Chapter 29 : Days in the Free City of Loren (5)

Chapter 29: Days in the Free City of Loren (5)

“What the…”

At the first hint of commotion, Shatien shot to his feet.

“Nya-hat?”

The cat beastkin attendant beside him startled so hard she nearly seized, but there was no time to apologize.

He had told them not to cause trouble only moments ago, and now they were making an enormous scene.

Worse, this was a high-end salon often used by the city’s influential figures.

If things got out of hand, the fallout could be serious.

He needed to get there fast and shut it down before it became something bigger.

‘I am going to lose my mind…’

When Shatien ran to the source of the disturbance, he was dumbfounded.

Miles, the very person he had assigned to keep order in case of unforeseen trouble, was the one with veins bulging as he raged. The ones holding him back were their newly joined comrades.

Their roles were not just reversed, they were upside down.Shatien’s head throbbed.

“I am sorry. I will take care of this quickly. I am sorry.”

Bowing to the gambling hall’s managers, Shatien hurried to Miles and seized him by the shoulders.

“Miles! What are you doing?”

“Oh, Shatien! Good, you are here. That old man is cheating me. How is it possible to get hands like that in a row?”

“What can I do if you do not have luck? The goddess of fortune simply smiles on me.”

“What was that? You old coot!”

Cards lay scattered across the table.

Hard liquor had been spilled.

Even a glance told the story.

Before the ruckus grew worse, Shatien barked with a hard face.

“Stop! Enough! Stop it. Miles! That is an order.”

“What?”

“An. Or. Der.”

“U-Urk…”

At that point Miles could not keep throwing a fit.His superior’s face was on the line, and not just any superior, but Shatien the newly minted Centurion.

“F-Fine. Ahem. I’ll stop.”

In the end, Miles swallowed his pride.He chose his friendship with the newcomer Shatien over his own ego.

The old man across from him, however, seemed to think differently.

“On whose say-so?”

“S-Sir… we were wrong. Please end it here…”

“End it? Hmph. Of course we should end it. This commotion. Has that pathetic fool not ruined such a fine mood? Although before that…”

The old man’s eyes narrowed.His face said he was very displeased.

“I want an apology from that boar of a bastard.”

“What?! You old fossil!”

Good grief.

The embers he had just managed to put out flared up like oil tossed on a fire.

“That seems to be your subordinate, youngster, but I am not interested in your apology. The party involved should apologize. I will take an apology from that little fledgling who puffed himself up without knowing his own skill.”

“Fledgling? You shriveled handful of a codger, watch it! Keep talking and I am not going to hold back, alright?”

Miles shouted, face flushing red.He had not started rampaging only because he still cared about Shatien’s gaze, but one prod and he would fly at the old man.

The old man looked ready as well.

“You will not hold back huh…”

The old man sneered.

“It has been a long time since I heard insolence like that.”

In that instant,

-Flinch.

Shatien’s whole body broke out in gooseflesh.

It felt like he would be cut down at any moment.

Without thinking, he dragged back the hand gripping Miles’s shoulder.

“Uwah-!”

-Crash.

“What are you doing, rookie, no, Centurion!”

Miles toppled backward with a thud and grumbled, but Shatien did not respond. He had no space in his mind to respond.

‘...!’

He was overwhelmed by the presence before his eyes.

Now that he looked properly, the old man was strange. The white hair and deeply wrinkled face clearly showed age, but…

‘Wh-Who is he?’

The body glimpsed beneath his clothes was tight with muscle, like a young man in his prime.

He was clearly no ordinary elder. He was unmistakably someone who had trained to an extreme degree.

“Oh? Would you look at that.”

Amused by the situation, the old man smirked again and looked at Shatien.

“You read the interval?”

He fingered the hilt at his waist and asked again.

“You. You do not seem to be a knight... How did you know? However I look at you, you do not seem to have the skill for that.”

Though the old man cocked his head in an easy manner, Shatien did not dare answer.

‘T-This is Insane…’

The world was crimson.

-Vmm, vmm!

Left and right, front and back.

Every inch of space he saw lit up red with a warning conjured by a mysterious sense.

Move anywhere and you die. Sweat poured from Shatien as he stared at the old man.

The moment that old man moved would be the end of this life.

“Why? You do not want to answer?”

“…”

Now even the slightest movement pressed on him.

Forcing his trembling body to still, Shatien bit his lip and tried to make himself move somehow.

Even if he died, he would not just die.

At that moment,

-Fweeeee-!

A piercing whistle shrieked.

“Stop right there-! How dare you cause a disturbance here! You lot, I will get rid of you this insta… huh?”

The guards burst in loudly, then saw the old man and scrambled to bow their heads.

“Elder? What brings you here…?”

“Did you have a quarrel with these people? Please do not draw your sword! Really. Please, please.”

“He’s right. For the branch manager’s sake, please…”

“Tsk. I was just about to have some fun for the first time in a while.”

Only then did the old man click his tongue like the moment had been spoiled.

He rapped the hilt at his waist twice as he looked at Shatien.

“You. Let us meet again another time. Hehe. If fate allows, we shall meet once more.”

Leaving those words, he turned and disappeared outside.

It was a tremendous relief.

* * *

Thankfully, the matter did not blow up any further that day.

