It took longer than expected for the new wooden sword to arrive.
It was strange that it took this long to fetch a single wooden sword in a house like the Rosette estate, where more swords hung on the walls than decorations.
I soon found out why.
Three maids entered carrying five wooden swords.
No.
More precisely, they were objects that looked like wooden swords.
The first had gold thread wrapped around its handle.
The second had House Rosette's crest engraved on the blade.
The third was so well-polished that it was closer to a wall decoration than something meant to hit people with.
The fourth had its center of gravity completely shifted toward the handle.
And the fifth...
"Why does this one smell nice?"
"It is a practice sword made of sandalwood."
The maid answered cautiously.
I looked down at the wooden sword.
The sword smelled nice.
A sword.
This insane household even made its training equipment into air fresheners.
Eveline stood with her arms crossed, glaring at me.
"Pick one."
"There isn't one."
"What?"
"None of them are usable."
The air in the drawing room froze again.
The maids went pale.
The butler closed his eyes.
He was probably praying inwardly.
That a third resignation-letter frame would not be added today.
Eveline's brow rose.
"Are you saying House Rosette's practice swords are worse than some cheap wooden sword?"
"Yes."
"..."
"The wooden sword that just broke was better than three of these."
Silence.
I picked up the first wooden sword.
The gold thread tickled my palm.
"The handle is slippery. You'll drop it once your hand gets sweaty."
The second.
"The crest has thrown off the blade's balance. It looks nice, but the tip wobbles when you swing it."
The third.
"Same reason. If anyone can hit someone with this, the person wielding it is more impressive than the wooden sword itself."
The fourth.
"The balance is wrong. If it was made this way on purpose, the maker should be fired."
The fifth.
I picked up the sandalwood practice sword.
A subtle fragrance spread through the room.
"This would be nice to use at a funeral."
One of the maids bit her lip.
She was holding back a laugh.
Eveline's gaze turned toward her.
The maid immediately went pale.
I stepped forward as though blocking her from view.
"It is funny, though."
Eveline's red eyes turned toward me.
"You keep crossing the line."
"If you intend to learn the sword, you need to redraw your lines first."
"Who said I was learning?"
"You just said we should do it again."
"I said I would verify it. I never said I would take your lessons."
"That is your first lesson."
Eveline clenched her teeth.
She had the face of someone unaccustomed to losing a war of words.
Those who had always crushed others through force were at a disadvantage the longer a conversation went on.
They had learned how to break their opponents, but never how to persuade them.
I set the five wooden swords down on the table.
"Today's lesson is over."
"What?"
Eveline's voice sharpened.
"Running away?"
"No."
I pointed to her ceremonial sword embedded in the wall.
"Your sword is over there, my wooden sword is broken, and there isn't a proper practice sword anywhere in this house. If we continue like this, it will not be a lesson. It will be furniture destruction."
"Something like that is no problem for House Rosette."
"That is exactly the problem."
Eveline stopped at those words.
I looked around the drawing room.
A broken teacup.
A dead vase.
A ceremonial sword lodged in the wall.
Frames holding resignation letters.
A bloodstained handkerchief.
A place waiting for the next teacher.
"Everything here is teaching you only one thing."
"What?"
"That it is all right to break things."
Her red eyes narrowed.
"A commoner like you thinks he can judge my family's upbringing?"
"Yes."
I nodded.
"It is the worst."
For the first time, the butler's eyes widened.
The maids stopped breathing altogether.
I knew it.
Those were dangerous words.
Criticizing how a noble house educated its children was not simply provoking Eveline.
It was provoking the entire family.
But I had to do it.
Eveline Rosette's ruin route did not begin with a lack of swordsmanship skill.
It began in an environment where no one truly stopped her, no matter what she broke.
No one told her.
That was not acceptable.
That was not swordsmanship.
That was not strength.
So I had to say it.
If only to survive.
"You have only learned how to break things."
I picked up a fragment of my broken wooden sword.
"But swordsmanship is not a technique for breaking things."
"Then what is it?"
"It is the art of stopping."
Eveline's expression flickered slightly.
"The art of stopping your opponent, stopping your own body, and finally stopping your own anger."
I set the wooden-sword fragment on the table.
"You have never stopped even once in your life."
Silence.
Perhaps the rain had stopped, because the sound beyond the window had quieted.
Only the faint sound of a broken teacup shard rolling across the floor could be heard in the drawing room.
Eveline slowly opened her mouth.
"So?"
Her voice was low.
It was the voice of someone holding back her anger.
But it was different from before.
Not the voice she used just before drawing her sword, but one demanding an answer.
Good.
I had gotten through to her, just a little.
I spoke.
"Your first homework assignment."
"Homework?"
