SWDYHTITYDHMP Chapter 203

Characters in this chapter:

1. Sapphiras Perfectio, former 2nd son of the Earl of Aldridge
2. Percival Belisario, 3rd son of Margrave of Vanderwall on the Eastern Frontier
3. Grace Edmond, daughter of the Marquess Clementi family

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“Let’s see, Sternkurst’s record of nobles……and……oh, there it is.”

I pulled the book I’m looking for from the shelf, moved to a chair by the window and sat down.

The academy library contains the genealogies of the royal families and major nobles of the surrounding countries. There may be times when such knowledge is necessary, so it’s probably a good idea for nobles to study it. As expected of the academy for nobles.

I flip through the thick cover and trace the family tree of King Sternkurst.

“First Prince Adrian……Second Prince……Erich, is that him?”

The current king has a queen and one concubine. I see, so the second prince is the son of the concubine.

Well, from his name alone you can’t really tell what kind of person he is, and even less about the power dynamics in his mother’s family. If that’s how it is, I should have looked into the royal family a bit more when I was in that country.

However, even with the abolition of slavery spreading, slave trading is still commonplace in Sternkurst, and the Crown Prince almost revived the Calamity and turned the continent into ashes, so I don’t think the younger brother is a straight-laced man, but it’s not good to judge people based on assumptions alone. With his brother as a bad example, he might actually be a very sensible prince.

The fact that his younger brother is acting as representative means he plans to return to the position of Crown Prince someday, but he’s already suffered a painful experience, so I can only hope that he will change his mind and rule in a sensible way. Either way, I never want to have anything to do with that country again.

I close my book and look out the window.

“Oh, it’s Percival……”

And it was a young lady.

The two of them were walking side by side, beside the school building.

The young lady, with her pale blonde hair tied up high in the air, was tall and slender. She was wearing the same training clothes as Percival and carrying a sword, so she was probably a student aiming to become a knight.

Of course, there are women among the students who aim to become knights. Princesses of royalty and daughters of nobility. There are also women among the guests from other countries, so the number of occasions where female knights can shine is endless. Of course, there are female swordsmen among adventurers too.

The young lady leaned forward and spoke to Percival. There must be something she really wants to talk about. There are only a few young ladies who can talk about swords.

I know that feeling too. I tend to talk passionately to people I can talk about magic with.

I got what I wanted to know, so I watched them go as they were heading to the training grounds, put the book back on the shelf, and left the library.

At this time, there might still be some pastries left, so I’ll go to the cafeteria for tea. Today’s pastries are either pound cake or muffins……

“Sapphiras-sama.”

“Geh!”

I turned around when I heard my name called, and my face scrunched up blatantly.

“Well, isn’t it……rude of you to make such a face at a lady?”

Grace-jyou, flanked by her attendants, smiled fearlessly. What can I say, she’s still as intimidating as ever. It’s certainly rude to frown at a young lady, but there’s also what happened last time. I don’t think there’s any point in being cautious.

“Oh, no……sorry……well, what could I do for you, Grace-jyou?”

“I came here today to say something.”

“Something?”

“Yes. There’s an untrained dog wandering around near your faithful knight. It’s just a dog, so it probably doesn’t have much power, but it’s not trained, so we don’t know what it might do, so please be careful.”

After saying this, Grace-jyou left with the ladies around her.

“……Mmn? What on earth is she talking about?”

A dog? A stray dog? Did a stray dog get onto the academy grounds? Even so, Percival would have easily chased it away without me having to tell him.

I’m not sure, but I’ll ask Percival when I get back to the dorms. If there’s a wild dog wandering around, it’s not just Percival who’s in danger, but the other students as well. It would be better to report it to the academy and have it captured.

Last night, when I asked Percival about the wild dog, he looked at me suspiciously and asked what I was talking about. On the contrary, he misunderstood that I was doing something dangerous and became very worried.

So the wild dog that Grace-jyou was talking about was a metaphor for something.

If that’s the case, what on earth is she comparing to a dog?

“Uwah……!”

As I was walking, thinking deeply, I was suddenly hit by an impact on my left shoulder, causing me to stumble. I looked up to see what had bumped into me, and saw a figure with pale golden hair running away from me.

