Chapter 10

Chapter 10. I Tried Walking a Different Path (2)

"I want to receive training!"

How would a knight react if a six-year-old brat suddenly appeared and said something like that?

Especially if that brat was the illegitimate son of the ducal house to which he himself belonged.

The result was standing right in front of me. Knight Miguel wore an awkward expression, his eyes darting all over the place.

He looked like he wanted someone to help him, but every knight nearby deliberately averted his gaze from both me and Knight Miguel.

Watching Miguel’s flustered face, I laughed inwardly. As expected, unlike the other knights, Miguel really was naïve.

"You are still far too young, and I would need permission from the Knight Commander or someone else..."

He answered hesitantly, but I had already come prepared.

"I have already obtained the Knight Commander’s permission."

At my words, Miguel looked even more troubled.

He was a naïve and kind knight, but he was not blind to the situation around him.

I was no longer the son receiving the Duke’s expectations as I had been in the previous life. I was merely an illegitimate son who had fallen out of favor.

If he became responsible for my training, there was a good chance that his future as a knight would become somewhat uncertain.

But he could not bring himself to ask the other knights, all of whom were pretending not to notice.

"Haah, if you really have the Knight Commander’s permission, then there is nothing to be done."

In truth, what the Knight Commander had granted was only conditional permission: I would be allowed to train only if the knight assigned to me agreed to it.

But there was no need to tell the man in question that, was there?

"You are still much too young... Even so, since you do possess an inherited ability, let us begin with the basic training that the squires receive."

I trained without complaint.

Grueling runs and sword swings that made my arms feel as though they would fall off.

I had done it before, but it was no less difficult now.

But because I already knew I could endure it, it was pain I was more than capable of withstanding.

My skill grew by leaps and bounds.

At first, the others had deliberately ignored my training, but little by little, they began glancing over.

But that was all.

Unlike my previous life, where I had shown growth beyond that of an ordinary human being, now I merely seemed like a diligent knight candidate with excellent natural talent.

"Have you perhaps considered becoming a knight? If you continue like this, I truly think you would become an exceptional one."

Miguel was delighted by how quickly I was growing.

But I was not showing him everything I had.

The training I did outside did not even amount to half of what I did in a full day.

Even after returning to my room, I kept training.

My room was spacious, and I still remembered the indoor exercises I had learned in my previous life, so I was able to continue training until my muscles were thoroughly overworked.

Huff. Huff.

And after finishing a training session inside my room that left me drenched in sweat,

"Now then, shall we move on to the next stage?"

I called to Flora, who had dragged a chair over by the door and was dozing in it.

"Flora!"

"Yes?"

Startled by my sudden call, Flora jolted upright. Once she realized it was me calling her, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Have you finished exercising? Do not overdo it. You are still very young."

Perhaps she felt embarrassed about having nodded off, because she put her hands on her waist and added that worried remark.

But I stared fixedly at the chair, and her face turned bright red as her lips opened and closed soundlessly.

That was enough teasing. I got to the point.

"I do not think I can sleep in this room tonight. I think I will have to sleep in a guest room."

At my words, Flora looked around the room.

There was moisture pooled here and there across the floor, and various objects had been scattered about by the training.

"Haah, you made quite a mess today. Very well."

Seeing that the room was even more disordered than usual, she left to prepare another place for me to sleep.

Fortunately, she did not notice. She did not notice that the room was much more chaotic than before, nor that she had somehow managed to doze off in a room that had been left in such a state.

From that day on, using training as an excuse, I kept changing the room where I slept.

I moved from one guest room to another, and from one empty room to the next, while Flora and the other maids gradually became more and more displeased with my sudden behavior.

"Are you feeling unwell because of the training? If you are going to keep moving from room to room like this, then sleep in Mother’s room with me."

Mother worried over me during tea time as well, but I shook my head.

Sleeping together with Mother was absolutely out of the question.

As I continued changing where I slept, rumors began spreading through the mansion. People whispered that the illegitimate son who had awakened had begun acting strangely every night.

That his mind had gone strange from the aftereffects of awakening. That he had developed sleepwalking. Some even said it was because he wet the bed every night.

On top of that, the fact that the maid who told him where he would sleep changed every day made everyone shake their heads.

And then, one night after another month had passed,

an unwelcome guest came to one of the mansion’s empty guest rooms.

