episode_0038

At an early hour, when no one else was around, she would swing her sword alone in the training ground. This was Johanna’s morning routine. Yes. Until recently, it was.

Recently, Johanna’s morning routine was not swinging her sword, but secretly watching someone train rigorously. To see this, Johanna, who already woke up several hours earlier than others, woke up even earlier than her usual time.

‘I wonder if he’s already here before me today too.’

Yesterday, Johanna had also woken up earlier than usual and gone to the training ground to see how early Loki started his training, but Loki was already running. She usually went to the training ground when the wind was chilly. But going even earlier, she simply put on a light coat and headed for the training ground.

However, for some reason, even as she approached the training ground, no sound could be heard. Normally, when she got close enough to the training ground, she would hear the sound of Loki running.

‘Surely he’s not absent, is he?’

If Loki wasn’t there… She would just swing her sword alone. Before she started watching Loki, she had always trained alone, but for some reason, she felt a sense of regret.

Johanna’s steps, which had been slightly quick as she headed for the training ground, slowed.

‘And I also have something to say.’

Yesterday, when Loki challenged Ropri to a duel, Johanna was not in the cafeteria. That’s why Johanna only learned that Loki had challenged him to a duel with his expulsion on the line after a disciplinary committee member informed her. When she found out and went to the special class, all the lessons had already ended, and no one was there. There was no way to contact him separately since the communication device wasn’t connected.

“Haa…” Johanna sighed as she entered the training ground. Johanna herself didn’t know why she sighed.

“…Huh?” But contrary to her expectations, Loki was in the training ground.

Loki had two methods of training. Running around the training ground. Or creating clones with his unique magic to correct his posture. However, Loki was neither running nor creating clones now. Loki was currently sitting in the middle of the training ground, meditating.

He was meditating while wearing such a ridiculous mask, but he didn’t look ridiculous at all.

‘Just like Father.’

The head of the Freya family, known as the Empire’s Foremost Swordsman. Her own father.

When she was little, she watched him whenever her father swung his sword. To watch the Empire’s Foremost Swordsman wield his sword right beside him. Thinking about it now, it was an incredible blessing that any other swordsman would envy.

Her father meditated while swinging his sword. When she was little, she didn’t know why he meditated, so she asked her father. Why on earth did he meditate?

‘Meditation might seem unnecessary and like just resting, but it’s important and difficult. It’s the moment when a swordsman puts down the sword in their hand, focuses their mind to inspect their inner self, and sharpens the sword of their heart.’

When she was little, she didn’t understand those words. Because it just looked like sitting and resting.

She only realized that meditation was difficult after coming to the academy. To be precise, she realized it by watching other students meditate.

They clearly sat and closed their eyes just like her father, but it was different from her father’s meditation. She wasn’t confident she could explain exactly what was different. But it was nothing more than sitting and resting, not meditation.

After that, she tried meditating alone, but she still couldn’t understand the words “sharpen the sword of your heart.” Loki, sitting in the middle of the training ground, seemed to overlap with her meditating father. She had secretly watched Loki train until now, but she couldn’t stand it any longer.

. . . .

“How do you do it?”

A voice reached me while I was closing my eyes and controlling my emotions. I was startled and opened my eyes, and I couldn’t help but be even more surprised. Because Johanna was right in front of me.

“Johanna Senior!”

Since I was sitting, Johanna crouched down to meet my gaze.

“How do you do it?”

Johanna’s sudden words left me bewildered.

“What are you referring to?”

“Meditation, I mean.”

Was what I was doing now meditation? I asked myself, but I didn’t know the answer.

“Is what I’m doing now meditation?”

When I asked Johanna back, she opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it as if she didn’t know what to say. And then she said something rather unexpected.

“Aren’t you running today?”

“Today,” she said?

“Don’t tell me, did you watch me train yesterday?”

Johanna nodded silently.

