12 – Dark Red Gate (3)
Morphine went back to her house, and Delia and I got into the carriage back to the academy.
Fortunately, Delia’s house was near the academy, so we were able to ride the same carriage.
Even though I make a lot of money these days, riding a carriage alone is a pretty daunting price.
“But isn’t the house price very expensive if you live near the academy? Foxtail, it seems your house is rich?”
“ah… It’s the house my grandfather lived in when he was young, so I inherited it and live there… . Our family doesn’t have a separate territory.”
“Isn’t that before the academy was created?”
“yes that’s right.”
“Your grandfather had a talent for real estate.”
The story of her grandfather had been told by Delia before.
Delia’s grandfather was originally a commoner, but he was promoted as an honorary count of the empire after he made a contribution in the Demon War.
I heard that he was a wizard with outstanding skills, so maybe his son, Professor Bluecliffe, was also deeply versed in magical powers.
In any case, a citizen who was once promoted as an honorary nobleman could continue to pass on the castle to his children, but his children were not treated as nobles.
That was the reason why there was no estate in the family.
Both Delia and Professor Bluecliffe had surnames, but they were not nobles, but ordinary citizens of the Empire.
Rumble- Rumble-
The wagon began to move in earnest.
Unless you hire a really good horse and a coachman, riding in a carriage in general is an extraordinarily difficult task.
This is because the rattling is severe, so if you ride for a long time, your butt hurts, and people who are not used to it often get motion sickness.
It was fine because I was so used to it, but Delia tried to look out of the carriage to see if she was uncomfortable because of motion sickness.
In line with that, I also closed my eyes and went to sleep.
I haven’t slept well since last night because I was preparing a little for today.
Tiredness set in.
“Senior… ”
Then, suddenly, Delia spoke up.
“Did you learn alchemy from your family since childhood?”
“From the family?”
“yes… Seniors are already doing what they learned in high school. I wonder if the family learned that beforehand… .”
To that vague question, I answered with a laugh.
“No, no. You don’t know our house well, do you?”
“… yes?”
“The Philip family has been a family of knights since ancient times. My father was even the vice-captain of the Imperial Guard Knights. Of course I learned to use my body. Not alchemy.”
“ah… !”
Delia seemed completely unaware.
It was something she could not have known because she was an honorary aristocrat, not an orthodox aristocrat formally belonging to aristocratic society.
There were quite a few people among the orthodox aristocrats who did not know about our family, unless they were planning to engage in politics in earnest in the first place.
The Philip family was a family of knights with a deep tradition of the Apelliche Empire.
They were not the founding meritorious subjects who accompanied the empire when it was born, but they were the guardian families of the empire, who had been given surnames and steadily produced knights since the family was founded.
He enlisted numerous talents in the Guard Knights and protected the empire whenever war broke out.
In particular, the confrontation between the warrior and the demon became visible, and the borders between countries collapsed a lot, but the Philip family did not change much.
During wartime when the demon war broke out, he defended the continent, and during peacetime he defended the empire.
Even though the warrior’s degree of freedom increased and the range of occupations became much more diverse, it was still a guardian knight who was loyal to the empire.
Maybe that’s why the nickname given to the family was also ‘the sword of the empire’.
“I learned alchemy by myself. Well, the family didn’t know what kind of talent I would have, so they would have left it alone.”
“Well, then, senpai knows how to wield a sword… ?”
“Oh, of course not. Most freshmen in the swordsmanship department will lose to me, right?”
“… … !”
“sorry. Too pretentious. It’s just not good enough for thugs. Self-defense, self-defense.”
Delia seemed overly surprised, so I corrected her, but in fact, only freshmen in the fencing department could win with a one-handed sword.
Most ordinary people who are selected as heroes enter the academy and receive their first training.
How to use a sword, how to cast magic, what categories of magic are…
Even those who have no basic knowledge can learn everything from scratch through the 4-year undergraduate course.
However, the sons of noble families or famous warriors receive early education from an early age.
It is because of the greed of parents who want to raise their children as geniuses or want to go ahead of other children.
Of course, early education is not bad.
After all, learning ahead of time means being ahead of others.
However, after being selected as a warrior, the growth rate and speed increased dramatically compared to that of ordinary people, so it could not be seen as such an efficient education.
