WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Pushover Young Lord in a Romance Fantasy Won't Take It Anymore ◈

Chapter 9: Can I Really Go In?

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"Whose body did you just lay your hands on?"

Astin's eyes were like those of a beast wearing human skin.

Like a rabbit standing before a lion.

Azelin felt her breath catch beneath that razor-sharp killing intent.

"A-Astin..."

Before her trembling lips could form another word.

Thud!

Astin's boot ruthlessly slammed into Azelin's face.

"Kyahhh!"

A noble young lady who had never once been struck by anyone.

Rosenthal's precious daughter screamed as she rolled across the ground.

Even then, Azelin still could not grasp the situation.

"H-How dare you use your foot on a lady! Aren't you afraid of Rosenthal?!"

The moment she indignantly snapped back.

Thud!

"Aagh!"

Azelin flailed beneath the barrage of kicks.

Dirt and blood quickly smeared across her pale, delicate cheeks.

Astin did not stop.

Her nose, the corners of her eyes, both cheeks. He drove his boot into her face without mercy.

"Aah! Stop! Stop it!"

Why?

Why was he going this far?

And how did he intend to deal with the consequences?

Those thoughts were erased by the physical shock.

Her shrill screams seemed to tear through the training grounds.

There was not the slightest hint of hesitation in Astin's eyes.

With cold, sunken eyes, he crushed Azelin's face as though stomping on an insect.

Crunch!

"Ughk...!"

Azelin had spent her entire life surrounded by handsome men fawning over her and flowers.

She had never imagined such merciless violence.

The pain of her nose bone being crushed, the metallic taste of blood seeping through her torn lips.

Terrified, Azelin covered her face with both hands.

Unable to endure any longer, she grabbed Astin's trouser leg and begged for her life.

"Stop! Astin! Pleeease, stooop!"

It was useless.

Thud! Crunch!

Astin's kicks continued without pause.

"Young Lord! Get a hold of yourself!"

"This is going to become a real disaster! Please calm down!"

The knights, belatedly realizing the severity of the situation, rushed in desperately.

"Won't you let go?"

Astin irritably shook off their hands, sending three huge knights flying like autumn leaves.

Astin approached Azelin again as she lay crumpled on the ground.

Her face covered in blood, Azelin scrambled backward.

The more she retreated, the darker Astin's shadow loomed over her.

"This is the last one. Never set foot here again."

Crunch!

The sight of his boot was the last thing Azelin saw before she lost consciousness.

That day, Azelin, Rosenthal's precious daughter, was beaten by a man for the first time.

* * *

Ancient books displayed on the shelves.

A spotless desk that revealed its owner's fastidiousness.

Neatly arranged fountain pens and documents dotted with ink stains.

You know those moments, right?

When your parents are harshly scolding you and you end up studying the floor tiles.

I was the same.

"Are you listening, Astin?"

"Yes."

Father held his brow and took a breath.

I stood straight before him, at ease.

My feet were starting to go numb.

"The grounds for breaking the engagement rest solely with the young lady. Naturally, we will confiscate the dowry and betrothal gifts. If we include defamation and insulting our house, we could have extracted two or three times as much."

"That's good, then."

"There was an opportunity to gain far more."

Bang!

Father slammed the desk.

"We could have received part of Rosenthal's prime territories. We could have pressured them to surrender their southern trading rights. And Rosenthal and the young lady alone would have borne the disgrace."

If I had stopped after thoroughly beating Julian, that was.

At some point, I lost my head and went after Azelin too. No, I went after her with my feet.

I delivered a front kick to the young lady's stomach, then stomped all over her face after she fell.

Had it been after around five kicks?

The knights saw blood on her face and rushed over to restrain me with their bodies.

If they had not, I would have turned Azelin into a mess like Julian too.

Things would have gotten much bigger if I had.

"She touched Celine first. I only did what I had to do."

Haa...

Father let out a sigh loud enough for me to hear.

Being the head of a house was exhausting.

There were quite a few more gray hairs mixed into Father's black hair, which had once been as imposing as a great mountain.

'He must have suffered a lot because of me.'

How much trouble had the old me caused him?

Thinking of all my past reckless behavior, guilt pricked at me.

Of course, Azelin was a separate matter.

'That... that... that crazy bitch cheated first!'

Even if I were given two more chances to regress, I would have done the same thing.

"Gossips only listen for scandal and disgrace. Regardless of the grounds for ending the engagement, you will be left with the stigma of having beaten a young lady."

I already knew that.

The nobles would mock Lady Azelin's promiscuity while exaggerating and condemning my violence.

"Honestly, though, she deserved it."

"Do you expect people to think rationally? Those bastards want to tear open a young noble's wounds and see blue blood. Because that becomes a weakness."

That was how this world worked. I knew that better than anyone.

Before I remembered my previous life, I had been the same.

"The other party is Rosenthal. Alimony and compensation will be no problem for them. Their prestige has been damaged, but they are still Rosenthal."

Rosenthal was a prestigious house that stood shoulder to shoulder with Cardenos.

Father's assessment was, as always, accurate.

