Chapter 103

【 Inn 】

“Were you saying you were curious about me?”

“I’ve heard plenty about you from here and there. But those were always from others. I never had a proper conversation with you, the person yourself.”

Sara didn’t speak in her usual tone that looked down on me.

For her, she spoke rather politely.

“So until the others arrive, I want to hear about you… no, I want to have a proper conversation with you.”

“If it’s something like that, I also welcome it.”

I answered and looked at Sara.

I wondered why she suddenly showed me this kind of attitude.

The proud Sara I knew would never have shown me anything like this.

‘Did she swallow her pride because she lost in a duel where she went all out? But in the game, no matter how much she lost, she never acknowledged defeat and kept being hostile. Did something change in her mindset?’

Various questions floated in my head, yet I couldn’t find a proper answer.

So I set the thoughts aside for now and focused again on my conversation with Sara.

“In that sense… may I ask what exactly you wanted to talk about with me?”

“…About your swordsmanship.”

“My swordsmanship?”

Sara gave a small nod and continued.

“Normally, a swordsman kept training one sword style until they completely mastered it. But you don’t use just one.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Why? Why do you embrace multiple sword styles?”

Sara looked as though she had no other intention—purely curious.

“Of course, there are people like Instructor Luke who used multiple sword styles. But even he mastered his own swordsmanship first before learning any others.”

“Hmmm.”

I organized my thoughts for a moment.

The reason I started touching all sorts of sword styles was definitely…

“It may sound arrogant, but I believe I’ve already reached a certain level of mastery in my own swordsmanship—in other words, in my defensive sword style.”

“…It does sound arrogant, but it’s not wrong. In fact, it’d be hard to find a swordsman in the Arium Empire capable of breaking your defense.”

I gave a slightly awkward smile at Sara’s acknowledgement and continued.

“But I’m well aware of my swordsmanship’s limits. Because I can’t attack in situations where I must, I decided to learn other sword styles to prepare for such moments.”

I simply conveyed my thoughts honestly to Sara.

Right now, saying it honestly seemed best.

“But… how did you learn other sword styles that quickly?”

Sara tilted her head as she asked.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You learned my swordsmanship, Lisa’s swordsmanship, and Instructor Luke’s swordsmanship in less than two months. And Jason’s… well, Jason’s wasn’t exactly swordsmanship but a technique using the Spirit of Wind, but still—you saw it once and copied it within a few hours.”

“That… is true.”

“…It seems you have incredible, genius-level talent in that area.”

Incredible, genius-level talent.

I mulled over those words before speaking again.

“I do have talent. But I don’t think it’s an incredible, genius-level talent.”

“…What’s the reason?”

“No matter how much I imitate someone else’s swordsmanship, I can’t even reach thirty percent of the completion that yours, Lisa’s, Instructor Luke’s, or Jason’s swordsmanships have.”

If I could copy others’ sword styles that easily, it was probably thanks to Sword Copy granted by the Basic Swordsmanship Mastery.

That skill might be the reason.

And if my guess were right, no matter how much I copied others’ sword styles, I would never escape being an inferior version of the original.

‘And I actually felt that.’

Over the two months I practiced other sword styles, I felt it instinctively.

No matter how hard I trained or how much time I invested, I couldn’t even reach half—no, even a quarter—of the completion that the originals, or even my own defensive sword style, possessed.

“Still, you must have talent. Being able to follow another person’s swordsmanship after watching it a few times… I don’t think I could do that.”

“I do have talent, and I also put in a lot of effort in my own way.”

“Yes, I saw you training alone very often. And while you polished those other sword styles, your defense grew even stronger, not weaker.”

Sara nodded with a meaningful look in her eyes.

Then she changed the subject.

“You said you were from Serenus?”

“Yes. My family was in charge of managing the Protected Zone for Other Races.”

“Could you tell me about that place?”

“I can tell you as much as you want. There’s not much, actually.”

And so I told Sara about Serenus—a place this body had never once been to.

I talked about it based mostly on what I’d seen in the game…

“Sara! Gideon! You were here first?”

Before long, Layla appeared with Jason, waving energetically.

A few minutes later, Lisa also arrived, and the five of us shared a meal together for the first time in a while.

“Huh? Wow! Look over there! What’s that?”

“That is… Fido Armander. A famous Monster Tamer of the Empire.”

At Layla’s shout, Gideon answered immediately.

Where Layla pointed, a man was performing with several monsters.

“I heard he appeared at most of the Empire’s festivals, big and small. Looks like he came here too.”

“Oooh! Wow, amazing! Huh? T-that monster—what is that? It looks like a lion, but it has fins, and its arms are super long!”

“That’s a Chuo. It’s not a monster that lives in the Empire. It lives on the opposite side of the continent.”

“And that one? That huge spider?”

“That’s an Ananse.”

Since they were monsters often seen in the game, Gideon answered right away.

Layla looked at him with fascination.

“Gideon! You also know a lot about monsters?”

“I just have a little interest…”

“Perfect! Follow me! Explain things to me while we walk around!”

“Eh? U-uh? L-Layla?”

Layla jumped up, grabbed Gideon’s hand, and pulled him toward the Monster Tamer.

Sara also stood up in surprise at the princess’s sudden action, but…

“I’ll go. You two keep eating and rest.”

Lisa quickly stood and pushed Sara back into her seat.

