Chapter 247, So I Won’t Forget (2)

Translator: Lizzz

Editor: Hedge

 

He slept for a long time.

 

He spent an entire day completely unconscious.

 

After that, he drifted in and out of sleep again and again. Even when awake, it would be more accurate to say he remained half-submerged in slumber.

 

In a state that felt like dreaming, or perhaps like just emerging from a dream, he endlessly replayed his fight with Evan. Sometimes Evan stood before him, sometimes he was alone. Whether anyone was present or not, he continued to wield his sword.

 

Was he clinging to what he could concentrate on most to forget the pain? Or was he worried he might forget his swordsmanship? Even Kalian could not determine the exact reason.

 

After spending that long dream alone, he finally woke.

 

He opened his eyes after understanding something that might have been swordsmanship or reality.

 

His stomach growled.

 

Upon waking to find himself hungry rather than in pain, he felt somewhat reassured. If hunger felt greater than any lingering discomfort, surely he had mostly recovered.

 

So Kalian sat up.

 

“I’m hungry…”

 

As he muttered blankly, something was thrust before his eyes.

 

“Ah.”

 

It was something yellow.

 

A sudden sweet scent filled the air.

 

“Banana.”

 

Kalian’s face brightened as he smiled broadly and accepted it. So focused on the banana, he only belatedly realized that the one who had handed him that bright yellow fruit was something fresh and green.

 

“Ah.”

 

It was a pea.

 

Swallowing those words for the second time, Kalian smiled.

 

“It’s been a while, older brother.”

 

Not knowing exactly how long he had slept but sensing it had been quite some time, he offered this greeting.

 

After staring at Kalian for a moment, Plants gave a brief nod and stood up. Though unclear how long he had been sitting nearby, he seemed to generously understand that his younger brother had looked for bananas before properly greeting him.

 

Plants did not ask if Kalian was alright, inform him how long he had been asleep, or explain the current situation. He also did not reproach Kalian for barking like he had achieved a lifelong ambition just before collapsing.

 

“Hina is sleeping.”

 

“Yes.”

 

With only these words instructing him to be quiet so as not to wake the hardworking Hina, Plants left the treatment room.

 

Thinking it would sound rather odd to hear ‘Lady Bern’ from Plants’s mouth, Kalian simply let the use of Hina’s name pass without comment and began eating his banana in silence.

 

Knowing Ian would not have left anything unsafe near Kalian, he also took and thoroughly chewed the many bananas of unknown origin placed beside him. Remembering Hina had once said eating too much suddenly was bad, he ate moderately rather than to his heart’s content.

 

Hina would surely scold him when she woke.

 

She would tell him to stop eating bananas too.

 

Knowing this well, Kalian carefully ate while even manifesting Silent so as not to wake Hina.

 

Afterward, he tidied himself up using Magic until he looked presentable enough to appear before others, then hobbled outside. He returned to Chermil Palace with Ian, whose face seemed caught between crying and laughing as he reported what had happened while Kalian slept.

 

“So most of the Caera Knights have been reinstated, but there will be reorganization and the Knight order will get a new name. His Majesty is currently handling affairs at Arpia Palace, and Count Manasil went to the Arcane Enclave to meet Lady Seiren. Prince Randel is at Chermil Palace with no other business, and Prince Plants just went to the royal dungeon saying he had someone to meet briefly.”

 

“I see. Thank you.”

 

“You’re going to the training grounds, aren’t you?”

 

To Ian, who asked with resignation as if he had heard something somewhere, Kalian answered without bothering to tell him not to worry.

 

“Yes. I should.”

 

“Understood. I’ll let Prince Plants know when he arrives.”

 

“No need. He’ll probably come on his own.”

 

Having confirmed there were no urgent matters requiring immediate attention, he stood in the training grounds. Shortly after, Plants found his way there on his own.

 

Kalian gripped his swords.

 

The sound of steel rang out.

 

Two swords.

 

Since swordsmanship using a single blade was less important, he immediately demonstrated with two swords.

 

He slowly reproduced Evan’s swordsmanship, which he had organized in his mind and wielded so thoroughly in his dreams. How to grip the swords, slash, thrust, and block. How to use shoulders and arms, how to move legs, when and where to place feet.

 

Plants did not rashly extend his arms or try to follow along with his own sword, but first absorbed everything into his mind as Kalian instructed. This was to prevent his own clumsy technique from becoming part of the memory.

 

After showing each movement completely, Kalian paused and looked at Plants. Green eyes watched the blood-red sword tip for a long moment before meeting red eyes.

 

“Shall I show you once more?”

 

“No.”

 

[Oh how remarkably clever my older brother is.] Kalian smiled with raised lips before continuing.

 

“Now, I’ll show you the sequence of exchanges.”

 

The sequence of exchanges.

 

At these words indicating he would reproduce the actual combat with Evan. Plants nodded this time.

