I’m Just an Ordinary Clown at the Academy chapter 63

63 – The Fifth Performance of Freya, the Countess

Ascal and Johan were preparing for their duel in the training grounds.

Suddenly, Johan barged into the training grounds.

“Senior Johan, are you okay?”

I noticed Johan while talking with Ascal and approached her.

With a voice filled with concern and joy, different from her usual gaze and atmosphere, I spoke.

“…What’s going on?”

With a serious voice that I had never heard before, Johan spoke, both in the game and in reality.

What did I do wrong?

Even though she was always shining, like a sparkling blue gem, Johan’s eyes were now filled with a sticky darkness.

“Senior, are you okay?”

This time, I spoke to Johan with a voice full of worry.

“I’m fine. But more importantly, what’s going on right now?”

Johan said firmly.

“What happened?”

I explained to Johanna how I ended up having a duel with Ascal.

* * *

The empty table left by Johanna.

“…………………….”

Silence filled the suddenly empty table left by Johanna.

Even though I am usually talkative and Ascal is sincerely teasing Johanna, neither of us said a word.

Clank.

“Shall we start with a meal first?”

Lady Freya broke the silence and spoke.

“Yes, let’s eat first.”

Ascal also responded to Lady Freya’s words.

I paused while trying to take off my mask to have a meal.

‘No way!’

“Excuse me, may I eat with my mask on?”

Remembering Johanna shouting, I couldn’t possibly take off my mask, so I asked Lady Freya for permission.

“………Johanna….. fiercely….”

But Lady Freya murmured so softly that I couldn’t hear.

“Of course. Please feel comfortable and eat.”

Lady Freya looked at Countess Freya and said, “Here we go again,” then looked at me and said.

“Thank you.”

The food at the nobleman’s table was delicious, but Johanna couldn’t fully enjoy it as she was preoccupied. As time passed in silence, the sound of conversation finally filled the table.

After Johanna left, Duke Freyja remained silent for a while, then continued muttering to himself. Despite the Duchess Freyja’s advice not to worry about it, he couldn’t help himself.

During a conversation with the Duchess and Ascal, an unexpected remark popped out of Ascal’s mouth.

“Roki, let’s have a match.”

“What? Why all of a sudden?”

“We still have plenty of time. Let’s have a match.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to fight. I never liked fighting in the first place, and losing a fight was even worse. Especially when the opponent was Ascal Freyja.

Johanna had the highest talent for the Croaker’s Sword among the Krokans. But that didn’t mean Ascal lacked talent. In the future, Ascal is described as reaching the level that Freyja has achieved.

I didn’t want to engage in a pointless fight and end up with nothing. So, I was about to refuse when the Duchess intervened.

“Ascal, saying that out of the blue will only confuse Roki. And suddenly challenging him to a match is impolite.”

The Duchess Freyja said to Ascal. After hearing the Duchess’s words, Ascal just muttered ‘but…’ and didn’t say anything more to me.

As I was about to decline, Freyja, who had been silent since Johanna left, spoke up.

“Having a match… doesn’t sound too bad.”

A foreboding remark flowed from the Marquis’s mouth.

“Isn’t that right? Father also thinks so, doesn’t he?”

“But we invited him, so shouldn’t we show him some courtesy?”

Ascal smiled upon hearing the Marquis’s words, while the Marquis’s wife wore an anxious expression.

“If you win against Ascal in the competition, I will give you the elixir.”

Ascal and the Marquis’s wife, who had shown different reactions just moments ago, now exhibited the same response.

“Darling…”

“Father… Are you saying you won’t just give it to me?”

There was no way an academy student could defeat an imperial knight.

If it had been a regular elixir, I would have gone crazy, but I also had money received from the Emperor, and I knew where dungeons that dropped elixirs were located. I could acquire a high-grade elixir on my own.

Just as I was about to refuse, the Marquis quickly spoke up before me.

“It’s the highest-grade elixir.”

My heart stirred.

“On top of that, I’ll give you a weapon of your choice from the armory.”

My body moved.

I took Ascal’s hand beside me and spoke.

“Lady Ascal.”

“Hmm~. What’ll you do if Johann sees? And calling me ‘Lady’ is so stiff~. Just call me ‘sister’ comfortably.”

Ascal said with a raised corner of her mouth.

