Chapter 87: Everyone’s son-in-law
On my way back from my meeting with the saint, Bernice I stroked the jewel on the head of Sierra’s sword as I recall the conversation I had with her earlier.
The conversation probably went better than I thought it would, but…
‘Cadet Zetto… killed a demon.’
…The saint’s intelligence had exceeded my expectations.
I never thought she’d connect me to Krektar.
Bernice was merely asking questions, but she had the power to know when I tell the truth.
I had intended to take this opportunity to make a modest acquaintance and ask for her help when I needed it, but Bernice was trying to recruit me into her Order.
I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad thing, considering my future activities.
However, there was something I was hesitant about. It wasn’t a matter of conversation or excuses, but… It was what the saint had done to me.
As soon as Bernice saw me, she unleashed her holy power on me.
She must have sensed an ominous aura from me immediately.
It didn’t do much damage, as it wasn’t something that could be cleansed away, but before that could happen, her holy power was blocked by the ‘coat’ I was wearing.
The Night Shroud had a holy magic resistance attached to it.
Since the original owner of the coat, Varsum, was a vampire, the resistance itself was high.
‘I didn’t think it was a very useful option, so I hadn’t considered it…’
Fortunately, Bernice doesn’t seem to have gotten too close to any of it…at least not yet.
As far as the Spectral Sword goes, we’ll see when the time comes, Bernice isn’t that inflexible.
Given Deidros’ misconceptions when he created the Spectral Sword, I think she might be able to sympathize and understand.
But when it comes to the tears of the dead… I have no explanation.
I can’t just say, “I killed a lich and took what I got from him and put it in my heart,” and move on.
Aside from the inevitable closeness to Bernice, joining the Knights of the Saint still seemed comfortable in many ways.
As I pondered this, my Sierra began to hum and vibrate, and soon after Sierra opened her mouth.
[Disciple, disciple… Can you stop touching me…]
Sierra, who was saying that in a shy voice, was twisting her stomach as if she didn’t know what to do.
As I pondered, I unwittingly fondled the sword at my waist.
“What part of your body is it connected to…?”
I said, tapping the jewelry on the hilt.
‘I’m pretty sure she didn’t mind the handle.’
Sierra’s body immediately shuddered.
[Hmph… that, stop…stop it…]
…Judging by her reaction, it’s a very sensitive area.
“…I see.”
I took my hand away from the sword and held up my palm as Sierra steadied herself and glared at me.
It seems that Sierra is more sensually connected to me when she’s inside the sword than when she’s outside.
In any case, it seemed unlikely that I would not be able to travel around the academy with her for the time being.
“Master, could you please bear with me even if it’s frustrating, I don’t want you to be seen by the saint right now.”
[…So, it’s okay later?]
Sierra asked with a pout, placing her hands on my shoulders and nudging me.
“As long as it goes the way I think it will.”
I assured her, and we started down the street toward the Colosseum.
I wondered if Bernice’s “powers” would work on the dead Sierra.
***
The climax of the second day of open lessons was undoubtedly the duel between the Rising Star Eisel Ludwig and Yuri Clementine of the Continent Four Elemental Families.
It began with Yuri’s call, who with a confident expression, invited Aizel to join her.
The two then unleashed an overwhelming display of skill, sending the Colosseum into a frenzy.
The result was a victory for Aizel.
Yuri was strong but unfortunately not yet strong enough to overcome the giant wall of The Regressor.
Still, the duel between the two had already far exceeded the expectations of a first-year cadet, and Yuri’s defeat did nothing to diminish the reputation of the Four Elemental Families.
Even Yuri’s father, Jeras Clementine, was quite pleased with his daughter’s performance.
Normally, he would have scolded her, but he was in a good mood.
It was an unexpected stroke of good fortune for him to meet a cadet named Zetto as he was deep in thought about the First Prince.
The second day’s events have come to a close, and for the next few days, outsiders will be allowed to observe the cadets’ lives at the Academy.
Thus Jeras found himself in Yuri’s dormitory.
Yuri’s room wasn’t much different than her room back home. It was neat and tidy, with nothing out of place and not a speck of dust in sight.
