The Villain Carries the Holy Sword – Chapter 173

Chapter 173: The Flower that Blooms at Night (2)

In conclusion, there was no need to bother checking the student roster using the princess’s authority.

“Mauve Ness, age 16. Second son of a minor, landless noble. He came to Märchen Academy with a knight’s specialty, but he hasn’t particularly stood out.”

Cain glanced at Princess Elena with a slightly surprised look.

She blinked as if asking why he was reacting that way.

“Do you know him from before?”

“No.”

“Is Mauve famous in the academy?”

“No. Ah, to be precise, he’s known as a frail weakling, but his tenacity is impressive. He manages to keep up with all the knight training somehow.”

The 13th princess, Elena Platin Kreuz.

And the woman most speculated to be the future Iron-Blooded Princess who unified the divided empire with a single iron mace.

‘You can’t tell just by looking at her.’

Cain had seen the Iron-Blooded Princess before. But he couldn’t be sure if the clumsy Elena in front of him was the Iron-Blooded Princess Elena.

This was because the Iron-Blooded Princess always wore a black-red iron mask as if soaked in blood, and armor that covered her entire body.

Rumor had it that she rarely showed her true appearance, even to close friends or subordinates who had shared life and death experiences with her.

‘I did see inside, though……’

Even the Iron-Blooded Princess couldn’t wear an iron mask and armor to a wedding to attract the hero Abel.

It wasn’t a dress either.

Wearing the uniform of the 〈Order of Summer〉, she wore a thick veil. ‘Winter’’s power allowed him to see through it.

But what was underneath was…

‘A face burned and scarred.’

This abundant blonde hair wasn’t there.

Her entire head seemed to have melted in the fire, barely recognizable as a human face.

Therefore, even at that time, there was much speculation about which of the 99 princesses the Iron-Blooded Princess was.

Some even said that she wasn’t a princess at all, but such claims quickly died down as she proved herself with her iron mace.

No matter how brave they were, no one would dare rebel against the Iron-Blooded Princess, who smashed everything around her, including herself, with her mace.

‘Her height is similar.’

The women of the empire were generally taller than the women of Airian.

However, Elena, who was almost the same height as Cain, was even taller than the average imperial woman.

Considering the tall stature of the Iron-Blooded Princess, this Elena could very well be that Elena, but Cain shook his head, pushing the thought away.

As Cain stared intently at her, Elena wiped her cheek and asked,

“W, What, did I get something on my face?”

Again, the clumsy, stuttering 13th Princess Elena didn’t seem like the same person as the Iron-Blooded Princess, who was called the Goddess of War.

“I was just wondering how you remember all that when you’re not even close to Mauve.”

“Ah, I don’t forget.”

She smiled slightly and continued.

“I remember everything I see and hear once.”

“So……”

Wiseman’s ‘night’ unfolded and everyone’s memories were rewritten, but the reason Elena retained her previous memories was because of her supernatural memory.

“A, And I don’t have many friends, so I always look around while reading. Then I can see and hear a lot of things. So I check the memories I have the next morning, but today was different.”

“How?”

At that moment, Elena’s eyes sparkled.

Seizing the opportunity to talk about her area of expertise, she poured out the words without stuttering.

“The way I remember things is to divide them into 17 characteristics and memorize them separately, and then check the integrity with the 18th verification formula.”

“……”

“But this morning, I had a very flat memory that I only recognized with a few senses! I thought this was strange.”

“I see.”

Cain nodded calmly as if he understood everything.

Just like that, they strolled leisurely through the academy, making small talk that people their age would have.

On their way to the knight dormitory to find Mauve.

The soft sunlight unique to the south, the refreshing breeze, the vitality of the children that could only be felt at the academy.

It was such a peaceful moment that he almost forgot that Oleciren had stabbed him in the heart just a few days ago.

[‘Summer’ says he didn’t know you liked this kind of atmosphere.]

Always intense.

Always running forward.

The sacred treasures seemed surprised that Cain, who had always been fighting against time, could be at peace after leaving Airian.

Cain shrugged.

‘It’s not that I hate it. It’s just that I couldn’t afford to.’

[‘Winter’ smiles at you.]

[‘Summer’ hopes you’ll be a little more comfortable, even in this false ‘night’.]

Cain was somewhat grateful that the 〈Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉 had awakened and begun to converse with him.

He didn’t have any friends, so he didn’t know for sure, but he thought this might be what having friends was like.

And so, as Cain strolled through the summer academy with Elena, they arrived at their destination.

“Huuuh -”

A skinny, small boy is swinging a wooden sword the size of his own torso up and down.

Whooosh –

“Forty-six.”

The tip of the sword shakes.

It’s not that he doesn’t know the swordsmanship, but his body is too weak to swing the sword properly.

“Forty-seven.”

But look at the sweat dripping to the floor.

The ground beneath him was a testament to how serious he was about the sword.

Elena tried to approach him, but Cain grabbed her wrist and said,

“Let’s watch for a bit.”

“Alright.”

Elena also looked at Mauve with pitiful eyes.

It was heartbreaking to see someone with such strong willpower struggle because of their weak body.

Especially since both Cain and Elena were top-notch in terms of physical talent.

Cain and Elena watched Mauve slowly from a place where others couldn’t see them, and at that moment, a few people entered the training ground.

“Commoner-to-be, why are you working so hard?”

A guy with a head taller than Mauve approached him.

Mauve twitched his eyebrows as if annoyed, but he ignored it and swung the sword he was swinging.

“I told you it’s useless. Just switch your specialty. With that frail body, you’re much better off in administration.”

“…….”

