The Lazy Swordmaster Chapter 127:
“Excuse me . Can you please help me for a while?”
At the moment, the recent incident at Solia was mostly wrapped up . To be precise, the Iphalleta House’s successorship competition was coming to an end at the moment . Riley and Nainiae were heading back to the mansion, and Priesia pleaded .
“What?”
“Please . Due to a circumstance, I cannot show myself to the public . Also, with the Holy Temple collapsed… There is nothing I can do even if I went back . ”
“Um…”
Priesia gathered her hands together and showed sparkles in her eyes . Riley dug his ear with his pinky as if he thought all this was such a bother . He blew his pinky and refused her request .
“I don’t want to?”
It was because it was such a bother for him . However… It was also because Riley had such a terrible history with an existence called Priestess in his past life . He didn’t want to get tangled up with another Priestess .
“I won’t cause troubles to you . I’m just seeking shelter from the rain… If you help me just this once, I’ll definitely return the favor to you later . ”
Priesia was showing brilliant shine in her eyes . Nara and the mercenaries who were packing their luggage had look of sympathies on their faces . They started to side with Priesia .
“Young Master, why don’t you take her with you just this once?”
“Can’t you just think of it as taking home a beautiful woman?”
“Don’t say such a ridiculous stuff . ”
Riley waved his palm around and refused, and Priesia looked disappointed .
“Young Master really is something . ”
“You know he is stubborn . ”
“Hm . With a beautiful woman like the Priestess, Isen would have begged and asked her to follow him . ”
“Rorona?”
“It’s not exactly a lie, isn’t it? You were staring at the Priestess’s face like a fool earlier . I saw it all . You think I wouldn’t notice?”
“Hey! D… Do you have proof? I asked, you got proof!”
“Could you two stop doing embarrassing shit? Priestess is watching . ”
When the mercenary group’s Isen and Rorona bickered with each aother, Priesia was watching them and breaking cold sweat . Embarrassed, she lowered her head and sighed .
“Ugh . It’s all my fault . If I was just a little more alert, this would not have happened . ”
“That’s right . You still didn’t quite grow up yet . ”
“… Ugh . ”
“You grew up in the Holy Temple while being pampered by a bunch of yes-men . You probably thought I’ll listen no matter what just because you asked . You need to fix that attitude . ”
“… Uuu . ”
“Y… Young Master… Please be gentle with your words . ”
“Why? It is not like I said anything wrong…”
Riley was excited and belittling Priesia to his heart’s content . Nainiae pulled his sleeve from the side, so he turned his head and flinched his shoulders .
“Hup… . Huuu… . ”
Priesia was biting **** to her lower lips and shedding tears as she glared at Riley . This was why .
‘W… What is this? Why is she crying?’
Riley panicked and checked other people’s faces . It seemed like everyone was not thinking too kindly of what Riley had done .
“I am so sorry . Because I was just a brat, the Holy Temple collapsed, and I didn’t even get to protect the people of the temple . ”
Priesia was wearing a rag on her head . She tightly held the rag and spoke . Meanwhile, Riley floated a question mark, wondering why she was crying, and looked at Priesia .
“If you helped me just a little as the divine message foretold, I would not have… I would not have been cornered like this…”
“…”
“I really agonized over things a lot! Every night, I couldn’t even sleep . All alone, I tried to do something! Huk… Huhup!”
“Ah… . Hey…”
Riley put his hand out and had a dumbfounded look on the face . Nainiae checked Riley and then went next to Priesia to console her .
“It’s all right . Please don’t cry . Young Master didn’t mean anything ill by what he said . You know that, right?”
“…”
“…”
It seemed everyone’s heart was shaken up from seeing a gorgeous woman’s tears . The three mercenaries including Nara and even Ian narrowed their eyes and glared at Riley .
