Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Millions of possibilities sped through my mind.

“The hell are you saying, you crazy bastard? It’s you, right? The one who’s been sending me those weird letters since I came here? And there was even a threat in your last one.”

One of those possibilities was removed as I heard Sellen’s annoyed response.

It seemed these two weren’t on the same side.

I let out a sigh of relief. If Sellen had been hiding her true intentions and acting dumb, and I had fallen for it without even a sliver of doubt...

I would never be able to face Fourth Senior Brother again.

Sellen continued to talk.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you’re tired, just shut up, head back, and go to sleep.”

“...You don’t know who I am.”

“Nope.”

“Why? I’ve been thinking about you ever since that day. I’ve always worked in your interest.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I was the one who made Luan Bednicker sell the sword of the house.”

What?

I flinched when I heard Hariba’s words.

It might be obvious, but I didn’t remember receiving the sword of the house from him.

“I paid off the servants around him and ensured that information about the sword of the house would reach his ears. I thought he would steal it and run away, but I never expected him to sell the sword.”

Hoh...

This wasn’t something I had expected to learn at this time.

In any case, as I sat there observing the situation, I started to get an understanding of what was happening.

So he’d made me ruin myself without anyone telling him to, and he thought that would help Sellen... How could I put this?

“Are you a pervert?”

Perfect.

“My Sellen, don’t say that. Thanks to me, your engagement with that imbecile was broken, right?”

“What the hell are you talking about, you crazy—”

“Why!”

Woah.

“Why are you looking at me like that!”

I narrowed my eyes.

There were a few types of people you shouldn’t associate with while living in this world; one of them was those who were out of their mind.

Like this man.

“Why shouldn’t I? This is the face I always make when I look at bastards like you.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I will.”

The situation was starting to go downhill quite fast, but I chose to remain hidden.

It would be better to see where this is headed.

That was my intent, but...

This was still within Bednicker’s domain.

Although I didn’t hold any loyalty to House Bednicker, seeing a daughter of House Goodspring get into a situation concerning the Bednickers...

How should I put this?

It wasn’t a good feeling.

Thus, I revealed myself.

“...!”

“You!”

The two of them turned from their serious conversation to look at me.

I was a little overwhelmed by the attention, but I still took a moment to introduce myself.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Why are you here!”

“Is that something you should be saying? This area isn’t open to outsiders.”

Of course, it wasn’t just outsiders. This area was forbidden to me as well. Probably...

But there was no way she would know that.

As expected, Sellen shut her mouth like she had no way to retort that.

I looked at Hariba.

“I heard everything you said, you son of a bitch. So you went all out trying to kill me?”

“...Luan.”

“Yeah.”

“Luan Bednicker.”

“What’s up?”

I had a feeling I’d had a very similar conversation recently.

“Luaaaaan!” Hariba suddenly shouted as his body twisted in horrifying ways.

What’s gotten into him?

Crunch, crack.

Horrific sounds were coming from Hariba’s body.

It was as if his bones were being twisted.

“Luaaaaan—!”

Why does he keep doing that? Does he have feelings for me?

Maybe?

Hariba’s body inflated like a rubber balloon, and I became very confused.

I don’t think it’s a curse?

Although Hariba’s body was undergoing a weird transformation, I couldn’t feel any negative energy from his body.

Well, if he were a demon, he wouldn't have been able to step foot into the main house in the first place.

Then what was this transformation?

“Tsk!”

Suddenly, Sellen dashed forward.

Winds surrounded her body as she charged.

This was a power I was familiar with. Sellen had activated her blessing.

Woosh!

Dried leaves on the ground were kicked up and away.

Although Hariba was still glaring at me, it didn’t look like he had completely forgotten about Sellen’s presence as she ran directly in front of him.

When she did, Hariba swung his right hand, which had inflated a few magnitudes, at Sellen.

If she got hit by that, she’d suffer more than just pain.

