Chapter 5: The Painful Lesson of Defeat
Summary
Training Spear. It was just a stick that didn’t even have a spear blade. But the ends are long, so if you poke someone right… It hurts terribly, if not penetrated.
But what if you’re stuck in an empty stomach?
“Uh-huh!”
That’s what happens. Cyan rolled and spewed vomit from place to place. Ciel, with her mouth wide open, screamed and approached Cyan, and Nina was shocked and shut her mouth.
“I won.”
Eugene put the spear down, speaking in a shady way. If it were a real spear, Cyan would have just died in an attack. Of course, it’s not a real spear, but it was clear that he was still rolling the ground after being attacked on his vital point.
“Nina, go get someone to take him.”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
“Coward!” He squeezes tears from his nose but never stops sulking.
Ciel, who was anxiously approaching, no longer approached her brother with the messy look. Instead, she raised her eyes and stared at Eugene.
“What cowardly things are done? The duel has already begun from the moment you throw your handkerchief.”
“That’s… you’re right, but! But being cowardly is cowardly.”
“Sucks that you are pretty but an airhead actually. Your stupid brother threw his handkerchief first and took his weapon. That’s what he was like.”
At the fierce fire, Ciel shut her mouth. It was also because she couldn’t hear nothing other than being called pretty and airhead.
“…Did you just say I was pretty?”
“Why not?”
“Anyway… being cowardly is cowardly. The duel was not an honorable one.”
“Well, you look just like your twins, and you have great logic.”
“I don’t look like my brother.”𝑅êạd new chapt𝒆rs on no/v/e/l𝒃in(.)com
“You look like a mental head. So what do you think is an honorable duel? Throwing a handkerchief, count one, two, three and the fight starts?”
“Um…”
Ciel mumbled her lips and glanced at Cyan, who was rolling on the floor, sobbing as he was covered with vomit. She felt sorry for his brother’s miserable appearance.
“…I’ll hit you a little bit.”
“I’m sorry, but I hit you gently enough.”
“You didn’t really train Mana?”
Ciel asked, shining with his eyes. Eugene, who was organizing a bag of sand on the floor, looked back at Ciel, revealing his annoyance.
“Are you not going?”
“You really didn’t train yourself.”
“I told you I didn’t!”
“Lie. How can you carry those heavy things without training, Mana. And your attack. It was so fast that my brother couldn’t react properly even if he didn’t let his guard down.”
The eyes shining with curiosity become thinner. At the words, Eugene stopped organizing the sandbags and paused.
“Have you seen it?”
“A little.”
“But I don’t think your eyes are for decoration.”
“You’re such a bad talker.”
“I’ve heard this a lot since a long time ago.”
Everyone except Vermouth had heard a word. While Eugene piled sandbags in one place, Ciel stood in her seat and looked at Eugene’s back. It was not possible to see the movement of muscles hidden in clothes in detail, but it seemed that only muscle strength was used without mana.
So Ciel couldn’t understand anything now. Ciel and Cyan had been training their bodies since childhood. From the age of seven? Ciel was lost in thought as she recalled what former Eugene had said earlier.
‘For a 13-year-old boy, his body is pretty solid.’
He felt resistance as soon as he touched the tip of the spear. Evidence that the body is not considered to be of that age. The power to push it back also meant that the body had already built enough mana to respond to the crisis.
He was not just beaten. At the moment of the attack, Cyan instinctively tried to pull himself back. A kid who doesn’t even have a real experience. He was instinctively trying to get out of the crisis.
‘It’s great for a boy. But for a descendant of Vermouth, he is trash.’
Of course Eugene doesn’t even know how strong the 13-year-old Vermouth was. The first time I met him was when Vermouth and Hamel turned 20. But he could still have guessed it.
Cyan Lionhart. The little boy, who had been taught by his family since he was a child, was unbelievably poor as a descendant of Vermouth.
‘But there’s still a trick.’
It’s because the standard is Vermouth. Looking at the possibility of the future, the number of drafts was fine. And Ciel. Even though she didn’t compete herself, she seems to have an eye for it.
“You… you dare… I’ll…!”
Cyan took a breath and looked up Eugene. His head was spinning. It hurts whenever you move as if the center of the body is penetrated, and it has a fishy and rotten taste in your mouth.
“Coward… Coward!”
“Both of you say the same thing because you’re twins.”
Eugene looked at Cyan with a smile.
“I don’t want to say what I said again. Ask your siste what I just said.”
“You… you son of a…!”
“Or try to trace your memory well. Your ears should have been open while your were puking around and rolling around.”
Cyan couldn’t refute anything. For sure. Eugene’s words were heard in the midst of his terrible pain and resentment.
However, even if he wasn’t cowardly, Cyan, 13, couldn’t accept this defeat. In front of his sister and his servants… Such an embarrassing thing!
“Clean up.”
Eugene looked at Cyan’s face, distorted by humiliation, and uploaded the medicine.
“You threw up all of your pukes. If you clean all that, I’ll clean the carriage, too. Then it’s fair and good. Right?”
“How dare you…”
“And if you lose a duel, it’s honorable and polite to humbly admit ‘lose.’ You talked about honor, honor… You’re not trying to be dishonorable, are you?”
“Uh…!”