"It is not much of a gain for us either. They have only lost what they deserved to lose, and we have simply received what we were owed. More importantly, Rosenthal should have borne the disgrace alone. To nobles, honor holds that much value."

Father coolly assessed the situation.

"Now it is a mud fight. This has escalated from a lovers' quarrel into a matter between houses. Of course, the young lady's crime is far worse, having brought another man in and spoken of breaking the engagement."

Father's voice sank low.

"Rosenthal's people have always been shameless. Compensation is compensation. They will treat the severity of the crime as an entirely separate matter. Far from admitting their wrongdoing obediently, they may brazenly respond by claiming that their precious daughter was assaulted."

"They won't act immediately. They'll lie low for a while."

"Rosenthal remembers every favor and grudge."

In other words, they would certainly retaliate someday.

Cardenos, the Empire's prestigious swordsmanship house. Rosenthal, its prestigious magic house.

The two pillars supporting the Empire had clashed in an unprecedented way.

On top of that, this incident had ended with nothing but damage to both houses' reputations.

The two houses would continue this mud fight, and everyone around them would surely turn it into gossip.

I wanted to bulldoze the whole thing flat.

"If this matter escalates that far, withdraw from it. It has gone far beyond a problem between the two of you."

His final words were full of paternal affection.

I firmly shook my head.

"I cannot. I caused this, and I started this problem."

I was Cardenos's direct heir.

I had never intended to hide.

I had started this fully prepared to bear the consequences.

"And Father, why should we be worried about Rosenthal?"

I had been through every hardship imaginable until the end of the world.

A problem with Rosenthal was something I could suppress well enough on my own.

"Rosenthal chose to become Cardenos's enemy first. They should be afraid of us."

Rosenthal could not handle Cardenos. No, they could not even handle me alone.

As long as I was here, Cardenos had no reason to be wary of Rosenthal.

Father stared at me for a moment, then the stiff line of his lips softened slightly.

"That was satisfying to hear."

He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"I will tell you now. This father hoped you would break the engagement yourself."

A foolish son so blinded by a woman that he offered up everything he had.

That was all Father thought of me.

"Even if it ended in ruin, it turned out well. Better than following the young lady around like before. Giving those two a taste of their own medicine was the right thing to do as a man."

"It was more than one hit, though. Julian took dozens, and Azelin took five or six."

"That's right. If someone does wrong, they should be punished. More than that."

Thump.

Father placed a fist over his chest.

"I saw the ring of fire you wove."

I had been wondering when he would mention it.

The look in Father's eyes then had been full of emotion and childlike wonder.

He looked like a knight who could not forget the honor and glory of his youth.

Someday, Father would weave a Sun Ring too.

"You've set this father's heart ablaze."

"Ah, what?"

I understood what he meant.

He was saying I had rekindled a fire in wood he thought had long gone cold.

I understood the meaning clearly, but his choice of words was a little strange.

Wasn't that the sort of line lovers used when they were trying to set the mood?

When I gave him an odd look, Father seemed to realize it too and cleared his throat.

"Enough. You may leave now."

"Yes."

I gave a slight bow and turned toward the door.

Just as I was about to leave, Father stopped me.

"I forgot one thing. A carrier pigeon arrived from the north this morning."

"The north?"

If it was the north, it was the good news I had been waiting for.

"We received word. Selena, who accompanied the army to the northern front, will be returning soon."

Selena.

My only older sibling and Cardenos's eldest daughter. In other words, my elder sister.

"When will she arrive?"

"They finished preparing in the north yesterday, so it will likely take a little over fifteen days. If she rides hard and changes horses at every relay station, it may take ten days."

Around ten days, then.

"If your sister saw you as you are now, she would be proud. Just as this father is."

"I hope so."

Even after regressing, regrets remained.

In my first life, after remembering my previous life, I left the house.

I abandoned my family, turning my back on Father and Celine.

Wandering the Empire alone without a destination, I happened to run into Selena.

-Astin, you loser who ran away. I don't consider you my brother. Get lost. Never show your face before me again.

The final words she left me remained in my mind like a hallucination.

The next time I saw Selena was when I returned to the house.

A corpse mangled beyond recognition. I still could not forget its coldness.

My mouth tasted a little bitter.

* * *

"Hup!"

"Hah!"

Cardenos's training grounds were filled with battle cries again today.

Knights focused on sword training with sandbags hanging from their bodies, while others ran laps around the training grounds.

Hummm!

Among them, the knights operating Luna were lost in deep thought.

'Pathetic.'

Their gazes naturally fell to the ground.

Stone slabs across the training grounds had melted in places, then hardened again.

The traces of that desperate duel remained intact.

Though they were clearly staring at the ground, the reddish-gold Sun Ring still lingered before their eyes.

The afterimage of the Solar Astin had displayed had not faded at all.

"Isn't the young lord incredible?"

One knight briefly opened the discussion.

Then everyone chimed in.

"He is. I was thinking the same thing."

"I still can't believe one ring overwhelmed three paths."

They had replayed the young lord's duel in their heads dozens of times.

It was an absurd feat that shattered common sense.

