I’ll Use a Reverse-Edged Sword

I can feel glancing gazes.
The innkeeper bringing out more side dishes, our knights clinking glasses with me…
And even Wydro Hanson and his daughter Luna, who are hesitating whether to approach from afar…
Everyone in the shop who saw my martial prowess is stealing glances at me.

“Ahem… This is uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable? You should be proud, what are you really? That impossible martial art is- I mean, I’m sorry, Young Master…”

Raymond, as a friend and colleague who had trained with me for a long time, seemed to be itching to ask me all sorts of questions.
But this was a place where I was performing official duties for the family,
and I had just added dignity to my name, no, to the Castillo family name.
Therefore, Raymond couldn’t act rashly either, and was just feeling frustrated.

“This… this is on the house, Young Master… I hope our food is to your liking…”

Even though we were just people who would spend a lot of money when we first sat down with the Wydro family trade group…
The innkeeper’s attitude had also changed quite a bit by now.

“I tried to be careful, but some shop furniture still got damaged. I should request compensation-“
“Compensation?! Not at all, Young Master!!”

The innkeeper prostrates himself and rejects my offer with a booming voice.
I pushed him away and slowly raised my glass again.

“Y-Young Master, what should we do with them…”

Knight Talon carefully asks while watching my reaction.
That appearance of having a light verbal exchange with me earlier was nowhere to be seen, and his eyes seemed to contain a bit of awe.

“We should take them without untying them and hand them over to the border guard or gate guard. Ah, for fallen knights, wouldn’t there usually be a bounty, even if it’s a small amount? It might be good to look into that as well.”

Despite my quite nonchalant words, the knights just nod their heads and express agreement.
It seemed like the atmosphere was such that my voice had gained a bit more power.

“Eden, young master, let me pour you a drink too.”

Wydro Hanson, who had approached my side by now, offers to pour me a drink.

“I didn’t know you were the owner of such amazing swordsmanship skills. Your words about the force not being just five knights weren’t lies after all.”

“It was nothing special, just dealing with some insignificant ruffians. Please don’t praise me too much.”

“No, no! How can taking on six, no, seven fallen knights alone be nothing special? In fact, I thought that with the name of your family, Castillo, no fallen knights would dare to pick a fight, so I didn’t even consider such a dangerous situation. But, to see such insane fallen knights who recklessly confront nobles without any sense… Of course, seeing your reliable skills makes me feel even more at ease.”

Wydro Hanson approached me even more friendly, perhaps because the tension had eased and the alcohol he had been drinking had taken effect.

“She’s my daughter, but isn’t Luna quite pretty?”

Suddenly?

“Uh… yes, of course.”

I gave an appropriately plausible agreement to his words, which seemed to make him even more pleased, and he soon started shouting to his daughter sitting over there.

“Luna! Come over here. Isn’t this swordsmanship genius your fiancé? Why is she pretending not to hear… Oh my, I picked an artistic match, everyone else said that no matter how much it’s the Castillo family, Eden, the third son, is absolutely no- hic, hiccup”

Now he seemed too drunk, about to recite all the bad rumors circulating about me,
so I signaled the Wydro family servants to guide him to his room.

Then, I approached Luna, who had been quietly nibbling on food from afar, just watching me.

“You seem quite shocked.”

“Eek! What? Ah… that’s not… hic, hiccup”

Are father and daughter both weak to alcohol?
As soon as I approached and spoke, Luna was startled and made a fuss, then started hiccuping like any drunk.
I brought water from a nearby table and placed it in front of her.

“Here, drink some water instead of alcohol.”

“It’s not… hic, it’s not because of the… hic, alcohol… hic.”

She seemed to be in a situation where she couldn’t even finish a single sentence properly because of the hiccups.
Her face was quite flushed, so it was clear that she had drunk too much without knowing her own tolerance.

“Here, please guide Luna to her room as well.”

“No… no… hic… I’m not drunk… hic…”

Luna protested with a quite wronged expression, but she kept turning her head away, unable to look me in the eye properly, so she seemed to be bad at lying.

