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Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ The Pushover Young Lord in a Romance Fantasy Won't Take It Anymore ◈
Chapter 50: If Only I Could Take It Back
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"The chastity mentioned in the first Commandment is preserved as long as you don't have sex. You're free to date someone of the opposite sex or engage in physical affection."
Because of that loophole, I had completely misunderstood Lucia in my first life.
I'd cursed her for keeping her chastity while jumping from man to man.
It was a mistake I regretted.
The room suddenly fell quiet.
Celine and Lucia were staring at me intently.
Barely holding back a laugh, I continued.
"The second Commandment is compulsory fasting. Gourmet meals are forbidden, and only simple food necessary for survival is permitted."
'Don't get me started. I was chewing nothing but rations back then.'
The aggrieved expression Lucia had worn in my past life flickered before my eyes.
It was the complete opposite of the curious expression she wore now.
"The third is a ban on private property. The fourth requires you to keep your Sun Ring active at all times and strive to improve. I don't need to explain what happens if you stop training."
"Um..."
"Honestly, the fifth is nothing. It's a ban on lying, and that isn't difficult."
"You're right. So far, none of them sound that hard."
As she said, Lucia's expression did not change much.
That was just like Lucia.
'Honestly, everything up to this point was nothing. If those five had been the end of it, I'd still be serving as the Holy Sword's rack.'
"The remaining two are a little different. The sixth deprives you of the right to sleep. You must always wake with the sunrise wherever you sleep. If you sleep in because you're tired, you could die that very day."
Gasp!
Lucia sucked in a sharp breath.
Sunrise normally came between five and eight in the morning.
Since it differed from place to place, her waking time would be all over the place.
'Don't you know beauties need lots of sleep? Even now, thinking about it makes me shudder... Imagine thinking you dreamed the ground had caved in, only to wake up and realize you were buried underground.'
The only Commandment Lucia had ever broken concerned sleep.
The fact that she had returned alive was proof that Lucia was the protagonist.
"People say the seventh and final one is the worst."
"...What is it?"
"The Holy Sword Keeper sticks to you like a leech twenty-four hours a day and watches you. You should assume you'll have no privacy."
'That crazy bitch followed me into the bathroom. She even stayed right beside me while I slept. What was she, a body pillow?'
It was the Holy Sword Keeper's duty to watch whether the Commandments were being followed twenty-four hours a day.
When I asked why she had broken a Commandment once, her answer had been simple.
'That crazy bitch overslept too. That woman isn't normal either.'
Being created in the goddess's image did not mean she was perfect.
"Brother, can I choose who I want to be that watcher?"
Celine stared at me with wide, round eyes.
My head tilted at the unexpected question.
"Of course not. Why?"
"..."
Without answering, Celine furtively looked away.
I was about to ask what was going on when Lucia nudged my side with her elbow.
"I guess she'd be fine with being stuck to the young lord for twenty-four hours. How cute."
Damn, she was fucking adorable.
"I was thinking the same thing, my soft and chewy sweet rice cake young lady. I'll use you as a body pillow to my heart's content."
"Grrr... Brotherrr, stooop..."
"Now that I know all that, I understand your reaction, Young Lord. I don't think I'll ever touch the Holy Sword either."
I answered while kneading Celine's cheeks.
"That isn't a matter of your free will. If I'd rejected the Holy Sword earlier, the Holy Sword Keeper would have beaten me up."
Lucia's eyes widened. Her expression plainly asked whether that made any sense.
Of course, if you didn't form a Sun Ring in the first place, you would be excluded from becoming a candidate. I didn't bother mentioning that.
It wouldn't have mattered much even if they knew.
Lucia had known all of it when she formed her rings and had taken the qualification test under near-compulsion.
Thinking, 'It can't possibly be me, right?'
"Don't worry. It supposedly hasn't had an owner for nearly three hundred years. Surely you aren't qualified, Adjutant."
