Chapter 26

Chapter 26. A Chance Encounter on the Journey (2)

Martin de Hierro.

The man who had sent the monster flying was the illegitimate son of the Marquess of Hierro and Adria’s half-brother.

When he asked to join us, the Knight Commander sought Brother Simon’s permission, if only as a formality.

Although Knight Commander Alonso was the leader of the group, the position of heir to the ducal house was more than enough to warrant proper deference.

Having been properly educated, Brother Simon left the decision to the Knight Commander.

Naturally, the Knight Commander did not ask me.

Just as the illegitimate son of the Marquess of Hierro had said, one might still be a noble, but the position of an illegitimate son amounted to no more than that.

Well, I was not even ten years old yet, either.

In any case, Knight Commander Alonso allowed him to travel with us.

The man was lively and sociable.

Before half a day had even passed, he had already become friendly with everyone.

He spoke easily with the soldiers and chatted cheerfully with the knights as well.

Though he was an illegitimate son, he was still a noble who treated them comfortably, so the soldiers were pleased, and the knights, having seen him kill a monster by himself, took a liking to him as well.

Brother Simon tried not to pay him any attention, while the Knight Commander and the Head Steward treated him professionally, but with everyone else he quickly became familiar and easygoing.

It seemed I was the only one who felt any aversion toward him.

After what I had experienced in my previous life, there was no way I could come to like him no matter how kindly he treated me.

But he showed interest in me. He had heard from someone else that I was an illegitimate son as well.

"To throw a sword and knock away a flying monster like that is something even a decent knight could not do easily. As I said before, that was truly impressive."

After finishing a round of conversation with the knights, he approached me and spoke without hesitation.

"Thank you. You can speak casually to me. But you were even more impressive. I had no idea you could send a monster flying like that with a sword."

I relaxed my stiffening face and thanked him for the praise.

I disliked him, but I could not show it. An opportunity had come walking right to me. There was no way I could let it slip away.

There was much I needed to find out. How an illegitimate son who had been cast out of his family had gathered people and seized power.

Who had been backing him, where the ones who had killed us in my previous life were now.

And I needed to learn his strength and his weakness.

If I was going to kill him.

"Can I really speak casually...?"

"Yes. There is an age difference between us, and we are both in the same situation."

"That is true. We are in the same situation. Fine, then let us be comfortable with each other."

As expected, he was a man with boundless sociability.

"More than that, all of my strength comes from my inherited ability. My actual swordsmanship is far inferior to that of the knights. It is only thanks to my inherited ability that I can travel around on my own like this..."

As he spoke, his expression darkened.

It seemed there was more to the story.

"Ah, right. Mine may be because of my inherited ability, but what you showed was swordsmanship, Alex! A high-level technique even the knights cannot perform easily!"

At his words, I glanced around.

No one was paying attention to us. They were busy cleaning up after the meal and checking their personal equipment.

They had all failed to notice it during the fight, but it seemed the person who had sent the monster flying had gotten a proper look at my skill.

"You look ten years old at most, maybe even younger. How is that possible?"

"I obtained a related ability, so I have been training since my Awakening Ceremony."

"Ah... so your inherited ability is in that direction... Even then, can that kind of skill really come out of it?"

Tilting his head, Martin muttered in a somewhat gloomy voice.

"Training, huh. Is the House of Gresia a place that raises even its illegitimate sons properly?"

Paying attention to our surroundings, I answered him.

"I suppose it is because I have some use. This is a secret, but why do you think I came along?"

"Ah, I see. So this was not a journey between brothers."

If I wanted to get information out of him, I had to plant a sense of kinship first.

It was all true anyway, so there was nothing to hesitate over, and as for the reason I had come along, official. ly. speaking, it was only a problem if Brother Simon found out, so it was fine.

Hmm, would it become a problem? Ah, whatever. No one had heard, so I could always feign ignorance.

"As expected, all noble houses are the same..."

"Come to think of it, you said you left home. What exactly happened?"

I asked him with the most innocent face I could manage.

He stared at my face for a moment, seemingly deep in thought.

All right, all right. Time to let it out.

The night insects were chirping, and the campfire was glowing softly.

It felt a little early, but the atmosphere was perfect for baring one’s heart.

Keeping up the most innocent and pitiful expression I could, I continued looking at him.

A moment later, as if he had made up his mind, he looked around and lowered his voice.

"No one is listening, right?"

No one. I already checked.

"Alex, will you keep this secret too?"

I had no intention whatsoever of keeping his secret, but I nodded earnestly.

"Well, as I said before, I did not leave home. I was driven out."

A bitter smile hovered at the corner of his mouth as he spoke.

"I gained an ability that was useful in its own way, so I worked hard, hoping to contribute to the family. But that only ended up making certain people dislike me. They started saying I was aiming for the family or something. As if there is any noble house that would hand over the family to an illegitimate son."

He was right. Even if one had Awakened, among all the noble houses in the kingdom’s history, the number that had passed their line to an illegitimate son could be counted on one hand.

But since I too had once died because of an absurd misunderstanding, it did not sound strange to me at all.

"Well, perhaps I should be grateful they did not kill me. But what they did to my younger sister..."

A chilling light passed through his eyes as he spoke.

The light vanished at once, but the energy around him remained full of anger.

"I may be in this state now, but someday I will make them pay."

After muttering that quietly at the end, he looked straight at me.

"The reason I am telling you this is because I want you to be careful too, Alex. You seem smarter than your age, so I am sure you understand what I mean."

