242: How dare you (5)

“Umm…”

Joshua who was receiving the cold gaze from his daughter faltered.

Although the expression on his face was normal, because of his blunt personality, he wasn’t the kind to show his expressions well in the first place.

But Joseph, who had known Joshua for long, knew that the Sword Master was a bit upset now.

‘His eyes seem to be trembling a lot?’

It wasn’t because of the battle. Sure, the excitement of the battle still didn’t leave the body of the two Sword masters. But this… this wasn’t that.

Of course, his reaction wasn’t important at all to Ilya Lindsay.

“…”

She just kept glaring at her father.

“…”

And then she looked at Airn Pareira who had fallen to the floor.

Seeing Ilya like that, the entire hall turned silent due to the mood.

It felt like the air turned heavy and they couldn’t speak because of the atmosphere.

Joshua’s heart sank as he saw this. He opened his mouth and said.

“Daughter. So, this… that, you realize it, right? It was just a normal match. Your friend wanted to show off his achievements and I agreed to it, and… we each did our best.”

“…”

“And then it became a little overheated. A little. That is all.”

“It is fine for Airn to be doing his best, but why should father be doing his best?”

Ilya’s expression was still cold. And she was now calling her dad, ‘father’.

Joshua realized it right away, and tried to justify his actions in order to calm his daughter’s heart.

“No, when I said I did my best, I didn’t mean I fought with my full limit. I used just enough to tackle Airn and bring out his power. As a senior swordsman, and as a mentor… yeah… like that.”

“Didn’t you use the final form of the Sky Sword?”

“…”

“That, well, as you can see, I got lost a bit in the duel towards the end. I didn’t think straight, but…no one was hurt. And well, so… right… I believed and trusted Airn. I had the confidence that he could withstand the attack and he did a great job too. Right, he was great. I didn’t expect him to grow so much in such a short time. It was great. Amazing. I mean it.”

Seeing Joshua Lindsay praise Airn, the people of Joseph Swordsmanship school were dazed.

Joshua Lindsay, someone who was known for being blunt, cool-headed and was infamous for his reprimanding personality, was actually praising someone.

How was he able to compliment a man so much?

Of course, it made sense that he praised Airn who was so amazing, but…

‘Something…’

‘Feels off from the previous atmosphere.’

Until the last minute, they were swordsmen whose blood was boiling for action, and the excitement would have reached their heads.

But not now.

It was all gone.

Of course, that didn’t mean this situation was uninteresting.

They all decided to enjoy the rare sight, and they looked at the father and daughter duo.

“We’ll talk later.”

However, Ilya cut off the conversation with her father.

The servants of the family had carried Airn, who lost consciousness on a stretcher, and moved him to the infirmary.

Ilya Lindsay, also left with them, clinging close to Airn. Her eyes were completely different from how she looked at Joshua.

“We should go too.”

“Huh! He will be fine, right?”

“Of course, he will be fine. You don’t believe in my brother?”

“I believe him! Airn is the best!”

Kirill and Lulu followed.

Before leaving, they stared at Joshua Lindsay for a moment.

‘Did you have to go that far?’

It looked like they were asking Joshua that question.

“Hm. Hmm. This is quite rude.”

“…”

“As the head of the house, I apologize for causing a bit of a fuss in front of the guests. Then… I will see you all later. Ah, The Joseph Swordsmanship school’s headmaster! Thank you for coming. Bill too,… no, no. We will talk later. My head hurts so I need to rest for a bit. Everyone please forgive me.”

“Yes, please go rest.”

“Right.”

“Go in.”

And so, Joshua, Ilya and Airn all left the place.

The only ones in the hall were the guests and the servants rushed in quickly to attend to them.

“We will take you to your rooms.”

“… right. Right.”

Everyone nodded their heads.

In their minds, they were still in shock from the match they saw.

‘It was amazing.’

‘That young man must be the rumored Airn Pareira. Well, if you think about it, a lot of things matched with the rumors that were going around, so why didn’t I realize it earlier?’

‘The battle between Sword Masters… it was so much better than I thought.’

Since they were guests, they couldn’t do more than just watching it from the sidelines.

Some of them even had abilities beyond that of Experts.

But even for them, today’s match came as a shock. It was like a legendary clash between heroes.

However, there was another person who was even more shocked than them.

It was Joseph.

‘I… what have I been doing until now?’

Most of the young swordsmen who were present there were focused completely on Airn Pareira.

