Chapter 46: Revenge (1)
by fnovelpia
I’m sleepy. I hadn’t slept at all last night, working to improve the potion.
As class ended, I headed to the Knight Department building clutching Ian’s duel request letter.
About three weeks had passed since the start of the academy. Most students recognized each other by now, so they gave me strange looks as I walked through, clearly from a different department.
“Ugh…”
No matter how many times I experienced it, I couldn’t get used to those curious stares.
Even during class, my heart felt ready to burst from nerves whenever the teacher called on me to answer or present an assignment.
‘Let’s just deliver this quickly and leave…’
I sped up, peeking into each classroom, but couldn’t find the teacher matching the description I’d been given.
“Um, excuse me…”
Realizing I’d never find him before curfew at this rate, I reluctantly stopped a passing student.
“Me? What is it?”
“Well, do you happen to know where Professor Peter is?”
“Huh? I do, but why do you…”
“I’m running an errand. I have some documents to deliver but don’t know where he is.”
“Oh, if that’s the case…”
He kindly informed me that the professor should be training in the 5th training ground right now.
“Thank you.”
I gave a quick bow and headed in the direction he indicated.
Unlike the other training grounds I’d passed, this one seemed to be used by Professor Peter alone – there were no signs of other people.
As I approached, I heard strange popping sounds that I couldn’t quite describe.
When I opened the door to the 5th training ground, a blast of hot air hit me despite being indoors.
“Ugh…”
Instinctively closing my eyes against the summer-like heat, I shielded my face with my hand and slowly opened them again.
At first I thought a window must be open, but all the windows were tightly shut.
Raising my head in confusion, I saw an old man holding an enormous hammer, his upper body bare.
With short white hair and scars covering his body – likely from battlefields – he was clearly a veteran warrior.
Among the scars, one looked fresh. Could that be the wound Ian inflicted?
Peter von Fortress.
This man, once a commander in the Royal Knights, set down his hammer and approached me.
“Hmm… You don’t seem to be from the Knight Department. Do you have some business with me?”
I never intended to hide it, but he saw through me at a glance. It was an unpleasant feeling, as if he’d instantly grasped everything about me just by looking.
“W-well… This…”
Eager to leave as soon as possible, I pulled out the duel request letter and handed it to him.
“…What’s this?”
He received the letter but didn’t open it, instead standing still and asking me.
“It’s… a duel request.”
“…A duel? You’re challenging me?”
When Professor Peter looked at me like I was insane, I shook my head so hard I thought my neck might snap.
“Not me! It’s from Ian!! He told me to deliver this!!”
“Ian… seems that lunatic hasn’t learned his lesson even after being disciplined.”
Saying that, he opened the letter and read the duel request. Then with a deep sigh, he crumpled it up.
“Haah…”
Seeing Professor Peter’s face crumple as much as the letter, I could guess the contents.
“Um… Are you going? To the duel…”
“If it were up to me, I’d like nothing more than to smash that brat’s head in right now, but…”
“But?”
“A teacher can’t fight a student he’s supposed to be instructing. I’m sorry, but tell him I refuse this duel.”
“What?!”
This wouldn’t do. I’d stayed up all night improving the potion – I couldn’t miss this chance to test my new drug.
“Wait!!”
Before I realized what I was doing, I’d called out to stop Professor Peter.
With a clearly annoyed attitude, he let out a deep sigh and slowly turned back to me.
“What now-“
As Professor Peter turned, I spat in his face.
Though he could have easily dodged from that distance, the situation was so unexpected that the spit landed squarely on his cheek.
“…Have you lost your mind?”
“N-no! Ian told me to do this!! He said to do this if you refused the duel…”
“That bastard did?”
Of course, Ian had said no such thing, but even if he knew what I’d done, he’d probably encourage it further.
‘This duel has nothing to do with honor, so Professor Peter has plenty of reason to refuse…’
There was only one way to handle this. Just like when he first dueled Ian, I had to make him angry enough to lose his reason.