Eveline let out a hollow laugh.
"You think I would do your homework?"
"If you cannot do it, there will be no lesson tomorrow."
"Fine. Then I just will not do it."
"And you will fail the second swordsmanship test of the Academy entrance examination."
The corner of Eveline's mouth froze.
Just as I thought.
That got through to her.
"You keep saying that."
Eveline said sharply.
"What do you know about whether I will fail?"
I nodded as if the question I had been waiting for had finally come.
"I know who the examiner is."
Eveline's eyes narrowed.
"The second swordsmanship examination for Academy admissions. This year's examiner is Graham Vant, a retired instructor from the Imperial Knights."
Knowledge from the original story.
During the first run, countless players had bled here.
Graham Vant.
His nickname was the [Blind Instructor].
He was not actually blind.
It was a nickname given to him because he paid no attention whatsoever to an opponent's family, appearance, reputation, or money.
He looked only at the sword.
If the sword lied, he failed you immediately.
"He dislikes flashy swordsmanship. He dislikes swords that rely on mana to overpower their opponent, too. What he hates most is..."
I looked at Eveline.
"A sword wielded by someone who mistakenly believes they are strong."
The blood drained from Eveline's face, then rushed back into it.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I am a teacher."
It was a lie.
But it was not entirely wrong, either.
If you wanted to survive, information was your profession.
Eveline glared at me.
"Then what is the homework?"
The maids exchanged glances.
The butler let out the faintest breath as well.
Eveline had accepted the word homework.
It was a small but important change.
I picked up a shard of teacup from the floor.
"Clean this up."
Silence.
This silence was deeper than the last.
Eveline looked at me as though she had misheard.
"What?"
"It is the teacup you broke."
I set the shard down in front of her.
"Clean it up yourself."
One of the maids jerked her head up in alarm.
"T-Teacher. We will..."
I shook my head.
"No. Today, she will do it."
Eveline's face hardened.
"You are telling me to do a maid's work?"
"No."
I said,
"I am telling you to do a swordsman's work."
"What does this have to do with swordsmanship?"
"Seeing what your own strength has damaged after you swing it."
I pointed at the broken teacup.
"That is where swordsmanship begins."
Eveline said nothing.
Anger filled the room.
Red mana spread over her fingertips, then faded away.
A system window appeared.
`Warning: Eveline Rosette's resistance level is increasing.`
`Current survival probability: 8%`
It had gone up from before.
That was strange.
Perhaps the odds of being hit by a sword had increased, but my odds of surviving as an educator had risen.
Eveline spoke in a low voice.
"What if I refuse?"
"Then I will not come tomorrow."
"Fine. Then do not come."
"Then you will fail the entrance examination, and rumors will spread through high society that the eldest daughter of House Rosette failed the preliminary examination for the Imperial Academy."
Eveline's eyes shook.
"And talk of a broken engagement will come even sooner."
At that moment.
The air in the drawing room froze completely.
The maids' faces went pale.
For the first time, all emotion vanished from the butler's expression.
A forbidden word.
What I had just said aloud was a word no one in this estate could speak.
A broken engagement.
The first ruin event in the original story.
The starting point of the path that led Eveline Rosette to fall through a duel accident.
There had not been an official announcement yet.
But the signs were already there.
The intervals between her fiancé's letters had grown longer.
The gifts sent to House Rosette had dwindled.
Eveline's name had begun disappearing from society invitations.
Changes handled in a few lines in the original text.
But for the person living through them, they must have been a cord tightening around her neck every day.
Eveline's voice dropped.
"You."
Red mana crawled across the floor.
"Where did you hear that?"
I did not answer.
Instead, I quietly said,
"If you are truly strong, you will not try to cut down rumors with your sword."
"..."
"Before dealing with rumors, you need to be able to clean up the teacup you broke with your own hands."
A suffocating silence.
Eveline glared at me as though she wanted to kill me.
I did not look away.
If I backed down here, it was over.
This mattered more than refusing to kneel.
To become a real teacher, I had to see the place my student most wanted to hide and still not retreat.
After a long while.
Eveline slowly bent down.
One of the maids swallowed quietly.
Her white fingers picked up a teacup shard from the carpet.
Tremble.
Her hand was shaking.
I could not tell whether it was from rage, humiliation, or because it was something she had never done in her life.
"Is this how I do it?"
Her voice was sharp.
But she was holding the shard.
I shook my head.
"No."
Eveline's hand stopped.
"You should not pick up shards with bare hands. You will cut yourself."
She stared blankly at me.
I spoke to a maid.
"Bring tongs and a cloth."
"Ah, yes."
The maid hurried away.
Eveline was still looking at me.
Her eyes were different from before.
The anger remained.
But there was now the faintest question within it.
