144 – Tomb of the Sword (3)
“Did you happen to lose to Elaine?”
Marina could not easily answer the trivial question and just crossed her hands and looked into the distance.
However, even if she did not answer, you could tell the answer without even hearing the question by looking at her face and gaze, which were red with shame.
“In life, there are times when you lose and times when you win.”
“I didn’t lose…. I had to pay attention to my surroundings, so I had to adjust my output, and I was pushed back because it was indoors, where I couldn’t use my magic effectively. If it were outdoors and the opponent wasn’t a student, I would definitely have….”
She said that if she had fought outdoors against a student, she would have won, and when she saw Marina even mentally winning, she inadvertently turned her head in her pitiful heart.
No matter what the circumstances, the ugliness of losing to a student and not acknowledging defeat….
Is this what a wizard looks like? It seemed like an inferior job in which one could not learn martial arts.
“So how did you lose? I’m a bit curious about that….”
“… ….”
Listening to the story that Marina told, it was clear that since she was indoors, she had a disadvantage to Marina, but on the other hand, Elaine also had a disadvantage because she had no place to escape.
If he had slowly chipped away at Elaine’s stamina instead of taking her down in one blow, the outcome of the fight might have been a little different.
Of course, Marina also has stamina issues, but everything is relative, so there would have been plenty of ways to think of ways to dull the enemy with a chill spell that covers the entire space.
“Dean, you have physical strength, but you lack practical experience.”
In comparison, although Elaine is younger, she has received direct instruction from the Sword Saint and has accumulated sufficient practical experience over the past year.
Even though Marina was an anti-magician, she did not have any real combat experience, so it was natural for her to lose in such a limited environment.
‘Because the original protagonist wasn’t this strong at this time…. This is something special about Elaine.’
I don’t know what caused it, but it seemed like the strength of the Sword Saint family had become stronger than the original.
Since he is the strongest in the kingdom, it is possible that his skills have become more proficient after encountering possessed individuals operating in the kingdom, but this is not yet certain.
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“Anyway, you might lose in life, so don’t worry too much. Elaine is almost 10 years younger than the Dean, but if she gets stronger because she’s older, why would she spend her time training at home?”
“Are you trying to comfort me now? Or are you just insulting me because I’m old?”
She opened her mouth with the intention of comforting her, but at some point it degenerated into insults toward Marina.
Is this the limit of someone who chose the path of science rather than liberal arts to be unable to even properly console them?
“I didn’t really intend to do that, but as I talked, it ended up that way….”
“Ha… It’s not like yesterday or today that student Ian was rude, so whatever happened. “I have more business to do, so let’s go.”
“Yes, then…” .”
As she left her room with Marina’s permission, she bumped into Jessica, who must have been eavesdropping, very close to the door.
“What, were you there eavesdropping because you thought I was having an affair with the dean?”
“…… “Isn’t it weirder to think that someone who boldly says they’re going to cheat on me in front of me will be quiet when I’m not around?”
How on earth did my credit drop to this point? .
To put it bluntly, I’m not the only one among the nobles who practices polygamy.
“So what do we do now? Are you leaving right away?”
“I don’t really have anything else to do right now…” “I got permission from the dean, so let’s leave right away.”
“Hey… Well, I’ll just stay at home this time. Even if I go, I don’t think there will be anything to do.”
“Okay, then. What do you want to do Jessica?”
“…… Of course we will go together. “I have to keep an eye on you there to make sure you don’t do anything weird.”
So Hori left to see the house and the members going to the Tomb of the Sword were decided to be me, Jessica, and Elaine.
Before leaving for the Tomb of the Sword, when we parted ways to procure food and other necessities, Nanga, who had kept her mouth shut all this time, opened her mouth.
[Master, are you going to the grave or something now?]
“Yes, we will leave within today.”
Nanga was unusual in that she did not open her mouth when other people were with her, and even when she was asked why, she did not give a good answer.
She didn’t seem to be a particularly shy person, but maybe she had a side to Nanga that I didn’t know about.
“Why? “Are you sad because you’re breaking up with Youngta?”
[Is that possible?!! She feels relieved to think of breaking up with that handicapped sword!! Now I am the only sword master!!]
“What?!”
No matter how bad your relationship is, is it possible that she smiles and likes you even though the colleague she was with until now has died?
She immediately slammed her fist into the hilt of her sword, but even though Nanga whined, she didn’t stop laughing.
“Is it okay to say something like that when a colleague is dead?!”
