WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 97

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Unexpected Proposal (2)

"....."

Kubharu swallowed hard at Ignet Crescentia's words.

Lulu, too, watched the two of them with a tense look in her eyes.

The Black Knight Order was the third knight order of the Holy Kingdom of Abilius, ranked a notch below the White Knight Order and Red Knight Order, which boasted far longer histories.

But that ranking only applied within the kingdom itself. Across the entire continent, no one could afford to look down on a member of the Black Knight Order.

It belonged to the kingdom with the longest history among all the world's countless nations.

A place that had stood as a holy shield protecting the continent throughout that long history.

A place that had produced more heroes and struck down more demons and demonoids than any other.

A place, therefore, revered by everyone in the world.

To become a member of the Black Knight Order meant becoming part of something like that.

For a swordsman or a knight, it was no exaggeration to call it the greatest honor there was.

'But isn't this awfully sudden?'

Airen Farreira was, without question, a talent worth wanting.

His swordsmanship was so far beyond his peers that none could rival him, and his character was upright besides.

He lacked experience and could be indecisive because of it, but that was something he could grow into over time, more than enough reason for Ignet to consider recruiting him.

Still, Kubharu had never once heard of someone being appointed to a knight order with no process at all.

'This isn't a mercenary company, what is she doing!'

Had she never shaken off her old habits as a mercenary captain?

Watching Georgu and Anya call Ignet "captain" instead of "commander," he supposed it was possible.

Airen looked just as baffled.

Ignet, he had heard the name plenty of times before.

The continent's greatest genius, merciless, a cold blooded swordswoman. That was the impression Illia Lindsay had given him, and that was what the rumors said too.

But nobody had ever mentioned she was this pushy.

"...I refuse."

"Cutting me off clean, are you. What is it you don't like?"

"It's not that I dislike it, exactly..."

"Wait, hear me out first. The Holy Kingdom is a far better place than you imagine."

Ignet raised a hand to cut Airen off and launched into the virtues of Abilius.

Airen wasn't particularly curious.

How impressive the Holy Kingdom was, what it meant to become one of its holy knights, even he, the once lazy young lord, knew all that well enough.

But what came out of Ignet's mouth next had nothing to do with any of it.

"The Holy Kingdom is more open about matters of the flesh than you'd think."

"...What?"

"It isn't the stifling, suffocating place outsiders imagine, all that talk of chastity and purity. Plenty of hot blooded young talents misunderstand this and avoid the kingdom because of it."

"...That doesn't matter to me either way."

"It doesn't matter to you?"

Ignet turned her head toward Georgu.

"That one there once said he wouldn't join the order because of exactly that."

"...Please don't bring up my personal business, Captain."

"Fine, fine."

'Can't get a read on her at all,' Kubharu thought.

When she'd been beating Charlot and Victor to death, there had been no one more terrifying. But seeing her joke around like this, she was just an ordinary young woman again.

The mismatch between her relatively youthful looks and her old-fashioned way of speaking gave off an odd sort of charm.

Still, it was a relief that Ignet's attitude toward Airen seemed genuinely friendly.

"Hm. There are plenty of other virtues, but now that I'm trying to list them, they won't come out smoothly. This one has never been much good with words, so forgive me. Um, so the greatest advantage would be..."

If that weren't true, she wouldn't be carrying on the conversation in such a gentle atmosphere.

Aside from her lack of expression, the Ignet standing here now was clearly a far cry from the cold blooded figure of rumor.

'...Still, I doubt Airen's actually going to join the Holy Kingdom.'

Kubharu studied Airen.

A humble, soft hearted young man, especially given how much strength he carried. The kind of gentle person you almost couldn't believe existed.

But if you asked whether he lacked stubbornness, Kubharu would have to shake his head firmly.

If he believed something was right, he followed it.

If a proposal didn't sit right with him, he wouldn't follow it. No matter whose words they were.

That was the character of Airen Farreira as Kubharu understood it.

At least until he found a way to master the iron stake lodged in his heart, Airen had no intention of belonging anywhere.

Which meant the only real question now was how gently he could turn down Ignet's offer...

"I'm sorry, but no matter how you try to persuade me, I can't join the order. There's something I have to do right now."

'Knew it,' Kubharu thought, and let out a shallow sigh.

There was nothing to be done about it.

Ignet had called herself bad with words, but in Kubharu's eyes, Airen was far worse.

His blunt way of speaking, delivering nothing but the bare fact of his intent, made Kubharu's heart squeeze with worry.

Fortunately, Ignet didn't look particularly angry.

She simply stayed in the same posture as before, perched on the rock, staring quietly at Airen.

A short stretch of time passed like that.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty seconds, then a minute.

Under normal circumstances that would be nothing, but in the middle of a conversation, it stretched on uncomfortably long.

Kubharu was puzzling over it when Lulu spoke beside him, her voice tight with tension.

"She's looking inside."

"What?"

"She's looking inside Airen. Like what Georgu did..."

Just then, Ignet, who had been staring intently into Airen Farreira's eyes, opened her mouth.

"I heard there was a man who carried a lump of iron in his chest."

"...!"

"At first I didn't believe it. I've seen people carrying grudges, people carrying pride, people carrying vanity, but never once had I heard of someone carrying a lump of iron. But the moment I arrived in Derinku and laid eyes on you, I knew Georgu's report had been true."

