Chapter 007: The Chivalry in My Heart (3)
Since I had resolved to head to the Kingdom on the first day of my regression, I couldn’t help but sleep less in the mornings.
I wanted to etch the quiet dawn scenery of the Empire into my memory, even if just a little more.
I wasn’t entirely confident I’d return safely.
Of course, a third life was beyond my wildest dreams.
‘…The mansion was warm, but it’s chilly up here in the mountains, isn’t it?’
It was time to stop wallowing in sentimentality.
The moment I stood up on the cabin’s roof—
‘Oh.’
A group was approaching along the narrow hill path.
Their momentum was reminiscent of an entire military unit on the march.
If that was the case, I couldn’t afford to lose face. I thought it only proper to greet them standing tall on this roof.
To ward off the cold, I crossed my arms and quietly observed the procession… when a sound came from below.
Creak.
“Who dares disturb my serene dawn?”
It was Hermann, delivering a rather grandiose line while simultaneously letting out a languid yawn and even stretching.
I spoke down to the crown of his head.
“You, get inside.”
“Damn it, you startled me. Bihen, was it you? Why the hell are you perched up there? You’re not some stray cat.”
“It just happened.”
“Weird guy.”
“…”
“Come down already. You look pathetic.”
Thud.
The moment I landed beside Hermann, Dezol poked his head out through the crack of the door behind us. I said,
“Go back inside.”
“Y-Yes… sir.”
After confirming Dezol had closed the door, I turned my attention forward again.
I was in a foul mood, feeling like I’d been one-upped by the dimwit standing next to me.
“Hey, Bihen.”
“What.”
“Now that I think about it, I forgot to mention two things yesterday. Both are bad news.”
“What are they.”
“One is that Brandt is a first-rate swordsman.”
“And the other?”
“I’m a third-rate swordsman.”
Is there another fool who’d confess to being a third-rate swordsman with such pompous pride?
“…So?”
“So? You’re a dead man now. Go leave your last words with Dezol.”
“Can’t you just listen to them?”
Hermann snorted as if I’d said something absurd.
“I’d die alongside you, you idiot. Didn’t I tell you? I, Hermann Brian, am an Empire man who lives and dies by loyalty. I don’t have the slightest intention of surviving like a coward.”
I turned my head and stared at Hermann.
At this moment, I was a chivalrous hero to him, and he was the first footprint of this life to me.
“You’re an idiot. If I die and you die, Dezol dies too.”
“…Oh, right.”
We looked at each other for a moment before turning our gazes forward again.
By now, the head of the marching group was close enough for their features to be discernible.
A peculiar man, exuding the air of both a seasoned mercenary and a fallen noble, stood at the forefront.
“Making me hike at the crack of dawn, these bastards.”
The man tilted his head back, exhaling a sigh into the air, while the ronin following him fanned out into a surrounding formation.
“I am Brandt, Inspector General of the Jecheng Association.”
It was Brandt, speaking without even glancing at us, his eyes darting around while he spat phlegm.
“Are you Bihen Benkou?”
“Yes.”
“Benkou. The crippled family of Lucerne.”
“…”
“Why would a nobody from a family worse than a low-class warrior clan pull such a deranged stunt? I was so curious I couldn’t sleep last night, you damned bastard.”
My face probably didn’t show a flicker of emotion.
That’s the reaction of most of the few who know of the Benkou family.
Of course, being disciplined in expression doesn’t mean I know how to swallow my anger.
I gritted my teeth and said,
“Yesterday, one of your men tried to blackmail me. He was all high and mighty, boasting that you’re from a family tied to the imperial house. You should train your subordinates better. Now that I see you, you’re just a filthy bastard.”
Brandt sneered and spat again through his teeth.
He looked decent enough but chose only crude words and actions.
“I already beat that guy to death. He kept blabbering nonsense everywhere, so I’d been waiting for an excuse. Embarrassing, tch. But he wasn’t entirely wrong. Though, I cut ties with my family long ago, so it’s none of my business anymore.”
“You weren’t kicked out?”
“I left on my own. That was a scholar’s house, and I’m a swordsman. Wait a second. Why the hell am I telling this to a soon-to-be-dead bastard?”
The Jecheng Association men behind him burst into laughter, as if trying to curry favor with their leader.
Brandt smirked at his subordinates with a smug grin.
“Shut up, you bastards.”
He pointed at me and Hermann alternately.
“You two, don’t think you’ll die cleanly. I’ll cut off your ears and hang them on your family’s mansion gates. Got it?”
Without needing to decide who’d move first, Brandt and I stepped forward, facing each other.
“Before we start, let’s set terms. If I win, the Jecheng Association leaves cleanly. You’ll wash your hands of Brian entirely.”
