Thoughts of Four Years Ago (2)
The Brave, Leticia Von Mavis.
At merely ten years old, she was proclaimed by the oracle to be the Brave, and together with her three famous companions, the Sword Saint, Holy Woman and Great Sage, they went on an odyssey to defeat the Demon Lord.
She had enough righteous power as a Brave, and also enough magic power to be proud of.
With sword skills surpa.s.sing even the prodigal Sword Saint, her swordsmanship earned her the moniker “Divine Sword Princess.”
Pa.s.sing through many battlefields, saving many cities and countries, she finally defeated the Demon Lord.
Her feat caused the inhabitants of the continent, including unrelated n.o.bles of various countries, rejoice.
Many countries and races went to investigate this great new Brave.
Besides the n.o.bles and wealthy bureaucrats, every country’s newspapers collected information about her.
As a result, the newspapers had Leticia’s image printed on it, were surprised and charmed.
Since she was the Brave who possessed overwhelming power, many failed to see that she was merely a fourteen year old girl.
With only her exceptional appearance, she exuded an aura of grace.
According to the people around her, anybody who met her directly felt something special about her.
Her fame spread across the continent, sometimes to the point of being worshiped like a G.o.ddess. She was a living legend.
Right now, the one called “Closest to G.o.d”, Leticia the Brave was…
“Leti, so you were there.”
“Etto, well… It’s just been a long time since I saw Onii-chan, I’m so happy!”
“Okay, okay, now sit.”
“Okay.”
In front of Wynn, who had veins popping out of his forehead, she was currently downheartedly sitting in a seiza pose.
With her golden hair tied behind her head, she feebly hung her head.
“Oi, is this kid here the same one as yesterday? I may be mistaken, but could you be Leticia-sama!? Why are you in our room? And for that matter, why are you kneeling!?”
It was Locke, who was panicking at the sight of those two people.
He was looking back and forth between Wynn, who had his arms crossed, and Leticia, who was in a seiza pose.
“Etto, Should I prepare black tea?”
“Calm down, Locke. It’s going to be breakfast time soon.”
Locke, who was preparing to rush out in his pajamas to get tea from the dorm dining hall, was stopped by Wynn.
“Etto, Locke-san? Please, don’t worry about it.”
The kneeling Leticia bowed to Locke with a troubled smile. Bokon.
“Aah. Why the heck is Leticia-sama in our dorm! Why is she kneeling! I don’t get it! Explain!”
The confused Locke shouted.
“Are? Didn’t you first meet Leti yesterday? Hasn’t she introduced herself to you?”[1]
Locke was getting the urge to hurt the nonchalant Wynn.
Looking closer, Locke’s face was on the verge of tears.
“If it’s the same person as the one in the news, there is now way I would understand this situation!”[2]
“Maa, calm down.”
“Or rather, why is Leticia-sama kneeling there!? Somehow, somebody please explain it to me!”
Having been grabbed by the collars by Locke, Wynn looked at Leti.
“Well… come here.”
Standing from the bed, Wynn invited Locke to the window.
Without minding the kneeling Leticia, he stood beside Wynn.
“Huh? What is this?”
Locke looked outside the window and — It was as if a hurricane had pa.s.sed through. Leaves were scattered all over the place, and the branches were stripped bare.
“Well, it was supposed to be morning practice as always but…”
Wynn told the surprised Locke about the events that occurred while he was asleep that morning.
“Onii-chan!”
“Na… Le, Leti!?”
The sword strike was fierce.[3]
Jumping out from the shadow of the building, the real person in Wynn’s imagination appeared.
Leticia swung her sword horizontally.
Kiin!
“Be…”[4]
He stopped the blow with the edge of his sword, but needed all his body weight.
The wind pressure from her swing hit Wynn hard.
Wynn appeared slender, but that was due to his training since childhood tightening his muscles, so he weighed more than he seemed.
Wynn was not blown away by the strike’s force, where is the power in Leti’s slender arm?
Somehow, he was able to ward of Leticia’s blow.
There, in that small area, they exchanged blows.
Against Leticia’s dizzying strikes, sometimes stabbing, sometimes slashing, he warded off the heavy blows while searching for an opportunity to counterattack.
He was only able to weather the blows, and was unable to counterattack.
“Finally! Now, you can see how strong I have become!”
“Onii-chan, aren’t I handling the sword well?”[5]
Leticia smiled while swinging the sword.
She had a smug grin on her face.
She still had not gone all out.
In fact, each one of her blows could have been faster.
It was as if she had no limits…
Desperately trying to follow the fast strikes, Wynn continued to wait for his chance.
The work of defending against her many attacks strained his mind.
If he lost focus for a moment, he would be taken down in the blink of an eye.
Therefore, he aimed at the moment when Leticia made an especially deep step to attack–
Kiin!
He used the force of her blow to move himself away from her.
Arranging his breathing, he glared at Leticia.
“Leti.”
“What is it? Onii-chan.”
Finally getting an opportunity —
He slowly lowered his sword in both hands, while approaching Leticia.[6]
Leticia also held her sword in both hands and lowered it, questioning Wynn’s actions.
“Well…”
“Yes?”
Putting his left hand to his forehead, he slowly looked around him.
“You. What will you do about this?”
