Translator: “Pink Tea” Editor: ”Ryunakama”
ーーThat was a frighteningly thick wooden sword.
Though carved to resemble a sword at least in shape, it was so thick that a grown-up person wouldn’t be able to wrap their fingers around it. A boy kept swinging that sword for roughly about an hour.
His grip lost strength a long time ago, and now he barely held it with his fingers alone.
Mustering the last bits of his strength the boy made a powerful swing with the wooden sword and collapsed to the ground, face up.
He finally finished his daily routine of two thousand practice swings.
「…I-I’m gonna die…」
Uttering the words that even he didn’t know how many times he repeated, he looked up at the sky, gasping for breath.
The boy thought, as vast as this continent may be, our Cornelius House is probably the only one where they make an eleven year old child swing a wooden sword until he can’t move anymore.
In fact, fellow noble children, that were introduced to him through his father, should’ve been going through a couple of hours of lectures with private tutors or doing some training that would feel like a game at most.
「I see, so you are going to die. Yours was rather a short life…… Good luck in the other world.」
「Is that what a mother should say? You brute!」
Twisting his body, the boy called Baldr, barely dodged a spear that came down from the sky like an arrow.
With a sharp sound, the spearhead pierces into the ground where he was lying a moment ago.
Seeing that, Baldr sprung to his feet, driven by his survival instinct.
That attack would’ve been fatal if he didn’t dodge. Feeling a chill run down his spine, Baldr yelled angrily.
「Are you trying to kill me?!」
「What, can’t you still move? You shouldn’t slack off when you are still young.」
「I’d be dead if I didn’t move!」
The mother, Magotte, that laughed off her son’s fury like it didn’t concern her at all, brushed up her trademark moon-like silver hair and boldly sneered.
Affection for Baldr surely was peeking through that ferocious smile, but her husband Ignis would be about the only one who knew her well enough to see that.
Of course, for Baldr, that smile was but a harbinger of even harsher trials.
「Come on! What’s wrong? If you won’t put up your stance I’ll just attack you as you are?」
「I’ll dieee! This time I’ll die for sureeeee!」
Switching from spear to a wooden sword, Magotte attacked Baldr, who was completely exhausted from practice swings.
That thick wooden sword, the same as the one Baldr had, is a deadly weapon, that can end a person’s life if hit in a bad spot.
Though he felt like he wanted to cry, in order to survive Baldr had to keep repelling Mother’s relentless attacks.
For hands, that lost their grip strength, handling this thick sword is tough.
Since he is unable to properly grip the sword it would immediately slip off his hands the moment he loses focus. But were that to happen, Magotte’s attack will hit his body directly.
Even though this is just training, the attacks were merciless. Until now, Baldr already experienced the pain of many beatings and fractures.
Come to think of it, it is baffling that he is still alive.
The purpose of using such a thick wooden sword despite all of this was to get used to the weight and force of a real sword. To deal with that weight, he had to maintain the perfectly minimal amount of tension until the very moment of a clash.
Even if one has an excess in endurance, grasping the sword with all your strength all of the time is impossible after all.
Were he to clash with Magotte in a contest of strength, his sword immediately would be sent flying… Knowing that, Baldr didn’t put more strength than was necessary and struggled to parry attacks with only the adequate amount of force.
Were he to fail here a blow with unrestrained strength would befall him.
「That’s right. Use your pinky as the pivot and transform your grip strength itself into the strength to parry.」
「There is no persuasiveness if you say it so gleefully!」
「Fuhaha! Now, don’t say that. Isn’t this a fun skinship between parent and child?」
「In which world is there a skinship that puts the son inches away from death!」
A mere moment of carelessness might turn fatalーー Such dangerous training, constantly accompanied by death, was the scenery of morning practice, that became customary in the Cornelius House.
Only when it became impossible to put any strength even into fingers with which he barely held the wooden sword until now, that the training was finally over.
