The Lazy Swordmaster Chapter 40

Chapter 40 Nainiae

To the people in the Magic Tower, she was called a 'disposed product,’ but even someone like her had a name.

‘Nainiae, you are all I have.’
‘Yes, mommy! Just believe in me!’

By a rare chance, a girl heard a rumor about the Magic Tower paying money for a secret experiment. Needing money to feed her only mother, the last of her family, the girl went forth to particpate.

‘If I participate… you will really give me money, right?’

‘In that case… I will do it.’

‘Looking forward…? Faith in…? Yes! Please look forward to it!’

Looking forward…

Just from hearing these few words, she shook off her hesitations and participated in the experiment.

The second day was more or less like the first.
The troubles began from the third day.

‘… AHHHHAC!!’

‘UU… UUK! Stop! Please stop!’

‘Stop!!’

The drugs she was asked to swallow on the first and second days were the cause.

The pain was far beyond anyone’s imagination.

‘Kill… Kill me! Please, please kill me!’
‘Everyone is looking forward to your performance. You must not die yet.’

Since that day, a day that she no longer recalls, her daily life was changed dramatically.
She spent her days being tied up in chains and screaming in pain, pleading to be killed.

‘Please…’

‘…’

She wasn’t even able to keep food down in her stomach, vomiting immediately after consuming food.  Instead of taking meals, she received shots.

However, the excruciating pain was necessary.

Her misery only continued. On another day, an unknown monster’s acidic fluid mistaken for something else was poured on her face.

Before anyone realized, two of her fingers were bitten off and swallowed. The condition of the girl’s body and mind was turned to a seriously devastating state.

‘Even so… my mother would still recognize me.’

After being turned in to her horrendous appearance, she gradually became used to the pain. Her long grown hair in disarray made her look like a ghost.
In chains, the hobby she found was magic.

‘One Circle light magic, ‘Light,’ with this, I may not need candles anymore.’

Light magic.

Water magic.

Maybe it was due to the drug’s power, but she mastered up to Six Circles magic in a record time for a child. After that,

‘It has been 2 years. The experiment is over. You may go.’

‘That’s right. You have done well.’
‘Ah…’

After being told by Astroa that the experiment was over, she was full of joy like she could jump up and do a binky like a rabbit. In that high spirit, she started heading back home…
… without hearing the murmur that Astroa said right after,

‘You were the sole survivor. How did you manage to… Nah. It doesn’t matter. Since she will be dead soon, can it still be considered as surviving?’

It appeared that her mother definitely received money from the Magic Tower. In her home, Nainiae’s mother was holding down the fort.
Although she was finally able to come home,

‘Who… are you?’
‘It’s… It’s me. It’s Nainiae.’

She couldn’t recognize her own daughter.
On the contrary, she told Nainiae to never come again with that hideous face and kicked her out.

‘Now… what should I do?’

In the end, having lost her place to go, she returned to the Magic Tower. After going through a few more experiments, with her remaining lifespan numbered to be less than half a year, she was disposed of.

“…”

She looked like she had no will or strength left to resist.
Riley was directing his sword to cut off her neck, but he stopped his sword in the middle.

“Did I…”

Nainiae was crunching and hugging her knees as tightly as she could. She whispered,

“… What was it that I did wrong?”

Her voice was completely torn.

After her cryptic murmur, Riley’s eyes instantly calmed.
It was because in Riley’s past life, there was a time when he murmured just like her.

“Because they were looking forward to it, because they had expectations and hopes for me, because they said they are relying on me… I tried very hard. I tried my best, but how come, instead…”

Unlike Riley, who was praised as a brave warrior in his past life, the specific details of Nainiae’s situation or how she had been treated was different to some degrees…  However, she did the best she could.

… she heard devastating words from the very person whom she tried to protect. In the end, she couldn’t even protect her, and now, she was in this state.

“What should I have done differently?”

Nainiae murmured.

Through the girl’s voice, which sounded like she was about to give up on everything, Riley felt like he was watching his former self. He steadied the sword he held forward and said,

“… That was the wrong way.”

From hearing Riley’s voice, Nainiae’s shoulders shivered a little.

“It was wrong from the very first stitch of the needle.”

In his mind, Riley continued,

'You have, and…
… I have.'

Riley lowered his eyes and looked at top of Nainiae's head.

“… Huh?”

Breaking her silence, Nainiae, who had her head buried between her knees until now, slowly tilted up her head and looked at Riley. He said,

“Should I show you a way?”

After asking Nainiae, Riley asked himself in his mind,

What if…

In that case, he would certainly not do useless things… such as holding a sword as the prophecy foretold or volunteering to fulfill someone’s expectations, and…
Like the girl in front of him, he wouldn’t break down either.

“… A way?”

With her forehead finally away from her knees, Nainiae asked back.

Riley withdrew his sword that was aimed at her neck.

“It would kind of not feel right to just tell you, so how about we do a trade?”

“I know what is troubling your mind. I also know the right answer to handling it.”

“That answer, I will tell you.”

Nainiae’s mouth opened.

“Why would you tell me that…”

Nainiae wondered how a boy in her age, a nobility from a Count’s house, would know what was troubling her. With a blank face, Nainiae looked at Riley.
In Nainiae’s only good eye, Riley was not cringing anywhere despite looking at her horrifying face.

“In return, I will need an advance.”

It was early morning.

There was a call from Astroa.

“So in the end, you are saying you couldn’t find it.”

While chewing on herbs, Astroa criticized the members, including Peruda, and then sighed deelpy enough to make the ground sink.

“Yes. We are terribly sorry. We don’t know what to say.”

The people from Magic Tower apologized to Astroa by bowing, and then they started to look over their shoulders.