On the other side of the room, he could see his beautiful daughter, Yuri, sitting on her bed, looking determined.
A book sat at the head of the bed.
‘You still love fairy tales.’
His daughter’s childlike innocence brought a wry smile to his lips.
“You don’t seem to be in a good mood.”
He asks as he approaches Yuri.
“…I can’t be in a good mood after losing.”
Yuri shook her head. She could barely contain her rising anger but this was no time to be annoyed with her father.
“Hahaha, that’s my daughter. Yes, if there’s a wall, burn it down and jump over it, because that’s Clementine.”
Jeras laughed out loud.
At least he’d done a good job raising her.
“…For some reason, you don’t say anything bitter about your father.”
Yuri clenched her jaw.
“Miss Aizel is as strong as I’ve heard … .a ‘Ludwig’ who wields lightning magic…I’ve never heard of them.”
“I never asked about the family either, I just figured there must be one somewhere on the continent… Anyway, she’s a weird one, she always comes back from somewhere hurt…”
Yuri begins to ramble on about Aizel.
Looking at her, Jeras stroked her hair with a wry smile.
Zetto may not have been Yuri’s only friend. It was nice to have some friendly competition too.
After all, he’d spent most of his childhood bickering with Maxim Caligus.
“…And when did you and Zetto become so close?”
Yuri ran a hand through her red hair as she spoke and her words prompted a question from Jeras.
“…Was Ms. Aizel also close to Zetto?”
“She seemed to be?”
“Hmm…”
Jeras clears his throat and runs a hand through his beard and thinks that maybe for Yuri, Aizel is not a friend, but a ‘love rival’.
The brief glimpse he’d gotten of Zetto had shown him to be quite popular with the female cadets. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to think so.
“Haha, my daughter is going to have some trouble.”
Yuri’s head tilted at the offhand remark.
She crosses her arms and looks at him as if she doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“Yuri, my dear daughter, if I may say so, this father has a word for you… Love is a hard thing to come by when you don’t have it.”
“Love…? Father, what are you talking about…?”
Only then does Yuri realize what her father is talking about.
“Zetto…he’s…he’s just a friend.”
Yuri stammered, pushing Jeras away.
“So you wouldn’t mind if Miss Aizel and Zetto would declare their love in front of you?”
“That, that… There’s no way Aizel and Zetto would do that…”
Even as Yuri said that, she remembered the look in Aizel’s eyes as she looked at Zetto. It was deep, dark, and yet somehow… It was a strange gaze.
Yuri couldn’t finish the sentence.
Jeras smiled at the bowed head, then turned and left the room, saying something incoherent.
“With a son-in-law like Zetto, this father is always in favor.”
As Jeras left the room, he was confident that Yuri would be able to handle herself.
Yuri remained in the room, still in shock.
‘A son-in-law…’
Even so, it was a step too far.
“Zetto’s just a friend… We haven’t even held hands, so how could it be a marriage…”
Yuri, who was mumbling something like that, made an ‘ah’ sound.
‘Didn’t we already hold hands…?’
Yuri immediately approaches the drawer next to the bed and takes something out of it.
As she closes the drawer, she holds an ice cube in her hand. It was a souvenir that Lucia had given everyone when they went to the North.
She sits down on the bed and imbues the ice cube with mana and for a long time afterward, Yuri smiles at the stored memory.
***
Meanwhile, the same thing was in the hand of a pink, pigtailed girl in the same dorm as Yuri.
Kaen naturally reached for the ice cube at night.
She was about to channel her mana into the cube as she thought to herself, ‘I’m not going to get a nosebleed today’ when the sound of a window opening was suddenly heard in the dark room.
‘What is it…? A thief? There were rumors that a thief had entered the Academy…’
He had the wrong target since Kaen was a disciple of Sword Saint and she immediately drew her sword from beside her bed and tried to slash at the mysterious thief but with a clear sound, Kaen’s sword was knocked away by the intruder’s fingers.
“…Your skills are rusty.”
The voice was very familiar to her and Kaen cries out in a panicked voice.
“Grandpa?!”
“Who would be intimidated by such a weak sword thrust?”
The attacker was none other than Kaen’s teacher and master, Chris.
