🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 28
The comment fairies’ habit of pointing out the behavior of people around me…
surprisingly tends to be accurate.
Well, sometimes they interpret things wrong—like calling Jeff “pretty”—
but they never make things up out of nowhere.
Maybe I really should’ve just lost on purpose.
I probably could’ve stopped after beating Damian once.
But beating him twice…
that really was unintentional.
└ [LOL the young master has good hitbox physics]
└ [Rose killed the young master twice ㅠㅠ]
I didn’t kill him…!
But this is the ducal household.
If some outsider hit young Gerald back at Count Tortho’s estate?
They’d be arrested on the spot and beaten black and blue.
The count’s family cherishes their heir that much—
so what about a ducal family, one of the few in the whole empire?
Seeing the knights patrolling with those grim expressions, my imagination turned extremely dark.
“Say, Sage. You scared Rose.”
“Hmph. Did I say anything wrong? I once tried to drop off laundry quickly and ran into a knight, and he suddenly shouted at me! I nearly fainted!”
According to the maids, knights are basically born angry.
And apparently, it’s not only toward the maids. Sage added:
“Don’t you know? Even Young Master Damian once entered the training grounds during knight practice and came back with his knees and elbows scraped up. Don’t expect them to be careful.”
“The young master got hurt?”
“Yep. How could they let the heir get injured in the duke’s own mansion when the duke himself is wide awake?”
“I doubt it was intentional…”
Nella sided with Sage but didn’t deny it.
So Damian getting hurt wasn’t a rumor—it was true.
Even as an adult, the young lord often had wounds all over him.
└ [Wow so he grew up still being weak?]
└ [Stop calling him weak, the weakling union is cryingㅠㅠ]
Hey! You said you wouldn’t call him names and now you’re calling him worse things!
Anyway, it seems there’s a reason the son of Duke Valente—former Imperial Knight Commander—is so… um… unskilled.
Not weak! Just… lacking in swordsmanship.
But he has no idea.
For a warrior, knowing your opponent’s strength is important—
but knowing your own strength is even more important.
Damian has absolutely no grasp of that.
Well, he’s still young, so it’s fine for now.
But what if, as the comment fairy said, he grows up like this?
What if that’s why he kept getting injured in the future?
I fell silent, lost in thought, so Nella patted me again.
“You don’t need to be so scared. These knights protected our country, you know. They’re honorable men.”
“Okaaay…”
“As long as Rose doesn’t do anything bad to the knights or the young master, you’ll never get in trouble.”
“……”
└ [It might already be too late]
└ [Get the god of weaklings to appear again and awaken Rose’s saint powers—temple arc go!]
└ [What if she becomes an actual assassin and wipes everyone out..]
As usual, the comment fairies started giving ridiculous “solutions.”
No! I’ll handle this!
I will find a way to survive here!
└ [Assassination?!]
NO.
A way to stay here!
For my own survival—
and for our little fragile young master too.
* * *
Damian didn’t come looking for me the next day either.
But he wasn’t obediently attending his lessons.
“Young Master Damian is in the training grounds?”
“Yep. And looks like you two aren’t together today?”
One of the servants, who had seen me following Damian around for two days, kindly told me where he was.
└ [Why are you freely giving the target’s location to an assassin?!]
Will the comment fairies stop trying to force an assassin career on me?!
“What is he doing in the training grounds?”
“Training in swordsmanship? He always trains, but today he said he wants to beat someone. He said he has to reclaim his honor…”
└ [He’s coming for revenge ㄷㄷ]
└ [If Rose beats him again does she get the knight commander position?]
└ [Let’s make Damian her first henchman]
└ [Everyone is so mean to this poor childㅠㅠㅋㅋ]
I thought he’d send knights to punish me,
but it seems he wants to pay me back himself.
This means I’ll have to duel him at least once.
If I win again?
They might kick me out for hurting the young master’s pride.
If I lose?
They might say he has no reason to keep me around, so out I go.
If winning AND losing are both risky, then there’s only one option.
