Chapter 131: After the War Festival
The War Festival finally came to an end.
Naturally, the entire process and details of this War Festival spread widely afterward.
Sefaz emerged victorious over Marilyn, telling the world that this Frenzel family's eldest son was still a prodigy.
Since becoming a Sword Master five years ago, his strength had not stagnated but made significant progress instead. He was now considered a powerful Sword Master with the potential to become a Sword Saint.
Yuri, on the other hand, defeated Alderman, showcasing not only her prowess as a Strategic-Class Magician but also her adept use of combat-class magic. She had surpassed her father and was now capable of holding her own in battles.
Of course, the most talked-about event was the third round between Riezel and Jill, which was full of unexpected twists and turns.
Technically, Riezel should have been considered the loser in this War Festival since he killed Jill, which was expressly prohibited by Alderman before the War Festival began. Riezel knowingly violated this rule, which should have led to his disqualification or even his judgment being sought by the Frenzel family.
However, Jill was a Demon Swordsman, a dangerous swordsman proficient in Demon Sword Style. Not only did he attempt to kill Riezel at the beginning of the battle, but he also targeted Yuri, who was not only the head of the Frenzel family but also a Strategic-Class Magician and a Marquis of the kingdom.
Therefore, If anyone had violated the rules first, it was Jill.
Murder attempts against Riezel could be overlooked since Jill hadn't succeeded and had almost been killed by Riezel in retaliation. Furthermore, in a fighting competition, Jill's actions could be seen as a miscalculation or accident in the heat of the moment, a perspective shared by most of the audience.
Apart from Yuri, who sensed trouble early and dispatched people to disperse the audience, everyone else thought like that, allowing the War Festival to continue uninterrupted.
However, Jill's attack on Yuri was undoubtedly a clear violation of the rules, leaving no room for discussion. Because of this, Riezel could be considered the winner from that moment onward. His immediate action of killing Jill on the spot was merely seen as a way to protect Yuri.
Hence, the ultimate victor of the War Festival was Yuri's group.
As for Jill's status as a swordsman who practiced Demon Sword Style, it didn't cause much of a stir.
People were more interested in Riezel, who managed to excel in both swordsmanship and magic, achieving significant feats in both. He was not only a powerful Sword Master but also a Tactical-Class Magician.
"I never imagined there could be someone in this world who excels in both swordsmanship and magic."
"Same here."
"You know, swordsmen typically stick to swordsmanship because their magical energy isn't enough to become magicians. But someone with ample magical energy to be a magician chooses to dive into swordsmanship as well? That's wild, y'know."
"And yet, Sir Riezel not only pursued both but also excelled in them... What a legend."
"Having him join the Frenzel family is great."
People continued to discuss these matters enthusiastically, indicating that this topic would be one of the hottest this time. Even those with ulterior motives couldn't help but join in the excitement.
"Let's head back and report on Riezel Brynhart first. Afterward, we'll find a way to contact him."
"Yeah, we need to find a way to bring him to our country."
"A Sword Master and a Tactical-Class Magician, huh... Tch, tch, makes you wonder how he pulled that off."
"Such a skilled magician, yet still focusing on swordsmanship. First time seeing someone like him."
"Alright, let's stop chatting. Time to head back and deliver the news. I'm sure the higher-ups will want to hear about this."
And so, some were biding their time, others were finding ways to contact their superiors, while some were keeping a close eye on Riezel, attempting something.
Among them was the young nobleman from the royal capital.
"Send an invitation to the Frenzel family." The young nobleman ordered his attendant. "I must meet this incredible guy."
"Yes." The attendant responded immediately.
It could be said that Undine was both lively and filled with hidden movements. Countless people were watching the Frenzel family, watching Riezel, unsure of what action would be taken.
As for Riezel himself, he also sensed the changes happening around him.
===
On this day, the weather was clear.
Even though the War Festival was already yesterday's news, the discussions it sparked remained lively. While Undine was still bustling, the Frenzel family had returned to a brief calm.
Riezel walked through the corridors, encountering many servants, guards, and knights along the way.
"Sir Riezel."
"Sir Riezel."
"Lord Brynhart."
Like this, whether they were servants, guards, or knights, they all stopped in their tracks and respectfully bowed to Riezel as soon as they saw him.
Their attitude and level of respect had undoubtedly become much more intense and sincere compared to a week ago when they treated Riezel as a guest. Some even went as far as to regard him as a noble, addressing him directly as 'Lord Brynhart'.
