CHAPTER 19 – THE EVE OF THE FESTIVAL

[This chap was made possible thanks to J! Thank you for your support!!! 2 chaps more to go!]

A few weeks after the expedition, Arsene, with his legs completely healed, returned to his usual training at the gymnasium.

He was dueling now, and his opponent was still Palato with a weaker arm.

At first, Arsene used a practice sword and Palato clashed with his bare hands, but the difference has narrowed considerably recently, and both had a practice sword.

Some of Palato’s skills have fallen due to the inability to use one arm, and some of Arsene’s skills have increased noticeably.

“I’m coming!”

Palato, who simply expressed his intention to attack, stabbed towards Arsene’s chest.

The moment Arsene focused his mind on the attack, the world slowed down and the attack also flew at a slower pace.

In line with the flow of the attack and his slowed body, Arsene struck Palato’s sword at the right time.

Palato, like an experienced knight, did not panic at all and stretched his legs to kick Arsene.

It was a middle kick for Palato, but due to the difference in height, it was close to a high kick from Arsene’s point of view.

It was a blow that was normally unavoidable as it came within the attack range perfectly.

However, Arsene, who activated his special skill, was able to recognize it accurately, so he narrowly bent his neck to avoid the flying kick.

“Whoosh!”

It was dangerous to kick really hard, so he adjusted it to some extent, but even considering that, it was a fierce force.

Arsene, who clenched his teeth at the sharp wind passing by his cheeks, swung the sword at Palato’s stepping foot in a bent position.

Palato bounced back with one foot floating in the air to avoid the attack.

After distancing, Arsene advanced towards Palato, slashing downwards from the top with his sword.

To be exact, he pretended to aim at the sword and turned it diagonally at the last time to aim for the body.

The two swords touched each other’s enemies almost at the same time.

Fortunately, it was practice swords and both were wearing practice clothes, so they didn’t get hurt.

“It’s a draw!”

Palato spoke in a pleased tone and patted the part the sword hit.

“No, I lost. Sir Palato is using only one hand, and not the one you’re most proficient with.”

Perhaps, if it was Palato using his right hand, he wouldn’t stab him back, but twist the sword once more to deflect Arsene’s attack.

Arsene once again felt the gap between him and the official knights.

Despite experiencing time extremely slowly thanks to his ability, there were many cases where he wasn’t able to benefit as much as he thought, being predicted or pushed back in several fights.

Even now, he was able to see and calculate his movements, but it was barely a draw.

On the other hand, Palato admired Arsene, saying he lost because his opponent was using only his left hand.

At a young age, he awakened as a knight and was trained to be a warrior, so he could be arrogant, but the steady improvement of this young knight was sometimes inducing respect.

In fact, considering the age difference between the two, it was great to create a draw at least once even under these conditions.

“You seem to have gotten quite good at using your ability. Honestly, I thought you couldn’t avoid that kick.”

“I only use it at the moment I’m attacked. If I keep it for a long time, I get tired.”

It would have been nice if the ability to perceive time slowly could be used indefinitely, but unfortunately, this ability continuously caused mental fatigue if it was maintained for a long time during battle.

If he used it to the maximum, it would last about a minute, but the most efficient way to use it was just before exchanging strikes.

Although there’s a disadvantage that the flow of battle is interrupted, it was able to dramatically increase the effective time of the special ability.

“Anyway, you’re doing well. I’m sure you’ll be a great knight at this rate.”

In the past, Palato thought that if Arsene’s potential was maximized, he could become similar to Ramune, the best knight in the territory.

It was an evaluation that considered the young age, natural mana, and the fact that he walked from the castle to the territory alone.

But now, he’s changed his mind.

Palato’s new assessment was that if he grows up properly with his excellent martial arts talent, will to improve, and strong ability, he will be a great knight without rivals throughout all nearby territories.

He never said it out loud just in case he became conceited.

Since then, the two have crossed their swords several times.

Palato won most of the time, but on a couple of occasions, Arsene won too.

“That’s it for today. By the way, do you know that tomorrow is the harvest festival?”

“I’ve heard of it.”

From what he heard roughly, it was a simple, medieval-style festival where people danced, ate, and drank happily at the end of the year’s harvest.

On this day, there are no rules prohibiting night walks, so they have fun from night to dawn.

In addition, there was a useless story, telling that a lot of children were being born after ten months.

“It’s the biggest event in our territory. Let’s enjoy it.”

“I’ve made up my mind, I’m proposing at the festival tomorrow.”

During a pleasant lunch, Genovia clenched her fist and spoke in a determined voice.

Since there were only two knights eating at this time, Arsene was the only one who heard that.

Arsene, who tore a bite of bread, replied.

“Why didn’t you do it until now?”

“That’s…”

Genovia, who turned her head left and right, spoke in a slightly quieter voice.

“Carmine is a guy who doesn’t have much control over himself, so he always follows what I tell him to do. So, for the most part, I’ve been waiting for Carmine to propose.”

Genovia, who answered like that, suddenly hit the table as if she couldn’t bear it.

If she had sincerely struck it, the wooden table would have been smashed, but considering that the table was intact, she seemed to have enough self-control.

“If I ask him to marry me, I can’t tell if Carmine wants to marry or not… What if he’ll marry me just because I asked him to?”

He wanted to say that Carmine wanted and was also worried about it, but it was an ambiguous topic since Arsene didn’t even know him well.

No, in the first place, what was she expecting by consulting a 10 years old young boy, now already 11 years old after his birthday? Even though he was often judged as an old man.

“Still, it seems that Sir Carmine likes you, too, after hearing from all over the place.”

“I know. I can hear everything.”

Genovia replied, tapping her ear.

“But I don’t know what Carmine really thinks. Everyone’s just guessing it’s like that.”