Sellen probably had the same thought because she didn’t move straight ahead. Instead, she dodged to the side.

Her intense movement made her hood drop and her silver hair wave about.

Fwip!

Dodging Hariba’s punch with a spin, Sellen used that momentum to move closer and land a cool spinning kick.

Crack!

“...”

The attack was clean.

The sound alone was enough to tell me how strong the attack had been.

However, Sellen’s expression wasn’t good.

She suddenly retreated from Hariba before grabbing my wrist.

“Eh?”

“This way!”

We started to run into the forest, leaving Hariba behind.

“Luaaaan!”

His annoying voice trailed off after us.

***

The main house of Bednicker was quite large.

No one knew its full scale except the family head and the Council of Elders, but I felt its scale every time I needed to take a carriage to go to the next building over.

As a result, I didn’t know precisely where in the main house we were.

I think I’ve heard that the northern area doesn’t have any fencing.

Meaning if one kept walking in that direction, they would leave the territory of the main house and arrive in the Forest of the Butterfly.

Already, there were so many trees and plants that it didn’t feel like we were in a garden anymore.

“Where is that bastard?”

“Dunno. I can’t see him right now.”

“Really? Hooo...”

Only at this point did Sellen let out the breath she’d been holding and release my wrist.

She had grabbed me so hard that there was a mark on my arm now.

I relaxed my stiff wrist as I asked, “So why did we run away?”

“What kind of stupid question is that? Were you going to fight that monster?”

“We should’ve at least tried. It wouldn’t be too late to run away afterward.”

“No, it would definitely be too late.”

Sellen looked directly at me.

As I met her gaze, I got an idea of what she was thinking.

She’s looking at me like I’m dead weight.

I was shocked at first, but I quickly understood as I considered Sellen’s perspective.

I had only shown her how weak I was, like how I’d stayed quiet when Hector was insulting me.

She had concluded that it would be too much of a risk for her to fight Hariba while also trying to protect me.

“Hey, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not that much of a weakling. I’m actually really strong.”

“Shut the hell up.”

“...”

“Do you think you’re something just because you got a blessing? Didn’t you see how his body was being twisted? An ogre would look cute next to him. So shut up and listen if you want to live.”

* * * * *

* * * * *

Sadly, I couldn’t refute her.

Because of the situation, I couldn’t even fight her under the pretense of showing off my strength.

But also, the way she tried to sound oppressive was weird.

I had felt this before as well, but Sellen...

She’s kind.

Though the way she spoke was a bit—no, it was quite harsh.

Anyway, I thought that she was naturally a good kid.

She’d shown it just now as well. She could’ve run away by herself, but instead she’d taken me, dead weight, with her.

I was even a Bednicker, whom the Goodsprings didn’t even like.

She’s unique in a lot of ways.

I had heard that the children of Goodspring did their best to maintain their class and act with refinement, but she didn’t seem like that at all.

She didn’t particularly present herself as a Goodspring either, and the way she spoke was reminiscent of mercenaries.

Was there a special reason for this?

Who doesn’t have a reason?

Anyway, I decided to listen to Sellen for now.

It wasn’t just because I was thankful to her...

Sellen Goodspring, the hero that would be called “Silver Moon” in the future.

Right now, though, that hero had not yet fully awakened. I was curious to see how she would handle this situation.

“More importantly, where are we? I think we’ve left the main house at this point.”

“Not fully. We’re probably in the northern area.”

“What’s the northern area?”

“A place that you can’t enter as you please. I heard this from some servants, but apparently, there’s a witch living here.”

Sellen smiled.

“Heh. A witch in your main house? Those are some weird rumors you have; House Bednicker is quite the gloomy place. So the Lord of Blood and Iron lets her live here?”

Of course, I didn’t think the rumors were true either...

But I had never asked why the northern area was off-limits.

I would understand if there was a forest beyond the fences, but this was still within the territory of the main house.

