Chapter 19

Chapter 19
## Chapter 19

Struggling to keep his simmering fury under control, Joshua accelerated his stride.

Staying there any longer was pointless; he was well aware that only further ridicule was in store for him.

*Fine, savor your moment while you can. Do you honestly believe a single victory changes anything? Beyond a fleeting chance to brag, this win is useless to you!*

Even though he had endured a public shaming, only the four individuals in that room knew the specific details.

Joshua and his own attendant certainly wouldn’t leak the story, and a man of Sword Saint Eisen’s stature wasn’t the sort to waste breath gossiping about such petty squabbles.

The only remaining factor was the winner, Lucian.

Yet, Joshua wasn’t the least bit concerned about him.

*Let him talk until he’s hoarse. Do you really think a rumor just takes flight on its own? Controlling the flow of information is a fundamental noble grace, you idiot!*

Circulating damaging tales about rivals and manipulating the common perception was a daily sport for the high-born.

By that same token, the capability to suppress those stories and quiet the resulting storm was a benchmark of a noble’s true talent.

While it wasn’t his primary expertise, Joshua possessed a solid understanding of this brand of shadow warfare.

Had his rival been a master of public manipulation, he might have been in trouble, but his opponent this time was that simpleton, Lucian.

There were a thousand ways to smother a rumor before it ever gained traction.

“Watch him like a hawk, just to be safe. If he makes any attempt to broadcast what happened today…”

“I shall see to it that every word is stifled, regardless of the cost. Please, put your mind at ease.”

Joshua gave a sharp nod at his servant’s arrogant assurance.

The man was occasionally prone to blunders, but he was a specialist when it came to cleaning up messes of this nature.

He convinced himself that if he delegated the task, the problem would vanish.

Exactly twenty-four hours later, the dam burst.

—I heard the Fourth Young Master invited the Third to a duel with sharpened steel and got absolutely demolished!

—Word is the Fourth Young Master’s knees buckled and he hit the dirt right then and there!

—The Third Young Master claimed his blade as a prize, and he just surrendered it without a peep!

“Is this some kind of sick joke?!”

*CRASH!*

Upon catching wind of the rumors that had saturated the estate in a single day, Joshua snapped, upending the table in his private quarters.

*Cleaning up? My foot!*

Even the weapon he’d tossed aside because he no longer desired it had been reframed as a cowardly surrender born of terror!

Shaking under his lord’s incandescent rage, the servant pressed his face into the floorboards.

“K-Kill me, I beg of you!”

“Don’t give me your empty dramatics! Give me an explanation before I actually take you up on that offer!”

“The thing is…”

Joshua sat in stunned silence as he absorbed the servant’s report.

“So, you’re telling me the staff spreading these lies simply ignored you?”

“Specifically, it was those street thugs he enlisted. No matter the bribes I offered or the threats I leveled, they wouldn’t hold their tongues. They didn’t even flinch when held at knifepoint; I was powerless to stop them…”

“Curse it! What kind of promises did he make to buy that level of devotion from those gutter rats?!”

The reputation of the servants Lucian had recruited from the slums was already common knowledge.

They were fanatics who answered only to Lucian, showing no fear even when the Second Young Master, Jordi, had attempted to intimidate them.

It was baffling why they stayed so fiercely loyal to Lucian, a man who possessed no real power base.

Was it because they had already hit rock bottom, leaving them with nothing left to lose?

“So, when money and fear failed, that’s your excuse? If they wouldn’t listen to reason, you should have at least crippled them!”

“I… I made the attempt.”

“And?!”

“Every man I sent returned with his own limbs shattered. Their captain, a fellow called Hugo, is no common brawler…”

Joshua gripped the back of his neck, feeling faint.

Not only had they failed to bribe or scare the opposition, they had been physically thrashed and sent packing.

He hadn’t just been humiliated in a duel; he was now being outclassed in the quality of his retainers as well.

To make matters worse, rather than being suppressed, the stories were being warped and broadcasted in a manner that made his opponent look like a hero.