It wasn’t wrong at all.

Even in Arsene’s eyes, Carmine always stuck to Genovia’s side with an uninterested expression to everything, but never actively courted her or showed affection.

He acts like a shadow.

It is said that society is maintained because people cannot know other people’s minds, but not knowing other people’s minds also makes each other tired.

“Sigh… I’m so, so confused. Should I just get drunk and try?”

“Usually, attempts that aren’t taken seriously end in failure.”

“So noisy, what does a kid know?”

Arsene, who was wondering why he even asked, saved his answer and took a bite of the chicken stew.

“Aren’t you supposed to prepare at least some impressive proposal lines?”

Hearing this, Genovia frowned and thought about it for a while.

She wasted nearly two/three minutes and recited a few words of confession, but all of them were childish.

“Carmine, you are my star. Will you please marry me? Carmine… I have loved you, ever since… Agh! I really can’t do this!”

“Think of it as delivering your sincerity. Don’t try to put too much rhetoric, be honest.”

“If that’s the case, I can just say, ‘Hey, let’s get married!’”

Mumbling nonsense, Genovia gulped her soup.

Arsene half-heard those words.

‘I hope she won’t really do it like that.’

Arsene is probably the closest person to Elise in this estate.

Growing up as an object of hatred and fear to her parents, siblings, and anyone else, let alone her peers, the girl easily opened her heart to small kindness.

She was hungry for affection, because even Luden, the only one who was not disgusted by Elise, did not know how to give soft affection.

In fact, Arsene took care of her half-heartedly, but observing Elise’s attitude of being happy with his small kindness made him even more concerned about her.

It is not easy to hate people who are thrilled by every word and action you do.

He gained a lot from getting close to Elise.

First of all, he got a lot of information related to the wizards, starting with how to read and write.

By becoming close to Arsene as a bonus, Elise’s emotions stabilized, eliminating the fear or disturbance of others as before, which led to increasing Arsene’s reputation reflectively.

In other words, he was treated as a perfect trainer for Elise.

“Did you succeed in what you were going to do this time?”

“Yes! Luden also said my magic was perfect. He said I was a genius.”

As soon as Arsene heard it, he realized that Elise’s words were just bluff.

No matter how much, it is impossible for Luden to praise Elise as a genius.

According to what he had been dealing with for several months, Luden was the kind of person who would break hearts with harsh words rather than instill arrogance in a child with praise.

In fact, when he glanced sideways, it was clear that Luden, who was reading a book in the corner, was thinking whether to say something or not.

“Then can you show me?”

“Wait, come on…”

She closed her eyes tightly, concentrating her mind, and soon a red sphere appeared between Elise’s hands.

There, dozens of small butterflies appeared and danced splendidly, decorating Arsene and Elise’s heads, and then they were sucked back into the sphere and disappeared.

“…what do you think? Isn’t it pretty?”

“Yeah, it’s incredible. It seems like you’re completely used to controlling mana now.”

“Right? It was really hard to do this.”

Of course, using magic to create such colorful shapes wasn’t practical, but it was quite valuable as training to control mana.

When Arsene praised her, Elise rolled her legs with joy.

‘It’s cute, but it’s a little burdensome.’

Perhaps because Arsene became too close to Elise, there was even talk about getting the two engaged.

He wanted to ask what were they doing with the young 11-year-olds, but in this world, he had nothing to say, as a promising marriage at this age wasn’t a bad thing.

After showing her magic, Elise suddenly asked Arsene, who was solving her crossword puzzles.

“Don’t you want to go to the festival?”

“Me? What about you? Have you ever been to a festival?”

“Yeah, I did.”

Last year’s harvest festival was terrible.

Luden didn’t go, saying he wasn’t interested, and because there was no one to go with, she took a maid to see the festival.

It was not a pleasant experience at all to attract dozens of people’s attention every time she went around.

Wherever Elise went, people who were dancing and enjoying the festival stopped and looked at Elise uncomfortably.

As if saying, ‘Why are you here?’

Elise’s festival last year ended by returning to the room and crying in her pillow.

Therefore, she tried to ask Arsene to come with her to the festival, but she hesitated, being afraid he might not be able to enjoy the festival properly because of her.

If she goes, she will have to look around from a distance so that nothing bad happens.

When Elise mumbled vaguely, Luden suddenly opened his mouth.

“You two should go together.”

After saying that, Luden opened a box in the corner of the room and took out a black robe.

The fabric felt a little rough, perhaps because it was used quite a lot.

To be honest, when Arsene saw that robe, for a moment, he thought it was a garment suitable for evil wizards.

“It’s what I used to wear when I was traveling around. If you wear it, the wizard’s unique presence will definitely decrease. If someone is looking directly at you or having a conversation, it has little effect, but it will be fine as long as you look at it from a distance.”

“…I didn’t know there was such a thing. Why didn’t you give it to me last time?”

“You didn’t even tell me you were going to a festival. How could I give it to you?”

Hearing what seemed to be reasonable, Elise did not answer and took the robe, putting it on.

Of course, as it was suitable for Luden, who had a strong physique, on Elise’s small stature, it was dragging on the ground.

“This would stand out wherever I go.”

“I have to do this first.”

Eventually, it went through a simple surgery using needles and threads on the spot.

He put the whole robe hem on top and sewed it on. It looked a little funny, but there seemed to be no problem moving around.

Luden is a person who makes things, so he was very good with his hands.

“Alright, this should work.”

“When should we meet tomorrow?”

Whether she was imagining enjoying the festival, Elise’s eyes twinkled with anticipation.

Her mind was already at the festival, dizzily stamping her feet around as if she were in the middle of the festival.

“I’ll take you to your room.”