Chapter 26

Part 1: The Bond of Travel (2)

Martin de Iero.

The man who had dispelled the monsters was the illegitimate son of the Marquis Iero and the half-brother of Adria.

When he expressed his desire to join, the Knight Captain formally sought permission from Brother Simon.

Although the Knight Captain, Alonzo, was the leader of the group, the position of the heir to the duchy warranted sufficient respect.

Brother Simon, who had received proper education, left the decision to the Knight Captain.

Naturally, the Knight Captain did not ask me.

As the illegitimate son of the Marquis Iero had mentioned, being a noble but in an illegitimate position meant just that.

Well, he was also a child who had not yet turned ten.

In any case, Knight Captain Alonzo allowed him to join.

The man was lively and sociable.

He became friends with everyone before the half-day was over.

He talked freely with the soldiers and had pleasant conversations with the knights.

Although he was an illegitimate son, the soldiers were pleased when the nobles treated him casually, and the knights who had seen him defeat the monsters on his own felt a liking for him.

Brother Simon tried not to show interest, and the Knight Captain and the steward treated him formally, but he quickly became close with the others.

It seemed that I was the only one who felt a sense of rejection.

Given my experiences from my previous life, no matter how kind he was to me, I couldn't bring myself to like him.

However, he showed interest in me, having heard from others that I was an illegitimate son.

"Throwing a sword to push away a flying monster is something even a decent knight can't do easily. As I said earlier, it was really impressive."

While having a conversation with the knights, he approached me and spoke without hesitation.

"Thank you. You can speak informally to me. But, you were even more impressive. I didn't think you could make that monster fly away with your sword."

I relaxed my stiff face and thanked him for his compliment.

Although I didn't like it, I couldn't show it. An opportunity had come, and I couldn't let it slip.

There was much to uncover. How the illegitimate son who had been expelled from the family gathered people and gained power.

Who was backing him, and where were the people who had killed us in my previous life.

And I needed to find out his skills and weaknesses.

To kill him.

"Can we speak informally?"

"Yes. There's an age difference, but we're in the same situation."

"Right. We're in the same situation. Let's get along well."

Indeed, he was a very affable man.

"Actually, my skills are all thanks to my inherited ability. My actual swordsmanship is far behind the knights. Thanks to my inherited ability, I can wander around on my own..."

His expression darkened as he spoke.

It seemed there was more to it.

"Oh, right. I have the inherited ability, but what Alex showed was swordsmanship! High-level swordsmanship that even knights find difficult!"

At his words, I glanced around.

No one was paying attention to this side, as they were busy with post-meal cleanup and personal equipment maintenance.

Everyone had been too busy fighting to notice, but the person who had made the monster fly away had seen my true skills.

"Even though you look like you're ten or younger, is that possible?"

"I received training from the moment I awakened, thanks to obtaining the relevant ability."

"Ah... So your inherited ability is in that area... Still, can you achieve that level of skill?"

Martin, tilting his head, muttered with a slightly gloomy face.

"Training. Does the Grecia duchy raise illegitimate sons properly?"

I answered his question while being mindful of my surroundings.

"Probably because I have some use. This is a secret, but why would I come along?"

"Oh, I see. It's not a family trip, then."

To get information from him, I needed to create a sense of camaraderie.

Since everything was true, there was no need to hold back, and the official reason for coming along was that only Brother Simon didn't know, so there was no problem.

Hmm, would there be a problem? Ah, no one heard, so I can just pretend.

"Indeed, all noble families are the same..."

"By the way, you said you left home. What happened?"

I asked him with the most innocent face I could manage.

He looked at my face, lost in thought.

Come on, let's get to it.

The crickets were chirping, and the bonfire was casting a gentle glow.

It seemed a bit early, but it was the perfect atmosphere to open up.

I maintained a naive and pitiful expression and continued to look at him.

After a moment, he seemed to make up his mind, looked around, and lowered his voice.

"No one is listening, right?"

No one. I checked.

"Can you keep it a secret, Alex?"

I had no intention of keeping it secret, but I nodded vigorously.

"Well, as I said before, I wasn't just leaving; I was expelled."

A bitter smile played on his lips as he spoke.

"I tried hard to be useful to the family with the abilities I had, but it only made others dislike me. What, aiming for the family? How many noble families would pass on their name to an illegitimate son?"

He was right. In the kingdom's history, there were only a handful of noble families where an illegitimate son had inherited the family name.

However, since I had been misunderstood and killed before, it didn't sound strange to me.

"Well, should I be grateful that they didn't kill me? But what they did to my sister..."

As he spoke, a chilling light passed through his eyes.

It disappeared quickly, but the surrounding aura continued to carry a sense of anger.

