“What? The young lord, at this hour?”

“What is happening?”

“Kum, hm!”

At the cough of a high ranking servant, the maids of the mansion hurriedly bowed their heads. ‘The young lord is awake?’ could be heard everywhere.

There was a momentary silence. But the silence was bound to break again.

It was because the prince, the young lord, Irene Pareira, known to be lazy, was going to leave the mansion.

“What? Where is he going?”

“Because the Baron called for him, I thought he was going out because of that…”

“Out of the mansion? Is he going for a walk?”

Walk. It wouldn’t be a shocking thing for the others. March usually had chilly mornings and evenings, but it was midday now.

And, anyone would want to take a walk in a garden full of flowers.

However, it was none other than Irene, that made all the difference. The maids continued to talk for a long time, even after he left.

“Order!”

“Right. What is the situation at the knight’s training ground?”

“Huh? What is that…”

“Soldiers training and knights… no, you see, the young lord wants to practice swordsmanship.”

“…after regular morning training, there is enough space.”

The officer who answered, gulped and looked at the one behind the servant.

White, fair skin, sender build compared to his nice height.

He is the young lord.

The officer had to blink several times.

It was as if he had seen someone who shouldn’t be here.

‘No, how did this happen? It can’t be!’

He wondered if the young lord Irene, really wanted to use the training grounds.

No matter how much he thought, it was absurd.

But the servant continued to speak.

“Yes, I knew that, yet I wanted to confirm. Hm. Let’s go ahead, young lord.”

Irene nodded without responding and followed the servant into the training grounds.

The officer looked at him with bewildered eyes, and soon his colleagues gathered around him.

“Wh-what?”

“Am I dreaming now? Am I seeing things right now?”

“Pinch me… ahh! The lazy prince… Did young lord Irene come all the way here?”

“Well, maybe he came to look around?”

“Right. There is no way he would practice sword or anything.”

The soldiers who were doing their personal training, each made their own guesses.

None of them thought that Irene would practice.

“Huh…”

“Is that true…”

Murmur.

Gazes filled with unease.

The soldiers gradually gathered after hearing the rumors, and the employees in the Baron’s mansion came.

Irene didn’t care about anything.

Rather than that, it was because of the things which were in his mind, he didn’t care of others.

“Should I call a soldier who is well versed in swords?”

“…”

“Not all wooden swords are the same. They vary in shape and length. I am sorry, but even I am not familiar with swords, so I can’t recommend a suitable sword for the young lord. So if you want a minute…”

“No, it’s okay.”

The servant stopped at those words which were clearer than usual.

He quickly bowed and stepped back.

His eyes, which slowly looked at the young lord.

Irene seemed different from usual. And when there is a change in the actions of the lords, it was better to stay quiet.

Thanks to that, Irene was able to concentrate.

He closed his eyes, as he didn’t want anyone disturbing him.

As if looking for something, he soon skimmed through the entire place.

And slowly picked up a sword.

‘Uhm…’

The servant’s expression darkened.

It’s not an unusual sword. Rather, it was close to the standard one.

Since it wasn’t a real sword, there was nothing dangerous about it.

But the size… was too big.

To the extent where it felt like the young lord might have trouble handling it.

“Uh, that one?”

“That will be a tough one. Unless you are an adult…”

The soldiers who were watching, mumbled under their breath.

Of course, the sword Irene picked up wasn’t that huge.

However, for a first time user, grabbing that sword or swinging it would be tough, especially since the weight wasn’t light.

Unsurprisingly, Irene was already sweating from his forehead, as he took the basic stance after holding the sword.

Whoops!

The sound of the wooden sword being swung in the training ground reverberated.

“Hmp!”

“Uhm!”

The sound of suppressed laughter and groans could be heard.

It was an unavoidable outcome.

A kid had confidently picked up a large sword and took the stance, but his swing was weak.

His sword movements were so disappointing that they couldn’t help but laugh at.

‘Well, this is natural. There is no way that the most lazy person of the kingdom can wield the sword well as soon as he picks it.’

‘The first time I saw him take the stance, I thought maybe he could do it, but… I was stupid for expecting something from him.’

‘Did he come because of that young lord who humiliated him?’

‘If that is the case, then one thing is for sure. He is going to crawl into bed in no time.’

‘He should just do what he always does.’

People’s interest faded in no time.

It was disappointing to see Irene swinging the sword.

It was even more so because the basic stance Irene took was rather plausible.

Their negative attitude could be felt by the servant who was standing on the side.

His eyes widened in rage.

‘Those bastards!’

He knew.

He knew that Irene was called the Lazy Prince.

And the fact that he was lazy that he couldn’t be considered as a noble.

