Chapter 181 – Letters from Swan 1
I’m Shadow, a close aide of King Arkhide. I’ve been serving King Arkhide since early childhood. I overcame many difficulties for the king after deciding as a little boy that I’d serve him for life. I devoted every day to that very task.
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――Well, my king was a bit of a rascal during his younger days and developed a hobby of roaming the city. He kept me on tenterhooks as I couldn’t get him to listen to me, no matter how often I warned him, and sure enough it soon led to an incident where he got caught by crooks.
While being placed in such an extremely dangerous situation, he was saved by an adventurer boy who witnessed the whole affair by coincidence. Ever since then…my king took a liking to that adventurer…Sword, and favored him.
As a result of that partiality, Sword turned into a slightly troublesome man as he wasn’t only outstanding at martial arts, but was even well-versed in magic arts.
Moreover, he became even more troublesome when he was hailed as a hero after overachieving in the attack on the capital – although it was great that he protected the king, of course.
But, it was only until then I could have crushed him whenever I felt like it.
Then he became even more of a pain after finding a partner and forming a party with her. I had heard the rumors about her, but although I called her over after being asked by the king since Sword and her had achieved the great feat of clearing the capital’s dungeon…the human, who became Sword’s partner, was bad news on all accounts.
She’d become a major source of trouble, if she became hostile to us. Given that Sword himself had declared that he’d support his partner, I had no choice but to discover her weaknesses and tame her by using those weaknesses against her before she turned on us.
Fortunately, an interesting rumor reached my ears, and so I used it for my purposes. Because I had the perfect pawn at hand as well, I decided to put up a request and use that pawn to have him investigate her.
I installed my pawn in the special class, had her become his classmate and roommate, and ordered my pawn to sound her out while acting as if he couldn’t overlook a troubled commoner.
The pawn was an amateur in all respects, but that’s because a professional would have likely been found out by them in no time.
And then, several days after I instructed my pawn to send me letters describing even the smallest trivialities, a letter arrived on the day they enrolled at the academy.
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Month ○ Day ×
The student admitted into the special class was a commoner with the name Indra. He’s a very pretty and delicate boy.
But, even in my eyes as a child of a poor baron family, his attitude was daring and bold…compared to the commoners I met so far.
He surveyed the entire class with a smile that could be perfectly described as fearless. Are active adventurers people who feel so menacing?
When our eyes met, I immediately ended up looking downwards.
Indra was called out by Viscount Yearner and his followers after school. I couldn’t stop them.
In a hurry, I searched for the only one who might be able to do something about this…the other adventurer, Instructor Sword, and informed him about it.
Hearing my explanation, Instructor Sword slapped his forehead.
“Ugh, it’ll be great if those guys’re still alive…”
I thought I might have misheard his muttering, but later I realized that I didn’t misunderstand at all.
“Ryoku! Do you know where I can find Indra!?”
“Aye Sir!”
“Hiii!”
I got startled by a monster suddenly popping out of nowhere, but got pacified by Instructor Sword. According to him, that thing is a golem.
Then Instructor Sword roared at a band coiled around his wrist.
I was surprised since I could hear Indra’s voice out of that band. But, I guess adventurers, who are hailed as heroes, naturally possess incredible magic tools. Amazing.
Since Instructor Sword went over to rescue him, I returned to my room, believing that things would work out one way or another.
Just in case, I prepared some emergency medicine, but Indra came back without a single scratch or dirt on him. We had a chat, but somehow we talked past each other. I didn’t understand what he was telling me. But, somehow it looks like I’ve done something unnecessary.
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Month ○ Day ×
Viscount Yearner complained about Indra, saying that Indra used violence to torture him.
……Isn’t it the other way around? was what I wondered, but either way, his complaint was rejected. If Viscount Yearner had been tortured as he claimed, wounds should be still left on his body, and yet nothing like that could be seen anywhere.
