Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

122 – This Heavy, Cold Inferiority

“Y-young Master?”

“And behind him… milady?”

Simply breaking out the window

and escaping outside was fortunate enough,

but thanks to that, all eyes of the servants tending the garden were drawn to us.

“M-milady is outside?”

“We have to stop her, or the Duke…!”

“E-encircle them, everyone!!”

Someone, quick to assess the situation,

issued the command.

The people around us

slowly began to gather closer.

Each bearing weapons; shovels, weeding knives, and the like.

“Young Master…we are truly sorry…”

“Ah…Please just leave the young lady, please!”

“That’s right!! Otherwise, who knows what will become of us…”

As though they’d come running

straight from tending the gardens,

shovels still caked with earth,

and weeding knives, nowhere near

stained with red,

but more likely smeared with

the sap of flowers and grass.

They were all pointed at me.

By faces that were, in some way, familiar.

“Kearn.”

“..Yes, Young Master.”

“And…Jenny…was it?”

“….”

I’d seen them in the gardens

a long time ago.

Old Kearn, even then tending the gardens, his laughter booming.

And Jenny, who found flowers possessed such

alluring beauty,

and who once shared stories

with me about blooms and plants.

I’d been worried when she disappeared,

not seeing her around.

“So you all have been working here.”

“..Yes, Young Master.”

“….”

“Clear the way. We don’t have much time.”

“We cannot…”

Kearn’s large hands

began to tremble.

Clutching a hefty shovel.

“We were told not to let the young lady leave…”

“Who told you that?”

“..Haha, surely you know, Young Master.”

“Indeed, I suppose I do.”

There was no reason to be disappointed.

I had my own circumstances,

And they had their lives to lead.

No matter how close they might have been to me,

Risking the Duke’s displeasure

Was never an easy thing.

“I understand.”

“….”

“However, time is short.

Let us finish this quickly.”

“..I am sorry, young master.”

“There is no need to apologize.”

If anything, *I* felt more apologetic.

Because no matter what they did,

They would not be able to stop me

From taking Aria away from this mansion.

*

“A-Allen, young master… the young lady!”

“I see her as well.”

Meanwhile, through the shattered window Jennison had created,

Numerous eyes were

Observing them.

The cook who, only this morning,

Had been preparing Aria’s meals, and

The maid who brought the food to her,

Begging and pleading for her to take just one bite.

Even the head butler,

Responsible for the overall chores of the house.

Almost everyone who had even the smallest connection

To Aria was gathered

In this cramped room,

Just staring at the same spot.

The young lady who, only this morning,

Had been utterly haggard,

Now stood together with

Their young master,

Someone who could no longer be called

A member of the family.

“How did the young master… get here…?”

“I don’t know… I didn’t even see him come in…?”

“You two there, watch your tongues.”

“Ah… Master Allen…!”

The maids, who had been quietly whispering, began to murmur louder.

Allen approached them slowly.

Raising his mana to a level even commoners could vaguely sense.

“D-Did we do something wrong…? Kyaa!”

“Who was it that called him ‘little master’?”

“M-Master, why are you doing this…? Gerk…!”

His hand, shimmering with blue mana,

grasped her roughly.

The hair of one of the maids, who just moments ago had been chattering away.

The maid’s sharp scream

echoed, but he didn’t care, and

began to drag her across the floor.

Towards the black-haired boy, surrounded by servants in the distance.

“Look closely, where amongst them

is there a master you should be serving.”

“M-Master…? What do you mean…? Kyaaa!”

Allen dragged her, just as she was, to the glass window,

and then lifted her hair, holding her head high.

As if forcing her to see

with her very own eyes.

“Wasn’t I the only master

in this house you needed to attend to?”

“Y-Yes… It was a slip of the tongue!

I-I’m so sorry… sob… sniff…”

“…Get out.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

The maid, clutching her disheveled hair,

hurried out of the room.

She knew that if she stayed any longer,

she might suffer even worse violence.

As she fled the room, all eyes turned to him.

Gazes mixed with equal parts

fear and bewilderment.

‘Why is Master Allen…suddenly acting like this?’

‘Even if today is the young master’s…’

“Even if his mood is less than pleasant…”

“…He wasn’t the type to do something like this. Has he changed, perhaps?”

The Allen they knew,

He wasn’t the type to do such a thing.

The young master Allen who spoke of chivalry every single day,

Why would he suddenly engage in such

Actions.

