Chapter 11 - Scoundrelry Makes No Distinction Between Men and Women (1)

A rumor spread in secret that the Scoundrel First Prince had summoned Single Chain knights to the royal palace.

Along with it came word that the people he had summoned just so happened to be members of families with grudges against the First Prince.

He had dug his own grave, they said, and given those sharpening their blades for revenge the perfect excuse.

Everyone, without exception, expected the prince to pay the price for his past evil deeds.

Of course, given his status, they did not think anything would happen that would endanger his life, but they believed he would not be able to avoid being humiliated.

People waited expectantly.

They watched with great interest, wondering when and how the First Prince would be disgraced.

But no matter how long they waited, the news they expected never came.

There were only rampant rumors that the second son of House Tailheim, named as the first sparring opponent, had arrived at the royal palace; nowhere could anyone hear anything about the result itself.

"I will surely settle my family's grudge."

Even when the eldest son of some rural viscount's family, who had gone around declaring that he would repay the humiliation suffered at the First Prince's hands in full, visited the royal palace,

"I shall burn my very body in the name of the kingdom's nobles."

And even after an apprentice knight, aflame with a sense of duty, visited the royal palace, it was the same.

The fourth, the fifth, the seventh.

There were only rumors that they had visited the royal palace, and no word at all of what had happened afterward.

"Perhaps they were silenced?"

People thought the prince had pulled some kind of trick to save face.

Someone impatient even said that those who had visited the royal palace had been detained there.

None of it was true.

"It seems there was some misunderstanding. His Highness the First Prince was not as bad a person as the rumors said."

When someone unable to suppress his curiosity went to find the second son of House Tailheim, the first to visit the royal palace, and asked about the result of the spar, he gave an answer completely different from what people had expected.

"His Highness explained that what happened in the past stemmed from a misunderstanding, and my father has already accepted that explanation."

Even when the shameful past of House Tailheim was brought up, he still did not abandon his favorable attitude toward the First Prince.

"So what was the result of the spar?"

"Both sides did their best, and that is all."

People talked endlessly about what the second son of House Tailheim had said.

He had been threatened into silence.

Or he had been bought off with money so that nothing would be said.

There may have been debate over the method, but no one disagreed that the First Prince must have silenced him.

Someone with nothing better to do tracked down the other sparring opponents who had visited the royal palace and asked them about it.

"Threatened? Don't say such dangerous things. I merely came to understand His Highness's sincerity."

"His Highness did not force us in any way."

All that was confirmed was that their answers were not very different from the second son of House Tailheim's.

But no one took those words at face value.

Sealing the mouths of insignificant rural noble families was not all that difficult.

The only thing they could not understand was that the First Prince they knew was not cunning enough to use such noble methods.

"The royal family must have stepped in."

And so the conclusion people reached was that the royal family, unwilling to see the honor of the royal house fall any further, had intervened and taken action.

And the person at the center of those rumors was utterly dumbfounded.

* * *

"Silenced them? What silencing?"

I was dumbfounded that they were dragging me into this when the people involved had kept their mouths shut about the results because they were embarrassed.

The conspiracy theory that even the royal family had stepped in to stop the rumors was almost refreshing.

"Seriously, do nobles have nothing better to do?"

"Nobles are always interested in other people's business. Even if that were not the case, this kingdom is overflowing with people curious about your every move."

My uncle answered as if it were obvious.

"Good grief. They should do something productive with that time."

"That is hardly something you should say."

At my words, my uncle gave me an incredulous look.

Only then did I remember whose body I was occupying, and I shut my mouth in embarrassment.

From other people's perspective, there was probably no one who had lived less productively than me.

"You, make sure you tell them everything once you leave."

Feeling awkward, I snapped at the eleventh sparring opponent, who was resting in front of me.

"About me, and about the result of the spar. Everything."

"I-I will do so."

Only after hearing that answer did I let my sparring opponent go.

As always, I sent him off with a small gift and a letter prepared by the maids.

I expected people's misunderstandings to be corrected through his mouth.

But it seemed I had underestimated the scoundrel's reputation.

"Well... There is talk that Your Highness intimidated him into fabricating the result of the spar..."

The rumors from the outside world, relayed by a hesitant maid, had not improved in the slightest.

Rather, they now included the misunderstanding that I could not accept the outcome of the spar and had shallowly fabricated the result.

"Ha. Seriously."

Once things reached that point, I chose to stop caring about the outside world.

No matter what I did, people would only see me as the Scoundrel Prince anyway.

"Let's just train. Train."

A month and a week had already passed since I started the spars.

In that time, as many as twelve sparring opponents had come to find me.

I focused on facing them and bringing Dragon Slayer under my control.

As a result, though it was not perfect, I became able to control the sword to some degree.

As a bonus, I learned that the compatibility between the Mana Circuit and the Mana Heart was not absolute.

"The vibrations of the circuits that destroy the mana in the heart become stronger when there are several rather than one. The people you have faced so far have not reached the realm of resonance."

Of course, my uncle rebuked me, saying my judgment was too hasty.

But even my uncle, who scolded me like that, seemed quite surprised by the growth I had achieved in such a short time.

He did not show that fact outwardly.

That was simply the kind of person my uncle was.

It was only my guess, though.

"How many opponents are still left to arrive?"

At my question, a maid approached and reported the number of people remaining.

"Nine remain."

"That's a lot."

A person feels differently when entering the bathroom and when leaving it.

