Ch. 25

Chapter 25. The Genius' Skill (3)

Canel stared at Ian with a look that said this was ridiculous, narrowing his eyes.

Even among the trainees who had just risen to low-rank swordsmen, people began talking about Ian.

He had clearly not been visible until just now, yet he had appeared and vanished without a trace.

“Th-that’s the Young Master, isn’t it?”

“When did he even get here?”

“I heard his injuries from the last battle were severe, so he was still recuperating.”

Murmur, murmur.

Contrary to the rumors, Ian looked perfectly fine.

He carried a dignified air that was hard to believe belonged to a mere fifteen-year-old.

From the boy who had somehow become the house’s hero, an untouchable radiance seemed to flow.

“Dissatisfaction…… you say? Young Master?”

To Canel, though, it felt like the young lord was making fun of him.

There was no reason to refuse a promotion.

That was how he would be recognized not only by the Count, but across the entire Empire.

“Yes, that’s right. Sir Canel.”

“……And you don’t need to use honorifics with me to that extent.”

“No, still—since you are a supervisor, I will show proper courtesy.”

Yet I was respecting Canel in a way completely different from how I had treated Michael.

Even if only as an acting role, I was honoring him as a Chairman.

Still, I disliked that ‘recognition.’

“This is your own promotion result, Young Master Ian. What exactly are you dissatisfied with?”

“I’m dissatisfied with the promotion itself.”

I was an extra in this autobiography.

With the deep wisdom of an old man, I judged it was not yet time to crush this order.

It was enough that only the Mage Tower and the Swordsmanship House recognized my competence.

There was no need to spread across the entire Empire.

All that would do was get me marked by the shadowy powers ruling the Empire, and they would only come for my life.

“No! They’re raising you to mid-level for your merit in this incident—what are you dissatisfied about! And this isn’t my decision. This is all Captain Gawain Ashild’s—”

The rumor had likely spread as far as it could, but there was still a huge difference between actually becoming a mid-level knight and not.

The Empire’s shadowy forces did not look at “potential,” only at facts and results that already existed.

In an empire this large, rumors about which house’s promising talent was what were everywhere.

“I will speak to my uncle separately. But I refuse a two-rank promotion without proper procedure.”

In other words, it could still be stopped.

This unprecedented two-step promotion.

In my previous life, I had already learned that advertising yourself as a genius did not attract good flowers—it attracted more bad bugs.

“I’m already the young lord. A special promotion on top of that—doesn’t it look bad to the other swordsmen? Right?”

So I brought up my own status.

In a Swordsmanship House, the principle was not to discriminate based on house lineage.

I was exploiting that point.

But the low-rank swordsmen waved both hands frantically, saying they had no such thoughts at all.

To invoke principles here, I had already become too great a hero.

Rustle, rustle.

“Y-Young Master! Not at all!”

“Yes! You caught an upper-rank swordsman traitor by skill—who would complain!”

“And everyone here knows how strong Supervisor Michael was!”

The swordsmen of the Swordsmanship House all accepted this result.

No—some even said I should be granted an upper-rank swordsman’s qualification.

That was how praiseworthy it was to execute a traitor of the house.

“……That’s why I’m dissatisfied.”

So I ended up in a position where I had to desperately deny my own ability.

‘I don’t want to become famous yet.’

Fortunately, the only one who had directly witnessed the full extent of my power was Zeco Rollens.

If so, I could play it off.

The hero tales others spread on their own could be denied easily.

“The reason I beat him was purely luck. I don’t want to go around talking as if it was skill when it wasn’t.”

“H-ha…… but Teacher Zeco said—”

“He is my teacher in the Mage Tower. So he would speak kindly of me.”

Even denying it myself looked strange to others.

Most people either stayed quiet or exaggerated their feats, so to them, the young lord seemed almost excessively humble.

And so the atmosphere flowed in the exact opposite direction from what I wanted.

“But…… didn’t Repl also testify that he saw it directly? Your achievements, Young Master.”

“He’s my close aide as well. His words aren’t something you can trust.”

My desperate denial looked like humility to the swordsmen.

“…….”

Murmur, murmur.

In the swordsmen’s eyes, bright respect began to shine.

“The young lord can be this humble!”

“Truly the next ruler who will lead this house!”

“Ah, I will follow you to the end of my life! Ian.”

To them, I was a young yet untouchable genius—and a man among men who could even be humble about his own exploits.

They vowed in their hearts to follow me for life, their eyes sparkling like starlight with awe.

“So from now on, do not go around boasting about stories of me anywhere.”

Even if I had not shared the beginner swordsman days with them, the low-rank swordsmen who had been promoted together.

They respected Ian Ashild down to the roots of their hearts, willing to follow him with their lives.

It was only possible because they were low-rank swordsmen who had just begun to sprout as swordsmen, not mid-level or upper-level.

“If it’s rumors within the house, I’ll understand. But if those rumors leave these walls, you will be severely punished.”