“We were supposed to go on patrol with Gideon soon anyway. Her Highness will be safe with me and Gideon, so stay here with Jason and rest.”

“Ah—yeah. O-okay, Sis.”

“Or… did you also want to go look at those monsters? If you do, then come with us.”

Sara shook her head, looking slightly flustered.

“Ah, no. I’m not really interested in watching monsters perform.”

“Yeah? Jason, what about you?”

“I’m fine too. I’ll just stay here and chat with Sara.”

After hearing Jason’s answer, Lisa headed toward where Layla and Gideon were.

And once she disappeared, Jason spoke up with a grin.

“Lady Layla really likes Gideon, you know. At this rate, if she keeps dragging him around like that, Lisa-nuna might get jealous.”

“Lisa-unni isn’t the type to do that.”

“No, I think she does have quite the possessive side. And Layla-nim… how should I say it? She seems to like Gideon way more than we expected.”

With that, Jason looked toward Gideon.

Gideon was still being dragged around by Layla, his hand firmly held in hers.

Layla simply looked excited, while Gideon only smiled awkwardly.

And Lisa… though she wore her usual expressionless face, it was clear her hand was subtly clenched into a fist.

“If Layla-nim ever tries to steal Gideon away from Lisa-nuna later, what happens then? Who knows, maybe it turns into a civil war between the Imperial Family and House Balmuth?”

“The Princess wouldn’t do that. And keep those delusions inside your head. If you say that out loud and end up getting arrested for insulting royalty, don’t blame me.”

“Come on, I wouldn’t get arrested for that.”

“And how would you know? Have you ever been arrested?”

At Sara’s question, Jason only laughed.

“…Heh.”

“…You haven’t… right?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

Jason chuckled and naturally changed the subject.

“Anyway, earlier—before Layla-nim and I arrived—you were talking with Gideon like it was the most normal thing in the world?”

“Why wouldn’t I talk to him normally?”

“There’s nothing wrong with talking normally. But it’s Gideon. You didn’t really like him before, right? Remember?”

“…My thoughts just changed a little.”

Sara avoided Jason’s gaze and muttered quietly.

Seeing her like that, Jason grinned as if he had discovered something amusing.

“How did they change?”

“I decided… to acknowledge him. What I mean is… I decided to accept that I lost to him.”

Her face had turned red, as if saying that was humiliating.

“I don’t want to admit defeat, but I realized that accepting what I need to accept is the only way I can grow.”

“Ooh, Sara, you… you’ve finally matured!”

Sara whipped her head toward him and glared.

“What kind of nonsense is that? Are you saying I’ve been immature this whole time?”

“Haven’t you?”

“If you want me to challenge you to a duel, keep talking. I’ll draw my sword right now—”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

Jason answered with a laugh, and Sara sighed before continuing.

“Anyway, I don’t plan on looking down on him anymore. Whether he’s a noble or not doesn’t matter. As a fellow swordsman, I’ve decided I’m going to beat him, no matter what.”

“So that’s why you were talking so normally earlier?”

“If I want to win a fight, I have to know my opponent completely. I was gathering information on him.”

“Oh? So? Did you get anything useful?”

“He…”

Sara hesitated briefly, then nodded.

“He had incredible talent and still worked tirelessly. And… I could tell he was a good person.”

“You thought the same thing I did.”

“It’s only natural. If he’s going to be my rival, of course he needs to have that kind of character—”

“Pfft!”

Jason suddenly burst into laughter, and Sara tilted her head.

“…Why are you laughing?”

“N-No, it’s just—heheh. Rival? Seriously, rival? Hahaha!”

As Jason laughed louder, Sara’s already red face looked like it was about to explode.

“W-What! What’s wrong with that?!”

“It just doesn’t suit you at all! And honestly… do you really think Gideon sees you as his rival? Aren’t you the only one thinking that?”

“That’s…”

“For someone to be rivals, they need to be around the same level, you know? But you’ve lost to Gideon twice in a row—”

“…S-Shut… shut up… just shut up…”

Sara lowered her head, trembling.

She desperately wanted to make a clever comeback, but nothing came to mind.

So as usual, her hand moved first—grabbing Jason by the collar.

“Grk?!”

“There’s an empty lot over there. Follow me. One of us dies today.”

“Huh? W-Wait? Ahahaha… l-let’s calm down… I’ll buy you some delicious strawberry-flavored cotton candy later…”

“Do I look like a kid?!”

Matching the lively mood of the festival, the two of them spent their time like they always did.

After Jason managed to calm Sara down a bit:

“Anyway, did you hear anything from your family?”

“…No. They don’t contact me often anyway, so it’s nothing strange.”

“For the break… maybe they plan to call you back to talk?”

“Probably. If they’re going to scold me for disgracing the family’s name… they’d summon me directly.”

Sara’s expression darkened rapidly.

Seeing that, Jason let out a dry chuckle and patted her shoulder.

“If they throw you into lava again or something, just run away and contact me. I’ll help.”

“I’ll… think about it when the time comes.”

“Yeah. Like you said, that’s something to deal with later. So for today—no, for this entire week—let’s just enjoy ourselves.”

Jason smiled as he looked out at the street filled with people.

“But seriously, you’re not going to eat cotton candy? I’m offering to buy it for you.”

“…Can I have two?”

“I’ll buy you three.”

Jason smiled fondly at his long-time friend.

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