Marka Quent, daughter of Duke Quent. She had displayed a remarkable talent for magic and had been using it from a young age.

If the General Princess, Elena Kerebel, represented the warriors of the Mirana Kingdom, Marka Quent could be be considered the equivalent for magic.

She was just 7 years old……but despite being young, she could use magic from three attributes, wind, earth and light. Her magic power was also one of the greatest within the Mireana Kingdom. Despite this, she was not arrogant or condescending and had an innocent character, making her very popular within the Quent duchy.

The gossip within the duchy was that with her long green hair, reminiscent of emeralds, and her well proportioned features, although young, she would be a beautiful woman in furture.

There were many nobles in the Mireana Kingdom that looked down on the common people, but Marka did not permit such things. She had even beaten up the heir of a viscount with her magic for trying to treat people within the Quent duchy the same way they treated commoners in their own territory.

Of course, the act of the heir of a viscount causing trouble in a duke’s territory and even trying to attack the duke’s daughter wasn’t without consequence. The viscount family was later crushed and fell into ruin……

Of course, Rei had no idea that the girl with deep eyes, that was currently stroking Set in front of him, was such a person. However, it was clear that she wasn’t an ordinary girl and he had to act appropriately.

Because of that, Rei didn’t just consider her as a girl when he took off the hood of his Dragon Robe and replied.

「I’m sorry, but I don’t plan to serve under anyone at the moment.」

Should have I said that in a more polite way? Rei thought of that after he spoke and gave a sigh of relief when he saw Coan give a small nod to say that it was fine.

「Hoh, why not? You’re an adventurer, are you not? I do not think it would be bad to serve a noble. I would not limit your actions and would provide whatever you desired. Will your answer still not change?」

「Yes. Even if I were only hired temporarily……it is not in my character to serve under a noble. Regardless of how much freedom I am promised……it is still no.」

「What if, as a result, you become an enemy of Duke Quent, one of the strongest powers in the Mireana Kingdom?」

「So be it.」

Rei nodded without hesitation. For the sake of his own freedom, he would make enemies with a duke. Marka looked at for a moment, taken aback.

Her expression didn’t have the same feeling of depth that she had several seconds ago, but rather, felt more like surprise from a child her age.

Next to Rei, Coan looked at him with a wry smile.

However, it wasn’t look that was reproaching Rei for impoliteness, but rather a friendly smile like one that would be directed to companions.

「Ku……a-ahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahaha!」

Marka broke the silences as she suddenly burst into laughter. Set, who was still being stroked until moments earlier, turned to look at Marka with round eyes. Rei also looked at Marka, who seemed to be laughing at his unexpected reply.

After about a minute or so, Marka finally calmed down from her laughter and held her sore sides as she regulated her breath.

「Hah, hah, hah……ahh, that made me laugh. No, I hope you do not get mad. I did not mean to make a fool of you. However, I did not think there would be anyone who could so easily say that they did not care making an enemy of Duke Quent, my family. No, as expected of someone with a title. Brilliant!」

As she praised Rei with a smile, Rei was at a loss on what to do.

Rei didn’t know much about nobles, but he still had a general image in his mind of how nobles were. The girl in front of him was completely different from how he thought nobles to be.

If he were to compare her to someone similar, he would compare her to Elena. Of course, they were completely different in appearance, but Rei felt like their underlying way of thinking felt somewhat similar.

「Ojou-sama, that’s enough. You’re troubling Rei-san as well.」

「Hm? Umu, that is true. I am sorry for my unexpected words, please forgive me!」

「Ahh……sure. I don’t have any problems with that.」

「Umu, in that case, forgive me for asking one more thing. I won’t ask you to serve me anymore. Why don’t we become friends?」

Saying that proudly, Marka extended her hand.

She was a young girl and her figure was small. However, the hand she proudly extended to Rei had, without a doubt, an aura of nobility.

Seeing that, Rei was lost for a moment, but he quickly reached out to her hand in response.

「Ah, there are a lot of things I’m not familiar with, so I may cause trouble, but please take care of me.」

Those might not have been words to say to a 7 year old kid. But even so, Rei regarded the girl in front of him as a proper individual asking for friendship and he had no intention of refusing.

「Umu, umu. It seems I am different from ordinary people in many ways. I don’t have many people I can call friends. There are only a few that I am close to and fewer that I feel comfortable with. Coan is a good example.」

「There are not many people who can deal with ojou-sama. Despite her high maturity, being too mature can have a negative effect in many ways.」

Coan spoke with a small laugh at Marka’s words, but what he said seemed to have a lonely feel to it.

「Well, don’t worry about it. It is a pity that there are not many people who can keep me company, but there are still good encounters like this. Don’t you think so?」

However, Marka didn’t seem to care much for Coan’s words as she continued to stroke Set’s head.

「Gururu~」

Set gave a comfortable cry as he was stroked.

A minute or so of silence passed like that before Marka suddenly looked at Rei as if she had just thought of an idea.

「So, Rei. You are famous for being strong. Why don’t you spar with Coan?」

「……Marka-sama?」

Coan asked without thinking at Marka’s unexpected words.

The reason was that he didn’t know why his young but intelligent master would suddenly say such a thing. He had thought it might have been her way of trying to get Rei back for refusing to serve under her.

Rei was equally surprised. There was no need to test each other’s strength and there hadn’t been any disagreements between the two of them. Why would they suddenly need to fight?

However, despite their confusion, Marka quickly walked out to the garden.

「Guru~?」

「Ah, follow after her I guess.」

「Gururururu~」

At Rei’s words, Rei followed after Marka with a brief cry.

As Rei watched Set head out, Coan, who was next to him, bowed his head.