Just as he said, I understood him very well. No, the lesson had already been carved deep into me through death.

Unfortunately, Martin, who was looking at me with concern, did not seem like a villain.

Of course, that was probably because he saw me as a child, but even after being hurt by others, he was the sort of very good person who still worried about someone else.

It was only that

what he wanted, and what he would one day do, had harmed me.

The deaths of Adria, Ugo, and Bianca, and my own death as well.

Nothing had changed.

Once we had become enemies with death standing between us, his sense of justice no longer meant anything to me.

When he saw that I seemed to understand, he spoke with a hint of regret.

"What a shame. Alex, if you were just a little older, we could have worked together."

Huh? What kind of bait was that?

Should I probe a little?

"You mean something like mercenary work?"

"Haha, is that how I looked?"

"You did not look like a knight."

"Hmm, if you call it mercenary work, then perhaps it is. I have not registered officially, but I do work together with some excellent mercenary companions, so perhaps that is right."

"Wow, you work with mercenaries? What kind of work do you do?"

"Haha, trade secret. I can tell you once you are a bit older."

Damn it, pulling back right at the end.

Still, if those mercenaries were the same mercenaries I knew, I might be able to find those bastards more easily than expected.

Hmm, I had been thinking of killing Martin if an opening appeared on the road, but it seemed I would have to put that off for later.

If I killed Martin too early, I might lose the others.

Well, to be honest, secretly killing him during the journey would not have been easy anyway.

That thought only became firmer through the sparring matches that continued whenever there was time during the journey.

Thwack!

With that resounding noise, I saw the soldiers below me looking up.

From their point of view, I was probably flying through the air at that very moment.

Tch, so much for outstanding swordsmanship.

If I said such a thing aloud, the masters would come after me with swords in hand, but if the difference in strength and stamina was this large, technique was useless.

Even with swordsmanship on par with someone of my age, no, even close to knight level, I was no match for him at all.

In truth, the difference in our swordsmanship was not that great. I needed to avoid clashing blades and slip inside his guard, but it was not as though his skill was so far beyond mine that I could not attempt that.

As a result, every time we sparred, I ended up getting struck by his sword and sent flying through the air like this.

Well, if I were to load my sword with mana, there was no reason I should be pushed back this badly, but I had to keep that hidden for the time when I faced him properly later.

And thanks to losing to him so diligently, I had at least managed to roughly gauge his swordsmanship and his strength.

I had gained some sense of how I would have to fight him.

Thud.

"Ouch!"

After flying for quite a while and rolling across the ground, laughter burst out from all sides.

"Haha, but you held on longer this time."

"You flew even farther, though!"

The knights laughed as they teased me while I got back to my feet.

The soldiers did not quite dare join in teasing me, but I could see all of them turning their heads away and snickering.

It was completely different from the first time I had sparred.

The knights and soldiers had quickly grown close to Martin, who had boundless sociability, but from the beginning they had found me rather difficult to deal with.

I was the Duke’s child and also an illegitimate son. On top of that, I was an illegitimate son who was useful in his own way. It was natural that they found it difficult to judge how they should treat me.

But after repeatedly sparring in front of them like this and getting thoroughly beaten, much of that sense of distance toward me had disappeared.

A fairly cute face for someone still this young, plus even a coquettish skill.

And on top of that, when they teased me like they were doing now, I simply took it coolly. That had broken down their wariness.

Fortunately, the Knight Commander said nothing about it, and the Head Steward did not point out my behavior either.

Only Brother Simon frowned, but perhaps because he was aware of my position as an illegitimate son, he did nothing more than scowl.

As we continued traveling and sparring like that, we eventually arrived in the Marquess’s territory.

It was a long journey that had taken us through four other territories.

While passing through those territories, messengers had come asking us to stop by the lords’ castles, but using the excuse that this was not an official procession of the ducal house, we were able to head straight for the Marquess’s House.

During the journey, we encountered monsters several times.

All of them were creatures that looked like corpses. But unlike the monsters we had first encountered, they were not especially strong.

They were monsters that a knight alone, or sometimes even just the soldiers, could handle.

"If Undead Wolves showed up every single time, there would be no way merchant families could travel between territories. It is not as though they can bring knight-level mercenaries with them every time."

When I asked in puzzlement, Martin kindly explained it to me.

Martin and I had grown very close during the journey.

We sparred every day and spoke often, so there was no way we would not grow closer.

But until the moment we parted, he did not let slip any more information.

Of course, I did not bring up anything unnecessary either.

And then he parted from the group in front of the outer gate of the city where the Marquess’s House was located.

"Let us meet again in about a year. I will appear before you in a magnificent form."

After offering his farewells to everyone one by one, he waved at me last and shouted.

I waved back at him too.

"There is no need to wait a whole year. We will meet again soon."

He had shouted, but I whispered quietly enough that he would not hear.

"Come now, everyone must be waiting. Let us go in quickly."

At the Head Steward’s urging, the group passed through the outer gate and crossed the city toward the lord’s castle.

Unlike the ducal residence, the Marquess’s House lived in a castle.

After parting ways with the soldiers before the inner gate, we crossed the inner courtyard with the knights and arrived at the castle entrance.

Against a backdrop of flowers blooming in splendid abundance all around, nobles dressed in elegant finery were waiting for us in front of the doors.

I did not recognize any of them, except for one.

A girl who looked a little younger than when I had seen her before.

Adria was looking at us with a prim expression.