“……!”

They wanted to be proud of their young lord, but most decided to follow my will.

Vaguely, they understood it as the young lord having some greater, deeper intention.

“This is an order as the young lord. So from here on, refrain from baseless rumors about me.”

Contrary to my stern warning, meant to cow them with something half like a threat.

The swordsmen’s spirited voices rang out loudly across the training ground.

“Yes! Understood! Ian.”

***

Zeco Rollens barged straight into the Chairman’s office and slapped the desk as he spoke.

Bang!

“Chairman! No—are you saying that little brat caught an upper-rank swordsman? How is that low-rank!”

He had made a mistake of letting Heinz die.

Even so, he was not afraid of the Mage Tower Lord’s scolding, and there was a reason he was instead boldly raising his voice and urgently insisting.

Ian Ashild.

“No—still, it’s too early!”

Chairman Chris, who did not yet know much about the boy, firmly refused Zeco’s demand.

“Besides, the information other mages found says Ian Ashild is a swordsmanship genius, so there’s no reason to promote his magic rank too.”

Chris acknowledged that the boy had accomplished something tremendous this time.

But he argued that it was still unclear whether it had been accomplished through talent as a mage.

No matter how outstanding, if he had won with swordsmanship rather than magic, there was no reason for the Mage Tower to promote him at all.

“On top of that, because of that brat, pursuing further became impossible! We needed to get a confession that Heinz Carlos was moving under orders from a mage noble house!”

Above all, he did not like that the crucial prisoners had all been disposed of without permission.

He had a hunch that the slippery boy might have done it on purpose.

In truth, Chris' intuition was sharp.

“That stupid brat killed every last one without leaving a single one alive!”

Just as expected, I had killed them all on purpose.

With the Mage Tower involved, I judged it was not yet time to seize the mage noble house, so I hurriedly tied up the matter.

Trying to catch a big beast without thorough preparation could backfire, and you might be the one who got eaten instead.

“Ah…… no, but……!”

“Did you even see it yourself, Teacher Zeco—whether Ian caught the upper-rank swordsman with swordsmanship or with magic?”

“No.”

Chris was displeased with everything about Ian, yet Zeco still did not bend his stance.

This was the first time he had ever pleaded so stubbornly with the Chairman like this.

He had a reason.

“Then what special promotion are you talking about?”

“But I clearly saw with my own eyes the moment he took down the mid-level knight.”

Because I had seen it directly.

I had vividly witnessed the boy’s feat with these eyes.

What I saw in Ian was a genius.

“Ha, what’s so special about catching a mid-level knight who already had one arm cut off—”

“Explosion.”

“Pardon……?”

A genius unprecedented in history.

No—a Mythic genius whose name would remain etched for a long time in history.

A boy of only fifteen.

“I saw him personally use 6-circle magic……!”

“Ughk.”

In that young an age, there was no record of any human using 6-circle, upper-rank mage-level magic so skillfully.

After using that magic, Ian had asked Zeco to please keep it secret, but he had no intention of doing so.

Rather, he intended to spread this fact widely among Mage Tower officials and secure Ian at all costs.

“There’s no time! The Swordsmanship House already gave Ian a special promotion all the way to mid-level swordsman!”

Zeco had his subordinates dig up the information with difficulty.

Even before that, I was already set for a two-rank special promotion up to mid-level swordsman within the Swordsmanship House.

In this situation, if the Mage Tower treated him poorly, someday he would surely abandon the path of the mage.

Then, like swearing loyalty to his house, he would walk the path of a swordsman as the young lord.

For the Mage Tower, it was a situation where they would have no choice but to watch a capable talent be stolen away.

“Ah, no—what do you mean there’s no time……”

But there was still a chance.

Fortunately, in the Swordsmanship House there existed a daughter named Scarlet, and the position of Head of the House could change at any time depending on circumstances.

Historically, within the Swordsmanship House, since they prioritized skill, they had seated someone more skilled in swordsmanship as Head of the House even if they were not the eldest.

If Ian took a key post in the Mage Tower and, as a condition, gave up the position of Head of the House, they could make him a mage.

They could preserve the Mage Tower’s honor.

“At this rate, we’ll lose a once-in-history magic genius to the Swordsmanship House!”

To Zeco, this was no longer merely a personal career issue.

It was a pride war between the Mage Tower and the Swordsmanship House over a single genius.

Whichever side lost this out-of-spec, unmeasurable-potential genius boy would be pushed back and inevitably lose.

Zeco strongly sensed that Ian would lead the next generation of the sword world or the magic world.

So he insisted boldly.

“Chairman, we need upper-rank!”

If the Swordsmanship House planned to give mid-level, then the Mage Tower had to give upper-rank.

That Ian Ashild must never, ever be handed over to the Swordsmanship House.

He insisted strongly.

“Not mid-level—if we don’t promote him all the way to an upper-rank mage, we won’t be able to keep that damned genius tied to this Mage Tower from here on out!”