Chapter 50: Wolf Fang (1)
by fnovelpia
“You and I have some unfinished business, don’t we?”
Leaving the unconscious Hori behind, I approached Peter, who was still lying on the ground unable to get up.
Peter didn’t struggle or try to rise, but waited for me to come with his eyes closed, like someone who had given up.
And when I stood right next to him, Peter opened his eyes and said to me.
“Kill me.”
“I don’t want to.”
If it had just ended at the duel, that would be one thing, but if I actually killed him, Marina would certainly try to expel me from the academy by any means necessary.
And above all, Peter was the only one who could correct that insulting Baldo rumor rampant in the academy.
“I don’t need something like the neck of a dying old man. What I want instead is for you to correct that rumor you spread.”
Those who tie the knot must untie it.
Just as that saying goes, rumors too must be untangled by the person who caused them.
“…You, do you seriously think I spread that rumor?!”
“Whether you spread it or not isn’t important.”
Knowing that a false rumor related to oneself has spread and not correcting it is tantamount to endorsing the spread of that rumor.
This was especially true if the rumor was advantageous to oneself.
“I under disciplinary action, so I didn’t have the chance to correct the rumor myself.”
“So… are you telling me to stand in the academy square and shout out that I actually lost?”
“No, that alone wouldn’t be enough.”
I whispered in Peter’s ear what I had been thinking since before coming here.
“…You want me to do such a thing?”
Peter’s expression contorted more severely than when he had suffered the potion’s side effects.
“Why are you so surprised? Don’t you think that’s the least you should do to correct the rumor spread throughout the academy?!”
He dared to spread false rumors that the loser had defeated Baldo.
Originally, he should have been skinned alive, hung on a pole, and forced to apologize with his crimes engraved on the flayed skin.
I should be thanked for letting him off with just this much.
“Are you out of your mind…! If I did such a thing, Headmaster Marina wouldn’t stand idle…!!”
“That’s for me to deal with. It’s not your concern.”
I was already irritated that that ice b*tch had interfered with the duel, but if she tried to mess with me, all the better.
“But…!! I can’t do it!!”
Peter’s body trembled violently, even though he hadn’t shaken when he thought I was going to kill him earlier.
“My…! It’s a matter of my family’s honor!! I’d rather die than do such a thing!!”
“This is absurd…. What, honor? Is it honorable to refuse the legitimate demand of the duel’s victor for the sake of your own honor?”
“Then with my life…!!”
“I’m the winner of this duel. I’m the one who gets to decide what to demand, not you.”
At those words, even Peter, the brazen political knight, seemed to have nothing to say and just gritted his teeth in frustration.
“You accepted the duel and you lost it. But now that you’ve lost, you don’t want to comply because your and your family’s status will fall?”
“T-That’s…!!”
“If the situation were reversed, this conversation wouldn’t even have started. My head would be flying and you’d just return to the academy.”
It was nonsensical for me, a Baldo practitioner, to lose to someone who merely wields a hammer, but I too had bet my life.
I fought betting something precious, though not as valuable as Baldo, which is the one and only thing that if lost, everything would be over.
“Yet you can’t comply with the victor’s demand, who fought betting his life, just for the sake of your and your family’s honor?”
“……”
“I’m truly disappointed. I even want to take back calling you a political knight in the duel challenge.”
A political knight is at least a knight, but the current Peter wasn’t even that.
Even though knights are inferior versions of warriors, isn’t this too much?
Peter’s face, which had been looking frustrated until just now, was now distorted with shame.
Watching that scene, I inwardly smiled with satisfaction and turned my steps towards the unconscious Hori.
“Do as you please, whether you follow my demand or not. I don’t expect anything from you anymore.”
With those final words, I picked up the unconscious Hori without sparing Peter another glance and returned to where Silence was waiting.
During that brief time of carrying Hori back to Silence, not a word escaped Peter’s lips.
After leaving the lakeside, we were able to reach a place where we could see the academy with our eyes by daybreak.
As the orange sun rose over the horizon, I stopped in a suitable meadow to let Silence rest for a while.
Just as I was unloading Hori from Silence’s back to let her rest more comfortably.
“Ugh…!”
Hori, who had been unconscious as if asleep, woke up and our eyes met as I was unloading her.
“Ian…? What happened…?”
“You don’t remember?”
Hori, who had just woken up, kept her mouth shut for a moment as if thinking, then clutched her head as if she had just remembered and said.