Huh? Isn’t she the female knight apprentice who was with Percival yesterday? Fortunately, I didn’t fall, but I was walking aimlessly too, so it was a mutual thing. Even so, you shouldn’t run inside the school. If the etiquette teacher sees you, won’t you get a severe scolding?

“Sapphiras-dono.”

“Yes?”

I turned around to see who it was today, following on from yesterday. It was the young man who had come to my aid when I had been unfairly harassed about my magic performance.

“I’m sorry to call you out of the blue. I’m Leonce Peard, who is in the same class as Belisario. Actually, I’m going to the castle town with Belisario and the others now. Do you want to come with us, Sapphiras-dono?”

“Eh? With me too?”

“Yeah, famous street performers and a theatre have been here since yesterday.”

Probably because it’s a rare celebration. The royal capital is still buzzing with activity.

“That sounds interesting, but is it okay if I go with you?”

“Of course. I wanted to have a proper talk with Sapphiras-dono. After all, you’re the spouse of that damn serious Belisario. I’m curious about you as his partner.”

……Damn serious. No reservations at all. But that just shows how close they are.

Since he invited me, I thought it wouldn’t be a bother, so I went along with Leonce, and found Percival and 2 well-built noble sons, as well as the female knight apprentice I’d bumped into in the hallway.

I see, she was in a hurry because she was almost late for the rendezvous earlier.

“Sorry, I made you wait.”

“Leonce, you’re late!…….”

The female knight apprentice said this and when she noticed I was with him, she gave me a glaring look.

No, why? Isn’t this my first time meeting her? Or was it because we bumped into each other earlier? But I guess that was mutual.

“Sapphiras, is something wrong?”

Percival walked over to me with a worried look on his face.

“Ah, no, it’s fine. There’s nothing.”

“Belisario, don’t be so worried. I bumped into him earlier and invited him to come with us to the castle town. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Of course.”

“Yes, you’re welcome to join us.”

While the two sons nodded, only the female knight apprentice frowned, but then quickly smiled.

“I don’t mind either. It’s more fun with more people. Right, Percival?”

She patted Percival on the shoulder in a casual tone.

It was doubtful whether she meant it or not, but I’d take it at face value.

The friends who were with Percival told me that they were all friends who were learning swordsmanship from the same master with the aim of becoming knights. No wonder they all had good physiques, as you would expect from someone who trains every day.

“Peard-san, you helped me out at the cafeteria before. Thank you for that time. You really helped me out.”

“Call me Leonce. That was a strange claim even from the outside. It was Sapphiras-sama who came up with the magic performance in the first years, right? It’s interesting that you came up with that way of using magic. I heard from Belisario that you’re great at magic, but Sapphiras-dono, are you not going to participate in the magic performance?”

“You can call me by my first name too. I’m glad you think I’m interesting, but I don’t intend to be directly involved in the magic act.”

“Is that so?”

After all, there’s such a big difference in magical skill.

“Yeah. I like thinking up things with everyone behind the scenes. It’s more fun to create something together, since the classes are competing against each other.”

Instead of leaving it up to the three representatives, we all create a performance together. Thanks to this, I think the bonds between classmates in class C are stronger than in other classes.

There are probably many ways to reach the stars. I don’t think that the way our class does it is the right way. It’s fine for everyone to achieve their goals in their own way.

“Hmm. As expected, someone with the ability to perform magic in front of royalty from another country has some impressive ideas.”

……Is it my imagination? I feel like she’s talking about me in a thorny way.

 

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melon: sorry guys, I know I’ve been gone a while 😭

To summarise, I’ve had to pay for an expensive dental procedure recently so I’ve been trying to churn out commissions to make up for the hole in my bank account. I’ve also been sick this week so that did not help.

You may or may not know, I’m a freelancer and I paint Japanese garage kits on commission basis. To give more insight, my income is entirely dependent how fast I can churn out commissions. On bad months, my income could be less than $500, on good months, it could be $2-3k. Everyone probably also knows that all fan translators don’t get paid for what we do, we just do it out of passion. So unfortunately, during this time, I’ll have to prioritise my irl problems over translating. Luckily for me, the author for this story has been updating pretty slow recently so we are only 2 chapters behind now.

If you appreciate my work, please do turn of ad block, I can at least buy myself a drink with the monthly ad revenue. 😂

Last but not least, thanks to everyone for your support.

ps: I also have ko-fi if anyone wants to buy me a drink. 😬