“Ugh, that’s embarrassing.” I had thought no one saw me, since I finished my training quickly and left the training ground before others woke up. It wasn’t a particularly cool way of training, so it was embarrassing.

“It was cool.” Johanna lightly patted my head, as if praising me for doing well.

I didn’t feel bad, so I accepted her touch. Honestly, it felt quite good.

“You challenged him to a duel with your expulsion on the line, didn’t you?” Johanna said, without taking her hand off my head. I also didn’t tell her to take her hand off.

“It just ended up that way!” Actually, it had been according to plan from the beginning. If there was any difference from the original plan, it was only that the duel happened earlier than expected. Even if that worm hadn’t picked a fight, I would have expelled him somehow.

“Is there a reason you’d go that far?”

The reason I would go this far to expel that worm.

“Of course, there’s a reason.”

“What’s the reason?”

I put my index finger to my lips and then spoke. I couldn’t see my own expression, but it was probably stiff. At times like this, the mask was good. It allowed me to hide my expression.

“That’s a secret.”

How could I tell her the truth? That in the future, she would die because of that worm’s trolling. That I had spent ten years to prevent that. That even after spending ten years, I couldn’t save her. That even though it was a game back then, I was genuinely sad. I simply couldn’t say it.

Of course, that worm wouldn’t directly kill Johanna. The worm doesn’t even possess such skill in the first place. But the fact that the worm was involved in Johanna’s death wouldn’t change. To prevent such a thing from happening, I had to kill that worm or expel him from the academy.

“Then what’s the reason you’re not running today?”

Since I thought she might get upset if I said it was a secret again, I decided to give her a small hint.

“What’s important right now isn’t stamina.”

The reason I meditated instead of running or training my unique magic. Of course, it’s true that my stamina is lacking. But right now, emotional control is more important than stamina. My original personality, which I couldn’t control in the cafeteria, emerged. If my original personality were to emerge during the duel, I might actually kill that worm. Whether that worm died or not wasn’t my concern, but… I still had a lot to do at the academy.

“If you lose, I’ll help you become a knight of the Freya family.”

To avoid misunderstanding, unlike last time when she said, “Do you want to join our family?”, Johanna specifically said “a knight of the family.” By the way, Johanna still hadn’t taken her hand off my head. Instead, she was stroking my hair.

“Since there’s no chance I’ll lose, there’s no chance I’ll become a knight of your family, Senior.”

By the way, Johanna said a knight of the Freya family, Yerika said her personal bodyguard, and the Emperor said he would take me in. Positions that others would struggle their entire lives to achieve even after graduating from the academy. I would easily obtain them if I were expelled. Wouldn’t others want to tear me to shreds if they knew?

When I said there was no chance I’d become a knight of Johanna’s family, for some reason, Johanna’s expression wasn’t good. Of course, despite that, she still hadn’t taken her hand off my head. However, the strength in her stroking hand grew stronger than before.

“Your coat is pretty, Senior.”

“….Ah.” I said it to cheer Johanna up, but after hearing my words, Johanna seemed to remember something and put her hand into her coat pocket. The hand not in her pocket was still stroking my head.

“Take this.” Johanna rummaged through her coat pocket and took out a communication device, handing it to me.

“What is this?”

“A communication device.”

I said it to ask for the meaning of her giving me this communication device, but Johanna seemed to think I didn’t recognize what a communication device was. Indeed, how many commoners would have seen a communication device?

“I’ll be going now.” Johanna, who had handed me the communication device, left with her face slightly flushed.

“Sen- Senior.” I quickly called out to Johanna because I had something to say to her. But whether she didn’t hear me or simply ignored me, Johanna didn’t stop and walked out of the training ground.

“I already have a communication device.” My words, left without an audience, echoed in the training ground.

I took out the communication device I received from Yerika from my subspace. Thus, in my left hand was the communication device I received from Yerika, and in my right hand was the communication device I received from Johanna.