My father, too, must have trained me as a child, thinking that I might be gifted with swordsmanship, that is, as a knight.
Now, I know that it wasn’t a completely wrong prediction, but anyway, I wasn’t interested in swordsmanship back then.
Nonetheless, training had to be done. I am the son of a knight family.
My father’s training was systematic and rigorous.
There was physical training every day except for one day of the week, and there was also a lot of actual combat training to hunt monsters.
After a long training, my skills were able to reach a high level before being selected as a hero.
Seeing that even I, who had no interest in swordsmanship, had grown to that level, it was indeed worthy of the prestige of the family called ‘Imperial Sword’.
I don’t know if my father at the time really intended to raise me as a knight, but I seem to have followed the idea that I shouldn’t disgrace the family’s name.
As a result, my current swordsmanship skills were quite usable.
Perhaps it would be difficult to find an opponent even in the upper grades of the Swordsmanship Department.
Schnika… I don’t know if I can beat
That guy is so strong.
As a weapon, he carried a bastard sword the size of his height, so he said everything.
“and… So, be good at swordsmanship, good at alchemy… You’re really great, senpai… .”
“… … .”
Wouldn’t he be ashamed to say such a thing?
I scratched my head and moved my gaze out of the carriage.
If I told you that I knew how to handle combat magic, I would probably faint.
“Well then, senior… ”
It’s a big deal.
Puppy pool got the day right today.
When Morphine and I talked, the guy who would only say one word at a time is now a storm of questions.
How have you been holding back this curiosity?
I don’t even stutter anymore.
It seemed that everything he had been curious about had been swept away from me.
Tiredness piled up and I really wanted to sleep, but I forced myself to smile in return.
“uh. why?”
“Senior… ”
Delia looked worried for a moment, then looked straight at me.
It was a serious look that was completely different from the light talk earlier.
Her brown eyes shimmered with a strange light.
“Why are you helping me with morphine so much… ? Whatever… It’s someone else.”
It was a sentence of a completely different nature from the questions I had heard before.
like… Like he wants to deny that I helped him with morphine.
I looked into Delia’s eyes.
A look that seems to have lost a lot.
In those eyes that met mine, complex emotions that even she herself did not know were hidden.
The skin of that emotion was as cold as the imperial winter and as empty as a winter lodge.
To my eyes, it looked like it was begging me to look at it.
The answer did not come easily.
If I answered hastily, it seemed like she would get hurt.
I knew that her words contained raw thorns.
It was so easy to see.
A person with a thorn in their heart quickly recognizes a person with another thorn.
She had been pricked by so many thorns that she did not know that her heart was bleeding.
Like the shaking of a rattling wagon, Delia looked precarious.
“I must have felt that I was not someone else.”
He uttered a word with difficulty.
Even as I spit out those words, I pondered countless times.
As for whether this sentence really hurt Delia.
“Since Morphine is my only two juniors. I hope it goes well… because you are mine huh. Neither morphine nor Delia. I wish you both well. I hope you are not sad.”
“… … .”
“My parents… No matter what decision I make, no matter which way I go. They are the only people who silently trust and follow you. What hurts those people… it’s sad scary So I guess that helped. People around me didn’t want that. I didn’t want it to be sad and scary.”
Unbeknownst to me, the four tribes kept sticking.
I tried to talk carefully, but it seemed that there were intentions that I couldn’t convey, so my words kept getting longer.
After those words, there was silence in the carriage for quite a long time.
I don’t know what’s going on with Delia.
She probably won’t be able to speak easily either.
Because deep cuts are hardened for as long as time stopped.
Make sure to read from noble mtl dot com
Just one day after a lot of time has passed.
Make sure to read from noble mtl dot com
Just like the family story I brought up comfortably today, the day will come when she can talk about it casually.
I looked at Delia.
Her face was very disfigured.
Shedding tears like little stars, she looked away from the carriage as if she didn’t want to be found out.
… I already see everything.
It was the same when I heard the story of morphine, and it is the same now.
He was a child with a lot of tears.
Delia, who was teased by me for being a foxtail, now has the crybaby title.
She, too, would want to avoid this nickname.
“finely. Wake me up when I arrive.”
I smiled lightly and closed my eyes to hide the stigma of being a crybaby Delia.