Chapter 8
You’re the first
The night of the masquerade party, a face veiled in moonlight, indifferently shut crimson lips, and a wine glass that swayed casually. Strands of light cotton candy-like pink hair that tickled her cheeks.
“You… I’ve been looking for you all this time.”
Serdin’s hand gripping his collar, offering words that sounded like she’d been waiting for him a long time.
And…
“… May I?”
Royce’s ears flushed red as he recalled those words. Feeling like he was going to have a heart attack at that moment, he took a breather, then began to write in his diary.
* * *
Since that day, we met often to cross swords.
「Senior, let’s meet at the Grand Central Park today.」
「Today, we should meet at Eudelin’s training ground no. 3.」
「This time…」
We dueled several more times, but it wasn’t easy for me to defeat Royce after I’d beaten him once. He’d seemed to have strengthened his resolve after that. However, even in defeat, these times were immensely helpful for me.
Observing Royce’s every move, and being able to experience them firsthand, each of these experiences continuously added to my growth.
While training under the sun, I thought to myself, ‘This is truly the most educational relationship one can form in an educational institution.’
It felt like having the world’s best coach who was preparing me for the national team selection match.
“Shall we go eat?”
Maybe he kept his strength up by eating, because Royce always asked me to go get something to eat with him after training. He also knew a lot of good restaurants.
‘The ultimate gourmet guide.’
The empire’s top duke’s family’s son, the best physique, the best swordsman… Rather than those, the male lead’s most appealing trait was his knowledge of great restaurants.
“This lasagna is particularly tasty with the perilla leaves.”
“It’s cut horizontally, so the texture is even better.”
Royce and I surprisingly had good conversations. We met a few times and talked a lot, and I was very taken aback at how smoothly our conversations flowed.
Weren’t the male leads in novels usually somewhat broken and difficult to talk to? Moreover, Royce was the male lead of a grimdark novel, and the first time we met, I thought he’d just hitchhike on our project.
‘I really thought we wouldn’t get along.’
Anyway, I’d completely forgotten the initial image he’d portrayed of himself first. Now, I only knew his qualities as a good sparring and conversation partner.
Another reason my image of him had improved was that he’d seen a performance of my favorite string trio, ‘The Age of Wilderness’. Since shared interests united people, I decided to let go of any lingering resentment I had towards Royce.
‘I shouldn’t curse at Royce anymore.’ As I thought that and smiled, Royce smiled back at me.
“Shall we go?”
After finishing our meal, we continued training. As expected of a natural-born swordsman, Royce never lost his smile even during the entirety of the training session.
‘I need to learn that kind of mindset.’
Thinking that, I continued to wield my sword. After a while, I sat down under the shade of a tree for a protein break.
“Serdin.”
As I was taking out an egg, Royce, who was sitting quietly next to me, called my name.
He sat with one long leg folded, tilting his head to look at me.
The light filtering through the shade of the tree fell beautifully on his black hair.
“Yes?”
He called my name but didn’t say anything after. I paused eating my egg and waited for him to speak, but Royce just smiled leisurely.
“What is it?”
Royce lightly tapped the ground with the wooden sword he held, then asked subtly, “… I wonder if I’m your first.” As he said that, Royce brushed egg crumbs off my lips.
“What?”
Royce looked at me with a knowing expression.
“…?”
When I just stared at him, he pointed alternately between me and himself with the wooden sword.
“Ah.”
It seemed like he was talking about being an opponent. For some reason, he seemed slightly shy and asked as if he was testing me.
“Am I your first?”
“No. Of course not.”
It’d already been well over half a year since I entered Eudelin, so there was no way I hadn’t sparred with anyone during that time. Royce had a tendency to sometimes ask the obvious.
“… Really? Then how many have there been so far?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I thought knowing each other well might help us improve.”
Was that so? Well, it seemed plausible.
“Since I started at Eudelin?”
“Ah, have you tried it before that?”
“Yes. But after starting at Eudelin, there’s been about…”
Royce was listening to me intently.
I wasn’t sure why he was so curious about how many people I had sparred with, but since he was curious, I took a moment to think.
“Twenty?”
“…”
Upon hearing my words, Royce paused for a moment.
“So many?”
“Don’t most people have around that number?”
“… I see. That’s how it is nowadays.”
“Were things different with you, senior? I don’t think I had too many compared to my classmates.”
“… Right. That’s possible…”
Royce’s shoulders seemed to shrink. Maybe he had been exposed to the cold air too much earlier?
“What about you, senior?”
“I… You’re my first.”
“Huh? That can’t be true. Lies.”
“It’s true.”
“Really?”
Oh, did he not consider other people sparring partners, seeing that he was a main character?
“Wow, you’re really something in your right, senior.”
