CH 21

he Bardia territory is a "frontier" territory that is ruled by a territory adjacent to another country, and because of its distance from the imperial capital, it is allowed some authority to make decisions.

I am Rid Bardia, the son of the Count of the Frontier, who rules the frontier.

A certain little devil always comes to me in the morning.

"Brother , it's morning!"

"Ugh!"

"Oh, good morning, Mel. ......."

"Good morning, , brother "

Mel, Meldy Bardia.

She's my little sister.

But she is a devil in the morning.

She seems to enjoy waking me up in the morning, and from a certain time, she always comes to wake me up.

But for some reason, she always likes to jump on me when I'm asleep in bed and wake me up.

It is like a "body press" as I remember from my previous life.

It is a secret that I get a little scared of morning coming every day because she can't seem to stop waking me up this way.

I was like, "Mwah, Mel is waking me up and it's hellish ."

She was so cute and angry at that time.

Danae, the maid accompanying Mel, was also melting at the sight of her .

But from Mel's point of view, she was really angry and didn't speak to me that day.

When I waited for her the next day as well, she seriously cried a lot.

Garn, the butler, came to see what was going on, and the maids looked at me suspiciously.

Danae looked at me with pity and sympathy.

From that day on, I was prepared to accept Mel's "body press".

My father did not say anything about this act of Mel's, as she is a four year old child.

So Garn and Danae just smile and watch the scene.

Have they not forgotten about me?

There was a saying that cuteness is 100 times more than hate, and I think that really expresses the essence of what I feel toward children.

Well, Mel is so cute that I will forgive anything.

When I wake up in the morning, it is time for breakfast.

My mother, Nanalee, is ill and cannot leave her room.

Father is currently in the capital, so it's just me and Mel eating.

Garn, the butler, and Danae, the maid.

We have breakfast in the presence of Garn, the butler, and Danae, the maid, and a few others. servants

When Father is present, Garun occasionally talks to him in his ear.

But basically, the family has come to enjoy the meal together.

The basic meal consists of salad, bread, and soup.

Memories from my previous life make me want to eat rice and miso soup, but since I don't have any, I've given up on that for now.

For now.

The basic etiquette is to make as little noise as possible while eating.

I have a good reputation for eating very nicely, perhaps because I have memories of my previous life, and people around me eat very nicely, in spite of their age.

Mel is suitable for her age, but even so, she is a child of nobility and eats so nicely that even from my point of view it is hard to believe that she is a four-year-old child.

Even so, there are still times when she makes mistakes or has difficulty eating, so Danae, who is standing by, occasionally helps her by showing her how to handle the dishes.

'See you later, Brother !"

After finishing breakfast, Mel goes back to her room and starts studying.

This is what is called "gifted education."

No matter how cute Mel is, she is still a child of the nobility.

She has a lot of things to do for her future, such as study, etiquette, language, dancing, and so on.

However, at four years old, she is probably at the age where she wants to have fun.

Sometimes she skips class, which is also adorable.

I think that waking me up every morning is one of the few times I can have skin-to-skin contact with Mel.

Whenever I leave Mel, I always go to my mother's room to check on her.

I knock on her door and wait for her to answer before entering.

"Good morning, Mother. ."

'Rid, good morning. I'm so relieved to see you looking so well today."

I greet her and sit down on the chair next to her bed.

It wasn't there before, but Garn and the maids prepared it for me since I come here often.

Of course, there is one for Mel, too.

Mother is always reading a book on the bed with only her upper body upright.

She used to be asleep when I went to her room and would wake up after I arrived, but recently she has been doing that because I come every morning, I think.

My mother, Nanalee Bardia, suffers from "magic depletion," which is an illness that is incurable in this world.

However, only a few people in the mansion know about it.

I wonder if my mother knows that she is suffering from "magic power depletion."

I can't ask her, but I have the feeling that she senses her own demise by looking at the sad, distant look in her eyes that she sometimes gives me.

Since Mother cannot leave her room, I tell her what happened yesterday and how the morning went.

When I tell her about Mel coming to wake me up every morning with a "body press," she laughs happily and says, "Well, I used to do that to my family when I was little.

