WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race ◈
Chapter 31: Be Quiet If You Don't Want to Get Hit
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At Maya’s words, Shan lightly pinched his forearm and scratched it with his nails.
Despite his keen senses, he couldn’t feel that anything had changed.
Maya looked at him as if he were something adorable.
“You probably can’t feel anything yet. The change is really slight, very slight.”
“Why is it suddenly getting tougher?”
“Because some of the cockatrice’s physical traits have settled into your skin.”
The blue-haired girl beside them, Sheri, answered instead. Shan asked in confusion,
“Am I turning into a cockatrice?”
“Judging by how the change is progressing, probably not that far. At most, you’ll become a little tougher than other people.”
As she answered, Sheri shook the vial containing Shan’s blood and the solution, looking as though she were savoring an exquisite meal.
“Since ancient times, the cannibalistic belief that killing and devouring a powerful enemy lets you absorb its strength has been widespread. There have also been stories of heroes born with terrifying strength or skin as hard as steel. But this may be the first time anyone has systematically observed such a phenomenon.”
The girl’s already pale face flushed red with intellectual excitement.
Biting her lip, Sheri asked Shan in a tone that was half muttering to herself and half questioning him.
“What are the conditions? Is it because of the Demon Realm? Or because you’re one of the Altos? Did you perhaps eat it after killing it?”
“No. I never tried, but it was probably too tough to eat.”
Its skin had not been the only thing that was hard. The flesh beneath had been unbelievably tough as well.
To eat something like that, a person would need teeth strong enough to chew through wood and jaws to match.
“Was there anything else unusual?”
“I ended up getting covered in its blood after killing it.”
“Well, unless you killed it with a bow, that was bound to happen. Still, getting its blood on your body could be another prerequisite, so I’ll note that down... Actually, I think I have an idea. Plenty of people have hunted large monsters before, but most of those were group hunts. You there, bearded man?”
“Yes, Pri...! Ah, yes?”
“You said you were nearby even if you didn’t fight, right? How far away were you when the cockatrice died?”
“Pretty far, I think. I’m not sure, but maybe somewhere between several dozen meters and a hundred meters...?”
“Yet he has no similar reaction at all. I knew it. Even if a hunter absorbs a normal monster’s spiritual essence, the amount is too small for it to manifest. With a large monster like this, its spiritual essence must have been divided among multiple hunters, preventing it from manifesting. It’s the privilege of people who kill powerful monsters alone. If a cockatrice produces this much change, what would happen if someone killed an even stronger monster alone? What if they personally killed several thousand, even tens of thousands of people? I don’t know whether that’s even possible, but...”
Shan could barely understand half of her muttering, but nodded as though he understood.
Sheri continued talking for a while, seemingly unable to contain her interest. Then she finally calmed down and cleared her throat.
After she and Maya spent a long time writing with quills and revising their notes, Sheri adjusted her amethyst glasses.
“It was a good thing I made time to come here myself. If I hadn’t seen this firsthand, I would’ve kicked myself.”
“So is there something wrong with my body?”
“There’s nothing wrong yet. Of course, there’s no precedent, so we’ll need to observe you longer.”
Shan let out a sigh of relief at the assurance that there was no problem.
He didn’t understand much of what they had discussed, but all that difficult talk had made him uneasy.
Then Sheri took out something round from her waist and checked it. Realizing the time, she quickly rose from her seat.
“Ah, it’s already this late... Professor, I think I need to leave first.”
“I’m sorry for calling over someone so busy.”
“Not at all. Thanks to you, I got to see something rare. Ah, you two?”
Sheri gave Shan a soft smile. For some reason, there was a beguiling quality to it that hadn’t been there before, one that didn’t suit her age.
“I brought too many things with me. Could you help carry some of them? I’m not going very far.”
Shan nodded despite inwardly finding it troublesome.
She was Professor Maya’s acquaintance, and she had taken time out of her day to examine him.
“That much is fine. Roden, are you okay with it?”
“O-of course. Let’s go.”
Was it because she was a pretty girl? Roden had looked completely dazed for a while now, making Shan sigh.
