Chapter 51

In stories about knights, once they start catering to adults, you see an increase in raw depictions of discord and betrayal.

The world of knighthood is flashy, full of bravery and style, but on the flip side, it contains incredibly severe realities. When I was a kid, I couldn’t really relate to those kinds of stories and didn’t like them much, but looking back now, I think they were lessons: a warning that one shouldn’t admire the life of a knight too lightly.

That said, as long as you interact with others, it’s nearly impossible to completely avoid deteriorating relationships. To me, the real issue is the cause of the rift and the aftermath—specifically, how you choose to settle the relationship.

And so, let us hear the testimonies.

“Rosalind, you’ve been eating your food with a sullen face that makes it look like it tastes awful. And Amal, you’re stress-eating, shoveling it down as if you’re taking your frustration out on the meal.”

“…Yes.”

“…What of it?”

Inside, I groaned at the two of them, who weren’t even trying to hide their displeasure. Man, this is a pain.

After the shouting match, I’d more or less forced them out of the Academy and into an eatery run by an acquaintance. I’d shut them up temporarily by treating them to a meal on my own dime. Of course, their mouths were only closed; the prickly hostility swirling in their depths hadn’t vanished at all. Still, by putting a little time between the incident and now, they’d hopefully had a moment to organize their thoughts.

I looked back and forth between their faces.

“Let’s hear it. How did things get this bad only one day after yesterday?”

““It’s her fault!””

Yeah, this is hopeless.

They pointed at each other’s faces simultaneously, their glares practically throwing sparks.

It was just like a children’s spat—well, they’re both young, so it is literally a children’s spat. The way they were baring their teeth as if conceding even an inch would be total defeat felt like a territorial dispute between two cats. It was remarkably small-scale.

“Alright, I’ll start the hearing with Amal. Rosalind-san, please don’t interrupt until she’s finished, okay? I believe a patient person like you can keep that promise.”

“Yes, naturally. Unlike that country bumpkin over there with low intelligence and a lack of learning capacity, I possess a sense of common decency.”

“Hmph. Weren’t you actually planning to nitpick every tiny detail of my story with your petty little grievances?”

“That is a baseless assumption. No, perhaps it’s a delusion?”

“Talk. Only. When. I. Ask. You. To!! …Got it?”

“…My apologies.”

“…Fiiine.”

If I let my guard down even a little, they went right back at it, so I barked at them with as much intimidation as I could muster. That seemed to take the wind out of their sails, and they quieted down—though they continued to glare at each other. I already felt like going home and going to sleep. Is there no backup coming?

I thought I was gonna pee myself for a second… but I’m not gonna look uncool in front of Rosalind-san!

A cold sweat comparable to when I made Father angry is running down my back… H-however, I will not let Amalthea-san sense this fear!

Dammit, they’re both staring each other down like they didn’t hear a word of my warning…! Is my face just not suited for being threatening?

—The three of them were truly, spectacularly, on completely different wavelengths.

[Amalthea’s Testimony]

Yesterday, I really thought, “Rosalind-san seems a bit high-and-mighty, but she’s actually pretty easy to talk to!” Yeah! So starting today, I figured I’d have her teach me some stuff like Senior told me to!

But no, Rosalind-san is impossible.

A clean-freak? No, that’s not it… yeah, she’s a perfection-freak!!

She smiles at me and stuff, but there’s no warmth in it!! She doesn’t think about the other person’s feelings; she has zero human empathy!!

When I sat next to her for breakfast, she demanded absolutely perfect table manners for every single move I made! “Your way of scooping soup is wrong,” “You’re using your napkin incorrectly!”

When I told her I didn’t know any of that, she just said, “Then learn it now”!!

Who does she think she is?! Is being a Duke’s daughter really that big of a deal?!

Actually, I could have put up with that part! I thought, hey, if I learn to eat elegantly, I might become more popular, so I sucked it up! But that was just the prologue! A prologue to what? To Rosalind-san’s non-stop nagging!

Once class started, the second I looked away, she poked my shoulder. “Eyes forward”! While I was looking forward and listening to the boring lecture, she poked me again. “Take notes”! Even though I didn’t think it was important, I started writing, and then came a storm of corrections! “You missed a word,” “That’s a typo,” “Your handwriting is so messy you won’t be able to read it back,” “We already covered that in the last lesson”!!

