Chapter 32 - Goblin (2)

Chapter 32 – Goblin (2)

Translated by : betterdays

Proofread by : ch17175

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Perhaps due to Asher and Reika’s sudden raid on the Goblin’s camp, the territory was given two more days than expected, thanks to their interference with the goblin’s camp.

With the extra time they had earned, the territory had been able to calm down and properly prepare with both their weaponry and mentalities.

There was only one day left till the day of the estimated time of attack.

On that day, Reika had finally woken up.

“…….”

Reika felt a familiar warmth and softness atop her body. Laying in bed, she opened her eyes and felt the soft covers of her blanket resting on her body.

“…what… what day is it.”

She raised her upper body as quickly as she could. She felt searing pain throughout her body as the pain from all of her muscles was still not completely healed up.

“Huh- wait, I’m in my room?”

“Oh, Young Miss!”

The maid who came in with a change of clothes for Reika screamed. She clung to Reika and desperately examined her body as she hugged her.

“Are you okay?! You haven’t been up for days, so the entire territory has been very worried about you Young Miss.”

“…how many days have I been out?”

“…You’ve been asleep for about four days.”

“Ah…”

Reika’s blurred memories of what had happened, slowly started to resurface as she recalled the odd goblin she had been in a duel with. Yes, she had lost and then….

“Lady!”

The maid yelled again when Reika grabbed her forehead with a painful expression. Reika caught the maid trying to call the lord in a hurry.

“Hurry up, and call the Lord!”

“Wait- Please let me ask you one question before then. Someone had to have brought me here. Who was it…?”

“What? It was him. The boy….”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes it was!  I’ll go tell the Lord you’ve woken up and come back. Your father was very worried about you.”

“Okay.”

The maid left the room in a hurry. Reika looked behind the departing back of the maid and lifted herself up from her bed. The fibers in her muscles were torn apart and her strained bones screamed in pain.

Standing up with a pained expression, she grabbed the sword with a tight and determined grip.

***

Asher moved towards the training area. However as he approached, the sounds being made from inside stopped for a bit. After thinking for a moment, he realized who it was and proceeded to go inside.

Booong-  Booong-

As he arrived inside the quarters of the training camp, Reika was wielding her sword. It was not Lephenia’s swordsmanship. It was a poor-looking sword that was somehow clumsy. Bloody hands moved the sword roughly.

“Huh, Asher?”

“Oh, are you up?”

Reika hurriedly stopped her sword’s movements. She glanced at Asher with a slight look.

“Have you been watching me?”

“Just the end. It’s a different kind of swordsmanship than Lepenia’s swordsmanship. What made you make the decision?

“Ha ha, I just felt like I needed a change of pace.”

Reika shrugged with a bit of wariness. Asher looked at Reika without saying a word. Sneaking away from Asher’s gaze Reika spoke out in annoyance.

“Cha, I’m just going to try some other swordsmanship style to practice.”

“Stop it. You’ve already learned many other styles of swordsmanship than Lepenia’s swordsmanship. If you try to learn other swordsmanship in this situation, it will just ruin your body even further.”

“Just as you expected, right?”

Reika mumbled sarcastically, fiddling with the sword in her arm. Immediately regretting her rude words, she continued to speak.

“…sorry.”

Asher was surprised at Reika’s sudden change of behavior and couldn’t help but be surprised.

“What?”

“You were distracted with something going on in another place. Besides, I was unprepared and didn’t know what to do, let alone help you. I….”

“I don’t care.”

Asher dismissed her self sabotaging words. He went and left her on her own briefly, expecting what happened to happen in the first place. No matter how talented she was, she was still immature, and it was her first real time in a duel, let alone raid.

On the contrary, it was still a  little surprising that such a difficult and uncanny monster happened to be her opponent. Reika glanced at her hand remorsefully as Asher spoke.

“I don’t think you’re in good shape right now. You’d better not overdo it.”

“What do you really want to say to me?”

“…well.”

Come to think of it, even he wasn’t really sure what he had to say. Asher clicked his tongue in regret. But what was clear right now, was that they both needed to be doing different things right now

“I’m measuring the limits of my body since I just broke through my last wall. But that doesn’t mean you know my body better than I do, does it?”

She had barely woken up, but her body was still at its previous limit physically. Her bloodied hands were proof of it..

If she did something wrong to her body right now when it was supposed to be resting, she could have had her muscles completely destroyed and never recovered from it.

Asher’s narrowed eyes slowly relaxed. His cold and indifferent eyes met with Reika’s gaze. Seeing his gaze, Reika shuddered and spoke.

