7. Jealousy is my strength (35)
The appearance of the swordsman who hurriedly visited was not good.
It was around the time I met the emperor that I noticed the hint. The old man’s face showed a vague look of concern and anguish.
Of course, it was something I didn’t pay much attention to at first.
Right now, the apex of the empire came out to personally greet a knight. At that point, I was already on the verge of cardiac arrest.
It didn’t even take a split second until my knee hit the ground.
“Ian of House Percus greets the Emperor!”
“Stop, stop.”
However, despite my sincere courtesy, the emperor only waved his hand. His eyes, tinged with faint boredom, revealed his true intentions.
“There is no need to be so polite when others are not looking. There will be many things to see your face in the future, are you going to get down on your knees and say thank you every time?”
“Haona… … .”
“Think of it as a neighborhood uncle. If I hadn’t been born with dragon blood anyway, I would have lived a life like that too.”
It seems sincere.
Even so, I couldn’t get up and just hesitated. Didn’t you grow up listening to these words since you were young enough to remember?
The Emperor of the Empire is the Most High.
All subjects’ lives exist for the Emperor. Because the emperor was the empire itself.
In other words, loyalty to the emperor was the same as patriotism.
So, as a knight of the empire, I had no choice but to reap an example.
The emperor easily overcame this difficulty.
“… … Hwang Myeong.”
Not many could resist that voice mixed with sighs.
At least in the Empire, it would be worth counting on one hand.
Eventually I had to keep my head down.
“I will respect your will, Your Majesty.”
When I straightened my knees and raised myself up, the emperor showed a rather satisfied look.
Questions continued after that.
“So, what’s going on at this late hour? I know it’s been quite a while since the sun went down.”
“Yes, nothing else… I needed the help of an elderly swordsman, so I took the risk to visit you like this.”
“It must be urgent.”
It was an assertion, not a counterargument.
The emperor seemed to have inferred the approximate circumstances to the extent of sneakily examining my mood.
A long sigh leaked from his mouth, which seemed to hesitate for a moment.
“Well, the uncle now… nope It’s a waste of time to delay because there is an urgent situation.”
The place they arrived at after receiving the emperor’s happy guidance was a place they had visited before.
swordsmith’s room.
There, a rare scene was being created where a girl was blowing a bottle with a solo drink.
“Kuh, Shiena… I’m sorry for being an ugly old lady… … .”
It was a line that didn’t quite match his appearance.
Even the drink he was holding wasn’t even wine. At first glance, I thought it might be whiskey.
In fact, getting drunk was no problem for a strong swordsman. Even if it’s only me right now, if I put my mind to it, I can drive away all the drunkenness.
Even so, a blush appeared on the girl’s cheeks, and it was a yard where the smell of alcohol wafted all the way to the door.
It seemed difficult to deny that the girl was drunk.
I wouldn’t have intentionally driven out the drunkenness.
Seeing my bewildered eyes, the emperor put on a distressed expression and placed a hand on his forehead.
“It’s the drink I’ve been hiding… … .”
For some reason, he seemed depressed today.
I quickly understood the reason for the emperor’s displeasure. At the same time, a new feeling of helplessness invaded my heart.
A drunken swordsman.
Even when he was sane, he was a free-spirited person who didn’t know where he might run. Even the power of one god was to the extent of competing for the best on the continent, so no matter how much the country was, there was no choice but to be reluctant to touch it.
But I had to go.
Because Seria will be waiting for me.
I swallowed a dry saliva and took a step.
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Just because he was a swordsman, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed my presence.
Finally, when I entered the room, the swordsman asked me without looking back.
“… … What is it?”
It was a word that smelled like alcohol.
The swordsman’s eyes were half-closed as he tilted the bottle again. A girl who still had a hint of youthfulness was doing it, so I felt somewhat criminal.
On the other hand, I felt sorry for my slender, drooping shoulders.
I chose my words carefully so as not to offend the swordsman.
“I, the old swordsman… We have obtained important intelligence related to vampires. Let’s go together.”
“What is the source?”
Concerned that someone might not belong to the Imperial Intelligence Service, the girl questioned the reliability of the information from me.
Unfortunately, it was also something I couldn’t answer carelessly.
After a moment of hesitation, a voice filled with determined will leaked out of my mouth.
“Actually, I don’t know. That’s why it’s better to have an elderly swordsman accompany you in case of an unexpected situation… … .”
“hate.”
It was a firm answer.
I turned my gaze behind my back, sweating profusely at the unexpectedly stubborn attitude.
However, the emperor who met my eyes only shook his head.
I meant to figure it out.
It seemed that even the emperor could not control the stubborn swordsmith. I cursed inwardly, and had to carefully open my mouth.
“Well, if you ask why… … .”
“… … Why!”
It was at that point that the swordsman suddenly raised his voice.
With a bang, the table made of reddish-brown hardwood was smashed and collapsed. Even so, Pom, who did not let go of the bottle in his hand, deserved to know where the emperor’s drinking habit was inherited.
The girl couldn’t hold back her anger and was trembling.