"Thinking of it that way makes me feel better. Whew..."
Look at her.
She didn't even consider the possibility that it might be her.
* * *
There were countless things an expedition member needed.
If I had to name only two, they would be the mental strength to withstand fear and personal martial ability.
With magical beasts swarming everywhere, they needed to be capable of protecting their own lives.
The first interview had an acceptance rate of nearly eighty percent.
Those who had come prepared to risk their lives had met my expectations.
The second round was a sparring interview.
I believed testing their abilities firsthand was the surest method.
Those who passed the second test would be accepted.
After that came unit assignments and the division of specialties.
What each person's specialty was in the field. How far they had advanced as warriors. Whether they had the discipline to obey orders immediately.
The Ashen Forest Expedition had special requirements unlike ordinary field operations.
Since they would have to break through on their own two feet without horses, a system that worked like clockwork was essential.
Before the second sparring interview, I divided the interviewers into four for more efficient screening.
The Cardenos training grounds conveniently had a First through Fourth Training Ground.
"Please take charge of the knights, Elder. Select only the ones you believe are good enough."
"There won't be many who pass. Are you certain that's all right?"
"I trust your instincts. Send the few outstanding candidates among the passers to the First Training Ground."
There was no better person than a Swordmaster to test the knights' fundamentals and fighting spirit.
The knights' faces showed their admiration. They likely thought it an honor to cross swords with that Swordmaster.
Their illusions would shatter once they faced him directly.
Hendrickson led the knights toward the Second Training Ground.
"Julian, you're in charge of the mercenaries and barbarians. Win or lose, select only the ones worth using."
"Understood, Young Lord. How many should I select today?"
"Only as many as you can handle. We have plenty of time. Don't rush, and keep your own pace. Send any promising passers to the First Training Ground."
Julian was, in his own way, the male lead of a romance fantasy.
He was not yet a fully fledged knight, but he possessed enough martial ability to handle mercenaries and barbarians.
I'd heard he had recently formed two rings as well.
Julian led the mercenaries and barbarians toward the Third Training Ground.
"Adjutant Lucia, I'm sorry to ask you to handle such a rough task."
"Why are you saying that? I'm your adjutant, aren't I?"
"...Yes. Please take charge of the fallen nobility and noble children who have left their families. You may use magic or a sword. Just don't hurt them. Send the capable passers to the First Training Ground."
Lucia had reached a high level in both magic and swordsmanship.
Honestly, I wasn't worried about her in the slightest. I was only worried about the candidates facing her.
Lucia led the nobles toward the Fourth Training Ground.
Hendrickson, Julian, and Lucia.
The fourth and final interviewer was me.
The warriors who had insisted on fighting me personally remained in the First Training Ground.
My interview was not one where I chose them. They chose me.
Bellutak and Buraltak were among them. They must have wanted to face me badly.
Standing atop the sparring platform, I rested my longsword at an angle on my shoulder.
There were roughly six hundred people left. It would be enough to separate the wheat from the chaff.
"From among you, I will select a small elite force for the vanguard."
The warriors' expressions immediately changed.
They glared sharply at those beside them while pretending otherwise, engaging in a silent contest of wills.
Volunteering for the vanguard was no different from declaring that you wanted to die before everyone else.
"Those selected for the vanguard will receive triple pay. Endless honor and glory will come as a bonus."
The crowd began warming up in earnest.
Crack! Crack!
The sounds of joints popping and muscles swelling mingled together.
The structure of the expedition was already organized in my mind.
A shield unit to act as the anvil protecting the main force, a mobile strike unit to serve as a flexible hammer, and a scouting unit to become the expedition's eyes and ears.
'I won't need to recruit scouts separately.'
The Ashen Forest's former inhabitants would arrive soon.
I planned to have them lead the scouting unit, supplemented by former rangers.
More important than that was the vanguard at the front.
Berserkers ferocious enough to throw away their lives, yet still capable of obeying orders.