Viscount Yearner seemed devastated by that verdict. Seeing him like that, Indra said with a bored look:
“…That’s so dull. Hey, couldn’t you have put a bit more effort into your complaint? I couldn’t even get my fill of joy out of this, you know? The standard for situations like this would be me getting caught in a dilemma after being falsely accused of a crime by you, wouldn’t it?”
I doubted my own hearing. Just what was Indra saying there?
Viscount Yearner got upset at Indra, but his followers all shook their heads, saying, “Nothing happened.”
Even when being asked by Indra, “I don’t mind you guys coming at me as well, you know?”, they only answered, “We will never defy you, Sir Indra.”
Nobles added an honorary title when addressing a commoner. Anyway, Viscount Yearner screamed that he would never get involved with Indra again, and ran out of the room while crying.
Indra watched that happen with a very bored look. I don’t know just what happened between them, but Indra seems to be strong enough to win against those troublemakers.
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Month ○ Day ×
As soon as break started, Indra would stand up and leave the classroom. I followed him several times, but he was merely walking through the hallways. Well, maybe he found out about me tailing him.
……Still, it bothers me quite a bit how he was walking in the middle of the hallways while acting like he was owning the place.
Everyone else was afraid of him, and avoided crossing his path as much as possible. Some people even escaped into their classrooms.
Because I got scared as well, I decided to stop tailing him.
』
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After massaging his temples, Shadow tilted his head to the side in confusion.
“The part about her merely walking through the hallways bothers me. Very likely she’s looking for the demonkin mentioned in the request, but why is she using that method to do it? Let’s have my pawn find out the reason. …Still, torturing a noble on the first day of school, huh…? Maybe I should say that it’s just as expected of her…? Moreover, she possesses magic going beyond Sword’s that allows her to heal wounds without a single scar or trace so that the victim’s complaints are regarded as nothing but exaggerations… I guess that makes it even more clear just what a troublemaker she is.”
Shadow was relieved that he wasn’t at the academy as a student right now.
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Month ○ Day ×
I asked him about the reason why he was walking through the hallways like that. In response, I got a surprising answer.
According to him, he wants nobles to pick fights with him!
Though, I doubt anyone would pick a fight with him, if he walked around while looking at everyone with such a threatening, domineering attitude! At least I would never be able to call out to him or anything like that!
He told me that he wishes to experience the commonplace story of a frail-looking, pretty boy being bullied by an intolerable noble, but I think Indra is incredible for calling himself a “frail-looking, pretty boy.” Certainly, he is pretty, but why does he believe he’s frail-looking? I think he’s the one being intolerable, and not some noble, but even though I think so, I would never be able to honestly tell him so.
After we had that conversation, he drew the attention of Prince Elias and Lord Genius. I told him to behave for mercy’s sake, but my prayers were in vain. Indra told the prince, who’s the strongest in the academy, that he’s aiming to take the seat of strongest.
Seeing how veins popped out all over the prince’s temples, I became ghastly pale. It was clear that the prince was pissed. Since Indra gave it the finishing blow by calling the prince’s matches prearranged when Lord Genius told him about the prince being the strongest in the academy, I started to cry for real, expecting that this was doomed to end very badly.
…In the end, the prince challenged Indra to a duel, and Indra accepted it indifferently, saying that Instructor Sword would need to agree first.
To make matters worse, Indra told the prince that he was free to use underhanded means when the prince told him to not use any foul means.
It made me acutely feel that I really don’t want to be here anymore.
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Once Shadow finished reading, he massaged his temples.
“…Well, why not. Prince Elias opposed the king’s enthronement. He’s a fool prattling about usurper behind the king’s back. It might be just perfect if she and him crush each other. At least it’d be much better than them becoming friends,” he muttered with a sigh.
Does she have no weaknesses? A commoner making the nobles scared of her at a nobles’ academy isn’t normal by any means…or rather, she’d be the only person to do something like that.
Even Sword had his fair share of troubles at that academy. Since he was backed by Prince Arkhide back then, he simply avoided being harassed publicly. But, for Indra, who has no backer, to make light of even the prince while being even more domineering than nobles..
Shadow sighed once more.
Anyway, I’ll wait and see what the next report tells me.
