WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 96

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Unexpected Proposal (1)

Unlike in the past, the gap between social classes had narrowed considerably in the current age.

Centuries of fighting demons and demonoids had taught everyone a bitter lesson: ability mattered more than bloodline.

Four hundred years ago, commoners taught by the great heroes had founded fencing halls across the continent, each developing swordsmanship in its own way.

The lineage of the blade that grew from that seed had proven its worth spectacularly during the demons' great invasion a hundred and fifty years past, and the standing of commoners improved once again.

Of course, the dignity of royalty and high nobility remained something far beyond reach. But the emergence of Ian and Kun, ranked among the continent's three strongest, had given renewed hope to many.

And the figure who had put an exclamation point on that whole trend was none other than Ignet, or rather, Countess Ignet Crescentia.

A young swordswoman who had received not only the honor of a surname granted by the Holy Kingdom itself, but the staggering position of commander of the Red Knight Order.

The greatest talent of the age, having reached the rank of Master at the unprecedented age of twenty.

One of the three promising talents to whom Vulcanus had handed a sword ten years earlier.

Her arrival flipped the mood of the clearing in an instant.

"..."

"..."

Charlot and Victor, who had been staring death at Airen's group moments before, along with Airen's entire party, now had every ounce of their attention fixed on Ignet Crescentia's every move.

Her frame wasn't especially large, and her steps were light, almost dainty. And yet the pressure radiating off her felt like an entire volcano bearing down, hot and crushing.

She twirled her blade, the ninth Numbering Sword forged by Vulcanus, back and forth like a toy, then rested it on her shoulder.

Her gaze stayed fixed on Charlot and Victor the whole time.

Then a voice rang out, a touch low for a woman.

"Charlot. Victor."

"..."

"I shall grant you the chance to speak."

"...Speak about what? What chance?"

"Countess Crescentia, don't tell me you came all this way just to find us? How could you possibly..."

Charlot and Victor clearly knew who Ignet was.

Of course they did.

There was only one swordswoman, no, blade-wielder, on the entire continent who could carry that kind of presence at such a young age.

And if any doubt remained, the elegant black blade in her hand settled it completely.

Even in the grip of tension, both men's eyes raked over her weapon with naked greed.

Ignet didn't react to any of it.

She just flicked the flat of her blade playfully against her shoulder and repeated the same question.

"I shall ask once more. Charlot, Victor. If there are words rising in your hearts, spill them now, all of them. This is the last mercy I intend to offer."

"..."

Charlot and Victor kept their silence.

That wasn't all.

The two glanced briefly toward Airen's group, exchanged a look with each other, then turned their swords toward Ignet instead.

There was no choice left to them.

From the moment she'd stepped out of that mysterious golden portal, naked killing intent had been pouring off Ignet's eyes.

A scent of blood so thick that even these two, who'd been sick of the smell of it for days, found themselves sickened all over again.

Why was she hostile to them?

The reason escaped them.

But standing still meant losing their lives for nothing.

Having resolved to fight, white haze-like energy poured out from both their swords.

Sssshhh.

The manifestation of Aura.

And its concentration.

A technique only those who'd pushed Sword Expert to its absolute limit could pull off. It fell short of a true Aura Sword, but it let a swordsman spike their destructive power for a single instant.

Almost no swordsman used it in real combat, though. Unlike a completed Aura Sword, the concentration of power was incomplete, so the entire reserve of energy burned away in one strike.

A textbook case of high risk, low return.

And yet they used it anyway, because it was the only method that stood any chance of blocking an Aura Sword.

And that, precisely, was the reason they could even attempt to challenge a Master.

"Hff."

"Hff..."

Tension and excitement scorched through every nerve in their bodies, held in check by a single thread of reason, honed with care.

The eyes of two veteran mercenaries who'd given their entire lives to the sword locked onto Ignet Crescentia with razor focus.

She watched them with an utterly flat expression, then flung the blade behind her back.

