Ch.101Milia is Gullible

As time passes, all things are gradually forgotten.

Like the foam of raindrops falling into a stagnant puddle, disappearing without a trace when you look away.

The annihilation of a viscount’s family was no different.

A house that no longer held any influence or meaning after its downfall.

It didn’t take long for people’s interest to fade away.

The Empire remained peaceful.

On the surface.

Like books in a library slowly discoloring with age, change always comes from unseen corners.

The signs were already visible.

Reports of monster appearances, once barely occurring once a month, had happened five times this month alone.

A small village on the Empire’s outskirts was completely destroyed by mixed remains.

A spider-bird that appeared at the Panam border was eliminated after claiming two hundred casualties.

The guardians of Alvheim were occasionally observed near the border.

In the north, the once-routine werebeast attacks had completely disappeared.

Something had changed. How many could sense this premonition?

At least the system hadn’t noticed yet.

But transformation had already begun.

Slowly. Little by little.

Irreversibly.

The cup fills.

Until it overflows, just one more drop.

—-

“Dispatch assistant?”

Frider, who was helping train Millia, turned toward me.

I caught my greatsword that had been dancing in the air and thrust it into the garden floor, waiting for Demian to get up after I had sent him flying.

“Yes, the academy’s newly changed policy. Have you heard about it?”

“I know about it, but why?”

Millia ducked to avoid Frider’s wooden sword and rolled across the ground after a following kick.

Dirt clung to her green hair.

She barely blocked it with her bow, but her unstable posture prevented her from fully deflecting it.

“I need help with that. Demian and Millia both need training focused on real combat situations now, don’t they?”

“Real combat… I suppose that’s true.”

Virtual experience lectures are useful, but… they only increase combat experience without accumulating the truly important karma.

Demian charged toward me and scattered a handful of dirt he was holding.

So he’s resorting to such cheap tricks now.

Has he abandoned his pride after getting beaten so many times?

I swung my outstretched hand sideways.

A strong wind swept up the brown particles and blew them away.

Getting hit by such things wouldn’t really hinder me, but having dirt stuck to my face would be somewhat unpleasant.

Meanwhile, Demian grabbed the handle of the greatsword I had planted in the ground and pulled it out.

With legs spread wide and waist twisted back elastically, he swung the greatsword in a powerful slash.

A heavy sound of cutting air drew an arc.

I placed my left hand on the back of my wooden sword and blocked the incoming greatsword head-on.

The impact made the surrounding grass lie flat, and a dull metallic sound rang in my ears.

The wooden blade shattered instantly, causing the iron core forming its frame to collide.

Splintered wood fragments flew in all directions.

My body was pushed back slightly.

About 2cm, that is.

“Keuuugh…!”

Demian, gritting his teeth, retrieved his greatsword.

Not trying to overpower me was a good decision.

It wouldn’t have worked anyway.

That said, these wooden swords seem increasingly pointless…

They break with each exchange.

It might be better to request hardening fluid for practice from the academy and use real swords instead.

While deflecting the continuous attacks from his greatsword, I continued my conversation with Frider.

“If we send them below average second-year students, most of them are weaker than Demian. It would be useless.”

“Well, second-years are just regular students. They’re newcomers who’ve just stepped into knighthood.”

Even Demian at enrollment could have beaten a decent second-year.

Now he could defeat most of them.

Growing impatient, Demian pulled his greatsword back and twisted his body greatly.

Wrong decision, Demian. And I was just giving you credit.

Didn’t I tell you before?

When facing an opponent faster than yourself, don’t rashly attempt large attacks.

I kicked his side and sent him flying.

Demian bounced like a ball and sprawled on the ground, coughing.

“So anyway, you’ll have to do dispatch missions too, right? Take us with you then. Demian, Millia, and me.”

Demian and I, Ophelia and Lena. And Millia.

These were the basic party members I had in mind.

It would be perfect if Asha, Frider, or Lacy joined us…

But these three probably couldn’t move around freely due to their status and roles.

For now, we’d have to start with just the three of us.

Lena’s skills were still insufficient for proper combat, and Ophelia was busy plotting to harm her sister.

“You want to join the dispatch too? Including you might make the team too powerful.”

Frider quickly swung his wooden sword to deflect Millia’s arrows.

