Did he still think poorly of me? Gaspar looked down at me askance.
“So why has Dane’s son come to see me? Did that bastard leave me a message?”
“No. We heard you were looking for supporters, so we came to apply. We will be useful.”
I did not lie and say Dane had thought well of him. There was no need. Gaspar’s eyes grew even colder.
“Do you think I will accept you just because you carry that bastard’s blood? How arrogant.”
“It is blood worthy of arrogance.”
At those words, Gaspar revealed his displeasure openly.
“How amusing. In the end, you are a newly formed domus with no achievements. There are only three of you, and one of them is alcoholic trash. Do you think any place will accept you?”
“Mr. Gaspar.”
I quietly called his name.
“Do you think we will endure such insults simply because we are a small domus?”
Even if Cesare went around acting like a scoundrel, I was the only one who could scold him. I could not stand by and watch some other bastard insult him.
“And what will you do if you do not endure it? You came here to ask us to take you as supporters. I might consider it if you knelt and begged.”
Gaspar snorted. Cesare watched my reaction, then tugged at my sleeve and whispered.
“Master. Just let it go. I am trash.”
“You are not trash, and if we let this insult pass, we will continue to be insulted.”
I spoke firmly. I had a duty to protect my disciple’s honor and Balanus’s pride. And I also had a reason to provoke Gaspar deliberately.
“I was curious when I heard Dane had a son, but all that came was a brat with rotten prospects. Get out. I have nothing more to say…….”
“Was your pettiness the reason the person you loved was taken from you by my father?”
At those words, Gaspar’s eyes widened. So did Cesare’s and Xenia’s. A cold silence hung in the air for a moment before Gaspar opened his mouth.
“What are you talking about? I do not know what nonsense Dane spouted, but…….”
“Is it not the plain truth? In your youth, were you not jealous because all the women you secretly loved liked Dane instead?”
Gaspar’s eyes shook with confusion.
“What nonsense! In my youth, countless women chased after me!”
“Is that so? I heard Guildmaster Gaspar was the one who chased after many women. As if any woman would do.”
As I continued to scrape at his nerves, Gaspar’s face turned red and blue, and he shouted.
“You bastard……! Your personality is as foul as Dane’s son ought to be. I suppose that was how he slandered me and stole my women!”
I had never stolen anyone, and those women had not been Gaspar’s lovers either. I had not dated them.
“If Dane had not had that pretty face like a kept man, he would not have been popular either! He seduced women by crafting an image of a man who was skilled with a sword, cool-headed, and yet kind to his disciples! If I had belonged to a White Jade Rank organization like Balanus, the other women would have recognized my true worth too!”
He spoke without even breathing. Had he lived his life thinking such things all along?
At those words, Xenia tilted her head.
“So it means Master Dane was handsome, strong, kind, and skilled?”
“……That is what the women misunderstood!”
Gaspar strongly refuted her and huffed with anger.
“But all of that is in the past now. Our guild has grown far stronger, and Balanus has vanished.”
“Far stronger……. That cannot be true. Our domus is stronger than the Twilight Swallow’s Nest.”
Gaspar let out a contemptuous laugh.
“Words are cheap.”
“You may test it. I, as the representative of the domus, can spar with you, Guildmaster, or we can hold a contest. However, there are two conditions.”
“Conditions?”
I had provoked him and dragged him this far. Now it was time to get to the point.
“If I win, you will hire Balanus as supporters. And you will apologize to Cesare.”
Cesare was staring at me with wide eyes. Silence lingered in the room for a moment, and then Gaspar spoke.
“Fine. However, if you lose, you must take responsibility as well.”
“What responsibility?”
“If you lose, abandon the name Balanus forever and never again establish a guild or domus.”
It seemed he wanted to erase Balanus. No, he also seemed to want to erase the very place where I stood. He continued in a cold tone.
“Furthermore, you are forbidden from dating or marrying. No, cut off all ties with women entirely. I will end Dane’s bloodline.”
Would it be my prejudice if I said I felt I understood why the Swallow’s Nest was still only Silver Rank? Beside me, Xenia murmured in slight admiration.
“Human inferiority complexes last a long time.”
It was a rather absurd condition, but I nodded.
Since there was no way I would lose, any condition was fine.
When I accepted so easily, Gaspar glared at me in silence.
“Get out. We will give you a place to wait, so stay there. I will call you when the sparring preparations are complete.”
At that firm dismissal, we left the room. When we followed the person in charge, we arrived at a shabby waiting room. Though it was closer to a storage room than a waiting room.
Xenia sat roughly on a wooden box and opened her mouth.
“Was the reason Master and Gaspar do not get along because of women?”
“That was the main reason.”
“Are there other reasons too?”
“We clashed as fellow swordsmen as well. It is a little complicated.”
We were the same age, and we both used swords. The time when he formed his guild and I formed my domus had also been similar.
However, there had been a difference in skill.
