Volume 3 Chapter 20: Duke Leebert

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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Although the upper management of the country were exhausted by Cain’s ridiculous actions, the preparations for the official announcement of his engagements proceeded steadily.

The next day, the party for the announcement of his engagements would be finally happening.

Including Garm, who had been in the Gracia territory, nobles arrived in the royal capital one by one.

It had become custom for all nobles from the country to gather for engagement announcements involving the royal family.

And as for Cain’s outfit for the occasion, the country had sent tailors who had measured him and made clothes for the ceremony for him.

“Do they really have to make one for each and every ceremony…”

Complained Cain, but Koran spoke to calm him down.

“It’s because it’s an engagement announcement involving the royal family. Nobles from all over the country will be there. You’re now a count, you have to dress appropriately and look the part, all right… Also, aren’t you meeting with Tifana-sama’s parents today?”

“Yeah, that’s right, but…”

He had never met Tifana’s parents before, but upon their arrival in the royal capital, it was decided that they would finally get to meet each other in person and exchange greetings.

Cain put on his new clothes, and, feeling a little nervous at meeting Tifana’s parents for the first time, he got in his carriage.

The carriage arrived at the royal castle not long after.

While Tifana had a mansion in the royal capital as a Duke, the other party had requested that they meet in the royal castle, so that’s what happened.

While speculating about Tifana’s parents, Cain followed behind a maid who was guiding him.

And soon after, they arrived at the reception room, and the maid knocked on the door.

“Count Silford has arrived.”

“Come in.”

A somewhat deep voice came from the other side of the door. Having waited for that voice, the maid opened the door and stood to the side.

Inside the room were Tifana, Eden, and a man and a woman who looked like the same age as them between them.

Cain sat down opposite them.

As he was an elf, the father’s ears were long, and his light green hair was swept back. He didn’t look all that different from Eden, but the intensity of his gaze was remarkable. Also, elves were normally quite slender, but his muscles could be seen bulging out even under his clothes.

And next to him sat a slender woman who appeared to still be in her twenties, with silver hair that stretched all the way down to her waist.

“I’m Count Cain von Silford Drintor. It is my first time meeting you, Duke Leebert.”

Cain greeted them, bowing to the two.

“Sir Cain, would you raise your face so I can inspect it?”

Spoke Duke Laysan sitting opposite him. Cain did as he was told and raised his head.

Duke Laysan silently stared at Cain.

The silence continued for some two minutes, then Duke Laysan suddenly relaxed his face a little and nodded.

“I was worried because Tifana said you were younger than her, but she chose a good companion.”

Duke Laysan turned and smiled at Tifana. Then, turning back to Cain, he opened his mouth.

“Sir Cain, you are quite loved by the gods, eh? So I have no complaints about you being Tifana’s partner on that front. However…”

Hearing that, Eden facepalmed, muttering ‘I knew it…’

“As a father –– I really would like to confirm your abilities.”

His smile was the expression Tifana had made when they first met at the training ground.

Cain recalled upon seeing Tifana’s face.

(If Tifana’s a muscle-brain… then perhaps…)

As Duke Laysan was already smiling thinking about the battle, he was hit on the back of the head.

“Honestly… dear, first we do self-introductions. See.”

The young, beautiful woman next to Duke Laysan reprimanded him.

As if he had just remembered that, Duke Laysan began.

“Right, that was rude of me. I’m Laysan von Leebert. Next to me is my wife, Tina.”

“I’m Tina von Leebert. I am Eden and Tifana’s mother.”

With an appearance that looked like no-one would notice even if they were told she was Tifana’s older sister, Tina introduced herself with a smile.

It might have been her age, but unlike Tifana, she had an adult-like charm about her, making Cain blush a little.

Now that everyone had introduced themselves, they could move on to the main topic.

“When I got the letter from Tifana, I thought ‘She finally found him’ to myself. I support this completely. Even if she won’t be your actual wife… However, as I heard you were still not an adult but stronger than Tifana, I was quite interested.”

Eden butted in while the smiling Duke Laysan was talking.

“Cain-kun, ah, no, Sir Cain has just recently handed an application in to the adventurers’ guild, and is to rise to S-Rank, so there’s no problems in terms of ability either. I’ve heard about his personality and the state of his territory from Rikisetsu-dono. Everything about him is excellent and impeccable.”

“Finding such a cute child, if I were only younger, I would happily switch with you, Tifana.”

“Hey! Tina!”

“Aww, it was a joke!”

Cain relaxed a little listening to the conversation between Laysan and Tina.

“But Tifana has lived all her life with the sword, so I doubt she’ll be able to act as a proper lady now, is that all right? And her personality also resembles my husband’s doesn’t it…”

It seemed like Tina was worried about her daughter who had grown up with the goal of becoming a knight, and had become so strong as to be called the strongest in the country.

“His Majesty has already approved it, and I don’t really have any problems with it either.”

“That’s right! Cain and I even have mock battles( l o v e e a c h o t h e r) many times a week!”

Laysan made a strange face, seemingly having misunderstood Tifana as she proudly said that.

“––isn’t this a bit too early though? You haven’t even been engaged yet, and Sir Cain isn’t even an adult yet either…”

Noticing that Laysan had misunderstood, Cain denied that.