 

Occasionally Kyrie would reproduce for Plants the movements Kalian had shown in sparring. This time Kalian would simply demonstrate Evan’s swordsmanship. There would be no difference.

 

“Alright.”

 

Kalian adopted Evan’s perspective and imagined a phantom version of himself.

 

Then he recreated exactly the swordsmanship Evan had displayed before him, but at a much slower speed. Pushing up, slashing, thrusting, blocking, attacking, and swinging from different directions, identically.

 

The strike that wounded Kalian, even the twisting withdrawal of the blade that had penetrated flesh, all of it.

 

Having extensively experienced Kalian’s swordsmanship firsthand, Plants surely had another version of Kalian rising in his mind as well. Thanks to this, Plants briefly furrowed his brow at the attack just shown but did not speak as Kalian’s movements continued.

 

Thus, Kalian straightened his posture after fully displaying before Plants’s eyes even that moment when Evan had blocked only one of Kalian’s attacks.

 

Realizing the fight had ended, Plants narrowed his eyes and spoke.

 

“You. In the middle of fighting,”

 

[You got distracted by something.]

 

“Not yet.”

 

Having blocked Plants’s question for now, confirming there was no need to verify what had been memorized, Kalian raised his swords again.

 

“What I’m about to show you now is Beurisen’s sword. It’s the most important, so watch carefully and don’t forget. I’ll gradually fill in the lacking parts and teach you again.”

 

“Understood.”

 

A brief answer came, and moments later,

 

Kalian’s swords began to trace their paths.

 

Lighter than Evan, heavier than Evan, faster than Evan, slower than Evan.

 

Not individual separated movements, not what was utilized in combat. Though missing pieces existed here and there, this was Beurisen’s swordsmanship that Kalian had observed and learned, that was what Kalian had grasped.

 

He displayed it fully.

 

The two swords began to dance.

 

The swords in both hands separated and converged, then parted again repeatedly.

 

Now as one sword, then as two blades. Two separate swords became a single long blade with the handles at the center. They ceaselessly transformed.

 

Sometimes they swung with more force than Kalian’s current style, other times they penetrated more sharply than Dmirea’s blade. Filling empty spaces and targeting weaknesses, the two swords complemented each other.

 

Light yet not weak, heavy yet not dull.

 

As swift as it was clear, as slow as it was deliberate.

 

They swept through the air as if without hesitation, then suddenly plunged down. Swung without wavering, then suddenly aimed for vital points.

 

The afterimages left by the sword tips resembled flower petals scattering in the wind. Like blossoms falling heavy with rain.

 

A blood-red light bloomed.

 

The scent of blood filled the air, and flowers bloomed profusely.

 

* * *

 

An invisible battle.

 

Outside, Nobles sharpened their awareness. Inside, Rmain sharpened his nerves.

 

“I was just briefly lost in thought. It wasn’t anything serious, but my concentration was scattered.”

 

Regardless of all that,

 

Kalian spoke while the sight of beef sirloin steak filled his eyes.

 

After leisurely cutting that very steak, placing it in his mouth, chewing well and swallowing, Plants slowly answered.

 

“You. Lost concentration.”

 

“Yes. I did.”

 

“I see.”

 

Having learned why Kalian was injured during his fight with Evan, Plants stubbornly asked the reason he had become distracted. So, Kalian simply glossed over it vaguely. He could hardly answer that the Family was such a lush green meadow that he had unknowingly gazed into his own deep inner self in brief meditation.

 

Understanding well that Kalian did not wish to answer, Plants turned the conversation.

 

“So why did you meet with that Caera Knight again?”

 

“It didn’t fit.”

 

“Was there another suspicious aspect about that person?”

 

Kalian asked again while gazing at the goose breast barbecue with an expectant face, and Plants, who had picked up exactly that and eaten it well, delivered his answer.

 

“Vacation period.”

 

Plants ate salad lightly topped with strawberry milk-colored sauce and moistened his throat with carbonated water containing a few orange slices before continuing.

 

His words were directed at Kalian, who could eat nothing and sat at a distance on the sofa, staring intently at the food on the table.

 

“Someone from the Enron region went home in early July and returned in mid-August. Twice in ten years.”

 

For the Enron region, even considering time spent at home, one could make the round trip in about a month and a half. So, after briefly considering what problem might exist with that timeframe, Kalian spoke.

 

“It’s July, so the dates don’t match. The Lichen River floods during that period, so one must take a detour.”

 

Then he looked at Plants with an expression that said, ‘oh my, my older brother found that out, how admirable.’

 

Having finished his meal, Plants saw this expression on Kalian’s face precisely. So Plants picked up the fork he had already set down and cut another large piece of the steak he had only taken one bite of earlier and ate it.

 

‘Until tomorrow, you mustn’t eat anything. This is serious. Especially meat, absolutely do not eat it.’

 

This was because of what Kalian had heard from Hina.

 

Hina had come looking for him after he had properly instilled Beurisen swordsmanship in Plants. He was scolded for devouring three bananas on an empty stomach, scolded more for running away after eating them, and scolded again for having been injured in the first place.

