CH:02
Mr. Huran, who taught Blan swordsmanship, was surprised to see my posture.
“H..h..how can this happen! How can a young lady do this?!”
His pupils were trembling.
“When did you learn this?”
“I never learned…”
Mr. Huran knelt down to his knees and burst into tears. The sight of a grown man crying was burdensome.
“Young lady you’re the true sword goddess…!”
I don’t know that well but according to Mr. Huran, my sword grip, speed, and destructive power, were not average.
I didn’t believe it easily so Mr. Huran suggested something to convince me.
“Would you like to have a little duel with me?”
No matter how much of a genius I am, it won’t be easy to fight with an adult man.
But to my surprise, I avoided all of Mr. Huran’s attacks.
I’m sorry to say but Mr. Huran’s pace was very slow to me, I could read all his movements.
Mr. Huran managed to shed tears.
“Young lady! Why don’t you formally learn swordmanship from me?”
“Alright.”
Since then, I learned swordsmanship with my younger brother, Blan.
I wasn’t really interested in the sword.
Holding a sword gave me a free feeling, but that was it.
Still, I didn’t like getting sweaty. But the safety of my family and their lives were more important than my personal enjoyment.
It was only that.
I saw Blan swinging his sword hard next to me.
My brother, who was always cute, had a serious face when he swung his sword.
The little devil, Blandis Zeos.
The man who was set to be a valuable force to Marquis Evelian.
But what if I took that man away from Marquis Evelian?
What if my brother who worshiped someone stronger than him changed his subject to me? (T/n: as in he worships fl instead of Evelian)
It may prevent the destruction of the Zeos family as well as the world’s.
I grabbed the wooden sword I was holding with more strength.
* * *
Instead of time passing quickly, it felt like someone was holding on to it as it passed slowly.
I’ve been struggling for the past year to save my family.
And the fruit for all my labor was sweet.
Unlike last year, I looked around my room full of jewels with pleasure.
It used to be a girl’s room with simple bedding and floral curtains but now…
“Hehehe” I held a jewel in my arms and laughed.
“Money is so good. Isn’t it, Blan?”
“Huh? What about the money?”
“…No.”
Young Blan still did not know the importance and luxury of money. But I was different. My soul already knew the importance of money very well, as an adult engulfed by desire. That wealth would be the way to save our family.
Last summer, not long after I found out I had a talent in swordsmanship, I happened to go abroad with my father. It was to inherit the family business.
My father encouraged me to be a knight, but I refused at once.
[‘I prefer money over honor.’]
Thanks to my unwavering conviction, I was able to find one more way to save my family. It was money-making through the family’s business. Money that was as strong as power and status in the Empire. If all my plans were to fail in the future, I was going to use my family’s money to flee. So I struggled over the past year to find items to make money. And I finally found a ‘New World’ in Belois, where I followed my father.
[“Father, this is it!”]
My father hated the ‘things’ I chose.
[“Yuria, if you read such a book, other nobles will laugh at you.”
“The empire is too dull and unfriendly.”]
The Empire was a place that values nobility and culture. For them, books were just one of the tools to study and train themselves. The books I was holding were “The Duke’s Youngest Daughter When I Regressed,” “No More Good Young Miss,” “The Legend of the Black Dragon,” and so on.
I had read many novels in my past life, and the world I was in now was one of the novels I’ve read. It means that I have read and learned various genres of literature. I believed in the endless possibilities of the genre fiction. However, the Imperial people had a culture of belittling these novels.
[“Don’t worry, Dad. There’s a saying ‘break down the culture that is broken.’
“You mean?”
“Yes! Let me explain.”]
My father nodded with a disbelieving gaze.
[“Let’s say that the main character who was unjustly murdered by an evil woman went back to the past. What’s the first thing she needs to do?’
“She should be thankful for the life she has been given once again and live well.”
“What are you talking about? After she seduces the Crown Prince and marries him, she must avenge herself and her family and kill the evil woman!”
‘….’]
My father eventually admitted to his old-fashionedness. Then, after three days of persistently convincing my father, he said he would evaluate my abilities.
At first, there was no reaction within the empire. Then starting with the bookstores owned by the Zeos family, genre novels began to spread throughout the empire. It was a big hit. No matter how much history and philosophy written in a book was worth, it couldn’t alleviate boredom.
However, the story of the main character who was murdered and returned to the past while slapping the wicked woman for her revenge, made people’s lives thrilling. Thanks to this, the Zeos family was able to make a lot of money.
Looking at my parents admiring me, I said this.
[“The most important factor in making a business successful is to first go on the road that no one else has traveled before”’]
That’s how I ended up sitting on a gravy train. Of course there were consequences. The royal family and the nobility of the capital became interested in our family. Usually, it was common for countryside nobles to live quietly while building their own livelihood. However, local aristocrats who succeeded in business and became rich were bound to be seen somehow. Since then, we were sent invitations to banquets at other estates.
Thanks to that, our family, Zeos, had established itself as a family, although not as strong as the capital’s nobles, the prominent families in the region.
I heard a shocking story while having dinner with my family.
“…From the Marquis of Evelian?”
“Yes. It’s an honor. The Zeos family was invited to Agelisk which is open every fifty years.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Huh?”
I jumped up and asked my father again.
“Now is not the time for the Zeos family to meet Marquis Evelian!”
“What do you mean?”
I ignored my mother who looked at me strangely, and ran towards my father’s office.
In the past, when a small banquet was held in the family, Blandis had shown his swordsmanship abilities. ‘Thanks to the family’s rise in fame, Blandis’ talent has spread throughout the society.’
Blandis was supposed to hone the sword alone until he was fifteen. It wasn’t time to leave the mansion so soon.
I looked through the documents on the desk and found the invitation.
My hands trembled as I looked at the paper.
Agelisk, implemented by the Marquis of Evelian, was a place that gathered young boys and girls who were talented in swordsmanship from all over the Empire and trained them for three years.
‘If you refuse…’
I can’t. No one knew when the Agelisk would be held. It was only in the Marquis’s mind. It was such a precious opportunity and invitation that no one could ever refuse.
However.
‘Why now!’
The novel began when Marquis Evelian was twenty and Blandis was seventeen. So I didn’t know what had happened in the time before the novel started.
‘Perhaps in the original, Blandis wasn’t invited to the Agelisk around this time.’
Maybe it was never mentioned because he was an innocent boy who grew up in the care of his family in the countryside .
I sighed deeply.
Blandis was already admiring me. However, I had only held the sword for a year… In addition, I spent most of the time out on business. Wouldn’t the current Blandis be shaken by the villain Roziel? And three years was a long time. How would I know what would happen to Blan out of my reach while he was at Agelisk?
“Yuria, what’s going on?”
My father came into the office looking worried.
“It’s nothing…”
I made up my mind quietly by myself. There was a way. It was a bit cumbersome and annoying, but it was for the sake of my family and my life!
My father patted me on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry too much. Blan is a much more mature child than we think.”
My father thought I was worried about sending Blandis to a strange place.
“So I’m sure he’ll do well just like your mother. Your mother’s family, Grenta, had a reputation for the sword.”
“No, Father.”
I looked up at my father with determined eyes. “I’m going.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve changed my mind. I want to be a knight. This kind of opportunity is a priority for the eldest daughter of the family, right?”
The invitation did not come to Blandis. To be exact, it was for the Zeos family. The rumor that I was learning the sword had not spread yet. Marquis Evelian must have sent an invitation because he thought the eldest son would come.
“I’ll go into the Agelisk instead of the Blandis.”
And I decided to take advantage of that loophole.