It wasn’t as though he had never seen village kids act like that before.
When the two came out of the workshop carrying several observation instruments, the sword-bearing man and woman waiting outside hurried over in alarm.
Sheri came out behind them and made a small gesture. They hesitated, then quickly went back to pretending they had seen nothing.
* * *
As they walked, they entered a somewhat deserted alley. Sheri looked at Shan beside her and asked,
“By the way, how old are you, Shan?”
“I don’t know exactly. Probably around fourteen now...?”
“You don’t know your exact age? Why?”
She asked in confusion, then let out a small gasp as though she had figured out the answer herself.
“Sorry. Forget I asked that. Then how long have you been training seriously as a warrior?”
“I’m not sure what point should count as the start, but if I had to say, almost a year.”
If he counted from when he met Roden, after Willow Vilalge had fallen and he had lived like a feral child, it had been about that long.
It had been nearing summer then, and now it was spring.
“One year, is it?”
Sheri chuckled, then suddenly turned her gaze to Roden.
Roden, who had been watching her with an awkward expression, quickly lowered his eyes.
“What’s your relationship with that bearded man? Is he your guardian?”
“He’s my friend. He may look like that, but he’s only a few years older than me. He’s probably around your age.”
Roden would soon turn twenty, while this girl looked to be around seventeen or eighteen. Calling them peers wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Oh my.”
Sheri covered her mouth as if surprised, but Shan instinctively knew she was only pretending.
Then, after looking back and forth between Shan and Roden, Sheri narrowed her eyes and brought up something strange.
“And yet he didn’t help you at all when you hunted the cockatrice? That’s cruel.”
“It was the best way.”
“Even so, throwing weapons from behind is something anyone can do, isn’t it? Calling that hunting it together is...”
“Hey.”
Shan abruptly stopped walking and glared at Sheri with his eyes wide open.
Her voice had been pleasant to listen to when she was talking about magic he didn’t understand. He didn’t like listening to her provoke him like this.
“That’s enough. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but stop picking fights.”
“But I didn’t say anything wrong. If everyone heard that someone his size only threw weapons from behind while a little boy like you fought, they’d laugh at him.”
It wasn’t hard to tell that her smiling face was meant to provoke him.
Shan recalled the principles of chivalry that Roden and Darkal had taught him in turns and endured one last time.
She was Professor Maya’s acquaintance too...
“Keep your mouth shut and walk. Unless you want to get hit.”
“I just feel sorry for-”
“Wait, Shan!”
Sheri dropped to the ground with a thump. For a moment, she sat there blankly, unable to understand what had happened.
Only after noticing that Shan had set down the instrument he was carrying, seeing his fist, feeling the burning pain in her face, and noticing blood streaming from her nose did she realize that he had punched her.
“Y-you hit me...?”
“Yes. Keep chirping, and I’ll hit you again-”
“Princess!”
“You bastard!”
With urgent cries, swords were drawn behind them.
The man and woman who had been secretly following them rushed over in horror.
“Stop! Stop!”
Despite Sheri’s shout, the two immediately swung their swords at Shan.
Since their mistress had ordered them to stop, they did not aim to kill. Their attacks were somewhat loose, aimed at his arms and legs rather than vital points.
They were already attacking an unarmed opponent. Trying to spare his life as well naturally weakened their attacks.
That ended up saving their lives.
Shan had been about to draw Thousand Forms and attack, but changed his mind. He dodged the nearby male knight’s strike, stretched out his leg, and kicked the knight’s elbow.
Then he grabbed the wrist of the female knight rushing in after him, twisted it, and snapped it.
Both attacks carried considerable Spirit, and bones broke with sharp cracks.
“Urgh...”
“Argh!”
The two knights immediately dropped their swords from the pain of their broken bones.
After subduing them in an instant, Shan finally recalled the shout from earlier and looked at Sheri.
“...Princess?”
Still sitting on the ground with blood running from her nose, Sheri slowly stood up. She took off her purple crystal glasses and let down her tied hair.
Blue hair spilled down around her, revealing sharp reddish-brown eyes that had been hidden until then. Her entire impression changed.
