Translator: Homia

“So.. you’re a knight in squire training? I don’t care about that, why are you here? It’ll be hard to see each other’s faces, so just tell me your business quickly.”

“I’m here to ask you something.”

“Like what?”

Arsene calmly explained what happened this morning. Elise, who suddenly appeared and threatened the maid, and Elise, who did not feel particularly repulsive, even the suggestion from Sir Palato to visit him.

Upon hearing the story, Luden’s expression had severely changed, unlike his first impression.

“Come in for now.”

“Alright.”

Welcoming Arsene, who entered the tower along Luden, was the perfect place for the words “garbage dump.”

Dozens of books were scattered all over the place, some unknown objects, as well as some glass containers for chemical experiments, and things such as shields, armor, and swords.

It was hardly believable that it was a place where people lived, and not a warehouse where they just threw anything.

“Now, where to sit.. Have a seat here.”

The books and gloves on the two chairs fell to make room to sit on.

When Arsene sat down, Luden, who sat opposite him, stared at Arsene and asked.

“So, what do you have to say?”

“There’s a lot of stuff.”

“No, not about my room!”

Luden suddenly became angry and then coughed, clearing his expression.

“Don’t you feel anything from me now? Something unpleasant, or something repulsive.”

“There’s nothing.”

To be honest, his bandit-like face was a little burdensome, but I thought it probably wasn’t that kind of rejection.

After hearing the answer, Luden’s expression changed to that of wonder, but frowned soon after.

“Hmm.. I’m honestly embarrassed. I’ve only heard of such a person, but I didn’t expect to see one myself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The constitution that accepts magicians. Usually, people can’t sit in front of me like this. I don’t know exactly what it feels like to be in front of a wizard for them, but everyone acts like I’m a cockroach with sh*t all over my body.”

Suddenly leaping up from his chair, Luden wandered around the room with his hands behind him.

Kicking up all the books and stuff that stood in his way.

“Constitution.. hereditary.. no, no.. is it? Mentally? But for that.. it’s too different from my hypothesis.. Damn..”

The way he muttered to himself was completely schizophrenic.

Then he suddenly came in front of Arsene and shouted, patting his shoulders.

“How many family members or relatives do you have in the estate!?”

“None at all. My mother is dead and I do not know any of her relatives. My father is missing, and almost all of his relatives have either died or aren’t in the estate.”

At Arsene’s words, Luden groaned as if he were in trouble and sat back in his seat.

“Darn it, we need at least one, but you don’t have anyone?”

“Yes.”

One of the first things Arsene expected when coming here was the relatives of Sir Lenock at the Beluan territory.

He was only treated as a slave in the fortress, but that’s because he was not a knight, and now that he is one, he could find the relatives of his father’s side and live together properly, or suck them dry and throw them away.

If the lives of the relatives were miserable, I was willing to provide some support.

Arsen learned how important it was to create people who could help each other in a small society, at the expense of his childhood.

[ Read at yourfantasytranslations.github.io/ for the last chapters and to support us~~!!!]

Beluan’s territory was so large that it couldn’t be called a “small society” compared to the citadel.

But it soon turned out that it was an unnecessary thought in the first place.

When I asked Sir Palato about it, I received a shocking reply that all of Lenock’s relatives had either died or left.

I asked him why, but he only shook his head with an ambiguous expression and said, ‘It would be better not to know.’

“Damn it, fuk! This Leha has something against me, and she’s sabotaging me here again! You must be trying to drive me crazy with curiosity! Ahhhhh!!! Such a bich!”

Luden stomped and screamed like crazy.

Arsene never tried to blaspheme against Leha, and never heard anybody do it since he was born.

Perhaps a devout believer would have rushed out of the tower by now.

‘I can see why he was called a nerd.’

No, Palato was overly generous with Luden if he called him a “nerd.”

If someone asked Arsene what Luden is like, he would answer “a crazy freak.”

When Luden, who had been running wild for a while, seemed to have calmed down, Arsene asked a question.