“Oh right. If you’re not a knight or a wizard, you practically have to live as a commoner.”

He grinned, provoking Mauve.

Cain didn’t quite understand what he was saying, so he looked back at Elena.

“I heard they knew each other before entering the academy.”

“What’s his name?”

“You don’t need to remember.”

“……”

“And in the empire, they give you a single-rank noble status if you stand out, but it’s hard to do that in administration, so they mainly aim for knighthood or magic.”

“Magic requires quite a bit of innate talent, so I guess it’s all about being a knight in the end.”

He doesn’t really bother Mauve.

He just exchanges a few words with him and then heads into the dormitory.

Cain was a little surprised by his rather well-mannered appearance, and Elena added,

“I’m sure Mauve was bullied a lot because he was weak. But Mauve is stubborn, so he always fought back somehow, and that guy probably knows that, so he doesn’t mess with him.”

“He is stubborn, indeed.”

Cain thought of Mauve from the Great Wall.

His appearance was completely different.

Mauve, who was sweating and swinging his sword over there, was so thin and fragile that he looked like he would collapse if you flicked him.

But Mauve of the Great Wall was much taller and broader than Cain, and had the strength to swing a greatsword with one hand.

And that’s not all.

He was a true warrior who possessed stamina almost equal to Cain’s and never gave up, no matter how unfavorable the situation.

No matter what anyone said, no matter what situation arose, he was a warrior who moved forward one slow step at a time like a turtle, Turtle Mauve.

‘There must be some connection.’

Two survivors from the land where everyone committed suicide.

Mauve and Elena.

One went from a frail weakling to a strong warrior among the Great Wall.

And the other, there was no record of whether she was actually dead or not, but……

“T, That’s embarrassing.”

Elena turned her head as Cain stared at her.

But Cain was looking at her body, not her face.

‘I think she’s the Iron-Blooded Princess.’

He knew that the Kreuz imperial family possessed mystical powers. However, there was something definitely different about Elena compared to the other imperial families.

A destructive talent.

She lived like a herbivore, but she was born a beast.

A talent that would suit her well, smashing the heads of her opponents with an iron mace.

“Let’s go back for now.”

“Then shall we go to Marquis Wiseman now?”

🔹🔹🔹

They went to see her with Elena’s guidance, but she was away.

Her secretary informed them that she had gone to the Ethelred mansion.

The house where Cain first opened his eyes.

“Ethelred?”

Elena asked, as if Cain’s last name was interesting. She rolled her eyes, searching for something, then exclaimed, “Ah!”

“I remember there was an Count Ethelred on the western island nation. And a long time ago, in the Reminiscence Plains……”

“That’s the western Ethelred.”

“I see.”

Cain Ethelred.

Elena repeated Cain’s name several times, as if fascinated. As they returned to his original home, Cain asked her,

“So you must have thought I was a commoner all along.”

She nodded.

“For someone who calls himself a hero, it wouldn’t matter if he was a commoner or a noble.”

“Isn’t the wall between classes quite high in the empire?”

Rather, if it had been a succession passed down through blood, the class system would have been blurred as magic and the industrial revolution progressed.

However, the empire, in addition to bloodline succession, granted noble titles based on individual ability and how much they could contribute to the imperial family.

Due to the ability-based class system, the wall between classes in the empire was thicker than the gap between the great nobles and commoners of Airian.

So it was interesting that a woman of the imperial princess’s status treated him so casually.

She gave a bitter smile.

“My mother was a slave.”

“……You don’t have to say more.”

A common story, if you will.

Elena bowed her head at Cain’s consideration, and they soon arrived at the Ethelred mansion in the heart of Märchen.

“What was this place originally?”

Being quite a large mansion, it couldn’t have been magically created out of thin air.

For such a perfect mental illusion magic to create a physical entity was a miracle close to the creation of the world.

No matter how great Wiseman’s ‘night’ was, that was impossible.

“It was Marquis Wiseman’s house. I guess she switched it since she couldn’t build a new one.”

Cain knew the story of the bluebird.

Just like in the fairy tale where they went looking for the bluebird but it was at their house all along, he had been searching for the culprit of ‘night’, but it was at the very beginning.

Creaaak –

The door opened, and…

“Welcome. And this is……?”

The butler, Lourens, bowed gracefully and asked.

Cain casually brushed his hair back and replied,

“The 13th princess.”

“P……Princess…”

At that moment, Lourens stammered.

As if he had just remembered something that his former self had never even considered. As if he had met something he could devote his entire life to.

Cain looked at him with interest.

“Please come in. The Lord Marquis is waiting.”

Lourens said calmly, as if nothing had happened.

“Is that so?”

Woosh –

At that moment, Cain reached out and grabbed the butler by the neck.

Crash!

He slammed him against the wall and looked straight at Lourens.

“Who are you?”

“Young Master, why all of a sudden……”

“Your eyes changed. You always called Wiseman the Headmaster, but this time you called her Marquis.”

Lourens looked at Cain for a moment and clicked his tongue.

Butler Lourens was gone.

“As expected of the hero. You weren’t fooled by ‘night’ from the beginning.”

Only Lourens of the Special Intelligence Division remained.

Translator’s Blog

Blog

• Wakana Gojou: The Ultimate Husbando? Is This Anime Romance Even Real?
• The Unmentionable Truth About Anime Waifus: Why They’re All So Smooth
• The “I’m So Deep in This Light Novel I’m Living It” Blues: When Your Waifu Gets NTR’d and You’re Not Even Mad (But Kind of Are)
• Itachi Uchiha: The Ultimate Husbando?
• Hidden Villages, Hidden Countries? Where’s the Rest of the World in Naruto?