novelraw Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Chapter 45
After thinking it over, I decided that it was best to be cautious when dealing with Irene.
I planned to continue trading with Haken in the future, so needlessly building resentment wasn’t a wise move.
Of course, I had my pride, so I couldn’t deliberately lose on purpose, but it was possible to conduct things like a light sparring match so that the opponent wouldn’t get hurt. I decided to lean in that direction.
‘Yes, this is the right choice, isn’t it?’
-This is correct.
Of course, if her skills exceeded my expectations, it wouldn’t be easy, but these days, I could handle strong fighters like Rudick without much trouble, so I didn’t think there would be any problem.
I was already used to facing opponents weaker than me.
Despising the weak? Lowbie slaughterer? Something like that.
After becoming a Master, even my senses expanded, so fighting those weaker than me became truly effortless.
Just as I was preparing to welcome Haken’s visitors with that mindset, the Diary began to glow red.
Once again, it seemed like the Diary was trying to inform me of something.
“No way, the Diary at a timing like this?”
My vision flickered black, and an image unfolded.
A female knight in beautiful silver armor glared at me with a stern expression.
-Lord Iron. Are you deceiving me right now?
The knight pressed her lips tightly together in anger, glaring at me for quite a while before turning sharply and leaving.
-I will never forget this humiliation today.
She left behind only those meaningful words.
Even at a glance, it was clear the situation had gotten quite twisted.
-I’m ruined.
‘Tch, she’s a perceptive woman. She caught on to that?’
It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.
I had just been thinking about how to host Irene.
I had even prepared a light scenario for sparring against her, but it seemed I had been completely caught.
Irene must have realized that I wasn’t treating her seriously, and she seemed very disappointed.
‘Wait, so what does this mean? She wants me to beat her up seriously like before?’
The world truly was incomprehensible sometimes.
I had wanted to settle things nicely and smoothly, but what did it mean that she was demanding punishment instead?
‘But why am I even being shown this? Does the Diary reveal even trivial matters like this?’
Lord Bestia was amusing at times.
Why show me something like this now?
Did Bestia consider Irene leaving in disappointment such a critical turning point?
‘No matter how I think about it, that doesn’t seem to be the case.’
Even if Irene was disappointed in me, it wasn’t as though that would bring major trouble to our territory.
‘Of course, it wasn’t entirely without problems.’
If my relationship with Irene turned sour, trading with Haken might get a little more troublesome.
But since Lord Haken had already made up his mind about trade, the deal wouldn’t fall apart.
No matter what anyone said, my trading partner was Lord Haken. Irene might be his beloved youngest daughter, but she was neither Lord Haken himself nor even the successor to his seat.
At worst, Irene might return home and bad-mouth me to Lord Haken.
If that soured Lord Haken’s mood, the trading terms might end up slightly less favorable.
But matters of territory weren’t some joke, and it wasn’t as though refusing to spar properly would bring about some massive calamity.
‘I really don’t think the deal will collapse.’
It was truly difficult to understand.
-It is hard for a mere immortal to fathom the will of the gods. Even I, as the emissary of Lady Bestia, cannot fully grasp her intentions.
‘Is that so.’
-But for her to show you this through the Diary, there must be a deeper meaning.
‘Well, it’s true the Diary has never brought me harm before.’
At the very least, one fact was certain: if I conducted only a half-hearted sparring match, Irene would be disappointed.
‘Now that I know this, there’s no reason to give her a bad impression.’
Although Bestia’s intentions remained murky, I had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the information.
So far, the Diary had only ever given me accurate information.
In that case, I needed to trust it once more.
Even now, I hadn’t forgotten the fact that Leisha, recommended by Lady Bestia herself, had settled in our territory alongside the Black Lions.
‘Then it’s simple.’
If the contents of the Diary were true, my task was clear.
Face Irene with sincerity so as not to disappoint her.
Considering my level, the result was obvious, and I wasn’t sure this was truly the best idea, but since she had been disappointed by my half-hearted attitude, the only option was to face her with all my strength.