“Sister Ascal.”

“Why are you like this?”

But as Ascal heard my continued words, his lips twitched and stopped.

“Can I win in a duel?”

“Hmm~ It feels like you’re saying that if you have the determination, you can defeat me, doesn’t it?”

He was smiling, but his eyes didn’t smile at all.

I asked myself,

“Can I currently defeat Ascal?”

The answer was, ‘There’s a 99% chance I’ll lose.’

“Huh? Do you really think you can defeat me?”

Even so, I worked hard for that 1% chance.

“Well, it doesn’t seem particularly difficult, does it?”

* * *

Duke Freya glanced at Loki, who was talking about this and that to their lovely daughter at the martial arts training ground with his wife.

They had heard about it from Duke Adelian and even the Emperor.

Both of them were teaching Loki.

When Duke Adelian heard that, he got angry, saying that Loki was already his disciple, but the Emperor casually brushed it off.

At that time, Freya didn’t pay much attention.

Because he already had two lovely daughters as his disciples.

But it was yesterday when he started to take interest.

“The Necromancer has appeared again.”

The Emperor contacted through the communication device and said,

It was surprising enough that the Necromancer was alive, but hearing that Johanna had fought with the Necromancer nearly drove him to lose his mind.

The Emperor claimed that it wasn’t the Necromancer she fought, but one of his subordinates, but that didn’t change the fact that his daughter was in danger.

The Emperor insisted that the Necromancer was already dead.

“And the one who single-handedly killed the Necromancer is none other than Loki, whom Jim is training.”

The Emperor spoke as if he was proud, but at that moment, it didn’t quite register.

After ending the call with the Emperor, she immediately contacted Johanna.

When Johanna answered the call shortly after, she seemed unharmed, but something was different.

Her face was flushed, and her eyes seemed dazed, as if remembering something.

“……..Yes?”

Even during the call, she seemed preoccupied and couldn’t respond to questions.

Her companion, who was watching from the side, whispered to her discreetly.

“You have the same expression as when you first saw me, don’t you?”

Upon hearing that, she immediately ordered to bring that guy, but her companion, knowing that she had fought the Necromancer today, suggested inviting him tomorrow instead.

Johanna still nodded absentmindedly.

From the first impression, Loki, brought by Johanna, was not to her liking.

How dare he lie on Johanna’s lap!

If her wife and daughters weren’t there, she might have really snapped.

But there was one thing she liked about him—he stood his ground despite not using mana, which made it impossible to resist his force.

Wearing a mask, his expression was not visible, but it could be discerned that he remained composed.

However, after that………..

“Now, it seems like Johanna is jealous, doesn’t it?”

Freya, who had been recalling the earlier situation, snapped back to attention upon hearing her husband’s words.

“Jealousy! What could our daughter be envious of?”

“Then, what about the time you tried to imprison me for something you were envious of in the past?”

“Well……”

Upon hearing the Duchess’s words, Duke Freyja was taken aback, cold sweat breaking out.

He couldn’t say a word when this story came up.

Even in the Freyja family, known to only a few in the family, there is a secret about the Freyja family.

It is the pathological obsession with lovers.

If the obsession had been moderate, it wouldn’t have been kept a secret.

Because of that obsession, there were times when the family almost disappeared, and even a kingdom was destroyed.

Even the current Duke Freyja prohibited his wife from casually talking to other men until Lady Ascal gave birth.

During the time they were lovers, just because the Duke’s wife spoke with another man, Duke Freyja attempted to overthrow the king of a kingdom.

Fortunately, the nearby emperor noticed and intervened, preventing the worst-case scenario.

With Lady Johanna being born and the obsession nearly disappearing, now, when the Duchess teases the Duke, she brings up stories from those times.

Why the people of the Freyja family have such a characteristic is unknown to anyone.

Only two things have been discovered within the family.

One is when there are siblings.

Among them, only one person exhibits those characteristics.

The remaining one, although lacking in common sense, exhibits a high talent for the sword, and possesses an intense obsession with their lover.

From Noble mtl dot com

Unfortunately for someone, Johann’s talent, known as the talent bestowed by the heavens, easily surpasses the talent of the Marquis Freya.

Although the concept of talent cannot be quantified, if it could, Johann’s talent would be more than double that of Freya’s.

Sadly for someone.