Cyan can’t refute it, he was angry, his body hurt, his mouth tasted disgusting, and everything felt so humiliating. If he wasn’t feeling any pain, he would have told him to get up and fight again. The current Cyan couldn’t have done that.
The overwhelming sorrow and anger turn into tears. Cyan sniffled his head down. Eugene, of course, did not feel pity for the sight. That little boy was the one who put his attitude on the line first.
However, he felt a little skeptical about himself, who was panting against a 13-year-old boy.
‘I should’ve just put up with it. What’s going on here for no reason?’
There were also some worries about the future. He had been completely persecuted and ignored since the beginning, and he had made Cyan, the son of the main family, like that. In fact, he was worried that the fire arrow might be flying to his father in the countryside, taking advantage of this more than anything else.
While Eugene was thinking about this and that. Cyan held back his tears desperately. He didn’t want to look ugly anymore… However, he did not admit defeat. It was a childlike stubbornness.
“Young Lady!”
A distant shout approaches them in an instant. A man with a tall and uniform arrived at the ballroom. From far behind, Nina was running with her skirt in both hands.
“What the hell is this?”
There was a badge on his chest.
The man seemed to be a knight commissioned by his family.
Oh, my.
Eugene shined his eyes at the man’s movements. He doesn’t know the exact age, but Eugene thinks he is better than Gordon, who escorted him all the way here.
“He… Hezar.”
Cyan wept over the man.
“I… I lost… I said we’d fight. But I lost…”
“Duel…”
Hezar glanced at Eugene with a firm look. Then he lowered his body and raised Cyan. Hezar’s hands and uniforms were now full of vomit. Ciel took a few steps back at the sight, as if she hated it.
“…Greetings. I’m Hezar, the coach of Master Cyan.”
Hezar bowed his head as he assisted Cyan.
“I heard it from my servant, but I came so quickly that I couldn’t hear it until the end. What happened?”
“I’m Eugene Lionhart from Gidol.”
Eugene didn’t lower hhead.
“Gidol… That’s where Jehard family is.”
“Yes, that’s my father. The situation is… Cyan got into a quarrel with me. I tried not to respond, but…”
Eugene continued to look at Xian’s face.
“Cyan insulted my father.”
“When did I?!”
“Didn’t you tell me my father didn’t learn what honor is, and you said I was a coward?”
Cyan’s face flushed red at the words.
“He also said that my body smells like cow dung.”
“…really. Your body smells like cow dung!”
“Shut up because your mouth smells like vomit.”
Eugene glared at Cyan with his eyes wide open. Xian shivered unknowingly at the fixed gaze. He still has a throbbing sense of honor, and felt like he was defeated in an orthodoxy manner.
“…so a duel?”
“Cyan insulted not only me but also my father. Sir Hezar, is there any reason why I should not accept a duel?”
Hezar felt a strong sense of incompatibility with the question. The boy in front of him must be about the same age as Cyan and Ciel, but he is not ahead of the conversation and has a calm tone. Hezar, who had been suffering from twins’ whining for years, did not dare to judge whether the boy in front of him was abnormal or if the twins were abnormal.
“…the reason is reasonable, but… I think your methods were too much.”
“Isn’t showing mercy in a duel an insult to the other person?”
“…”
“Sir Hezar, if I’m clumsy, I’d be grateful for your advice, but I don’t want to hear that my hands are too heavy.”
“…I apologize for saying something presumptuous.”
Hezar bowed his head once again. Cyan, who was supported by him, has his face distorted.
“Hezar! That bastard trained Mana. You didn’t even do the Blood Ceremony, but you already trained Mana!”
“I asked you to close your mouth.”
Eugene tilted his head sharply and stared at Cyan. Cyan closed his mouth again and lowered his gaze.
“…Young Lady.”
Hezar shook his head with a long sigh.
“Eugene didn’t train Mana.”
“Hezar! Are you lying to me, too?””
“Why should I lie to you…”
“That doesn’t make sense…! How can he win over me if he didn’t learn mana! And… and that! Those sandbags! He put them on his body…”
“I can’t feel mana in Eugene.” Hezar glanced at the sandbags behind him and said, At first glance, the weight seems considerable. He put all that on his body? Hezar couldn’t easily imagine the sight.
However, even after looking at it several times, he still couldn’t feel any mana from him.
“Lie… it’s a lie.”
“Cyan, first of all… Let’s start with your injury.”
Hezar looked at Eugene’s expression as he spoke like an old man.
“He stabbed me with a spear.”
“…where else?”
“It was on my stomach.”
Stomach… Hezar groaned low, and Cyan chewed his lips in shame.
“…then… Mr. Eugene. I’ll see you next time.”
Hezar could not speak any more and bowed politely. Nina, who had been running from afar, arrived at the yard by that time. She bent her head down in a daze.
“Sorry, sorry.”
“What are you sorry about?”
Eugene grinned as he saw from the distance where Cyan was on Hezar’s shoulder, who was still being supported, dropped down. Why did he do that to the little child? It was also true that he felt such skepticism, but it was fun to break the habit of a nice little boy.
“See you next time.”
Ciel, who was following Hezar’s back, looked back at Eugene and laughed.
“Good-bye.”
Eugene smiled face to face and waved to Ciel.