Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14. Even Rolling in the Dirt, the Boy Smiled (2)
“Are you saying that guy Blanc really became Sir Edwin’s disciple?”
“Y-Yes. He even prepared a separate training ground in a corner of the garden for Baron Blanc…….”
“What Baron! Isn’t it just an honorary position in name only! Right now, he is just a freeloader begging for food at Tolome!”
Jonas, having no intention of hiding his resentment, threw the cup he was holding at the wall.
Beside the cup shattering with a loud noise stood maids trembling in fear.
“Even I couldn’t last half a year of that harsh training! Does that unlucky brat think he can endure it?”
To calm down Jonas, whose eyes were flashing while huffing and puffing, the attendant bowed his waist as much as possible.
“Of, Of course. There is absolutely no way that brat can endure it.”
“You think so too, right?”
There was no one in this room who could stop Jonas, blinded by jealousy.
Just praying for his mood to settle down and enduring was the best option.
Jonas, who could not hide his resentment, suddenly raised his head as if he had a good idea.
“Right! Isn’t it training that no one can endure anyway? As the older brother, there is also a need to prevent the younger brother’s futile struggle in advance!”
Jonas rationalized his actions with a ridiculous excuse.
“You there! Go to the Alchemist Guild and get poison! It’s something we’ve done before, so there won’t be any mistakes, right?”
The attendant pointed out by Jonas bowed even more, looking as if he would bury his head in the ground, and answered.
“Yes, yes. Understood. Lord Jonas!”
When Jonas was Edwin’s squire, there were two other squires who lasted longer than him.
However, those two did not return because Edwin’s training was tough. They had the energy to endure sufficiently.
“It is a disgrace to the family that there is someone more outstanding than me, the eldest grandson who will lead Tolome in the future! This is for the sake of Tolome!”
The two squires who retired to their hometowns are said to still shudder just hearing the word Tolome.
***
Blanc’s daily routine was very simple.
Eating breakfast at dawn, paying respects to Count Bartomyu, and departing for the training ground.
In the morning, he cultivated Aura through meditation to wrap the White Thunderbolt around his body, and from lunch, he learned swordsmanship from Sir Edwin.
“Raise your toes more! If you step while making thumping sounds like that, changing direction is difficult!”
“Either use only polite language or use only informal language! Can’t you do it consistently? Sir Edwin!”
“That is up to me. You brat!”
Edwin started to act recklessly towards Blanc after deciding to pass on his swordsmanship to him.
“Why don’t you teach me the swordsmanship I asked for and keep making me do only footwork!”
However, let alone teaching swordsmanship, Edwin constantly taught only lower body training and strange footwork.
When Blanc, unable to endure it, asked if he couldn’t teach him swordsmanship, what came back was a straight punch flying at his head.
Edwin did not care at all whether Blanc had a Baron title or not. He had enough qualification to do so.
‘Indeed, he won’t teach me easily.’
However, if Jonas had been here, he would have burned with even more inferiority complex seeing Edwin teaching footwork rather than swordsmanship.
Because the power of Edwin, the Knight of Swiftness, came from his toes, not the tip of his sword.
“It is to dominate the space. Calculating the distance and stealing the opponent’s space is the basis of all combat!”
Edwin corrected Blanc’s wrong posture by kicking him hard with his knee even while speaking.
“Ugh!”
Vomiting once around this time.
While Edwin briefly left his seat for business.
“Groaaan.”
“So what did I say? If you had just gone out with me, it wouldn’t have been this bad, right?”
Iselin, holding a pretty parasol, was twirling it boastfully in front of Blanc, who was taking a horse stance with a grimace.
She probably wanted to show off the newly bought parasol, but Blanc had already realized her intentions.
At first, Edwin was displeased with Iselin constantly visiting during Blanc’s training, but he had permitted her to watch from the side seeing her gently provoking Blanc.
He judged that Iselin’s disturbance would be helpful for Blanc’s concentration and mental strengthening.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
“Breakfast was delicious today.”
“Not that.”
“Dinner will be delicious today.”
Iselin was tormenting Blanc in a different sense from Edwin, but for Blanc who had rolled roughly for 30 years, it was just child’s play.
When Blanc didn’t give the answer she wanted, Iselin started twirling the parasol right in front of Blanc’s eyes, but.
“Hey!”
Blanc just squeezed his eyes shut and maintained the horse stance.
“Waaaaah…….”
Iselin crying and returning around this time.
Blanc, who maintained the horse stance until Emilia came with late lunch and snacks, devoured the meal she brought with Rakshar as soon as she arrived.
For the growing Blanc and Rakshar who avoided people, Emilia brought the maximum amount she could carry despite the long distance.
Calculating even Blanc vomiting from exhaustion, she traveled back and forth that distance about twice a day carrying heavy loads, so it could be called utmost devotion.
Fortunately, these days, moving the meals became a bit easier as she moved with Billy, the butler candidate.
“Billy. Did you investigate the things about the Iron Bank?”
“Yes, Baron. Still, since it is not recorded who the founder of the Iron Bank is, I…….”
“It’s fine. Put the investigated materials on the desk in my room.”
“Yes. Baron.”
