Chapter 15

Chapter 15. My Brother’s Fiancée Has Come (1)

After staring blankly at the girl, I finally managed to come to my senses.

“Who might you be?”

She was an extremely beautiful girl, but I was certain I had never seen her before.

“Are you not Alex? I heard you are the third young master of the ducal house, and an illegitimate son besides.”

There was no contempt in the way she said “illegitimate son.” It felt less like an insult and more like she was simply stating a fact she already knew.

The absence of scorn was refreshingly novel, but that only made it all the more rude.

I took a good look at her.

She looked three or four years older than I was. In my previous life, she would have seemed about the age of a middle school student.

The problem was that the dress she was wearing looked terribly expensive.

At a glance, she was clearly the daughter of a noble house.

It did not seem as though I could very well lecture her on manners, so I answered plainly.

“Yes, I am Alex.”

“I knew it!”

“But I am no hidden blade, and I have no reason to cross swords with a stranger.”

Besides, there was no reason for us to be having such a conversation in the middle of a corridor people passed through.

I was on my way to the training ground. It was not late yet, but I did not have time to waste like this.

“I am Adria de Hierro! The daughter of House of Hierro. I have come to visit the ducal house as Young Master Simon’s guest!”

The girl introduced herself while holding a wooden sword in both hands.

It was the disciplined greeting of a knight, utterly unsuited to the clothes she was wearing.

The absurd situation continued, but at least now I knew who she was.

I had heard of Brother Simon’s fiancée before. It was a political match meant to cement an alliance between the ducal house and the marquess’s house, but there had been rumors that the fiancée was so beautiful that Brother Simon rather liked the arrangement in his own heart.

At the time, I had thought, How beautiful can a little girl in her early teens really be? But now that I saw her, she was certainly beautiful enough to inspire rumors.

Still, I had never heard anything about her having such a ridiculous personality.

And what was this about being the hidden blade of the ducal house? I had spent years buried away doing nothing but training, so I had no idea what sort of rumors were going around.

In any case, she was still exactly the sort of person I would find difficult to deal with.

But then again, I had not heard anything about Brother Simon’s fiancée coming to visit.

While I was still thinking that over, she extended her sword again.

“Now that I have introduced myself, we can fight, can we not?”

She looked thoroughly eager to fight, but by then I had already bought enough time.

“Adria!”

A low shout came from behind her.

A noble boy in his mid-teens—Brother Simon—was striding toward us with his face flushed red.

“What do you think you are doing here?”

As he approached and asked the question, the girl answered as though nothing were amiss.

“I happened to find a worthy opponent, so I was asking for a spar.”

Brother Simon shot me a sidelong glance. Wearing an awkward expression, I gave a little shrug.

At the sight of that, Brother Simon’s brows twitched. It was the expression he always made when something displeased him.

“The tour of the manor is not even finished yet. You must not wander about as you please like this.”

“I already greeted the Duke and the Duchess, did I not? In any case, I was only trying to pass the time until my room was prepared, so I may as well make good use of what remained. Or will you spar with me yourself, Young Master?”

Brother Simon’s face reddened even more.

Was it because of what she had said? Or because I was standing here?

“At present, I am in the middle of showing you around the manor. Please grant me the honor of continuing to guide you through it.”

As he spoke, Brother Simon bowed politely.

He looked every bit the impeccably mannered noble young master from a painting.

Brother Simon’s fiancée let out a silent sigh.

“Very well. Then please spar with me later.”

She too bowed politely. There was no way a daughter of a marquess’s house would be ignorant of proper etiquette.

So was it only with me that she acted like this?

I found it faintly irritating, but at the moment I wanted nothing more than to get away from there as quickly as possible.

“I will consider the spar.”

Without giving her a firm answer, Brother Simon replied for me. As expected, it was the polished social skill of someone properly raised.

Brother Simon extended a hand, and his fiancée bowed toward me.

“I am sorry. I rudely took up your time. Then I shall see you later.”

The beautiful girl placed a hand at her chest and bowed like a figure from a painting.

A sight enough to make one’s heart race... nonsense. Having already seen such a completely different side of her just moments ago, I felt nothing of the sort. If anything, it only looked comical.

And despite the way she said it, I never met her again after that.

Even though we lived in the same manor, I hardly ever crossed paths with Brother Simon.

If his fiancée was visiting, she would naturally be moving about with him, and since Brother Simon deliberately avoided the routes I used, there was little chance I would see her again.

Thus, after thoroughly draining the spirit from me, Brother Simon and his fiancée departed to continue looking around the manor.

Once the two of them were gone, I set off again as well.

The path leading to the training ground behind the manor. Years ago, it was a road I had walked with Flora, but now I traveled it alone.

I had grown old enough to do so by myself.

Of course, I was still a child—short, and not yet old enough for my voice to change—but not a single servant in the manor dared treat me carelessly because of my age.

I passed beside the family mausoleum of the ducal house and walked along the path that ran through the woods.

I had walked it for so many years now that I could have found my way even with my eyes closed.

After a short while, a clearing surrounded by trees came into view.

It was the training ground of the ducal family.

As always, Miguel was waiting there alone...

Hm? He was not alone.

A middle-aged knight was standing beside Miguel with a blunt expression on his face.

As always, his expression proclaimed with great intensity that he did not care for me in the slightest.

It was Knight Commander Alonso.

Miguel was the one who explained why he had come.

“He says he wishes to see your skill for himself, Young Master.”