“Is the reason you asked that because you need to know whether this constitution is passed down through blood?”

“Sigh.. yes, you’re smart. There was a discussion about this issue when my teacher was still alive.”

When he brought up the story of his ‘teacher,’ Luden’s face became unsuitably gentle.

“Teacher thought that this constitution was a kind of ability that was passed down regardless of lineage, like magic, while I thought it was an ability that was inherited through lineage. Neither of us had actually seen such a person, so it was a meaningless discussion.”

“Mages seems to have nothing to do with bloodlines.”

“Nothing has been understood so far. Wizards are extremely rare, and it’s even rarer for a wizard’s child to become a wizard. I’ve never seen one. A child of a knight still becomes a knight in one-third of the cases.”

“Even if it is inherited like a knight’s bloodline, it may not be manifested, right?”

“What is the meaning of inheriting it, if it doesn’t manifest?”

Looking at Luden sighing frustratedly and lowering his head, Arsene suddenly asked questions.

“Can I learn magic by any chance?”

Luden, who was covering his head frustrated by Arsene’s question, suddenly laughed like a madman.

Emotional ups and downs were almost at the level of bipolar patients.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that question! There are always people who ask that!”

Arsene was slightly pouting at the tone that seemed to see the stupidest person in the world, but he kept his composure without showing his expression as much as possible.

Luden seemed to be lost, as he expected a more intense reaction.

“I can’t answer that. In the first place, magicians can use magic since they are born. They’re not awakening like knights.”

When Luden, who was grinning as if he had suddenly regained vitality after hearing Arsene’s question, flicked his finger once, and surprisingly, something like a hologram appeared next to him.

The hologram depicted a nude human, like Da Vinci’s golden ratio.

“Look, knights like you circulate magic throughout the body through the medium that everyone has, the heart.”

Along with the explanation, blood vessels formed around the heart in the hologram of the human body.

“On the other hand, we wizards have a separate organ in our brains in the first place, and magic means causing special phenomena by tightening, bending, and twisting the mana in the atmosphere with this organ.”

This time, another hologram was created to see through and zoom in on the brain.

Another organ was emerging in the space between the cerebrum and cerebellum.

“Learning magic without it is the same as learning how to fly without wings.”

Luden moved his hand sideways and the hologram disappeared.

“Was my explanation too complicated? Let me summarize it in two sentences. You can’t learn magic unless you’re born with this. So you can’t learn it. Is that enough?”

Saying so, he clapped his hands together, and a spark of fire appeared on his hand.

The flames split into three branches, turned together as if they were braiding someone’s hair, and disappeared.

“Enough.”

Arsen, who heard the answer he wanted, sighed, swallowing regret.

Magic was very interesting and he thought it would be of great help if he could use it, but it was impossible in the first place, and even if it was possible, the social risk was too great.

‘Let’s just think that I improved my knowledge.’

Arsene stood up as if it was time to go, opened the door to the outside, and asked Luden a question.

He pretended to be as calm as possible, as if talking about trivial gossip.

“Ah, that’s right. I’ve heard something before. Is there any magic that can preserve someone’s memories and reincarnate him?”

“What?”

“For example, Sir Luden is reborn as a baby with the knowledge he has now.”

Arsen, who asked such a question, tried to capture Luden’s expression with utmost care, but Luden only looked as if all he had heard was some strange things.

“I’ve never heard of it. Even though Magic is such a rare science, I don’t think I wouldn’t have even heard of it if such unusual magic existed. I used to go around quite a lot to learn magic.”

“I see.”

“But if such magic really exists..”

Arsene couldn’t see clearly because he was covered with a shaggy beard, but on his vaguely distorted face, as if he was smiling and crying at the same time, he could feel the pain of life.

“..at least I don’t want to be reborn as a wizard. Magic is really attractive, but a wizard’s life is terrible. It’s a life where you can’t be loved by anyone unless it’s also a wizard.”