“Ian said… that Professor Peter is all talk, a coward who uses barbaric weapons like hammers, so this much is fine…”
“Ugh…!!”
Professor Peter’s face turned red, his hand trembling as he reached for his hammer.
Realizing this ridiculous idea was working, I continued:
“And… I’m not sure if I should say this, but…”
“…I won’t get angry at you, so go ahead and speak.”
“Well… Ian said Professor Peter wasn’t retired, but was kicked out of the knights for being old and weak… And about the other knights…”
“…The other knights?”
“…He said it’s obvious what kind of people would serve under an old man like you… That they must all be losers.”
“……”
The air trembled.
The room temperature seemed to drop by 5 degrees, a cold murderous intent piercing my body in stark contrast to the heat from earlier.
Judging by this reaction, it was worth the effort to think of things Ian might plausibly say.
“…Should I tell him you won’t duel?”
“…No.”
Shaking his head, Professor Peter picked up the hammer from the floor and said:
“…Tell him I’ll definitely come, so he’d better write his will and wait.”
“…Alright.”
Phew, mission accomplished!
For a knight, this guy is surprisingly simple-minded!
“Haah…”
After returning from the forge, I was practicing sword draws alone under a tree in preparation for the upcoming duel.
I hadn’t brought a watch, but judging by the red-tinged sky, it was well past when the academy would have ended for the day.
‘It should be about time…’
I’d told Hori about this place too, so whether Peter accepted or refused the duel, they should be arriving soon.
But what if he refused the duel?
Unlike other knights, that underhanded political schemer Peter was fully capable of doing so.
I was considering whether to just cut him down during practice, disguising it as an accident, when-
“Ian!!”
In the distance, Hori was running towards me like a child, holding something in one hand.
“Hah… hah…”
Despite her poor stamina, Hori had sprinted all the way here. As soon as she reached me, she doubled over, panting heavily.
“Why are you in such a rush?”
“Well… um… here…!!”
Still gasping for breath, Hori handed me a strange-colored potion bottle.
‘…What the hell is this?’
The murky color, like all paints mixed together, made it hard to believe it was meant for human consumption.
Oblivious to my thoughts, Hori proudly showed me the potion, saying:
“I improved it all last night! If you drink this before the duel, your physical abilities will increase dramatically!”
“Really? You ran all this way just to show me this?”
I examined the potion bottle closely, but even as a science student, I couldn’t tell what effects it might have just from its appearance.
“…Are you sure this is safe to drink?”
“Yes! It’s fine! I made it strawberry flavored so it’ll be easy to drink!”
“Strawberry flavor?”
How could something this color taste like strawberries?
“I’m not asking about the taste. This doesn’t have any serious side effects, right?”
“…You only live once, so don’t worry about minor details.”
“Whose life are we talking about here? It’s mine, not yours.”
While I wasn’t particularly attached to living, I at least wanted to avoid the foolish death of drinking something that looked so obviously poisonous.
“Anyway, you’re absolutely sure this is safe?”
“Of course! Do you really think I’d give you poison?”
To be honest, after seeing those research notes on her desk, I didn’t have much faith in anything this girl said.
This suspicious lead-colored potion was surely accompanied by severe after-effects.
“……”
Leaving aside the risks, I disliked relying on drugs. But I would drink this potion anyway.
What did it matter if I was labeled a drug user or if my lifespan shortened, if it meant I could use even more powerful sword techniques?
“And… I have one more request. Can I come along to watch your duel?”
As I reluctantly pocketed the potion, Hori asked this.
“To the duel site? I don’t mind, but why…?”
“I think I can get better data by observing up close! I’ll hide in the back if I’m in the way, so please let me come!”
“…I don’t really care, but can you make another one of these potions?”
“Huh? Why…?”
“Why do you think?”
Two test subjects are better than one for gathering data. Shouldn’t an alchemist know that?
The time has finally come to righteously punish that fraud of a political knight and elevate the status of Baldo.
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