Chapter Chapter 26: RATH 26 TL: Eevee (1/2)

RATH 26

TL: Eevee

3. And so the story begins. (10)

#8 Their story: The future legendary host’s story.

“Tha… that was uncalled for…”

My entire body’s screaming. Ahh. This feeling. It’s been a while. I didn’t want to feel it but it was already too late.

“I apologise.”

In this case is it the instructor’s fault for always insisting on the alpha strike, or is it Sia’s fault who created this situation where he had no choice but to do it? Or, is it my fault for getting hit? Well, the last option definitely isn’t it.

“We survived somehow.”

“You really somehow managed to get away.”

“Sia didn’t bother taking us as hostages.”

The instructor nodded sagely to me who was currently sprawled out against the ground.

I don’t know what that nod is supposed to mean so I’ll just ignore it.

But.

“What happened to Sia?”

“She’s currently sleeping after a beating with the metal bat.”

“You didn’t kill her.”

“I don’t kill my disciples.”

At the all-too-calm answer I couldn’t help but sigh. No, even if he didn’t kill them.

“There are times when death is the more peaceful option.”

“Sia said the exact same thing when I told her what happened to Rood.”

“Rood was there as well?”

“No, I met him before I came back to the organization. He said he came to take me to the princess.”

Just what the heck did this instructor do, that ‘that imperial princess’ is also chasing after him? I’d heard a lot of rumours about that princess.

‘The most beautiful, but also the one with most thorns.’

The count’s daughter who sought me often at the club told me that. For the record, this person’s nickname in social circles was ‘thornbush.’

If a person who got that nickname by mercilessly rejecting the noble men that came after her, gave the princess that evaluation then just what kind of person would she be?

But rumours from others were also different.

‘I met Her Highness a while ago, she said she was raising black roses as a hobby. She said she was raising them to give to someone, and I thought that the princess had a unexpectedly girlish side to her. Ah, Rein, do you know what a black rose means in the language of flowers?’

I was reminded of the duke’s daughter who gave me a black rose she’d obtained. That was quite troublesome at the time.

In the language of flowers, a black rose meant ‘you’re mine.’

Unlike her girlish appearance as that duke’s daughter shyly gave me the flower, she was actually on the cusp of breaking through to the swordsmaster realm, as well as the vice-captain of the princess’s personal knight order.

Meaning, an administrator who directly serves the princess!

The words of an admin always has persuasive power.

Because of that I thought that the rumours from the social circles were all exaggerated.

The rumours from the outside weren’t great and most of them were from the Great War. How she had become terror incarnate in the hearts of enemy soldiers meant she was that skilled, and even when they discussed who was the most talented person among the imperial family, the princess’s name always came up.

I thought that the other noble ladies had just spread rumours out of jealousy of her beauty and talent.

But, at this moment, from what I heard from Sia and the instructor the truth was revealed!

As an active club worker, as someone who served women of nobility, the language of flowers was a tool we used frequently, and to me who could recite the language of flowers off by heart, the meaning of a black rose meant ‘you’re mine.’

Because the other meanings were too dark and miserable! The noble girls don’t want to hear about that!

But considering what I heard from the instructor and Sia, and the obsession that could be compared to Sia and the meaning of ‘you’re mine’, then other meanings are naturally added on.

Resentment and hatred.

Wow, that fits really well.

I hate you and I resent you but you are still mine!

The image of the princess tending to a bed of black roses while chucking ‘fufufu,’ sends a shiver down my spine!

What the hell! There’s someone worse off than I am! The imperial princess and Sia! Compared to that, I, who had to flee back to the organization just because of a scrap between duke’s daughters am a joke!

If it’s that combination then any number of lives isn’t enough! You need to be able to flee officially or unofficially, but in this case you can’t run either in the light or the dark!

And the even more horrifying thing is that even the in the midst of all this the instructor is still running away perfectly fine! What the hell, it’s scary! And physically the metal bat! It’s so scary!

And as I shook in fear the instructor said a shocking story, no a command.

“Pretend to be me and flee the organization.”

“Yes?”

If I get caught I’m dead. Not just dead, after I get the full imperial torture course to reveal the instructor’s location and have all my limbs cut off, they’re going to drop acid on my neck one drop at a time to kill me.

No, maybe even worse than that!

“In, instructor. I just want to die normally.”

“With this?”

“Hiiiik!”

But the instructor in front of me has the metal bat! To imagine a choice between one where I die cruelly in pain and where I can’t die cruelly in pain!

Why is my future so bleak?!

“Instructor, save me…”

“Just what is the princess to you that you’re doing this…”

“A Sia on a bigger scale?”

“I can’t refute that.”

He didn’t deny it. Yep. I’m dead.

No matter where I go the only path that awaits me is pain. I wanted to walk a path of flowers as a club host, but reality is a path of thorns no matter where I walk.

“Now, if you don’t leave soon you’ll have Sia to deal with as well as the princess.”

“Where are you going to go instructor…”

“Through another route, across the border where I’m going to live my days as a farmer in a kingdom at the end of the world.”

The moment I bait the princess I’m already dead right?

“So use these to convince the kids.”

“What are they?”

“The seals of their families. The Nermia county’s former head is a current head of a Magic Tower. If you can get help from them, not even the princess can easily lay her hands on them. Same with the other seals, all are part of families that can’t easily be ignored.”

It sounds logical enough, but would they really go as far as making an enemy out of the princess to help me? I think they’d just take the seals and wipe their hands immediately?

“And you also have that.”

“Although I think that it’s just going to be a hindrance as we’re escaping but… as a hostage it should be fine.”

The woman trussed up in a sack is a beauty on the outside, the reality is a spinster host club regular Sword Star.

Even if she looks like that she’s the little sister of the current Marquis Aserid, and a countess in her own right! But!

“If I use her as a hostage I think I’ll be the one that’s a hostage instead?!”

Right now she’s out and drooling but she’s the Sword Star! The most illustrious with the sword! At the same time the most thuggish with the sword! Out of all the fighters that pick scraps for fun, she’s the number one fighter!

And because of that, I’ve got no shot of…

“And for that reason, I’ll give you that.”

“Re, really… are you really giving me this?!”

It’s here! Could it be! If that thing is permanently mine… I could possibly tread the path where death is a real possibility.

“Now, I’m fooling you anyway. The princess already knows this. Even if she’ll want information from you, she probably won’t torture or kill you. She was oddly obsessed about the people in my immediate surroundings. Although she might try to win you over to become her subordinate, she won’t kill you.

“Kurrrghh…”

Along with my sword, I can feel the weight of the bat. It’s light.

But at the same time it’s heavy. If the weak has a treasure then it is stolen by the strong. Can I protect it?

“Now, choose.”

“I, I’ll do it!”

But there is no choice! If you were a disciple of the instructor, who could refuse this seduction!

Not even Sia could forget the trauma from our trainee days and went to try to forge one herself, but all she made were failures! And even those failures were bought by the others of our cohort as they saved up their wages for them!

But I, I can have the original! It’s not the metal bat, but it’s still the chance for me to have the wooden bat!

“Now, this is your doppelganger. Use this to fool the empire’s troops.”

Pat pat.

As if telling me to do my best, the instructor patted me on the shoulder. I was filled with devotion as I yelled in a confident voice.

“I’ll defeat any enemy that comes!”

“You don’t necessarily have to defeat them. Well, good luck.”

“Good luck, instructor!”

Looking at the instructor walk away I was saturated in delight. Finally, the bat is in my hands!

“Now, No.17. Or should I call you by name from now on?”