“Hooo… Haaaa…”

Joshua slumped into a chair, trying desperately to regulate his breathing.

He felt as though his heart might give out if he didn’t master his pulse.

But, incredibly, the bad news wasn’t finished.

“Furthermore…”

“Do you truly have a death wish?!”

“I-I haven’t even said it yet!”

“I’m certain it’s just more filth about Lucian besting me! I’d sooner stitch your lips shut than hear another syllable of it!”

“No! It’s an update on the situation! It doesn’t involve the Third Young Master directly, so please, compose yourself!”

Joshua ground his teeth but fixed a hard stare on the servant, gesturing for him to continue.

As much as he loathed the information, he couldn’t afford to be blind.

Even if the news was poison, he had to swallow it to stay informed.

After a tense pause, the servant spoke with a quivering voice.

“The Third Young Master’s people are invoking Sir Eisen’s name. Now that it’s public knowledge the Sword Saint supervised the match, even the knightly orders are asking questions. Some actually approached the Sword Saint to verify the claims, and he confirmed it was all true… Young Master? Young Master!”

“Gurgle…!”

At the revelation he feared most, Joshua finally lost consciousness, froth bubbling at his lips.

—

“Young Master, I’ve been told the Fourth Young Master has collapsed. Do you have any inkling as to why?”

“He likely just found reality too heavy to bear and passed out. He’s always been lacking in fortitude, much like his performance yesterday.”

Following Hans’s update, Lucian gave a low laugh and took a pull of his tea.

The scent of the premium leaves—luxury he could never have dreamed of in his previous life—was a pleasant distraction.

“Why would he even insist on live steel? He would have held the upper hand if we’d used wooden practice blades.”

“Is the gap between a real sword and a training one truly that significant?”

“It’s night and day. If a man were charging at you, which would chill your blood more: a piece of wood or a sharpened edge?”

“The sharpened edge, without question.”

“It’s a universal truth. He likely picked the real blade to intimidate me, but he overlooked the fact that he’d be just as paralyzed standing in front of a killing edge.”

Had they used wooden swords, Joshua would have been under far less mental strain.

He probably would have kept his head and countered Lucian’s moves instead of losing his composure.

And Lucian, who was at a disadvantage in raw physical power, would have found the fight much harder.

But the idiot had tripped over his own trap while trying to hatch a cheap plot.

“It simplified things for me. That match should have been a stalemate at best, but because of that live steel, I walked away with a total victory.”

“I understand.”

Hans nodded along, but then a realization struck him.

“But Young Master, wasn’t yesterday your very first time handling a genuine sword? You managed to grasp that psychological edge and exploit it instantly.”

“Well… it was mostly just thinking on my feet.”

Lucian was a man who had once felt the icy kiss of a blade as it shaved his eyebrows.

There was no world in which he would fear a sword that wasn’t even within a foot of him.

Particularly when the one swinging it was a soft, pampered lordling who had never once bled for his life.

However, since that history remained a secret, Lucian simply shrugged it off.

“At any rate, things should remain quiet for the time being. Neither my pathetic older brother nor my younger one will have the energy to bother me for a while.”

Jordi had seen nearly all of his accessible funds vanish due to the previous Milk Siblings Incident.

No matter how deep his mother’s family’s pockets were, transferring that much capital takes time.

To be cautious, he wouldn’t make a move until his treasury was replenished.

Joshua’s situation was even more dire than Jordi’s.

While Lucian was the contender with the flimsiest base of power, Joshua’s footing wasn’t exactly stable either.

After enduring such a public beating at Lucian’s hands, he would be preoccupied for months trying to repair his fractured internal alliances.

*Well, there’s still one individual left, but considering his temperament…*

*Thud!*

“Young Master!”

Lucian’s train of thought was broken by Hugo, who came charging through the entrance.

Hugo was soaked in perspiration, looking as though he’d sprinted a marathon to get there.

“What is it? Did Joshua have another breakdown?”

“I just got word from my scouts. The House of Roglan is arriving in exactly one week.”

“…!”

