Chapter 94: Demon Sword Meeting (1)

‘What was she getting at with those words?’

An arranged marriage meeting – a familiar concept for ordinary nobles, but for me, who until recently was just a rural baronet, it was completely foreign.

While I pondered whether there was some hidden intent or if I should take the words at face value, I felt a heated gaze from beside me.

“…”

Jessica, the owner of that gaze, was glaring at me with a complex expression mixing bewilderment and anger, as if even she didn’t know why she was so upset.

Deliberately ignoring Jessica’s intense stare, I turned back to Rain and said:

“As far as I know, there’s been no talk of that yet.”

My mother might have received a marriage proposal, but to my knowledge, there had been no such discussion.

Even if there had been, since I’m the head of the family, it would all end if I refused.

“That’s good then. This is still before informing the head of the family, that is, my father and sister, so nothing’s been decided yet… but would you perhaps consider meeting my sister, the future Sword Saint?”

“…What?”

I had a feeling this might be coming when she mentioned an arranged meeting, but hearing it directly was still quite shocking.

To me, the future Sword Saint was merely one of the stepping stones I needed to overcome to prove that Baldo was the strongest sword technique.

So when a family member of that stepping stone asked if I’d consider meeting them for marriage, I was considerably taken aback.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one surprised by Rain’s words. Jessica, who had been quietly listening beside me, shouted with a look of disbelief:

“Lady Rain!! Have you lost your mind?! Trying to set up this lunatic with the future Sword Saint… no, with your own sister!!”

“…I’m aware that there are some… no, many issues with his mental state. But his strength, at least, is worthy of recognition.”

As words that could be either insults or compliments were exchanged, I thought this might actually be a good opportunity.

Because a marriage meeting with the Sword Saint family was different from ordinary ones – the potential matches would fight each other.

According to the original story, anyone who would become the partner of the future Sword Saint, regardless of gender, must duel with them.

Of course, they didn’t necessarily have to win, but they needed to at least achieve a draw or receive an evaluation of “lost, but fought well” to barely establish an engagement.

‘Even if I meet the future Sword Saint, if I don’t like her, I can just make up an excuse and refuse…’

If I did that, the current Sword Saint might challenge me to a duel in anger for rejecting his daughter.

Since no specific marriage proposal had come in yet, and no matter how I thought about it, this couldn’t be bad for me, I decided to agree readily.

“I don’t mind having a marriage meeting.”

“What did you say?!”

For some reason, Jessica was surprised, while Rain nodded with a somewhat disgruntled expression.

“I see… But first, we need to get father’s permission, and then wait for my sister to return from her training journey, so…”

“You mean don’t spread this around until then, right? Got it. But if we do end up getting married, what happens to the family name?”

If I became a son-in-law, the Barthow family would disappear, and conversely, if she came into our family as a daughter-in-law, the Sword Saint family would lose their future head.

When I asked how this issue would be resolved, her answer was surprisingly simple.

“You don’t need to worry about that. Even if you two marry, my sister will still be the head of the Sword Saint family, and Lord Ian will be the head of the Barthow family. If a child is born later with the Sword Saint’s blessing, you just need to hand them over to the Sword Saint family.”

The Sword Saint’s blessing – a special blessing that appears only in those who strongly inherit the blood of the Sword Saint family. While possessing this blessing isn’t a qualification for being the Sword Saint, all past Sword Saints were born with it.

From the novel’s description, it gives a sense of intimidation to others, so I guessed she didn’t have the Sword Saint’s blessing.

Even if she did, the difference in our abilities might be too great for me to notice it.

“But can I ask one more important thing?”

“If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.”

“Does your sister have big tits?”

“…”

“…”

The cold gazes of both women pierced me. But when choosing a marriage partner, breasts were just as important as the waist, which is crucial when using Baldo.

Jessica and Rain, being women, might not understand, but any man who isn’t a pedophile would sympathize with my words.

“Are they big? Small?”

“…I think they’re on the larger side.”

“How much? About this big?”

I pointed to Jessica’s voluptuous chest next to me, and Jessica narrowed her eyes and slapped my hand away.

“Don’t drag my chest into this vulgar topic.”

“Chest? No need to be roundabout, just say breasts…”

“Shut up!! Unlike you, I don’t want to talk about this subject!!”

“Ahem!!”

Thinking the conversation might drag on, Rain cleared her throat loudly to draw attention.

“It’s hard to compare precisely due to height differences, but they’re similar to Miss Jessica’s. However… my sister is shorter than me and has a youthful face, so it gives an impression of… slight imbalance…”

“Even better.”

“…I see.”