“Aah.”
Wynn’s gaze fell on the leaves on the ground, and the bare branches, caused by Leticia’s sword strike.
After that, Wynn and Leticia ended up trading their swords for brooms, and spent an hour sweeping.
“… And that was what happened this morning.”
“…Ah, well, If you say so.”
With a speechless face, Locke looked at the still kneeling Leticia.
Since the dorm used to be the palace, there were various protective magics in place.
Since it was to be used as a school, a layer of soundproofing magic added. [7]
Unlike when it was a palace, now n.o.ble children lived there. Since n.o.body was awake as early as Wynn was during his special training, complaints about the noise from training would often reach the administration.
Since there was no damage to the dorm, and everybody knew who caused the commotion there was no problem… except for the trees. [8]
“Good grief…”[9]
Wynn was standing in front of Leticia with his arms crossed.
The Leticia that was looking at Wynn with upturned eyes actually seemed like a girl her age.
Thus, Wynn began to speak.
“De, Why the heck did you suddenly attack me?”
“It’s been a long time since we met, hasn’t it? I wanted Onii-chan to see my strength.”
“Even so, didn’t you just suddenly do something reckless!”
“Ugh…”
At Wynn’s sharp reprimands, Leticia slumped her body.
“Even if your skills have markedly improved, you didn’t see your surroundings at all, did you?”
From there, Wynn’s long tirade started– to which Locke said “you should get up now,” interrupting him after half an hour.
At Locke’s words, Leticia, who was kneeling while hanging her head, looked up at Wynn.
“Na, Leticia-sama has already reflected.”
To Locke’s words, Leticia a.s.sented with a “mhmm”[10]
With her teary-eyed expression, the Brave’s former dignity was completely gone.
“Well, since Locke said so, and it’s time for breakfast soon…”
“Un, I’m hungry.”
At the first sign that his sermon was ending, Leticia immediately thought of her hunger.
It was due to the sword match they had.
Even the Brave was hungry. [11]
Due to having been in seiza for a while, Leticia stood up unsteadily.
“Hora.”
“Nn, Thank you.”
Leticia smiled delightedly at Wynn, who was helping her up.
“By the way…”
Locke called out to the two people.
“How is Wynn so close to Leticia-sama?”
“Why? It’s because we are childhood friends.”
Leticia, who was still unsteady, replied.
Before Leti left four years ago, we were together. She’s my best friend.
“Best friend…”
For a moment, Leticia’s face clouded over, and she muttered, but Wynn and Locke didn’t hear her.
I never thought that we would meet again, but now she has returned.
“Return?”
Was it returning from the Maou suppression?
Locke interjected.
“Well, I thought that as a n.o.ble daughter, she was to be married off at ten years old. However, Leti, you married into a house that lets you use the sword? If you met a great sword teacher there, why did you return?” [12]
Wynn basically only worked and trained after cla.s.s, to pay his expenses.
Thus, within the school, he only knew several people, including Locke.
Hence, Wynn didn’t know.
At least, he knew that the Brave had defeated the Demon Lord, but had never heard the name of the Brave.
Furthermore, having never seen the newspapers of the wealthy (Locke saw the news while staying at his parent’s estate during the break), it was natural that he did not see the portrait of the Brave.
Leticia and Locke were speechless.
For Leticia, it was because she was misunderstood as having been married off on the trip.
For Locke , it was because he was amazed at Wynn’s ignorance.
Thus, he considered Wynn’s att.i.tude towards Leticia a while ago.
‘Well, in some cases, ignorance is bliss…’
Nonetheless, if Wynn knew that Leticia was the Brave, his att.i.tude wouldn’t have changed.
Translator notes
1.subject of the third question: レティのことは紹介したかな?back
2.impreciseback
3.剣気 – Sword pressure? kenki?back
4.a grunt of sorts?back
5.お兄ちゃんだって、私の剣をここまで捌ける人ってなかなかいないよ？back
6.wording in this one and the next sentence… ウィンは両手で構えていた剣をゆっくりと下ろすと、そのままレティシアに近寄っていく。back
7.not sure if soundproofing was added or removed… また、学校として使用されることになって防音魔法も重ねがけされていた。back
8.Very guessy… だから、寮には被害は出ていないし多くの者はこの事態を引き起こしたのが誰なのか知れ渡ることはなかったのだが、さすがに木々にはその恩恵はなかった。back
9.「全く……」 the idiom?back
10.wording : ロックの言葉にブンブンと首を縦に振るレティシア。back
11. 勇者とはいえどお腹は空く。back
12.「まあ、貴族のお姫様だとは思ってたけど、十歳で嫁いで行くとは思わなかったよ。だけど、レティ。嫁ぎ先でもさっきみたいに剣を振り回してたんだろう？ あっちでいい剣の先生に巡り合えたみたいだけど、そんなだから故郷くにに帰されるんだぞ？」back
cloverSK has told me that he’s too busy with uni to continue, so it’s just me, for better of for worse. I never was good at group projects… I’m either uninvolved or domineering… Anyways, this should be a more legible version. I wrote a program yesterday to create wordpress footnotes without using the anchors to show the raws, since that was getting annoying for me and some of the readers. However, it may be harder for any volunteer editors that may help me edit… maybe.