“They requested the meeting take place at the Bestra Territory, right where the manufacturing site was established. What are our orders?”

“First…”

Lucian set his porcelain cup aside and rose from his seat.

“I need to speak with my father.”

—

“What arrogant fools.”

Grand Duke Sigmund allowed a dry smile to touch his lips as he listened to Lucian’s briefing.

In terms of pure mileage, it was the nearest territory, but due to a crumbling infrastructure, it had long since lost its status as a trade hub to neighboring cities.

Despite its proximity to a metropolis like Kelheim, Bestra was a forgotten backwater that could barely be called a town.

And yet, the fact remained: it was the closest point of contact, and they were demanding a meeting there.

“I can’t tell if they’re being incredibly brave or if they simply hold Valdek in total contempt. It’s not quite walking into the lion’s den, but they’re certainly standing right between the fangs.”

“They likely assume your attention won’t be directed there, Father. After all, it’s a district with absolutely no strategic value.”

“…True, the thought of that place hadn’t crossed my mind until your report arrived. It is, in its own way, a perfect blind spot.”

Grand Duke Sigmund smiled thinly as he traced the lines on the map.

Then, his gaze sharpened as he focused on Lucian.

“So? Why bring this to me? I believe I made it clear that I was leaving this entire affair in your hands.”

“I require strength.”

“Strength?”

“Just because I’ve lured a beast into a pit doesn’t mean I possess the weapons to finish the job.”

“So you’ve come to me because I hold the weapons?”

Grand Duke Sigmund lowered his gaze, looking somewhat let down by Lucian’s logic.

“A sensible conclusion. Without a doubt, if you borrow my resources, dispatching a trapped animal is an easy task.”

“Then…”

“But do you honestly think the world will credit you with the kill? I doubt they will.”

Lucian stayed quiet as the Grand Duke spoke.

When no defense was offered, the Grand Duke’s biting evaluation continued.

“A man is only hailed as a master hunter when he brings down the quarry using his own prowess. No matter how ingenious your strategy, if you cannot finish the hunt yourself, you remain nothing but a student who hasn’t yet earned his place.”

“….”

“I provided the opening. I even granted you the right to hunt as you saw fit. And yet, you’re prepared to discard this opportunity simply because you lack the muscle? You would choose the path of safety over the path of glory, handing the achievement to another?”

“Yes. I choose that path gladly.”

“What?”

Faced with such a blatant and confident reply, Grand Duke Sigmund’s eyes widened in surprise.

As the Grand Duke sat in stunned silence, Lucian, who had been reserved until now, delivered his full counter-argument.

“The most critical element of any hunt is the success of the hunt itself. When a village is living in terror of a predator, how can it be called courage to insist on being the one to throw the spear just to stroke one’s own ego? Even if it works, that isn’t nobility—it’s just a peasant’s reckless pride, a foolish gamble that only destroys the people’s confidence.”

“…!”

“And does it truly matter if my name is lost in the shadows? Even if the world is blind to it, the master hunter recognizes the value of his student. Between a student who lunges at a beast with his bare hands for the sake of fame and one who ensures the kill even if he must share the praise—when the master hunter can no longer pull his own bow, to whom will he entrust it?”

Lucian caught his breath and performed a deep, formal bow.

“Even if the student’s loyalty goes unrewarded by the master, it changes nothing. By that time, the student will have evolved into a hunter in his own right, stalking the woods with a spear and bow he fashioned with his own hands. Rather than acting like a fool to catch a beast with my bare palms, I will give the credit to my master, learn the craft of the spear first, and then go out to hunt. That is how I intend to become a hunter.”

“….”

A suffocating silence filled the Grand Duke’s chambers as the speech concluded.

The attendants, in particular, stood like statues, terrified to even blink.

Regardless of being his offspring, to speak so boldly and challenge the Master of Valdek was unthinkable!

In a few seconds that stretched like an eternity, everyone held their breath.

“Bwahahaha!”

The Grand Duke’s thunderous laughter erupted, making the very walls of the office vibrate.