And beyond all of that, a change in the air around him that felt larger still.

Only now could they truly feel it.

They didn't know exactly what had happened to him, but the past five years had clearly driven their son through an extraordinary transformation.

"I know you must have worried, so much. You kept saying it was fine, that there was nothing to worry about... but with your son locked away somewhere strange for five years, not just one, every single day must have been hard."

"You don't need to worry anymore. You don't need to keep struggling through it."

"Starting today, I'll show you a son worthy of being House Farreira's heir. Without any shame."

Tears spilled from Amel's eyes. Harun's too.

He'd been forcing himself to hold back, for the sake of a head of house's dignity, but even with his face set in a frown, he couldn't keep his eyes from reddening.

It wasn't simply because he'd heard a fine resolution spoken aloud.

It was the confidence underneath it, the kind that had been so hard to find in his son before, that he could sense now.

That realization broke something loose in both of them, and their son kept speaking.

"And... Lulu, the cat Sorcerer, I don't know if you've heard about her, but I wasn't just trapped for those five years. I trained harder than anyone, and my wish to work hard just took that shape... nothing bad happened to me. If anything, exactly the fortune I needed came my way."

"Training... sword training, you mean?"

"Yes. And it wasn't just hard work. I made real progress too."

The words 'real progress' made Harun Farreira's eyes widen slightly.

That was a considerable claim, coming from a son who'd always lacked confidence.

His interest sparked, unbidden. He didn't know swords well, but he wanted to see for himself.

And if his son really had achieved something remarkable, he wanted the whole world to know it.

Especially Baron Lester, Baron Russell, and Viscount Gairon's house. He wanted to flaunt it right in their faces.

He wasn't a boastful man by nature, but the humiliations he'd swallowed from them over the years had simply been too many.

'No, wait, I'm getting carried away.'

Baron Farreira closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again.

His son had grown almost unrecognizably, and that alone was something to be proud of. There was a confidence in him now that had never been there before. Whatever he'd said about his swordsmanship improving was probably true.

So then, what was the right thing for him to do, faced with a son like this?

Offer him warm encouragement.

Tell him he'd worked hard. Tell him well done. That came before anything else.

'I'm getting worked up over nothing.'

Harun scolded himself inwardly.

It didn't matter how great an achievement his son had made.

What mattered far more was that a son who'd always been so unsure of himself had found confidence, and that meant he'd put in that much effort.

His son's bold ambition had apparently gotten him more excited than he'd realized.

Just as he was about to offer some warm words along with that thought, his son, who'd paused for a beat, continued.

"So, in place of the Monster Subjugation I missed before... it's April now, isn't it. I'll take part in next month's Subjugation. And there..."

There, he'd earn his place as the heir of House Farreira, and do right by it.

The moment he heard that, no matter how hard he tried to stay composed, Harun couldn't manage it.

The feeling swelling in his chest had no way down. And there was no need to hold it down, either.

Tears and a smile mixed in equal measure on Harun Farreira's face, and he was just about to force out a reply when.

The door banged open.

Suddenly.

And a sharp voice rang out.

"You're going to take part in the Subjugation?"

"..."

"Who said you could?"

A girl grown almost unrecognizable. No, calling her a girl hardly fit anymore, given how much Harun Farreira's daughter had grown.

And a promising Sorcerer whose name was slowly spreading across the continent, past the borders of the kingdom.

Kiril Farreira had made her entrance.

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