‘But is this really the right choice?’
-Honestly, it does feel awkward.
It wasn’t that I doubted the Diary’s information, but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
Shortly after noon.
Word arrived that a group of mounted riders was approaching the territory from the south.
As expected, Irene Haken and her entourage seemed to be visiting today.
“Oh, now that’s quite a spectacle, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. A crimson cavalry? So that’s why they’re called the Crimson Comet.”
Lord Haken’s direct unit, the Third Cavalry known as the ‘Crimson Comet,’ had accompanied the delegation for escort purposes.
They were an armored knightly order clad entirely in red, from their own armor to their warhorses’ barding.
Unlike Johnson’s men, who all wore monster-hide leather armor, southern knights preferred metal armor enchanted with supplementary magic.
Even with that in mind, the Crimson Comet’s equipment seemed excessive.
After all, it was extremely rare even in the south for knights to wear full plate armor.
‘And they even dressed their horses in magical iron barding?’
In times like these, when supplies were scarce, what on earth were they thinking?
But if those bardings were enchanted with support magic, their destructive power must be terrifying.
With a single cavalry charge, they could pulverize most monsters instantly.
“Our ancestors always said this: red makes you three times faster. What a magnificent order indeed.”
-That’s right, red makes you three times faster!
“…Is that so?”
Dr. Nickel, who had joined the welcoming procession, was once again saying strange things in awe.
The rabbit fellow was getting just as noisy alongside him.
Why Dr. Nickel was like this, I had no idea.
Clicking my tongue, I turned my gaze back.
The most important matter right now was welcoming Irene and the Crimson Comet.
“All units, slow march!”
At Irene’s single command, the visiting party slowed as they approached the crowd gathered at the castle gates.
The fact that every knight responded instantly to her orders proved that their discipline was ironclad.
Even while adjusting their pace, their formation didn’t break in the slightest.
Their horsemanship was on another level.
‘Impressive.’
As a lord leading a knight order and also as a fellow knight, I found the sight quite admirable.
My men couldn’t do that.
It wasn’t that the Johnson Knights lacked discipline, but it was true that the atmosphere among them was rather free-spirited, so a knight order that held such precise formation did look more impressive.
‘So it really was Irene. Just like what the Diary showed me.’
When the entourage arrived in front of the castle, one knight at the front dismounted from her horse.
She stood around 170 cm tall, about the same size as Leisha.
She wore an elegant silver full plate armor engraved with a red bird spreading its wings and a crimson cape.
On her back hung a massive two-handed hammer.
She was a female knight.
‘She’s stunningly beautiful.’
-As expected… does she not have the appearance worthy of being tied to her master?
When she removed her helmet, her mysterious reddish-brown hair with crimson highlights fluttered in the wind.
It was indeed Irene.
Time had passed, and she had changed a lot, but I could still immediately recognize traces of the girl I had once seen.
It was the very definition of a perfect transformation.
Her former cuteness had ripened with time into a mature beauty.
Honestly, she was so beautiful that I was a little shocked.
“Lord Iron. Do you remember me?”
“Sir Irene, is it? Of course I remember.”
“That’s delightful to hear. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
“Precisely twelve years.”
“Yes. Twelve years.”
Irene looked pleased that I remembered her exactly.
In truth, I hadn’t remembered the precise number of years, but when I heard Irene was coming, I had asked Butler Harold about it.
It was a bit troublesome, but small details like this accumulated to build good relationships, so I couldn’t overlook them.
“Very well, Lord Iron. If you remember me, then you’ll accept my challenge, won’t you? A duel!”
“…Right away, upon arrival?”
Nodding with satisfaction, Irene drew the two-handed hammer from her back, holding it in one hand and pointing it at me with a challenge.
‘What is she thinking?’
A duel request as soon as she arrived?
Of course, I had expected a duel request, but shouldn’t we at least take care of official business first?
