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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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Nasen touched his still-unhealed wound. It was a hideous scar, a straight line drawn across his abdomen. The scar he received when Lina nearly sliced him in half.
“I almost died.”
“You were too careless, Nasen. Buhik.”
“It wasn’t carelessness. That blonde-haired bitch was just ridiculously strong.”
Nasen still couldn’t forget the sword strikes rushing towards him. Her level of skill was unbelievably high for someone her age.
“Are you sure they’ll really be there?”
“Nine times out of ten, they will be. They’ll definitely come. I saw it in their eyes. Eyes crazed with vengeance.”
“Buhik! Buhik! A familiar look. Those kinds are fun to kill.”
More than anything, Nasen would be in trouble if Lina and her group didn’t show up.
The White Witch’s Seal Orb.
They pretended to be ignorant, but those women undoubtedly had the White Witch’s Seal Orb. A bead couldn’t just sprout legs and disappear on its own.
“Vengeance isn’t yours alone.”
It had been a long time since he’d suffered such humiliation. The wound from the blonde still throbbed. His newly attached leg was still awkward to move.
“Nasen, we’ve finally arrived at the castle, our next target.”
A fairly large castle was visible in the distance. There would be many people living inside. He thought it would be good to offer the residents as sacrifices while he was at it.
“A feast after a long time. Buhik. But how do we confirm if they’re there?”
He couldn’t ignore Lina and Natasha if they were here. He had to make sure he had a solid plan. He couldn’t afford another failure. There was a limit to how long he could deceive his superiors.
Nasen hypnotized a patrolling guard with magic and made him come to where they were. What followed was, of course, brutal torture.
He made the guard’s arms and legs rot and showed him hallucinations. He stabbed him repeatedly, just enough to keep him alive.
“Kyaaak! An extraordinary blonde woman… she definitely came here a few days ago! Please… Please spare me!”
The guard writhed on the floor like a worm, begging. Nasen had the information he needed.
“As expected, they were here.”
He had considered the possibility that they might have arrived earlier due to the delay caused by healing his wounds. And now, he realized he had no chance of winning in a head-on fight.
“Damn it. If it weren’t for that man who suddenly appeared… I wouldn’t be going through all this trouble.”
The man who appeared with Molotov cocktails when he was planning a counterattack with the ghouls.
That insignificant man had completely changed the situation. If he was weak, he should have just stayed hidden.
Nasen spent a long time pondering how to complete the assassination mission.
Huruuku was a pig who only thought about eating, so this was entirely his own responsibility.
He looked to the side and saw Huruuku drooling while watching the guard crawling on the floor.
“What? You haven’t eaten him yet?”
“You didn’t tell me to. Buhik.”
“You’re surprisingly obedient at times like these. That’s enough. You can eat him now. I don’t need him anymore.”
“N-No! Spare meee!”
“Thanks for the meal! Buhik!”
Crunch- Crunch-
Nasen heard the pleasant screams and had a good idea.
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‘Why me?!’
Of course, the sparring match with the Captain of the Guard was conducted safely with wooden swords. However, even practice wooden swords had metal cores and hurt when they hit.
He could still get seriously injured, even in a sparring match. He could even die if he got hit in the wrong place.
Unlike superhumans like Natasha, who recovered perfectly even after being hit with an iron bar, Kerry was an ordinary person.
“Husband… are you worried about the sparring match?”
“…Natasha, you know I’m weak.”
For now, anyway.
“Then why don’t you just say you don’t want to do it?”
If only it were that easy. But seeing Lina, so determined to save Victoria, made it difficult to pretend not to care.
It probably wouldn’t resonate with Natasha, who knew nothing about the situation.
“If husband doesn’t want to, he doesn’t have to. Even if Lina is uncomfortable, I’m here. Who cares if Victoria or whatever dies? I just met her today.”
Indeed, he had just met Victoria today. She was a complete stranger to Kerry.
If Lina hadn’t wanted to save Victoria, he wouldn’t have gone this far. Natasha was lucky. She didn’t know anything.
But what was done was done. He didn’t want to disappoint Lina now.
In the end, Kerry had no choice but to head to the training grounds where Lina was waiting.
Lina was standing in the middle of the training grounds. Lina, standing there with her blonde hair tied back, was a picture in herself.
“You came. I was waiting, Kerry.”
“Yes. I’m a little late, aren’t I?”
He needed time to prepare himself mentally. Fortunately, the bet with Victoria had been postponed for two weeks.
It was thanks to Lina requesting more time, saying it was a sudden sparring match.
Thanks to that, he was spared from being immediately pulverized. Kerry, feeling wronged, had asked Victoria,
[Why me?]
[Because it looks fun.]
Damn it.
Even though Victoria was a former comrade of the hero, nobles were still annoying. If she wasn’t pretty, he would have cursed her out, even if only internally.
Anyway, for that reason, the training with Lina began.
For the record, I hadn’t had a chance to properly learn swordsmanship during my two years of struggling in this other world. It was hard enough just to find food.
He had somehow managed to acquire an old sword and use it to beg for food, but that was it.
He had developed his skills against monsters over the past two years, but it was questionable whether it could even be called swordsmanship.
Clack- Clack- Clack!
Two wooden swords clashed. He rushed at Lina with all his might, but he couldn’t even create an opening.
‘I guess I really have no talent for swordsmanship.’