Setting aside the amount and quality of his aura, he had parried with minimal movement and exploited openings with innate combat sense.

His superhuman senses and genius intuition resembled those of a veteran who had crossed countless life-and-death battles.

"He truly has Cardenos blood. As far as I know, it takes ten knights with one ring to defeat three paths."

"He didn't just win, he overwhelmed them. Anyone who heard it would dismiss it as bullshit."

"Of course. Even I can't believe it, and I saw it myself."

"The young lord was incredible, but the Sun Ring also..."

Astin's martial ability was astonishing, but something else had caused an even greater shift.

An outdated relic of a bygone era, dismissed for being less efficient than Luna.

The Sun Ring, shunned as a self-destructive ring that gnawed away at its user's body.

A new question arose in the knights' hearts.

"Could Solar have been underestimated all this time?"

Doubt bred confusion.

Had everyone spent the last twenty years missing the fundamentals, trapped on the dead-end road called comfort?

Endure the heat of hardship, and the sword body grows tougher. Overcome trials that skirt life and death, and the sword's edge grows sharper.

Every path has an end, but rings have no end. They circulate endlessly.

Astin's words struck not their ears, but their hearts.

"...Should I try weaving a ring too?"

Someone muttered as if possessed.

Everyone's eyes turned toward them.

Flustered, the knight rushed to explain.

"D-Didn't the young lord say it? Stopping and dying, or dying and stopping. It's obvious which is the more worthwhile death."

"Yes, the young lord is right. I don't want to die comfortably like everyone else."

"I've already decided. I'll weave a ring instead of taking the easy path."

"So what? A man only dies once, not twice. Those northern barbarians are dying to die for their Valhalla or whatever."

Among the apprentice knights, several who had not yet opened a Heart Path added their resolve.

They would leave behind the safe, easy road and weave rings as Fire Keepers.

Until recently, it would have been dismissed as the ravings of lunatics desperate to die.

Now, everything had changed.

Even the senior knights listened to them seriously.

"But does anyone know how to weave a ring?"

"""......."""

There was, of course, one fatal problem.

Igniting a core was a dangerous process, one that could demand your life.

They could not rush into it without knowledge.

At present, every elite knight of Cardenos had opened Heart Paths.

Not one of them could pass down advice or knowledge about rings.

The only Fire Keepers left were retired knights who had stepped away from the front lines. Old veterans who had laid down their swords.

"No choice, then. We'll have to ask the young lord directly when he comes to the training grounds."

"I'll go with you, Senior!"

The eyes of the apprentice knights and squires who had not opened Heart Paths filled with passionate resolve.

The knights who had opened Heart Paths, listening nearby, somehow became gloomy.

'Why am I jealous of them?'

'Of all times, I opened three paths just the other day. I really did it now. If I had only opened two, it might have been worth trying.'

'Damn it. It's too late to close my Heart Paths now...'

The more paths one opened, the stronger the resistance against rings became.

Only days ago, knights who had opened Heart Paths had received envious looks.

Now, that common sense had been completely overturned.

By Astin alone.

* * *

The moment I returned to my room, I sat cross-legged.

Closing my eyes, I sank into my inner world.

A Sun Ring faintly pulsing at the root of my heart.

Weaving one ring did not mean it was over.

Not because I wanted more rings, either.

'Maintenance alone takes a lot of work.'

Solar was fundamentally destructive and unstable.

Whenever I had time, I needed to observe and tend to my inner self. Like stirring a wood fire with kindling.

Otherwise, it would either die out or run wild beyond my control. I would melt to death from the inside.

I had seen hundreds of people die that way.

"Hoo..."

Feeling the flame become gentler, I let out a stale breath.

As expected, one ring was easy to handle.

Not just because it was me. In reality, the death rate for one ring was only three percent.

Most people burned to death while weaving their first ring. Once it was complete, maintenance was on the easier side.

"Now I need to weave a second one."

Honestly, I had woven the ring I just created entirely on my own. Flame Thistles were cheap wild herbs sold in the market.

I did not intend to weave the second ring through my own strength alone.

I felt like I could weave another four or so by myself.

But taking the difficult path did not mean I was desperate to die.

There were many things needed to weave a new ring.

Naturally, that included the hidden pieces I remembered.

"It would go more smoothly if I learned from the One-Armed Sword."

There were very few people with better control than mine, but there were some.

The first person who came to mind was the One-Armed Sword, Hendrickson.

I used to call him a one-armed cripple of a Swordmaster.

He was not quite my teacher in my first life, but he did teach me to some extent.

If I formally learned from that old man, I could probably weave five within a year.

Knock, knock.

A sudden knock pulled me from my thoughts.

"Come in."

Creak.

The door stopped as it opened.

Through the narrow gap, someone cautiously poked their head in.

"Brother, can I really come in?"

I wondered who it was, but it was Celine.

She hesitated. There was tension in her wavering eyes.

Still, her unease had lessened compared to before.

"Yeah. You can come in."

I barely managed to hold back a laugh.

I thought I knew why Celine had come to see me.

Author's Note

For the time being, updates will be fixed at 8:30 PM! If that changes, I will announce it again!

Footnotes:

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