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Chapter 217

After the three adventurers patrolling the nobles district left, the maid, Ashie, turned towards Rei after seeing them off.

「Now then, Rei-san and Set-san. Please come in. I’ll call my master right away.」

While smiling, she opened the gate and invited Rei and Set in.

Following her prompt, Rei and Set went through the gate, but…

「Guru~……」

Set gave an unfortunate cry.

At any rate, the door to the residence was not big enough and it would be very hard for Set to enter. Although his body could squeeze through, the wings growing on his back got stuck.

「Ahh……I’m really sorry but……」

Ashie looked at Rei looking somewhat troubled.

With a wry smile, Rei spoke while brushing Set’s head.

「Sorry about that Set. Wait outside as usual. If it’s too cold you can go back to the inn, what would you like to do?」

「Guru~」

Set turned to look at the garden with a cry.

「Can he wait for me in the garden?」

「Ah, but……the garden is……」

Rei more or less understood what Ashie wanted to say to him. The garden as seen from the outside was neatly arranged, but its back was a different matter. Rei wondered if the places he couldn’t see from the path to the residence were not as well kept.

「Don’t worry, Set is a monster in the first place. There isn’t a problem even if it is well maintained because he used to live deep in the mountains.」

「……Pardon me……」

For the residence of a noble, the maid was probably quite embarrassed at its current state. Rei looked around as Ashie’s face went red.

「That’s that. Wait for me outside, Set.」

「Guru~」

Giving a cry to say that he understood, Set walked over to the garden.

Seeing that, Ashie guided Re into the residence.

Inside the residence, some things were as Rei expected and some things were way out of his expectation.

He had expected that the Baron wasn’t rich even though he was a noble, but the entrance hall right after entering the residence wasn’t decorated with any sort of paintings or artworks. It was beyond his expectation to see such a barren sight. Rather than calling it an entrance hall, it would be more accurate to call it a simple entryway.

(……Could he be, what people call a fallen noble?　Or did he make some mistakes in the capital and was sent to the frontier?)

As he thought about that, Ashie guided Rei to a reception in under a minute.

「Please wait a moment here. I’ll call my master right away.」

「Ah, I understand.」

While holding her paper bag with with food, she apologised lightly before leaving the reception room.

Rei, who was left in the reception room, sat on the sofa and looked around.

「Here again.」

Speaking of the reception room, it was basically a room to accommodate guests who were visiting. In other words, it was room that could be called the face of a residence. However, in this reception room, like the entrance hall, the items that were likely to decorate the room of a noble’s residence such as paintings, vases, ornaments, weapons or trophies from monsters and animals were nowhere to be seen.

After looking around the room, he turned to the sofa. The sofa may be a fine item for ordinary people, but there was no doubt that for nobles, it would be considered inferior furniture.

(I don’t know the reason, but there’s no doubt that they are poor. That said, it might actually be interesting if they turned out to be just a miserly family.)

As he was thinking about that as he sat on the sofa, there was a knock on the door, and Ashie, who had just left earlier, came back in.

「Pardon me. My master and young master will be coming soon, so please wait a moment longer.」

Informing Rei, she picked up a cup of tea from the tray she held in her hands and placed it in front of Rei.

(……Heh. )

There was a faint floral scent coming from the cup as he brought it to his mouth and a sweetness spread through his mouth with a slight astringency as he drank some.

「Delicious.」

Rei spoke instinctively as he tasted the tea.

Ashie smiled happily when she heard that.

「It’s good that it suits your taste. Actually, this tea was hand made by me. It’s from drying the flowers in the garden……」

「I see, herbal tea.」

「Yes. That’s right. My master also likes this tea, so I serve it often……ah, I’m sorry. Telling all this to a guest.」

She was happy that Rei had praised her herbal tea. Smiling, Ashie was about to continue speaking before immediately covering her mouth.

But to Rei, it wasn’t something to be too concerned about, especially with regards to etiquette. If it had made him feel unpleasant it would be a different matter, but it wasn’t the case.

「Don’t worry about it. I don’t know what other guests would think if they were nobles, but I’m just an adventurer.」

「Thank you very much.」

Ashie gave a quick bow before suddenly turning her head towards the door.

「It seems the master and young master have come.」

Saying that, she moved to the wall. A few seconds later, the door was opened and two people came in, Rei stood up from the sofa to welcome them into the room.

One was about 170cm in height. A middle-aged man with a smile that looked more like a civilian than a noble. Although he had a mustache, it seemed to Rei that it emphasised his lack of care rather than looking dignified.

And next to him was a weak looking child about 130cm in height. He looked to be about the age of 10.

「Hello. Are you Rei-kun?」

「Yes. I am Rei, the rank D adventurer who has accepted your request.」

「Ah, feel free to talk as you usually do. Even if you call me a noble, I’m just a poor noble as you can see. It wouldn’t be strange for me to lose my nobility at any time. It’s not necessary for you to use noble etiquette.」

「……Well, then, if you’re okay with that, I feel more at ease not using it as well.」

It was as Rei expected……no, it seemed that their financial situation was even worse than what he had expected.

(So that’s why the reward was such a tiny amount of money.)

「As you should know from the request form, I’m Mouet Cisne. I have the status of a baron. ……Well, I say that, but I’m just a poor noble. And, here is my son, Baslero Cisne. Baslero, say hello.」

Prompted by his father, the boy called Baslero took a step forward.