“Ugh . Young Master, you have gone a little too far just now . ”
“Young Master, I know well that you are not interested in religion . However… Priestess is a dignitary of high status . She is treated like the monarchs of the Solia Castle . To the people of the Holy Temple, she is even more important than the monarchs . How you spoke to her just now was not becoming of a gentleman . ”
“The thing is…”
Having heard Ian’s advice, Riley crumpled his face . He looked at Priesia who was crying in Nainiae’s chest .
Riley knew very well that this Priestess, a young and naïve girl named Priesia, was a different person . She was not the scheming, sly Priestess that he faced in his past life .
“Ugh . Enough . ”
As if he was sick of watching her, Riley quickly turned his body around . He got on the carriage that was getting ready to go . He was trying to hide away . Ian was about to reach for Riley’s back with his hand, but he withdrew his arm .
‘Young Master…’
Riley wondered if something happened to Ian after they went their separate ways at the Right Solia . Lately, Riley felt that Ian was occasionally showing vacant looks or suddenly bust into anger . It made Riley concerned .
“… Ian . ”
“Ah, yes?”
Wheeec .
Along with Riley’s voice, something hard was tossed at Ian . Ian tumbled and raised his hand to the front to catch the object that Riley threw .
It was a mask .
“What is this for?”
“If you are going to bring her with us, have her wear that . ”
With those as his last words, Riley went into the carriage . Ian thought Riley just cannot help himself after all . Ian tilted up the tip of his mouth .
“As usual, he cannot be honest with himself . “
* * *
They returned to the mansion . While the carriages were being parked, Riley came to Nara’s group that followed his carriage . Riley massaged his stiffened neck and asked Nara,
“You did as I asked, right?”
“Yes . I did as you asked, but…”
Riley asked something important for Nara to do while they were in Solia . Having heard the response, Riley nodded and turned around .
“In that case, that’s enough . ”
Priesia was wearing the mask that Riley tossed at Ian for her to wear . She was pretending to be a mercenary . Riley gave a quick glance at Priesia and sighed briefly as he walked toward the main entrance of the mansion .
‘Well, I’m sure Father will make the decision . ’
Among all three brothers, it seemed Riley was the one who was most late . At the Iphalleta’s garden, there were Ryan and Lloyd standing to greet Riley’s arrival .
“Welcome back, Riley… I hope the results of the successorship competition are fair and square . ”
“Yes, Big Brother . ”
Ryan crossed his arms and greeted first . Riley nodded and responded .
“You think so too, right? Lloyd?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes!”
Lloyd had been standing there with a vacant look on his face . Having heard his older brother’s voice calling him, Lloyd tumbled and responded half a tempo late .
“Ah, of course . Father will be deciding it, so it certainly will be fair . ”
Lloyd also lowered his head a little and responded to show respect to his older brother .
“Well, Riley… considering your growth rate… I’m guessing you had Ian do everything to play out your schemes, but…”
“B… Big Brother…”
“Ah, right! When I came back to the mansion and heard the maids talk, I heard your maid came back to mansion as well… You must be happy . I am glad she is all right, so I would like to congratulate her too . ”
“Yes, thank you . ”
“Hm!”
Flinching the facial muscles around his cheek, Ryan had been trying to get on Riley’s nerves . Ryan shrugged his shoulder and turned around . Lloyd glanced around and then tumbled to follow Ryan’s back .
“Excuse me, Big Brother . ”
“Um?”
“The thing is…”
Lloyd was walking toward Stein’s office where Stein was most likely there and waiting . Lloyd was about to tell Ryan what he saw, but then he shook his head .
“Ah, no . It… It’s nothing . ”
Lloyd was not able to tell him .
He couldn’t tell Ryan about how Riley suddenly went to Solia .
He couldn’t tell Ryan that he lost track of Riley around the middle and instead witnessed the disaster that struck Solia . He couldn’t tell about how he drew sword during the Solia disaster because the mercenaries asked him to .
Also…
* * *
They were at the Iphalleta mansion’s office .
