WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 66

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Reunion (1)

Even after escaping the Otherworldly Realm, Airen Farreira spent his days in a rush.

With something as important as the demonoid subjugation still ahead of him, he couldn't afford to simply rest.

He'd resolved to wash away the mistakes of his past, and true to that resolve, he gave everything he had, day after day.

But through it all, he never once forgot the people who mattered most to him, the ones who'd made him who he was now.

Hall Master Ian.

Illia Lindsay, Judith, Brett Lloyd.

And the cat Sorcerer, Lulu.

Among them, his longing for Lulu ran especially deep.

He still remembered it clearly.

The sound he'd heard from under the bed the moment he broke free of the barrier. The flutter of excitement at meeting Lulu again after five years. The hollow letdown when he realized it had all been a mistake.

But now, none of those old feelings mattered anymore.

Because the real Lulu stood before him.

"Lulu!"

Airen Farreira shot up from his seat and closed the distance. It really was Lulu. There was only one black cat he knew of that floated in midair like that.

He spread his arms to pull the cat into an embrace.

That was when Lulu raised a paw and stopped him.

The pink paw pad on the bottom was striking. Honestly, it was cute.

Of course, he wasn't so tone deaf as to say that out loud in a moment this serious.

Airen asked.

"Why?"

"Talk with me later. Listen to Jack Steward first."

"Huh?"

"What he has to say should lighten the weight on your heart. Probably."

With that, Lulu drifted back and away.

Airen stared blankly for a moment before turning his gaze to Jack Steward.

The knight's expression was grave. Not so different from how he'd looked back in the demonoid's den, but Airen could tell there was something he wanted to say.

"Sir Jack Steward?"

"Yes, Young Lord Farreira."

"You said you had something to say?"

"That's right. About what happened in the demonoid's den. I heard it's been weighing on you."

"Who told you that..."

"I did."

Airen turned to look at Lulu.

Lulu's face stayed serious.

"You're still bothered by it, aren't you. That your resolve wavered. Even setting aside Viscount Gairon's scheming."

"..."

"And it's not like you're completely ignoring what the viscount said, either."

That was true.

The fact that he'd taken up the sword swept along by another man's will instead of his own, that was the real core of it.

But it was also true that Viscount Gairon's words had lodged in his chest.

Back then, I really didn't think about the hostages at all.

His attention had been fixed entirely on cutting down the demonoid.

No one had ended up sacrificed, as it turned out, but if things had gone even slightly wrong, two lives could have been lost.

Because of what he'd done.

His sword had wavered.

And because of that, someone's life could have been put in danger.

That fact weighed on Airen Farreira. Maybe not guilt exactly, but a burden all the same, and not a small one.

But what Jack Steward said next flatly contradicted everything he'd been thinking.

"Of everyone on the subjugation force, you were the only one who cared whether I lived, Airen Farreira."

"What?"

"No one else gave my life a second thought. Not Vice Commander Hill Burnett. Not my own men. Not even my own lord, Viscount Phil Gairon."

Jack Steward recalled that moment.

The subjugation force's eyes hadn't held pity for him so much as discomfort over the situation itself.

Hill Burnett's cold, resolved gaze, ready to sacrifice him for the continent's peace. Viscount Gairon's revolting look, ready to abandon him for the family's honor.

No one had cared whether he lived.

They'd only cared about Laiyan Gairon's life.

But Airen Farreira had been different.

He alone had raised his sword for Jack's sake.

"That's not it."

Airen Farreira's face hardened.

He'd only wanted to cut down the demonoid. He hadn't been thinking about saving anyone.

That was genuinely what he believed, and that was exactly why Jack Steward's words felt so uncomfortable to hear.

But there was nothing he could find to argue with in what came next.

"What was in your heart, honestly, doesn't matter to me."

"What matters is that you were the only one who raised a sword, Young Lord Farreira."

"And that because of it, I'm alive right now."

"If it hadn't been for you, Airen Farreira, I would have died without question. That's what I wanted to say."

Jack Steward finished in a rush, then offered his thanks one last time.

His words were sincere. His feelings were sincere too.

Amid the wreckage of fury, grief, and hollow exhaustion, gratitude toward Airen bloomed like a single flower.

Looking into the man's eyes, Airen could feel it.

Lulu spoke up.

"It's not a good thing that your resolve wavered. It's serious. Really, really serious."

"..."

"But if it also meant saving one life, no, two lives... isn't that even more... really, really, really good?"

At the cat Sorcerer's sage-like words, Airen could only nod.

* * *

Once enough time had passed for the raw feelings to settle, Jack Steward picked up where he'd left off.

What followed was close to a confession.

That he'd poisoned the food to hinder House Farreira's success.

That when the poison failed, he'd tried to sabotage things during the fighting itself.

And that every one of those orders had come from Viscount Phil Gairon's own mouth.

"I know full well that my own fault is just as great. Whatever orders my lord gave, I should never have done what I did. Not as a knight, and not as a person either. To do something like that while heading out to subjugate a demonoid... I'm sorry. Truly sorry."

