Chapter 88: The Maid and the Young Master (2)

‘What am I doing right now?’

Hailey sighed as she stood dazedly in the center of the training ground, doing nothing.

There was still plenty of time before dawn.

As a maid, she should have returned to bed and tried to sleep.

If she stayed up all night, she couldn’t predict how her body would feel the next day. Even if she couldn’t sleep, she should have forced herself to close her eyes and lie in bed, not come outside like this.

But here Hailey was, outside.

Even as she internally protested, she ended up here, not in her bedroom but in the training grounds.

Not entering her room, nor doing anything particular, Hailey stood here.

She was already aware of what had drawn her outside.

If she had just wanted to escape the suffocating room, she didn’t need to come this far from her bedroom. It was her own desire to be here. Ever since she encountered the knights yesterday, no, even before that, she had always wanted to be here.

She had just been suppressing and hiding these feelings.

It could be said that a maid has no connection to swords,

But Hailey Hartman,

Before she was a maid to Elena, she was a daughter of the Hartman family, a vassal family of the Edelweiss Dukedom.

The Hartman family, as evidenced by Wilhelm Hartman, who still counts as one of the empire’s greatest knights and currently leads the Edelweiss Knight Order, was a renowned martial family in the North.

How could she, the eldest daughter of the Hartman family, have no connection to swords?

She was Hailey, who had been taught how to wield a sword even before she could read, by her grandfather and father.

‘You have no talent.’

In the empty training ground, a voice that shouldn’t be there echoed in her ears. The common, predictable story of why she didn’t remain in her family to become a knight, but became Elena’s maid instead.

Knights were superhumans.

They were the closest beings to the legendary heroes who could split mountains and slay dragons with a single sword, akin to magicians wielding armaments and performing miracles beyond human capabilities.

And for such knights, the proof that they could perform miracles was the power known as Aura. Hailey, however, lacked the talent to harness such power.

It was no exaggeration to say that a knight’s prowess came entirely from Aura.

Aura was the power that transformed their swords into legendary weapons capable of cutting anything, and it was also Aura that completed their superhuman physical abilities.

This Aura was akin to the culmination of martial arts skills one had built up over time, but even so, a certain level of innate quality was necessary to contain it in one’s body.

From a young age, Hailey’s insight was sharp enough to understand all the nuances of the sword techniques Wilhelm demonstrated, but unfortunately, the capacity of her body, unlike her exceptional intellect, was below that of an ordinary person.

Even with continuous training, she would excel in martial arts, but reaching the level of knights who ran as fast as the wind and shook the earth with their strength seemed a distant dream.

Strictly speaking, Hailey’s core was more suited to be a mage than a knight.

Unlike knights who store power within their bodies to use as a driving force, mages were those who manipulated external forces to complete the magic, performing miracles. Hailey, lacking the ability to contain Aura but able to manipulate it, was well qualified to walk the path of magic.

Knowing this, the Hartman family stopped encouraging her to wield a sword.

Since the Edelweiss Dukedom they served was one of the continent’s most renowned magical families, they sent Hailey there, hoping the ducal family would provide her with an excellent mentor in magic.

Initially, she wasn’t sent to be a maid at the duchy, but it was Hailey herself who chose what she wanted to do there.

Hailey, lacking interest in magic, chose to stay with the ducal family as Elena’s maid, but regardless of the reason, her becoming Elena’s maid was ultimately because she lacked the talent of a knight.

Even if Hailey hadn’t met Elena and decided to become her maid, had she not relinquished her sword, she would have eventually been sent to serve as a maid like other noble daughters. Hailey chose to act on her own rather than being compelled by others.

“It’s been a long time.”

Lifting the sword she took out from the storage, Hailey let out a faint smile, feeling the unfamiliarity of a sensation she hadn’t felt in a long while.

While living with the Edelweiss family, she often received suggestions from Elena to become a mage. Elena’s words weren’t out of knowledge of her situation, but pure kindness as a friend, yet Hailey never accepted them.

The paths of magic and martial arts were mutually exclusive.

Choosing one meant abandoning the other.