「Aah, what a joy to be alive……」
Exalted about making it alive through today’s training as well, Baldr looked up at the sky.
「Here is your drink, bocchama.1」
「Thanks, Sey-nee.」
Receiving lemon water from the beautiful maid with brown hair that reflected the sun, Baldr contentedly drank it in big gulps.
He felt like the refreshing sourness of the cold lemon water was permeating his body.
Letting out a「phew」sigh like some kind of old man, he somewhat embarrassedly returned the cup to the maid, Seyruun, who is also his childhood friend is two years older than him.
The eyes of Seyruun, who giggled taking back the cup, were like those of an elder sister that looked at her cute naughty little brother.
「Would you like another cup?」
「Yes, please.」
Magotte narrowed her eyes observing the two’s charming exchange, but to those who didn’t know the depth of her love, it looked like nothing but a dangerous scowl.
ーBut that is one of those things that’s better to be left unspoken.
(This is fun…… To think there is something this fun other than war.)
Watching over the growth of her beloved son. What’s more it never occurred to her that shaping the growth of her son to her own tastes could be this fun.
Watching over the two, Magotte thought back on her life until now, full of ups and downs, turning from a mercenary that fought through battlefields all over the world and into the wife of a count.
•••••••
In the eastern part of Mauricia kingdom, a vast woodland was stretching along its border with Haurelia Kingdom. That whole area is the domain of Count Cornelius.
In exchange for having scarce farmland, it was blessed with an inexhaustible supply of forests and mineral resources and abundant water sources.
However, as the geopolitical fate of the border region dictated, military spending completely ate through its finances, leaving them with no financial leeway at all.
The current head of Cornelius House, Ignis, 35 years old still in his prime.
With his good looks, he earned the reputation of a philanderer in his youth and was well known for his love affairs even in the capital, but when he was 23 years old he encountered his destiny.
The name of that Destiny was MagotteーーOf all things, a mercenary.
As the relationship with Haurelia Kingdom worsened, developing into a large-scale military confrontation, she was hired as part of the forces of Cornelius’ domain.
With her flowing silver hair, violet eyes, and most importantly, her unparalleled spear technique and extraordinary body strengthening magic she was the blooming flower of the battlefield, standing out more than anyone else.
It was surely thanks to her that Ignis was able to get the achievements of defeating the army of marquis Selvi, which could’ve been called Haurelia Kingdom’s main force, as well as taking down a veteran commander-in-chief.
Silver Light Magotte.
They said that merely hearing that name Haurelia Kingdom’s troops would tremble in fear as if they encountered a demon.
Upon hearing that after the conclusion of this conflict she would go to another battleground Haurelia’s side wholeheartedly rejoiced. Some even saw it as a chance to invite her to their own armies.
On the other hand, Mauricia Kingdom would’ve preferred to somehow put her in their regular forces, but what Ignis did went outside and beyond everyone’s expectations.
「Please marry me.」
Magotte doubted Ignis’s sanity when she heard those words.
She certainly had confidence in her looks, and some high-handed nobles indeed demanded her services at times, not as a mercenary but as a woman.
Needless to say, such fellows would end up losing either their life or something very important to a man.
However, to think that a noble would openly ask for her hand in marriage, that was nothing but completely unexpected, even for an eccentric such as Magotte.
Though Mauricia Kingdom is a country that respects the rights of the commoners, there still was a big wall between nobles and commoners.
So even in a dream, she didn’t think that there could be an idiot noble that would propose to a mercenary such as herself, that had always walked the path of blood and carnage.
That was a love from the first sight since the moment he saw Magotte charge on horseback through a battlefield.
During that time a necessity of making Magotte remain in Cornelius domain appeared, which Ignis decided to use, such was the truth of the matter.
Of course, as a result, he was met not only with heavy criticism from relatives and retainers but also with the plummet of the reputation of Cornelius House in the noble society.
