Chapter 88 – Taiping Yanyue

The first time Camellia saw Lancelot, no, Raven’s face in the sewers, she couldn’t believe reality. I could accept that he was dead now, and that my father, who had been trying to send me away, had reappeared. It’s not like everything in the world is unpredictable. But… he couldn’t believe that his righteous and strong father was a member of the trashy organization that had hurt Werner.

Even while Werner left for the imperial castle to reprimand the person in charge, Camellia was alone in her room, denying the reality. To think that his father, who valued peace and order so much, was in such an organization… Even if he denied it a hundred times a thousand times, the face he saw in the sewer was his father’s face. Even if he denied it ten thousand times, that voice was his father’s.

“father…”

Camellia forcibly tried to bring out the memories buried in the swamp of oblivion.

—–

In a fragrant bamboo grove, a girl and a man in oriental clothes were practicing swordsmanship.

With a hiss, the wooden sword fiercely cut through the wind and struck the straw, making a dull sound.

Camellia, a black-haired half-elf girl holding a wooden sword, looked at her father with expectant eyes. I thought that this was a success, so I had no doubt that my father would praise me because it was a skill I had succeeded in a week.

However, her father, Raven, uttered a cold word like snowflakes.

“I put too much force on my shoulders. Start over again.”

Raven slammed the ground with his wooden sword along with those words. The sound of the ground shaking was enough to make Camellia recoil, and she had no choice but to keep following the swordsmanship movements her father had taught her.

“My feet are out of balance. Start over again.”

repeated.

“Isn’t it too slow and your wrists are tired? Start over again.”

repeated again.

“It’s a total mess. It’s slow and even collapsed, but it’s empty to the side. There’s nothing to see again.”

Repeated over and over again.

“Didn’t I tell you to keep your eyes fixed? Again from the beginning.”

Camellia was tired now and her arms couldn’t move. Wielding a wooden sword with steel bars from dawn to noon without rest was harsh training for a 10-year-old child. As fierce as the wind, as flowing as water. It was not easy to learn Raven’s swordsmanship, which was as solid as the earth.

“You can give up if you don’t like it. You were the one who begged me to teach you the sword in the first place.”

Raven looked at Camellia with a disapproving face. In the first place, she had no desire to teach her daughter a sword, so Camellia was in the position of teaching her using raw herds.

“I could.”

Camellia barely stood up, using the wooden sword as a staff. He swung his sword without even resting for over six hours, and although his body and limbs trembled, he could not stop. Since he had no great talent for magic, there was no answer other than swordsmanship. However, the training conducted by his father, who reached the highest level with the sword, was not weak.

With force, he hit the straw. Then Raven sighed. For a moment, Camellia realized that she had made a mistake and was terrified. He was also afraid that the word ‘again’ would come out of Raven’s mouth.

“If you stop, it will be a success. Good job.”

Hearing those words, Camellia lay down on the ground as if it were a bed. The uniforms were soaked in sweat from the training that had been going on since dawn, and there was no strength in the body.

“Ha ha… ha… I succeeded, right…?”

“Don’t be conceited. You’ve only just learned one basic skill.”

“yes…”

Camellia said in a creeping voice. I expected that my father would praise me a little more, but I couldn’t hear anything other than that you did a good job. He had been scolded for 15 days, so he hoped for a little praise, but Raven was apathetic.

“This is the second technique.”

Raven swung the wooden sword very lightly. He must have swung it with a wooden sword, but the bundle of straw woven into the wood fell into 5 pieces and fell to the ground.

“Let’s repeat it 100 times from now on, there is no rest before that.”

Camellia, realizing that words such as exhaustion and exhaustion didn’t work, forcefully whipped her motionless body. Just before the wooden sword struck the straw, a kind voice was heard.

“Stop it, neither you nor Camellia.”

Camellia and Raven’s gaze fell on a blonde woman.

“mother!”

“Why did you come here…”

“Both of you went out early in the morning, and the sun is already in the middle of the day. What are you doing without breakfast?”

The blonde woman put her hand on her waist and got angry. In her arms was a basket full of food.

“Isabel is still training…”

“What is training, and can we starve children and train them?”

“Haa…but…”

Camellia’s mother, Isabel, was a strong woman. It means that no matter how strong her husband was, she was not a woman who would kneel down and obey.

“Light, explode and rebuke.”

Raven was almost blown away by a pillar of light that appeared out of nowhere. If he hadn’t used his wooden sword as a support, he would have been slammed into the wall.

“If you know, let’s start with breakfast… no, lunch.”

“Haa… Got it.”

Camellia sat quietly and bit into her mother’s sandwich. A sandwich containing cheese, ham, lettuce, and tomato was enough to fill a hungry child.

“My daughter, you have a lot of trouble learning swordsmanship.”

“No, mother. I don’t have magical talent like my mother or younger brother, so I have to try my best at swordsmanship.”

Isabelle was once a famous wizard. However, she fell in love with Raven and gave up all the glory, living as a housewife on a distant continent.

At the words that she should try her swordsmanship, Isabel blew honey chestnuts on Camellia’s head.

“Swordsmanship isn’t the way to choose a substitute for not being able to use magic, my daughter.”

Camellia rubbed her hair and replied.

“Yes… mother…”

Isabelle questioned Raven.

“So, did our Camellia follow the class properly?”

Camellia’s heart sank. I felt like my mother would be disappointed if I told her that I had only learned one basic thing after a week.

“I learned a basic in a week.”

“Hmm~.”

Camellia put down the sandwich she was eating. Because I didn’t want to feel the disappointed eyes of my mother and father.

“At this level, he must have some talent.”

“That’s good. One of my former students took half a year to learn a basic one, didn’t it?”

“It’s a problem because he belongs to the talented side in his own way.”

“I’m glad my daughter is a genius. That’s enough.”

Camellia was dumbfounded. I’ve never heard any compliments before. I obviously expected my parents to be disappointed, but they even praised me.

“Are you a removal genius…?”

“Haa… I didn’t tell her for fear she’d fall into arrogance, but Isabel’s all right now.”

“Ah, so what… And my daughter is not a child who will fall into conceit just because she received some compliments.”

Isabelle defended Camellia and hugged her tightly. Raven scratched her head and eventually sat down in front of Camellia and picked up a piece of sandwich.

“I won’t use the word genius. I don’t want to insult your performance of training non-stop for a week with the word talent.”

Camellia was dumbfounded. Because the blunt father suddenly praised his talent.

“But if you continue with the same attitude as today, you have the potential to become a better swordsman than me.”

“Is that enough…?”

“And when that day comes, I will hand over my sword.”

Camellia stared at the sword that Raven always wore around her waist. It was a famous sword made to be used only to defeat evil and protect the weak.

“So keep trying.”

To Raven’s blunt words as always, Camellia was able to respond with a cheerful smile after a long time.

“Yes! I will try, Father!”

It was a very short break, but the memory of that day never left Camellia’s mind.

—–

Looking at the sword inherited from her father, Camellia carefully stroked it. I couldn’t believe that my father, who destroyed evil and protected the weak… joined such an organization. The reunion with his father, whom he had been searching for all his life, was brutal.

“Father… If you… want to harm that child, I…”

[There is nothing I want to talk about with you.]

The face of his father who has changed so much, and the meaning of Werner who has grown so much in himself.

Camellia was still conflicted.