A test? But Miguel must already have told him.

At first, the Duke had come by now and then, and the Knight Commander had shown his face as well, but lately no one had appeared at the training ground at all.

Was that why rumors had started spreading about a hidden blade and the like?

In any case, even if he had not come himself, he should have known enough through Miguel already, so why did he suddenly want to see a test?

The question occurred to me, but the test came first.

“Will it be a wooden-sword spar?”

As I took out a wooden sword and spoke, Miguel shook his head.

“Not a wooden sword. A live blade.”

He handed me a steel sword. It was slightly smaller than the swords used by the knights, the kind carried by a knight’s squire.

I looked at Miguel in surprise.

It was a sword I had come to handle often enough lately, but only during training.

“Surely you do not mean we will spar with live blades?”

“Yes.”

At his answer, I asked carefully,

“Um... will that really be all right?”

Heh.

At my words, the Knight Commander gave a dry laugh.

“Even if it is a live blade, if a trainee is injured in a knight’s instructional spar, then that knight ought to hand in his position.”

At the Knight Commander’s words, I turned to look at Miguel, and cold sweat had already formed on his neck.

“I-it will not be a problem.”

At Miguel’s faltering voice, the Knight Commander frowned.

Miguel and I faced one another.

Unlike what one would expect in an instructional spar, Miguel was taut with tension, and I was deeply tense as well.

“We must see your precise level of skill, so do your utmost.”

The Knight Commander spoke again.

It seemed this was not merely a simple test after all.

I raised my sword.

“Come!”

The moment Miguel’s words fell, I rushed at him.

A short while later, the spar was over.

I lay spread-eagled on the ground, gasping for breath.

Dust covered my whole body, and from rolling around this way and that, bruises had bloomed all over me.

Through years of training, I had already gained the body of an adult at the age of ten—no, something close to a knight’s body.

Miguel had been astonished each time he saw how I grew during training, but in a match against a full-fledged knight, all I could do was roll around on the ground like this.

My body had grown strong, but the problem was my short arms and legs, fitting for my young age.

The difference in reach was simply too great.

Even when Miguel’s sword could strike my body, mine could barely reach far enough to cut his arm.

When I moved, I had to run twice as hard with my short legs, and every time our swords clashed, my small body weight sent me bouncing away in all directions.

On top of that, sparring with live blades meant I truly had to move as though my life depended on it.

Still lying on the ground, I turned my head toward the Knight Commander.

He was looking at the two of us with a grave expression.

“Have your reports truly been accurate all this time?”

The Knight Commander asked Miguel in a tone very close to a rebuke.

Miguel shook his head.

“I reported accurately.”

“You call that accurate?”

“Yes. A knight-class body, near-knight-level swordsmanship, and good judgment. The weakness is a body that has not yet finished growing. That was the last report I submitted.”

The Knight Commander followed the thought for a moment, then spoke in a dubious voice.

“...I see. Then was it I who failed to judge it properly?”

At the Knight Commander’s words, Miguel scratched his head.

“Well, when one considers the young master’s age, it is not easy to take such a report at face value.”

Unlike me, Miguel had not rolled about on the ground, so both his clothes and his body were perfectly fine. There was neither dust nor dirt on him, and no bruises to be seen.

That was only natural, really, in an instructional spar against a knight.

Even so, Miguel’s expression was far from good.

Because he had been so tense, his face was still flushed red, and cuts were visible here and there across the leather armor he was wearing.

They were only shallow traces, but they were still marks where my sword had reached his armor.

During an instructional spar, the trainee’s blade had touched a knight’s body.

By the Knight Commander’s own words, Miguel ought to have handed in his position, yet Knight Commander Alonso did not rebuke him.

He merely looked at me in astonishment.

“Your skill is improving far faster than expected. I will have to report this to the Duke again.”

I was pleased by the Knight Commander’s admiration, but I still had not shown the full extent of my ability.

Deep within my body, mana I had yet to awaken crouched in wait.

If I were to reveal even the mana, the Knight Commander would be far more astonished, but mana was not something to be shown in a spar like this.

Mana was ‘my hidden blade.’

After confirming my skill, the Knight Commander finally came to the main matter.

“At this level, there is nothing to worry about.”

So that was it. He had not checked my skill for no reason after all.

“It is the Duke’s command.”

The Duke’s command? What in the world was he trying to make me do?

I wanted to keep listening while lying down, but the Knight Commander merely stared at me without continuing.

He was telling me to stand up.

Ugh. What an old fossil.

I forced myself upright. Once I was standing before him, the Knight Commander continued.

“Young Master Simon’s fiancée arrived today.”

Hm? That was a rather unexpected way to begin.

“She is the daughter of the Marquess of Hierro. Since hers is not an official visit, it would be difficult to assign a conspicuous guard detail.”

Oh, that sounded ominous. Surely not?

“As Young Master Simon is busy and cannot remain by her side, I would like you to protect her while she stays at the ducal house.”

Of course my ominous premonition had been correct. Was there truly no way to refuse?

“Fortunately, she agreed to it gladly as well.”

The girl I had met earlier came to mind. The girl who had flicked the wooden sword before my eyes. Her words about wanting to spar came back to me.

“You may begin escorting her tomorrow. Simply accompany her like an ordinary friend.”

A friend? Absurd. And what sense was there in asking a younger brother-in-law to serve as a guard? Brother Simon certainly would not let that pass if he found out.

I cursed inwardly, but all that escaped my lips was a sigh.