“Grandpa Coachman!”
I found the person I was looking for in the garden near the stables.
The duke’s own mentor—the one who dragged me all the way here, defying the duke himself.
His name: Benjamin Herrilton.
I’ve heard of the Herrilton family.
Not known as nobles, but their tea—famous.
Herrilton Tea was popular among aristocrats.
A quiet viscountcy with little political involvement.
Grandpa Benjamin had passed the title to his child and was enjoying retirement here.
When I ran over, he turned with a warm smile.
“I have a request. Please teach me swordsmanship!”
└ [She’s really going down the knight route?]
└ [But Rose is like… five years old, right?]
Yes, yes, a five-year-old wanting a swordsmanship teacher is ridiculous.
But I have no one else to ask!
Benjamin blinked in playful surprise, then started tapping my arms and legs and showing gestures.
I’m not the mansion’s official translator—
but I can understand gestures.
“You mean swords are dangerous?”
He nodded.
“But I think I’ll have to duel Young Master Damian.”
He tilted his head as if asking why, so I explained everything.
When I said I beat Damian, Benjamin’s face twisted with mixed emotions.
Yeah… the son of the war hero shouldn’t be like this…
“So! I just need to learn one thing—something to hit a single opening!”
I wasn’t asking to become a sword genius.
Just one effective strike on small Damian.
Benjamin hesitated, then brought something from beside the stable and held it out.
A long wooden stick, the perfect thickness for a child’s grip.
A practice sword substitute!
He held a similar stick.
His eyes were always gentle…
but holding even a shabby weapon, he suddenly seemed sharp—like a real warrior.
Of course—he was the duke’s teacher.
But I wasn’t going to run away.
Compared to the contempt I received at Count Tortho’s house, this was nothing.
I straightened my back, met his gaze, and said:
“I’m counting on you, Master!”
* * *
For the next few days, Damian and I trained separately in swordsmanship.
└ [So the tutor… is he fired?]
└ [OMG I forgot about the tutor completely LOL]
└ [He must be crying right nowㅠㅠ]
The brilliant scholar who graduated top of the academy and became tutor to the duke’s heir…
On day one of Damian’s absence, he sat in the garden in shock.
On day two, he packed his belongings.
By day three, he was saying goodbyes to the staff.
└ [The greatest victim of this weakling war = the tutor]
└ [Rose basically assassinated the tutor’s career…]
└ [Please stop abusing the tutor]
Did I cause Damian to skip class…?
He wasn’t paying attention even before that!
Anyway, what I’m doing now is for Damian’s sake too.
└ [True, helping him find a different career path might be good]
While the comment fairies mourned the tutor, the moment finally came.
“Rose.”
“Young Master Damian.”
“…I challenge you to a duel once more.”
└ [Why is this so dramatic]
After a few days, Damian looked a little messy.
The servants prepared clean clothes every morning,
yet he still looked like this—meaning he must’ve been at the training grounds since dawn.
He must’ve trained a lot.
And we’re three years apart.
For kids, that’s a big gap.
If he trained seriously, he could easily have improved a lot in a few days.
Please… let me land that single strike Grandpa taught me…!
With those hopes, I headed again to the duke’s private training grounds.
“This time, I’ll show you my true skill. Here I come!”
He shouted his opening line, we raised our toy swords—
—and plop.
“……”
└ [Again?]
He spent days training and… this?
└ [The knights must’ve only taught him Hollywood falls LOL]
└ [At this point maybe the knights ARE the problem]
└ [Damian please… just go to class]
I was a bit stunned, but now was the time to say the line I’d prepared.
└ [Say it: You’re weak!]
NOT that!
We’re going with the carrot-and-stick approach.
“I didn’t even use real swordsmanship. You’re definitely much more skilled than I am.”
“B-But…”
“Then why can’t you win?”
└ [Ahhh self-reflection trauma question… this hurts more]
I wasn’t expecting an answer.
“Because…”
Because I had something else to tell him.
“It’s because you don’t study.”
“……!”
