Volume 3 Chapter 36 Chasing The Shadow Of The Past II
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Wha-What!? My beloved Sarah! Are you saying that my courtship, as Abbas Hashmalik Shakerdoust, is a nuisance!?”
A sharp, echoing voice rang through the monastery’s training grounds.
A young man, his fiery red hair slicked down with oil and neatly parted, trembled in humiliation before Kian and Sarah.
”Yes, Sir Abbas. Until now, I’ve held my tongue out of respect for you, as the heir to the Shakerdoust family, but honestly, it’s a nuisance. I’ve already been promised to Kian Vahid, whom I’ve been betrothed to since birth. And yet, every time I see you, you come at me with your advances. Don’t you think that’s completely inappropriate?”
”N-No, that’s…”
As the eyes of the other monks in training began to gather around them, Sarah firmly stated her words, standing tall before the towering young man.
(I knew it would come to this…)
A step behind Sarah, Kian let out a quiet sigh as he watched the unfolding scene.
He had just started sparring with Sarah, swinging their wooden swords together, when, as expected, Abbas Shakerdoust barged in a few minutes later and began approaching Sarah with familiar ease.
At first, Sarah had been tolerating his presence, offering polite smiles as he sparred with Kian, but as Abbas started making comments like, “Sarah, you should do it this way,” or “Ah, how lovely and beautiful you are. You really should be my bride,” and tried to touch her during their training, her irritation started to show.
It didn’t take long before she finally exploded.
”I’m training with Kian right now. Can you please not interrupt?”
”Hmph, if it’s sword training, then I shall spar with you! Kian Vahid cannot be a match for you!”
”Young master, it might be best to stop now.”
A slender boy, who had been standing by Abbas’s side, whispered softly.
He was one of Abbas’s attendants, who had followed him into the training grounds.
Behind the boy, a woman from the Black Panther race stood attentively.
”Hmm~. Lady Sarah seems to be in a bit of a bind herself~. Maybe you should quit while you’re ahead~? This prank of yours has gone way overboard, don’t you think~?”
”No! This is not just some childish prank, Katyusha! I am truly in love with her! And love is war! Retreating is defeat! Victory belongs to those who press forward! If you don’t keep trying again and again, then your chance of success drops to an absolute 0! You understand this too, don’t you, Zayn!?”
”Young master’s determination is admirable, I’ll give you that… but it’s pretty obvious she’s not interested. This isn’t some fairy tale where love magically works out. Honestly, you should probably give up already… Ahh, everyone’s staring at us, it hurts…”
”Sarah! I understand that you dislike me! But please, tell me what, exactly, you dislike about me! I vow to take your criticism seriously and stop whatever it is you find unacceptable. Give me one week──a single week──and I will appear before you again as the perfect Abbas Hashmalik Shakerdoust! Someone truly worthy of your attention! Haaa, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
”Oh dear~… Nope, this isn’t going to work…”
Katyusha let out a sigh as her feline ears drooped low.
The black panther woman rested a hand against her cheek in defeat.
Meanwhile, on Sarah’s side, her temper had hit its boiling point.
The usually gentle curve of her eyebrows had straightened into sharp, furious lines.
Her presence felt overwhelming, as if her mere form had expanded tenfold, radiating a tidal wave of sheer energy.
”Never come near me again!”
”Wha──!?”
”I already have Kian! He’s my fiancé, chosen for me by my family!”
”B-but! That was arranged by your parents, wasn’t it? I mean, come on! Someone as brilliant as you would never willingly──!”
────Would never willingly settle for a failure like Kian Vahid.
Abbas nearly let the words slip out but caught himself at the last second, glancing toward Kian.
The red-haired aristocrat’s gaze lingered on Kian for a fleeting moment, tinted with pity, before letting out a slow shake of his head.
”────Sarah, do you truly plan to marry Kian? Even if the wedding happens, what about after? What will happen in the long run? Has your father considered the implications? With all of this in mind, do you still believe Kian is the best choice for your life partner?”
”You’re missing the point, Sir Abbas,”
Sarah’s black eyes blazed with fury.
”It’s not about Kian! It’s about *you*! I hate how you keep pestering me! No matter how many times you try, my feelings won’t change, and if you don’t stop, I’m telling my father. This isn’t a joke!”
”Wha…?! Ugh…!”
”Honestly, I don’t find someone like you, who thinks so highly of themselves, attractive at all. I like Kian! He’s kind and works hard!”
I like him.
I like him…
I like him…….
Sarah’s declaration, loud enough to echo across the training ground’s viewing area, left an unexpectedly clear resonance in the stunned silence around Shin.
As the air grew colder, someone in the crowd watching snickered, a small “Pfft!”
Then, giggles rippled through the onlookers like waves.
Abbas, rejected and laughed at by a 13-year-old girl, seemed to have reached the point of no return.
