CH 95

CHAPTER 95: AT CARLYLE’S ESTATE

The Kingdom Festival came to an end, and Carlyle invited Firvus to his private residence.

“…Man, this is embarrassing…” Carlyle voiced his sincere thoughts. “I acted all cool and went, ‘Farewell, Son of Darkness‘, but I utterly failed to finish the job…” He then put his hands on his head and yelled, “AAAAAAAAAAAAH! I WANT TO ERASE MY PAST SELF!”

Watching as Carlyle had a meltdown, Firvus chuckled. “Just forget it ever happened then.”

“Forget…”

“Wipe it clean it from your memory. I’ll remember it in your stead and remind you about it every now and then.”

“Are you a demon?!”

“Hahahahaha! Someone as flawless as you finally slipped up! Allow me the privilege to milk this for all it’s worth and poke fun at you till the end of time, why don’t you?”

“Yeesh… I sure am blessed with a great friend…” Dead tired, Carlyle sank into the sofa.

Carlyle joked around about it, but in actuality, he felt pretty depressed. Thinking he had checkmate, he delivered the finishing blow, but it completely fell short of doing any finishing at all.

“…So, your… divine-class spell, or whatever you call it… sends the opponent into another dimension of sorts, right? How’d you figure out the Son got away?”

“I can’t see what’s happening in real-time, but… I can feel it, for a lack of a better word. Back then, something tremendously powerful intervened and whisked away the Son of Darkness—I’m sure of it.”

“Hmm… Well, if you say so. I can’t imagine you’re mistaken.” Firvus sighed. “What a damn shame. You were this close to having him.”

“For real. I never expected he still had such a game-changing ace up his sleeve, not in my wildest dreams. He got me good,” Carlyle said. He continued, “Thank goodness Albert gave it his all.”

“Albert did?”

“If it weren’t for him taking back the Seal of Darkness, everything would’ve gone from bad to worse. Not only would the Son have escaped, he would’ve ran off with the Seal, too.”

“He isn’t your joker for nothing, huh.

“We managed to keep hold of the Seal, so I’ve saved face. Now I won’t have to hear those oldies nag me to death,” Carlyle said, smiling cynically.

Many envied Carlyle, who rose all the way to the highest magician rank at such a young age. Those who took pleasure in sabotaging others lurked in every nook and cranny of the royal court, waiting for the right moment to strike.

“…If you ask me, I think this wasn’t that bad of a trade, even if we suppose that the Seal of Darkness got stolen.”

“You do?”

“We managed to take care of the spy from Darkness that slipped into the academy, and we even exposed their secret base in the royal capital. To top it off, we forced the Son of Darkness to expend his emergency escape tool.”

“Expend? What do you mean by that?”

“I reckon that ace in the hole of his can only be used once.”

“Really?”

“It used a colossal amount of mana at the time of activation. I’m pretty sure it took years of slowly amassing that mana, else nothing adds up here.” Carlyle shrugged. “You can’t break into the realm of Gods so easily.”

He used a massive trump card, one that’s capable of turning a 100% losing situation on its head; there’s no chance he can use it over and over again.

Besides, I find it highly unlikely that he made it out unscathed. Even if we assume his emergency escape tool activated without a hitch, I doubt he completely avoided the Divine Dragon King’s breath attack. He probably won’t be able to make any moves in the meantime.

But this is all baseless conjecture, so I won’t put any of it forward.

“I get the picture now… So why don’t you just pull the trigger one more time? You’ll be able to kill him for sure this time, right?”

“Well, that’s if he comes to the capital again…”

“To the capital?”

“The Divine Dragon King’s breath attack is an extremely powerful divine-class spell—even I can’t activate it on my own. I scattered a bunch of magic circles around the capital and activated them all at once, and I still barely managed. Hence, I can only use it at the capital.”

“…Those’re some pretty strict conditions…”

“It’s the realm of Gods we’re talking about. Both breaking into it and using it are no simple feats.” Carlyle chuckled. He raised both hands and exclaimed, “I’m through with this already! I’ll leave the rest up to Albert!” He then mumbled, “…Ah, that’s right. Albert had his fair share of hardship after the nobles directed their attention to him, but is he back on track now, Mr. Gung-ho Instructor Firvus?

“I hear he was dancing with Laura at the party held for the Kingdom Festival.”

“Aah, that party.”