[I never thought of him as such a disabled swordsman! On the contrary, I hated it because every time we practiced, they used that guy instead of me!!]
“You complained every time we practiced, so we took turns using them.”
[That’s not enough!! It is humiliating to be pushed by a sword that cannot be used properly in the first place!!]
“There is no use for it!! Do you know how good it feels to strike with a reverse blade?! Besides, how nice it is when you spar without having to worry about killing your opponent!!”
[If a sword that cannot kill an opponent is not a disabled sword, then what is it?!!]
After that, even though I tried to persuade Nanga that each sword had its own purpose, Nanga didn’t even respond as if she didn’t want to hear it.
Nanga will probably never understand this issue for the rest of her life.
No, she won’t even try to understand.
Because the cause of the conflict is not a rational issue but simple jealousy, the emotions had to be resolved first before approaching it rationally.
‘I wonder when I’m going to grow up like this….’
Actually, Nanga was a baby who was less than a year old, considering the number of years she was born.
She is a child who has not even left infancy, let alone puberty, so if you spend a little more time educating her, she will definitely change her mind.
When I returned to the mansion after purchasing preserved food and tools for making a fire, a carriage was already fully loaded and waiting in a corner of the mansion garden.
‘… Then all I have to do is load this.’
After loading the preserved food and tools I had purchased into the wagon luggage compartment, I got on the wagon and my traveling companions all turned to look at me.
As always, Elaine doesn’t know what she’s thinking, and Jessica turns her poisonous eyes towards me.
Looking at those two, I felt like I knew why Hori was absent from this trip.
‘Oh, I should have just said I’d go alone…’ .’
*****
There is a saying that if a woman harbors resentment, frost will fall even in May.
In addition, whenever I heard a proverb about a woman’s resentment or persistence, I felt that it was somewhat exaggerated.
But now, as I watched the woman’s resentment right next to me, I realized that the words left by the ancient ancestors were not exaggerations.
The journey was comfortable.
Although the atmosphere inside the carriage was so dark that even the mourning house felt like a party hall, there was no difficulty at all in getting to the Tomb of the Sword.
The Tomb of the Sword is a place not only visited by swordsmen whose weapons they have used for a long time are broken, but also by swordsmen who go on pilgrimage like Peer’s tomb.
Skilled prosecutors, if not famous prosecutors, often passed by, so stealing here was tantamount to suicide.
In addition, unlike the last time, there were no thieves attacking him because he was riding in a luxurious carriage that seemed to advertise, ‘Here is a nobleman.’
But that didn’t bring peace to my heart.
No, compared to staying still in the carriage, it would have been more comfortable for the bandits to attack and frantically swing their swords.
“… ….”
“… ….”
There is no exchange of vulgar swear words or throwing fists at each other.
They were just glaring at one side and ignoring the other side as if nothing had happened.
But just that one action was enough to make the atmosphere in the carriage worst.
During the weeks leading up to the Tomb of the Sword, the tense atmosphere combined with the extreme heat tightened my throat.
It was the worst atmosphere that I didn’t think I would ever get used to, but humans are creatures of adaptation, so after spending a few weeks in that environment, I started to get used to it.
“Jessica, can I touch your breasts?”
“What kind of nonsense is this?”
As I got used to it, I even had fun playing pranks on Jessica, who kept glaring at Elaine as if her eyes were hurting.
A few weeks later, after continuing to drive the carriage, we finally arrived at the Tomb of the Sword, the sacred place of all swordsmen.
The first thing I felt was the scent of flowers.
When I opened the window to the scent of flowers that could be felt even inside the carriage, a sword so large that I thought it was a large building instead of a sword caught my eye.
The sight of the sword stuck on a high hill, closer to a bare mountain than a hill, with flowers in full bloom and a sword or spear stuck like a tombstone was truly appropriate to be called the Tomb of the Sword.
“Wow….”
Jessica stuck her face out the window and let out an exclamation as she looked at the scenery outside her window, forgetting that it had been so scary just a moment ago.
Well, even if it were me, I would be amazed when I saw this spectacle after having been fighting such a tense battle of nerves in the carriage.
We were enjoying the sight of the Tomb of the Sword for a while, but after a while, our mouths dropped when we spotted a procession that had been hidden by the forest and had not been visible before.
That line… Are you saying that that line is all swordsmen trying to go to the grave of the sword?
When I saw the long, endless line of people, I was overcome with the urge to push them away with a carriage rather than wait in line.
‘No, why are there so many people with broken swords…’ .’