Why stop her?
Why teach her?
Why make sure she was not hurt after insulting her?
As long as that question had arisen, it was enough.
Today's goal had been achieved.
The tongs and cloth arrived.
Gritting her teeth, Eveline picked up the teacup shards one by one.
She was slow.
Her posture was a mess.
Once, she squeezed too hard, and a tiny fragment sprang away.
I spoke.
"Relax your grip."
"I know."
"No, you do not. You just tensed up again."
"Be quiet."
"The sword is the same."
Eveline's hand stopped.
"If you grip too hard, the shards spring away. If you bear down on your sword with brute force, your own balance gives way before your opponent does."
She did not answer.
But when she picked up the next shard, she used a little less force.
Good.
She was learning.
Slowly, while taking a truly humiliating blow to her pride, she was learning.
A system window appeared.
`Eveline Rosette completes her first basic training.`
`Duel accident route entry probability additionally decreases by 2%.`
`Eveline Rosette's perception of Leon Cart has been updated.`
`Private tutor candidate -> Strange commoner teacher`
Strange commoner teacher.
What a title. It brought tears to my eyes.
After all the teacup shards had been cleared away, Eveline set the tongs down on the table as though throwing them.
"There. Satisfied?"
"Yes."
"Now get out."
"I will come at the same time tomorrow."
"I told you not to come."
"You did not say that you would refuse the lesson earlier."
"You are really irritating."
"I hear that a lot."
Actually, it was the first time I had heard it since coming to this world.
But I had a feeling I would hear it often in the future, so I pretended to be used to it in advance.
I spoke to the butler.
"Please prepare two proper practice swords by tomorrow. No gold thread, crests, or fragrance."
The butler looked at me for a moment before bowing his head.
"I will have them prepared."
His voice had changed slightly.
It was no longer the voice he used for something disposable.
It was not respect yet.
But apparently, I had become worth watching.
I walked toward the drawing room door.
Then Eveline's voice came from behind me.
"Leon Cart."
I turned around.
She was glaring at me.
"You. About this broken-engagement business."
Her red eyes were trying not to tremble.
"How much do you know?"
I fell silent for a moment.
I could not tell her everything here.
Eveline Rosette's ruin route was not merely an incident where her fiancé left her.
The notification of the broken engagement.
Ridicule from high society.
A furious duel.
Her fiancé's injury.
House Rosette's loss of face.
The approach of the Northern Noble Faction.
And then the rebellion route.
The first domino.
But she was not ready to hear that yet.
I answered.
"More than you think."
Eveline's eyes narrowed.
"And I will tell you only as much as you can bear."
"Insolent."
"You have one more homework assignment for tomorrow."
"Again?"
Holding the doorknob, I said,
"Tonight, read the last letter from your fiancé again."
Eveline's face stiffened.
"And count how many lines in that letter are actually addressed to you."
No one spoke.
Eveline seemed to have stopped even breathing.
I opened the door.
"That will be tomorrow's lesson."
Once I stepped into the hallway, my legs nearly gave out.
I did not let it show.
Only after the door closed did I brace a hand against the wall.
To be honest, I was scared.
I had just touched something more dangerous than the villainess's sword.
Her broken engagement.
Her wound.
And the first link in the original story's ruin route.
A system window appeared.
`A main branch candidate has emerged.`
`Eveline Rosette: Early intervention in the broken-engagement event`
`This intervention is earlier than the recommended level.`
`If unsuccessful, the duel accident route may activate immediately.`
I looked at the window and let out a hollow laugh.
"Recommended level, my ass."
I was originally an NPC meant to die a week later.
When did I have time to wait until I reached the recommended level?
To save her, I had to intervene first.
To fix something, you had to make it hurt first.
And teaching a villainess ultimately meant bringing out the reasons she would be ruined before teaching swordsmanship.
That night.
Eveline Rosette, the eldest daughter of House Rosette, could not sleep.
She took out the letter she had hidden deep in her desk drawer.
The last letter from her fiancé.
Words she had once clearly believed were affectionate.
But after hearing Leon Cart's words and reading it again, she noticed something strange.
Half the letter was about the weather.
The other half was about their families.
And the words addressed to her...
Three lines.
Only three lines.
Eveline crumpled the letter.
Then she smoothed it back out.
For some reason, she could not tear it.
She stared down at the letter for a long time, then remembered the teacup shards she had picked up earlier that day.
Use too much force, and they spring away.
The sword was the same.
That irritating commoner teacher's voice would not leave her head.
"...He is really irritating."
Eveline clenched her teeth.
And for the first time, she wondered:
Had she truly learned something wrong?
The rain beyond the window had already stopped.
But the first ruin route had begun, very quietly, to change direction.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register