"Filthy..."
No matter how many times she wash, that residual feeling of bugs crawling on her body doesn't go away.
A younger sibling born from eating our mother. A father who protects that sibling just because he's male.
Gadia's gaze slowly drifted downward.
Instead of her toes, she saw her milky white chest.
This physical feature, which was only cumbersome when drawing a bowstring or moving around, always attracted the gaze of men at the academy.
'Filthy.'
Unlike now that she's become a ranker, from the beginning of her enrollment, there were damp gazes and sticky words following her from behind.
For Gadia, who had become averse to that kind of thing, what happened today was etched in her brain more intensely than being struck by lightning.
Adelian came out red-faced and panting, and the silhouettes of two people were in the pile of bedding when she entered the room.
And the black hair that particularly caught her eye.
Crunch!
'This doesn't make sense.'
Even though he acted so recklessly, in the end, he was still the younger brother who feared her.
He was only a tyrant in front of the powerless, a fool who couldn't even properly look at their father and herself.
But now he answers her clearly and even takes the initiative in speaking.
'Strange. It's not right.'
Clearly, in father's letter, it was written that Adelian's trait was determined to be nothing special, but how could he who was perfectly judged to be incompetent become so confident?
'Could it be….'
Did he deceive them?
'What if he got a special trait?'
If that's the case, and he's so confident in front of her because of that one thing?
Gadia's eyes narrowed.
"I need to find out."
Whether what she knew was true.
Gadia hurried her steps to meet the priest who had appraised Adelian's trait before returning to the academy.
* * *
"Listen well. The important thing is your body's recovery."
I took a spoonful of pudding, waved the spoon, and then pointed at Kane.
"You need to eat more than 5 meals a day from now on."
"That's a new form of torture."
"No, no, how dare you talk back to your benevolent employer's words? Answer properly. Anyway, you still need to grow a lot more. To be precise, you need to grow your body."
In the original work and the game, he was dragged into an assassin group and received assassination training, which kept his body agile, but my thoughts were different.
Being skinny and weak like a reed stalk is not cool. Men are about muscles, Kane.
You'll thank me later, you know.
Originally, even if he couldn't eat well and only started eating properly later on, Kane hit 188cm in his official profile, so his growth potential is sufficient.
"For the time being, I'm planning to focus only on eating and resting to build your basic physical strength, and then I'll put you in the knighthood. Of course, I don't mean a formal appointment."
The sweet pudding goes down smoothly.
"I'll provide you with the best elixirs and potions. But I can't teach you. I'm not physically strong. And it's difficult to hire an outside teacher to teach you. You know why, right?"
"There are no high-class teachers who would teach someone who isn't a noble's child. Unless it's a mercenary from the marketplace or an eccentric."
"Right, this damn Kruger family is so prestigious that people who are not, so to speak, up to par, can't enter. Even if I'm the acting head of the family, I can't let them stay in the mansion for several days, not just a day or two. Unless they're going to be under my command like you."
Looking at Kane, who was currently registered as a servant, I felt a bit sorry, but I swallowed it without showing it.
I can say with my own mouth that I'm just an acting head of the family, or that I have no real power in the family, or that I'm a good-for-nothing and incompetent, but I must never show weakness.
Even if I talk about being weak or whatever, I have to act as if I have something to rely on.
That guy is a beast, and he might bite and tear apart the weak like a predator.
I need to lead him and keep the initiative, I can't be swayed by him.
So I had to shamelessly drive Kane into rough terrain and corner him.
"So the only way for you to learn things like training methods or swordsmanship is through parachuting. And of course, they won't like you. They already dislike me, and now a rookie comes in on my orders."
"I understand. But if I can't endure even that much and give in, it's better to die now."
As expected of someone who 'used to' have the Indomitable trait…
They say that once a sword is bent, no matter how much you try to straighten it, the bent mark remains, making it unusable.
But even though Kane had yielded to me once, he was still Kane.
Even if he were to experience all the hardships he would have originally gone through, he probably wouldn't bend again.
"Don't die. If you die, it's a loss for me."
I spoke lightly and smiled while resting my chin on my hand.
"Still, they're knights of a prestigious family, so they won't kill you. They'll just make you wish you were dead."
"Just another day in my life."
This kid…
Knowing that his words were true, I turned my gaze away and stood up.
"For now, I've registered you as my exclusive servant. So your room is next to mine. Luna on the right, you on the left."
If I say I'm thirsty at night, one of you better come running right away, okay?
*