Somehow, even though I was praising her sister, Rain looked at me with an expression of disgust.

“Well then… when I get in touch with my sister, I’ll relay today’s conversation.”

Leaving those words, Rain left the classroom, saying she was going to get some water.

“…”

“…”

After Rain left, only a heavy silence lingered in the classroom, and all that passed between us was not words, but heated gazes that bordered on hostility.

When I turned to look at Jessica, who was sending me a fervent gaze, she quickly turned her head away as if nothing had happened.

Thinking that if I kept staring at Jessica without turning away, our eyes might meet the next time she turned back, I stayed still. Sure enough, a moment later, my eyes met Jessica’s as she turned her head.

“Ugh…!”

While Jessica was making a strange sound in surprise at our eyes meeting, I asked her:

“Jessica, are you upset because I said I’d go to a marriage meeting?”

“…Stop talking nonsense and look ahead.”

As she said that and turned her head, I thought I saw her pupils tremble ever so slightly.

Several days had passed since Rain’s suggestion, and finally, the class change exam arrived. But while everyone else was busy, I alone was completely free.

Although I had come to school, I was exempted from the exam, so I had nothing to do. Marina had given me free time.

Taking advantage of this time, I decided to deal with the pending issue of repairing the mansion and the alchemy workshop. I sat on a bench, waiting for Hori.

Hori should still have been taking her exam, but she had said she only needed about 10 minutes for the test. However, it had already been an hour, and she still hadn’t shown up.

‘Was the test that difficult?’

Even I, usually quite lenient, was starting to get annoyed after waiting for an hour. Just then, I saw Hori coming out of the building with other students in the distance.

“Ian!! I’m sorry I’m late!!”

“Didn’t you say 10 minutes would be enough? Why are you so late?”

“Well… I finished the test itself in 10 minutes, but the teacher wouldn’t let us leave…”

I heard it was to prevent cheating using magic, but it was quite ridiculous that the kingdom’s top academy couldn’t even prevent student cheating and had to resort to such measures.

Then again, considering the academy’s security level, which was as loose as a non-virgin’s thighs, it might be the right approach.

“Do you think you did well on the test?”

“Yes! Unlike tomorrow’s practical exam, the theory was mostly simple memorization or concentration calculations, so it was nothing!”

Seeing her smirk while saying it was nothing compared to the entrance exam, Hori seemed quite confident.

“Then shall we go… I’m telling you in advance, don’t ask for unnecessarily expensive equipment.”

“Come on… You have plenty of money, can’t you just be generous?”

“Is it your money? Besides, I don’t have that much to spare because of the territory reconstruction.”

Because of that, I had to painfully give up on the Baldo statue I was planning to erect in the garden.

“I’ll try to meet your demands as much as possible, but don’t go overboard to the point where we need to rebuild the entire workshop. Got it?”

Hori nodded with a dissatisfied expression, and together we visited one of the many construction offices in the academy.

There were many villas built by high-ranking nobles in the academy, so there were several shops to manage and repair them.

The place we visited today was originally the office that managed the mansion when the Ponpon mother and daughter were away, and it was also the office that built the mansion hundreds of years ago.

“Um… According to this alchemist’s requirements, the budget would be about this much. Would that be alright?”

The budget shown by the employee was an amount that would have been impossible for me before, but now I could barely afford it.

This office, or rather, no office in the academy could provide the shachihoko to decorate the roof, so the budget had increased significantly. I nodded readily.

“Wow!! Ian, I love you!!”

“Don’t say such creepy things. So now we just need to get the equipment and furniture for inside, right?”

“Yes!! I have a store in mind for that!!”

After ordering dozens of tools from the store Hori had in mind, which were similar yet dissimilar to real-world scientific instruments, the sky had turned dark by the time we were ready to return.

“It’s a bit late…”

Looking at the clock, even if we left right now, considering the distance to the dormitory, we would arrive around dawn.

“Our house is closer from here, so stay over tonight. I’ll give you a room.”

“Okay! Then I’ll take you up on that offer tonight!”

Since there might be times like this when experiments or potion-making run late, it might be good to give her a room outright.

As I was thinking this while heading towards the mansion, suddenly my body rang an alarm bell, and chills began to run down my spine.

“Hori!!”

I quickly grabbed Hori and stepped back greatly, and dozens of daggers that glowed yellow as if reflecting lamplight stuck into the ground.

“Ian!! What’s that?!”

“An enemy. Huh…?”

As if they were made of magic, the daggers stuck in the ground made a strange sound and then shattered like a cup dropped on the floor.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“…Sword pervert…!!”

“…?”

Did that bastard just say what I think he said?