Charlot and Victor flinched at the sudden motion. That was when Ignet spoke.

"For the two of you."

Fwaaaaash!

"...!"

"...!"

"A slightly more miserable ending will do."

KWAAANG!

The moment she finished speaking, Ignet stamped her foot down hard.

The ground burst open as though struck by magic, and a black haired specter shot forward like an explosion.

Red Aura churned around her entire body like a whirlwind.

Seeing the opponent close the distance in an instant, Victor swung his sword down with everything he had.

It was a reflex born of startled instinct, but decades of experience had given it a razor edge.

Ignet caught it on the back of her left hand.

Thunk!

"Wha...!"

Fwomp!

"Guhaaack!"

Then she kicked out with her right foot, driving it into Victor's stomach.

That wasn't the end of it.

KWAANG!

Ignet chased him down with a single leap as he flew backward in a straight line and drove her foot in again.

Victor spat blood and went flying once more, and the same scene repeated itself a second time, a third time.

Charlot screamed, his voice tearing.

"Victooor!"

KWANG!

Charlot chased after them.

He was slower than his opponent, but Ignet was busy kicking Victor along as she moved, so he had no trouble catching up.

Three strides brought Charlot up from behind, and he unleashed a blow with every last shred of reason stripped away.

It lacked precision, but its destructive force rivaled a Sword Master's.

It was still useless.

Thunk!

Ignet had already turned to face him and swung her arm.

Unlike with Victor, she staggered back half a step this time, but Charlot's sword went flying off into the distance.

Blood ran from his torn hand.

It fell to the ground drop by drop, like tears.

Their eyes met.

"..."

"..."

A brief silence.

Victor was the one who broke it.

Spitting up blood along with something else, he looked like a man who'd already crossed a river he could never come back from.

Ignet turned casually and kicked him.

Crack!

Victor's neck snapped, and he died on the spot.

Watching this, Ignet said simply.

"Beaten to death with bare hands. How pitiful."

"..."

"..."

Silence spread once more.

Kubharu, Lulu, even Airen Farreira, who'd been half out of his mind from the demonic aura Charlot and Victor had been giving off, all felt a chill run through them and fell silent.

Charlot was no exception.

His expression had gone utterly hollow.

Everything he'd built up seemed to have been denied in a single stroke, and he looked like he might crumble on the spot. Ignet Crescentia was turning to face him when it happened.

Thud!

He dropped to his knees, head bowed, and words began pouring out of him in a rush.

The content varied, but every version told more or less the same story.

A confession of every wrong he'd committed up to now.

Ignet listened with a calm expression. Kubharu and Lulu frowned.

Airen just stood there, blank.

Only now did he realize that Charlot and Victor had strayed from the path of humanity long before this moment.

"Enough."

Ignet said.

Her voice carried a cold edge, yet somehow also a strange heat.

Charlot's voice, which had seemed like it might go on confessing forever, cut off instantly.

Since he couldn't bring himself to lift his head, Ignet crouched down and forced his chin up herself.

Their eyes met once more.

In a situation utterly unlike before, Charlot looked at the black haired woman, clinging to a thread of hope.

Then a single question slipped from Ignet's lips.

"How does my manner of speech strike you? Charlot."

"...What?"

"I asked how the way I speak, the air I carry when I do, strikes you."

"...Refined. Classic, maybe?"

Charlot answered with whatever came to mind after a moment's hesitation. His body and mind were far too exhausted to think of anything else.

Ignet smiled, satisfied.

She nodded, rose to her feet, lifted her leg, and stamped down.

Crack!

And so, Charlot met his death as well.

Anya, who had stayed quiet the whole time, picked up the fallen blade and came trotting over to Ignet.

"Boss! Boss! Here's your sword!"

"Good."

"I'll polish your boots too!"

"Excellent. I'll pay you when we get back."

"Yes! I'll polish them real good!"

Ignet Crescentia perched herself on a nearby rock and stuck her foot out, while Anya diligently polished her boots in hopes of earning her keep.