Broken arrows rained down.

“That’s true. But thinking ahead, I need to build more fame for myself.”

That was the first step in bringing down Isabella.

I didn’t have a direct way to touch her yet.

If I raised my sword against the Empire’s empress without solid evidence…

I might be branded a traitor and become an enemy of the Empire.

So for now, I needed to apply maximum pressure until Isabella, growing anxious, made her move.

She might have hidden the shadows of her evil deeds well until now, but… when something grows too large, it can’t hide in the shadows.

Eventually, Isabella’s true face would show itself.

Isabella must know that I support Leopold.

The more my fame rises and my strength grows, the more pressure she’ll feel.

“True, you need to raise your fame somehow. Especially after adding another infamous reputation recently?”

“……”

Frider let out a light snort at my silence.

I’ll ignore that.

Even I couldn’t make excuses for that incident.

I’d need some memory to explain, but from the situation alone, it looked like I beat a drunk troublemaker to death.

“Haaaaaaah!”

“There you go again. Don’t recklessly leap when facing people.”

I threw my wooden sword at the jumping Demian, knocking him down.

He crashed to the ground and rolled.

Really, this guy loves jumping despite not having wings.

Still, his skills have improved a lot.

In the past, he wouldn’t have been able to block and would have been pierced through.

“It should be fine. There’s an overflow of dispatch requests lately with the increasing monster appearances.”

Grabbing Millia by the collar and slamming her to the ground, Frider readily agreed.

I lit a cigarette with the unconscious boy and girl as my background.

I offered one to Frider, but he refused.

They dislike mana herbs in the north?

Well, the flame and smell would make them easily detectable to werebeasts.

—-

Frider soon headed toward the main building.

While on the subject, he said he would register the three of us as his auxiliary force right away.

I informed Demian and Millia about this after they woke up shortly after.

“Dispatch missions… will I be able to do well?”

Unlike Demian, who nodded without hesitation, Millia seemed a bit anxious.

Perhaps she was still bothered by her inability to defeat that troll recently.

“With your skills, you shouldn’t be in much danger. Besides, Frider or I will be going along.”

Most monsters appearing in the early stages could be easily subjugated even by someone at Demian’s current level, as long as they were properly prepared.

“Besides…”

I leaned close to Millia’s ear and lowered my voice.

So Demian couldn’t hear.

“You want to stay with Demian, right? Then you need to improve your skills and always stay by his side. Usually, married warriors… often end up with female comrades they fought alongside. If you’re separated, he might be taken by another woman.”

Millia’s face turned bright red.

“T-that… Demian wouldn’t…”

“Millia. Think about it. No one knows how things will turn out. Look at Frider, saying he’ll take a man who can overwhelm multiple werebeast champions as his son-in-law… If Demian becomes that strong, who knows what might happen? I really don’t know. Do you, Millia?”

I shrugged while painting a plausible future.

Perhaps imagining Demian as the northern duke’s son-in-law, Millia’s eyes trembled. Almost pitifully so.

“If you don’t want to lose to some random newcomer, you’ll have to work hard, right? I’m rooting for you, Millia, and I’ll keep helping you, so just trust me.”

“Yes. Thanks, Haschal. I need to stay strong.”

My sincere concern seemed to resonate with her, as Millia nodded firmly, as if making a promise to herself.

That’s good.

“What are you two whispering about? Just the two of you.”

Demian approached us, perhaps finding our behavior strange.

“Well, that’s…”

“It’s something that shouldn’t be told to an insensitive man.”

I drew the line for Demian, telling him not to be curious, as Millia stumbled over her words, finding it difficult to answer.

If it were a proper confession of affection, that would be different, but Millia didn’t seem to want her feelings revealed unintentionally like this.

She has such a frustrating personality.

That’s probably why she couldn’t properly confess and just suffered in silence until she lost him.

“Oh, like secret girl talk?”

Demian nodded as if he understood.

“I saw girls doing that back home too. Whenever I asked what they were talking about, they’d run away saying it was something they couldn’t tell me. Is that just how girls are?”

Did this guy leave his awareness in his mother’s womb?

I can understand why the kind-hearted Millia fell from grace in the original story.

With that handsome face, I can guess how many girls he’s unconsciously seduced since childhood.