I have memories of my past life, but I also have memories of Rid Bardia.

I feel that I have a personality that was probably created by mixing the memories of my previous life with the memories of original Rid Bardia.

I try not to think too much about it.

Rid has a strong memory of his mother, Nanalee, when she was in good health.

After mother Nanalee fell ill, " Rid's mind went wild, and he was hitting out at his sister, maids, butlers, and various other people.

In his mind, why did his mother let this happen to him?

What had he done wrong?

Why did his own mother get sick and not the parents of other children?

These and other very painful and complicated feelings came to his mind.

I feel that " Rid"'s strong will to absolutely save his mother comes from his own very strong feelings.

"...... RId?　Are you okay, you look very hard."

Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking about the martial arts class I''m going to give later on.

"I'm sorry.　Well, that's good, but don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

Yes, Mother."

After talking with Mother for a while, the time for martial arts class was approaching.

I had to leave now, considering my transportation.

I quickly got up from my chair and bowed to her.

, "Well, I'm off to my martial arts class."

"Take care not to get hurt. Also, give my best wishes to Mel."

I replied cheerfully to my mother, "Of course, I will tell her ," and left the room.

The sound of wood crashing against wood and the sound of "kan ministry, kon ministry" could be heard echoing from the training hall.

"Master Rid, you are improving a lot recently ."

Rubens' teachings are good ."

Martial arts training is done one-on-one between me and Rubens.

The first thing we do is radio gymnastics and then running.

Incidentally, I told Rubens that radio gymnastics did not exist in this world, but that it was the first thing we did when exercising to prevent any injury.

He seemed skeptical at first, but after a few times , he said, "This is good. Can I incorporate it into the Order?" He asked.

'Hmmm, no, not really. But it's a secret I taught you. You can pretend that

you thought of it."

A few days later, there was a lot of talk in the house that the knights started to move strangely before training.

After all, there are more than a hundred knights stationed in the area.

Since such a large number of people perform radio gymnastics in a single, unrestrained movement, the movements are quite spectacular when viewed from the upper floor windows of the mansion.

Seeing this, I named it "synchronized radio gymnastics" in my mind.

I could see that the members of the group who could not get the movements right were given a notice by their superiors.

At that moment, I turned pale and shuddered, saying, "This is not the radio calisthenics I know.

Radio gymnastics is good not only for preventing injuries, but also for training the troops to do the same movements. The head of the knighthood praised me for thinking of this ."

Rubens reported back to me like a friendly doggy, .

If I had a tail, I would definitely be flipping it.

"Oh, the 'synchronized radio gymnastics. Isn't that spectacular?"

"What is it? Synchronized Radio Gymnastics?"

Hearing the name I gave it, Rubens tilted his face a little askew, "Kuhn? I think I hear him say, "Kuhn?

"Synchronized means in sync,. I'm not the kind of person who does radio gymnastics when I get to that point. That's why I call it 'synchronized radio gymnastics."

"I'll take that."

"What?"

Rubens ran away without listening to my reply.

After that, word spread around the mansion that the knights' moves were a completely new injury-prevention synchronization training exercise called "synchronized radio gymnastics."

After a while, some maids became fans, saying, "The Knights doing synchronized radio exercises are so cool, aren't they?

In addition, from time to time, I started to hear voices in the mansion.

Whenever I saw them, I muttered to myself, "This is not the radio gymnastics I know.

Incidentally, Rubens is a promising young man in the knighthood.

His age is also close to mine in the Order, so I can say that he was selected in an unusual way.

Because he is such a young man, I feel that he has the potential to surpass Rid, who has a high spec in terms of athleticism and physical movement.

That is why he was the first to realize the importance of the preparatory exercises before exercise through radio gymnastics, but I did not expect it to be on such a large scale.

Maybe radio gymnastics was actually amazing.

I was like, "You can't think about things during training, ."

"Oh, !"

A strong, dry sound, different from the one I had heard before, echoed through the hall.

Just as I was thinking of the radio gymnastics incident, Rubens blew my wooden sword out of my hand.

I fell on my buttocks with the force of the blow.

Both of my hands were very numb and shaky.