「Nice to meet you. My name is Baslero Cisne. I am very happy to be trained by Rei-san, who I’ve heard a lot about in the city.」

His clever words despite his age of 10 was probably due to the education he received as a noble. Rei thought of that as he looked as Baslero, who had bowed his head energetically.

「Well then, greetings are done with. ……Ah, yes. Ashie, sorry, but could you get some tea for me and Baslero? All the herbal teas you make are delicious.」

「I understand, master. I will prepare some immediately.」

Ashie, who was waiting near the wall, gave a bow before immediately preparing some tea as Mouet had asked for.

「Now then, please sit down first. I will explain the request as we drink the tea. ……As you can see, my family are poor nobles, to say the least. Though this may sound sarcastic if I said this to a poor person. ……However, as a poor noble, I’m glad to just own a residence with a yard. Well, I can’t afford to hire a person to take care of the garden, so I have no choice tbut to manage it myself. ……All that said, I take some pride in the herbal tea made from the flowers in the garden.」

Mouet recommending Ashie’s tea to Rei with such an attitude was very unlike that of a noble.

Rei also knew how delicious the tea was, so he spoke as he raised his cup.

「Ah, it’s definitely delicious. It’s taste is good enough to be sold at a store.」

Saying that it wouldn’t be strange for it to be sold at a store, Ashie’s cheeks turned red. Rather than seeing Ashie as a maid, Mouet seemed to treat her more like a daughter. Next to him, Baslero also smiled happily seeing Ashie praised.

It was fine for Rei to continue the conversation for a while, but his reason for being here was to take on a request. Rei spoke to the three people, who had created the atmosphere of a family gathering.

「So, about the request.」

「Ah, I’m sorry. Let me see, as described in the request form, I would like to ask you to provide Baslero combat training.」

「I-I will be in your care!」

Baslero sat down as he gave a quick bow.

「……No, wait a minute. What you just said, what to say……」

Most people would have thought the same thing, but Baslero was just a 10 year old child and Rei was a bit confused as to why he would need combat instruction.

And, Mouet probably expected Rei’s reaction. He brushed the head of Baslero, who was sitting next to him, with an awkward smile.

「Yes, I know what Rei-kun wants to say. You want to say that it’s meaningless to have such a young kid undergo combat training for just a week……」

「Well, yes.」

Rei agreed with Baslero’s words.In the first place, combat instruction was only for a short period of time, it didn’t mean that he would be able to learn anything. In Rei’s case, he had Zepairu’s knowledge and his own amazing physical ability and enormous magic power. If they had the experience of fighting in the mountains as Rei had, they might be an exception, but ordinary humans would be unable to imitate him.And more than anything.

「My style of fighting is basically self taught. It’s not from some sort of school or anything.」

(Well, since the Death Scythe was created using the Magic Beast Art, it can’t be helped.)

Even in this world of adventurers and knights, there were very few people who would use a scythe as a weapon. If one wanted to use a weapon with reach, the spear was the most popular. Rei was the only person in Gilm, Baar or the dungeon to use a large scythe, which was overwhelming harder to wield in comparison to a spear. Of course, Rei wouldn’t be the only one in the world to use a large scythe, but there were few enough people wielding one for Rei to understand the difficulty.

「To put it nicely, it’s a combat style that I have refined in actual combat, but there may be some problems for nobles to learn it. Of course, it won’t be an issue if the other party is just sparring for practice, but in that case, there’s no point in learning my combat style.」

「Yes, I know that. I know……but to learn a noble’s sword technique, you would have to go to an appropriate school to learn their sword technique. And of course, the schools which nobles attend are expensive.」

「……I see. 」

(This mansion……no, I wonder if it’s big enough to actually be called a mansion. Anyhow, just looking at this residence, they are not likely able to afford that.)

While understanding it in his mind, Rei spoke up again.

「I understand the reason. But……is that all right with you?　As a noble, to learn my style……no, to receive instruction from someone who’s style is best expressed as unorthodox.」

「Yes. Because I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way for strength. If you’re strong, you’re strong. If you’re weak, you’re weak. That’s all there is. In addition……」

Baslero had a bitter smile on his face that didn’t seem to match his age.

「My father has said this already, but poor nobles are only nobles in name. It wouldn’t be strange for us to lose it at any time, so I would like to have the necessary skills in my hands for that time. Luckily, the city of Gilm has a good environment for living as an adventurer. ……In that sense, it might be fortunate for us in all the bad things that happened that we were driven from the Imperial Capital to Gilm.」

「Uh……it makes me feel weak when you say that so easily……Rei-kun, how about it? 　The person himself has also said he doesn’t care about the means to become strong. Can I ask you to provide him with combat instruction?」

Saying that, Mouet gave a deep bow. His modesty and humbleness probably came from his struggles of being a poor noble. Next to Mouet, Baslero also gave a polite bow. Standing near the wall, Ashie also looked towards him as if pleading.

A few seconds passed in this state with looks from the family and the maid. Eventually, Rei gave a big sigh.

In the first place, this request was one of the conditions of ranking up in a sense. He hadn’t thought of refusing it from the beginning.

(And, my style’s not the best, but it sounds like something I can do to spend my time in winter.)

Thus, for a week, Rei would instruct the son of a noble on how to fight.