He was trying to mix the precious noble blood with the blood of some mercenary of unknown origins. The cold treatment of Cornelius House by the high society of the kingdom was assured.
And yet, Ignis decided to propose to her, even if it meant going through such a risk. That fact didn’t leave Magotte unmoved. Even so, she couldn’t imagine herself settling as a nobleman’s wife.
So she made a certain suggestion to Ignis.
「The Hunt of Cornelius Couple」as it would be known in the world.
It was a contest of hunting skills. The one who hunted the lower number of game would do as the winner said.
Though he got overshadowed by Magotte’s unrealistic strength, Ignis himself was hailed as a warrior, whose military prowess was unmatched by any of knights.
The two hunted with abandon, as if they were set on exterminating all of the beasts in the forest, but in the evening, when the sun was about to set, they encountered a strange event.
Magotte, that until now never failed to hit her target, missed.
Until now, the number of animals they hunted was the same, time-wise it also was certain that the one to take the lead here would prevail.
Overjoyed, Ignis shot his arrow. However, it also missed by a bit, landing into a thicket.
The two of them shot one arrow each again. But unbelievably, this time they missed by a lot, sending the arrows in a completely wrong direction.
That was completely unthinkable for the two that boasted great martial prowess.
Magotte and Ignis felt this to be a sign. That was because their target this time was a couple of birds.
The heavens were telling the two of them to get married──both unexpectedly came to the same conclusion.
Once it was decided, their further actions were resolute, befitting their military nature.
Suppressing the relatives that raised objections by basically threatening them, they brought the archbishop from the capital, essentially abducting him, and held a grand wedding.
Moreover, due to Magotte’s connections from her times as a mercenary, even the King attended the ceremony, making it effectively impossible for anyone to oppose their marriage.
Thus, Magotte officially became the wife of count Cornelius, giving birth to a boy the following year.
A beautiful boy that resembled Ignis (who by now was completely whipped into submission by Magotte), who looked like he would make a lot of girls cry in the future was given the name Baldr.
Translator: “Pink Tea” Editor: ”Ryunakama”
ーーThat was a frighteningly thick wooden sword.
Though carved to resemble a sword at least in shape, it was so thick that a grown-up person wouldn’t be able to wrap their fingers around it. A boy kept swinging that sword for roughly about an hour.
His grip lost strength a long time ago, and now he barely held it with his fingers alone.
Mustering the last bits of his strength the boy made a powerful swing with the wooden sword and collapsed to the ground, face up.
He finally finished his daily routine of two thousand practice swings.
「…I-I’m gonna die…」
Uttering the words that even he didn’t know how many times he repeated, he looked up at the sky, gasping for breath.
The boy thought, as vast as this continent may be, our Cornelius House is probably the only one where they make an eleven year old child swing a wooden sword until he can’t move anymore.
In fact, fellow noble children, that were introduced to him through his father, should’ve been going through a couple of hours of lectures with private tutors or doing some training that would feel like a game at most.
「I see, so you are going to die. Yours was rather a short life…… Good luck in the other world.」
「Is that what a mother should say? You brute!」
Twisting his body, the boy called Baldr, barely dodged a spear that came down from the sky like an arrow.
With a sharp sound, the spearhead pierces into the ground where he was lying a moment ago.
Seeing that, Baldr sprung to his feet, driven by his survival instinct.
That attack would’ve been fatal if he didn’t dodge. Feeling a chill run down his spine, Baldr yelled angrily.
「Are you trying to kill me?!」
「What, can’t you still move? You shouldn’t slack off when you are still young.」
「I’d be dead if I didn’t move!」
The mother, Magotte, that laughed off her son’s fury like it didn’t concern her at all, brushed up her trademark moon-like silver hair and boldly sneered.
Affection for Baldr surely was peeking through that ferocious smile, but her husband Ignis would be about the only one who knew her well enough to see that.
Of course, for Baldr, that smile was but a harbinger of even harsher trials.
