The Great Elder promised to positively review an audience with the Princess.
Afterward, when he left with his inner circle.
Clea and I were able to let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.
“Hooo…”
My exhausted body half-collapsed onto the sofa.
The diligent Clea, tidying up the scattered ledgers by herself, asked.
“Isn’t it too early to be satisfied?
The Elder only said he would review it.” “That’s just how politicians talk.”
I lightly shook the empty glass.
The ice inside danced merrily.
“The fact that old lion clinked glasses with me is answer enough.” “True, judging by the reaction from the Head of the National Tax Service, the Elder didn’t seem like someone who drinks with just anyone.”
“Same here.
I have no idea why anyone enjoys this.” “…?”
Clea, having finished tidying the ledgers, looked at me with strange eyes.
To her sullen gaze, I replied, my face redder than usual.
“It’s true.
I always black out when I get drunk.”
By nature, I’m the type who wouldn’t even know if someone kidnapped me when drunk.
This is a constitution that didn’t improve even in the previous regression.
“Then I suppose I should get you drunk when I don’t want to see you.
Thank you for the good information.” “You’re joking, right?”
Clea walked past me sprawled on the sofa and tidied up the liquor bottles instead.
Glancing at my reddened face, she chuckled like an older sister figure.
“We’ll see.” “Seeing that reaction, I suppose I should increase my tolerance.
I’ll have to train my body hard.”
I sat straight up, partly to sober up.
“Adjutant, if you have time, would you help me with some swordsmanship training?” “If I can legally beat up my superior, I’ll accept.”
In the Imperial Court, even secretaries must be martially competent.
The woman before me looked to be at least a low-rank Sword Expert.
A level definitely stronger than ordinary knights.
She would be a great help for practice.
“But can you really beat the Three Great Holy Knights?
I don’t think your skills are at that level, Warden.”
Clea took off her uniform jacket and tightened her waist.
She threw a sharp question.
“If I face them one by one, there’s a chance.
I have to win at least that much for the Great Elder to fully support our prison, you see.”
Thanks to the privilege from my previous life, I have a body that’s good for training.
If I just train somehow, I should be able to fight on par with knights below a Sword Master.
“Now that the spy is dead, the Holy See will be targeting the prison.
So I need to make the Great Elder a perfect backer.”
They must be anxious, since even the Saintess’s guard, who was hard enough to control, has disappeared.
Who knows when they might send an assassin to dispose of or kidnap her.
If the Saintess goes on a rampage again in the process, this regression is also finished.
To prevent all those variables, the huge fence that is the Great Elder is absolutely necessary.
It’s a case of fighting a disaster with a disaster.
“To do that, a lot of preparation will be necessary.
Not just training, but tournament equipment as well.”
A sense of crisis washed over me, and the thought that I had to get stronger quickly surged.
Driven by that passion, I arrived at the small training ground set up at the rear of the prison.
A cramped area with just a single small cabinet placed in it.
The sight alone makes one sigh, but it’s the expected standard for a detention center in the borderlands.
“Are all the prison’s arms in there?” “Yes.
Well… though you’ll probably just be disappointed if you look.”
Clea opened it herself.
At that, a pile of heavily rusted swords came tumbling out.
“Don’t tell me the equipment for the tournament will be in this state too?” “Don’t wardens usually carry their own personal swords?”
This is driving me crazy.
I’ll have to go to the Capital soon and buy the swords I had my eye on in my previous life for cheap.
It’s a huge waste of time, but it can’t be helped.
No matter how much I recover my swordsmanship, I can’t win if the equipment is trash.
“I’ll practice with this for now, and I’ll have to go on a business trip within a few days.”
Thinking that, I picked up a rusted sword.
But in that moment…
From among the spilled swords, a sword hilt wrapped in silk caught my eye.
Enough to even draw the gaze of Clea, who was standing far away.
“We left the training ground neglected for so long, I didn’t even know this was here.”
Peeling off the luxurious wrapping, a sword revealed itself from within.
And a masterwork sword at that, one worthy of a high-ranking noble or the Commander of the Imperial Knights.
‘What is this.’
I blinked my eyes blankly.
It wasn’t an item that belonged in such a wretched prison at all, so I slowly looked around.
A landscape filled only with perpetually snow-capped mountains and dense forests.
Then, I suddenly met the eyes of a wolf watching me from afar.
A creature with peculiar red eyes.
It saw me holding the sword, then leisurely returned to the wild hill.
“Well, that’s fortunate.
It seems the previous warden left it behind.”
Clea didn’t seem to notice anything particularly strange either.
Thanks to this, there was no need to leave the prison.
It was definitely a masterpiece rarely seen even in the previous regression, so I took it, but…
Encountering such unexpected luck in this gloomy world gave me a strange feeling.
***
The hallway of the detention center’s 1st floor.
Great Elder Darc returned to his prison cell, escorted by the Head of the National Tax Service.
The old man asked him, who had investigated countless nobles until now.
“What do you think?
About Derek Minster.” “I’m not sure yet.
Honestly, in my eyes, he just seems like a sly fox full of bravado.”
“He certainly resembles a large snake more than a snake.
Because he lacks blood and regional ties, which serve as a weapon like deadly poison.” “That’s right.
So honestly, I don’t know if he’s even worth investing in.”
Darc sat silently in his chair.
The chessboard, which the new prison warden had overturned, came into his view.
“I once went with a delegation to the East.
Over there, they treat fights between animals as a grand spectacle.”
The old man recalled an animal he had seen that day.
A creature that remained vivid in his memory even now.
“I believe it was a cobra and an anaconda.
The two snakes had to face a crocodile larger than themselves.” “I don’t think a snake can beat a crocodile.” “Correct.
The cobra, frustrated that its venom couldn’t penetrate the thick hide, was bitten and died.”
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Character illustrations & later chapters: