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The words came out of my mouth without any hesitation. They were raw, unfiltered words.

It was rude of me to say that out loud. The Saintess widened her eyes at my words, bit her lip, and lowered her head.

After a while, an angry growl erupted from her.

“…Uh, uhhhh, uhhhhhhhhhh!”

She started stomping her feet on the ground. The thumping sound resonated louder than I had anticipated, maybe because she was stronger than I thought. I watched the Saintess tremble in anger without uttering a single word.

In my opinion, the furious expression on her face suited her better. Her pale pink eyes glared at me.

It seemed like my intentions had hit the mark. A satisfied smile formed on my lips when I saw that I had achieved my goal.

I can control the Saintess’ emotions!

“I’m suffering another loss by caring for you again! You piece of trash! Have you been thinking that every time you see me? To chop me down with your h-hatchet?”

I stroked my chin at her words. To be frank, I disliked violence, so I had never thought of hurting the Saintess every time I saw her.

Perhaps only when the Saintess provoked me with her snorts or scoffs?

In order to clear up any misunderstandings that the Saintess might’ve had, I decided to share my true feelings whenever I saw her.

“No, honestly, sometimes I’ve wondered what it would be like to touch your breasts.”

“Do you think I would let you?! You should thank me for not reporting you to the Inquisition for such blasphemy!”

It’s not like her breasts are going to wear out if I touch them.

I thought she was being a bit extra and put a frown on my face. Seeing my expression, the Saintess appeared even more annoyed.

When my eyes inadvertently moved toward the Saintess’ breasts, she quickly covered herself with her arms. Her wary eyes turned to face me.

She was the one who asked me to look last time, but it seemed like she had changed her mind now. I clicked my tongue and shook my head.

“…Anyway, that’s what it is.”

The Saintess looked puzzled by the sudden conclusion I reached. I offered a bitter smile.

“As you can see, I’m not that great of a person. Moreover, I can’t become a skilled and admirable soldier either. I’m quite honest with myself about my desires. I just do what I want to do.”

It was an uninterrupted flow of words. I was taken aback by the honesty that poured out of me.

Perhaps I had grown fond of the Saintess—the one with a fake mask over her true self, and distrusting of people’s kind acts.

“To you, I’m a piece of trash. To the orphans, I’m an unpredictable adult. To Mr. Guilford, I’m a kind nobleman. So don’t think about it too much.”

With that, I took a step closer to the Saintess. She flinched and shivered for a second, but I didn’t molest her in any way.

I simply passed by.

“…In any case, you’re not gonna believe me even if I claim to be a good guy, right?”

The Saintess quickly tried to follow me, but my hand was already waving in the air. Since my treatment was over, I had no reason to stay.

This way, I could avoid the Saintess’ nagging as well.

It was killing two birds with one stone. Besides, I was too immersed in my own thoughts to realize what the Saintess was thinking.

That night, the Saintess remained deep in thought for a long time.

Time passed by quickly, and before I knew it, several days had gone by.

***

With each breath I took, I felt my lungs expand. Each deep breath sharpened my vision, and I could clearly feel the blood pumping through my body.

There was only one opponent standing in front of me. It was an old swordsman who had retired many years ago––the man who once held the title of ‘Sword Expert’ but now served as a director of an orphanage in the countryside.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t find any openings to attack. His skills, probably honed through years of training, proved that he could still fight like an active swordsman.

The old swordsman, Mr. Guilford, spoke to me.

“…Whenever you’re ready.”

There was no time to wait. Mr. Guilford’s sword immediately sliced through the air.

His thrust came at me with a terrifying speed, tearing and ripping through the air.

I knew that I had to seize the gap between his sword and my position. Plunging into a skilled swordsman’s line of attack was not something a sane person would do.

However, the repeated extensive training I went through had dulled my fears.

The moment my feet left the ground, I saw straight lines in the air directing me where to go. I rushed at the old man with all my might. Before his sword even reached me, I had arrived at the exact spot I had aimed for.

That was when the trouble began. During that seemingly slow flow of time, I saw his blade aiming for my neck.

I had to keep moving forward. In order for me to fully make use of the gap, there was no other choice.

Trying to dodge his attack at the wrong time would only expose an opening for Mr. Guilford to exploit. I stuck my head into the trajectory of his attack, trusting my body to go with the flow. It was a lunatic’s technique.

That was Diffraction.

I grit my teeth. My mind was already set. I had to take one step forward and, just before the sword reached my throat, go with the flow of my movement and spin to burrow into where Mr. Guilford was standing.

It was a rule of conduct that had been drilled into my head countless times. But in that brief moment,

Mr. Guilford’s sword stopped abruptly, and he struck my upper body with the flat side of the blade in the blink of an eye.

It was a strong blow from the old swordsman. Even though the path of his sword changed midway through the swing, the power of his attack hit me like a whip. I was thrown straight to the ground.

I felt a crushing pain in my biceps. I groaned and withered in pain on the ground.

“You hesitated at the end. If you hesitate, I can easily anticipate your intentions. It might be fine if you were up against a novice swordsman, but if you’re facing an opponent who is a veteran with a lot of experience, their experience would allow them to choose their next best move immediately.”

His voice sounded almost cold. At his words recounting my mistakes, I went from groaning in pain to crying out from frustration.

“But I only hesitated for like half a second…”

“There are no ‘buts’ in real combat. Do you plan on making excuses like that in the afterlife?”

Mr. Guilford’s words were as flawless as his swordsmanship. After fuming in anger for a while, I finally sighed and stood up.

No matter what I did, I couldn’t shake off the last minute hesitation every time. I was a person made of flesh and blood, so how could I not have a desire to live and avoid getting hurt?

It was simply the nature of living things to seek a path that leads to life. Even those who wanted to commit suicide are said to regret their decision at the final, irreversible moment before death.

The impact of Mr. Guilford’s attack hadn’t entirely subsided yet, so I staggered for a moment, unable to find my balance. In a brief moment, I fixed my grip on my sword and faced him once again.

My jaw tightened as I spoke.

“…I would like to ask you for one more, please.”

Only then did Mr. Guilford wear a satisfied smile. And then, right before he got back into position,

“Mr. Ian!”

An urgent voice rang out from nearby. When I turned my gaze to look behind me, I saw Senior Elsie running towards us, panting.

Immediately, as she looked at the wounds all over my body, she scrunched up her face as if she was about to cry. She then growled like a dog whose owner got attacked by an enemy and glared at Mr. Guilford.

But because of her small size, she only looked like a small, yappy dog.

She wasn’t threatening at all. Mr. Guilford seemed to be thinking the same and smiled bitterly.

His eyes seemed as though he was looking at this granddaughter dancing around.

“Y-You… How dare a commoner hurt Mr. Ian!”

However, Senior Elsie seemed to be sincere and began gathering her mana while uttering insults in a menacing tone. The air around us shuddered and shook.

Mr. Guilford was a kind person and disliked fighting. Normally, he would have been understanding of Senior Elsie’s tantrums, but since he was in the middle of training me, he was extremely strict.

He shook his head and spoke in a firm voice.

“…Getting hurt is unavoidable during training.”

Senior Elsie was taken aback by his response. Her eyes widened.

Even Senior Elsie must have some level of respect for her elders, I thought to myself.

At least that was what I had thought.

“A commoner… Talking back?!”

At the words that spilled out of Senior Elsie’s dainty mouth, I sighed and put my hand to my forehead. She was a senior whose distorted view on the world starkly contrasted with her appearance.

Senior Elsie immediately started shaking her fist in the air and threatening Mr. Guilford.

“You old bastard, you… Is your eyesight dimming? Is that why you can’t see what’s going on? Hey, I’m Elsie of the Rinella family! All I have to do to get rid of your shabby ass orphanage is…’

“Senior Elsie.”

At my words, Senior Elsie turned around to look at me apologetically. I tapped my waist on a certain object that was concealed by my cloak, without needing to take anything out.

The sound of my hand hitting something hard rang out. That alone was enough.

Senior Elsie immediately started to tremble and tugged on her cone hat while lowering her gaze.

“…I-I’m sorry.”

Only then did I smile with satisfaction and stroke Senior Elsie’s head. She visibly relaxed at my touch.

“Good job, Senior Elsie.”

Her smile and the hazy look in her eyes clearly showed her happiness.

Mr. Guilford looked slightly bewildered, but I was a man of efficiency, so I instead turned to ask Senior Elsie a question.

“By the way, what happened?”

“H-hm? Hehe… A cheeky low-class aristocrat named Leto or something asked me to call for you… Hehe……”

‘Leto…’

I thought for a while. As I recalled my recent discussions with Leto, a thought crossed my mind.

“Did he happen to find it? The base of the monkey beasts?”

“Yes, yeah… It seems like the search was successful. He said something about a meeting… C-Can you keep touching my head a bit longer?”

‘Yes!’

I exclaimed inwardly, feeling that things were finally falling into place.

Senior Delphine, Senior Elsie, Celine, Seria, the Saintess and Yuren had grouped together to search the forest for a while now. They were trying to find out what the monkey monsters were guarding.

However, the problem was that attacking immediately was nearly impossible. We didn’t know how many monkey monsters there were at the location, and if the leader of the beasts was there, we had to assume that we would have to fight yet another named-level beast.

So, we agreed to attack the base all together with all our forces combined when we found it. That was probably why Senior Elsie came to tell me the news even though she thought of Leto as ‘a cheeky low-rank aristocrat’.

Since it was really that important.

My gaze shifted to Mr. Guilford. He had a concerned expression on his face.

“…Will you really be okay? As I told you before, there might be a demon there. It would be dangerous for students to go alone.”

“If things don’t work out, we’ll retreat so don’t worry too much. We need you, Mr. Guilford, to stay and watch over the orphanage.”

Mr. Guilford sighed, as if to say he had no other choice.

And that was it. It was time to slowly uncover the secrets of this mission.

I clenched and opened my fists wordlessly. After resting my body for a few days except for training, I had fully recovered.

Even the Saintess wouldn’t be able to hold me back any longer at this point. It would be a pretty big problem if I were to get injured, but as of right now, all of my forces were ready for an important all-out war.

I recalled the memory of that night. The cold, blue moonlight and the claws of the beast that had pierced my stomach.

Now, it was time for revenge.

With a strong will, my eyes sank deep in preparation for the upcoming battle.