「Come on! What’s wrong? If you won’t put up your stance I’ll just attack you as you are?」
「I’ll dieee! This time I’ll die for sureeeee!」
Switching from spear to a wooden sword, Magotte attacked Baldr, who was completely exhausted from practice swings.
That thick wooden sword, the same as the one Baldr had, is a deadly weapon, that can end a person’s life if hit in a bad spot.
Though he felt like he wanted to cry, in order to survive Baldr had to keep repelling Mother’s relentless attacks.
For hands, that lost their grip strength, handling this thick sword is tough.
Since he is unable to properly grip the sword it would immediately slip off his hands the moment he loses focus. But were that to happen, Magotte’s attack will hit his body directly.
Even though this is just training, the attacks were merciless. Until now, Baldr already experienced the pain of many beatings and fractures.
Come to think of it, it is baffling that he is still alive.
The purpose of using such a thick wooden sword despite all of this was to get used to the weight and force of a real sword. To deal with that weight, he had to maintain the perfectly minimal amount of tension until the very moment of a clash.
Even if one has an excess in endurance, grasping the sword with all your strength all of the time is impossible after all.
Were he to clash with Magotte in a contest of strength, his sword immediately would be sent flying… Knowing that, Baldr didn’t put more strength than was necessary and struggled to parry attacks with only the adequate amount of force.
Were he to fail here a blow with unrestrained strength would befall him.
「That’s right. Use your pinky as the pivot and transform your grip strength itself into the strength to parry.」
「There is no persuasiveness if you say it so gleefully!」
「Fuhaha! Now, don’t say that. Isn’t this a fun skinship between parent and child?」
「In which world is there a skinship that puts the son inches away from death!」
A mere moment of carelessness might turn fatalーー Such dangerous training, constantly accompanied by death, was the scenery of morning practice, that became customary in the Cornelius House.
Only when it became impossible to put any strength even into fingers with which he barely held the wooden sword until now, that the training was finally over.
「Aah, what a joy to be alive……」
Exalted about making it alive through today’s training as well, Baldr looked up at the sky.
「Here is your drink, bocchama.1」
「Thanks, Sey-nee.」
Receiving lemon water from the beautiful maid with brown hair that reflected the sun, Baldr contentedly drank it in big gulps.
He felt like the refreshing sourness of the cold lemon water was permeating his body.
Letting out a「phew」sigh like some kind of old man, he somewhat embarrassedly returned the cup to the maid, Seyruun, who is also his childhood friend is two years older than him.
The eyes of Seyruun, who giggled taking back the cup, were like those of an elder sister that looked at her cute naughty little brother.
「Would you like another cup?」
「Yes, please.」
Magotte narrowed her eyes observing the two’s charming exchange, but to those who didn’t know the depth of her love, it looked like nothing but a dangerous scowl.
ーBut that is one of those things that’s better to be left unspoken.
(This is fun…… To think there is something this fun other than war.)
Watching over the growth of her beloved son. What’s more it never occurred to her that shaping the growth of her son to her own tastes could be this fun.
Watching over the two, Magotte thought back on her life until now, full of ups and downs, turning from a mercenary that fought through battlefields all over the world and into the wife of a count.
•••••••
In the eastern part of Mauricia kingdom, a vast woodland was stretching along its border with Haurelia Kingdom. That whole area is the domain of Count Cornelius.
In exchange for having scarce farmland, it was blessed with an inexhaustible supply of forests and mineral resources and abundant water sources.
However, as the geopolitical fate of the border region dictated, military spending completely ate through its finances, leaving them with no financial leeway at all.
The current head of Cornelius House, Ignis, 35 years old still in his prime.
With his good looks, he earned the reputation of a philanderer in his youth and was well known for his love affairs even in the capital, but when he was 23 years old he encountered his destiny.
The name of that Destiny was MagotteーーOf all things, a mercenary.
