Chapter 119: A Display of Skills?

Patrick looked round the training area in the back garden. The place where the archery butts stood in a row; the area where the wreckage of the earth walls Royce had made still remained; the swordsmanship area, where the ground had been levelled.

“……Would it be all right to train here of a morning?”

“Yes. Of course, please do. You’re welcome even now.”

Lewis answered at once. Patrick nodded with a wry smile.

“I’ve already changed for dinner, though. I’ve been sitting in a carriage the whole way, so I would like to move about a bit.”

(I wonder what sort of training he does. ……I don’t know whether it’s all right to ask.)

Sword, bow, or magic — training didn’t necessarily mean training a skill, but if he asked what sort of training, it might be taken as asking about the man’s skill.

Ren didn’t really understand the manners of a gathering of nobles, but he thought that asking about someone’s skill without good reason was probably rude.

The other party was the Margrave’s son. Far above a baronial house in rank.

Since he didn’t really understand the manners, he didn’t know what it was safe to say.

“What’s your skill?”

Yuan asked Patrick out of nowhere. Ren was aghast. Lewis put a hand lightly on Yuan’s head.

“Yuan, I think that’s rude. ……I apologise for my brother.”

“Eh?”

Lewis reproved Yuan and apologised to Patrick. Yuan looked blank, his eyes darting about. He looked at Liese as though asking for an explanation.

Liese drew her eyebrows down at the ends, a little troubled.

“You were taught this the other day, weren’t you? With skills, it’s good manners to give your own skill first. And it’s also manners not to ask someone of higher rank yourself. Let’s apologise to Lord Patrick.”

“……I’m sorry……”

Yuan hunched his back a little and apologised in a thin voice. Patrick showed him a bright, cheerful smile.

“I don’t mind. But there’ll be people who don’t want to say. My skill — it’s the Swordsmanship skill.”

“Eh?”

Yuan’s eyes went wide with surprise.

“I’ve got the Swordsmanship skill too!”

Tina popped her head out from behind Patrick.

“Ehh……”

“Yuan-kun has Swordsmanship as well, doesn’t he. We’re the same!”

“U……, yes……”

Yuan looked somehow shaken, and stood there rather dazed.

Lewis gave Yuan a light tap on the back.

“Yuan, why don’t you ask him about how he trains?”

“Ah……, yes……”

Yuan’s spirits suddenly went out of him and he dropped his head. Lewis looked at him for a moment, then raised his face.

“My skill is Shield Techniques.”

“Oh! I’d like to have a bout with someone who does Shield Techniques.”

“By all means. ……Yuan, join us too, if you like. Well, Yuan? How about it?”

“Yes……”

Yuan answered in a thin voice.

Liese took half a step forward, as though shielding Yuan now that his spirits had gone.

“I have the Wind Magic skill.”

“Ah, a magic type, then.”

“I have the Water Magic skill.”

When Liese gave her own skill, Yona gave hers as well, copying her sister. Patrick nodded placidly.

“I’m……, Earth Magic!”

Royce said it rather loudly, as though bringing himself to it. Then he turned round towards Ren. Naturally, Patrick and the others’ eyes gathered on Ren too.

(Royce, why are you looking over here……)

Ren let out a small breath.

“Mine is ‘Small Box’……”

“‘Small Box’?”

Patrick blinked at him. Cindy and Tina were both looking hard at Ren too. Ren clenched his hands tight.

(……Should I explain what you can do with “small box”……?)

While Ren was thinking how to explain, Royce cut in.

“Ren-niisan’s skill is the one that puts out a little box that sort of glows faintly.”

“A little box?”

“Ren-niisan, why don’t you show them? You know, the faintly glowing one. That little box……”

Royce grinned.

(Royce was sulking a moment ago, and now he’s back to his usual form……. What should I do?)

Royce’s remark had gathered everyone’s attention on Ren, but Ren felt that showing his own skill and no one else’s was somehow not the thing. He was working out how to slide past it when a voice came from the direction of the mansion.

“Ah! So this is where you all are.”

A boy with light brown hair was leaning out of a window. Then a door nearby opened.

He had come out — or so Ren thought, until boy after boy came trooping out behind the light-haired one.

(Eh……, that’s a lot……?)

Seven boys in all came out through that door.

There were more invited guests than he had thought, and Ren was rather thrown.