It felt like only yesterday that I had been thrilled by a complete victory of my own, not someone else's, but at some point, I had stopped clinging to the wins and losses of the spars.

To be precise, it was not that I had stopped clinging to them.

I had lost interest.

"Apprentice knights don't satisfy me anymore."

As I giggled and acted cocky, Karl Ulrich of the Royal Knights advised me not to let my guard down until the end.

"The final one is unlike those who have come so far. She is fairly skilled."

According to him, if everyone who had come so far had a level of Swordsmanship below average, aside from their Mana Circuits, then the final person had learned the sword properly.

"Properly?"

"She is a talented person who was not satisfied with simply honing her family's swordsmanship, and trained properly in a knight order."

Karl held out a list of sparring opponents, though I had no idea when he had taken it out.

「Arwen Kirgayen, probationary knight of the Iron Lion Knights」

His finger was pointing to the very end of the list.

"The Iron Lion Knights?"

"In both reputation and skill, they are a knight order that vies for the top in the kingdom."

A strict knight order where, if ten carefully selected sword prodigies joined, barely one of them would manage to shed the probationary label.

"Arwen Kirgayen is one of those carefully selected prodigies, and a promising talent whose formal induction is all but certain. According to rumors, in swordsmanship spars where mana is not used, even full knights cannot easily handle her."

"Why would a girl like that come looking to spar with me?"

The one who answered this time was not Karl, but a maid.

"Your Highness may not remember, but in the past, there was a small misunderstanding between Your Highness and Dame Arwen."

"What misunderstanding? I obviously picked a fight with her one-sidedly."

At the scoundrel's past deeds, which seemed to have no end no matter how much I dug, I felt something closer to awe.

The fact that a person could build up grudges with this many people over the course of his life could, in a way, be called a talent.

Of course, the problem was that this so-called talent did me absolutely no good now.

"You don't have to talk around it. Tell me. What did I do?"

"Well..."

At my words, the maid hesitated before answering.

"Your Highness harassed Dame Arwen."

"Harassed? Not insulted?"

When I looked puzzled, wondering what in the world this was about, Karl stepped in instead of the maid.

"Your Highness. Arwen Kirgayen is not a man, but a woman."

The moment I heard that, I immediately grasped the situation and frowned.

"Your Highness groped her body."

"Was he a complete psycho or what!"

A curse burst out reflexively.

I had decided to live while carrying the many karmic debts the scoundrel had created, but even so, this was not it.

Molesting a woman.

It felt as if filth had been dumped over my body.

"That crazy bastard! A pig like him, and all he did was lust after women!"

When I could not contain my anger and shouted, Karl and the maid tried to restrain me.

"Please compose yourself, Your Highness."

"Your Highness was young at the time..."

"Young? How old was I?"

"At the time, Your Highness was fifteen..."

"What is young about that!"

I was an idiot for getting my hopes up, even for a moment.

Fifteen was old enough to know what was what.

On top of that, if it was something he had done at fifteen, it had not happened all that long ago.

"And..."

"What? There's more?"

At my words, the maid hesitated for a long while before opening her mouth.

"Your Highness said to her, 'Being ugly with only a filthy temper to your name, you can forget ever getting married for the rest of your life.'"

"Ha. There's no saving him. No saving him at all."

I had already known that the scoundrel was beyond saving.

But the bastard was not just a scoundrel.

He was a true scoundrel who made no distinction between men and women.

* * *

"Then I will eagerly await the day we meet again."

"Don't do that. Just spread the word about me properly on your way back."

After sending off my twentieth sparring opponent, I took some time to sort out what I had gained so far.

In the meantime, the size of my Mana Heart had grown quite a bit.

At best, it was still a size that would suit a mere Swordlearner scrub, but as a result achieved over a few months, it was still fairly satisfying.

My handling of Dragon Slayer had also reached the point where I no longer needed my uncle's help.

In fact, the last time my uncle had intervened in a spar was around the time the thirteenth sparring opponent came.

I had also lost a lot of weight.

My still-chubby body resembled that of a wealthy merchant family more than that of a knight.

But even that much could be called a tremendous improvement compared to when I had first woken up.

At the very least, I looked human now.

"Say that after you lose the rest of the fat around your sides."

Of course, my miserly uncle did not acknowledge that fact.

Morning came.

Today was the day I would meet the victim, no, my final sparring opponent.

With the heart of livestock being led to the slaughterhouse, I headed for the training ground.

"Please do not let down your guard."

I already felt uncomfortable enough, and with Karl beside me going on about staying alert, I became even more unsettled.

"A proper finish will only have meaning if no harm comes to Your Highness's precious person..."

"Enough already! Stop! My ears are going to grow calluses!"

"I was merely trying to say that you must be that careful."

"I said I get it! I get it!"

"Ahem..."

Even as I suffered under Karl's nagging, time flowed on without fail, and the appointed hour arrived.

And Arwen Kirgayen appeared.

THUD, THUD.

Arwen Kirgayen, who approached me without the slightest sign of intimidation, bowed her head.

That was the end of her greeting.

After that, she glared at me the entire time with sharp eyes.

Unlike the others, she did not even seem to intend to hide her unpleasant feelings.

Looking at her, I thought.

The scoundrel had done something terribly wrong.

["Being ugly with only a filthy temper to your name, you can forget ever getting married for the rest of your life."]

What the scoundrel had said at the time had truly been wrong.

Because Arwen Kirgayen was by no means ugly, nor was she a woman someone else needed to worry about getting married.

Arwen Kirgayen was a beauty who made one's eyes fly open.