She Is Not a Witch

“Rock, aren’t you ranked in the top three at school?” the young man inquired.

“Yes,” he raised an eyebrow, still showing a bit of youthful pride despite everything.

“If you defeat Tocolin, who’s in first place, you’ll get the qualification to go to Emenas.”

“Easier said than done. Everyone in school knows how hard Tocolin works,” Rock walked to the side, picked up his short sword, and twirled it a few times before continuing.

“What about you? Your family has already prepared a letter of recommendation for you, right?”

“Haha… indeed,” the young man scratched his head, admitting it.

Seeing Isaiah’s foolish grin, Rock felt inexplicably angry.

Damn nobles, who knows whose connections they used this time, Rock thought resentfully. His talent was much higher than Isaiah’s, but because of his status and lack of background, he could only compete fiercely with a large group of peers at school for that single spot, while these young masters and misses born with silver spoons could easily obtain what they desperately desired.

“I’m leaving,” Rock said casually, turning to leave. He didn’t like being around this fool.

“Hey, don’t go! Let’s have another match. Weren’t you unsatisfied earlier?” Isaiah thought it wasn’t easy to find someone his age to practice with, so he couldn’t let him leave so easily.

“Match what? Have you ever seen an assassin fight someone head-on? Isn’t that stupid?”

“Why can’t an assassin fight head-on? You’ll surely encounter such situations sometimes.”

“If you encounter that, it just means you’re not a professional assassin,” Rock used his short sword to push away Isaiah’s broadsword, preparing to leave again.

But the young man jogged a few steps and blocked his path once more.

“Rock, why do you always want to be an assassin? Uncle Wade’s great sword skills are so cool.”

“Heh, what’s so cool about it? He’s just a guard for your family. What’s there to be proud of?”

Seeing Isaiah blocking his way, Rock had to stop and argue with him.

“Have you ever heard of a story where the main character is someone’s guard? Have you ever seen a legendary hero who became famous by being a guard?” He shook his head, his short black hair slightly ruffled, looking as if it had been flattened during sleep.

“I won’t be like my dad, stupidly working for your family,” he said rebelliously, his face showing disdain.

“But assassins don’t have a good reputation either. It feels somewhat underhanded,” Isaiah pondered.

“Right, right, righteousness is reserved for you noble people. We rats in the gutter are evil if we use other means. Is that your point of view?”

“No, that’s not…” the young man was at a loss for words.

“I just want to be an assassin. If I don’t like someone, one strike and they’re dead. I don’t care about justice.”

“Isn’t justice good?”

“Justice is good, but that’s not my justice, it’s yours. Enough, I don’t want to argue with you anymore. I’m going home.”

“No, unless you beat me, I won’t let you go.”

“Tch.”

Rock swung his short sword, quickly stabbing towards Isaiah’s shoulder. Isaiah couldn’t avoid it in time and immediately suffered a slight injury, blood staining his clothes.

Seeing the blood flow out, Rock panicked a bit, hesitating with the short sword in his hand. But Isaiah didn’t care about this, enduring the pain and sweeping his sword horizontally. Rock gripped his sword hilt tightly, striving to block it. His wrist went numb, but he also became serious, taking advantage of the short sword’s agility in close combat to keep Isaiah off balance.

The sound of clashing metal rang out in the forest. Although Rock had the upper hand, he didn’t dare to use too much force, after all, this was the young master his family served. Later, he had to resort to punches and kicks, taking advantage of Isaiah’s openings to trip him to the ground, and then the two started wrestling.

Finally, both of them were exhausted. They got up panting, covered in dust and leaf fragments.

Rock wiped the sweat and dust from his face, looking at the guy opposite him. Blood was all over his shoulder, but it had slowly stopped now, as the wound wasn’t too large.

“Idiot, aren’t you afraid of dying?” Rock took out a small bottle of medicine from his pocket and walked over, asking Isaiah to expose the wound on his shoulder.

Isaiah seemed somewhat unwilling, feeling embarrassed.

“Are you still not satisfied? Would you be happy if I went back and got beaten by my dad?” Rock looked at him with disdain, then helped clean the wound, poured some medicine on it, and bandaged it simply.

“Alright, I’m leaving. Don’t say I injured you later,” Rock dusted off his hands, preparing to leave, wondering to himself how he ended up with such a guy.

“Don’t…”

“Come on, it’s just that my dad is your family’s guard, right? Please, just let me go, great sir. And I really don’t like guys.”

“Don’t step on my hand!” the young man on the ground got angry too.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t notice.”

Rock had been so focused on how to avoid getting beaten by his old man that he lifted his foot.

“Rock, you have to be my underling, or I’ll tell your dad about this.”

“You’ve got some nerve, Isaiah. You’re really disgracing the nobility. I… fine, I agree to be your attendant for a month.”

Thinking of the various privileges nobles had in the empire, Rock had to give in to avoid causing trouble for his family.

Seeing Isaiah grinning like a pig, what a waste of that face, Rock asked irritably.

“Are you that obsessed with having someone as your underling?”

“Of course! Look at those founding monarchs, those legendary great heroes. Which one of them doesn’t have a group of people following them? It’s so impressive when they go out.”

Isaiah had been reading too many knight novels lately and envied that kind of scene.

“Hehe, legends of wind and moon, ordinary people can only dream about it. Everyone knows Roland and Yalin were born princes, so they could become kings. But Isaiah, you’re just a child of a baron’s family, don’t daydream all the time.”

Isaiah got up from the ground and counterattacked, “Aren’t you daydreaming too? Don’t think I don’t know what’s on your mind.”

“What justice of an assassin? I think you just want to look cool. ‘With the power of one man, cutting through fate, determining the course of the world.’ I’ve long known about these words you wrote in your notebook.”

“You… you’ve got some nerve,” Rock’s face flushed with embarrassment.

“The noble child of Baron Belis has become a thief.”

“I didn’t. Your dad said that. He even sighed about his son having such grand ambitions, haha!”

Rock couldn’t keep face anymore and picked up his short sword to leave.

“Don’t forget, during this time, you have to practice sword fighting with me,” Isaiah’s voice came from behind, somehow irritating to hear.

“Fine, sword practice. I think you’re…”

Rock made a gesture with his back to Isaiah, then his figure slowly disappeared into the forest.