He, on the other hand, was greatly stimulated by the status of Joshua Lindsay.

It was still playing out in his mind. The slowly rising aura in the form of storms.

Joshua looking down from above.

There, he looked like the ruler of the sky, with an overbearing figure, and shot down towards his opponent.

‘Lord Lindsay, despite his age nearing the 60s… he still has the passion and fighting spirit of a youth.’

It was like he had no worries at all; as if he had never been hurt.

There was a time when Joseph looked forward and ran like that. It was when he dreamt of being the best swordsman on the continent, and kept training and trying each day.

But it wasn’t like that now.

After witnessing Julius Hul whom he had met by chance.

After experiencing a defeat from Joshua Lindsay, whom he thought would be below him.

His flames died down. The passion which seemed to burn everything shrunk.

But it was not like that for Joshua Lindsay.

Despite being blocked by the walls of the three strongest in the continent, he was still himself.

Despite feeling the same limitation and frustrations as Joseph did, he still didn’t stop trying.

The last form of the Sky Sword could be said to have been the accumulation of all the years he had spent training so faithfully.

‘… maybe ten years from now, the current holder of the title of the 3rd strongest would become the 4th.’

Putting Joshua Lindsay to a higher position in his mind, Joseph moved to his dorm.

… feeling a little warmer than before.

“Hmm.”

“…”

“Huh.”

“…”

“Ha!”

“Hey, Sir Bill Stanon…”

“Ah? You were still here? It is fine, it is fine. Everyone, don’t worry and get back to your work.”

Bill Stanton who spoke to those around him, fell into thought again.

Of course, no servants in the Lindsay mansion would look down on anyone, especially not on Bill Stanton despite the scene which he had made in the beginning.

Holding his breath for a long time, he sighed.

‘It was such a great match!’

To be honest, he didn’t understand a lot of things that had happened during the match. Even though he was at the peak of Expert, he couldn’t grasp them.

They didn’t seem like Sword Masters to him, but people who had reached a higher level than they did.

However, that didn’t mean that he gained nothing from them.

The limits which swordsmen were known to have. These two had broken it at the same time and Bill Stanton’s horizons had widened.

And that alone was a huge benefit.

“Haha, I feel good.”

Bill Stanton laughed.

It was a satisfying sight, and a satisfying day.

And he had no intention of stopping here either.

He never had any intention of letting the luck of the day, which was like a gift, leave. He planned to get close to Airn and his companions.

‘I have to get close, so that I will have a chance… but the problem is that my first impression wasn’t very good.’

Bill Stanton frowned.

Threatening with a confession?

That wasn’t a good way. And he knew that a forced relationship wouldn’t last long, and that having a good base for a relationship would make it last longer.

Airn, Kirill and the black cat.

Thinking of the easiest target of the three, he put his hands on his forehead and smiled.

“This… will be fine? Haha, hahaha… hahahaha.”

“…”

He laughed, got annoyed and then laughed again.

However, no one thought it was strange. Even the servants had indifferent expressions.

It looked like they were used to this side of Bill Stanton which they had seen a lot.

“…”

Airn was still unconscious.

However, there was no problem.

In his deeply submerged consciousness, his thoughts flowed in the direction of the match with the Lord of the Lindsay family.

The power of the Sky Sword that he couldn’t previously imagine.

The sword that he used against Joshua was not that strong.

‘Could I have prevented that?’

With a stronger power?

Or maybe with a new technique?

Thoughts like those only lasted for a little while before they disappeared.

Airn kept thinking.

It was then that he realized that he was already full.

He could make great dishes with the ingredients he had now. What he lacked was something in himself, and not the items that he possessed.

‘Let’s go back one by one.’

He had to reflect on the past.

From back when he was a prospective trainee to the match he had with the Lord. One by one, he recalled them, all the skills he had honed and mastered for this long.

The concept of Aura.

The Five Spirits Divine Technique.

The Sword of Heart.

The Sword of the Holy Kingdom.

After recalling all that he learned, he then checked on the other things he was dealing with more closely.

In order to exert more power, he smoothly thought of each thing.

But he didn’t do it for long since this wasn’t a sorcery world.

He had just briefly fainted for a while.

‘Right. I lost consciousness. But why?’

Airn grasped the situation. However, he was confused.

Unlike before when he had clear thoughts, now, everything seemed blurred.

And Ignet’s name came to his mind.