It was hard to discern where one was with just the dim light leaking from a small lamp in the darkness, but just knowing she stood in the training grounds ignited her emotions more than ever before.

The feelings she thought she had left behind while living as a maid still lingered in Hailey’s heart. In fact, from the moment she chose not to step into the world of magic, she never intended to give up the sword.

Was it because she hadn’t undergone systematic training for a while? The sword in her hand felt unusually heavy. This heaviness seemed to weigh down Hailey’s heart as well, but the joy of holding the sword right now outweighed that burden.

Initially, she thought of this as a brief deviation, but once she held the sword, she began to concentrate as if nothing else in the world mattered at that moment.

Although it had been a long time since she last held a sword, making her body as rigid as a stone compared to before, Hailey hadn’t forgotten anything she had learned. She adopted a basic stance and moved her feet, letting her hands follow her heart.

The internal energy circulating within her was meager, so Hailey’s sword movements were slow, but they lacked any disarray.

The sword blade, catching the moonlight, seemed to be wrapped in a sword aura, twinkling in the darkness.

It was like a transient illusion, lasting only for this moment, but Hailey liked it. Even though it was fake, the moonlight-wrapped sword seemed to transform her into a real knight, and she couldn’t hate it.

The Hartman family’s swordsmanship that she had learned was originally a powerful form filled with strength. But as Hailey couldn’t replicate the sword of her memories, she simply performed the movements that were easiest for her. If it had been a mere powerless sword, it might have appeared clumsy, but her swordplay was not like that.

Her graceful sword dance, together with the moonlight, filled the space, almost creating an illusion of brightness around her.

Thus, under the moonlight, Hailey’s sword dance continued for a while.

With a final downward slash marking the end of the form, Hailey let go of the sword.

“Haa... Haa... It’s been too long. It’s heavy.”

Although her voice was filled with regret, Hailey’s face looked utterly relieved.

As soon as she released the sword, her body, which had remained steady while swinging, now staggered. Having not trained for a long time, it was impossible to have the same physical strength as before. Even if she swung with less force, handling the weight of the heavy metal was too much for the body of a mere maid.

“But, I think I’ll be able to sleep now.”

Drained of energy, she just needed to lie in bed, and she would fall asleep without any lingering thoughts, regardless of her will. However, she couldn’t be sure about waking up at the right time, the next day.

Was it because of the drained energy? It was hard for her to stand upright and maintain her balance.

Staggering, Hailey nearly fell forward onto the ground, but she quickly solved the problem by thrusting the sword she was holding into the earth. Her body, about to tumble forward, was able to stop just in time, precariously balancing with the support of the sword.

“Huh? Did I just hear something...?”

Hailey turned her head towards the other side of the training ground. The lamplight didn’t reach there, showing only darkness. Soon, she turned her head back and started to focus on catching her breath.

***

In the darkness, a young boy, Alphonse, moved.

His feet were quick as he tried to distance himself from the training ground, but no sound of footsteps followed.

His practice of sneaking into the training ground unnoticed was paying off. Feeling sufficiently far from the training ground, Alphonse stopped and looked back.

Fortunately, there was no one following him.

“Phew... She must not have seen me, right?”

Relieved that Hailey hadn’t discovered him, Alphonse exhaled deeply.

Unintentionally, his body had moved at the sight of Hailey, finishing her sword dance and staggering, nearly falling forward.

Originally, he had only planned to check who was in the training ground and then return to his room, but the person he found there was so unexpectedly different. Was it because of the unexpected person, or was it because he couldn’t take his eyes off her swordsmanship?

Contrary to his initial intention, he ended up watching her from the beginning to the end.

Anyone who saw her dancing with the sword under the moonlight would have found it mystical. The way she drew in the moonlight with her sword, painting images in the air, was beautiful beyond words.

Alphonse involuntarily recalled Hailey dancing with her sword under the moonlight in her nightgown. He remembered her face, smiling foolishly as she playfully wielded her sword, and it kept lingering in his memory.

Feeling a sudden rush of heat to his face, Alphonse dismissed it as warmth from running, not considering it important.

--- END OF CHAPTER ---

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