Sellen seemed to be deep in thought for a moment as she started to mumble to herself.

“Going back... is a bit risky. We could encounter that pervert again. And just waiting here is also a bit...”

I looked at her for a moment before interjecting, “By the way.”

“...What is it?”

“Do you really not remember who he is?”

At that, Sellen flinched before letting out a sigh.

“...I do remember him.”

“Then why did you act like you didn’t know him?”

“Because I didn’t want to. He’s unpleasant.”

Had something happened between them?

As I narrowed my eyes and waited for an explanation, Sellen let out a sigh.

“Was it about... two years ago? I think it was the Birthday Banquet for the First Imperial Prince. We met there. That’s all.”

“Really?”

“...I think I told him off because he was being annoying and mumbling something even though he’s a man, but I don’t really remember. I have no idea why he’s acting like that either.”

“Hmm.”

Was it love at first sight?

It wasn’t a completely baseless guess. Sellen was rather pretty.

“Anyway, in this situation...”

I put my index finger against my mouth as I shushed her.

“Wait, be quiet for a second.”

“What is it?”

“I think I hear something.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Listen closely.”

Sellen had a displeased expression on her face as she quietly listened.

Clank... Clank...

I heard the unpleasant echo of metal hitting metal.

Sellen seemed to notice as her eyes went wide.

We didn’t say anything as we both moved behind a huge tree to hide ourselves...

Soon, the owner of that unpleasant sound revealed themself.

Clank... Clank...

It was a knight.

A knight wearing black armor was walking through the forest with an odd stride.

What is that?

As I narrowed my eyes and looked at the knight, Sellen said, “Hey, that’s...”

“I know.”

The armor worn by the knight looked so unstable that it might fall off at any moment.

There was no way the armor could remain like that on any person with a musculoskeletal system.

Also, there was what looked to be black smoke coming out of the gaps in the armor’s joints.

Was it an undead creature?

Inside the territory of House Bednicker?

And it wasn’t some small-fry undead either.

If we get found out... it might get a bit dangerous.

Thankfully, its senses didn’t seem too sharp. The creaking knight continued to move away from us.

Sellen looked at me with a complicated expression.

“...How did you hear that? I couldn’t hear anything.”

“My hearing is pretty good. More importantly, the situation might be worse than we expected. I think this place is dangerous.”

“Hmm.” Sellen took a moment to think before speaking. “...Still, if we stay here and hold on, won’t someone from your house come and rescue us?”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, ‘why’? The son of Bednicker and daughter of Goodspring are missing.”

“That’s true. But you didn’t attend the banquet today.”

At that, Sellen became a little flustered.

“That’s true...”

“Or did you tell your servant before coming here? Did you say you were going out for a moment?”

“...No.”

“Does anyone regularly check up on you in your room?”

“...I don’t particularly like it when they do that.”

“Then they won’t know you’ve disappeared until tomorrow morning, right?”

“That’s me, sure, but you—”

“Haven’t you seen how I am treated? The useless child of Bednicker, trash, the crazy kid who sold the sword of the house. That’s me. They probably won’t even notice I disappeared.”

“...”

Honestly speaking, that was a lie.

At the very least, Arzan, Kayan, and my mother would notice that I was missing.

“It’ll be better for us to try and escape under our own power.”

“...Isn’t that too dangerous?”

“It’s the opposite. It might be much more dangerous for us if it's found out that we came to this place.”

“Why?”

“...”

I shut my mouth.

Entry to this place was forbidden to those from outside the house, but also to those within.

The weirdly gloomy atmosphere, the land without any sign of management, and finally, an undead creature walking within House Bednicker’s territory...

What Bednicker wouldn’t understand this situation?

This meant that House Bednicker knew about this but chose to not deal with it.

Naturally, this led me to a thought...

If it was found out that we’d entered this place without permission, both Sellen and I would end up with our mouths sewn shut.