A Depressed Kendo Player Possesses a Reckless Aristocrat

Foundation (8)

After that intense first blow, the punches continued for some time.

The silence that had filled the room just moments ago scattered, following the echoes of relentless violence.

I threw the punches.

Alan took them in silence.

He sometimes faltered or stumbled, but somehow always managed to get back on his feet.

There wasn’t a single word between us.

Only a frank exchange of sin and punishment.

It was too late, too much past had already flowed, to solve things any other way.

“”……””

The other kids watched us, kneeling quietly.

Their transparent eyes shook helplessly.

Every time a groan escaped Alan’s lips, they flinched.

It must be agonizing.

To see someone you love so thoroughly violated, it would be a most desolate feeling.

But even in that situation, there was nothing they could do.

“Ah, no one… in-, ter-, vene… cough, don’t… please…”

Whenever the others, unable to bear it, tried to step in, a voice stopped their intrusion.

At his desperate plea, the children only bit their lips.

Alan didn’t fall, even as his lip split, his forehead tore, and his teeth broke.

And so, the boy endured for a long time.

The ruthless barrage of violence only stopped when the hand that had been throwing punches was scratched and scraped, and drops of blood began to well up.

His hand was now completely stained red.

There were small splashes of blood on his collar.

“Haa…”

I gathered my breath, and shook out my arm.

I had been punching with genuine force, and there was a lingering ache, a kind of rebound effect, on my side as well.

My loosened gaze naturally landed on the blonde boy.

He lay sprawled on the ground, a mangled mess.

Is he really the protagonist, after all? Even as I beat him, Alan didn’t even let out a single scream.

He was just calmly accepting it.

As if this was a just punishment he deserved.

I clicked my tongue with mixed feelings.

It wasn’t a good feeling after all.

To break down a hero I’d once admired with my own hands.

‘It was necessary, but… it’s still unpleasant.’

I felt a strange dizziness.

Erasing the nausea that remained from the violence, I wiped the marks off my fingertips.

I let the words slip out, carelessly.

“Finally, I feel a little lighter.”

As if relieved. As if refreshed.

A statement detached from what I actually felt, but it wasn’t an important detail.

Right now, showing this reaction was better.

I just continued the performance, wearing a blank expression.

“Raise your head.”

“Yes… M-Master…”

Alan, wavering but obedient to the command.

I met his gold eyes, glazed with resignation, and gave a curt nod.

“You may speak now.”

Only then did Alan let his legs buckle, collapsing onto the floor.

I hadn’t exactly said he could relax, but I decided to overlook it.

He was probably already at his limit.

As I sat back on the couch and fell silent, he finally spoke.

“A-at one time… I thought of myself as a special person.”

His voice, withered and pathetic, marked the beginning.

The boy cleared his trembling throat and began to recite his story.

“I was arrogant, foolish, and presumptuous.”

That’s why I was wary of you.

I thought the world I saw could never be wrong.

In my idiotic thinking, I labelled you ‘evil’ and was always busy suspecting and interrogating you.

“But… the day finally came when I realized I was wrong.”

The moment I faced your inner self.

We were able to see the hidden truth.

Your festering, painful scars, and the wounds I had stabbed at again and again.

“That’s when I realized. Just how terrible a sin each and every one of my actions was…”

“……”

The boy mumbled, his forehead pressed to the ground.

His hands, tugging at his golden hair, were stained with blood he hadn’t yet bothered to wipe away.

“It came to me from beyond memory. You never hated me, not even once.”

Even when you were suffering from the loss of your mentor.

Rather than hating the vile disrespect I committed, you tried your hardest to understand me.

Even during the invasion, you could have fled, but you stood on the fierce battlefield, driven by the single desire to help.

I didn’t know it.

You were always there beside me, a steadfast ally.

It was incomprehensible, your devotion to such a dimwit.

It was an undeserved grace.

But instead of repaying you for it…

“…I pushed you to the edge of the cliff. I almost killed you like that.”

Between the stammered words, a corner of raw emotion rippled.

Tears were welling and falling, repeating their cycle.

Were the tears that Alan shed now from sadness?

Or from guilt?

Or was it fear?

I watched the glistening dew on the boy’s eyes and spoke to myself.

“I don’t ask for forgiveness… no, I don’t think I deserve it. I just wanted to apologize. For all the sins I committed… For the past when I tormented you…”

“……”

“I’ll do anything. Anything that might alleviate your sorrow, even a little.”

Alan’s voice cracked, conveying his will.

I sat there silently, just looking down at the figure of the boy who lay prostrate.

I knew this situation, all of it, was going to unfold like this from the beginning.

But now that it’s actually here, I felt complicated emotions.

I decided to embrace all of my past, and that meant I didn’t hate Alan the way I once did.

But it was true, a part of that bitter feeling still lingered.

“Hmm…”

However, just because I was hurting from yesterday.

It was foolish to turn my back on tomorrow.

The present given in life is so precarious that people must use yesterday as a stepping stone to stand toward tomorrow.

Perhaps revenge.

Maybe forgiveness.

If those kinds of options were lying scattered at my feet.

For a better future, and for a better self, the word I needed to pick up was decided.

“Can you really do anything?”

“…Yes.”

“How can you answer like that without knowing what I might ask? Would you obey even if I told you to draw your sword on your friends right now?”

“I know… that you’re not the kind of person to give such an order.”

Because the Master is a kind person.

To Alan’s voice, which added that as he bowed his head, I let out a low groan.

He definitely seemed to have come after thinking a lot.

Perhaps the memory of our minds being linked through ‘Soul Link’ remained strong.

Even in the original story, Alan at this point often showed an immature side, but he wasn’t evil.

No matter what, he was the ‘protagonist’ of the world.

Meaning, he wasn’t the type of person who was beyond redemption.

Surely, behind the apology he was giving now, there must have been many days of reflection.

Because he wasn’t the type to speak empty words.

‘I should forgive him.’

Of course, I wasn’t thinking of accepting his apology right now.

Beyond the simple issue of my feelings, this incident was clearly going to be good fertilizer.

This event shouldn’t just end as a tragedy born of misunderstanding.

It needed to become the foundation for Alan to contemplate his own thinking and achieve mental growth.

From now on, many dangers will come to the Empire.

The Seekers, the Order, the Demon King’s Army.

In order to fully protect what is ours from cunning enemies, remaining a child like he is now won’t be enough.

He needed to quickly be reborn as the ‘true hero’ that I had admired in the original story.

“Alan.”

“Yes.”

“Join Sentinel.”

Alan Reinhardt. The only one who can stop the Demon King’s resurrection.

I decided to take him in.

“I will teach you the sword. I’ll make you an unbreakable hero, so you can have a future where you lose nothing.”

If I raise this kid right.

I’ll be able to escape the foreseen future, and prevent more misfortune than in the original story.

So until the time comes when this kid can properly play the hero, I intend to keep him by my side and drive him like crazy.

Just like my father in my past life did to me.

People get stronger the more they’re hammered.

Alan looked like he didn’t understand, his eyes blank,

but soon nodded without any particular question.

“If that is what you wish, Master… I shall follow.”

“Training will be harsh.”

“I will endure it.”

“From now on, call me Teacher.”

“Yes, Teacher.”

And so, a usable asset and the key to unlocking the future was in my grasp.

Any lingering bad feelings, I could work them out by beating him to a pulp every day under the guise of sparring.

I muttered inwardly and let out a smirk.

Perhaps, this was the moment that the second punching bag, following in the footsteps of the golden sun, was born.