But that didn’t mean that the soldiers’ actions were justified.

The servant grinded his teeth. And spoke to Irene with a bright smile like he always did.

“Young lord, swordsmanship requires constant effort. There are a lot of things which are difficult to do when alone.”

“…”

“I will try to find a good teacher, so why not start training tomorrow?”

“Thanks. But you don’t have to.”

Irene raised the sword again.

It looked tough looking at him. He couldn’t stop his hands which were holding onto the sword from trembling.

Doing that, Irene said.

“I am not doing this because I want to be good at swordsmanship.”

“…”

The servant kept his mouth shut at the words of the young lord.

Looking at the young lord, who seemed like it would hurt his pride to get a teacher, the servant decided to save his words.

But that wasn’t it. Irene was telling the truth.

Right now, he was just moving his body, because it was hard to stay still because of the dream.

‘And… I already have the memories of that man in my dreams.’

He never thought of the man in his dreams to be a great swordsman.

It was an incomplete memory, but Irene knew.

The clothes the man in his dream wore were ragged, and the place he stayed was shabby.

But like he said, it didn’t matter.

Irene’s purpose was to simply get his body to stop twitching.

Woo!

Whoo!

Whooo!

One time, ten times, twenty times.

He continued to swing his sword, and his muscles ached accordingly.

It was strange. It was the arm that moved, but the parts other than the arm were also hurting.

He had never been so exhausted.

However,

‘It strangely feels comforting.’

Right.

Even if not right now, Irene was always hurting. It wasn’t the body which was hurt.

His insides, it was his heart which would hurt a lot.

However, as he was swinging the sword like the man in his dreams, he didn’t feel his body hurt like that.

So he swung.

He continued to swing.

Swish!

Once

Wish!

Ten times.

Wheek!

Another twenty and one hundred times.

It was like he was in a state of trance and wielding his wooden sword while staggering on his foot.

A loud voice entered Irene’s ears.

“Lord Irene! Lord Irene!”

“… ugh?”

It was the servant, who guided him.

Worried, he approached the young lord, thinking that he was going to die from exhaustion.

“Young lord! I think it is better to stop now. Don’t. Stop! You have done this for long enough!”

“What…”

Irene questioned.

It was because the person who talked to him didn’t normally speak in such a strong tone.

He took a step forward to ask.

No, he tried to get closer. But he couldn’t, he stumbled and sat on the ground.

The intense pain spread around, as if drawing concentric circles in the lake.

“Euk!”

“You pushed yourself too much! Look now! It has already turned dark!”

“… it’s dark?”

Irene mumbled with a blank expression.

It really was dark outside.

Although it wasn’t night, it was close to purple, the time when the sun sets.

Still looking blank, he looked up at the servant and said.

“If it has been that long, you should have gone somewhere. Or called me out.”

“How dare I leave the young lord and go somewhere else! Besides, I kept calling for you, for a long time too!”

“Really? Uhm, euk…”

Irene Pareira, who was about to get up with the help of the wooden sword, groaned and sat down.

From the expression he was making, it was evident that he was in pain.

The servant trembled.

“I will take you. I will inform the maids to prepare hot water, so wash up and get some rest. The therapist will be waiting for you.”

“No, no need for a therapist…”

“Oh, then young lord will be sick and I will get into trouble!”

Hearing the servant’s swords, Irene nodded his head reluctantly.

Honestly, it was weird.

It isn’t like he was a soldier who did this everyday, but it felt like his body could take on the muscle pain.

Probably the influence of the dream.

To be honest, what he did today was embarrassingly insignificant when compared to what the man in his dreams had done.

“Young lord, you aren’t going to push yourself like this tomorrow too, right?”

“Ugh.”

“Promise me. It is a nice thing for the young lord to pick up the sword, but it isn’t good for you to push yourself this hard, right from the beginning. A famous knight said that rest is also a part of training.”

“I get it. I don’t think I’ll do it again.”

Irene placed the wooden sword back in the weapons rack, and spoke.

The servant looked at him suspiciously, but he seemed sincere. As Irene said, he had no intention of learning swordsmanship.

He just didn’t feel like staying still, so he just moved around.

‘It will be like what I have been doing uptil now in my life, lying down again tomorrow.’

Those were what he thought as he bathed, ate, and went to bed.

A pain, worse than the time when he moved his body, was spreading throughout his body.

‘I did something crazy. I was drunk in that dream and did something completely crazy.’

Regrets flooded in. it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

But that was all an illusion.

Fatigue greater than the pain drifted him into the world of sleep, and he dreamed again.

The dream of a man who had been tormenting him for several days, visited him again.

“…”

Once again, Irene Pareira had no choice but to head down the training grounds.