Chapter 28
Vroooom—
At the Ather family’s training grounds.
Eric was the first to arrive at dawn, wooden sword in hand.
He warmed up lightly, striking a lone scarecrow, before continuing his sparring under Leona’s guidance once she arrived.
“Ugh… Lady Leona, can’t we take a short break?”
“No. We cannot. If you get tired later, will you ask the monsters for a break too?”
“No! I’m not talking about monsters… I just…”
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
Several hours had passed since they began sparring.
Eric had already hit the ground more than ten times. Holding his sore side, he curled up like a shrimp.
“…I still need to eat, don’t I?”
It had been about ten days since returning from the events in the Nibosus Mountains.
Ever since his previous duel with Ivan, sparring had intensified. Back then, he had boasted that he could predict the path of an opponent’s sword just by stance alone. That alone had increased the rigor of his training.
But until now, no one had pushed him this relentlessly, ignoring even rest periods just to knock him down repeatedly.
‘Ugh… At this rate, I’ll get injured before even becoming the heir.’
On his first day back, the training hadn’t been this intense. Somehow, it seemed to get worse with each passing day.
Ding—
[Your body has adapted to its current limits.]
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
‘At least my stats improved midway. Without that, I’d be in real trouble…’
Eric sighed heavily, finally sitting down. His body ached in various places besides the side that Leona had struck earlier.
‘…Well, I think I roughly understand why she’s like this.’
He leaned his head back against the wall and watched Leona as she moved to instruct Lillian on the opposite side.
“Huff… huff…”
“Straighten your back and bend your knees more!”
“Ugh!”
Unlike Eric, who could rest in between when Leona stepped away, Lillian had been running the training grounds continuously, repeating mounted stances for hours on end.
Her fatigue was evident—her legs wobbled like a newborn deer—but Leona merely corrected her posture with sharp criticism.
“L-Lady Leona, how long do I have to keep doing this?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to build your stamina? There are no shortcuts in training. You only improve as much as you work for it. Otherwise, will you continue to collapse every time you use magic?”
“But… I’m really reaching my limit… ugh!”
Thwack!
“Get up at once! No matter what the young master commands, I can’t always be by your side to supervise. And when the time comes, I promise this moment will have helped you.”
Watching Lillian gag from overexertion, Leona struck the ground with her wooden sword and spoke firmly.
‘Frustrating… but I can’t protect everyone by myself.’
On this expedition, Leona had painfully realized her own limitations.
Though they had successfully dealt with the Named enemy and all three had returned safely, the process had been far from smooth.
While Lillian prepared her magic and repeatedly fainted, Eric, powerless, had risked his life surrounded by monsters.
Without him, the Named enemy would not have been defeated and could have ended up as a meal for injured wolves.
He even suffered a horrific injury from shoulder to elbow, exposing the bone. Thanks to a mysterious black-hooded cleric he had encountered at the inn, Eric was treated in time—but such luck couldn’t be expected again.
If anything happened to him next time…
‘My career in this life would be over. A defeated knight might be forgiven, but a knight who fails to protect his master cannot be.’
That was why both of them needed to grow stronger.
At the very least, they needed enough stamina to buy themselves time if trapped.
Lillian especially needed to build her stamina quickly so she wouldn’t collapse after using magic like this. Next time, if one of them had to be protected, he would have no choice but to choose the young master.
“Y-Young master…”
Lillian shook her head at the unyielding Leona, then glanced at Eric with eyes silently pleading for help.
“…Ahem.”
Eric quietly observed them, then averted his gaze, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.
Unfortunately, Lillian wasn’t the only one struggling from the intensity. And while it was harsh, he couldn’t entirely blame Leona.
Lillian Ashford
Level: 25
Strength [12]
Agility [15]
Stamina [10] → [12]
Mana [225]
Special Trait: <Glass Cannon>
After all, in the past ten days, Lillian’s stamina had improved considerably through continuous training.
‘But… the real problem is over there.’
“P-Priest! My… fingers here…”
“Hey! Why are you bothering the priest with something like that? A little ointment will fix it in no time.”
“Priest, look at me first! I think I hurt my legs badly during training today!”
Eric finally tore his eyes from the pair and looked toward the entrance, where commotion had begun.
“Knights, don’t fight. The Goddess’ love is equal for everyone, after all.”
From the day the new cleric had been sent to the Ather family by the church, the knights had been slyly observing her. Now, after training, they used minor injuries as excuses to approach her. Malefica always greeted them with a smile.
‘Equal my foot… Even if we all fought monsters and leveled up the same, the stat increases differ by rank. And there are people like me, completely useless.’
Watching this indifferently from afar, Eric noticed Malefica slightly bow her head and smile at him, prompting an awkward smile in return.
A witch raised amidst the church’s darkness, pretending to be a flawlessly kind cleric… Such hypocrisy was unbelievable.
‘…Suspicious.’
At the training ground’s entrance.
Surrounded by knights gradually crowding around her, Malefica narrowed her eyes at Eric, sitting alone in the corner.
‘I heard the second son of Duke Ather is an incorrigible rogue.’
A rumor spread throughout the empire, reaching beyond the northern territories.
For nearly half a month, she had been observing him from the Nibosus Mountains under Isabella’s orders, but the “rogue” from the rumors never appeared.
‘Training from dawn, eating, training again… He’s boringly ordinary for a noble.’
Was the rumor wrong?
Most of the people interacting with him did not treat him as merely incompetent. Even those who didn’t bother greeting him at least showed a subtle disdain or contempt in their eyes—a situation impossible considering the social gap between the duke’s heir and his retainers.
‘Has he been deceiving those around him? Or…’
Malefica observed Eric suspiciously, biting her lip in frustration.
Despite pondering this several times over the past days, she couldn’t find an answer.
Even a powerless heir of a duke’s family could live comfortably as long as he didn’t commit major misdeeds, without worrying about succession battles. There was no reason for him to behave like a rogue and sabotage expectations.
“P-Priest… is there a problem…?”
“Aren’t you always bothering me with minor pains?”
After a brief pause, she noticed the worried knights and shook her head as if to say it was fine. Her face betrayed a trace of impatience from her worries.
“…No. I guess I was just tired.”
With a smile returning to her lips, Malefica continued tending to the knights’ minor injuries while sneaking glances at Eric.
‘Suspicious. Suspicious, indeed…’
Had he already finished resting?
His training routine didn’t match the “rogue” from the rumors, but that was the only difference.
‘If Isabella showed interest, he’s far too ordinary.’
Allen Ather, already notable in battle despite his young age, had spread his reputation throughout the empire. Compared to his half-brothers, Eric’s behavior was entirely ordinary.
No, considering his bloodline and age, he was almost useless. Malefica couldn’t understand why Isabella had hailed him as the church’s hero.
‘If anyone deserves to be called a hero, it should be Leona. She seems far more fitting…’
Thunk—
“What? He’s still at the training grounds?”
“These knights are obsessed with women… Don’t they feel embarrassed?”
“I heard Eric followed that rogue here?”
“That powerless guy being called the church’s hero… ridiculous.”
“He must have used some cowardly trick again, like in his duel with the youngest young master.”
After watching the knights gossip for a while, Malefica approached them.
Footsteps—
“What… is it?”
Were these the knights who had been criticizing Eric since his first day? They served the youngest young master, Ivan Ather.
“Earlier…”
“Ugh…”
Raising her hand slightly, Malefica noticed a knight flinch and tilt his head in confusion.
“I mean… about the duel earlier.”
Then she gently lowered her hand, covered her mouth, and asked in a soft voice:
“Could you tell me the details?”