In an instant, she was no longer the curious, talkative young mage. She was Serin, the second princess known as the Witch of Pendia for her decadent air.
Her voice still sounded nasal because of the blood flowing from her nose.
“I think that bearded man already knew who I was. And we’ve met once before, haven’t we?”
Serin did not doubt that Shan would remember her.
Whether it was her status or appearance, she had never failed to leave a strong impression. She had even used an alias close to her real name to give him a hint.
But Shan had been so captivated by her guard knights’ impressive equipment at the time that he had not even remembered the princess’s hair color. Naturally, he could only wonder why she was suddenly saying something so strange.
“I don’t really know.”
Was he pretending not to know her to get her attention? In this situation?
It was one of the tricks Serin had encountered before, but Shan’s face showed none of the signs of someone trying to deceive her.
Sensitive as she was to other people’s attention and emotions, Serin could tell that the boy truly had not even guessed who she was.
Embarrassment, something she had not felt in a very long time, made her raise a hand to cover her face.
“Ah, haha... This is embarrassing. You there, bearded man?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Roden did not dare say, “My name is Roden, not Bearded Man.” He replied respectfully instead.
They were in a situation where a royal princess had just been punched in the face.
If she ordered him to strip naked and stand on his hands, he would probably have to obey.
“You saw me back then, didn’t you? The first time we went to the Magic Society.”
“Ah!”
Only then did Shan realize who she was. He looked over the situation for a moment, then whispered to Roden.
“...Where should we bury them after we kill them?”
“Stop saying crazy things. Are you going to kill Professor Maya too?”
“Ah, right.”
He could kill the princess and her guard knights for continually getting on his nerves, but he could not kill Professor Maya as well to hide the crime.
Unaware that Shan was discussing whether to kill her right in front of her, Serin wiped away her nosebleed and looked over at the knights.
“Let’s pretend this never happened. I provoked him on purpose because I wanted this kind of reaction. It was a little more than I expected, though.”
This was one of the methods she often used when she wanted to see the depths of a person.
What made someone happy and what made them angry could be quite useful in judging their character.
If she wanted to avoid being betrayed by people she employed, she needed to see for herself how deeply they were tied to their companions.
Of course, this was the first time she had been punched in the face by a boy her own age and left with a nosebleed, even considering that she had concealed her identity as a princess.
Shan had half expected her offer to pretend nothing had happened to be a lie, but he soon adopted a respectful posture.
Even if he killed and buried them here, Professor Maya knew they had been together. Now that it had come to this, he had no choice but to rely on the princess’s mercy.
Of course, if she tried to take revenge later, Shan would take revenge too, even if he had to climb over the palace walls.
“...I greet Your Highness. I am Shan of the Altos.”
“You received a surprisingly good education in etiquette. Is that your doing?”
At Serin’s question, Roden quickly knelt.
“I beg your pardon.”
“That’s enough. Both of you, stand. I have no desire to draw unnecessary attention. Aran! Kagon!”
“Yes, Your Highness...”
The two knights, each with a broken elbow or wrist, approached with miserable expressions.
Their gazes at Shan were so fierce that if looks had physical force, he would have been torn apart on the spot.
“Keep people from coming here for a while.”
“But, Your Highness. To be alone with such a rogue...”
“Understood.”
The male knight had been about to argue, but the female knight immediately answered and lowered her head. After hesitating, he lowered his head as well in obedience.
Serin swiftly created a private space, then perched on one of the instruments they had been carrying.
“It wasn’t a lie when I said I had little time, so shall we proceed quickly? I heard about you. A young Alto boy who defeated a cockatrice is looking for a noble willing to knight him.”
“H-how did you find that out...?”
They had tried to be discreet and only approached the followers of Prince Elvin, who had nothing to do with her. How had she discovered it?
Roden looked startled. Serin looked down at him with satisfaction.
“There are ways. In any case, if you want to be knighted, I can do it. If you possess the strength to hunt a cockatrice at such a young age and have Sir Darkal’s letter of recommendation, then your character has... some flaws, but I think they’re tolerable.”
