TCP 21

Chapter: 21

Chloe made up her mind and persuaded her parents.

“I want to meet him this time.”

“Chloe, no.”

“Even the visit itself was this rude. I’m worried he might be disrespectful toward you as well.”

Of course, the Duke and Duchess were worried about Chloe, and Chloe had to sweat quite a bit trying to reassure them.

Only after promising that she would definitely tell them if anything happened was she allowed to go meet Cloud.

When Chloe arrived at the parlor, she greeted Cloud as briefly as possible while following proper etiquette.

“I greet His Grace the Grand Duke.”

However, despite her efforts, Cloud received Chloe’s greeting with an indifferent attitude.

“You’re here?”

He put down the teacup he had been drinking from until just moments ago and spoke in a crooked tone.

“I heard you’ve been learning swordsmanship lately.”

Before Chloe could even answer that it was true, Cloud laughed at her as if he genuinely found it ridiculous.

“You seem to think the sword is a joke.”

He had suddenly appeared at the mansion out of nowhere, and the first thing he said was that she thought the sword was a joke.

‘Did he come here at the crack of dawn just to pick a fight?’

True to the reputation of his terrible personality in the original story, Chloe secretly admired his behavior while rolling her eyes, then simply kept her mouth shut.

She had no good response to give.

‘Either way, it’s true that I’m worse at handling a sword than Cloud.’

Perhaps gaining confidence from Chloe’s lack of confidence, Cloud looked more smug than ever before and urged her to go to the training grounds.

“This is supposed to be a training ground? It would be better suited for dogs to run around.”

The Grand Duke casually looked down on the Garnet Duchy’s training grounds, then raised his chin arrogantly and spoke to Chloe.

“I’ll personally take a look, so swing it.”

His attitude clearly showed that he was only doing this because the Empress had ordered him to, and that he was just going through the motions despite being annoyed.

Chloe disliked his attitude, but obediently picked up her sword.

The Empress had told her to learn the sword from Cloud, so she couldn’t refuse to cooperate.

Chloe bravely swung her sword the way she had been trained.

And Cloud snorted as if Chloe’s appearance was ridiculous.

“You don’t swing a sword like that. How pathetic.”

“Ah, yes.”

Chloe answered Cloud awkwardly while complaining inwardly.

‘A beginner can only do so much, can’t they?’

In the first place, wasn’t Cloud a talent who had been widely praised as a genius of swordsmanship in the original story?

And someone like that comes here and says what? Her swordsmanship is pathetic?

Cloud saw Chloe’s lips sticking out in annoyance and said without hiding his ridicule.

“I’ll show you an example. How about it?”

“That would be great.”

The moment Chloe finished speaking, Cloud took her sword from her and demonstrated an elegant sword technique as if showing off.

‘I can only do the basics right now.’

It was definitely impressive, but Cloud’s swordsmanship, which was clearly described as “genius” in the original story, couldn’t possibly be only this much.

Because this was something Chloe could imitate convincingly.

“Can you follow it?”

“Pardon? Yes. Isn’t that why you showed me?”

At Chloe’s clueless reply, Cloud returned her sword and snorted.

“You have no ability, yet you’re full of pride.”

‘He really thinks I can’t copy it, doesn’t he?’

Feeling discouraged by Cloud’s disregard, Chloe made a sulky face and copied the movements he had shown her. They were a little clumsy, but still similar.

Seeing Chloe’s unskilled yet accurate movements, Cloud’s expression changed from one of mockery to something close to shock.

Just as Chloe began to feel something was strange—

Cloud grabbed her wrist and forcibly stopped her sword practice, then asked with a stiff face.

“Hey. What are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“How are you copying this in one try?”

Cloud said this with an angry expression, and Chloe stared at him with utter disbelief.

‘Wait, did he intentionally show me something I couldn’t copy just so he could laugh at me?’

He openly showed her a difficult movement that was hard to imitate, and then got upset when she actually copied it?

What kind of broken personality is this?

When Chloe narrowed her eyes and glared at him, Cloud seemed to realize his own slip of the tongue, so he quietly closed his mouth and avoided her gaze.

Suspicious of his strange reaction, Chloe raised her narrowed eyes and questioned Cloud.

“That sounds like you were deliberately trying to mess with me.”

Cloud, feeling unfairly accused, suddenly raised his voice.

“What, so what? Do you have proof?”

Of course, aside from the fact that he had barged into the Garnet Duchy at the crack of dawn, there was no objective proof that he had intended to embarrass Chloe.

But there was such a thing as atmosphere.

When Chloe continued glaring at him with eyes that demanded an explanation, Cloud, feeling guilty, awkwardly added.

“Just focus on your sword training. Don’t go around falsely accusing people for no reason.”

At the same time, he snatched Chloe’s sword back and took his stance again.

Unlike before, his expression was serious, as if he intended to properly show her something this time.

And what Cloud showed Chloe was not the flashy movements from earlier, but truly basic movements.

However, even though they were basic movements, the way he performed them was so smooth and beautiful that Chloe’s mouth fell open.

The graceful blade cut through the air.

Swordsmanship that was not meant to harm another person, but instead existed as art itself.

Basic swordsmanship.

Cut exactly through the center, cut diagonally, and cut while tilting the blade.

That was truly all the movements were.

But the way Cloud connected them into one flowing sequence, almost like a dance, was so incredibly beautiful that Chloe couldn’t hide her surprise.

The path of the sword was irregular, yet it came together perfectly and moved freely.

Watching the swordsmanship that swayed gently as he shifted his position little by little, Chloe naturally let out an exclamation.

“You really are amazing.”

At Chloe’s sincere and pure admiration, Cloud stayed silent for a moment, looking slightly embarrassed, before replying.

“……Well, yes. I am somewhat amazing.”

It was truly the swordsmanship worthy of the original story’s second male lead.

In the original story, he was praised for possessing swordsmanship talent despite being a psychopath.

“I don’t think ‘somewhat’ is the right word. This is genuinely incredible.”

Her admiration was completely sincere, without any pretense.

The reason the Empress wanted to make her own son the Emperor was probably also because the Grand Duke possessed such extraordinary talent.

‘Though his personality is so cruel that he ends up ruining even that advantage completely.’

Whether Chloe was lost in thought for a moment or not, Cloud continued his explanation.

“There are people who look down on the basics of swordsmanship and skip straight to flashy techniques.”

Cloud clicked his tongue like an old man, saying that he had never seen anyone like that who could actually use a sword properly.

Chloe agreed with him.

Anyone who saw his smooth collection of “basic sword techniques” even once would surely agree with Cloud.

After saying that, Cloud did not merely show her a demonstration like before. Instead, after showing her his own example, he began directly correcting Chloe’s posture and sword techniques.

‘He’s teaching me much more seriously than I expected?’

In any case, it was true that Cloud was capable, so Chloe watched his sword with sparkling eyes.

Then she tried swinging it in a similar way herself.

‘Oh.’

Even if it wasn’t perfect, it seemed like she could follow it to some extent.