Side Story 28. Anemone Smiled Brightly (4)
Side Story 28. Anemone Smiled Brightly (4)
Looking at Sister Armand sighing and frowning, I spoke casually, "It's faster than expected, but it's within the margin of error."
No matter how fast the Blood Emperor was, I was one step faster. In particular, it could be said that I had already won at the time I met Doomstone, the most important piece.
"But the imperial secret intelligence department is monitoring this area. They are not targeting Miss yet, but it won't take too long."
As expected of Sister Armand. She read the movements of the secret intelligence department, the best in the empire at covert activities. She was deserving of the title of being the best source of information in the Asteria Duchy.
I smiled lightly at her concern. "Then there are about five things I can do."
"Five?”
"Yes. Breaking through, secretly escaping the duchy, returning home, deliberately being caught, or causing a civil war. These five."
After hearing the five ways, Sister Armand couldn't close her mouth.
"In reality, isn’t there only one?! None of them even make sense except leaving secretly!"
"Ayy, it's not necessarily like that. All five methods have pros and cons.”
However, other than the secretly escaping method, there was a high possibility that the power of the empire would be undermined in the future. Then my plan would be disrupted.
The empire had to become stronger faster. So that others, including the Blood Emperors, could not remain in control. In order to bring my father's best friend and old enemy, the Blood Emperor, down from the throne without any damage and to make it impossible for anyone to dare to bare teeth at my father and our family.
"If the nun-nim says so, shall we try the 2nd method?" I winked at her.
Sister Armand sighed deeply. "Haa~! I'll secretly prepare a way out of the duchy."
Sister Armand's help was essential to deceive the eyes of the imperial secret intelligence and secretly escape the duchy. She possessed the ability to not only prepare a way through the surveillance network of the secret intelligence department, but even a path of escape if the army surrounded them.
"As expected, you are the godmother of the poor, ‘Big Mama’. You know how I feel." I called her by her nickname.
She flicked my forehead with her finger and said, "Don't call me by that nickname. It's not my favorite."
I rubbed my forehead and made a suggestion. "Ayy, why don't you open a store that sells information? Big Mama Information Agency! Doesn't it sound good?”
"I'm not interested in such an affair. If you want my information, I'll give it to Miss as it is. So Miss can be Big Mama."
"Hmm, Big Mama? That nickname doesn't suit a girl who's never married!"
Sister Armand was furious at my rejection. "I'm not married either! If you're going to call me Big Mama, introduce me to a guy first then call me that!"
"Hahaha, calm down."
Sister Armand took a deep breath and sighed deeply once again. “We’ll be able to have conversations like this again, right?"
I couldn't easily say yes to her. Even for me, I couldn't lie to someone who sincerely cared about me.
When I smiled silently, she hugged me once with a sad face. "Stay healthy. Please feel free to contact me if anything happens because there are more than one or two people who want to repay Miss."
"Armand, stay healthy, too. There are not one or two children who look up to you, so you have to take care of them for a long time.” I patted her on the back.
I heard a sniffle in my ear, but she would get by well without me for she was a strong woman.
At the end of the long and short hug, a sharp sound of swords clashing came from outside the window.
"No way!?" Sister Armand was surprised and worried that the secret intelligence department had come all the way here.
I smiled and calmed her down. "No. It's probably the sound of Glont ahjussi and Doomstone playing around.”
I didn't say anything to Glont ahjussi except that Doomstone would be my escort. So it was clear that he was testing to see if the latter could really protect me.
"Shall we go out and take a look?"
Sister Armand shook her head at my suggestion. "No. I should comfort the children who must be astonished by the sound just now. Please tell the two of them that I’m going to scold them after their fight."
Sister Armand's cold voice made me feel guilty.
-o-
When Anemone left the living room following Armand, Doomstone smiled at Glont. "Your hands look like they’re itchy. What do you think about having a match, Glont hyung-ssi?" he suggested.
Glont smiled awkwardly and scratched his cheek. "Ohohoho, I like the proposal very much, but I'm worried that the children will be shocked if there’s a loud sound."
"Ayy, isn't the sound of blades hitting a lullaby? What kids are surprised by the sound of blades hitting? Even a newborn baby won't be surprised," Doomstone answered bluntly, interlocking his fingers behind his head.
Feeling the sincerity from his answer, Glont realized that he lacked a lot of common sense. Come to think of it, there were more than one or two things that he noticed that were strange. He had a platinum coin that many nobles wouldn’t even be able to see. He had the power to push him away just from the wind produced by his lightly shaken fist. It felt like the Crow in the capital who was an honorary knight of the imperial family.
Having thought that far, Glont thought of the recent article in the newspaper. It was an article that a person who identified himself as a Crow exploded the dam. He’d passed over it laughing at it, thinking it was strange for someone to be impersonating that. But what if it wasn't an impersonation?
"Come to think of it, black hair is quite rare in the Empire. Where is your hometown?"Glont asked.