"Hello."
Riezel nodded in acknowledgment to them, returning the gesture, but inwardly, he felt somewhat displeased.
After all, he didn't like being treated as someone important, respected, or even feared excessively by others. Such situations were something he had had enough of in his previous life, and he certainly didn't want to see them again in this world.
Unfortunately, there was no way around it.
The social class consciousness in this world was deeply ingrained. Given Riezel's demonstrated strength, the servants would undoubtedly worry about being disrespectful to him and whether they would face consequences if they didn't act properly.
Even though Riezel was not a noble and was currently just a commoner, as a Tactical-Class Magician, becoming a noble was just a matter of time. Any commoners in the Frenzel family who understood this point already regarded him as a noble. Coupled with his intimidating strength, they wouldn't dare to show any disrespect.
'Hahh... I miss Loki Familia...'
Riezel couldn't help but think of Twilight Manor.
In there, although he gradually earned the respect of familia members with his growing strength and was no longer treated as a rookie, they never placed themselves beneath him. They simply respected, admired, and supported him as the backbone of the familia, akin to a family member.
He had felt uncomfortable with these displays of respect at times, but it was just that—discomfort. He didn't feel averse to it or reject it.
Members of the same familia were like family, connected by the blood of their god. They didn't share blood ties, but their blessings came from the same god who, like their own parent, inscribed the same sacred text on their backs. Therefore, considering they shared the same blood, it was entirely appropriate.
In such circumstances, familia members respected him but didn't fear him. If they were to sit together at a drinking table, ninety percent of them would dare to come over and toast him until he was flat out.
That was what he had always dreamed of—a true family and home'.
'I've become more sentimental lately...' Riezel chuckled, shook his head, and continued walking ahead.
However, as he walked, he quickly bumped into the familiar boy, who popped out from a bush nearby.
"Teach me magic!"
Isaac blurted out immediately upon appearing, just like before. However, unlike his previous arrogant demeanor, this time his eyes were shining as he looked at Riezel.
Those eyes resembled those of a passionate young man who had found his goal.
Yes, after witnessing Riezel's battle, Isaac also regarded Riezel as his role model and someone to take inspiration from.
Yet, Riezel still had not changed his mind.
"No."
He mercilessly rejected the boy.
"Why not?" Isaac said extremely disgruntledly. "What's your problem with me?"
"It's not that I have a problem with you..." Riezel squinted his eyes. "It's just that I don't want my first disciple to be a dumb little twerp like you."
"Who are you calling a dumb little twerp?!" Isaac exclaimed breathlessly. "I'm very smart, okay?! And I'm not little!"
"Sorry, didn't see that in you..." Riezel said with no trace of politeness. "You seem dumb to me, and you are indeed little, kiddo."
"Don't call me kiddo! You disrespectful jerk!" Isaac yelled angrily.
He was furious and quickly charged toward Riezel.
*BANG*
Isaac was thrown back, landing on the ground.
"..."
Watching him lying there without moving an inch, Riezel didn't know what to say.
"Alright, stop messing around, Isaac." Mediste chimed in as if timing her entrance perfectly. "Don't mind him, he's just fooling around."
She nodded to Riezel and then gave a slight bow. Her gaze, no longer evasive, now sparkled with an inexplicable radiance.
However, this clearly made Riezel hesitant to meet her eyes directly. For some reason, he felt that after the War Festival, something was off in the way this girl looked at him.
Previously, Mediste was a well-mannered, courteous girl, but these past couple of days, she seemed to have become a bit mischievous and would often do things that made him feel awkward.
"Just came out from your father's room?" Riezel decided to change the subject.
"Yes..." Mediste nodded, sighing. "He still refuses to come out of his room... Seems like he took a big blow this time."
Alderman's condition was one of the changes after the War Festival.
After the War Festival ended, he locked himself in his room, refusing to see anyone.
It was understandable.
"Losing miserably to his own daughter with countless eyes watching, while the attendant he favored turned out to be a dangerous man almost destroying his carefully revived family tradition—one blow after another... Considering his overly conservative views and pride, it's normal for him not to cope well."
Mediste explained her father's condition, surprisingly serious.
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Chapter 132: Special Guest?
Undoubtedly, Alderman messed up big time at the War Festival.