“Ian!! H-How could you hit a woman! Are you really a warrior who upholds chivalry?!”
“Don’t misunderstand. What I uphold isn’t chivalry or anything like that, it’s the way of the warrior.”
“W-Way of the warrior? What’s that?”
“Well… if I had to define it.”
If I had to give a definition, it could be said to be the virtues that a warrior should uphold, but that’s probably not the explanation Hori wants.
The way of the warrior, if dug into deeply, changed its meaning as times passed and also changed according to individual ideology, so it couldn’t be clearly defined.
Some madman even went so far as to say, ‘The way of the warrior is death.’
“…It’s different for everyone, but to me, the way of the warrior means never tolerating insults.”
“Insults?”
“Yes, insults.”
No matter who it is, if there’s someone who insults and defiles Baldo, I will absolutely cut them down. No matter who they are.
That is my way of the warrior.
However, there are ignorant people in the world who don’t know what Baldo is, so I mercifully give them about three chances.
If it’s someone who insults knowingly, I’d just cut them down.
“Then I didn’t insult you or anything, so why did you hit me?!”
“Uh… because you said crazy things?”
“Crazy things?! When did I ever say crazy things?!”
They say crazy people don’t realize they’re crazy, and Hori was exactly like that.
“Adding weird penalties… no, not even side effects, to a drug that has no side effects for trivial reasons, isn’t that crazy?”
“What’s wrong with that?! It’s cool and fair and even has romance! Are you someone who can’t understand romance, Ian?!”
“It’s not that I can’t understand romance.”
I’m not that kind of person, but I can fully understand having a romance for something inefficient.
But if someone dies because of that romance when they have nothing to do with it, that’s a different story.
“Even if someone dies in vain because of that drug, do you still want to keep making it?”
“What’s the problem with someone dying?”
“What?”
While I was dumbfounded by Hori’s overly confident attitude, Hori continued.
“Both my father and I fully disclosed the fact that the drug we sold has side effects.”
“…I don’t think I heard enough about that.”
“A-Anyway, we revealed the fact that there are side effects! So if someone used the drug I made, doesn’t that mean they accepted all those side effects?”
“That’s true, but…”
“And it’s not someone completely unrelated. The one who experiences the side effects is the user, but at the same time, the one who benefits from its effects is also the user.”
People who take Hori’s drug are surely those who want power so badly that they’re willing to endure all the side effects.
If so, Hori said that a third party has no right to interfere in a matter agreed upon by both the manufacturer and the user.
“But what if they knew there was a drug with no side effects or much less severe ones? Wouldn’t those people have chosen that drug instead of one with side effects?”
“Wanting to become strong easily but not wanting to bear any of the risks that come with it… I don’t want to sell drugs to such pathetic people.”
In Hori’s eyes, which declared this firmly, I could sense a kind of belief that, although misguided, would never be broken.
It seemed impossible to change Hori’s mind on this issue no matter how many times we talked about it.
It’s a bit different from my case of having a rational belief, but even I would immediately kill someone if they suddenly told me to give up Baldo.
“Um… Ian…”
“What?”
After the argument ended, Hori asked me with a restless look.
“I feel a bit awkward asking this after such a conversation but… are you not going to use the potions or drugs I make anymore?”
“No, I’ll keep using them, so bring them over occasionally.”
Through those side effects, I was barely able to recognize my own powerlessness, having lost the freedom of Baldo to mere pain.
Only when one can skillfully wield Baldo even with their whole body burning can they truly be called a Baldo practitioner.
“Your drugs seem perfect for training, so feel free to bring them often. If the production costs are high, just bringing poisonous herbs is fine too…”
“No, that’s not an issue. Will you only use them for training? Or… when facing a strong enemy too…?”
“Of course I’ll use them then too. I tend to use everything I can. But…”
How many opponents would there be that would require me, a Baldo practitioner, to take drugs to win?
Unfortunately, Hori’s drugs will rarely shine in the way Hori wants them to.
Despite knowing this fact, the crazy but wise Hori spoke with joy, even showing slight tears.
“T-Thank you! I-I’m really glad I met you then, Ian!!”
“Me too… I’d be even happier if you were just a bit more of a normal human being though.”
After that, we rested for a while before returning to the academy with Silence without incident.
As time passed, a few days later.
At the end of a long period of patient waiting, the news I had been eagerly anticipating finally arrived.
[It’s completed. Come to the blacksmith’s shop as soon as you read this letter.]
My new katana.
That sword, still unnamed, was finally complete.
0 Comments