Chapter 10

Posted by Kuze, ? Views, Released on January 2, 2025

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Andersen is the most prestigious swordsmanship family in the empire.

As such, those who have inherited the family for generations are evaluated as having no equal in martial prowess, and those who pursue martial arts still flock to the Andersen family today, hoping to receive their teachings.

However, the family’s secrets cannot be passed on to just anyone.

Andersen strictly selects those who will inherit the secrets, and only those who have proven their loyalty to the family are accepted as subordinates.

Thus, the Andersen Knights were born. Alongside the Golden Knights who protect the imperial family, they are the undisputed elite of the empire.

“It’s been a while, Lady Jeremiah. Do you remember me?”

When Jeremiah encountered someone from the knights, she swallowed the dryness in her throat and uttered the name from her memory.

“Sir Wilhelm…….”

“I’m glad you remember.”

Despite his indifferent voice, Wilhelm responded with a faint smile.

Just as her body shrank from the discomfort she felt from him, he continued his polite greeting.

“I was worried you might have forgotten me during the six months you’ve been recuperating at this villa……. But of course, the family has invested heavily in your education, so it would be strange if you didn’t remember.”

No, only his attitude was polite.

The unpleasant emotions underlying his courtesy were something she had experienced countless times from the knights while at the main house.

The only difference was that the subtle hints of those emotions had now become blatant.

“But seeing you after so long, you look quite disheveled.”

Wilhelm, who was scrutinizing Jeremiah with eyes that clearly revealed his feelings, continued in a slightly excited voice.

“Your hair is unkempt, and you’re not even wearing the makeup you always used to……. Ah, could it be that the servants who used to dress you up didn’t come with you?”

“That’s…….”

“That won’t do. Even though you were rejected, you shouldn’t neglect yourself in the prime of your life. If the family head saw you like this, he would be disappointed.”

Jeremiah’s face stiffened coldly.

As Jeremiah tried to say something, she let out a small sigh and moved her feet into the mansion.

“Let’s discuss the details inside.”

“Yes, that would be best. I also have a duty to report your lifestyle to the family head.”

Is it just my imagination that this feels unnecessarily long?

No, it doesn’t matter.

Ignoring it, Jeremiah walked down the corridor, while Wilhelm, who had been looking around the mansion, propped his chin and muttered.

“The mansion is quite empty.”

His voice wasn’t exactly quiet for a soliloquy.

But Wilhelm paid no heed and continued to express his thoughts.

“Well, it’s been a long time since it was managed before you came. But even after six months of your stay, there’s been no change, so it seems you have no interest in decorating the mansion…….”

“……You talk a lot. I don’t remember having so many conversations with you when we were at the main house.”

“Haha, when we were at the main house, there were too many eyes watching. I had to be cautious in my relationship with you.”

Does that mean he doesn’t need to maintain formalities here, where the family’s eyes don’t reach?

Feeling displeased, Jeremiah suppressed her emotions and guided him to the reception room.

A lone seat and table in the center of the spacious room.

The servant who had entered the kitchen earlier came in just as the two sat down facing each other.

“I’ve brought the tea.”

With a polite attitude, two teacups were placed on the table.

A red liquid with a faint aroma rising.

Wilhelm, who looked down at it, smirked and lightly lifted the teacup.

“Isn’t this a bit too much?”

He asked a rather irritating question.

“…Too much? What do you mean?”

“From what I’ve observed, it seems you’re having difficulties living in this villa.”

The mansion was empty everywhere, and its owner was unkempt.

The money given by the family was ridiculously small for any luxury, so given the size of the mansion, the situation couldn’t be good.

“The state of the tableware is embarrassing compared to the main house…….”

The cup he held in his hand clearly showed this.

Of course, the cheap cup without any decent pattern, and the tea it held, were clearly not of good quality.

Yes, such an evaluation must have followed when he placed the teacup back on the table.

“……What business brings you here?”

Displeased but unable to say anything, Jeremiah urged Wilhelm to state his business, hoping this moment would end quickly.

The answer came when the letter he carried caught her eye.

“I’ve come to deliver a letter from the family head.”

“……If that’s the case, you could have sent it through a courier. Why did Sir Wilhelm come personally?”

“Because it’s an important letter.”

An important letter?

How important could news be for a child already discarded by the family?

“Please give it to me.”

Whatever it was, she couldn’t ignore a letter addressed to her.

She reached out to read it immediately, but Wilhelm instead pulled the letter back.

“……Sir Wilhelm?”

“I will read the letter to you myself.”

“What on earth…….”

“As I said earlier, if it were just to deliver news, a courier would have come instead of me. I am here as the family head’s representative, so it’s only right that I perform the actions he would have done.”

The family head’s representative.

Hearing that, Jeremiah frowned in displeasure.

Even though she had been cast out, she still bore the Andersen name.

Yet, here he was, acting as if he were an Andersen in front of her. Wasn’t this essentially putting himself above her?

“Wilhelm. You……!”

“Then I shall begin reading the letter.”

Before she could express her anger, Wilhelm unfolded the letter without permission.

As if her reaction didn’t matter, he began reading the letter’s preface.

“Jeremiah. My disappointing child.”

With a tone full of emotion.

As if he were speaking those words directly to her.

“It’s been over six months since you left the main house. As you receive this letter, you must surely be doing nothing, wasting your time meaninglessly.”

As if predicting exactly what situation she was in.

Yet, unable to deny the letter’s content, Jeremiah felt her words stuck in her throat and clenched her fists.

“You are that kind of child. Unable to do anything on your own, only capable of doing what others tell you to do……. Yet even in that, you fail to do properly. I cannot hide my disappointment in you.”

Words so sharp they couldn’t be considered from a parent to a child…….

No, the family Jeremiah knew was like that.