It was an ugly thing to hear.

Not that it came as a shock. Airen had already suspected as much.

But knowing it beforehand hadn't meant he had any plan for what to do about it.

"I'll accept whatever punishment you see fit, Young Lord Airen Farreira."

"..."

Airen Farreira's expression turned complicated.

He'd faced no shortage of malice, contempt, and mockery from countless people over the years.

Because of that, he knew several ways to handle it. In the past, he'd avoided it. Now, he faced it head on.

But never once, in his whole life, had someone who'd wronged him come to him this openly, admitting fault and asking to be punished for it.

Honestly, this throws me off.

Of course, he had no intention of forgiving Jack Steward.

The man had brought harm not just to Airen, but to his family as well.

But right now, he had nothing sharp or decisive to say in response.

And besides...

Airen Farreira glanced back over his shoulder.

Far off, near the edge of the room, Lulu floated quietly.

Right. What he wanted right now was to talk with Lulu.

He didn't want to waste this reunion with someone so precious to him, five years in the making, on Jack Steward.

"We'll talk about that later."

"Young Lord Farreira..."

"I have no intention of forgiving you. But my head's too full right now. Leave, please. Understood?"

"...Yes. I will pay for my crime, without fail."

Jack Steward begged forgiveness once more, then rose to his feet. He opened the door to leave.

But then, wasn't Lulu trying to slip out right behind him?

Startled, Airen shouted.

"Lulu!"

He didn't just shout.

He sprinted forward and slammed the door shut before Lulu could get out.

Jack Steward, shoved back by the door against his shoulder, yelped in surprise from the hallway, but no one paid him any mind.

A brief silence.

Airen tried to meet Lulu's eyes. Lulu avoided them.

Drifting down from the air, the cat padded slowly toward a corner of the room.

Turned away, back to Airen.

Seeing that lonely posture, he thought he understood.

She thinks it's her fault I ended up in the Otherworldly Realm.

Probably feeling something close to what Kiril felt.

Blaming herself, thinking she had no right to face them, because she believed she was the reason a loving family had been torn apart for five long years.

Of course, that wasn't true.

Obviously not true.

He could say it ten times, a hundred times, and it still wouldn't be enough.

Airen had entered the Otherworldly Realm by his own will, entirely for the sake of growing stronger. It wasn't a bad thing.

That Lulu, of all people, who should have understood that better than anyone, was acting like this now, it was unbearable.

But the black cat's closed heart wouldn't open so easily.

"If I'd taught you a little better, a different power might have awakened."

"You wouldn't have been apart from your family for five years."

"Kiril wouldn't have had to be that sad."

"It's all my fault. I'm sorry."

Airen Farreira shook his head.

He told Lulu it wasn't true, that far from being Lulu's fault, it was thanks to Lulu that he'd grown into someone this remarkable.

He said it two times, three times, that thanks to Lulu's excellent guidance he'd become one of the rare handful of Sorcerers on the continent, sharpened his swordsmanship, and made it through the demonoid subjugation safely because of it.

Did all that sincerity get through? Lulu's ears perked up for a moment.

But it still wasn't enough. Lulu's ears drooped again.

Head bowed low, the cat spoke in a gloomy voice.

"I'm an unlucky cat. An unlucky black cat."

"What are you talking about? You're the one who told me that's just superstition, that there's no real basis to it."

"Superstitions have power too."

Especially the famous ones.

Lulu paused a moment before continuing.

"Even something completely made up becomes real if enough people believe it. Even something with no power at all becomes something great if enough people hold it up as sacred. Enough people's will gathered together becomes Sorcery, and it changes the rules of the world. Have you heard of Animism?"

"No."

"It's the belief that even non-living things have souls. Like how people in the old days worshipped the sun, or bowed down to huge rocks. And it's not entirely nonsense either. Some Sorcerers claim that's how the Holy Kingdom's god was even born."

"..."

"So I'm an unlucky black cat. Because that's what a lot of people say."

The sudden burst of new knowledge caught Airen off guard.

It wasn't a story he could dismiss outright.

Priests would have been furious to hear it, but now that he'd awakened Sorcery himself, Airen thought Lulu's words might well be true.

But that didn't mean he was about to give up on convincing this black cat. He would never let that happen.

Airen strode toward the corner of the room.

Startled, Lulu tried to flee, but it was too late.

Before the ability could trigger, he swept Lulu up into his arms and said,

"From today on, black cats are a symbol of good luck."

"...What are you talking about. Black cats are unlucky, I just told you."

"No. I believe you're a symbol of good luck. I always have, and today I'm more certain of it than ever."

"Don't say weird things!"

Lulu squirmed hard and cried out.

To that, Airen said,

"I'll believe it more strongly than everyone else's belief put together. That you're a cat who brings good luck."

"..."

"Then there's no problem at all, is there?"

His voice was calm, but there was steel underneath it.

Even stubborn Lulu couldn't fight that.

The black cat stopped struggling and settled quietly into Airen Farreira's arms.

He said,

"...I missed you."

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