”…! This is humiliating! Sarah, why are you being so cruel? Don’t you remember the number of bouquets I’ve given you?! The scents and colors?! I, for one, remember them all! The first one was a Northern lily! As pure white as the training uniform you’re wearing right now──”
”After I received them, I immediately handed them to Rufna so my sweaty hands wouldn’t touch them. Thanks to you, we’re not short on flowers to decorate the hallway at home~. Thank you very much. But I’ll have to throw away any more, so please stop~. It’s sad for the flowers.”
”……! …Ah, so none of my feelings reached you… I can’t… I’m going to… faint…”
”Huh? Wait, young master!?”
”Oh dear~”
Abbas stumbled backward, actually collapsing instead of just making a show of it.
The bouquet of roses he’d been hiding behind his back flew into the air, petals scattering in a dramatic, if completely unintentional, flourish.
The young man and woman servants shrugged, scattering the petals with annoyed sighs.
They grabbed Abbas’s armpits and dragged him out of the training yard.
The atmosphere, which had shifted from snickers to murmurs after Abbas’s collapse, gradually returned to its usual tranquility.
Sarah took a deep, exaggerated sigh and turned back, plastering a bright, almost forced smile on her face.
”Sorry about that interruption, Kian.”
”No, you’ve been through a lot too.”
”Come on, don’t act so indifferent. It’s your job, Kian, to keep those kinds of things away, you know? That’s why I’m having to do all the work.”
”Ouch, that hurts. My magic power is 0, and I’m not exactly built like a tank, you know.”
”Ah… well, that’s understandable. You were born that way, after all. I’m not blaming you for something you can’t control.”
”We’re supposed to project an aura of love and affection, constantly flirting around, right? So people know we’re a couple!”
”────!? That’s not what I meant!”
Sarah’s face flushed crimson again.
Kian chuckled softly and gently snatched the wooden sword from the girl before him.
”Eh…? What’s wrong? You not going to continue?”
”After all that commotion, I can’t concentrate. Sarah, do you even remember what you just said?”
”Ah…”
”Let’s call it a day here. We can practice sword fighting another time.”
”Sure. But… what are we going to do now?”
”Let’s go to the library.”
He answered with a smile.
If his memory served him correctly, Abbas would be back later in the afternoon, ready for a one-on-one duel.
Kian planned to face him head-on.
In reality, Sarah had been the one helping him.
Kian stood behind her, wooden sword in hand, mostly just there for show.
Back then, he had felt a deep sense of disappointment and anger at his own lack of strength – his inability to even offer assistance.
He would do it again.
He would defeat Abbas and bask in the satisfaction of victory.
A little bit of playful revenge wouldn’t hurt.
But Abbas was a formidable opponent for me at that time. Even with the iron sword, without magic power, he’d be helpless against his ‘Wall’ defense.
He needed to find some magic power, and fast.
Kian, at 29, had seduced Esther to steal her magic power, but now he had Sarah, his betrothed.
He could take it from her.
Suppressing his dark desires, he casually wrapped an arm around Sarah’s shoulder.
”Let’s go on a date to the library.”
”A date at the library? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Then again, a date at the training grounds is pretty unusual too.”
”You don’t like the idea?”
”No, I don’t mind. Okay, let’s go to the library! I have a few books I’ve been wanting to read!”
”What a coincidence. Me too.”
Kian smiled, but his mind was elsewhere, fixated on the scent of the young Sarah, her skin slightly damp with sweat, stirring a burning desire in his loins.
* * *
The library was a place Kian frequented more often than the training grounds, so he knew exactly where to find the books he wanted.
Accompanied by Sarah, he strode into the vast central library, larger than the palace he grew up in, and headed straight for the section dedicated to natural science books.
Sarah followed, whispering from behind.
”Is that where the books you want to read are?”
”Yeah. Huh?”
”What’s wrong?”
At the very back of the shelf, in a section filled with locked books, was the one he sought.
It was Kian’s ‘treasure book,’ a book he had discovered and devoured for 2 hours, his excitement dripping from him, and had returned to read on occasion.
He wasn’t sure if it would still be there in Sarah’s memory, but there it was, tucked away in the bottom row of the right corner.
’Female Body Examination Illustrations’
In simpler terms, it was a dirty book, a spring painting.
Sarah was initially puzzled, but as Kian crouched down, she let out a tiny “Ah!”
”What’s wrong, Sarah?”
”Eh!? Oh, um… Hey, Kian. Let’s read a book from further back, like, history and literature from the West…the Franz Kingdom.”
”No, I’m more interested in this book.”
”Don’t you dare look! It’s way too bad for your education!”
”I already looked… Whoa, what is this? A man and a woman are all intertwined.”
”~~~~~~~~~~!”
He sank to the floor, flipping through the pages.
Sarah fidgeted and glanced down the hallway, making sure no one was around before scrambling over to Kian’s side and peering at the book.
”Whoa, what are these people doing? They’re touching between their legs…? Is there something there to touch?”
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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