“… I see . ”
Stein had his three sons in front of him . It seemed he became conscious of his cutoff arm . He massaged the shoulder and said,
“All three of you, good work . Thanks to your efforts, I think a sense of vitality was brought back to some extent to Solia when they were shaken up . ”
Stein heard of their exploits from the butlers who served Ryan, Lloyd and Riley . Stein looked at a piece of paper on the desk and said,
“First, Ryan . ”
“Yes!”
It seemed Stein was going to talk to his eldest son first . Stein called Ryan’s name, and Ryan opened up his chest wide and responded energetically .
“I’ve heard that you saved many villages . ”
“Yes . ”
Ryan responded .
It was the truth .
He was not trying to show it off . Ryan actually diligently had been going to places to save the villages that Stein asked him to go help . After having visited all of the villages mentioned, he even went to places that Stein didn’t mention and helped them as well .
“I see . You did magnificent work . ”
Stein lowered his gaze and looked at the paper on the desk . It was as if he was trying to say Ryan could step back now . Stein called his second born son .
“Lloyd . ”
“Yes, Yes!”
It seemed he was nervous . Lloyd shriveled and stuttered . He carefully walked to the front .
“…”
“…”
For a while, without saying anything, Stein just stared at Lloyd as if he was going to burn a hole through Lloyd with the gaze . All of sudden, he peeked a smile, tilted the tip of his mouth up, and said one simple sentence .
“… Well done . ”
Having heard the response, Lloyd’s face turned red . It seemed he didn’t know how to stand still . He promptly lowered his head and expressed gratitude .
“Oh, it was nothing . ”
Noticing Lloyd’s response, Ryan, who was standing next to him, blinked and wondered what it was about .
Ryan’s response seemed to indicate that he was too focused in the successorship competition that he didn’t know anything about what transpired in Solia recently .
“Lastly, Riley . ”
“…”
Riley was looking at Ryan . Having heard Stein calling his name, he quietly came forward without saying anything in response .
“… You…”
Stein gave a blank stare at his youngest son . Stein was going to say something, but he shut his mouth as if something was getting in his way of saying it . Stein started to massage the temple on his head instead .
“…”
Meanwhile, Riley only waited for his father to speak . Riley could not look more leisurely than now .
Riley’s response…
Father’s response…
Ryan checked their responses back and forth . Ryan slowly tilted the tip of his mouth . He felt certain about the result now .
‘It is done!’
Ryan was certain that he won the successorship competition .
“That’s enough . ”
Stein waved his hand to tell Riley that he could step back now . It seemed Stein didn’t want to talk anymore . Riley lightly nodded and took back steps to stand along his two brothers .
“As for the result of the successorship competition, I’ll announce it in two days, two days from today . Three of you… Be careful and keep yourselves in check until then . That is all . ”
With that as his last words, Stein spun his chair around . The three brothers bowed and left the office .
“Riley! Wait!”
After leaving the office, Riley was trying to move away from the brothers . Riley was walking toward the garden with heavy steps . Lloyd called Riley and stopped him .
“Um? What is it?”
Having heard his older brother’s voice coming from the back, Riley quickly turned his head . He looked at Lloyd and tilted his head side to side .
“You…”
Lloyd stared at Riley as he crumpled his face . Ryan, who had been glancing at his brothers, watched the situation with a question mark floated up on his face, wondering what was happening here .
“…”
“… If you have nothing to say, can I go now?”
Silence continued for a while . Riley was just standing there . He carefully started to walk again and asked .
“O… Okay . ”
Lloyd noticed Ryan glancing at them from the side . Lloyd apologized to Riley for holding him up for the moment . He added that Riley can go .
Having heard what Lloyd said, Riley promptly lowered his head . He started to walk toward the garden .
“Lloyd… It seems you changed a little . ”
“Do you… think so?”
Lloyd was acting a little different from the usual . Ryan was finding his little brother’s behavior suspicious . Ryan tilted his head side to side .
Meanwhile, Lloyd tightly held on to the ‘something’ that he had in his side pocket and just smiled awkwardly .