Chapter 27: Ian Leinrant (1)
27
“Thank goodness you returned safely, Young Master.”
“Safely, my foot. I felt like I was going to die from exhaustion.”
Early morning.
The Leinrant estate, returned to after a week.
Responding to Dunkel’s greeting, which I heard after a long while, I took off the cloak I had been wrapped in.
“…You were invited to a villa, so why are you wearing a field cloak?”
“There was a reason. Where’s Father?”
“He’s in his study.”
Nodding at Dunkel’s answer, I climbed the stairs leading to the second floor of the estate.
Morning sunlight filtered in through the windows.
The knights’ shouted drills echoing from the training grounds mixed with the laughter of maids beginning their chores.
“Home really is nice.”
I strolled down the corridor, taking in the languid morning scenery.
It felt as though the tension I had maintained since departure was finally loosening.
‘I already wrote the report in the carriage, so I’ll just give a brief summary. As for the Hector matter….’
I was moving my feet with those thoughts in mind when—
“So, you’re the second one that Heinckel brat talked about?”
A voice reached me.
Frivolous, yet if you listened closely, it also sounded oddly detached.
“?!”
Startled, I hurriedly turned around.
Because it was a voice I’d never heard before?
That wasn’t it.
“They made such a fuss about you being a genius and all that, but you’re slower to react than I expected?”
A chill ran down my spine.
The corridor leading to Heinckel’s study was straight.
Yet this voice directed at me had come from behind my back.
Which meant that, as I walked down the corridor, I had already passed by the owner of this voice.
And yet, I hadn’t even noticed when that old man had ended up behind me.
‘At the very least, he’s on Priest Garrison’s level… or even stronger…!’
The tension that had just loosened snapped taut again as if it had never eased.
An old man in a brown robe, his white hair tied up atop his head.
Eyes empty and unfocused were fixed on me.
“I was thinking of waiting for another opportunity since you took so long to show up, but this worked out perfectly.”
The old man, nodding as he looked at me, slowly approached.
Without letting go of my tension, I quickly pieced together the situation.
‘Location: near Heinckel’s study. The absence of guards or surveillance means he must be a guest here for something discreet, or personal.’
In the meantime, the white-haired old man approaching me slowly extended his hand.
‘Then at the very least, he’s not an enemy.’
Thinking that, I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.
At that very moment—
Thwack-!
“Argh?!”
A dull sensation struck my forehead, and a voice slipped out before I could stop it.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the old man grinning mischievously at me.
“…Isn’t that a bit too rough for someone meeting his nephew for the first time?”
When I voiced the conclusion I had reached in my head, the old man’s smile only deepened.
“So you figured out who I was in that short time. You’ve got quite the politician’s temperament.”
The old man said that, then continued speaking to me without wiping the smile from his face.
“Show some respect, you rude little bastard. I’m your uncle.”
At his words, I smiled back.
The man’s name was Ian Leinrant.
The former duke, Rudel Leinrant’s first son—and a bastard.
A so-called discarded child, whose name had been erased from the family registry.
“You said you were bored and left, so when did you even come back?”
Along with Heinckel’s displeased voice, three cups of black tea were placed atop the desk in the study.
‘Tea brewed personally by the Duke of Leinrant.’
Lifting the cup, steam gently rising from it, I was swept by a renewed sense of bewilderment.
“I didn’t leave on my own. I got chased out by the head maid, I’m telling you.”
“You emptied every bottle of alcohol in the storage, so it’s understandable she’d lose her temper.”
“Haha! To think my one and only younger brother would turn out like this…!”
Saying that, Ian downed the hot tea in one go and grabbed a handful of the cookies on the table, stuffing them into his mouth.
‘Looks like my report has already been pushed to the back burner.’
Watching the two bicker nonstop like old friends, I brought the teacup to my lips.
Even so, I didn’t take my eyes off that eccentric old man.
‘The rumors I heard were ominous, but he’s not quite like that.’
Ian Leinrant.
The forgotten Leinrant, erased from the noble registry, a name people hesitated even to speak aloud.
Because of that, information about him was extremely fragmentary.
Even I, a legitimate heir, had only heard his name through Dunkel.
What little was known amounted to two things.