War Festival, meticulously planned to revive his family tradition and take a firm step toward reclaiming his family's former glory, ended up being a complete disaster.
Initially filled with confidence, Alderman was toyed with, defeated, and even scolded in public by his daughter, feeling truly humiliated. Even his soon-to-be attendant, whom he had brought from outside, turned out to be a troublemaker, nearly causing a huge mess.
This was truly a blunder among blunders.
Moreover, to make matters worse, it was Riezel, someone from Yuri's side, who ended up dealing with Jill and became the hero of the day.
What was Alderman's role in this incident?
Nothing.
He couldn't do anything, just stood in place dumbfounded the whole time. By the time he snapped out of it, it was all over and everything had concluded smoothly.
While Riezel and Yuri had gained immense prestige, what about him? He became the laughingstock in many people's eyes, losing face to the point of no return.
For Alderman, it was indeed a serious blow.
Because of this, he retreated to his room upon returning home, feeling too ashamed to face anyone. His behavior only made Mediste, who had once feared him, scorn him.
'What are you doing? Acting like a child? Is that what a mature man, an acting lord of territory, would do? Hiding away when you've done wrong?'
As Mediste thought like that, she couldn't believe that the father who once seemed so decisive and formidable turned out to be nothing but a paper tiger.
Was his ability to handle pressure even weaker than her own?
It was truly embarrassing.
Even Isaac, who had just gotten up from the ground, looked indignant and complained.
"After the War Festival, Elder Sister Yuri handled the aftermath, even Elder Brother Sefaz pitched in a bit. But Father? Instead of helping, he's just hiding, totally ignoring the mess he made. What's up with him?"
Even a nine-year-old boy like Isaac couldn't stand to watch.
Evidently, this time, Alderman had truly disgraced himself, losing all his dignity in front of his children.
"Mr. Riezel, how is your injury?"
Mediste seemed unwilling to mention her embarrassing father any further, shifting her concern to Riezel.
"I'm fine now."
Riezel raised his hand and waved it, indicating that he was fully healed.
Yesterday, to protect Yuri, Riezel bravely blocked Jill's powerful slash with his bare hand, resulting in a deep gash on his left hand.
Jill had clearly used all of his strength on that slash, even breaking through Ariel's wind barrier surrounding Riezel's body in an instant, leaving it unable to block the slash.
Regardless, with Ariel's wind diminishing some of the slash's power, coupled with the added boost of END from Raumure, the injuries Riezel sustained weren't severe at all. As for the few minor wounds he received from completely abandoning defense during the subsequent fight, they were even less of a concern.
Yesterday, Riezel had used Dia Fratel on himself for treatment, effortlessly healing all his injuries. Now, he didn't have even a little bit of injury on him, as if nothing had happened.
"That's good..." Mediste relaxed her expression.
It seemed that she was quite concerned about his injury.
"If there's nothing else, I need to go find Yuri." Riezel said to the two siblings. "She just sent someone to fetch me."
Upon hearing that, Mediste understood instantly.
"Guests?" Mediste hinted.
"Probably." Riezel nodded.
After the War Festival ended yesterday, the Frenzel family, besides handling the aftermath, also received many visitors, which were nobles invited from afar by the Alderman to witness the War Festival.
Now that the War festival had ended, how could they not pay a visit to the Frenzel family and greet its head?
Moreover, they were very interested in Riezel, who had demonstrated astonishing strength at the War Festival yesterday, expressing their wish to meet him through Yuri.
Riezel knew about this but chose not to meet them.
He could easily guess the intentions of these so-called nobles. It was probably because they were impressed by his performance at the War Festival and wanted to see if they could win him over, or at the very least establish some connection with him.
Honestly, he had long grown tired of these upper-class society's antics.
As a result, citing his injury as an excuse, Riezel refused all meeting requests from these nobles, leaving them all to Yuri to handle.
Yuri also knew that Riezel didn't like these kinds of things, and she herself hoped that he could properly rest because of the injury she had caused him. Consequently, she readily intercepted all meeting requests from the nobles, preventing them from disturbing him.
She even dispatched the knightly order to patrol Undine, looking for any suspicious individuals lingering in the city to prevent some malicious people from causing trouble in Undine for Riezel's sake.
Thanks to Yuri's efforts, yesterday and this morning, Riezel had a peaceful time without any disturbances.
But this time, it seemed he really had to meet a rather special guest whom he couldn't evade.