“Pfft! And if I win? What’ll you offer?”
“That won’t happen, so I haven’t thought about it.”
“You’re more entertaining by the second, you cocky old brat.”
“Answer first.”
Brandt, still locking eyes with me, shouted to his men behind him.
“Did you all hear that! That’s his last will! Someone write it down and stick it next to his ears when we hang them!”
“Yes—!”
“Satisfied? Do my terms suit you?”
“
Fine.”
Brandt slung his sword over one shoulder and grinned, tapping his left earlobe.
“I used to proudly wear a double hoop like you. Looking back, those were fearless days. I thought I’d soon claim the title of the Empire’s greatest swordsman.”
Shing.
Instead of replying, I drew my sword.
He wasn’t worth responding to.
This time, Brandt pointed at me and said,
“That’s right, that kind of spirit. I’m saying I had those days too.”
“Blabbering… So what, you punk.”
“It’s a pity. If you’d been taught some manners beforehand, this mess wouldn’t have happened. Consider yourself lucky. Arrogance gets ugly when it drags on.”
Ta—hyat!
I couldn’t listen anymore. I kicked off the ground, closing the distance in an instant.
Kiing!
My sword sliced through the air.
Brandt reacted with some skill.
He judged in a split second that he couldn’t block my strike and dodged instead.
“…!”
Brandt’s face was filled with shock.
There were likely two reasons.
First, the power of my slash far exceeded his expectations.
Second, he couldn’t find an opening to counterattack after dodging.
“It’s a matter of caliber.”
I said, curling the corner of my mouth.
Brandt’s complexion grew paler by the second.
That he could even grasp the situation was thanks to his first-rate status.
The surrounding Jecheng Association men, clueless about why their leader was rattled by a single missed swing, stood there dumbfounded.
“H-How… What… what are you…!”
“You said I was lucky just now, didn’t you? From where I stand… you’re the one who’s terribly unlucky.”
I spoke as if I’d end it quickly, but I planned to torment Brandt as much as possible before killing him.
Not out of sadism, but to acclimate to real combat with my new left eye, dubbed Ghost Eye.
‘Distance.’
The sense of distance in daily life and in life-or-death combat is so vastly different that it’s hard to chalk it up to mere density.
They’re practically different concepts, despite sharing the same term.
Thud.
I opened my closed left eye, the Ghost Eye.
I’d lived nearly thirty years as a one-eyed swordsman.
This wasn’t some rehabilitation training.
I recalled the moment I discarded a wooden sword and first held a real blade, Bihen.
‘Open all your senses wide.’
I had to fully adapt to these two eyes to aim for the next achievement.
Clang!
Brandt blocked my diagonal slash.
It was the first strike I’d swung with killing intent since gaining the Ghost Eye.
The reverberating tremor felt satisfying.
Whoosh.
I pulled the hilt to my left side with force, then thrust horizontally.
Clang!
I brought down the blade that had recoiled upward.
Ka—ang!
From the position it rebounded, I stabbed directly without twisting.
Thud!
“Guh… hup.”
Drip, drip.
Brandt’s cheeks puffed out, and blood poured from his mouth.
Just three exchanges.
“You were this arrogant with such meager skill? Pathetic.”
“You… are…”
“In your next life, learn to know your place.”
Slash!
As I withdrew my sword, Brandt’s body collapsed to the ground like a sack.
Thud.
I twisted my wrist to flick the blood off the blade and sheathed it.
The surroundings suddenly fell silent.
Looking around, the encircling Jecheng Association men were all pale, their mouths agape.
“Lord Brandt… defeated…”
The classification of martial ranks is somewhat vague.
The criteria for dividing ranks become increasingly subjective and objective as you climb higher.
As a result, from the first-rate level onward, it’s typically subdivided into early, mid, and late stages. For Brandt, early first-rate was fitting.
That made him inferior even to my previous life’s self, so the fight was bound to feel anticlimactic to me.
“A first-rate swordsman, taken down so easily…”
“No way…”
“W-What do we do now?”
I felt no thrill, so my face probably looked quite bored.
Thanks to that, I didn’t need to say much.
Some of the men who met my indifferent gaze trembled and collapsed on the spot. As more followed suit—
“Hahahahaha!”
Hermann burst into laughter as if he owned the world and clapped a hand on my shoulder.
“Did you see that, you filthy bastards! My dear friend, Bihen Benkou, has upheld chivalry!”
The Jecheng Association men glanced at each other, their eyes darting nervously.
Hermann seized the moment and roared,
“If you understand, kneel! You bastards! This is the chivalrous hero, Bihen Benkou!”
A sound like a tidal wave swept through, and…
The entire Jecheng Association crew bowed their heads like condemned prisoners awaiting execution.