From the perspective of the gambling hall’s managers, nothing good came from letting a situation grow large, and Shatien wanted to handle things quietly as well.

It had taken no small show of good faith, but so what.

If you could smooth over everything with a few shiny bits of metal, was that not wonderful?

Of course, he could not just let Miles, who had caused this mess, off the hook.

“Aaaaaah! Ugh, huff.”

“Stop dawdling. Run, now. This instructor shows no mercy.”

“Wait, I am seriously going to die.”

“Quiet. You will run now.”

They were punishment drills disguised as training.

In full kit, Miles was running laps around the parade ground wearing the monstrous armor that Shatien had “gifted” him.

Shatien followed, watching like a hawk, so even with all his groaning Miles could not stop.

“Damn it-!”

In the end, Miles could only scream and keep running.

“Hm. Good, good. Hehe.”

Watching Miles run hard, Shatien smiled.

He felt bad for the man, panting with his tongue lolling like a heat-struck dog, but he had to do at least this much to shore up his authority as a Centurion.

Too many witnesses had seen what happened for him to let it slide vaguely.

This was probably better than a whipping.

“Yes, indeed.”

With that thought, Shatien took his eyes off Miles, corrected his posture, and wrapped his hand around his hilt.

The shocking experience in the gambling hall still lodged deep in his mind and would not leave.

‘It was as if he controlled the entire space.’

The moment that old man gripped his hilt, the whole world had turned red.

There was no safe place, and whatever he did, he would die.

The distance had been more than enough, and there were plenty of obstacles like a table between them, and it still had been so.

That was truly a fearsome level of skill.

How was that even possible? Shatien could only click his tongue in awe.

‘Was he the rumored Master?’

A Master said to turn the tide of a battlefield alone.

A sword saint who made the impossible possible and cut all things with will, the pinnacle among knights.

He had never sensed anything like that even from the knights guarding Count Bellua, so perhaps he was right.

‘It was a blessing to come back alive.’

Even setting aside skill, his status must have been exalted.

Thinking back on the situation, it would not have been excessive if he had lost his head for insult.

Shatien gave a wry smile.

Along with relief, something hot stirred deep in his chest.

Master.

The final form of a knight who gazed upon the end of swordsmanship.

The desire to become that.

Could he do it?

He did not know.

In some ways, it might be harder than restoring his family.

But if a man was born and took up a blade, was it not something he should dream of at least once?

“I hope the merchant association sends word soon.”

As he gathered his thoughts and muttered to himself,

“Sir Shatien?”

The guild sent someone at just the right time.

“The branch manager has asked that you come. She says she will grant the request you made last time.”

* * *

“What? You want me to take in a disciple?”

“No. Not that. He wants you to teach some swordsmanship.”

“That is the same thing, you brat.”

“Come on. The Sword Guilds charge money and just teach sometimes.”

“...I was well aware you did not understand the sort called knights… but this is truly outrageous.”

Hearing nonsense from broad daylight on, the old man snorted in disbelief.

“Mmhmhm… you know I did not mean it like that, right?”

Realizing her mistake, Marhen tried clumsily to smooth it over. But it did not seem to work on the old man.

“Tsk. Do not try to pass with a smile like a cat slipping through a mouse hole. Of course a cat beastkin would try that. I refuse.”

“Aw come on. Please, don’t be like that, Elder. He is a good man.”

“What would you know with a merchant’s eye? Are you sure he is not just another fellow with a pretty frame?”

Youngsters these days were as pathetic as could be. At the slightest hardship they gave up, always trying to take the easy, fast road.

And without talent at that.

Even those born with talent found it hard to reach the state without toil.

The path of the sword was exactly that. Having weathered many harsh storms of the years, the old man could only lament the present generation.

“He is different, Elder.”

“Different how? The last one you introduced had a heart as fragile as a maiden.”

“He did not grow up gently. He is a mercenary who has been gaining quite a name lately. A young mercenary.”

“A mercenary? Then his basics must be even worse.”

The old man spoke dryly.

A mercenary with a name may have sounded fine, but a mercenary was still a mercenary.

Combat experience was good, but that also meant there was a high chance he already had bad habits carved into him.

“Fixing one’s habits is harder. Enough. I am not interested.”

“Then for my sake, at least meet him once.”

“Huh... What is he, your husband material or something?”

At that offhand line, Branch Manager Marhen pricked her ears straight up and fussed.

“Husband material? Of course not, h-hmhm. He is just someone I met at work whom I found likable—, no, who is to my taste—, no, that is not it either, ugh.”

“An old man like me acted without tact.”

“Th-That is not it I said.”

Branch Manager Marhen shouted, but the old man did not seem to be listening at all.

“All right, all right. I’m sure it’s not. Since I have received much help from you, Branch Manager, I will do you the favor of at least seeing his face.”

Of course he only said he would see the man’s face, not that he would become a master.

A life that had given everything to a single blade.

He wanted to leave his swordsmanship to the next generation, but he had yet to find anyone who satisfied his heart.

This time would likely be no different.

Rather than raise someone lacking, it would be more valuable to hone his own sword further and see its end.

He truly planned to look at the face and simply come back.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Shati… —???”

“????”
“???”

That was until he met the mercenary the branch manager introduced.

“Why are you bastard…?”

“And you, Elder, why are you…?”

“You already knew each other? That’s a relief!!”

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