The Stone of Days

Chapter 8

The Fleuret that I received didn"t have any sort of sharpness except for the tip where the sword was somewhat pointy. With this, I probably couldn"t even cut through a net… d.a.m.n, I weaved way too many of those nets.
But what made me dumbfounded was that Arnowalt was holding a "Long Sword".

Just comparing the two by weight, there"s no compet.i.tion. The long sword is clearly superior in all aspects, and if he swings that sword at my Fleuret, it"ll probably break just like that. What"s even more of a disparity, that sword just from its appearance seems that it"s worth quite a bit.

Shouldn"t they at least give me an Epee? I doubt that the tip of this fleuret can even pierce through anything.

"This, I"m supposed to fight with this?"

"Of course not."

Oho, are they going to hand me a different weapon?

"When did I say that you will fight the Young Master? You just have to diligently avoid his attacks so that the Young Master can practice.  Do you dare to attack the Master? Is that what you"re implying?"

"Start!"

What do you mean start? Am I supposed to start dancing now? Uhk, wait a second. It seems those words were meant for Arnowalt.
As soon as those words left Tadea, I saw Arnowalt"s long sword thrust towards my left shoulder. Holy, what the h.e.l.l. Making me forget what I had initially thought, I tried to foolishly defend against the sword with my useless fleuret as I stumbled like a fool.
d.a.m.n. It"s useless.

Can you even call this thing a weapon? It"s not even worth being cla.s.sified as a weapon…No, I should at least pay my respects to the dead. The deceased fleuret"s two pieces of corpses crashed onto the ground tangled up. Good bye, my weapon. I at least paid my respects.

"Hehe, are we already done?" spoke Arnowalt as he straightened his position up (Well, to be honest, it only made him a tad taller) while lowering his sword. The cloth on my left shoulder suddenly was torn apart, as my left shoulder became exposed to the air.
Drip.
Hmm, what"s this?

"AH… …."
So all that running, fasting, and panting heavily in the morning to not be late was for this reason?
That morning scenery froze for a short moment in front of me.

Arnowalt looked alarmed as he cringed back from the sight of blood. The injury wasn"t light at all as the blood flowed down past my elbow, soaking the cotton in blood.

"You said you were quick, but it seems that was only a hoax."

Soldier-like, Tadea seemed accustomed to the blood as he uttered those words surly. Considering that Arnowalt had the t.i.tle of a n.o.ble and not a commoner, he quickly readjusted his emotions and firmly swung his sword towards me again.
This time, he targeted the wrist.

This morning, even if they were to kill a commoner"s child, they would probably forget such a "thing" existed by lunchtime.

My muscles shook intensely as I tensed up much more due to the stress.
This was the first I ever felt this way even after that intense battle with Gepper from before.
As Arnowalt with his novice-like strength aimed for my empty-handed right wrist like a wild beast, I quickly gathered my thoughts and came up with a few hypotheses.

I could tell that Arnowalt was too frail in contrast to the heavy long sword that he was wielding.
But even then, seeing how he"d swung that sword with all his might, it shouldn"t be easy trying to control it.
I can"t inflict an injury to Arnowalt either (No other method exists anyways).
Then, in order to end this fight, my only option is to make him drop that sword of his own accord.

Waiting for the moment the sword was about to hit my wrist, I lowered it towards the ground and rolled to the side. Crumpling up my body as best as I possibly could, I quickly rolled towards Arnowalt"s right leg.

"Ahk!"

Expecting a hard impact from his sword, Arnowalt moved forward as he concentrated on preparing for the worst. However, the moment he lost his balance from the impact, he made the mistake of trying to raise his right leg to avoid me.
He lost his balance, but due to the long sword being stuck in the gra.s.s, he could not fall. As a result, his wrist stretched out unfortunately, causing him to drop his sword in agony.

"IT HURTS… …."

I knew that the sword wasn"t that sharp. In contrast to a double-edged sword which main strengths lies in its piercing, this long sword didn"t have the same kind of cutting force. So, no matter how sharp you make the sword, it"s all for naught.
Of course I had already considered these points before executing my plan. As expected, since I had curled up my body, Arnowalt"s long sword had only lightly grazed the cloth on my back, so there wasn"t much too much damage.