No affection, and if you didn’t meet expectations, you could be cast aside like a worn-out shoe.

Having never received love from her family, the derogatory content of the letter wasn’t entirely unexpected.

But…….

“Nevertheless, I still consider you my child, so as a father, I will give you one more chance.”

Despite considering her so useless, he spoke as if offering charity.

“A ball will soon be held in Herta Shi where you are. The location is enclosed in the letter, so when the appointed date arrives, go there and achieve results.”

Even though he had already discarded her once.

Without any attempt to understand her, he now told her to find a suitable match and make a marriage alliance to contribute to the family.

“Please do not disappoint your father this time. Remember that this is your last chance, and prove to me that you are a worthy child.”

Yet, perhaps.

Holding onto a faint hope, she waited for even one positive word, but until the end, all she received was contempt aimed at her.

“……That’s all.”

-Thud!!!

Unable to bear it any longer, Jeremiah slammed the table, causing the teacup in front of her to tilt and the tea to spill.

But it didn’t fall.

No matter how angry she was, Jeremiah’s instincts suppressed her from expressing her anger further.

“After all this time…….”

No matter how much she was mistreated, she had been educated all her life never to resist.

“To abandon me so cruelly, and now to speak as if offering charity, is this what it’s like?”

The fear ingrained in her instincts. The deep self-loathing stemming from it.

Feeling it revive after six months, Jeremiah finally began to explode with the resentment she had bottled up.

“How much do you look down on me to say such things now? I, I am just a tool for the family……!”

“Lady Jeremiah.”

But such feelings didn’t matter.

As if saying so, the voice of the family head’s representative facing her only showed cold emotions.

“As the family head’s representative, I have conveyed his words. In such a situation, raising your voice in front of me is clearly an act of defiance against the family head.”

“Th, that’s nonsense. You……!”

“After all, isn’t everything the family head said true?”

-Thud. A shock like a blow to the back of the head struck her.

As Jeremiah stood there with wide eyes, Wilhelm unabashedly smirked.

“It’s not my place to say this, but you are the epitome of incompetence.”

Even discarding the superficial courtesy.

Stabbing her heart without hesitation.

“Even though the family head invested so much in you, all he got in return was betrayal, wasn’t it? You couldn’t even manage a simple relationship with a man, and now you dare to reject the family head’s mercy?”

“No. It was his fault. I, I did my best, but he didn’t look at me…….”

“He didn’t look at you because your efforts were insufficient. Look at yourself now. Without anyone’s interference, you’re wasting your time without even taking care of yourself.”

No. It’s not my fault. I became like this because everyone abandoned me.

Thus, Jeremiah, who had even harbored a desire for revenge against them, felt her heart breaking as she faced direct, blunt criticism.

“Don’t misunderstand. Just because you were born into the Andersen family, do you think you’re something special?”

Perhaps it wasn’t the world that was wrong, but herself.

“Don’t delude yourself. As long as you don’t fulfill your role, you have no right to call yourself a member of the Andersen family. As long as you contribute nothing to the family, knights like me cannot show you loyalty.”

Did she not even have the right to harbor revenge?

Even if she wanted to deny it, the life she had lived, the memories, lined up to drag her down.

“So, even now, change your attitude and obediently follow the family head’s instructions. Unless you really want to be cast out of the family.”

The Andersen knight, Wilhelm, boldly asserted this, smiling as if relieved, and stood up from his seat.

Leaving the incompetent girl frozen in place.

“Then, since I’ve delivered the family head’s letter, I’ll take my leave. I hope you achieve proper results by the next time we meet…….”

As he was about to leave leisurely, Wilhelm noticed someone blocking his path and stopped.

Probably the mansion’s only servant, a man in a butler’s uniform.

Realizing that this servant was blocking his way, Wilhelm frowned and spoke in a harsh voice.

“What is it? Servant. Why aren’t you moving out of the way…….”

“Excuse me. A bothersome insect caught my eye.”

“An insect? What are you…….”

-Bam!!!

Wilhelm was knocked down by a punch.

As Wilhelm, who had fallen miserably to the floor, clutched his broken nose and gritted his teeth.

“Yo, you bastard. What the hell are you……. Ugh!”

Blood gushed from his nose, causing dizziness.

The impact was by no means light.

As he staggered and missed his chance to lunge, Jeremiah’s butler approached the teacup on the table.

“I’ve been watching, but you didn’t even take a sip of the tea I served.”

“What does that cheap tea matter……!”

“Western Frontier. A tea leaf refined through repeated improvements from a plant discovered during the western continent’s pioneering stage. It’s a high-quality product supplied even to the imperial family.”

The butler quietly sipped the tea.

But its aroma had already faded. After all, tea only retains its flavor and aroma when brewed with the right amount at the right temperature.

“Anyone who knows its value would recognize its contents just by the aroma, but you couldn’t appreciate its worth just because the container was shabby?”

Cold tea is more worthless than plain water.

As the butler clearly expressed his displeasure, Wilhelm gritted his teeth and reached for his sword.

“You bastard. Are you mocking me!?”

“You catch on quickly. Even though you serve a high-ranking person and consider yourself high, you can’t even properly assess the worth of the person in front of you.”

“You basstaaard!!”

-Swish!

A mist rose from the drawn sword.

It was sword aura. Only a swordsman who had reached a high level could wield it, capable of cutting through even the hardest materials.

In other words, wielding it against a person was tantamount to declaring intent to kill.

-Clang!!!

But the sword did not split the insolent servant’s head.

Before the blade reached his neck, something in the raised hand blocked the aura-infused sword.

“Wh, what…….”

What could block a sword infused with aura?

Wilhelm, unable to hide his shock, looked to see a small dagger.

No, not even a weapon.