 

A hellish fasting had begun.

 

So now, that damned pea, sprouting like a carrot, was diligently devouring the meat. To show his younger brother, who had come up and sat down just to smell the meat, the wonderful sight of eating fragrant meat.

 

[What a cruel fellow.]

 

Well, anyway.

 

“So you went directly to meet the Knight, trusting only that single vacation record without any other evidence or suspicion?”

 

“It’s the fastest.”

 

“True enough. Nothing is faster than meeting directly.”

 

Kalian laughed softly.

 

One suspicious detail was sufficient. The rest could be probed by meeting directly, could it not?

 

“You.”

 

“I couldn’t find any other reason… You wouldn’t want to face Viscount Beurisen again after shattering his jaw, and the rest aren’t people you particularly need to see, older brother. The only one left is that Knight who handed over the poison pouch, so I assumed you went to meet him because the Knight had concealed something else.”

 

Plants placed his hand on the sleeping cats without answering.

 

“So that’s why he spoke so freely about the poison pouch. To avoid revealing other, more important secrets.”

 

“That’s what was strange.”

 

It was strange that the Knight had confessed too easily from the very beginning, so Plants had thought to examine even ten years of vacation records while verifying the Knight’s information. Quite persistent and harsh, but thanks to that, they learned the Knight’s true identity.

 

“A bird of Secritia. Come to think of it, there was already one Secritia spy, so there was no law saying there couldn’t be more.”

 

Wasn’t one of Valkan’s Knights who served as Chase’s messenger bird also a spy hidden in Beurisen? So, it would not have been impossible for Debeullan’s bird to similarly hide in Beurisen first, then get swept up in Evan’s machinations and sent as a Caera Knight.

 

“I never told you he was a Secritia spy, younger brother.”

 

“Did that bird say anything else? Like cursing?”

 

Or leaving barbed words like a curse.

 

“He didn’t.”

 

“That’s fortunate.”

 

Though Plants had mentioned finding suspicious aspects about the Knight and going to see him, he had not yet revealed he was a Secritia spy. Nevertheless, Kalian spoke as if certain of his identity, then answered that it was fortunate the man had said nothing else.

 

With a slightly furrowed expression while looking at Kalian, Plants spoke quietly.

 

“It seems my younger brother came up smelling blood rather than meat.”

 

Having now understood why Kalian, who could not even eat, had bothered to come up to the fourth floor to watch him eat, Plants sighed softly. Kalian smiled faintly.

 

“How remarkably perceptive my older brother is.”

 

“If you’re going to bark, leave. If you’re going to talk, stay.”

 

“The scent of blood emanating from you, older brother, wasn’t thick, so I wondered if it had transferred to me, but it wasn’t. It didn’t seem to be from what you picked up at Evan Beurisen’s estate that day either.”

 

In place of the non-responding Plants, Kalian’s words continued.

 

“Birds rarely disclose that they are spies. They would rather chew and swallow what’s in their mouths. There are birds who don’t, but most are like that.”

 

“They are .”

 

“So I understood. What you did and what you saw when you went to the dungeon.”

 

Secritia spies hid poison in their mouths.

 

Plants had gone to the dungeon to confirm whether that Knight was truly Debeullan’s bird. When he grabbed and shook the Knight with certainty about his identity, if the man swallowed poison and died, he would be confirmed as a spy.

 

Having also guessed why Plants had used such an extreme method to verify the spy’s identity, Kalian sighed briefly and spoke.

 

“That’s not what I meant when I said to learn such things.”

 

“I know.”

 

“You don’t need to go that far. I can still go to Camilon.”

 

“I know that too.”

 

Plants had wanted to take responsibility for what happened because of him.

 

He needed to inform the Nobles as soon as possible who had killed Evan Beurisen, and wanted to give legitimacy to Kalian’s involvement.

 

If he could reveal that Knight as a Secritia spy, he thought he could resolve everything. So, he went and confirmed the identity without wasting time.

 

Instead, he returned stained with the scent of blood.

 

The Knight must have died. Swallowing poison and coughing blood before Plants’s eyes.

 

“Don’t overexert yourself. Next time.”

 

“I didn’t overexert myself.”

 

To Plants, who had truly walked through ashes, Kalian offered words filled with quite complicated feelings.

 

“You worked hard.”

 

Plants closed his eyes briefly, then opened them.

 

“It’s fine.”

 

“Yes.”

 

They said he shattered Lannen Beurisen’s jaw.

 

Yet he seemed unexpectedly truly alright, somehow even rather relieved, so Kalian only reconfirmed their agreement not to thank each other. Then he went outside and hobbled toward Arpia Palace.

 

Evan Beurisen, whom Kalian had killed and eliminated.

 

The Secritia bird who had died before Plants.

 

He went to inform Rmain of a method to combine both deaths into a key to resolve this matter, as well as make it into cat droppings to hand to Debeullan.