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Published at 15th of April 2022 06:57:25 AM


Chapter 23

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“I’ve been through all sorts of things as a leader.”

After hearing a brief report on the subject, Giryu sat in a chair and spoke.

His voice was frighteningly cold.

She could tell just by hearing his voice. Giryu was holding back his anger.

“I’ve never seen a case like this before. I hope it’s the first since the establishment of the Knights Order.”

Purple eyes glanced at the three of them side by side.

“Peon.”

“……”

“My disappointment is so great that I have nothing to say. We’ll talk about this later in private.”

That’s all the commander said for starters.

What he had to say to Peon was so long that he thought it would drag out until tomorrow morning.

Giryu sent Peon outside.

Since there was a fight, it would be no good putting the two together.

The room was really quiet when Peon left.

Unlike the expressionless Judith, Louis seemed more nervous when facing Giryu.

Giryu opened his mouth.

“Dame Judith, Sir Louis. Should I praise you for not drawing your swords?”

“…I’m sorry.”

Louis apologized reflexively.

Louis, who had never been hit or had hit, was particularly badly injured.

On the other hand, Judith was accustomed to a tough fight.

She kept her eyes down with a soulless gaze. She had an attitude that said she would not reflect even if she died soon.

“It is the first time that knights who have to trust and rely on each other are having a fisfight in the middle of the palace. Are you guys backstreet thugs?”

“I’m sorry to have caused such a disturbance, but.”

The next moment, not only Louis but also Giryu were startled.

Judith rolled up her coat uniform with her fingertips, revealing her bare skin. Her abdomen was stained like moldy bread.

The moment he saw the blue mark on her bare body, Giryu whitened as if his brain had been washed with bleach.

“It was a training to one-sidedly assault their subordinates.”

“Judith!”

“I know no other Knights have ever done this.”

Struggling, Louis somehow managed to hide Judith’s bare skin.

No matter how bad this situation is, he can’t believe she’s showing her bare skin to others!

Louis’ face flamed red. He struggled to get Judith’s hand down somehow.

Meanwhile, Giryu and Judith faced each other for a long time.

Giryu did not make a fuss, asking her to take her clothes off or whether she had painted anything.

However, when he saw her busted lips, he bit the inside of his mouth.

“…If that statement is true, I will hold an investigation and hold Peon and all other accomplices guilty.”

After a while, the words that came out of Kiryu’s mouth were colder than Judith had expected.

“However, whether you guys were justified in trying to resolve it with violence is another matter.”

“…….”

“The aetheric force can break a person’s bones when you hit them with a bare fist. Is that how you choose to do it?”

Judith’s face was briefly tinged with embarrassment.

“As for the unreasonable assault, the dame could have told me and Deschamps. You’ve seen all week that the door to the manager’s room doesn’t open that hard.”

Judith could not object.

What Giryu said was true.

The commander told her to come to him anytime if anything happened.

Even while working in the commander’s office, Judith witnessed firsthand how open-minded Giryu is to listening to people.

He even took the time to watch Violet’s training as well as her, a new knight.

It is clear that he would have listened to her.

“Dame Judith. It seems to have become a habit of using your fists, and making people shut up when they bother you… Did you ever think of any other way before you fight it out?”

“……”

There was nothing to say about the question.

In the end, Judith said the same thing as Louis.

“…No. I’m sorry.”

Judith then apologized.

Giryu’s words could not be denied.

Fists were faster than the law. That’s a reason to avoid using them.

**1

It was bothersome to accuse him of assault and to try for the case to not be dismissed.

It was easier for her to call Peon a motherfucker, so she just did that.

Follow the rules, and don’t get attention if it’s not your business.

It was none of her business if the incoming junior suffered the same violence.

It’ll be fixed one day.

This is what newbies are like.

It’s not that she hadn’t thought about talking to Giryu, but it was just annoying. Getting caught up in such a mess.

So she moved on.

It’s okay to avoid poop because it’s dirty, and stepping on it makes your shoes dirty.

For her, Peon was no better than a shoe. Peon was not as good as a pair of straw shoes.

Another way? A smooth solution?

She didn’t even consider that in the first place.

There were a lot of people like Peon.

If she had time to beat up such people one by one, it would just be better to go through wanted flyers.

“Is this the way the dame said they would live like a knight?”

“……”

“If so, I am disappointed.”

Giryu said nothing else.

Judith knew for the first time that it could be painful to be ignored by others.

‘You will live a life where you don’t know the values that a knight should pursue by becoming a knight.’

The greatest principle of an imperial knight is to raise a sword for the imperial family.

And more importantly, the knight’s oath is to protect the weak.

At last Judith felt it.

She hasn’t raised a sword for the weak in 26 years. She always used her talent for simpler reasons.

Protecting her pride first.

Crushing everything in front of her to be rich and strong.

26 years of flattering when necessary, pretending not to see injustice, and giving up thinking directly.

She decided not to live the same way.

But when she came to her senses, she made the same choice again.

Habitual choices and rationalizations.

It was because of that, Giryu’s disappointment, who smiled, praised and acknowledged her, was deeply ingrained in her mind.