“Hahaha…”
Hermann Brian, the man who’d subdued them with his mouth, punched my chest.
I couldn’t help but laugh like him, dumbfounded.
* * *
Hermann said it’d take a few days to connect with a smuggler for a ship.
I brushed off his offer to stay at his mansion and remained at Dezol’s cabin.
Hermann came to find me again five days after the duel with Brandt.
“A man who keeps his promises—that’s me.”
He wasn’t exactly unattractive, but something about him always made me chuckle first.
This time, there was a reason.
I recalled how, in my previous life, he’d grumbled about failing to keep a promise to a married woman even as he lay dying.
The port wasn’t far.
Perhaps that’s why we both pulled the reins slowly.
It was unusually quiet, but as expected, he opened his mouth.
“…Bihen.”
“What.”
“Are you really a supreme… no, a peak swordsman?”
“You’re asking that now?”
“That day was hectic. I was stunned, too. Thinking back, it doesn’t add up. Brandt was openly a first-rate swordsman, yet you handled him like a child. That means you’re at least at the peak level, but achieving that at our age is logically impossible.”
I turned my head absentmindedly and locked eyes with Hermann, who’d been sneaking glances at me.
He flinched and coughed unnecessarily.
“…Ahem. I’m just getting a bit cautious.”
“I just got lucky.”
“Don’t give me that. You think I’m blind because I’m third-rate? I’ve got eyes.”
“You don’t need to rigidly divide ranks. Things like swordsmanship compatibility, experience gaps, or innate talent can decide a fight in an instant.”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
“You’ll understand once you achieve something yourself. Explaining it now won’t resonate.”
Of course, it was a half-baked excuse, and he’d eventually realize I was spouting nonsense.
In time.
“Anyway, with that skill, couldn’t you aim for the Empire’s greatest swordsman? Do you really have to go to the Kingdom?”
“…Yes. I have to.”
Hermann shook his head, unable to comprehend.
‘The Empire’s greatest swordsman…’
It was strange.
A grand fantasy I couldn’t even dream of in my past life now felt like a mere fleeting memory.
We reached the port’s entrance and stopped our horses.
Following Hermann through an alley, a middle-aged man greeted us in a shadowy, secluded spot.
“Ah, young master. You’re here. Is this the one?”
“Bihen Benkou.”
I introduced myself first.
The man rambled about his name and trade, but I didn’t pay much attention.
“The sailing schedule lined up perfectly. Lucky, eh? Haha.”
At that moment, Hermann pulled a hefty bundle from his coat and handed it to the man.
The man grinned widely and led us forward.
The docks were lined with massive sailing ships.
The man pointed to the central ship and whispered,
“It’s registered with the Imperial Navy as heading to Salisbury Port in the east via the South Sea. In reality, it’ll divert west after the South Sea. Our people in Salisbury will forge the paperwork, so no need to worry. This way…”
Instead of following immediately, I looked at Hermann.
“I’m going.”
“Yeah.”
I turned and took a few steps when a voice called from behind.
“Ah, wait!”
“…?”
“Look at me, almost forgetting. I brought this for you.”
He handed me a finely bound book.
‘Knights of Elderwood…?’
I glanced at the title and looked up. Hermann struck a smug pose and snorted.
“Didn’t I say I’d heard of it? Chivalry, I mean. That’s a translated copy of the Kingdom’s chivalric literature.”
Chivalric literature? I tilted my head, not understanding.
I looked at him for an explanation, but he just grinned brightly.
“Oh, I haven’t read it, so I don’t know the content.”
…Well, it’ll be something to skim on the way.
I tucked the book away and turned immediately.
I didn’t want to exchange sappy farewells.
After a few steps, a thought struck me, and I turned back.
“You.”
“What? Got something to say?”
I released my bitten lip with a flick.
“Give up on becoming head of the house early.”
“What?”
“You’re… No, looking at you now, you were never fated for it.”
“You crazy bastard.”
“But you’ve got some hidden talent. Swordsmanship. Think about it seriously. The sooner you find your calling, the better.”
I turned sharply.
Since it came to this, I decided to make a quick escape.
As the curses shouted from behind faded into the distance…
I realized I’d forgotten the most important thing.
“Don’t ever get close to married women!”
I shouted, waving my hand.
That should do it. For an old friend, I’d done more than enough, I thought.
‘…Ah.’
I turned to look at Hermann.
When our eyes met, he flinched and clamped his teasing mouth shut.
We held the silence for a moment…
Thud.
I pressed my fist to my chest.
“…I’m really going.”
A farewell too embarrassing to say aloud—I kept it in my heart.
Your chivalry, I’ll bury it in my chest.