“Hey wait a minute, it’s mock battles, mock battles!”

Startled by Cain’s words and also noticing his own misunderstanding, Laysan scratched his head embarrassedly.

“Seriously, dear!”

Tina, who had actually also been thinking the same thing, hit Laysan’s shoulder while smiling.

“Right, right… Alright, then let’s have a mock battle too, Sir Cain.”

Said Laysan to Cain with a huge smile on his face.

“––Okay…”

Cain nodded reluctantly at Laysan’s smile.

They all left the reception room and went over to the royal knights’ training ground.

Tifana went ahead to the training ground to tell the knights to clear some space for them. The knights were then told to watch and learn, and made to sit down after going a little distance away.

Laysan and Cain borrowed the changing room from the royal knights, and, having finished changing, they headed to the training area.

On the way, they bumped into the person in charge of dismantling all the monsters Cain had given them to store.

“Ah, Cain-sama, we just finished dismantling the monsters you gave us, so could you please take the rest out?”

Laysan was also there, so Cain was about to refuse, but Laysan gestured for him to continue.

“Oho, monsters defeated by you, Cain-dono? I would like to see them. Alright, I’m coming along as well.”

“…Alright then.”

The three of them went to the material storage space for monsters, where Cain took out more monsters from his Item Box and placed them in a designated location.

He had already delivered multiple batches of monsters to them, and now all that were left were ten Earth Dragons and the SSS-Rank Rock Dragon.

Cain first lined up the ten Earth Dragons on the ground.

Even Duke Laysan swallowed at the sight. Just this many A-Rank monsters lined up like this was already quite spectacular.

Then, they moved a bit further away and Cain took out the last monster.

First he took out the over twenty-meter-large, ten-meter-tall, headless Rock Dragon from his Item Box, then lastly its severed head, which he placed beside it.

“Th-th-this is a…”

Even Laysan had never seen a monster this big.

It would be strange to have seen an SSS-Rank monster, which could be called Natural Disaster-Class as well, before.

“This is an SSS-Rank Rock Dragon. If this monster appeared, it’s doubtful if even the whole army of the country would be able to defeat it…”

The knight in charge of the dismantling explained to Laysan while looking up at the huge, rocky mountain-like being.

“Sir Cain defeated t-this monster… don’t tell me… on his own?”

“That’s what I heard.”

Laysan’s eyes widened upon hearing the knight’s explanation.

Then, he looked at Cain, who just nodded embarrassedly.

Seeing that, Laysan let out a huge laugh.

“Ahahahaha! My son-in-law-to-be, Sir Cain, is this powerful! This is more than I ever imagined! Well, I’m no match for you then. ––But, I do want to go against a strong opponent!”

Duke Laysan was a combat maniac just like Tifana after all.

Leaving the material storage space, they headed for the training ground.

When they reached the training ground, Laysan had a huge smile on his face, which caused Eden and Tina to tilt their heads in confusion.

Laysan and Cain faced each other in the space that had been cleared for them, around ten meters from each other, holding wooden swords.

“Sir Cain, thank you for fighting with me! Now then”

Laysan used Boost and closed the distance between them in an instant, and cut downwards with his sword.

Cain too had cast Boost in an instant and received Laysan’s sword with his own.

As expected of a powerful individual, his strike was sharper than Tifana’s, and he even imbued his wooden sword with magical power, shocking Cain.

Cain could feel that he was even stronger then Tifana, who was called the strongest in the country.

“As expected of Sir Cain, I’m impressed.”

Smiling, Laysan took some distance and chanted a spell. Just as with Tifana, wind started to swirld around him.

“Now I’m going all out! Let’s go!”

Laysan approached Cain with a speed incomparable to before.

(He really is stronger than Tifana, huh.)

Laysan had covered his body in so much magical power it was visible to the naked eye, and the magical power had even made its way to the very tip of his sword.

Cain too chanted [Strengthen Thinking Ability (Clock Up)], and this time it was him who closed the distance between them.

If Cain, whose status was unmeasurable, had gone all out it would have been over in an instant.

Cutting through Laysan’s magically strengthened wooden sword in an instant, Cain pointed his sword at Laysan’s throat.

“That’s it… right?”

Laysan undid his magical power at Cain’s words, and, letting go of his wooden sword, he raised both his hands in the air in surrender.

Cain too put away his sword and undid the magical power encasing his body.

“Oh nooo, you got me, you got me. That’s it, you say. I really had no chance didn’t I. ––Hah, you let your guard down!”

Laysan tried to grab Cain.

Cain however grabbed his right arm, and, pulling it down to his chest, executed a one-armed shoulder throw¹ on Laysan, sending him flying. And he did all of that with pure physical skill.

It was only thanks to the fact that Laysan had pulled his arm back when Cain had thrown him that he was sitting, and not lying on the ground.

“So that didn’t work either… I really do surrender this time.”

Duke Laysan stood up laughing while dusting off his clothes.

“I have no complaints. I’ll happily leave Tifana to you. Nice to meet you, Sir Cain.”

Duke Laysan bowed deeply to Cain.

Surprised by that, Cain also bowed.

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

The two of them then raised their heads, shook hands, and returned to where Tina, Eden and the others had been watching them.

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¹Wikipedia: One-armed shoulder throw Pictures: One-armed shoulder throw

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