It’s okay. He didn’t intend to swing a sword around in this other world anyway. Magic was enough.
“Your swordsmanship is quite rough.”
“…I learned it on my own because I didn’t have anyone to teach me.”
He had occasionally picked up tips on how to hold a sword or how to cut effectively from adventurers he got along with, but that was it.
“Yes, it shows. But it’s not bad for being self-taught.”
“…”
Was it really not bad? Could it be that he had a talent for swordsmanship after all?!
However, seeing Victoria’s expression as she watched them, he knew that wasn’t the case.
He saw Victoria shaking her head at Lina’s praise.
‘Lina was just being polite to encourage me.’
Well, if he had a talent for swordsmanship, wouldn’t he have been a more impressive adventurer?
Two years wasn’t a short time.
“Your swordsmanship is rough, but you’re good at finding openings. However…”
Lina trailed off and started to push him. She seemed to be controlling her strength as he didn’t drop his wooden sword, but he was being pushed back solely by her technique.
It happened when he brought his sword up to block Lina’s wooden sword. Lina’s sword wrapped around his, and before he knew it, her wooden sword was pointed at his throat.
“…Real swords are good, but there are many techniques in swordsmanship that you can’t help but fall for if you don’t know them.”
“How did you just do that?”
“It’s not as difficult a technique as it looks. It’s more of a trick. But it’s also a technique that’s difficult for someone who doesn’t know swordsmanship to block. And it’s a technique you’ll need to learn from me, Kerry.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Two weeks isn’t a long time to learn swordsmanship. It’s an extremely short time. Of course, I’ll try my best to improve your basics during that time, but it’s good to have a hidden trump card.”
A trump card. And Victoria was watching that trump card right now.
“You don’t need to worry about her. It’s just a sparring match for her entertainment, and she won’t do anything cowardly.”
Lina seemed to hold Victoria in high regard, but Kerry didn’t see her in such a positive light.
Who was he suffering like this for?
‘But learning swordsmanship from Lina isn’t bad.’
He didn’t know much about swordsmen, but Lina was definitely skilled enough to hold her own anywhere.
The opportunity to systematically learn swordsmanship from a skilled swordsman like Lina would be equivalent to very expensive private tutoring, in monetary terms.
“I was worried at first, but I think this opportunity is actually a good thing. It’s not bad for you to improve your skills, Kerry.”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
It would have been easier to be more positive if it weren’t for Victoria grinning from the corner of the training grounds.
“And more than anything, you’re following along better than I expected. Your experience as an adventurer hasn’t been wasted.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Anyway, he had to beat that Captain of the Guard. That was the only way things would go smoothly in the future.
‘It wouldn’t be bad to learn it as a form of self-defense.’
Swordsmanship meant just that much to Kerry. He preferred magic to sweaty sword fights.
As Lina’s swordsmanship lesson continued, Victoria, who had been watching with a faint smile from the corner of the training grounds, quietly approached.
What was it? What was going on?
Victoria’s playful expression made him uneasy.
“Does it bother you that I’m watching?”
“No.”
Lina quickly denied it, but Kerry didn’t answer.
“…”
He did say no when Lina nudged him with her elbow, though. Victoria chuckled, as if amused by the sight.
“So you were uncomfortable with me watching. Hehe. But you don’t need to hide your skills because of that.”
“?”
What nonsense was she talking about now? She had seen him getting beaten by Lina all this time, and now she was talking about hiding skills.
Victoria laughed again at Kerry’s bewildered expression. He was truly an amusing man.
‘He’s hiding his skills even in a half-joking bet. What a thorough man. At first glance, you’d think he’s a real beginner.’
Victoria thought Kerry was hiding his skills while being beaten by Lina.
Kerry became increasingly troubled by Victoria’s misplaced expectations.
‘No, I really can’t fight! I’m not pretending!’
He wasn’t a barbaric medieval person, after all.
Even Victoria would have picked up a sword before she could even think, and the same would be true for Lina and Natasha.
But Kerry had held a sword for the first time after coming to this world. How could he possibly beat people who were born with swords in their hands? This was driving him crazy.
“Since you’re so uncomfortable that you’re hiding your skills, it would be rude of me to stay any longer. I’ll be going now. I look forward to an interesting duel.”
Victoria left with a meaningful smile. Lina stayed silent for a moment before speaking with a smile.
“We’ll have to work harder. Mr. Swordsman hiding his skills.”
“…Lina.”
Victoria left the training grounds, laughing as if amused. Seeing Victoria smile so cheerfully after a long time, her knight asked from beside her,
“What’s so amusing?”
“Isn’t it interesting? That Kerry fellow.”
“I don’t quite understand… Isn’t he just an ordinary man? If anything stands out, it’s the women around him.”
“That’s why it’s interesting.”
“Pardon?”
“Father always told me. People are clever, and they don’t truly follow those who are inferior to them.”
“That seems true.”
“But what about that Kerry fellow? Is he superior to the women around him? Honestly, I’m not sure yet. But those women follow him. The red-haired woman aside, that Lina is no ordinary person. Such a strong person is subtly relying on that man. Whether he’s aware of it or not.”
“…He certainly seemed to have the initiative.”
“That’s why that Kerry fellow is interesting.”
Victoria’s steps were light. As if she was excited.
‘I won’t be bored for a while.’
Just thinking about Kerry made Victoria smile.
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