Outside, thick clouds blanketed the sky so that neither moon nor stars could be seen, and inside the room, the lamp had been extinguished, leaving it terribly dark.

Creeeak.

The window opened with a soft sound.

Then a man dressed in black, with a black mask over his face, entered the room.

Though the chamber was dark, he seemed to be able to see its contents clearly.

After scanning the room, the masked man moved toward the bed without making a sound.

The bed, covered by its blanket, bulged high in the middle.

He stared at the raised blanket for a moment, then abruptly threw it back.

Flap.

On the bed were several pillows and another blanket rolled up tightly.

He stared intently at the uncovered bed, then gave a small snort of laughter.

"You are clever. Were you hiding there?"

Drawing the sword from his waist, he thrust it down beside the rolled blanket.

Thunk!

And at that exact instant—

"Ugh!"

With a low cry, a small figure burst out from beneath the bed.

A child.

Me, hiding under the bed.

Pain shot through my leg.

When I glanced down, I saw that the leg of my nightclothes had been torn open, and blood was flowing from a hole pierced clean through my leg.

"You dodged that? Impressive."

The masked man pulled the bloodied blade back out of the bed and looked at me.

"You even stopped breathing... How did you know?"

"Do you think hiding your breath is enough to hide your presence?"

It looked as though I could almost see the sneer through the black mask.

But the smile vanished at once.

"Judging from what you just did, and from how well you endure pain, I do not think I should treat you like a child just because of your appearance."

'No, you really can treat me like a child.'

Clutching the sword I had hidden behind my back, I muttered inwardly.

"More importantly, there is something I am curious about."

As he looked at me bleeding from the leg, he slowly opened his mouth. His manner was utterly relaxed.

"The way you changed rooms every night, and even slept hiding under the bed... How did you know in advance that I was coming?"

I could not see his expression, but he seemed very curious indeed.

This was not a situation where I could afford to act my age. Besides, the pain made it difficult to care about such things in the first place.

The fact that the assassin was still going to come had been made clear by the absence of any message about an autosave point.

Since I was training together with the knights at their training ground, I could not possibly be attacked there as I had been in the previous life.

And if I did not leave the mansion during the day, there was no way I would be attacked inside the ducal residence itself, which meant the assassin could only come for me at night.

To avoid a nighttime assassin, I had done exactly what I had seen on television in my previous life and switched rooms over and over again, but in the end, the assassin had still found me.

But there was no need to explain any of that to an assassin.

"Then if I asked whose orders you are following and who told you to kill me, would you answer?"

At my question in return, the assassin’s eyes curved.

"You are an amusing child. If I had a little more time, I might even have enjoyed playing with you."

At that moment, it felt as though my whole body had been bound in place. I could not move so much as a finger.

It was exactly the same sensation I had felt when I died before.

Back then, just before death, I had managed to break free through sheer luck.

Now, it was different.

Enduring the pain, I began awakening the power hidden within my body.

The power I had felt before dying. That power called mana, which my awakened ability had definitely not been supposed to possess.

Over the course of two months, I had done my utmost to awaken this power called mana just as earnestly as I had trained my body.

I could not achieve anything extraordinary in such a short time, not at my age, but I had been able to awaken my ability to the extent I wanted.

Crack.

First of all, enough to shatter the assassin’s power wrapped around my body.

"You broke it?"

The moment the assassin’s eyes widened, I moved the hand hidden behind my back in a flash.

Whoosh!

The assassin shot forward like lightning, and I hurled the sword in my hand.

Not straight at him, but toward the window.

Crash!

With the sound of shattering glass, the sword shot out through the window.

Sssshhhk!

The sword infused with mana split through the night air with a shrill sound far too sharp to have been thrown by a child.

At the same moment, the assassin’s sword, arriving before I could blink, stabbed into my chest.

Clang!

Sparks burst from my chest, and I was hurled backward.

"You blocked it?"

The assassin stared at his own sword in shock. The blade had shattered and only half remained.

Cough.

I struck the wall and spat blood from my mouth.

Damn it. It was not like the movies after all.

In films, the hidden tray tucked under someone’s shirt could even stop a bullet.

I had worn protective gear beneath my nightclothes and even hidden a steel plate inside, yet this was still a wound close to fatal.

So much for all the training I had undergone. Even if I had the body of a child, it had all been rendered meaningless.

And the assassin had not even used mana yet.