Honestly, the latter wasn't that difficult.
Anyone would listen after getting beaten like a dog. Everyone had been like that in my first life.
"Khahaha! At last, it's our time to step forward, Bellutak!"
"Buraltak! My brother! A glorious battle awaits us!"
"Ah. You two are confirmed for the vanguard."
Their gazes turned toward me at the same time.
"Th-That can't be!"
"Khhk..."
They were berserkers with nothing but battle in their heads.
They were absolutely not despairing because they had been selected for the vanguard.
"Then we can't fight?"
They were only disappointed that they couldn't spar. They hadn't changed at all.
Whoosh!
I swung the longsword resting on my shoulder through the air.
When its tip pointed at the two of them, the barbarian brothers' eyes changed.
Those two were troublemakers.
Disobedient dogs needed leashes.
"You're first. Take up your weapons and come at me together."
* * *
At the southernmost edge of the Empire lay the Great Forest.
The elven tribe lived there in seclusion, cut off from the flow of the world.
Because of their closed way of life, they learned of the Ashen Forest Expedition late.
"...They're preparing an expedition to the Ashen Forest?"
Ariel, the priestess who spoke for the voice of the forest, asked the question.
A white-haired elder elf nodded gravely.
"That is correct. I hear the Cardenos grand ducal house of the west is gathering an expedition force."
The moment she heard the answer, Ariel gave her order without hesitation.
"We must prepare to leave for the west at once."
The size of the human expedition or its odds of successfully conquering the forest did not matter to them.
Only one thing mattered.
For the first time in hundreds of years, the Ashen Forest's gates would open.
This was an opportunity that would never come again.
At the priestess's command, hundreds of elves armed themselves.
Their quivers were packed full of arrows.
What drove the elven tribe was very different from what drove a human army.
It was a noble yearning greater than a desire for sudden wealth or glory.
Only their longing to reclaim their lost homeland and trampled ancestral land moved them forward.
"Priestess, we cannot know whether the humans will accept our demands."
Several elven elders voiced their doubts.
Without replying, Ariel brought both hands together before her chest.
She gently stroked something carefully kept within her robes.
It was a small crystal that gave off a faint green glow.
The World Tree Seed, which had not sprouted for hundreds of years and had only preserved its original form.
"There, we can make the Divine Tree bloom again."
The Ashen Forest.
It was now called a demonic realm teeming with terrible magical beasts, but in ancient times, it had been the elves' glorious home.
Then demonic energy and ash left behind by the Demon King's remains devoured the forest.
The elves had no choice but to flee south in tears, as if driven out.
'The humans won't treat us kindly...'
What the elves wanted was the forest's purification.
The western humans, on the other hand, sought development, coveting the forest's resources.
Purification that saved life, and development that exploited nature.
The goals of both sides ran parallel, unable to mix like water and oil.
"Priestess, please reconsider once more..."
"They are humans. It's obvious they'll try to use us as slaves. Please reconsider."
"That's right. Even Astin, the Grand Duke's heir and overall commander of the expedition, is such a villain that even his own kind are sick of him."
A deep worry settled between Ariel's brows.
Astin, the Grand Duke's heir.
Having heard of his reputation, Ariel believed the road ahead would be difficult.
If even his fellow humans were sick of him, how arrogant and unreasonable must he be?
There was no hope that he would be a kind person who understood the elves' circumstances.
If only they could reclaim their homeland and make the World Tree bloom again, they could gladly endure the humiliation of surrendering the forest's rights.
Still, what unreasonable demands would this human named Astin force upon them...?
It might not end with him using them as slaves. In the end, he might even try to exploit the World Tree.
"...There is no other choice. If it's for the sake of reclaiming our homeland."
Ariel had lived through a long thousand years.
The image of her homeland overlaid her vision like an illusion.
Author's Note
I will post a few extra chapters during the week. I have built up a comfortable backlog, so I think I can spend some of it.
Footnotes:
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