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Chapter 171.

Early in the morning, the sky above the capital was blue with no clouds in sight. As soon as myself and the people from headquarters arrived in the capital, we returned our guns and rapiers before dispersing after formally reporting our return.

I wanted to return the rank badge on my shoulder, but I was refused because apparently it was given as part of the supplies. I wanted to throw it away because it felt like I could be conscripted at any time if I had it. However, because it was considered a gift from the emperor, I would be subject to disciplinary action if I lost it or threw it away. This dang autocracy.

I pretended to put the rank badge into my chest but put it in my pocket space and asked Lisbon, “Are you ready to be punished?”

“Huh? Why?” Lisbon tilted his head as if he didn’t understand what I said.

I smiled and made him understand reality. "You joined the army without telling Alice, and you went to the front.”

Only then did Lisbon grasp what his future entailed, stiffening his face and becoming nervous. Considering the subtle aura leaking from him despite his nervousness, it seemed that he surpassed a few levels from being at the crossroads of life and death.

No matter how much he risked his life surrounded by demons far stronger than himself, it was surprising that he grew to this extent after only one day. It seemed that if he met a proper teacher, he could easily be pulled up to Rosellis and Alice’s level in a few years. Should I try teaching him?

"Um, hey, could you keep it a secret?” Just thinking about it, Lisbon knew what he did was deserving of punishment, and he looked at me like a dog soaked from the rain.

"I don’t want to." Unfortunately, I don’t like dogs.

"Can’t you do that? Please!" Lisbon begged, but in fact, I didn’t want to agree because I thought it would be fun to watch Alice rail on Lisbon in a fury.

"Den! Please!"

"Look here!"

When Lisbon grabbed onto my pants and begged without paying attention to the fact that we were in the middle of the street, I kicked Lisbon away.

"Uak!"

Watching Lisbon fall over in the middle of the street, I pulled up my pants that Lisbon had slightly pulled down and said, "If you’re going to go this far, then I won’t tell."

"Really?"

Looking at Lisbon watch me with sparkling eyes, I added a condition. "But only if you win against me."

"Win? In what?" Lisbon looked at me with frightened eyes.

If the bet was centered around using your brain, Lisbon himself knew that he couldn’t beat me. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to beat me even if we used our bodies.

"Who knows, what shall we do?” I laughed playfully, and Lisbon trembled in fear.

Alright, I’ll go easy. Originally, I was thinking of doing a book memorization competition or a 10-digit arithmetic competition. However, this would be impossible for that stone head, so I decided to give Lisbon a chance to win.

"Let’s go with the best out of three games and, to be fair, let’s each choose an event that we think we have an advantage in."

"Uh, if we each decide on one event, then what about the other one?”

I decided to be generous with the curious Lisbon. “I’ll let you select that one too.”

“Really?” Lisbon was delighted and, at the same time, showed his conflicted emotions on his worried face.

Well, whatever you choose, you won’t be able to win against me anyways. There was no reason to waste time with a guilty conscience. It was just a little entertainment.

"Then I’ll gratefully accept your consideration.”

"No, there’s no need to be thankful. Instead, if I win, just do me a favor,” I said.

"Favor? Uh, weren’t you going to tell Alice if you won?”

I whispered and patted the flustered Lisbon’s shoulder, "That’s not true. I was originally going to tell her, but I’m giving you a special opportunity. As such, don’t you need to pay the price for this opportunity?”

It felt as if I was whispering like a devil. Yet, it wasn’t like it was going to cause trouble for someone, and I was only teasing this pushover.

Lisbon swallowed his saliva as his mouth went dry, and he nodded solemnly. "All right."

"Then, you can go ahead and decide on the first event."

“Then I’ll pick a swordsmanship contest!”

Wow, look at you without a conscience. A student at the knight school chose a swordsmanship contest against an office worker without any hesitation. Of course, he probably decided this after considering that the event I’d pick would be overwhelmingly disadvantageous to him. Still, I was surprised that the pushover made this choice.

"Okay. As soon as you get back to the boarding house, grab your sword and come out to the garden."

When I agreed without hesitation, Lisbon was surprised and asked, “Will you be alright without taking a rest first?"

"Yes, I’m fine. Do you need to rest?" My physical condition was not at its peak, but there would be no problem winning against one pushover.

"No, I’m fine too." Lisbon smiled confidently.

Being so confident, I’ll have to teach him some modesty.

* * *

"I’m back."

As soon as I opened the door of the boarding house and entered, Alphonso rushed at me. "Long time no see, Den!"

I blocked Alphonso by grabbing his head with one hand as usual. He was quite heavy. It seemed that he’d been working hard on muscle training.

"Ow, that hurts!" Alphonso shouted, and I relaxed my grip with an oops. I’d made a mistake in controlling my strength because my physical condition wasn’t what it normally was.

"Huh? It doesn’t hurt?" Alphonso looked up at my face with wide, suspicious eyes.

I grabbed him too hard for just an instant before I quickly used recovery magic to get rid of his pain, so he didn’t seem to have noticed. I’ll have to focus on controlling my strength when I fight with Lisbon.

"Long time no see. How come the two of you are coming in together?” Alice asked with sharp eyes, making Lisbon falter in panic.

He panicked so much that I wasn’t even sure if he wanted to hide it. I sighed and said on behalf of the faltering Lisbon, "We met on the way back."