"YOUNG MASTER!"

Shocked, Teacher Tadea [TL Note: Reminder that he is a teacher & not a servant] dashed forward to support Arnowalt back up. One failure caused Arnowalt to revert back to his childish ways from his once proud demeanor, as he collapsed on the ground.

"Have you hurt your wrist? Where is the injury? Where… …."

Tadea, like an idiot, grabbed Arnowalt"s wrist and spun him around once, which caused a deafening scream echoing throughout the backyard.

"AHYA!!!!!!!!!-!"

It seems he had sprained his wrist.

I couldn"t return to the store as fast today.
Not having to go and negotiate - Isn"t there a better term - with Mirbo Genz regarding those sparrow nets was encouraging at least; however, having the old butler follow behind me through the long corridor made my mood dreadful. Anyways, for all this effort not to go in vain, it would be best if Mr. Genz had left the inn this morning.

Still not being able to wash my face, I walked down the corridor famished with my wrinkled clothes across the splendid blood red-like carpet. Slightly moving my left shoulder caused blood to gush out from my wound. Roughly bandaging it so that blood won"t spill out, (They probably also didn"t want to see their beautiful carpet stained with blood). But, to hold my s...o...b..ard with my right arm made it uncomfortable.

Seeing how the wound was still hemorrhaging, it must be quite serious. But, of course, Arnowalt"s stretched wrist ligament was a shocking incident inside the castle. Sigh, I didn"t expect how inflexible Arnowalt"s body was in my calculations.
Get the doctor immediately! Bring everything (Why?) over here! Amongst the chaos, I quietly tiptoed out in an attempt to escape, only to be held back by the old butler.

"Where are you planning to go in that state?"

If there"s a person that"s actually close to being humane in this castle, it has to be this old butler.  What was his name again? It was pretty complicated. Anyways, the doctor that brought a roll of linen cloth and started to wrap Arnowalt"s sprained wrist - treatment, my a.s.s, he probably told him to not move his wrist - called for me after.

"Aigoo, what"s going on?"

Since I rarely get injured, I didn"t know how the doctor from Ember looked. Contrast to my own expectations, he was a very young man. Probably just entering into his thirties?

"Actually making me use a mana circle for the Young master while leaving an injured patient here…these n.o.bles tsk tsk… …."

Oh, he"s remarkably brave.
Laying me down on the bed, he started to flush the wound and wrapped it with a clean cloth as he compressed it with a tourniquet comfortably. After roughly finishing the treatment, he just quickly went over the usual guidelines to eat well, to not lift anything heavy with my left arm, etc. as he talked about the interesting, but unlikely post-measures that can arise.

"So, what"s your name?" Asked the lonely-looking doctor gently. Hehe, this was a first that I was actually asked for my name in the castle. Let"s say my full name for once, although I kind of wished that my name was really long as well…

"I am Fabian Christian."

"You came from Habiyanak?"

"Yes."

"You, you"re a clerk?"

Huhuh?!
Although I was staring at the ceiling per his instructions, but that question caused me to turn my head towards him as I let out a painful groan.

"Uhk…."

The doctor, seeing his patient groan in pain didn"t show much of a reaction (Huh? But he"s a doctor?) and asked again with a gentle smile.

"You may not be a clerk, but anyways you"re still related to commerce right?"

"… That is true, but how did you know?"

This time, I carefully answered him as I stared at the ceiling firmly. But, it seems that the doctor though was fond of questions, and not providing answers.
"Aren"t you told by others at how intelligent and quick you are with calculations? You"re pretty quick physically as well, right?"

I nodded my head again, only to let out another groan due to my shoulder tensing up. Seeing me in that state, he a.s.sumed that it was true and asked again.

"And don"t you covet money quite a lot? Well, when I say covet, I mean it like making a profit as a clerk is what I"m saying."

What the h.e.l.l is happening here? Forgetting about the pain, I nodded again.

"How do you know all of this? Are you a fortune teller?

"You don"t live with your father, right?"

Aigoo. Just answer the d.a.m.n questions!

TL Afterword: The imagery ~<>

PS: G.o.d Arnowalt is annoying ==;;

Translator: Calvis
Proofreader: Sai101