And so, one by one, people slowly left the drinking gathering,
and I also returned to the room I was guided to, resting from the fatigue of a hard day and trying to sleep.

The next morning, after receiving another warm hospitality from the innkeeper, our group left the inn and started the journey towards Turkun again.
As before, our family’s knight order in a diamond formation surrounded the group from the front to the middle, and I, Hanson, and Luna rode in the carriage located in the center.
The only difference was
that we now had to drag along 7 unpleasant tails.

“Untie this, you bastards!! Do you know who I-“
“Lord Heden, please be quiet… please be quiet…”
“Stagen, what the hell happened while I was unconscious from the surprise attack, how could even skilled people like you be-“
“Oh come on! Lord Heden… please, they are… no, that noble guy is something else. For now, let’s just quietly follow along as they say.”
“Aaargh!! How dare they inflict such humiliation on me, Alistair Heden! I will never forgive this. Never!!”

The prisoners being dragged along were making quite a noise, as if they couldn’t really grasp their situation.

“Raymond.”

I lowered the carriage window and called Raymond.

“Yes, Eden Young Master.”

“Those guys in the back are too noisy, how about giving them a few punches? Don’t touch below the navel, we can’t slow down.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Raymond, as if he had become quite a loyal henchman, answers proudly and rides his horse to the rear of the group.
And soon

“You bastard, what are you- ugh, you cowardly bastard- ugh,”

Thwack
Thud
Thud
Thwack

Even though Raymond’s actual combat ability isn’t that high, could he not be weak even against guys tied up and being dragged along?
After quite cruel sounds of violence and curses were heard a few times, soon only someone’s screams and groans could be heard.

And so,
We continued to move and move, dragging along those guys who had become quite quiet.

Before we knew it, the day was getting dark.

“We’re almost there. That entrance you see ahead is Turkun’s entrance.”

It was Hanson’s explanation. We were just one step away from reaching our destination.
But,
Along with an ominous feeling, the surrounding air became unbearably heavy
and I could feel the carriage stopping abruptly.

“Huh? Why are we stopping when we’re almost there, if we just cross that mid-mountain-“

Hanson opened the carriage window to speak but stopped mid-sentence, covering his mouth.
The Wydro family’s trade group and our knight order group were completely surrounded by unidentified beings who had somehow approached without us noticing.

As soon as they felt the strange presence, our knight order entered a state of alert, maintaining their formation and drawing their swords,
but that was also useless as the number of people surrounding our group exceeded thirty just by glimpsing the shadows in the moonlight.

“Brother Harmon!!!”

From the rear, someone’s desperate cry can be heard.
It was indeed Alistair Heden, who seemed certain that the unidentified group surrounding our party had come to rescue him.

“Heden? Damn, it was really true… Wow, I can’t believe this, what the hell happened…”

A man from the group comes forward riding a black horse with a magnificent mane.
He approaches Heden’s group, who were tied up and being dragged at the rear of our party, and shouts in anger.

“Come out!! You bastard who touched my little brother!! I said come out!!”

Seeing Raymond turning his horse to prepare to go to the rear, I gestured through the window to stop him.
The one that man was calling for would be me, not Raymond.

I stood up to exit the carriage, putting the reverse-edged sword at my waist.
But then, Luna blocks the carriage door, spreading her arms.

“Lu… Luna…”

Hanson, too surprised by Luna’s sudden action, just stares at her blankly.
We were in a dangerous situation, surrounded by numerous armed forces.
But even in this chaotic situation, for some reason, Luna seemed to be worried about my safety first.

Why? Wasn’t this a political marriage?
To my eyes questioning her intention, she carefully opened her mouth.

“St… stop, you. Let’s hand over all the goods owned by the trade group and just escape for now. Don’t even think about fighting again. It’s different from yesterday, there are dozens of people.”

Since meeting her, this seemed to be the first time I’ve seen her finish sentences without trembling, so logically.
I smiled briefly at the amusing thought that crossed my mind, then shook my head and answered her.

“I can’t do that. I didn’t accompany this trade journey to show such a pathetic appearance.”

Pushing aside her, who looked like she might burst into tears at any moment, I walked out of the carriage.