Royce appeared even more shrunk at my words. Still, I was glad that he sparred with me despite that.
Royce grabbed my arm with a somewhat nervous look and said, “But now, just do it with me.”
“Well, yes, I did promise you that.”
“You promised.”
“Yes.”
Responding casually with the egg still in my mouth, I rose to my feet, while Royce sat alone murmuring to himself, “Twenty…”
* * *
Over the course of the next several days, I made a point to meet Royce as often as possible. To avoid ending up like the original story, I knew I would eventually have to cut ties with him, so I was determined to clash swords with him as much as I could while I still had the chance.
Fortunately, Royce didn’t seem to find me bothersome at all; if anything, he appeared to be even more eager to meet.
“Senior! Hurry! I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
“You waited for me that long?”
“Of course.”
Royce even looked touched when I said that.
My relationship with Royce seemed quite important to him as well…
“Don’t you need this? I’ll give it to you.”
“Come here, I’ll tie your hair, Serdin.”
“It’s going to rain tomorrow. If you forget your umbrella, come to me. I’ll bring two.”
… More than I’d thought at first. While that was a good thing, I still had some doubts.
‘Meeting Royce like this is beneficial for me, of course, but…’
But was there really much to gain from Royce’s perspective? Of course, I didn’t bring up that question myself.
‘If I ask unnecessarily, he might pull away…’
Then a few days later, I finally got the answer to that question.
It was a day when my mind was preoccupied with worries about issues with the dormitory.
We were supposed to meet at a nearby park downtown, but it started to rain as soon as we arrived. We took shelter in a nearby teahouse, waiting for the rain to stop as we gazed out the window and engaged in trivial chatter.
“I’m going to a strength training camp this semester. Can you give me some insider tips?”
“The best tip is to not look for an easy way out there.”
“Aw, come on, give me something.”
“It’s true.”
As we talked about useful information, the rain poured even more heavily. The longer it rained, the longer our conversation became. All sorts of topics came and went.
“I was really annoyed with you that day, Senior.”
“I’ll admit that.”
Royce knew I cursed him a lot anyway, so I was going to complain about him to his face instead of talking behind his back.
I spoke as I picked up a piece of éclair with my fork, “You admit it? You knew that and still acted annoying?”
Instead of answering, Royce just smiled and moved my hand, eating the éclair himself. Royce sometimes did things like this that were inexplicable and whimsical.
It was a bit weird at first, but I was getting used to it.
“Please give me an answer.”
“I didn’t care if you were annoyed with me then because I thought you’d be someone I wouldn’t end up getting entangled with.”
“So we’re tangled together now? Please loosen the knot immediately.”
“Heh. The knot is twisted now, so I can’t untangle it anymore.”
He picked up a piece of éclair with his fork and offered it to me. He seemed to be trying to make up for the piece of éclair he had taken from me earlier.
I ate it, then looked outside the window with my head resting on my chin. While I was trying to zone out, my biggest current worry, the dormitory issue, came back to mind.
“It’s really summer. Look how much it’s raining, just like my heart.”
“What’s worrying you, Serdin?”
“How did you know?”
Royce’s intuition was as sharp as his eyes. Like a ghost that saw everything, he noticed I was troubled by something.
Currently, I was in the middle of trouble with the dormitory. The reason I had worked hard and achieved good grades throughout the first semester was to get into the dormitory this semester. However, to live at the dormitory, I needed the approval of my family or a guardian.
It was Count Dienel Vivi, the head of the Vivi family and my uncle, whom I needed to get a seal of approval from, but he was absolutely against me going to the dormitory.
“Do you think I don’t know what kind of trouble you’ll get into out there?” he said.
‘It’s not like you’ll treat me great even if I just stay still in the corner of the house.’
Once you start living in the dormitory, you have to become its slave and achieve good grades every semester to stay. So, even if I wanted to cause trouble, I wouldn’t have the time to do so.
But my uncle wasn’t persuaded by that argument.
“No, it’s nothing.” I just shook my head.
Talking about family matters always felt awkward somehow, but when I shut my mouth, Royce spoke up. “You can be honest with me, Serdin.” His voice was gentle and caring.
Come to think of it, Royce had spoken to me in that voice and a face like that quite a few times. It was a different face from the Royce Velkerente most people usually saw, a voice slightly different from the cold and indifferent Royce Velkerente.
“Just with you, Senior?”
“Of course not, but it’d be nice if it were with me.”
“Why?”
“I want to hear as much about you as possible.”
Hearing him say such things, I suddenly had another thought. In a relationship where you just want to practice swordsmanship together… ‘Is it normal to say something like this?’
It was like he was expecting more from our relationship than just sparring… Wasn’t it?
TL Note: sorry guys! I’ve been busy because of my exams these past few months, but I’ll be posting more often now!