That he had once been the commander of the Golden Wing Knights, the Empire’s strongest knight order.
And that he had killed all the knights under his command and gone into seclusion.
“By the way.”
While I was thinking that, Ian—who had been squabbling with Heinckel the whole time—pointed a finger at me.
“This the one? The kid you were talking about.”
Ian asked.
His gaze was on me, but the question was directed at Heinckel.
“Yes. I thought it necessary for you to see him, Brother.”
At Heinckel’s words, a smile formed on Ian’s lips.
“Good. At least he’s not completely empty-headed.”
When he added, ‘Unlike that Delain brat,’ Heinckel gave a bitter smile.
I might have done the same.
“Hm….”
Ian bent down and reached his hand toward me.
Neck, arms, shoulders.
As he grasped and felt them with his hands, he looked as though he were appraising something.
‘I feel like livestock at a slaughterhouse.’
Just as I was about to frown at the inorganic sensation—
“Not good at all?”
A voice heavy with disappointment reached my ears.
“You swung a sword you weren’t even familiar with, so your muscles stiffened right away, and your skeleton isn’t developed either. Rather than a swordsman, you’ve got the frame of a scholar, or a mage.”
At Ian’s scathing evaluation, I flinched for a moment.
‘He can tell all that just from my frame?’
They say that when a blind man loses his sight, his other senses develop.
Was his heightened perception because of that?
There was no way to know.
“Klein drove back an Imperial Royal Guard Knight with that body.”
“A Royal Guard Knight? Someone I know?”
“Randel.”
“Ha—!”
Randel, the knight whose wrist I had severed before.
When I spoke his name, Ian let out a hollow laugh as if he couldn’t believe it.
“That punk bastard fell so low he could be driven back by a meek-looking kid like this?”
“He seemed to be around the average level of the main family’s knights.”
“Oh~?”
Only then did a hint of interest enter his voice.
“Then let’s take a look.”
Ian approached me and grabbed my shoulder.
Hollow eyes that had lost their light.
The gaze of a blind man was directed precisely at my face.
“Whether you’re an uncut gem, or just a pebble rolling around on the roadside.”
And the instant I heard those words, I hurriedly drew up my demonic energy.
In front of me, the arm of a skeleton holding a shield had already formed.
Kwaaaang-!
Intense pain surged from my back.
The wall of Heinckel’s study on the second floor shattered, and I broke through it, suspended in midair.
‘I won’t survive the impact if I fall. Skeleton!’
I immediately vented demonic energy and formed a summoning circle at the point of impact.
Kiiiii!
One skeleton clasped its hands together to form a foothold, and another leapt off that foothold to catch my body.
And then, the fall.
Kwachik-!
The skeleton’s back, which became the shock absorber in my place, shattered to pieces.
If I hadn’t urgently drawn up demonic energy, that would have been me.
“Hooh? So necromancy can be used like that as well?”
Ian said that as he poked his head out through the hole in the wall.
Judging by his expression, his interest had been properly piqued.
‘Information about necromancy… he must have heard it from Heinkel.’
He must have had his own reasons for acting.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason to specifically call that old man to the main house.
“Didn’t you already finish my nephew’s etiquette lesson… with that forehead flick just now?”
When I twisted my mouth and said that, Ian’s smile grew even deeper.
“It’s finished. That wasn’t education—it was a verification.”
Saying that, Ian came outside through the hole opened at the back of the estate.
At some point, two swords were already in Ian’s hands.
“Take it.”
I caught the sword that flew through the air.
Not a practice blunt, but a real blade with a keen, living edge.
Ian, still wearing the same smile as he looked at me, slowly drew his sword.
“I won’t go easy on you like the knights here. Come at me with everything you’ve got.”
Verification.
I could roughly guess why Heinkel had called this man to the estate.
“What is this, attacking me out of the blue.”
With a short complaint, I slowly drew my sword.
“I won’t take responsibility if you die during sparring. Uncle.”
Of course, I didn’t forget to provoke him to stir my opponent.
Kaang-!
The instant I drew my sword, Ian’s blade flew at me.
A sword strike without any demonic energy.
Even then, he was using only one hand.