Airen's breath grew ragged. His jaw clenched on its own, and his palms were slick with sweat.

This wasn't actually the first time someone had looked inside him.

There had been Ian, Hall Master of the fencing hall. Lulu and Kubharu, too, had sharp eyes of their own, if to varying degrees.

And Georgu's gaze, the one that must have relayed his story to Ignet in the first place, had been no less piercing.

Airen remembered feeling no small amount of tension even then.

But there had never been anyone, he could say with certainty, who left him this breathless.

Her eyes offered a bleak kind of terror, like being an animal observed through the glass wall of a display case.

"I grew interested. No, more than interested. Not just any lump of iron, but steel refined enough to make even that arrogant Vulcanus drool... I couldn't help but covet it myself. But I also thought, well, if I can't have it, so be it. Isn't that so? One cannot simply do as one pleases with a man who carries steel in his chest. And yet..."

"....."

"Now that I've come and seen for myself, it seems you still haven't become the master of that steel."

Fwoooosh!

A fierce blaze poured out from the blade in Ignet's right hand.

An Aura Sword.

A deep, crimson Aura, as if it had drunk up molten lava, gathered vividly along the edge.

A single bead of sweat rolled down Airen's forehead as he stood exposed to the heat.

Black uniform.

Black hair.

Black eyes.

Ignet Crescentia was black through and through.

There wasn't a single place on her that wasn't dark, as though he were looking into a mirror carved from obsidian.

In her eyes, Airen came to realize his own standing all over again.

Still unable to hold a sword with his whole self.

Still being tossed about, this way and that, by that man.

"I'll say it once more. Airen Farreira, I hereby appoint you a knight of the Black Knight Order. This is not an invitation. It is a command."

"...I refuse."

"Did I not tell you? You have no choice in the matter. Letting yourself be dragged around by a power you cannot even control, stirring up storms across the continent, that is an exceedingly tiresome thing for me to deal with..."

"I said Airen's not going, you witch! Airen can overcome it himself! He's never gone and caused trouble like I have!"

"....."

"He's super kind, and super strong, and getting stronger by the day! He doesn't need someone like you dragging him off, he'll get through it on his own!"

Ignet turned her head to look at the cat who had cut her off.

She smiled and said.

"A black cat. I like it. The black, and the cat both."

"I don't care whether you like it or not! Airen isn't going anywhere! If Airen said no, then that's a no, so just turn around and go home!"

"Ha! Georgu, Anya. Look at this creature. What it has to say is quite amusing."

Ignet said. Her eyes, as she looked at Lulu, curved slightly like a crescent moon, genuinely delighted.

But Lulu couldn't manage to laugh.

'Scary.'

Their eyes had only met for the briefest moment.

And already her body was trembling. Even the throat that had been shouting at the top of its lungs closed up, and no more words would come out properly.

Only then did she understand. There had been a real reason Airen hadn't been able to speak properly.

That simply standing his ground like that was already something remarkable.

At that moment, the volcanic pressure that had been erupting from Ignet vanished in an instant.

"I don't like this."

"...?"

Everyone but Anya wore a puzzled expression at her sudden remark.

She had been delighted by Lulu just a moment ago, and now she was suddenly pouring out something so negative.

Not that Ignet cared either way.

She continued.

"It's as if this one were the one committing some injustice here. When the truly pathetic party is this green boy, who can't even properly handle the steel he carries."

"...I'm working on it."

"I don't believe you."

"Ian, the Hall Master, has seen it. My parents and my little brother back home have seen it. Kubharu and Lulu here have seen it too. Because all of them believe in me, I'm able to believe in myself as well."

Ignet's eyes widened slightly. Because of Ian.

Even to her, strong and blazing as the sun in the sky, the master of Krono was not a name to be dismissed.

But even that name carried no weight strong enough to bend the will of a commander of the Black Knight Order, one called the continent's finest talent.

"There you go again, showing me your pathetic side. Do not lean on another's authority. Airen Farreira, what you must show is your own ability, and nothing else. Until you can prove that, a thousand words spent trying to persuade me will do you no good."

"I'll prove it."

"Hm?"

"That I have the ability to master the steel in my heart. I'll prove it."

A silence fell for a moment.

No one had expected such a clean, decisive answer to come out of him.

Ignet least of all.

The Airen she had seen was little more than a child, staggering under the weight of a real sword.

That had been her firm conviction.

So she asked.

"Tell me how you intend to prove it."

"Among the Experts of Hale Kingdom, there's a knight named Hill Burnett. The battle spirit he carries, honed from slaughtering countless monsters, is savage enough to rival a powerful demonoid. Savage enough to stir the iron in my chest."

"....."

"If that would satisfy you, Countess Crescentia, I'll show you. That I won't be swept away."

An even deeper silence settled over them than before.

Kubharu, Lulu, Georgu, even Anya, all of them stared at Airen, at a loss for words.

Then, one by one, their eyes drifted toward Ignet.

Her face wore the deepest smile they had seen from her yet.

She spoke.

"Am I to take those words as a wish to cross swords with me?"

With a resolute expression, Airen Farreira nodded, summoned his greatsword, offered a bow of respect, and said.

"Airen Farreira, 27th Cohort Official Trainee of Krono Fencing Hall. I humbly request a sparring match with Commander Ignet Crescentia of the Holy Kingdom."

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