"I'm sorry, I let my guard down a little."

"I was so sorry, I was a little careless. In a real battle, it can lead to death."

I thought to myself, "Real combat... As long as I am on the frontier, I must always be prepared for invasion by a neighboring country.

I wonder if one day I will go to the actual battle.

"Well, in your case, I'm sure you will have to train in a dungeon before the actual battle."

"Is there a dungeon?"

The game " Tokirella! had dungeons for collecting materials, character development, and high difficulty dungeons with hidden bosses.

So I thought there must be dungeons in this world, too.　I had thought that there might be dungeons in this world, but I didn't think that Rubens would have information about them.

, "Yes, dungeons are subject to capture . When they occur, the Knights will go

capture them immediately.

"What do you mean by capture ?"

According to Rubens, the dungeons that exist in this world are considered to be a type of living creature or something similar.

Dungeons are cores deep underground that generate a great deal of magical power over the months and years.

When a certain amount of magical power is generated, an entrance/exit is created above ground.

Then, based on the magical power stored over the months, "creatures filled with magical power," or monsters, are created in the dungeon.

In addition, they also create gold, silver, and treasures that are favored by the human race.

Then, the monsters are made to kill the humans who enter the dungeon in search of the gold and silver treasures and use them as food for themselves.

If left unchecked, this can lead to accidents, and when the dungeon overflows with magical power, monsters are spawned in large numbers and search for prey in the outside world.

Since the strength of the monsters created changes in proportion to the magical power stored in the core, the monsters that emerge from the outside world are often strong, and many people are in danger of losing their lives.

In order to exterminate them, you must dive to the deepest part of the dungeon and destroy the core.

Once the core is destroyed, the dungeon will never arise again.

However, if the core is destroyed at the deepest level, the dungeon will collapse and the remaining people inside will be buried alive.

Therefore, if the core is difficult to destroy, it is best to weaken it as much as possible by damaging it.

The damaged core will then dive deep into the earth and store up magic power again.

The details of the conditions under which cores are generated are not known.

Therefore, in the territory, the Knights regularly patrol the places where dungeons have occurred in the past.

The rest of the time, they are checking for the occurrence of dungeons in various places.

As for the method of extermination of dungeons, it varies from country to country and territory to territory.

Using a knighthood. They use knights, ask the Adventurers Guild for help, and so on.

'Dungeons are like ant nests."

"That's right. I think that's a good compare ."

When I heard the description of a dungeon, I thought of an "ant's nest," as I said.

The core is the queen ant and the demons are the worker ants.

In the future, I would like to find an efficient way to find the dungeon.

Perhaps I should also look for a way to safely destroy the core.

"By the way, what is the Adventurers' Guild?"

"The Adventurers' Guild is, to put it plainly, a jack-of-all-trades."

(I knew it was something like that.) "Well, since we're at this point, let's get into a little more detail.

Rubens explained about the Adventurers' Guild to me, as if to say, "Oh, my ".

I had been fascinated by the term "Adventurers' Guild" since I remembered it from my previous life.

There are two types of adventurers' guilds: state-run guilds and private guilds.

The Adventurers' Guild of Magnolia is a state-run guild, with its headquarters in the capital and branches in the towns of each territory.

The structure of the guild is that it solicits a variety of requests from within the territory, and freelance adventurers are assigned to handle them.

The requests are ranked according to their level of difficulty, and the higher the difficulty, the higher the reward.

The Adventurers' Guild deducts a fee from both the client and the recipient.

Basically, many guilds operate on this fee business.

In the case of Magnolia, there is a voluntary compensation system for clients.

If you are injured as a result of a request, the Adventurers' Guild will pay a portion of your medical expenses.

In order to receive compensation, 10% of the expected compensation amount must be paid to the guild in advance as a commission.

The reason for paying in advance is in case the client dead or runs away.

The basic structure of private guilds in other countries is the same, but the amount of commission varies from country to country, so be careful when using a guild, as it can be painful if you do not do your homework.

When you register with an adventurer's guild, they will create a guild card for you.

Some people register for the guild card because it also serves as an ID card.

Guilds in other countries do not share information with each other, so it is necessary to register with a guild in each country.