“You’d better show results worthy of that mouth of yours. Insolent brat.”
Facing his sharp-edged smile, I knocked aside his sword.
But at the same time, the second and third strikes poured in.
‘A sword path I’ve never seen. Side and front at the same time…!’
An unfamiliar sword technique that Leinrant swordsmen did not use.
I knocked aside the serpent-like, warped thrust head-on, then immediately severed the flow with the Meteor Sword.
Kiiiiiiing-!
A sword strike fired while focused on a single point.
Ian twisted his head to the side to evade it and let out an exclamation.
“Mixing the Meteor Sword between chained attacks—something even commander-level knights struggle with, and you do it so casually…!”
He sounded impressed, but that was all.
Unable to imbue my blade with demonic energy, I could only reproduce the movement, not its power.
A half-finished swordsman who could never be complete.
‘Then how about this…!’
The best defense was offense.
I stepped forward to seize the initiative and, at the same time, drew the sword sheathed at my side and swung it horizontally.
“Heh heh, Phantom Sword?! Just look at this kid?!”
Kakaang-!
It was a single sword strike, yet the shining sword resonance was twofold.
Using Rudel’s sword art, Phantom Sword, I suppressed two sword paths at once.
‘He blocked this too?! How…!’
Phantom Sword, a sword technique that disrupted the opponent’s vision.
Yet Ian neutralized it without showing a hint of confusion.
Spinning in place like a windmill, Ian deflected my blade.
That, too, was a bizarre sword technique I had never seen before.
“I don’t even know how many decades it’s been since I last blocked that technique!”
As he said that and approached me, I belatedly realized one fact.
“To try and deceive a blind man’s eyes—how utterly foolish!”
Kaang-!
With the rebuke, he thrust his sword straight at me.
A strike without demonic energy.
Even so, the posture I used to deflect it collapsed.
“Keugh?!”
Pure physical strength, unenhanced by demonic energy.
‘Who would ever believe that’s a blind man?!’
Watching his sword path, more precise than mine despite my sight, I cursed inwardly.
An overwhelmingly powerful opponent I couldn’t even contend with using my current swordsmanship.
“But still!”
My weapon wasn’t limited to a sword, and my essence wasn’t that of a knight.
In the instant my posture collapsed, I formed a summoning circle in the empty sword path.
Kraaah-!
A knight clad in black armor.
Kaang-!
Unlike me, the knight’s blade, imbued with demonic energy, knocked aside Ian’s sword.
“To think you had the leeway to make something like this in the meantime—this is quite a specimen!”
This time, perhaps because it was beyond even his expectations, his defense opened for just a moment.
‘He probably opened it on purpose.’
Even so, there was no time to hesitate.
Because the only possibility lay there.
‘The most effective sword right now is that technique from just before. Recall it, reproduce it!’
I rapidly turned my thoughts and reproduced the sword technique Ian had just used.
Kirilirik?!
I straightened my blade and thrust it toward him.
The strangely warped sword, like a serpent, bored into his defense.
“With this…!”
Just before I unleashed the final move—
“Good. You pass.”
Along with Ian’s satisfied voice, an overwhelming impact that lashed my entire body struck me.
“Keugh?!”
Overwhelming power that techniques and skill could never encroach upon.
By merely increasing the output of the mana circuit located in his dantian, Ian sent my body—mid-attack—flying far away.
Kudangtang-!
My body, flung a great distance, rolled through the reed field.
The spirit form of Hector Ross Polwyvern that I had summoned was already gone.
Kwack-!
As I hurriedly tried to get up, the sword Ian threw embedded itself beside my head.
If it had been even a little to the side, my head would have been pierced through.
It was my complete defeat.
“Haa…! Haa…!”
As I struggled to raise my sweat-soaked body—
“You completely reproduced Snake Shadow Strike, the secret art of the desert warriors, in just two minutes.”
Ian spoke the name of the technique I had copied and grabbed me by the collar, hauling me up.
“Heinkel. I’ll take charge of this one. No objections, right?”
At his words, Heinkel—who had come out to the reed field at some point—nodded with a sigh.
“…Have the broken wall repaired by today.”
“Ah.”
Of course, he didn’t forget to do what he had to as the head of the family.
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