It seemed I had underestimated Irene’s grudge(?) far too lightly.
“But Sir Irene, was this your weapon of choice before?”
“After losing so miserably in my duel against Lord Iron, I switched my main weapon. To take down something big, you need something big.”
“…Is that so?”
Surely the “big” she referred to wasn’t me?
I had been surprised to see Irene, who used to be a rapier-wielding technical knight, suddenly wielding a two-handed hammer. Her answer was absurd.
It seemed that after losing to me, she had switched her weapon altogether.
‘That’s rather strange.’
For me, it had been nothing but an embarrassing memory, yet for her, it seemed to have changed the course of her life.
Abandoning the rapier and choosing a blunt weapon meant she had discarded all the swordsmanship she had honed until now, and she must have trained her body relentlessly to wield such a heavy weapon proficiently.
Even for a knight using Aura, handling a weapon of that weight required immense strength.
This was something that couldn’t be achieved without extraordinary resolve.
If she had put forth that much effort, then her disappointment in my plan for a half-hearted sparring match was understandable.
It seemed the right choice was indeed to fight sincerely.
“A duel sounds good. It’ll make for excellent entertainment before our big trade.”
“You permit it then?”
“Of course, I must. But instead of weapons, I would prefer combat in the form of Hand-to-hand combat.”
“Hand-to-hand combat?”
“Wouldn’t it be too dangerous to use weapons? We’re not enemies. I don’t want bloodshed before we even begin trading.”
“I agree with that. I’ll accept.”
“Don’t worry. Even in Hand-to-hand combat, I won’t treat you lightly.”
“You must keep that promise.”
She looked slightly dissatisfied that it wouldn’t be a duel with real weapons, but even Irene acknowledged we weren’t enemies.
At least she hadn’t lost all sense.
‘I must be careful about injuries.’
The biggest issue when fighting seriously was, of course, injury.
Unlike with Limond, the opponent this time was different, so I had to be even more cautious.
We hadn’t even started trade with Haken yet; spilling blood now was unacceptable.
Beastmen were used to such duels, so even if Limond’s arm had been torn off and reattached, they wouldn’t have cared. But humans might think differently.
‘She won’t be satisfied with just exchanging techniques.’
Irene wouldn’t have welcomed a duel with wooden swords and no Aura.
That’s why I thought of Hand-to-hand combat.
Since weapons weren’t used, the risk of severe injury was lower, and with Aura added, it allowed one to pour in their full strength.
Of course, using Aura meant injury was still inevitable, but at least limbs wouldn’t be severed.
“…Oh.”
“Whiiiistle~”
Once the duel style was decided as Hand-to-hand combat, Irene removed her armor.
No—more accurately, the armor seemed to remove itself.
With a metallic ‘charruk’ sound, it dissolved and was absorbed into her belt.
I had already thought her armor looked extraordinary—perhaps it was a relic from the era of the Great Cataclysm.
Even though Aura was used in Hand-to-hand combat, there was no need to remove armor.
But it seemed Irene wanted this duel to be fair and without any blemish.
‘She’s even more impressive than I thought.’
-Her body alone rivals that of a fierce lioness.
As her slender, toned body—devoid of any excess fat—was revealed, the Johnson Knights went wild, whistling and jeering.
Even I was quietly impressed.
Her muscles were perfectly trained to the point of not hindering her movements, and her physique was proportioned to an almost ideal degree.
Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange to call it a work of art.
“There’s no need for lengthy words. Lord Iron, prepare yourself.”
“Good. Come at me with everything you have, Sir Irene. So that you never regret it again.”
“Haa!!!”
Thus, the visit of Lord Haken’s youngest daughter, Irene, began spectacularly—with a blood-stirring duel from the very start.
Before we could even get to the main discussion, the duel came crashing down first.
I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but the truth was simple: in this world, there were far more eccentric people than normal ones.
In any case, this troublesome duel needed to be settled quickly so we could move on to the main business.