「I’m sorry, ojou-sama……she usually isn’t the kind of person to say things like that.」

「Well, I guess she has many things to consider as a duke’s daughter. So, what are we going to do?」

Are we really going to spar? At Rei’s implied question, Coan nodded with a smile and didn’t deny it.

「Since ojou-sama has said that, she won’t give up no matter what……also, I would like to spar with Rei-san as well. If you don’t mind that is.」

Rei could roughly guess Coan’s skill from the way he walked, the aura he carried and using his own intuition. The reason why he wasn’t that keen on sparring was because if they fought, he would naturally have to expose some of his skill.

However, it was also true in his heart that he did want to try fighting Coan. After tussling in his mind, his latter thought eventually won out.

「……Fine.」

Coan’s smile remained unchanged at Rei’s words.

「Thank you. Shall we go then? I’ll lead the way.」

 

 

The residence of Duke Quent, which resided in the most prominent position within the nobles district. Inside the garden, Rei faced Coan.

A short distance away, Marka was hugging Set, who was lying down on the ground. In the heat of the summer sunshine, although Set’s fur felt smooth, he was quite hot to the touch. Casting a small spell, Marka lowered the temperature around Set as she leaned against him.

(Heh, she really knows how to use magic.)

Seeing that, Rei nodded in admiration at Marka’s skill with magic as he moved away from Coan.

The Death Scythe had already been taken out from the Misty Ring, and Coan, who was about 5m away from Rei, had also taken out his sword from his sheath at his waist.

「Just so everyone remembers, this is just a spar. Try to avoid anything that could fatally injure each other.」

「That said, I think most injuries can be healed with ojou-sama’s healing magic.」

「Don’t joke around. In the first place, you should not rely on your master’s magic. ……However, since the two of you are both highly skilled, I do not think either of you would make mistakes like amateurs.」

「Heh, so you can use healing magic?」

「Yes. With ojou-sama’s magic, it won’t be a problem even if you lost 2 or 3 arms.」

「Having three arms would be quite amazing.」

The two of them looked for opportunities as they lightly talked with each other.

As Rei subtlety changed the position of the Death Scythe, Coan responded in turn, ready to react to the rare weapon known as a scythe, regardless of where an attack might come from.

(I can’t believe that even when we’re facing each other like this, he doesn’t have a single change in his expression. In fact, it almost feels like he’s using his smile to hide his expressions.)

Thinking to himself, Rei pointed the blade of the Death Scythe downward for a scooping attack.

Coan reacted immediately, changing the position of his sword from a high guard to a middle guard.

Many people fighting Rei for the first time would be perplexed by the large scythe that was that was the Death Scythe. Large scythes were a rare weapon and there were few people who could immediately know who to deal with it. In a sense, large scythes were weapons that were deadlier the first time they were seen. This was only magnified by the fact that there were not many people who had survived fighting against Rei with his Death Scythe.

However, Coan was able hold his guard with his sword while smiling the whole time.

As Rei felt disconcerted about Coan’s expression, the two of them continued to make small feints and respond with fine actions.

Looking on from the sidelines, Marka eventually got tired of this seemingly meaningless series of actions and spoke out as she leaned against Set.

「If that is all you do, this spar will never end. Make this fight a little more worth watching. Oh, yes. I forgot to mention, Coan is a former A rank adventurer. He won’t die from your attacks, so you can attack with confidence. As long as he does not die, I can heal him with my magic.」

It was the exact opposite of what she had said earlier, saying that they shouldn’t rely on her healing magic.

However, there was no doubt that those words did progress the fight.

「So it’s no problem even if one or two of your limbs are cut off. In that case……here I come!」

Rei dashed forward with a short cry. As if scooping up the ground, he swung the Death Scythe’s large blade up from below.

「I won’t make it that easy for you!」

Coan responded quickly to the unconventional attack coming from a low position.

He struck out with the sword in his hand, parrying the blade of the Death Scythe.

However, as expected of a former A rank adventurer, he didn’t stop there. He used the impact from his sword’s collision with the blade of the Death Scythe to directly strike at Rei.

Normally, if one used the impact of an opponent’s attack to carry out your own attack, it would be less powerful and easily blocked. However, the attack was from a former A rank adventurer, who was already able to fight with a strength beyond ordinary humans. Because of that, common sense didn’t work here as the blade moved towards Rei’s face……

「Uoohhh-!」

The moment Rei saw the long sword coming towards him, he twisted the hand that held the Death Scythe almost on reflex, forcibly blocking the long sword with the shaft.

A shrill metallic noise echoed into the garded as the two of them leapt back to take some distance after blocking each other’s attacks.

「I’m impressed. The Death Scythe is strengthened with magic power, if it had been an ordinary long sword, it’s blade would have been cut in the clash.」

「No, no, despite how it looks, this sword was created by an alchemist from the Magic City, Osus, using the best techniques and materials that could be bought. If you consider that, it would be a problems if it was so easily destroyed.」

Coan responded with a smile on his face.

Seeing that, Rei looked back with a fierce grin.

Then, the next moment, both of them lowered their weapons.

「Huh? What is going on?」

Marka, who was listening in to their conversation with shining eyes, called out to them in confusion and Coan replied to her.

「I’m sorry, ojou-sama. If I continue to fight Rei-san, it will probably end up being a death match. Anyway, since this was just meant to test his skills, I thought it would be better to stop here.」

「……Mmm, I guess so. If Coan says that, then it must be true. It is not that great that I could not properly confirm Rei’s skill, but it is clear that he is strong enough to fight Coan, so we will leave it at that.」

With Marka’s words, the spar was finished.

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]