It looked as if he was stabbed by a blade. The bandages had a red stain.
To think that a grand mage of Seven Circles Magic was stabbed by a blade, it was just unbelievable to them.

“Damn…”

Astroa cursed as he pasted a thick amount of ointment to top of the bandage on his arm.
He was already angered from being stabbed by the blade of some unknown runt that crawled out of nowhere and  on top of that, he just heard that the mana measurement boulder on the first floor that he treasured very much was destroyed.

“Did you find any evidence?”

“I’m talking about the runt that destroyed the boulder! Do you know who did it!”

“Instead of making excuses, if you don’t have any evidence, just say you don’t have any before I burn you to crisp.”

Annoyed, Astroa threw a tantrum as he formed flame above his palm and made a tight fist.

“Ah, yes… My apologies.”
“Damn.”

Watching the man apologize while breaking cold sweat, Astroa cringed his face.
The look on his face was that of someone who stood on poop. Stepped hard and really firmly.

“Looks like the Solia’s Magic Tower is not what it used to be, huh? We lost the runt who wore a mask, lost the bastard that broke the boulder, and now lost the disposed product that we threw away. Ha… Everything! That’s really impressive!”

PHEET!
To the ground, Astroa spitted out the herb he was chewing. He turned to the other member and asked him a question,

“Let’s just say that the masked runt is a ghost and there is no proof to find the bastard that broke the boulder. Fine… But why are you saying you couldn’t find the disposed product? There should be a tracking seal branded on it?”
“…”

No one was able to answer the question.

It was odd that they could not find it.

“…”
“Speak!”

Angered from the silence and lack of response, Astroa swung his arm in a big motion.
Soon, a knife-like sharp wind accumulated, and it cut off a cowering member’s arm clean.

“KUUAK!”

The arm that was cut off rolled on the Magic Tower’s first floor and poured out blood.
Other associates rushed toward the man that just lost an arm, and they answered with pale faces,

“It… it was erased.”

“The tracking seal… was erased.”
“What the hell are you saying? How could the tracking seal be erased?”

‘Tracking seal was erased?’

Even if the branded subject died, in order to make the recovery of the corpse easier, the tracking seal was placed carefully by himself, Astroa the grand mage of Seven Circles Magic.
It was impossible for it to be erased.

“It is the truth. The tracking seal on the disposed product is no longer there. If you cannot believe us, please see it for yourself…”

A man, who was helping to stop the blood loss from the cut off arm, answered in shaky voice, and that made Astroa’s face to frown even more.

“What about Erengium?”

“Tsk!”

Astroa clicked his tongue.

“That’s a shame. A real shame. If they were going to take it, they should have done so yesterday.”

As Astroa thought about what he was going to trade today in secret, he made hand gestures to wipe off the blood splatter and herbs he spitted out. Astroa murmured,

“It looks like it will be difficult to expect great results from the tournament.”

After cleaning up, Astroa tossed a word of advice to the people who were rushing to take the man with cut off arm to the Holy Temple.

“Even if the schedule changes, the money is the same… so make sure to take it from them, you got that?”

The people from Magic Tower nodded and quickly made their way out of the tower while supporting the man who just lost his arm.
A few people’s faces look disconcerted and upset over the undue violence, but they didn’t dare to take it up against Astroa.

“So, what about the bastards in Lower Solia? Are you managing them properly?”

With some of the members gathered now gone to help the injured, Peruda , who was among the people that still remained, answered his question,

“Yes.”

It was a prompt answer.
It was to prevent yet another man from having have to be carried to the Holy Temple with a cut off arm.

“Good. Good. Be careful to make sure nobody from the Holy Temple or the Castle notices. I figured it would be all right because there is a swordsmanship tournament going on, but with an incident like this happening, it might be dangerous.”

Astroa was sitting on a chair on the first floor that was meant for guests, and now he got off from his ass.
As if he was going to leave, Astroa turned away and started to walk. Watching this, Peruda followed suit and asked,

“Where are you going?”
“Ah! There is something I need to take care of quickly.”

Having heard Astroa saying he had ‘something to take care of quickly,’ A shadow was cast on his face. With a displeased expression, Peruda asked again,

“… Are you going to the basement again?”

“Now… How would you feel about discontinuing it?”

From Peruda’s question, Astroa’s steps came to a halt.

“Seven Circles… Aren’t they enough?”

“I believe it is more than enough. To go further, it could no longer be considered a passionate research or anything else mage worthy. This is just…”

When Peruda lifted his head back up after briefly staring at the ground, Astroa was no longer there.  He could not be seen or found on the first floor, it was almost as if he had teleported away.

It was at a dark basement.

“… Now, tell me.”

“How do you claim to know me so well?”

Riley ignored Nainiae’s voice coming from his back. Instead, he went through a mountain worth of wooden boxes and checked its contents.

“How could you know my suffering, and how are you going to propose a solution?”
“Hm.”

Nainiae asked again, but Riley didn’t answer the girl’s question this time either. Instead, he only lifted up what he found just now.
The content found in the box was some sort of plant grass, a bunch that looked like medical herbs.

‘Wait. Could this be…’

After bringing the herbs closer to his nose and going snip-snip to smell it, Riley wrinkled his eyebrows.

“… Narcotics?”

The contents of wooden boxes in the basement were all same.
In his past life, Riley had smelled something similar to this. With a blank face, he murmured,

“In the Magic Tower, why would there be narcotics…”

Around the time Riley was cringing at the sight of the greens, from behind, a creaking noise from the motion of a door being opened could be heard.

“… Oh ho?”
“…?!”

Nainiae’s head turned rapidly.
Having confirmed the identity of the man that entered the place, her eye became saturated with terror.

“What’s this? It looks like a few rats crawled in.”

Chapter end