However, guild certificates are generally issued in consideration of achievements in other countries, so ranks can be maintained.

The Bardia territory also has an adventurers' guild, but because of the existence of knightly orders, there are few requests for hunting and extermination.

However, there are many requests for items and materials, so it is said that there are many adventurers who want to live a leisurely life.

"It's a long story, but is this how it is?"

"Hmmm, from what I've heard, it sounds like adventurers have a lot of pull with the guilds, but do they make a lot of money?"

"I heard that if you are competent and can go to the dungeon, it's pretty good. In some places, they calculate the damage to the core so that they can always capture some dungeons. In Magnolia, they don't seem to do that because it's too risky."

I see. Considering the risk, I might as well register as an adventurer eventually and raise my rank.

With these thoughts in mind, my training with Rubens ended without a hitch.

" Master Rid, thank you for your hard work. You are getting better and better, so I am looking forward to your future."

T"hank you. Make sure you're properly married to Deanna by the time that future approaches."

"I told you not to talk about it."

Rubens has a loved one named Deanna.

The last time I made fun of Rubens for this, She found out and got angry with me, and that's why I can't say this.

The two of them like each other, but they are just typical "childhood friend couple " that are spinning out of control.

'Generally, I wonder why they are so insecure! Definitely, Deanna has a crush on

you, right?"

"Of course not."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not good at getting up in the morning, so Deanna always comes to wake me up. But then she always says, "Don't expect me to wake you up forever. I'll get married someday." ......

"......"

"And also during lunch time, she makes me lunch, but even then she tells me, "This is just practice for when I have a husband someday, so it's not for you."

......

"I like her , just as Master Rid says. I became a knight because I promised her as a child that I would become a knight who could definitely protect her ".

......

"I sometimes have dinner with her parents, and they tell me to get married as soon as possible. But Deanna tells me, "Rubens is just a friend, and I just cooking too much dinner for dinner ."

[......]"

There's no way she likes me.

......

What am I hearing?

Is he in love with her?

Is Rubens a fool?

I pity Deanna now.

No. Is there a problem with Deanna, who has done this with no understanding of Rubens' character?

I'm too shocked and confused by what Rubens said.

'...... Rubens and Deanna, is there some kind of promise that you two have as childrens ?

I'm sure there is. I promised her that I would become a knight to protect her .

Is it a childhood friend's curse or something?

I feel like I've stepped on a landmine.

"That's exactly why you should go on a date with Deanna and confess your feelings to her. Absolutely, okay?"

"Why would you decide such a thing, master Rid?"

Rubens has tears in his eyes.

He is also quite good-looking, so the maids might be pleased to see him.

But looking at him, it was getting ridiculous why I should be bothered by all this.

At that moment, I just said out loud what I was thinking.

"I feel sorry for Deanna. You should tell her how you feel about her ."

"...... Eh?"

"I'm sure you know Deanna best, don't you Rubens? Then think about the true meaning of her words."

"......"

I mean, do you have to think so much about the ?

'Hah~ ...... if you have something on your mind, why don't you go on a date and properly express your feelings in front of her ?'

"...... Okay."

If he don't confess , I'm going to hate Rubens.

I was so tired that I had to move on to the next class.

After martial arts, I had various classes today, including manners, history, arithmetic, and dance.

When all of them were over, it was time for dinner.

I try to eat dinner with Mel as many times as possible.

When I eat dinner with Mel, we usually talk about what happened during the day .

However, I refrained from talking about Rubens. I felt tired just talking about it.

After dinner, I go to the study to do homework and research.

Sometimes Mel asks me to read her a picture book before she goes to bed.

At that time, I read a picture book to Mel.

By the way, in this world, people usually take a bath by wiping their bodies with a towel soaked in hot water.

Of course, if to spend some money, I can prepare a bath, but for now, we have given up and are patient.

This is something I would like to di in the future.

And so the day comes to an end.

Father and Chris will be back soon, so I will be busy again.

With this thought in mind, I fell asleep.

By the way, I heard that Rubens confessed his feelings to Deanna later that day, and they ended up dating " without incident.

......Marry him !