Having no words to say, Arsene just bowed his head and closed the door.

Seeing the loneliness that didn’t go well with his bandit-like appearance and eccentric personality, he wondered if the child who was raging in the morning would become like that when she got older.

‘At least the next time we meet, I’ll have to treat you kindlier.’

With that in mind, there was a small shadow staring at Arsene from behind a tree as he left the tower.

[ Read at yourfantasytranslations.github.io/ for the last chapters and to support us~~!!!]

The knights of the territory periodically patrol the outside of the realm with their squires to deal with the demonic beasts.

Arsene also couldn’t escape from that duty or have a leisurely time training, since he had become a squire of Palato.

Therefore, Arsene had now come out of the territory with Sir Palato and three squires.

“How does it feel to be on patrol?”

“It’s not very enjoyable.”

The peculiar smell of rotting garbage, which was unique to the outside territory, felt even more disgusting when he smelled it again after a few weeks.

Arsene was not in a good mood because of the smell, but Palato and the squires seemed used to it.

“Let’s go to that hill over there.”

The formation was in the form of a diamond, with Arsene in the center, Sir Palato in front, and the other three servants standing on the left, right, and back.

When asked about the shape of the formation, Sir Palato’s answer was spectacular.

‘I must deal with the threats from the front, and you must be protected just in case. Use the squires as bait if you think it’s dangerous.’

For Arsene, who had been an outsider not so long ago, he treated him so warmly, while treating the squires eating from the same pot as expendables.

The same was true for most of the knights Arsene saw during the last weeks.

They treated a knight the same as a brother and sister, but were indifferent towards the squires.

Most of the squires were overworked like horses, and usually, they trained their bodies and patrolled the territory, taking on the same job as a soldier.

Among them, some were taken to patrol the outside territory, and the death rate wasn’t that low.

It’s rare for a knight to die, but it’s not a big deal for one or two squires to die or be maimed every time they patrol.

Arsene, hearing the story, was able to reflect once again on how threatening the world was to humans, as he became dull in the territory.

‘A squire dies easily, so you don’t want to get attached to him on purpose.’

As for his relationship with the squires, who were treated surprisingly poorly compared to himself, there were hardly any meaningful exchanges.

The biggest reason was that it was difficult to divide the ranks due to Arsene’s ambiguous position.

The squires didn’t want to recognize a boy who was 5 to 10 years younger than them as a superior, and they didn’t want to treat a boy who would definitely be a knight when he got older as a junior.

In the end, the best way to deal with someone you don’t know how to deal with, is indifference.

“By the way, it’s a shame there’s no extra jin. After all, you’re a decent knight.”

“I can’t help it. I’m still young and have a lot of time, so it’s okay. I’ll have to wait for Sir Luden to make it for me.”

Palato was riding a jin, but Arsene was riding a lizard-like mount – Oil Lizard, like the other squires.

The reason why its name is oil lizard is that it extracts oil from its body, and the amount is huge.

When it’s alive, they use it as a horse, and when it dies, they squeeze all the oil from it.. It’s said there’s a reason why Satan’s losing his job.

Anyway, Arsene’s riding skills were not as bad as he thought, although it hasn’t been long since he started riding the oil lizard- commonly knows as ‘lizard’.

He didn’t know if it’s because the lizard was smarter than a horse and had a gentle personality, or because Arsene’s talent was outstanding.

He was not as skillful as the squires, but enough to make it walk and run.

“Sir Palato, a bladed leopard on the hill to the right.”

The chief squire, who was on the right side, informed Palato.

When he turned his head to the right, a giant bladed leopard was watching attentively Arsene’s party while preparing to hunt.

It was the same kind of beast that Arsene had to prepare a bath for at the fortress.

It seemed like a distant past already.

“If you’re trying to attack while glaring like that, you must be a young guy who has never seen a human before. Boras, Olga. Go get him.”

“Yes!”

The two squires behind mounting the lizards ran toward the blade leopard.