Roden instinctively became wary at her crafty smile, as though she were about to lead an innocent person to ruin.
Shan, who had been quietly listening beside him, spoke.
“I would like to know what the price is.”
It was rude to ask a princess for the price of being knighted, but after making her nose bleed, it was absurd to start worrying about rudeness now.
As expected, Serin did not get angry. She simply nodded.
“Fifteen years. For that time, do not leave to seek another lord. Serve under me. Naturally, your pay will not disappoint.”
“Fifteen years...”
He repeated a period longer than the time he had spent alive, a span so long that it did not feel real.
Serin spoke quietly.
“Even after fifteen years, you will only be twenty-nine. That is still the prime of a knight’s life. Especially with the strong credentials of having been a princess’s knight. I would not call that a bad arrangement.”
Knights were divided into vassal knights, who served nobles or royalty as their lords, and wandering knights, who belonged nowhere.
Vassal knights could be guaranteed pay and land. They could be protected by their lords, or use their lord’s power to enjoy influence beyond their station.
Naturally, in return, they sometimes had to fight at the risk of their lives on their lord’s orders.
Wandering knights, on the other hand, had no affiliation. Their ultimate goal was to become someone’s vassal.
Their work was to travel everywhere, hunting monsters and seeking out battlefields and jousting contests to prove to nobles that they were worthy of pay and land.
Yet Serin spoke as though these terms were somehow unfavorable to Shan.
Why?
After thinking for a while, Shan decided to ask directly instead of thinking further with his not especially sharp mind.
“Is there something bad about becoming Your Highness’s knight?”
“...I didn’t expect you to ask so directly. You’re straightforward. Very well. If you become my knight, you will likely face many dangerous tasks. I expect my life will be threatened quite often in the future, yet I have few people in my faction who can be of much use, while my enemies are exceedingly powerful. You will always have to fight from a disadvantageous position.”
She had drawn out the explanation, but it ultimately meant his life would be in danger.
That was the reason knights existed in the first place, so it was not particularly surprising. Still, when he thought about it, it was strange.
It would make sense for princes fighting over the throne, but what danger could threaten the knight of a princess who would simply marry some great noble or foreign royal in a few years?
When Shan did not answer immediately, Serin added in a threatening tone,
“Remember that you have no alternative. No one in this country but me will allow an Alto to receive a knighthood. Even they would be wary of crossing Conrad and Elvin. One of those two would only make you a knight after suffering such a crushing defeat that they had no chance of recovering.”
Her expression when mentioning her two brothers was cold enough to suggest she was speaking of sworn enemies.
Serin did not seem to dislike direct questions, so Shan decided to ask one more.
“Then how can Your Highness promise me a title?”
At his bold question, Serin’s eyes widened like before, then curved into crescents.
It was closer to a self-mocking smile than one of genuine amusement.
“Because I have almost no one on my side in the court of Pendia anyway. If the price of gaining one powerful knight is only giving people who already hate me another reason to hate me, that is more than worth it.”
Shan thought for a moment, then looked at Roden.
“What do you think, Roden?”
“This is your matter. I do not know why you are asking your friend. Your friend is not you, so naturally he will answer according to his own interests.”
Serin reproached him as though he were a fool incapable of thinking for himself.
Shan glared at her with the same look as before.
The princess was briefly frightened and shrank back.
“I do not know much about politics. I trust Roden knows and sees more than I do, and that he will make a more accurate judgment.”
“Is that trust strong enough for you to stake your future, even your life, on it?”
“Yes.”
Serin’s reddish-brown eyes rounded at his answer, which came without the slightest hesitation.
After a moment, she sighed and beckoned to the two knights standing at a distance.
“Yes, true friendship is nice. If such a thing truly exists, that is. I will not force you to answer now. If you decide, contact me through Professor Maya.”
The two returning knights each picked up one of the instruments Shan and Roden had been carrying.
Fortunately, they were not especially heavy, so the knights could carry one each despite their broken arms. Serin carried one herself.
Before leaving, she waved her free hand.
“I hope to receive a favorable answer.”
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