"Maybe one day I can repay them, even if I'm in this state now."

He looked at me directly, speaking softly.

"I'm telling you this, Alex, because I want you to be careful. You seem smart for your age, so you should understand what I'm saying."

I understood very well. No, it was deeply etched in my mind from my death.

Unfortunately, Martin, looking at me with a worried expression, didn't look like a villain.

Of course, it was because he saw me as a child, but he was a very good person who worried about others even after being hurt himself.

Just.

His actions and future plans had caused harm to me.

The deaths of Adria, Ugo, Bianca, and myself were significant damages.

Nothing would change.

Since we had become enemies with death between us, his righteousness no longer held any meaning for me.

Seeing that I understood, he spoke with a hint of regret.

"What a pity. Alex, if you were a bit older, we could have worked together."

What's this? Should I ask a bit more?

"Like a mercenary?"

"Haha, did it seem that way?"

"Well, you didn't look like a knight."

"Hmm, maybe a mercenary. I'm not officially registered, but I work with good mercenary comrades, so that might be accurate."

"Wow, you work with mercenaries? What kind of work do you do?"

"Haha, it's a trade secret. I'll tell you when you're older."

Well, pulling back at the last moment.

Still, if these mercenaries are the ones I know, I might find them easily.

Hmm, I had thought about killing Martin on the way, but it seems I need to delay that.

If I kill Martin too quickly, I might lose the others.

Honestly, secretly killing him during the trip wouldn't be easy.

The continuous sparring during the trip made this thought even more certain.

Thud!

The loud sound and the soldiers looking up at me from below.

From their perspective, I must have been flying through the air.

Sigh, no matter how skilled in swordsmanship.

If I said this, the masters would chase me with their swords, but if there's such a difference in strength and stamina, technique is useless.

Even with my sword skills, which are close to a knight's, I was no match for him.

Actually, our sword skills weren't that different. I needed to penetrate inside without clashing swords, but I wasn't that much better than him.

As a result, I ended up flying through the air every time we sparred.

Well, if I loaded mana onto my sword, I wouldn't be pushed back this much, but I needed to hide it for when I properly face him later.

Thanks to my efforts, I could roughly gauge his sword skills and strength.

I had a sense of how to deal with him.

Thud.

"Ouch!"

After flying for a while and landing on the ground, laughter erupted from all around.

"Haha, this time you lasted longer."

"But you flew even farther!"

The knights laughed and teased me as I got up.

The soldiers, unable to join in the teasing, turned their heads and chuckled.

It was a completely different scene from the first sparring session.

Although I quickly became friends with the knights and soldiers due to Martin's affable nature, they initially found me very awkward.

I was the illegitimate son of a duke, and a useful one at that. It was hard to know how to treat me.

However, as I continued to spar and get beaten up in front of them, the distance between us decreased.

My young age, somewhat cute face, and charming skills.

Plus, my cool reaction to their teasing broke down their guard.

Fortunately, the Knight Captain didn't say anything, and the steward didn't criticize my behavior.

Brother Simon frowned, but considering my position as an illegitimate son, he only frowned and didn't say anything.

As we continued to move and spar, we eventually arrived at the marquis's territory.

A long journey through four other territories.

During the trip, we received requests to visit the castles of the other territories, but we used the excuse that it wasn't a ducal procession and headed straight to the marquis's territory.

We encountered monsters several times during the trip.

They were all corpse-like creatures, but not as strong as the ones we first met.

Monsters that could be handled by a single knight or sometimes just the soldiers.

"If undead wolves keep appearing, travel between territories will be impossible. We can't always bring knight-level mercenaries."

When I asked, puzzled, Martin kindly explained.

During the trip, I became very close to Martin.

We sparred every day and often talked, so it was impossible not to become close.

However, he didn't reveal any more information until we parted ways.

Of course, I didn't bring up any unnecessary topics either.

He parted ways with the group at the outer gate of the city where the marquis's territory was located.

"See you in about a year. I'll come back in a great form."

After greeting everyone, he waved at me and shouted.

I also waved back.

"There's no need to wait a year. We'll meet soon."

He shouted, but I whispered quietly so he couldn't hear.

"Everyone is waiting. Let's go in quickly."

At the steward's urging, the group passed through the outer gate and headed across the city to the castle.

Unlike the ducal residence, the marquis's family lived in a castle.

We parted ways with the soldiers at the inner gate and arrived at the castle entrance with the knights.

Against the backdrop of the blooming flowers, elegantly dressed nobles were waiting for us at the entrance.

Although I didn't recognize most of them, one person was familiar.

A girl who looked a bit younger than when I last saw her.

Adria was looking at us with a serious expression.