With that, Chris clicked his tongue and began to look around his granddaughter’s room nonchalantly. Perhaps it was because she had been wandering with him since childhood but the room was sparse, with not much else in it.
“No, you can’t just come through the window…”
Kaen glanced at Chris and immediately understood why he had done what he had done. After all, she and Chris had kept their relationship a secret.
“Hmmmm… So, Grandpa, what brings you here at this late hour?”
Kaen said to him as she sheathed her sword and returned it to its place.
Then, looking around the room, Chris answers.
“I met with Zetto this morning.”
“You met Cadet Zeto?”
“Yes. I was watching his swordsmanship and had some questions, so we chatted a bit. Now I understand why you lost.”
He didn’t bother to mention that he had tried to take Zetto as a disciple.
“…If we fight again, I can win.”
Kaen said, thinking that Chris was scolding her. But his reply was not what she expected.
“There’s no need for that. I think it’s best to keep it a secret that you’re still my student, especially from Zetto.”
“…What?” “…There’s a reason for that.”
Chris waved away Kaen’s question but in response, Kaen narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.
Chris was such a peculiar character and Kaen couldn’t fully comprehend his actions or words.
As he studied her, his eyes caught the ice cube in her hand and asked.
“What is this?”
“It’s… it’s just ice… ice that I eat. Ehehe… I eat it whenever I’m thirsty!”
At Chris’s question, Kaen hastily pops the ice cube into her mouth and scratches her cheek.
‘Zetto… I swallowed it…’
With the ice cube in her mouth, Kaen wanted to cry, but she couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. She just hoped it wouldn’t melt.
As he watched Kaen put the dirty ice cube in her mouth, Chris wondered why he hadn’t taught her more about manners.
As he scratched his cheek, a ring on Kaen’s finger caught his eye.
“Hmm? I’ve never seen that ring before.”
Chris asked Kaen and Kaen glanced at the ring.
“Oh, this is the ring I got from Cadet Zetto…”
Kaen excitedly showed Chris her finger.
In fact, the clothes Kaen was wearing now had also been bought for her by Zetto before.
Contrary to what Zetto had thought, she had worn it once and didn’t throw it away since it was a comfortable outfit.
“You got a ring?”
Chris’s eyes widened.
“Uh, that’s… Somehow…”
Kaen said, her words somewhat slurred by the ice cube she had in her mouth.
She couldn’t say that she got it from capturing a blood mage with Zetto since it was a secret between them.
Hearing this, Chris was stunned.
‘Does that mean they’ve already been exchanging rings…?’
Even if Chris didn’t know much about love between men and women, he knew that exchanging rings meant a lot.
The corners of Chris’s mouth turned up so much that his teeth were visible.
“Good, Kaen, keep up the good work!”
“…Good work?”
Kaen’s confusion was evident in her voice, but Chris didn’t seem to care.
He had come to Kaen to find out how to connect Kaen and Zetto, but despite his worries, it seemed that his student had already taken care of it herself.
He didn’t feel like he’d made a mistake.
As he left the room, leaving Kaen with a question mark on her face, Chris put his foot on the window and spoke to her.
“…I can’t wait to see my grandchildren….No, great-grandchildren. He already gave you the ring, so that’s all that’s left.”
He rambled on for a while.
“Great-grandchildren?!”
Kaen’s questioning exclamation is immediately followed by Chris slipping through the window.
‘You’re still a little shy, Kaen.’
Chris thought to himself as he flew lightly through the air.
“Eh…”
Having been humiliated by Chris’s unexpected visit, Kaen spits out the ice cube and thankfully the ice didn’t melt.
She’d been told it wouldn’t melt, but it would be terribly unfair if it did, and she worried unnecessarily.
She rolled her eyes and muttered to herself.
“Great-grandchildren, no way…”
Kaen wondered if perhaps her grandfather, Chris, was firmly mistaken, but the fact that he would say such a thing also meant that he had taken a liking to Zetto.
‘Zetto… Me…’
Heat flashed across Kaen’s face as she thought about the process of making what Chris called a ‘great-grandchild’.
She flinches and clamps her mouth shut….Anyway, washing the ice cubes came first.