"It's a village in Olympus Forest. To be exact, about the middle of Mount Olympus? From the toad rock... I don't know if you’ll know even if I explain it like that," Doomstone answered casually.
"Ohohoho, I don't know where it is, but I know what village it is. Isn't this Mr. Achilles's hometown?" Glont asked.
Doomstone smiled brightly. "Oh! Do you know Achilles hyung? Come to think of it, he said he was an imperial general, right? How is hyung doing?”
"He is still not good at controlling his strength, but he is doing well. He sometimes checks my training as well."
Glont becoming a general at a young age and the strongest knight of the Empire could be largely attributed to Achilles’s basic physical training. The Crow’s martial arts was not taught because it was the secret technique of the Crow Tribe, but the ignorant high-intensity physical training of the Crow Tribe was enough to make talented knights superhuman.
"It seems Mr. Doomstone is close to Mr. Achilles?"
"Yes! I used to catch deer and play with him when I was young. I miss those times. It was really thrilling when we rushed into a herd of 10,000 deer."
Doomstone was immersed in emotions, recalling the memories of his childhood when he was stepped on by a herd of 10,000 deer, broke both arms, and was in bed for a month. Thinking about it now, it was more dangerous than trying to catch a 100 year old dragon, but those were just the actions of a child. It was a good memory.
"Then, did you also study under Elder Weger-nim like Mr. Achilles?” Glont further queried.
Doomstone shook his head. "No, that grandpa doesn't fit me very well. It's not that I didn't learn, but he was too strict, so I mainly learnt from my grandfather."
"Oho, your grandfather. Come to think of it, seeing that your grandfather knew about a fireplace, he must have been dispatched to the Empire." Glont conjectured.
However, Doomstone denied. "I don't think that’s the case. He's such a selfish person that he wouldn’t move for others. Still, I heard he was active in the Empire for quite a while, so I don't know if it will be on the record or not. His name is Galak…”
"Galak?! Is your grandfather's name Galak Blade?!”
Surprised, Glont recalled that he identified himself as a Blade in a newspaper article he had read before.
"Ah… Yes. I guess my grandfather is famous?"
"It's not just famous! Oh my god! I can't believe I'm meeting the warrior-nim's descendant here!” Glont’s eyes twinkled, feeling thrilled.
Doomstone smiled at the reaction and suggested again, "I learned most of my skills from my grandfather. Would you like to spar, hyung-ssi?"
Glont’s heart was shaken. The warrior’s skills… It felt like an opportunity of a lifetime.
"Good! Once! Let's take a look at it once!"
Glont agreed to the proposal, deceiving himself that it was to see his skills for Anemone.
Later, when he heard from Bloody that he had been scammed because all skills regardless of whether it was the warrior’s skills or not, were only shared in the village, he grabbed the back of his neck. When he found out, he was shocked, but that was 11 years later.
Doomstone was fiercer than expected at fighting, which was his joy in life.
-o-
Wow! I don't know what was what, but it was a very spectacular and dynamic battle. With my eyes, I couldn't keep up, so Glont ahjussi and Doomstone seemed to split into several people and then combine again.
I applauded the spar, which seemed like a real fight. "Wow! They’re very acrobatic! How can there be the sound of metal hitting when a fist hits a sword?”
Glont ahjussi, who had just finished the battle, answered my curiosity as he wiped off the sweat flowing down like a waterfall.
"Gasp, gasp! That's. Doomstone's fist. Whoo! It’s because it's not just a bare fist, it's a fist wrapped in an extremely thin strong aura."
On the other hand, unlike Glont ahjussi, Doomstone, who did not sweat a single drop, gave an additional explanation.
"Strong aura has a property of hardening objects. That's why it's called strong aura. Strong aura is often regarded as a skill above sword aura, but sword auras are used to increase cutting power, while strong aura increases sturdiness, so it should be considered completely different skills. Of course, it's not strange to misunderstand like that because strong aura also has some cutting power and the difficulty is much higher."
Ohh! Suddenly, Doomstone looked smart. As expected, the master of his field seemed to also be knowledgeable in its theory.
When I applauded in admiration of Doomstone's explanation, he shrugged.
"I think you’ve seen his skills. What do you think, ahjussi?" I asked.
Glont ahjussi sat down and said, "It's the best. Ow, ow, ow! My sweat must have messed up my makeup."
Glont ahjussi was worried about the ruined makeup, wiping his sweat with a colorful pink handkerchief. Well, it didn't look so strange even though the makeup was ruined because he preferred light and natural makeup, saying that thick, heavy makeup was not to his tastes.
I looked at Doomstone and asked for the sake of my original purpose, "Doomstone, what's your future schedule?”
"My future schedule?"
Looking at Doomstone's expression, he didn’t seem to have any particular plan.
"You know, was there something you wanted to do when you came to the Empire?"
"Uh... Something I wanted to do?”
Doomstone, who was seriously contemplating my question, answered in a voice full of strong conviction.
"I! I don't want to starve!"
I ended up bursting into laughter at the answer.
"Ahahahahaha!”
Ahh, I really can't stop laughing.