They had no way of knowing.

A person’s thoughts are something you cannot know,

Even if you desire to.

All they could do was think that

His mood must be particularly sour,

And try to move past this situation.

“…Damn it, why does it have to be you of all people!”

Oblivious to the thoughts swirling

Within him.

*

When we were children, he was a presence

I barely noticed.

Because, deep down,

I was certain.

That I would be the heir.

Others might have called it arrogant,

But back then, I had a certain conviction.

The fact that his mother,

Lady Sariel, was a commoner, and

That he always neglected his

Sword practice.

I naturally assumed he couldn’t possibly

Be stronger than me.

But seeing that swordsmanship, my mind changed.

That insanely beautiful swordsmanship

That remains etched in my memory to this day.

“…Do I need strength?”

Thinking I couldn’t continue like this,

I strived, pushed, and strived again with a fevered intensity,

And from a certain point, my growth rate

Only after a surge, after newfound confidence had bloomed,

could I finally cease being conscious of him.

Everywhere I looked, I believed myself

to be superior to that fellow.

Yes, surely that’s what I thought.

Until I saw his sword dance once more, now.

“..Why?”

Why was it, I wondered?

Those same blades I still couldn’t

mimic, why did they look so beautiful

in your hands?

“Se-secure…!”

“If it looks like you can’t, at least secure the young lady!!”

“We have the numbers, anyway… Gkh…!”

Even if they were merely servants,

they were, without a doubt, commoners wielding weapons.

Yet, what was this display?

To him, did these forms

seem like a child’s plaything?

He hadn’t drawn his sword.

He didn’t even cast magic.

He simply struck vital points

with his bare hand, rendering them unconscious.

‘..Ha, so to you, I’m not even a threat?’

Could I have accomplished that?

At least protect someone

from dozens of servants?

And against servants each wielding a weapon?

It wasn’t impossible.

Rather, it would be easy.

After all, the gap between ordinary folk

and a knight was as wide as the sky and the earth.

Then, let’s rephrase the question.

Could I, without sword or magic,

relying solely on my body,

avoid even a single

Left unpermitted.

Could he contend with dozens of armed retainers?

‘…Impossible, for me.’

The moment that truth dawned,

his head cleared.

He felt as though he finally understood

what emotion he was harboring.

‘It’s inferiority, this.’

This thing, hidden deep within his heart,

aged and fermented for so long.

Now, at long last, it escaped his breast.

“…Impossible.”

He didn’t want to admit it.

That he, the eldest son of the Duke’s house,

praised as a prodigy of the sword…

could harbor inferiority toward a wretch

who walked out of the family on his own two feet.

Truly, he did not want to admit it.

“…Then I must prove it.”

“Y-yes? Young Master, what are yo–”

“That I am superior to that cur.”

And with that, he launched himself from the ground,

leaping straight toward the window.

Crash—

He didn’t care if the window shattered,

not in the slightest.

After all, a window broken once

could certainly be broken again.

‘I must… I must…!!’

Right now, his mind

was filled with only one thing.

The thought of defeating

that wretch, without fail.

*

“Young Master, if you would just consider our position a little… ugh!”

“Forgive me, truly.”

“…Does it not feel as though we have become the villains?”

Having knocked down nearly all

the retainers who continued to block his path,

he couldn’t help but feel they were scolding him.

The Saint’s voice echoes in my ears.

Of course, my own heart is not entirely at ease.

This was a matter of their livelihoods,

for each and every one of them, after all.

But what could I do?

My sister was more precious than these people.

“Aria is more important to me.”

“..Sis-con, don’t come any closer.”

“..No, that’s not wha─”

Before I could say another word to the Saint, who wore a look of genuine scorn,

a crash resounded from behind me,

the sound of something shattering.

Like the glass I’d shattered just moments ago…

“Jenissseuuun!!!”

A shout, vaguely familiar,

accompanied something streaking past my side.

Something terribly sharp.

“…!”

Kwa-gwa-gwang─

An explosion erupted in an instant,

and a cloud of dust billowed forth,

and through it, once again,

something cleaved the smoke.

A slash dodged by a hair’s breadth.

A slash that sent a chill straight through me,

and without thinking, I drew my sword.

“..Finally, you’ve drawn your blade.”

“..Allen, is that you, brother?”

“..Allen…Brother?”

With a familiar voice,

the acrid dust cleared,

revealing a single sword.

His, the only sword pointed directly at me.