A faint glow began to spread from the half-broken blade in the assassin’s hand.

Mana.

His sword had already done this much without it, so stopping that now would likely be impossible.

"Could you not just leave me alone? I look like I am going to die anyway."

Spitting blood from my mouth, I muttered to him.

"Are you really six?"

He stared at me with utterly baffled eyes, but he did not stop walking toward me.

"This is just making sure."

Damn it, he really was diligent.

It was not a joke. The wound was one even a priest would struggle to heal. I had managed to stop the blade from piercing clean through, but the inside of a small child’s body had already been ruined.

"But you should be running away quickly..."

Thanks to the shattered window and the sword I had launched outside, the area beyond had become terribly noisy.

"Enemy!"

"Search immediately!"

One by one, lights began coming on in the mansion’s rooms, and the guards and knights on watch were already running this way.

"I have plenty of time to escape."

The assassin sounded utterly relaxed.

But I was able to sneer at him as well.

"Do you really?"

Why had I insisted on a guest room?

Because it was close to the Duke’s study.

Lately, the Duke had been so overwhelmed with work that he often spent the night in his study, which meant there was no way he would fail to notice a commotion like this.

KWA-A-A-A-ANG!

From somewhere in the distance came the sound of a door being smashed apart.

Papapapak!

Then someone tore down the corridor at full speed. The sound rushed to the door in an instant.

Bang!

And the door burst open.

"Damn it!"

The assassin hurled aside his half-broken sword and threw himself toward the window in a flash.

At the same instant, the Duke entered through the doorway.

He swept his gaze quickly over the room.

Then, upon seeing me slumped against the wall, his body jerked.

He took one step toward me, but when he truly saw my condition, he stopped.

His young son was sitting against the wall in a sea of blood.

The left side of his chest had caved inward, and a sword was buried in the right side of his chest.

The boy was staring blankly at him.

The Duke’s face was not the expressionless one I had always seen.

Regret. Pity. Sorrow. Darkness. Conflict.

A tangled mix of emotions passed over his face, and in the end, he turned his head away.

"An assassin! Alex has been attacked!"

After shouting at the top of his lungs, he looked at me one more time, then leapt out through the window.

The moment he disappeared outside, I coughed up blood again.

"Cough... No matter what, I am still his son. So because it looks as though I cannot be saved, he is just leaving?"

Even if he had worn a guilty look at the end, I did not think I would ever be able to forgive him after this.

"Ahhh! Young Master!"

A moment later, Flora rushed in wearing only her nightclothes.

She screamed when she saw me.

"A priest! Madam! No, how could this—"

I called out to her as she stood there in confusion.

Calling a physician or a priest was pointless. This was not a wound that either of them could heal.

Before my breath ran out, there was something I had to ask her.

"Who... who did you tell that I would be sleeping here tonight?"

Because I kept changing rooms, a night-duty maid had once again begun sleeping in the room next to mine, as they had when I was younger.

I told only the night-duty maid where I would sleep, and only the night-duty maid could know where I would be spending the night.

That way, if the assassin found me, I would know who had let it slip.

But— tonight’s assigned maid was Flora.

Could it have been her?

No, it could not.

The last time I died, I had seen with my own eyes the moment she was stabbed.

If Flora had not died from that stab wound in the previous life, then perhaps I might have suspected her now.

At my question, she shook her head frantically.

"No. Do not say anything like that. You can still recover."

I shouted at her as she babbled nonsense.

"Tell me right now!"

With a pale face, she stammered out an answer.

"I-I... Lady Elena asked me, so..."

She broke off halfway through the words and turned deathly white.

"N-no... that cannot be."

Damn it, my sister?

I could not believe it either.

My vision grew darker and darker.

Flora’s shouts became fainter and fainter, and at the final moment—

Thud.

The severed head of the masked man was thrown down before me.

Beyond the assassin’s severed head, I saw the Duke.

Unfortunately, I could not make out his expression.

My vision went black.

[You have died. Restarting from the autosave point.]

---

When I opened my eyes, the Duke’s expressionless face was staring at me.

It was the third Awakening Day I had experienced.

I turned my head.

A number of faces passed before my eyes, and then I saw my older sister.

Elena.

Flora had told my sister?

I looked at the woman standing beside her.

The second Duchess.

Maria de Gresia was looking at me with a smile on her face.