I unconsciously shook my head. I refused.
In the last ten days, I thought that I had developed quite a resistance against beauties, but I couldn’t really cope with surprise attacks.
The destructive power of Orgueil’s sidelong glance is way too great, that I can’t preserve my sanity.
To calmly think about it, I’d really like to see Orgueil’s fencing skill that was praised as divine. However, I thought from the bottom of my heart that now wasn’t the right time, so I politely refused.
“…Too bad. Here I thought you’d let me have fun.”
“It won’t be fun now.”
“Then, when will it be?”
How persistent!
“…Sooner or later. It’s not that far in the future.”
“Then, next month is it.”
Don’t you just decide it yourself!
“I’ll prepare for it. I’m looking forward to that day.”
Orgueil ended this topic with a conclusion he made on his own.
–And, at that time.
“The training ground should have been curbed, but…”
A sullen light dwelled in the violet eyes
When I listened carefully, the sound of swords clashing and the people’s cheers could be heard.
“At any rate, it seems that we can’t spar today… Was it a double reservation, or were there soldiers who just used it while ignoring the arrangement? It seems that there are preceding visitors.”
“Shall we go and see them?” Orgueil nonchalantly took my hand, and we were headed towards the direction where the sounds could be heard.
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After a short walk, we came out to a balcony where we could see down at the training ground.
There were roof and chairs too. A small desk where we could place something we could eat and drink was also there. However, there was nothing there as we had just eaten lunch.
There was a stairway to come and go to the training ground from the balcony. The training ground could be entered from four directions, it wasn’t too spacious nor was it too narrow, it was exactly at the perfect size for training and sparring. The soil was cleanly at an even level.
There were twelve, no, thirteen men there, some sitting on the ground, some leaning against the wall, some clapping their hands and shouting cheers, surrounding two men who were grasping swords in the center.
“…Duel? …or isn’t it?”
Everyone seemed to be having fun. The two men who were holding swords had serious expressions, but one of the men had a faint smile on his face. Their swords were the ones smashing before. Those were swords used for practice.
“They are betting.”
Orgueil said.
“From their garments, they were general soldiers… mercenaries. In time of peace, it’s fine for them to play around since there’s not much work to do, but in time of war, one’s body is an important asset.”
The military officers who were serving the Gladius house for generations seemed to be divided into two kinds of soldiers—the knights and the mercenaries whose origins were mixed.
The military officers have some kind of work to do even during peaceful times, the mercenaries, the general soldiers could do their family business if they wanted to, and if they wanted to forge their bodies, they could train themselves within the castle, it seemed like a willful social position.
However, Orgueil said, it wouldn’t be good if their bodies couldn’t function well in emergency cases, so they were quite diligent and were not negligent at all in training, and they also built a good networking among officers. They sometimes combined training with amusement, and preferred impromptu fencing sparring with some wagering on who was the stronger side.
“They are surely in the middle of such a match and wager.”
Orgueil explained the spectacle below just like that.
–The two large-built men were exchanging blows with their swords. One was a man wearing a muscular armor with an intimidating air, the arms that extended from his sleeveless shirt looked so firm and full of scars, as if they were a tree’s trunk. I knew that to develop such amount of muscles would require quite a considerable amount of training, but in my opinion, there were lots of cases where the firm muscles were half-near to show off alone. One’s muscle developments couldn’t make up for one’s lack of skill development. Therefore, we couldn’t measure someone by their appearance alone.
(Well, he isn’t weak, but I feel like he’s a predictable soldier with memorable muscular arms.)
–The other one was a thin man with well-defined musculature, having his moderately long black hair put together at the back of his neck. He swung his sword with a faint smile on his face, and it appeared that he was easing up to entertain his opponent. Actually, the hooting of “Do it seriously!” or “Put some more fighting spirit!” could be heard. I could see it from my spot, so it was surely clear as the day for those positioned nearby. The man wearing a sleeveless black shirt perfectly suited for his tanned skin was swinging his sword with his black hair swaying around, resembling a black panther.
“…The difference between their power is quite clear, huh?”
Orgueil said.
“They’re doing this with the intention of having their body move around, right?”
“But one can get angry if there are people betting their money on one’s enemy, right?”
“The enemy is more or less a skilled one too, though.”
How boring. It was like, setting up bet was fine, but I would love to see a match between people who were evenly matched in terms of ability.
(!! …I just thought of a good idea!)
How about jumping in and participate on the spur of a moment? If I were to bet on myself, I could earn some money if I were to win!
All my daily necessities were sufficient, but I completely didn’t have any of the local currency!
If it were the black-haired man, well, he seemed to be a good match.
“…Riviere-sama, just now, were you thinking of any bad idea…”
Before Orgueil could stop me, I ran down the stairs connecting the balcony to the training ground in one go.
“…Hey, good luck! Hurry and end this match! Then, have a match with me!”
I told that mainly to the black haired-man, but in response to the sudden intruder and Orgueil’s subsequent response of, “What a remark totally unbefitting of a princess,” the two people who were crossing swords became astonished and turned to look at me.
The match was interrupted. This is bad.
“I don’t mind waiting until it’s over. Once it’s over, I want to have a match with you.”
“…Who the heck are you?”
“Riviere-sama!”
The black-haired man’s works full of suspicion overlapped with Orgueil’s voice as he chased after me who jumped down to the training ground from the balcony.
“Riviere? …Eh, oi, she’s together with Colonel Karnak!”
As expected, Orgueil seemed quite famous. With his good look and excellent skills in literary and military arts, it would be hard to mistake him for someone else.
The black-haired man wrinkled his nose up and looked at me once again.
“…Who are you? Riviere…?”
“I’m Riviere Emil!”
Indeed, the boorish [mercenaries], the area’s ambience, and the way he denounced me with [you*] resembled how my comrades in my original world, it was so nostalgic.
I cheerfully smiled, not adding the [la Tuura] surname prepared for me, as I held out my hand in order to greet him.
(*T/N: He addressed Riviere with あんた, a shortened version of anata, highly informal and generally rude or admonishing in nature.)
The black-haired man were staring at my face so hard that it might create a hole, all without accepting my handshake. His long black-hair was even longer than my hair. His skin was of a dark brown color, and his eyes were red.
–Later on, he would be known as the guardian sword of la Tuura.
And such was my first meeting with Alph do Lilly.
Author’s Note:
I had wanted to write faster about this person.
Thank you very much for reading.
Translator’s Comment:
Orgueil must be sad to be rejected on his offer to spar with him, and then suddenly Riviere had to ask someone else to spar </3
Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to comment!