Billy was a servant of the Tolome family, but now there was no hesitation in employing him.
Billy also seemed to think starting under Blanc, who had newly succeeded Cadmus, rather than the Tolome family wasn’t bad, so he was assisting Blanc with his best effort.
“If you are done eating, training starts!”
Since Edwin had the heavy duty of being Bartomyu’s guard knight, he used to leave his seat intermittently due to existing duties and tasks, but as days went by, that time was shortening.
There might have been Bartomyu’s consideration too. It meant Edwin was that focused on teaching Blanc.
Blanc, rolling on the dirt ground again under Edwin’s guidance, was both happy and sad about that fact.
‘I’m really going to die.’
Even for Blanc who came back crossing 30 years with a grim determination, it was harsh training difficult to endure.
If it were the ordinary fourteen-year-old Blanc, not the regressed Blanc, it was training he would have run away from long ago.
‘Still, this is the only thing I can trust!’
However, now that everything became uncertain due to Ulrich’s absence. The only thing he could trust was himself.
Moreover, it was precious teaching he couldn’t learn even if he wanted to in his past life. It was Blanc’s talent acknowledged even by Gornas Balthazar, called the best swordsman, but the Blanc of the past days couldn’t grow because he missed the time.
Compared to the despair of that time, the physical pain felt now was rather sweet.
“You smile? Can you smile right now? Baron? Is my training funny?”
Edwin flared up seeing Blanc show a smile during training which required full concentration, but looking at the reaction returning shortly, he couldn’t help but be astounded.
“Yes. Sir Edwin. It makes me laugh because it’s funny. Why is the training so soft?”
Although Blanc was barely standing clutching his trembling legs, his two eyes were shining with a bright gaze looking straight at Edwin.
“I will have to make Iselin cry more tomorrow. I heard whenever she cries, she goes to you and asks to increase the intensity of training? Asking to torment this Blanc.”
It was the first time Edwin heard such words, but nevertheless, no particular refutation came to mind.
Since Blanc had a tender body of fourteen, he was executing training suitable for it. To be precise, training that extracted maximum efficiency without injuring the fourteen-year-old body.
Extracting efficiency here meant tormenting that much.
Blanc was already enduring the maximum load his body could endure.
Training that other boys would run away crying from, he was doing with a smile.
Not only that, seeing Blanc provoking him saying the training amount was insufficient, Edwin was dumbfounded.
‘I’ve never seen such a poisonous variety…….’
Even Edwin, who had lived 56 years, was a type of human he saw for the first time in his life.
***
Blanc returning to the mansion dragging his exhausted body only when the sun set and turned red.
If up to here was Blanc’s daily life faithful to the current life, the time after dinner was the activity time as the Regressor Blanc.
Blanc, who returned to the mansion after finishing the harsh training, ate dinner and immediately read down the materials on the Iron Bank Billy had obtained.
If he left the Tolome family, the place he thought of visiting first was the Tower of Mirage in the Red Desert.
Since meeting Ulrich was the priority for now. Blanc, who was planning to leave for the Red Desert to find Ulrich, discovered Ulrich’s message on the statue of Wilhelm I.
‘Then where is the Ulrich of the current timeline?’
If the Ulrich Tiedemann he knew went back to the past 190 years ago, what happened to the current Ulrich?
Ulrich of the past life was guarding the Tower of Mirage in the Red Desert as the head of the Illusion School even in the year 354 of the Goddess Calendar.
But.
‘He is not here…….’
Currently, the head of the Illusion School was another mage, not Ulrich, and among the mages active under the name Ulrich Tiedemann, not a single one was a known mage.
Even if there was an error according to the timeline, it was incomprehensible that the current Ulrich Tiedemann did not exist.
The Ulrich of year 354 who hadn’t regressed should exist. The current Ulrich who didn’t know Blanc, didn’t know the Void, and didn’t know the future should exist.
But he was not there.
The most central figure among the 3 Regressors was Ulrich Tiedemann, the head of the Illusion School.
The Regressors intended to build forces centered on him, lead the flow, and block the Void. Strictly speaking, Blanc was a person merely equivalent to a chess piece prepared by Ulrich.
But he was trapped in the past 190 years ago. The current Ulrich did not exist, and he couldn’t find where the remaining 1 Regressor was.
Looking at Ulrich’s case, there was a possibility that the remaining 1 Regressor also failed the regression, so eventually, a situation might arise where Blanc had to solve everything.
-Follow the guidance of gold and call the name of the one who was my disciple.
‘The words to follow the guidance of gold must mean to go to the Iron Bank.’
The statue of Wilhelm I made of gold, unlike the past life.
Ulrich’s message drawn in the code of law, unlike the past life.
Finally, the existence called the Iron Bank which didn’t exist in the past life.
It was certain that the beginning of all singularities started from the organization called the Iron Bank.
‘I have to go to the Iron Bank.’
The only message he left, the Iron Bank. And the one who was his disciple.
‘The one who was his disciple…….’
Blanc clearly remembered her who was Ulrich’s disciple.
In the heart of her who glared with pitch-black pupils that became empty with nothing as she was infected by the Void.
Because the one who plunged the sword was the self of the previous life.