“Do you know how much humiliation I suffered just for one day?! Even if you misunderstand, it’s up to you, I’m going with you again. What do you want me to hear? Poetry, even my niece and granddaughter… Me, calling me a ‘bitch’… … .”
The girl’s pupils and hands trembled as she muttered.
It was proof that the shock and fear of that time hadn’t gone away yet. It seemed clear that Shien’s fainting had dealt a serious blow to the swordsman’s spirit.
It didn’t take long for the girl’s shoulders to droop after raising her voice in tears.
The swordsman muttered with a tearful face.
“Ugh, I hate it now… Sheen, sheen… big… … ”
And then, the drinking bottle tilted again.
Clap clack, the sound of the girl emptying all the remaining alcohol from the bottle resounded. To drink half of the remaining alcohol at once.
No matter how much you talk, it must be hard to bear.
Inadvertently, I reached out and tried to stop the girl, but it was too late.
All that was left was to pay the price.
The girl’s eyes went blank for a moment as she said “Kheu” and wiped her lips vigorously.
and after a few seconds.
“… … No, am I really a ‘swordsmith’?”
It was so out of the blue.
I wasn’t the only one who was taken aback by the change of heart of the girl who claimed to be a ‘swordsmith’ even if she died soon.
The fact that the emperor opened his mouth before me was proof of that.
“No, uncle. What kind of blasphemy is that? If not your uncle, who is a swordsman?”
“no no… look at that my body? is it too small huh? Even if you lift your tiptoe, it goes over your shoulder a little, right?”
Reason evaporated in the eyes of the girl who was floundering like that.
Looking at it, I instinctively realized.
Dangerous.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down my back.
“Actually, in fact, maybe I was mistaken? yes, what is it… Ian, did you say that? A psychopath who misunderstands himself as a swordsman? that, that, that… That’s it~”
“Puch,” a clear laugh added at the end of his words. While stuttering, the girl somehow managed to finish her words, and there was a deliberately pleasant expression on her face.
As if she had finally realized it, the girl raised her arms with a big smile.
“Yeah, actually I wasn’t a swordsman!”
It was the attitude that he had given a clear answer in his own way, but it was not me and the emperor to see.
The two of us immediately flagged and shouted.
“No, are you crazy?!”
“Uncle, uncle! Calm down! Who else but your uncle handles the new sword!”
However, despite the desperate persuasion of the two of us, the girl only snorted.
“Heh, I hate to hear it! Then, a slut hears that her nephew calls her a ‘bitch’… Do not be ridiculous!!”
The sight of him screaming and stomping his feet seemed very displeased.
Do I have to wait until I wake up like this?
It was around the time that despair crossed my face.
“… … Wonder Ian!”
At the topic raised by the emperor, the eyes of the girl and I simultaneously turned to the emperor.
Our gazes were opposite.
I had a look that I couldn’t understand at all, while the girl’s face looked even more indifferent at first glance.
It’s like saying something once.
The emperor hastily concocted a lie.
“Sir Ian said he wanted to fight against his uncle.”
“… … Hmm?”
Then, the drunk girl’s gaze sneaked up on me.
I swear it was something I had never said before. Doesn’t it mean that I don’t have a survival instinct?
Dalian also had to be at a certain level, and there was a risk of getting seriously injured while fighting a sword with a monster like that.
But what can I do?
Receiving the emperor’s earnest gaze, I decided to swallow my tears.
“Yes, it is as you say! I wondered if I could learn a lot if I competed with a swordsman… … .”
and silence.
The girl said ‘Hmm, hmm?’ I groaned and tilted my head a few times.
The silence was not long.
A loud bang echoed across the back. It was because the girl’s palm hit my back.
I didn’t even know it was coming.
I groaned, trying to swallow the welling blood and averted my eyes.
There, a girl who had lost all of her drunkenness was bursting into laughter.
“hahahahaha! Man, if you wanted to compete with swords like that, you should have said it earlier! come, come… Shall we start right now?!”
“No, I have somewhere I need to go right away!”
As I jumped and jumped at the pain that pierced my spine, my throat vomited in resentment.
“And what is it? Just a few seconds ago, she claimed to be a ‘girl’… … !”
It was then.
The sensation of something tapping, tapping and passing through the uvula.
Intuition immediately straightened my body. Beads of sweat formed on my tense forehead.
My stiff gaze slowly turned downward.
There, a girl with a shadowy smile was seated.
“Little boy… … .”
It was an unreasonable treatment, but I had no choice but to swallow my dry saliva.
“… … fall behind?”
Because self-esteem is not a law that only applies to Mother Nature.
It was fortunate that the emperor understood my feelings.
At the end, the Emperor threw a pitying gaze and patted my shoulder.
“… … suffer.”
Instead of answering, I had no choice but to let out a sigh.
But who would have known.
The fact that the real trouble was not the swordsman.
And a few minutes after that.
Finally, the swordsmith and I were able to face Seria.
“Turn off, uh… aaagh!”
A girl crying with blood dripping from her wrists.
In front of him stood a gray-haired woman who wiped her mouth with a blood-soaked sleeve.