Kays Translations

Chapter 115: Overriding the Past

The table on the second floor. Looking back, we have invited many people here and received many orders to make weapons. I never expected to receive the Marquis.

Lutz and Claudia sit side by side, and Marquis Beowulf Eldenberger sits on the opposite side. Two guard knights were glaring at Lutz and the others a little away from the table. The remaining knights are fortifying the entrance.

Claudia, who knows the circumstances of both sides and is good at putting things together, talked about Lutz's father. When he finished listening, Lutz glared at Beowulf, forgetting the difference in status.

“So you banished my father…!”

I heard that my father had a terrible experience at the marquis house, but I didn't know exactly where. Could it be that what is in front of him is his father's enemy?

The escort knights also braced themselves in response to Lutz's murderous intent.

In the midst of the volatile atmosphere, Claudia waved her hand as if it was a misunderstanding.

“Lutz-kun, it was his brother who got drunk and broke his katana , and it was his father who kicked him out. Not Beowulf-sama.”

"He's also a relative...!"

I couldn't just yell at Claudia and take it out on her out of the blue, so I managed to suppress my anger as I said. To such Lutz, Beowulf whispered,

"......I'm sorry."

He apologized.

......Did I mishear you? An apology from a marquis, an aristocrat among aristocrats, who thinks of commoners as nothing more than worker ants and craftsmen as tools?

It is impossible. It is still more realistic to be told that a horse is playing the violin.

Beowulf continued to confess his sins to Lutz, who was dumbfounded with his mouth half-open.

“I couldn’t stop those two. Even though I couldn’t help it from my standpoint, I should have been able to help Rufus in private. I was too young to think of that. By the time I realized that I should have done so, he had already disappeared.”

If Rufus continued to be an excellent swordsmith after that, it would have been easy to find him. However, he could not return to his trade union and lived a meager life as a blacksmith in a small village. It would have been impossible to find him in another territory.

He, too, had lived with regret all his life. Thinking of this, the anger seemed to fade from Lutz's mind.

"There is one thing I would like to ask you."

"What?"

"Did you kill your brother?"

It was a straight-ball, overly rude question, even though it was a semi-public secret. The knights glared at Lutz and put their hands on the hilt of his sword.

"Hold back"

Beowulf held back the knights. It was a voice filled with the dignity of a great nobleman. The knights removed their hands from their swords and assumed an erect and immovable position as if they had swallowed sticks.

Beowulf pondered for a moment before opening his mouth gravely.

"Yes, I killed him."

"... Then you are not my father's enemy. I should assume that you have settled the matter."

Lutz stood up and took out an object wrapped in layers of cloth from a chest. When he unfolded it on the table, he saw that it was a broken sword.

"Oh, this is...!"

Beowulf's eyes widened. The blade he had failed to grasp more than twenty years ago was now in front of him. Beowulf's whole body was enveloped by a mysterious feeling of excitement, as if the regret that had been accumulating in the depths of his heart for so long was about to be lifted.

"You didn't throw it away."

"My father said this was a reminder to himself."

"Did he know it wasn't a perfect blade?"

Rufus himself was aware of the drawback of this sword, which was its fragility. Still, he never regained the passion he had lost, and he didn't feel like making something better.

No matter what kind of great sword he struck, if the buyer did not have the eyes to see it, there was nothing he could do. He despaired of the nobles.

“Lutz, strike the sword for me.”

Lutz nodded silently at Beowulf's renewed request.

"I had ordered a sharp katana anyway, but it's a little different. What I'm looking for is the continuation of what happened that day. I want to see what would have happened if Rufus had served the family and made an improved version of that sword.”

"Let's do it, with everything we've got."

He has a good eye. Beowulf had no idea of the world of craftsmanship, but this man had a face that could handle a big job.

I felt it would be tactless to repeat myself too many times,

"Please."

After saying that, Beowulf left the workshop. The knights with puzzled expressions ran after their master.

"It's a strange story, isn't it?

Claudia said amusingly in the strangely quiet room.

"It's a job my father left behind. Let's do it properly."

Lutz turned his attention to the sword on the table. If his father had not been immediately expelled from the Marquis' family and given another chance, what kind of katana would he have used?

I'm sure he could have done something wonderful, the marquis family should have welcomed my father with open hands. I will prove it.

"Oh yeah, speaking of unfinished business......"

Lutz muttered as if he remembered. Claudia makes a suspicious face. She had no idea what else was there.

"You’re home, and you've been putting off your kisses."

Claudia stiffened for a while, not knowing what was being said. She eventually understood the meaning of the words, and, in astonishment, pulled his face closer and said,

"... you really are an idiot"

"I'm aware of that."

Lutz's unrelenting mouth was sealed by cherry-red lips.

The next morning, Lutz sat in front of the high-temperature furnace with fatigue that wasn't unpleasant at all.

From now on, I will continue the day when my father was exiled. It was a time when Lutz had not even been born yet, but for some reason it feels very nostalgic.

My father made a katana that was only after sharpness and disregarded durability. A katana is a weapon, and if it breaks at the critical moment, it cannot be trusted. It is not a weapon if it does not endure, as in the case of a warrior's blade.

It will not break or bend even if you fail to cut it or slam it against a rock; that is how a katana should be.

"I will clear your regret now."

Lutz picked up his father's broken katana and threw it into the furnace after staring at it with a lonely look.

Melt it down, crush it into pieces of iron, and shape the sword again.

Until now, every time I was troubled, I would collect my thoughts while looking at this blade, but that is no longer the case.

“I will make the best katana I can. Then you will be recognized as one of us, Father."

Lutz spoke to the swaying flames.

The flame does not answer anything. That's fine, just stare at the flame to interact with it.

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