Watching this quietly, Georgu heard Ignet speak to him.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I mean what Charlot said. I ask again. Did you hear it?"

"Yes, I heard it."

"Hoho ho."

At Georgu's sour reply, she gave a low laugh and said.

"Behold. I too have finally come to speak in a manner someone would call classic. It means I've acquired a level of refinement that wouldn't shame me even among the nobility of the Holy Kingdom."

"Are you really that pleased about it? You've been living in the Holy Kingdom for three years now. It's about time you dropped that old way of talking of yours anyway."

"Hoho, hohoho..."

"Ha, hahaha!"

Georgu shot her a faintly exasperated look, but Ignet paid it no mind at all and savored the moment fully.

Beside her, Anya matched the mood with a clear, bright laugh of her own.

It was, ordinarily, the kind of comic scene that would draw a bewildered laugh out of anyone watching.

But Kubharu, who'd watched everything that happened here from start to finish, couldn't manage to unclench his expression at all.

'...She's strong.'

He could accept, at least, that there was no mercy in Ignet Crescentia's methods.

The Black Knight Order existed precisely to hunt down demonoids, monsters, and anyone the Holy Kingdom had branded as wicked.

Charlot and Victor had probably committed no small number of crimes over the years.

What actually shocked him was that Ignet's skill went far beyond what rumor had claimed across the continent.

'Of course, I never thought Charlot and Victor stood any real chance against a true Sword Master...'

Still, it was a fact that the two of them were strong enough that even among Experts, they'd have struggled to find an equal.

Being twins, their coordination would have been seamless, and he'd assumed holding out for a few minutes wouldn't have been impossible.

And yet Ignet had crushed the both of them bare handed.

Whoever could pull that off had to rank among the top thirty Sword Masters on the continent, if that many.

'Not that I have any real understanding of what the world of Masters even looks like...'

No, that wasn't what mattered right now.

Kubharu bit down hard on his lower lip.

It was a relief that Charlot and Victor had been dealt with.

But standing before them now was someone even more frightening than either of those two, Ignet Crescentia.

Their fate would hinge entirely on whatever she decided.

Of course, he doubted someone who held a position as high as knight commander of the Holy Kingdom would abuse her power without reason...

That was the thought running through his mind when it happened.

Airen Farreira, wearing an expression just as rigid as Kubharu's, walked forward, step by step, straight toward Ignet.

There was no time to stop him. By the time anyone registered what was happening, he was already standing right in front of her.

He spoke.

"How can you do that?"

"Hm?"

"How can you be so absolutely certain, so completely convinced, while taking a life?"

"..."

"I'm not being sarcastic. I'm genuinely, purely curious, that's all I meant by asking... if it's a rude question, I apologize."

At his overly bold attitude, not just Kubharu and Lulu but even Georgu and Anya turned wide eyes on Airen.

But it was a question he couldn't help but ask.

'What an incredible person.'

Like Kubharu, Airen too had been struck deeply by Ignet Crescentia.

But what shocked him most wasn't her skill.

It was the conviction that bled out of her, from every single one of her actions.

Killing a person, an act that should by all rights repel anyone with a conscience, Ignet carried out as though it were something that simply had to be done.

She looked so utterly assured doing it that Airen found himself thinking, almost without meaning to, that it must have been the right thing to do.

Not because the targets had been Charlot and Victor specifically. He suspected he would have thought the same no matter who stood in their place.

The fact that Ignet could make him feel that way at all made her seem like something other than an ordinary person.

'I couldn't do that.'

So he asked.

So he stood there, facing her.

A being utterly unlike himself, someone who carried tens of thousands of doubts, regrets, and hesitations into every single action he took.

What would she say to him?

The answer came a moment later.

"Airen Farreira."

"...You know my name?"

"As of today, I hereby appoint you a knight of the Black Knight Order, under Abilius of the Holy Kingdom."

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