Listen, I have my own pace, okay?! I can tell a typo is a typo when I look back at it, and even if it’s stuff from last time, writing it again is good review, so what’s the big deal?! Then, when I got tired and let out a yawn, she said, “Cease your yawning during class. It makes those around you uncomfortable”!! Rosalind-san, the person worrying about stuff like that is the one actually disturbing my life!!

When I lost focus and started doodling, she drew an ‘X’ over it from the side. When I fidgeted with my hands, she gently pried my fingers apart. When I tapped my foot, she gave me a shove! Honestly, am I a slave?! Do I have no freedom?! Humans yawn once or twice when they’re sleepy!!

I know it’s better to take class seriously, okay?! I get it, but there’s a limit!! It’s weird to demand that someone be a “Perfection Superman” when it comes to schoolwork!!

And when it came to swordsmanship, she had the nerve to act all superior just because she can use more secret techniques than most. “Why can you not do this after I have taught you so much?” she says!

She claims she’s instructing me seriously! But honestly, she’s so unhelpful that I wonder if she even wants me to learn how to use the techniques! If I ask a question, she doesn’t give me any detail, and then she tells me it’s “practical application” while saying stuff like, “Focus on the image of the line extending from your spine through your hip joints as a third pillar for your foot’s contact with the ground…” How am I supposed to understand that!! In practice, she shows me the technique, but that’s it! She just shows it! If I ask about something I don’t get, she says, “Realize it for yourself”… If that was enough, we wouldn’t need instructors in this world!!

In conclusion!! Despite all the things she says, Rosalind-san definitely looks down on me and doesn’t care about me at all!! I can feel it in her aura—“I can do it, so it doesn’t matter what happens to anyone else”!!

Senior!! I think Rosalind-san’s attitude is the problem here!!

[Rosalind’s Testimony—or rather, Rebuttal]

Yesterday, I felt that Amalthea-san was a resilient person. Furthermore, relying on others as a means to become a knight is a rational decision. To be honest, seeing her usual behavior, I felt she “perhaps actually lacks motivation,” and I avoided conversation because I believed her aspirations were low. However, I still considered her a fellow student with potential, and I put forth my heart and soul into the effort of teaching her both academics and the sword.

And now, I am certain.

“She is less ‘rational’ and more ‘lazy’—nothing but a flaky person who leaves everything to others. She makes excuses, claiming that her low ability is the fault of those teaching her, or that she can’t blossom because her environment is bad. She possesses absolutely no power of execution.

She mentioned something about breakfast, but to be honest, her dining was so vulgar—lacking even the ‘m’ in manners—that I had to reconsider our association as ladies. She slurps her soup with a noisy, grating sound, and I have never heard of anyone tucking a napkin into their collar in this day and age. She didn’t seem to notice, but those around us were looking at her as if she were a rare beast.

The fundamental principle of manners is that they are not for oneself, but to avoid making others uncomfortable. She fails to understand this and makes no effort to hide the audacity of thinking only of her own convenience.

Even so, she did at least listen at first, so I believed—or rather, I wanted to believe—that Amalthea-san was someone who could improve if corrected. However, it was after that that she revealed her utterly indolent nature!

First of all, long before the issue of her poor grades, she didn’t even notice she had the wrong page open in her textbook and simply stared at a bird outside the window! Even though the instructor was scowling, she either didn’t notice or chose to ignore it!

Her behavior was so appalling that I told her to at least take proper notes from the blackboard, but that was just as disastrous! She just scribbles exactly what she hears onto the paper; the logic of the discussion and the natural word order are completely inverted! She only takes things in through her ears and doesn’t think about the progression of the lesson at all!

To top it off, she tried to fall asleep with a gigantic yawn, and when I stopped her, she started shaking her leg so violently that the nearby chairs and tables began to wobble… I could hardly contain my internal rage, wondering if this person was incapable of even a modicum of consideration for her surroundings!

And then, swordsmanship! Oh, it was riddled with problems!

