NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3 - I Should Use the Reverse-Edged Sword, Right
“……”
“Damn? Has this bastard gone crazy from the morning, are you out of your mind?”
Andrew stands up from his seat with a flushed face and walks towards me.
Even now, I was in a very confused state with memories of my past life flooding my mind.
So much so that I couldn’t properly respond to Andrew approaching me or the gazes of the family members looking at me with surprised eyes…
At this moment, I needed time to organize my thoughts much more than breakfast.
“Hey, I’m asking if you’ve gone crazy. Did you get hit on the head by Lady Alice’s bodyguard? Is that why you’ve lost it? Or have you gone mad because of that cursed thing in your hand?”
“……Hmm, hmm… I showed an unsightly behavior for a moment. I apologize.”
Ignoring Andrew who had come right up to my face looking as if he might kill me at any moment,
I bowed my head to the rest of the family members sitting at the table.
At least, I was able to regain my composure again.
However,
Andrew, standing in front of me, seemed to think my response was ignoring him, and he started to rage even more, raising his voice.
“This bastard… Can’t you see me? You’re ignoring your brother while he’s talking-”
“Brother? Did you want me to treat you like a brother? Do you want me to call you brother?”
“This… this bastard…”
Andrew could only fume, unable to continue speaking.
And for good reason,
He had never once acknowledged me as a member of this family.
An illegitimate child born from father’s affair.
If we were to assign blame, there was only one person to resent for all aspects,
not just for my birth but also for my living in this house.
Father, Baron David Castillo
However.
It was unimaginable for family members, led by Andrew, to voice complaints to father, who was the head of the family, a powerful swordsman, and had a fiery temper.
Therefore,
That deep and old anger was solely directed at me.
The contempt and harassment I had endured for a long time,
in a way, more than half of it should have been father’s share.
“Andrew, that’s enough, go back to your seat”
Father’s low and heavy order pierces into Andrew, who was breathing heavily with shoulders trembling, unable to contain his anger.
“Ah, Father! Didn’t you hear it too? This… this bastard spewing profanity at the sacred family meal, this ill-mannered punk-”
That’s when it happened.
Andrew, while scolding, swung his hand towards the back of my head
Now that father had intervened,
He couldn’t escalate the situation any further
So he tried to at least hit my head, hoping to create an unsightly scene of me sitting down clutching my head.
However,
I could clearly see each of his movements.
Just from the slight trembling of Andrew’s shoulder muscles, I could predict that he would swing his palm towards the back of my head.
‘So this is what talent is. Geez. It’s ridiculous.’
Even in that split second, I was leisurely enough to be lost in various thoughts.
‘I can see it, the sword path that can avoid this foolish attack and take a life in one stroke…’
That’s right.
I felt that I had reached in an instant a level that I couldn’t even come close to despite over a decade of grueling training.
Dozens, hundreds of movements to avoid the attack and cut off the opponent’s breath,
were automatically drawn in my mind without even trying.
‘It’s ridiculous. But I can’t turn the dining room into a sea of blood’
After finishing my thought, I lightly twisted my body and gently raised the sword in my right hand.
Bang
“Kyaaaa!!!”
Lady Cordelia’s piercing scream filled the dining room, and Adrian had already stood up, ready to leap onto the table.
In this space, only father remained seated with a rather complex expression.
“An… Andrew! Andrew, my son! Wh-what should we do, Andrew…”
Lady Cordelia, who came running with a scream, hugged Andrew who was sitting on the floor, clutching his hand and groaning in pain.
“This bastard who deserves to die dared to… to Andrew’s hand…”
It didn’t take long for both Andrew, who was in pain, and Lady Cordelia, who was hugging him in anger, to feel that something was strange.
Because not a single drop of blood was coming from Andrew’s hand that had collided with the sword.
“Ugh… ugh… Mother… Mother…”
“Brother, not only did you swing your hand first, but now you’re sobbing unsightly in mother’s arms… Isn’t it shameful? Shouldn’t you apologize like I did-”
Whoosh
Lady Cordelia, who had stood up, swung her hand roughly towards my cheek.
For me, who had easily avoided Andrew’s hand, Lady Cordelia’s slap felt slower than a turtle’s walk, and a boring attack.
But,
I didn’t avoid it.
Lady Cordelia’s hand barely reached my cheek after a long time.