“Sorry.”

“I’m speaking as your teacher. Don’t try to cross the line forcibly right now. Your body is a complete and utter wreck currently.”

“…I just want to be strong like you.”

Reika spat out her thoughts that had been eating at her. Asher’s expression changed slightly as he heard the words.

“…That’s interesting.”

“What?”

“Your purpose that you spoke of when you first picked up the sword, was to escape the bondage of your family and politics as a noble. You’ve already accomplished one of those goals, haven’t you? But, you still want to be stronger?

“Uh…you knew about that?”

Reika struggled to find the right words with embarrassment plastered on her face. Asher spoke with no interest because it was obvious what she was thinking.

“It’s already been a year since you and I have started to practice together. Even if you don’t speak your mind that often, I can know at least that much.”

“…I didn’t hide it from you very well then.”

“It doesn’t matter why you want to, swordsmanship is just a means of escape for all of us.”

There was nothing noble about swordsmanship in reality. It was what it was. Either a means to an end, a passion, or escape from reality.

For Asher, the sword was nothing more than a weapon. Others had spouted things like it was more than their own lives and Asher respected their views. However, he simply wielded the sword because he liked to do so.

Because of that, he had no intention of prying into Reika’s life or why she picked up swordsmanship. It was her life and her swordsmanship. Everyone’s reasons were different and it was impolite to interject one’s opinions onto another.

“Up until recently, it was an escape for me from responsibilities and a freedom I never knew. But, now it’s different for me.”

“… I see”

Asher already knew what she meant by that. She had the same look in her eyes as those he remembered back then. The passion of those who devoted their lives to seeing the pinnacle and end of all swordsmanship.

It wasn’t unusual for someone with her kind of talent. She could have the possibility of reaching such a goal.

With that, he felt the need to tell her.

Asher nodded as he spoke his mind..

“It’s possible if it’s you. If time continues to pass, you’ll be stronger than me someday.”

“…I don’t know about that.”

“What?”

At that moment, Reika turned her eyes away from Asher’s surprise. She quickly erased her expression and smiled as she waved and played it off.

“No, it’s nothing.”

“…Really?”

He was sure he heard it. Asher didn’t doubt his hearing. But why would a swordsman say something like that? And her of all people?

“Young Miss!”

“Ah shit.”

Reika cursed as she saw a maid running towards her with a pale face. Lord Halvark was following after the maid with a red face.

Reika smiled awkwardly as her father, Lord Halvark, spoke to her

“Reika, you….”

“I’m fine.”

Reika swung her arm around in circles as if to prove it. Lord Halvark just shook his head, not knowing what to say at the sight.

“You… are always in some kind of trouble these days. Luke is a different type of troublemaker, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to deal with this from you.”

“I feel bad to be compared to someone like my brother. He doesn’t even have the nerve to come out of his room. He’s stayed like that the past few months and was even worse prior to that.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Lord Halvark sighed as he realized there was no point in even trying to defend Luke at that moment and regretted asking about it, but just shook his head.

“Oh, Asher. It’s time to get ready.”

“I know.”

At Lord Halvark’s reminder, Asher took out his sword as he asked once more.

“Are you confident that you can beat that Goblin that nearly killed Reika?”

“Lord Halvark…”

The maid moaned.

“It’s all right. I’m fine.”

It would be the same for the soldiers. Even if they were afraid right now, they would lose all emotions and fears when faced with their lives in the line.

Asher walked outside the training grounds.

***

“ugh..what are you doing?”

Lord Halvark grumbled as he asked Asher in confusion. The soldiers had all lined up under the command of Asher.

“I’m busy training them as a unit, but what do you think my Lord?”

Asher wanted the soldiers to feel the pressure of the battlefield in advance, and Lord Halvark agreed. Due to this command, he had called the soldiers up and assembled them to each have a sparring session with him one on one.

It was also for them to meet Asher, someone who was naturally going to be doing a lot of work during this defense against the goblins, and for them to get used to fighting against powerful opponents.

Naturally, the soldiers protested as Asher was the one leading them. Asher may have been the disciple of the Swordmaster, Van Ester, but that did not mean they thought of him any better since all they knew was that he was still the troublemaker of the estate and recently picked up the sword.

Although some of them had a bit better eyes and were evaluating Asher based on his contributions prior to the defense by attacking the goblins and bringing back a corpse, it was altogether still a somewhat unwelcome environment.

“How’s it going so far?”

“It’s so-so. They’re receiving pointers from me, but they should do well overall when the time comes”

“Well if they mess up even once, it will become critical.”