Whenever we sparred, I always won, and Balanus grew stronger and more famous faster than the Swallow’s Nest.
Because of that, Gaspar seemed to harbor something like an inferiority complex toward me. Whenever he saw me, he would charge at me with his sword and often pick fights.
Meanwhile, Cesare was quiet. After entering the guildmaster’s office earlier, he had stopped speaking somewhere in the middle. I lightly poked Cesare.
“What is wrong, Cesare?”
“No. It is just…….”
He only scratched the back of his head. Unlike usual, he seemed a little dispirited.
“I started wondering if I was causing trouble for Balanus. Because of me, all the guilds refused us…….”
Had being rejected by four guilds in a row, and then hearing Gaspar’s abusive words, shocked him? I stared quietly at Cesare and said.
“It is true that breaking contracts because of alcohol, assaulting employers, and being late to meetings are all bad things. Naturally, they are matters you must fix.”
Cesare’s face fell. He had certainly done wrong, but seeing him like that left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“But, Cesare.”
I struck his back hard. Cesare started in surprise and straightened his waist.
“I know you have lived more fiercely than anyone, and that you are strong. In that respect, you are contributing more than enough to Balanus. You have flaws, but you have strengths as well.”
Cesare looked at me without saying anything. He seemed surprised, and also relieved. Then, soon after, Cesare grinned and said.
“So as long as I am strong, I can drink and cause a scene?”
“Lie down and brace yourself.”
“It was a joke, a joke! Good grief, I cannot say anything.”
As we talked in the softened atmosphere, the person in charge came to fetch us, perhaps because the preparations were complete.
The sparring ground was a wide training ground behind the building. Gaspar and the guild members were gathered there. None of them looked at us kindly.
Without carrying a weapon, Gaspar spoke to me.
“There is no need for me to face a greenhorn like you. Cassian. Come here.”
At those words, Gaspar looked at a young man. The young man approached and stood beside Gaspar.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties. He was tall, with the appearance of a young nobleman. His physique was good, and his posture was proper.
Judging by his stance, he seemed to be a swordsman who had trained for quite a long time.
Was he sending out their ace? While I was thinking that, Gaspar wrapped an arm around the young man’s shoulders and grinned.
“This is my son, Cassian.”
I looked at Cassian in surprise.
Gaspar had gotten married?
He had a child?
How?
After briefly calculating it in my head, the young man’s age did not make sense.
Gaspar had had no child even when he was forty. Even if he had conceived a child right after I died, that son would be in his mid-teens.
Was he adopted? Somehow, he was too handsome to be Gaspar’s son.
“The winner will be the one who targets a vital point three times first. Choose your weapon as you please. It does not matter whether you use a wooden sword or a real blade.”
After saying that, Gaspar left the field. However, Cassian remained standing before me. He looked at me quietly and said.
“I, too, have heard much of Dane Balanus’s fame. It is a name no swordsman could fail to know.”
Perhaps he was a better young man than I had expected. He glanced at Cesare.
“If not for you, I would not have sparred. I do not wish to be involved with a domus that contains human trash like this.”
“What?”
Cesare’s face flushed with anger, but then he lowered his head. His clenched fist trembled violently.
“How rude and vulgar. Given your rumors, is that not a natural assessment?”
I withdrew the thought that he might be a better young man than expected. I stepped in front of Cesare and said.
“If I win this sparring match, I was supposed to receive an apology from the guildmaster, but it seems one more person will have to apologize.”
There was no reason to endure this insult. But there was no reason to engage in a pointless quarrel either. I only had to make him submit with my sword.
Cassian still displayed a cold hostility.
“I may not be as skilled as Dane Balanus, but I do not think I will lose to you.”
He left. Even after that, Cesare was still breathing hard with anger. I saw that he had bitten down on his lip to hold back his fury.
Xenia was expressionless, but somehow, she seemed angry. She rolled her eyes from side to side, then said to Cesare.
“Brother. Shall I go hit him for you?”
“No. Do not hit him.”
“Why?”
“Because what that bastard said was not wrong. And because we have to protect Balanus’s reputation…….”
I quietly watched as he endured words that belittled him in order to protect Balanus.
My disciple was trying to protect the domus’s reputation.
In that case, as his master, I had to protect that disciple’s honor.
I asked the person in charge.
“Where is the dining hall?”
Although he looked puzzled, he guided me to the dining hall. I only took what I needed and returned to the sparring ground, arriving just in time. Gaspar shouted.
“Both participants, come out to the sparring ground!”
On the broad sparring ground, Cassian and I stood facing each other. His expression was still cold.
When I glanced at him, he seemed to be planning to use a real blade.
I took out what I had brought from the dining hall. People began murmuring, and Cassian was clearly flustered as well.
“You mean to fight with a jam knife?”
It was exactly as he said. The jam knife I had just taken from the dining hall. I quietly aimed the jam knife at Cassian.
“Yes. Unfortunately, there was no teaspoon.”