Slap
“You garbage-like bastard, how dare you to Andrew! Do you know what you’re doing…”
Lady Cordelia, who had slapped my cheek hard unable to contain her anger,
lost her composure and started berating me like a madwoman, but suddenly came to her senses.
She had been taking the position of caring for me like the other siblings in front of father all this time.
She lost her reason in a moment of anger,
but she must have come to her senses at the calm gaze father was sending from across the room.
“Brother Andrew’s hand should be fine. Well, there might be a slight fracture, but I didn’t swing the reverse-edged sword, I just held it up.”
“Re… reverse-edged sword? What’s that-”
“Ah… Ah…”
Only then did I realize that I had unknowingly revealed the identity of this sword.
“Let’s end the meal. Eden. You may go back now.”
In the chaotic dining room, only father’s voice was quietly underlying.
I lightly bowed my head to say goodbye and was about to open the dining room door to leave.
However,
Father’s voice once again stopped my footsteps.
“Eden. Leave that blasphemous thing behind.”
“Are you crazy, young master? Are you in your right mind?! You’re already despised and insulted by the family members, why did you do such an absurd thing! If I’m not there for even a moment, you cause trouble like this… Young master shouldn’t go anywhere alone. From now on, I’ll have to keep a closer eye on you-”
“It hasn’t even been half a day since you shouted that you’d never serve me again and left”
“Th-that’s! Young master, where do you get off talking back!”
“…You’re the maid and I’m the young master, yet you’re talking about talking back…”
“That may be true, but… anyway! First, are you hurt anywhere? Let me see quickly! Andrew young master is one of the top ten swordsmen in the family knight order, how did you… Oh? Come to think of it… How did you do that, young master?”
Leaving Amy who was making a fuss and examining my body, I once again fell into thought.
Reverse-edged sword.
When I held that reverse-edged sword that father had received and drew it from its scabbard, a large amount of information suddenly poured into my mind.
I don’t remember everything clearly,
but for now, the person I am
‘Castillo Eden’ was a concept-driven character created by my past life self.
The ‘reverse-edged sword’, a fictional weapon from a manga I was deeply into
I wanted to create a character who was a master of that reverse-edged sword and write a romantic story…
I don’t remember how I ended up in this world,
but this world is the world inside the novel, and ‘Eden’ is not my original self, but a character I created.
“—So from now on, even when you go to the dining room, with me, young master? Are you listening to me, young master?”
Amy’s voice, which had been pouring out endlessly, woke me from my thoughts.
“Amy, could you find Raymond for me? I have something to check…”
“Why Raymond all of a sudden… Alright. For now, stay put in your room. Don’t go out and cause trouble again, okay?”
Leaving words of caution, Amy left the room to find Raymond.
Watching Amy’s retreating figure, I felt my complicated feelings quickly becoming peaceful.
If I’ve been incarnated into a character I created… there’s no one to blame, is there…
“Young master Eden, you looked for me at the crack of dawn~”
With a face full of smiles, Raymond greets me playfully.
Even though I’m an illegitimate child, I’m still undeniably the son of the head of the family
While everyone in the family, without exception, ignores and badmouths me, they still use formal speech in front of me, if only for formality’s sake
Raymond was different.
Having trained together for a long time, we had become close enough to call each other friends.
“I want to try something, let’s spar”
“Suddenly? Well, there’s a baseless rumor going around the castle that you smashed Andrew’s hand this morning… Did something happen? If it’s sparring, I’m always welcome, but…”
“Shut up and come in”
“Oho… You’re overconfident, Young master Eden… heheh”
“Hurry”
“Here I come!”
Raymond, holding a wooden sword, charged at a terrifyingly fast speed.
I waited for that feeling I had in the dining room earlier
The feeling of seeing through the opponent’s movements and automatically coming up with the optimal attack route.
But
Thud
“Oh… oh… Eden… Eden, are you okay, man? Why did you just stand still when the sword was coming? Is your skill going backwards?”
It was too fast to even think of reacting.
Even though it was Raymond’s wooden sword, who had the lowest skill among the apprentice knights…
As I fell to the ground after being hit in the side, I could once again be certain of my vaguely returned memories.
‘Reverse-edged sword… I need to hold that… damn…’
“Raymond, you bad bastard, how dare you to our young master!!”
Amy was running towards us from a distance, spewing curses.
Raymond looked at me with desperate eyes as if asking for help with a frightened face, then dropped the wooden sword and ran away.