As the relationship with Haurelia Kingdom worsened, developing into a large-scale military confrontation, she was hired as part of the forces of Cornelius’ domain.
With her flowing silver hair, violet eyes, and most importantly, her unparalleled spear technique and extraordinary body strengthening magic she was the blooming flower of the battlefield, standing out more than anyone else.
It was surely thanks to her that Ignis was able to get the achievements of defeating the army of marquis Selvi, which could’ve been called Haurelia Kingdom’s main force, as well as taking down a veteran commander-in-chief.
Silver Light Magotte.
They said that merely hearing that name Haurelia Kingdom’s troops would tremble in fear as if they encountered a demon.
Upon hearing that after the conclusion of this conflict she would go to another battleground Haurelia’s side wholeheartedly rejoiced. Some even saw it as a chance to invite her to their own armies.
On the other hand, Mauricia Kingdom would’ve preferred to somehow put her in their regular forces, but what Ignis did went outside and beyond everyone’s expectations.
「Please marry me.」
Magotte doubted Ignis’s sanity when she heard those words.
She certainly had confidence in her looks, and some high-handed nobles indeed demanded her services at times, not as a mercenary but as a woman.
Needless to say, such fellows would end up losing either their life or something very important to a man.
However, to think that a noble would openly ask for her hand in marriage, that was nothing but completely unexpected, even for an eccentric such as Magotte.
Though Mauricia Kingdom is a country that respects the rights of the commoners, there still was a big wall between nobles and commoners.
So even in a dream, she didn’t think that there could be an idiot noble that would propose to a mercenary such as herself, that had always walked the path of blood and carnage.
That was a love from the first sight since the moment he saw Magotte charge on horseback through a battlefield.
During that time a necessity of making Magotte remain in Cornelius domain appeared, which Ignis decided to use, such was the truth of the matter.
Of course, as a result, he was met not only with heavy criticism from relatives and retainers but also with the plummet of the reputation of Cornelius House in the noble society.
He was trying to mix the precious noble blood with the blood of some mercenary of unknown origins. The cold treatment of Cornelius House by the high society of the kingdom was assured.
And yet, Ignis decided to propose to her, even if it meant going through such a risk. That fact didn’t leave Magotte unmoved. Even so, she couldn’t imagine herself settling as a nobleman’s wife.
So she made a certain suggestion to Ignis.
「The Hunt of Cornelius Couple」as it would be known in the world.
It was a contest of hunting skills. The one who hunted the lower number of game would do as the winner said.
Though he got overshadowed by Magotte’s unrealistic strength, Ignis himself was hailed as a warrior, whose military prowess was unmatched by any of knights.
The two hunted with abandon, as if they were set on exterminating all of the beasts in the forest, but in the evening, when the sun was about to set, they encountered a strange event.
Magotte, that until now never failed to hit her target, missed.
Until now, the number of animals they hunted was the same, time-wise it also was certain that the one to take the lead here would prevail.
Overjoyed, Ignis shot his arrow. However, it also missed by a bit, landing into a thicket.
The two of them shot one arrow each again. But unbelievably, this time they missed by a lot, sending the arrows in a completely wrong direction.
That was completely unthinkable for the two that boasted great martial prowess.
Magotte and Ignis felt this to be a sign. That was because their target this time was a couple of birds.
The heavens were telling the two of them to get married──both unexpectedly came to the same conclusion.
Once it was decided, their further actions were resolute, befitting their military nature.
Suppressing the relatives that raised objections by basically threatening them, they brought the archbishop from the capital, essentially abducting him, and held a grand wedding.
Moreover, due to Magotte’s connections from her times as a mercenary, even the King attended the ceremony, making it effectively impossible for anyone to oppose their marriage.
Thus, Magotte officially became the wife of count Cornelius, giving birth to a boy the following year.
A beautiful boy that resembled Ignis (who by now was completely whipped into submission by Magotte), who looked like he would make a lot of girls cry in the future was given the name Baldr.