Needless to say, Carlyle, an academy graduate, knew what Firvus was talking about.

The stars of that party were the nobles, and it was the commoners’ job to watch them dance.

And in front of everyone, Albert invited a commoner girl to dance, and dance they did.

His actions bear testament to his unwavering resolve.

Firvus continued, “Seems like Albert pulled through.”

“Hehe… How shameless of him to show off how close he is with a girl 10 years younger than him. Albert’s quite the charmer, huh.”

Just then, they heard a knock on the door. “Lord Carlyle. The academy students, Sir Albert and Miss Laura, have come to visit.”

“Ah, let them through.”

“I’ll go over and greet them,” Firvus said, exiting the room.

Laura and I walked our way toward Carlyle’s private residence in the capital.

Beside me, Laura began speaking, “I wonder how Carlyle’s residence looks like…”

“…Carlyle’s last name is Heathcoat, which means he’s from Heathcoat of dukedom. I reckon it’ll be pretty fancy.”

“Duke? Is that the same rank as you?”

“No, I’m a marquis. Dukes are a rank above marquises—and they’re also the highest rank of all nobles.”

“E-Eeek…! I-I-Is it really alright for me to tag along?”

“He invited you, so it’s fine.”

…Besides, I doubt that genius really cares about rank, anyway. What matters to him is if you have talent or not—and if you’re useful or not. He judges people solely through those principles… In a way, he’s crueler than the nobles to whom rank means everything.

While Laura and I talked about this and that, we arrived at Carlyle’s private residence.

“Good to see you two.” Firvus greeted us and led us to Carlyle’s room.

“Welcome.” Carlyle welcomed us with a smile. “You can sit right over there.”

Laura and I did as we were told and sat on the sofa directly facing Carlyle. Firvus, having finished showing us the way, sat on a chair to the side.

A maid placed black tea on the table in front of us, and Carlyle waited for her to leave before speaking, “First of all, I thank you, Albert. Because of your efforts, the Seal of Darkness wasn’t stolen. Truly, I give you my thanks.”

“I’m honored to have been of use.”

“Under normal circumstances, I’d have awarded you a medal and extolled your marvelous work for all to hear, but this is all confidential. I give you my sincerest apologies, but you’ll have to bear with it.”

“I don’t mind,” I replied. I didn’t care about medals and whatnot. More importantly—

“Teach me more about Darkness.”

This was my wish, and also the reason we were called here. Firvus told me that Carlyle wanted to have a discussion about Darkness with me, too.

“That goes without saying. I haven’t forgotten my promise. You have the right to know, and I’m obliged to tell you. You’re already deeply involved in everything that’s happened, after all,” Carlyle said with a nod. “I’ll tell you all that I know about Darkness.”

Today’s chap. Gonna post another later today, if not tomorrow with recreator.

Also, TL Note:

On the segment, “…Carlyle’s last name is Heathcoat, which means he’s from Heathcoat of dukedom. I reckon it’ll be pretty fancy.” “Duke? Is that the same rank as you?” “No, I’m a marquis. Dukes are a rank above marquises—and they’re also the highest rank of all nobles.”

I made a few changes to the original meaning. The original Japanese was as follows:

「……カーライル・ヒースコート。ヒースコート公爵の出だから、なかなか立派だろうな」

「こうしゃく？　アルベルトさんと同じですか？」

「いや、発音が一緒だけどスペルが違うんだよ……あちらが一階級上で――貴族でも最上級だ」

公爵 means duke and it’s read as koushaku, but 侯爵 means marquis and it’s also read as koushaku because kanji and homonyms. Albert explains Carlyle is a duke, and because duke and marquis is the same pronunciation, Laura asks to clarify. Albert then explains that duke and marquis have the same pronunciation but different spelling. Obviously this doesn’t really work in English, so I had to choose between changing their interaction entirely or translating it as it is and slapping a tl note at the end, but I did both anyway. I wasn’t really sure how else to translate it besides the way I did it. Just wanted to let you guys know I made changes to the original meaning.

One other thing, author put some character drawings at the end of this chapter, here it is:

1st is Albert, 2nd is Laura, 3rd is Laura with pants, 4th is Laura with skirt

And one more:

1st is Flin, 2nd is Carlyle

The second image actually appeared in chapter 89 but I forgot to add it, so I’m doing it here along with the first.

That’s all, thanks for reading.