"I heard that someone quite influential from the royal capital has come, and they've specifically asked to meet me. Even though your sister said I'm resting, they've said they will stay at Undine until I'm available." Riezel shrugged. "I don't want your sister to be too troubled, so I guess I'll just go and meet this guest."
Since Yuri had specifically sent someone to fetch him, it proved that this guest's status was definitely not low or ordinary, or else she could simply decline them without much trouble. Because of this, Riezel decided to meet this guest.
"Then we won't bother you." Mediste, understanding the situation well, obediently stepped aside to make way for him.
On the contrary, Isaac, lacking in tactfulness, continued to hop over to Riezel.
"When will you teach me magic?" Isaac grumbled, his face showing discontent. "Are you afraid I'll take advantage of you? I won't, okay? Even though I don't know why the magic crystal with the latest recording was lost, I have others. We can discuss it in detail!"
Upon hearing Isaac's nonsense, the corner of Riezel's eye twitched. Without a second thought, he turned and walked away.
"Hey, wait—" Isaac was about to call out to Riezel when a hand gripped the back of his neck.
"...Did I hear you correctly? You actually have others?"
A voice as cold as ice echoed, causing Isaac to shiver and break out in a cold sweat.
"That... That's just a magic crystal recording of you sleeping! Absolutely nothing indecent!"
Isaac quickly tried to defend himself.
"Don't worry, Elder Sister Mediste, I've learned my lesson this time. I'll only bring out proper recordings for the trade. I definitely won't bring out recordings of you changing clothes!"
At his words, veins bulged on Mediste's forehead.
'You think I'm talking about what kind of recording you're bringing out? No, it's about why you're always recording those kinds of things!'
Mediste thought with anger before holding her brother's hand with a strong grip.
"Come with me!"
Dragging Isaac along, she led him into a corner.
"AHHHHH—!!!"
Three seconds later, Riezel, who had turned into another corridor, heard a scream that seemed to pierce the sky.
"What a troublemaker brat..."
Riezel muttered under his breath and quickly left the commotion scene.
===
The Frenzel family's reception room was on the first floor.
Guided by a servant, Riezel made his way to this room.
*Knock* *Knock*
"Come in."
Yuri's voice came from inside, prompting the knights guarding the doors on either side of the reception room to extend their hands and push the door open for Riezel.
Riezel stepped inside, only to be greeted by two pairs of eyes locking onto him.
In the reception room, there were a total of four people.
Yuri sat on a sofa, with Marilyn standing behind her.
Facing Yuri were two strangers whom Riezel had never seen before.
They were a pair of men, one sitting across from Yuri, and the other, like Marilyn, standing behind the sitting one.
Across from Yuri sat a golden-haired man, probably in his mid-twenties, dressed quite appropriately, bearing a striking resemblance to the noble Riezel knew from his previous life.
"Finally, we meet, Sir Riezel Brynhart."
Surprisingly, the golden-haired man quickly stood up when he saw Riezel, performing a noble gesture without a hint of arrogance, leaving an extremely positive first impression.
"Riezel." Yuri also stood up and smiled at Riezel. "Let me introduce you. This is Marquis Phillip Charlier from the royal capital."
From her simple introduction, Riezel gleaned a lot of information.
Firstly, this guest named Phillip not only hailed from the royal capital but was also a noble of no lesser status than Yuri.
Though Riezel wasn't sure about the status and reputation of the Charlier family in the royal capital, Yuri's use of 'Marquis' to address him indicated that just like her family, the Charlier family was also a Marquis family of Jinas.
Moreover, since he was addressed as 'Marquis', it could be inferred that like Yuri, he had already become the head of his family, which meant the current Marquis of Charlier.
"Nice to meet you, Marquis Charlier." Riezel greeted back with a calm demeanor.
"No need to be so formal, just treat me like any other guest."
Phillip responded with a friendly smile before introducing his attendant.
"Right, he is my attendant, Glimann, about your age, eighteen this year. Despite being young, he's already a skilled swordsman, holding a Sword Master Medal for three years, y'know? You two should get to know each other."
His words made Riezel glance at Glimann.
Glimann also glanced at Riezel, with a hint of fighting intent in his eyes.
Seeing this, Riezel was slightly taken aback before raising an eyebrow.
He felt it.
This Glimann was a powerful swordsman.
At least, not weaker than Marilyn.
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