“It is true that training that involves assaulting subordinates shouldn’t have occurred. I sincerely apologize for neglecting to manage the senior knights.”

“No, it’s fine, sir.”

“No, it’s fine, sir.”

Louis and Judith answered at the same time.

Giryu said without looking at the two of them.

“As for the assault of your superior, I have to take into account that I am also responsible for the lack of monitoring. However, I will hold you accountable for the riots during training, damage to the training ground, and ignoring the rules of the Red Knights. Both of you will have a two-month salary reduction.”

“Thank you.”

“……”

Louis was truly relieved.

Assaulting a superior is downright extreme.

But it’s a simple pay cut, not a suspension or dismissal.

It was a simple disciplinary action that made him wonder if it was okay to move on.

Disruption of hierarchy, such as senior assault, leads to disobedience of orders.

This was fatal for the knights who had to carry out their duties according to orders.

I was lucky to have stopped at this level.

Of course, Judith thought the exact opposite.

‘What did you just say? Pay cut?’

A pay cut!

Judith had never had a pay cut in her life.

For her, dismissal and salary cuts were the same. It was the same thing if lightning struck while earning a living.

If a real lightning bolt had fallen before her eyes, she wouldn’t have been so surprised. She couldn’t laugh at all.

‘I shouldn’t have endured it, damn it!’

She realized late, and the reflections came rushing in. Louis nudged her.

She clenched her teeth.

“……thank you, sir…….”

“Let’s go out.”

Louis dragged Judith, who seemed to have a lot to say.

Perhaps it contained the anger that her pay had been cut, for the door was closed very harshly.

Peon was the next person to open the door.

It took a long time for Giryu to speak.

Peon is one of the oldest active knights in the Knights Order.

He still couldn’t believe that the person he thought would teach them one more thing than others took the lead in the assault case.

A silence where you could hear a mouse pass continued for a long time.

Eventually, Peon spoke first.

He held onto the fact that Louis’ expression, who had just come out, was bright.

“Did you give him a light punishment, such as probation or salary cuts?”

“If it weren’t for you, there wouldn’t have been a need to do that. The biggest problem is you.”

Giryu drew a line.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

“Do you think I have nothing to say?”

Peon asked back, his eyes looking elsewhere.

“Do you like that aether master that much? Don’t you feel that you’ve treated her so special even though she’s a new recruit who just came in and in a few days has become so arrogant? And you’re just going to cut her salary?”

“……”

“As long as you have talent, is everything okay? So did that bitch rush to the commander’s office and say something you’d like to hear? Like how you gave her a private lesson in the training hall?”

“I hear your excuse very well. I heard something about my subordinate, what was it? Favoritism? Pay cut?”

Giryu’s fury exploded.

He wanted to go back to the old days, no more, no less. He wanted to go back and bury himself for now.

What’s next?

He wanted to push Peon to the ground.

He thought it was natural to get jealous because of outstanding skills. Because Giryu himself has been receiving such gazes all along.

Giryu judged everything by his own standards.

However, this is the result of thinking that she would be able to overcome and be recognized by her fighting spirit.

“It’s obvious you will receive good treatment if you’re talented ! Is this the academy? Even if there is a real difference, you have to treat everyone equally. Do you want to say that in the commander’s office? Don’t you think that with your years as a knight you should know this already?”

The moment he saw Judith’s  bruised stomach, Giryu sincerely regretted it.

Pretending to be fair or not, he’d rather keep it to himself.

“If I had favoritism, this wouldn’t have happened. Yeah, let’s say that’s the case. What are you going to do?”

Giryu’s gaze towards Peon was as if he was going to eat him alive.

Peon was perplexed.

That answer was not what he wanted. It wasn’t what he expected either.

Slowly, Peon’s face grew red.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been disappointed by someone like this, so if Judith becomes a traitor to the world, will things get better for you?”

It was painful to look at him wondering if this is all it accounted for.

“Did you think your position would be saved if you broke and cut off a new knight? Say it yourself!”

Peon couldn’t say anything.

“What you did was a one-sided assault using a hierarchy. Was it justified?”

Peon’s mouth closed at the statement.

Fairness?

If there was such a thing, he wouldn’t have even asked Frederick to lock the door.

He did not even ask his subordinate, who was a training instructor, to take a few days off.

But it was too late for him to handle it now.

In Peon’s eyes, Judith’s swordsmanship image still lingered.

Talent. That damn talent. Facing Louis and the sword, a violent talent that succeeded in training.

People are not jealous of elephants.

Elephants are always just there. Boasting a gigantic size, it just roams around.

Judith was just there too. But Peon Grand couldn’t stand it.

Jealousy is not a simple emotion.

A one-sided sense of defeat. The secret envy and the hatred entwined in it.

All that agglomeration was jealousy.

Uncontrollable jealousy pounded in Peon’s chest non-stop.

Judith was just there, but to Peon it was unbearable.

——————

TL notes ( ´ ▿ ` )

There was a phrase here that didn’t make sense to me and didn’t appear in the manhwa so I’m cutting it out sorry. If you guys know the meaning please tell me! I suppose it’s a phrase of some sorts idk: 세 치 허는 자르면 그만이다. 자 르고 나면 기껏해야 살 토박이다.




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