It wasn’t a lie. From Warrant to Asterium, where the train station was located, we came via different means. I was an officer, so I rode in a carriage while Lisbon walked because he was an infantryman. In other words, we met at the train station in Asterium on our way back.

"Hmm, yeah?" Alice looked at Lisbon with questioning eyes. It seemed that she had a feeling that the pushover might have gone up to the frontline.

Lisbon and I went straight up to our room, put our luggage down, and went to the garden with our swords. All I had were real swords made of adamantium or mithril, so I borrowed a fake sword from Alphonso to use. [1]

Ting!

I checked the sound by hitting the side of the blade lightly. Judging from the sound, it seemed to have been made with considerable care. It was a very small amount, but it contained mithril, which made it good for mana conductivity. If you just sharpened the blade, it would become an acceptable sword.

"It’s pretty good."

Alphonso stuck out his chest at my evaluation as if he was bragging. "Yep! It was a gift from my uncle!"

I heard that the Butterfly Tribe tends to look down on things other than magic, but they seemed to support him well. I was jealous. When I said I was going to study magic, my family all opposed it and didn’t give me any support.

Since my father opposed me learning magic as my main focus, I had to match my swordsmanship and martial aura to my father’s acceptable standards. Whenever I didn’t reach his standards, I had to undergo hellish training.

Seeing that he didn’t stop my youngest sister from learning magic, it seemed my father insisted based on my talent, so I didn’t have any particular complaints. Well, in the end, I managed to do both somehow.

Whik-! Whik-!

The sword was adjusted to Alphonso’s height, so it felt a little short, but it wasn’t enough to pay much attention to it. Wait, Alphonso and I didn’t have that much height difference.

“Alphonso, come over here.”

“Okay!” Alphonso came running over excitedly, and I touched the top of his head. Compared to the first time I saw Alphonso, it was certainly lower.

"Ah, I got taller." I didn’t realize it because I didn’t care about it much. Well, it was natural since I was in my growth period.

In about three months, when my birthday comes, I’ll be 17 years old. So, it was a time for growth. If I get any bigger, I’ll have to get my uniform refitted.

Alice came out to watch Lisbon and me as we were warming up and asked while taking a bite of a cookie, "What’s going on? Why the sudden contest?”

"Ah, we decided to make a bet and have the loser fulfill the winner’s wish on the way here.”

When I briefly explained what happened on the way here, Alice booed while looking at Lisbon. "Booo! Cowardly! Don’t they teach chivalry in the knight school?

Yuria was sitting next to Alice and watching, and she also booed with her. "That’s right! It’s cowardly to have a sword fight against a magician!"

When he heard them booing him directly, Lisbon was embarrassed. "Well, that’s-"

"It’s okay. I learned some swordsmanship back when I was in my hometown. And later, we will have a match in a version of chess that I often played in my hometown."

For reference, the chess I played with my big sister in my hometown was a chess game in which you compete on a battlefield of nine chess boards put together, playing with 120 chess pieces. Local rules allowed each player to rotate one of the nine chessboards 90 degrees in the desired direction every ten turns. It’s a fun game that makes your head spin.

Alice nodded when she heard me. "Well, then that’s fair to some extent."

As expected, even his family recognizes that he’s a stone head! Five stars! Stone head gets five stars!

"But wouldn’t he get hurt?" Yuria was worried and looked back and forth between Lisbon and me.

"It’s okay; I’ll control my strength." Lisbon confidently drew his sword. I smiled at Lisbon’s confidence and pointed my sword at him.

"Go easy on me." Although, I don’t know if the pushover can afford to limit his strength.

"Come at me first!" Lisbon got in position and shouted.

Then let’s not refuse and attack first. I lifted the sword and struck lightly as I moved forward.

Kang!

"Heup!"

He must have been surprised by the strong impact, as his eyes opened wide and he put strength into his legs. His foundation is pretty solid. Ordinarily, for defense, you would put strength into the arms confronting the sword, but in order to defend stably, the lower body had to be tightened.

Sreung-, Kang!

Lisbon deflected my sword forcefully as I gave a powerful strike from above and took two steps back.

"That was heavy,” Lisbon said.

I smiled as Lisbon became impressed. "I told you, I’ve learned to use a sword. That attack was a move to tell you not to let your guard down, so I’ll start fighting sincerely now."

When I slightly raised my fighting spirit, Lisbon also raised his seriously. I approached a little faster and cut from the bottom right upwards.

Kang!

When Lisbon blocked my sword, I quickly turned the handle of the sword in a circle with the end of the sword aiming for his left arm.

Kang!

At the same time, I tried to kick Lisbon’s side with my left foot. Lisbon became flustered, blocking my sword and raising his leg to block my kick with his shin.

Impressive. It seems he has learned well at the Knights School. If I had kicked seriously, his shin would have been broken, but I adjusted my strength because it was not a real fight, nor were we in my hometown. I recovered the sword and stabbed it toward Lisbon’s neck.

Kang! Sreung!

Lisbon dodged sideways and followed up my stab by aiming at my shoulder. At Lisbon’s counterattack, I put strength in my arm and twisted the sword to push Lisbon away.

"Huh?" Lisbon was shocked when he was suddenly pushed aside by force. He was wide-eyed at the fact that he was pushed by my strength, someone clearly smaller than himself.

"Here I come!"

I lightly put some mana into the sword. Since I said I was attacking sincerely, it would be good for me to be a little sincere.

1. Fake sword as in a sword with a blunted edge for practice use.