Lord Halvark said as he looked at the group of soldiers lined up beyond the training grounds.

The soldiers clenched their spears firmly while glaring at Asher. Although he had been the one to catch a goblin, he did not have their trust and many of them thought he was being overrated by the Lord and the townspeople.

They lined up each, one by one to spar with Asher and get to know his level.

One of the soldiers in the lineup saw his friend come back from the training ground and waved to him, since he knew he had just faced Asher and wanted to ask him how it was.

“Brother, did you fight him?”

“Oh yeah, I did.”

The soldier nodded to his curious partner with a bewitched look.

“How was it?”

The soldier asked his partner for the details. His partner was a veteran who could be unmatched by the rest of the soldiers. Unless one was at the level of a Knight, they would not be able to best him.

“It was nothing to you, wasn’t it?”

“He was….”

Boham, the curious soldier, couldn’t understand his partner’s response. The soldier then chuckled to himself seeing Boham’s perplexed expression.

“Huh, what’s wrong?”

“No, nothing is.”

The soldier waved his hand.

“Just go look for yourself.”

The soldier left and waited for his turn with a haggard face. Looking at the faces of the people leaving the training ground, they were all the same faces as the soldiers before them.

Their faces all seemed to scream ‘absent-minded’. Suddenly Boham thought of something weird.

“Is he facing all of us by himself?”

There were more than a hundred soldiers. It was never a number that he could never imagine facing all by himself. Turn by turn, soldiers continued to enter and exit the training ground. And then, it was Boham’s turn.

Ca-Clank!

The door to the training ground opened and shut with a clanky sound. Boham found his eyes in the center of the training ground. Asher was standing there shirtless and sweaty, but overall, unharmed or showing any fatigue.

Boham gulped down his saliva and came closer. He felt an unnerving pressure from just looking at this teenage boy who had barely turned 18. Boham spoke, asking what was next

“…what are we going to use?”

“The spear.”

“…….”

Originally, Boham was going to protest at first, but it happened to be the weapon he wanted to use. However, with a reluctant motion, Boham gripped his spear and lifted it up as Asher raised the sword.

“Well then, I hope you don’t get scared.”

“What….”

Asher moved his feet and shot forwards. Dashing forward, Boham couldn’t even follow Asher’s movements as it was like a blur. Suddenly a thin image of a sword was approaching Boham.

“Ah.”

Boham stared blankly at the sword’s trajectory. It was something completely new to him. Frightening. A sense of helplessness. He could do nothing against this sword, and he knew it at that moment.

He felt death itself.

Before he knew it, the blurred image of Asher and his sword started to slow down and come to a stop right before his neck.

Tooook-

Boham couldn’t even collect himself as he collapsed on the spot.

“What, what…”

“It’s worse than I thought.”

Asher frowned slightly at the entrance where the other soldiers would be standing in line, waiting.

“It’s over. Let’s get you out of here now.”

“Uh, yeah…”

Boham’s once outgoing face as he left the training ground had disappeared, and he had the very same look at those who were before him. Completely absent-minded.

***

“…I’m in trouble.”

Lord Halvark groaned.

What Asher did was a test to see whether the soldiers had ever faced a crisis at one point in their lives, where death was imminent. This meant to see if they could hold up in front of fear of death when the goblins came.

And the results of the test were very disappointing.

“Twenty out of a hundred.”

The number of people who stopped Asher’s first attack.

The other 80 could not do anything and simply stuck out their necks only to collapse right after. Only a few succeeded in stabilizing their minds, but they still had their movements rather sluggish.

In other words, if it were a real battlefield, 80 of them would have already died helplessly.

“They’ll be fine now. Once someone experiences it, you’ll feel less pressure when it comes up again. But if you’re still nervous about how we’ll do, I’ll permit you to train more.”

“Thank you very much.”

“No, now that I  think about it….”

Asher turned away.

“How is the young master doing?”

“…he’s still in his room.”

“Is that so?”

Asher clicked his tongue. He didn’t expect Luke to stay in his room and not come out at all. It was difficult for the heir to succeed the title of the Lord if they did not even come out of the house.

‘I’ll have to wake him up a little.’

But it wasn’t something to do right now. Now that the minimum preparation was complete for the defense raid, it was time to get his own personal time for training in.

Asher went to the training area and picked up his sword.

‘That goblin.’

It was not a weak goblin, and there was even a high possibility that Charon would never be able to do anything in front of it.

A difficult opponent.

Asher tightened his arm and took a firm grip with the sword.

Chapter 32 – Fin