I could understand if she asked ‘What was the stance again?’ right as we started, but why does she forget the stance every few minutes and say, ‘Sorry, can you teach me one more time?’ I know I taught her, so why has she forgotten?! Does she even intend to learn?!

Furthermore, if there is a theory or movement she doesn’t immediately grasp, she starts peppering me with questions about the absolute basics—things that have been drummed into us by textbooks and instructors until our ears are sore! If she claims to want to learn the sword, why is she ignorant of such elementary things?! I felt a surge of fury wondering exactly what Amalthea-san has been listening to and looking at all this time at the Academy!!

Because it was so dire, I decided to speak less and let her think for herself, and do you know what she said?! ‘Rosalind-san, you’re bad at teaching.’ …I am certainly an amateur when it comes to instruction, but it is a foregone conclusion that if the student has no will to learn, they will never memorize anything!!“

Having listened to both their arguments in turn, I took my notes and then slumped face-first onto the restaurant table with a thud. As for the pair themselves, Amal was reacting violently to Rosalind’s rebuttal, effectively kicking off the Third Great Argument War; they didn’t even notice my state. As their senior, that made me feel a little lonely.

I had no idea you two were this incompatible. Truly, water and oil… my hollow eyes failed to see that it would end in this much friction.

Through their claims, I could see the outlines of their personalities.

I thought I had vetted them reasonably well yesterday, but I was being painfully reminded that you can’t truly see through a person’s character in a single day. I’ve known some brothers with a twisted relationship before, but this one was extra difficult to overcome because of its simplicity.

If I had to use an analogy, it’s the Lazy Tortoise and the Hard-working Hare.

There’s a famous fable about a race between a tortoise and a hare.

In the story, the hare is fast but lazy, while the tortoise is slow but diligent. The hare takes a massive lead but falls asleep out of overconfidence, only to be overtaken and defeated by the tortoise, who moved steadily forward.

However, these two were like a version of the story where the personalities of the hare and tortoise were swapped.

Amal lacked talent in both swordplay and studies, attempting to cruise through life on “Great Luck” and a half-baked epicureanism. To the overly serious Rosalind, she was exactly like a “Lazy Tortoise.” I could easily imagine her insensitivity, and above all, she had a habit of shifting blame—ignoring her own attitude to claim her current situation was everyone else’s fault.

Rosalind, on the other hand, was a high-achiever overflowing with talent, able to reach anything with sheer ability, but her aspirations leaned toward being too high. Amal was certainly lazy, but it was also true that a lazy person has their own pace. Rosalind’s way of life was close to an ideal, but to stay at that level requires a degree of effort that is anything but ordinary.

The lifestyle of a “Serious Hare” is something people who haven’t lived in such an environment simply cannot keep up with. Trying to force that mold onto others never goes well; frankly, pushing one’s values so insistently only invites rejection.

Furthermore, Rosalind likely subconsciously believed that “if someone works hard, they can do what I can do,” suggesting she probably didn’t correctly understand the gap in raw talent and innate ability.

In this world, there are people who are simply slow to learn, but she looked at them and decided, “They are slow because they aren’t serious, or they lack effort.” In reality, things could be improved somewhat by changing the teaching method, but she was so convinced her own instruction was best that she couldn’t change her attitude.

And what accelerated that attitude was Amal’s brazen, happy-go-lucky demeanor. I hate to say it, but she was being far too optimistic about her own poor memory and current situation. She was basically tap-dancing right on the line of “indolence” as Rosalind defined it, provoking her without even realizing she was doing it. It was the worst possible dynamic.

“Stop acting like I’m the bad one! It’s your attitude, forcing your way of doing things on me, that’s the problem!!”

“With your hedonistic, ‘lean-on-everyone-else’ attitude, the result would be obvious even if I changed my methods! Reflect on yourself before you lecture others!!”

“They’re like puzzle pieces whose edges just don’t match…”

Faced with two self-centered juniors shouting and pushing their own views on each other, I felt exasperated. At the same time, I resolved to throw myself into the unfamiliar task of giving them a serious lecture.

A knight order is a collective. Without unity and trust, an orc strategy cannot stand.

I had to make these two learn one thing: “You have to cooperate, even if you don’t get along.”