I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 8
I see. The standard’s about what I’d expect.
Aiden watched over the students, shaking his head slightly.
The Academy these days seemed to be holding back on training out of fear the students might get hurt—the young ones showed no real strength, no grit at all.
Watching them tumble down from a cliff that wasn’t even particularly high, drifting like autumn leaves to the ground, Aiden felt a deep sigh rising from somewhere in his chest.
How was he ever supposed to shape these weaklings into Knights Order material?
He shook his head again.
They had so very far to go.
“Huff, gasp. Almost there—ahhhhh!”
“Good, good climbing. Don’t forget the way back up. If even one of you doesn’t reach the top, today’s training isn’t over.”
“Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
Watching the students wail like a flock of crows, Aiden’s brow furrowed slightly.
His gaze shifted downward to the cliff face.
Students clung to the rock like barnacles, gritting their teeth, eyes blazing as they clawed their way upward.
There was far more bite in their effort than before—quite gratifying to watch.
And—
‘Olivia.’
Among them was she—the one he had watched over for so long now, the one he cherished deeply. His ‘little sister,’ Olivia, mixed in among the rest.
She had fallen from the cliff four times already.
Each time she fell, his heart plummeted with her, but he couldn’t stop. Not here.
“Please don’t accept her, sir. There are other Knights Orders. Olivia is the Top Student—she could certainly do well in another Order!”
“Sir Aiden, that’s overstepping your authority. Besides, the Lukes Knights always need capable soldiers. Olivia is precisely the sort of talent we require.”
“Commander. Olivia has never done a day of harsh work in her life—she was raised precious and sheltered in House Kishear. Meanwhile, we paint our hands with blood every time we go out, we kill things to survive. We have to fight even against people’s prejudice. Are you really asking us to drag her into this filth and horror?”
“It’s still Olivia’s choice, and her responsibility.”
The Commander offered nothing but frustrating platitudes.
Aiden couldn’t accept it. Not at all.
Olivia—his precious little Olivia—deserved a life of comfort and peace, not this sordid, terrible existence.
The gem on the Engagement Ring that sat on his left ring finger caught the extended sunlight, glinting brilliantly.
Aiden stared at the ring intently.
He now knew he could remove it, but he didn’t.
There was no particular reason.
It was only that seeing it made him remember Olivia slipping it onto his finger, and he didn’t want to see the childish sadness that would cross her face if he took it off.
Olivia had climbed roughly halfway up the cliff by now.
Watching her push through the pain without complaint filled him with admiration.
“…She’s got nerve, at least.”
Four falls and her eyes still burned—that much was plain.
Her green eyes were fixed exactly on Aiden.
Even her unwavering focus on her goal pleased him considerably.
But… still. Not the Lukes Knights.
Aiden clenched his teeth and hardened his resolve.
Time passed again.
The sun, fading gradually, now began to sink beyond the distant mountains, and the sky blushed a deep blue.
Thud!
“Gasp, huff… I… made it.”
A pale hand suddenly appeared over the cliff edge.
It was Olivia.
The look in her eyes as she faced Aiden was absolutely murderous.
‘Did I not know she could make a face like that?’
Aiden felt a twinge of conscience and looked away from those eyes toward the other students.
Half of them still hadn’t made it up.
That meant he had time to spare.
Aiden decided to push forward once more—for Olivia’s sake.
“Hey there, Top Student.”
Olivia, both hands planted on the cliff edge, about to haul herself over, looked at Aiden with eyes full of dread.
“Since you’re the Top Student, I think it only right you make one more trip down.”
“What are you saying, you absolute—”
“Come now. No need for thanks.”
Pat.
Aiden removed one of Olivia’s hands from the cliff edge and pressed a Fall Prevention Mana Device into her palm.
Then—
“Go on and make it back safely.”
“Aiden Oblion, you rotten bastard!”
He threw her back over the cliff.
A deathly silence fell over the cliff top.
Every student was suddenly very busy playing dead, their faces buried in the ground.
But it was all for nothing.
Aiden, feeling guilty for tormenting Olivia alone, went searching for the next sacrifice.
“Now, the Top Student has graciously volunteered for additional training and has gone down to pursue it.”
“That’s… that’s a lie.”
“There are no exemptions in our training. We can’t leave Miss Olivia down there lonely all by herself, can we? Training never truly ends! Follow the Top Student’s example—everyone back over the cliff!”
With that, Aiden gathered up the limp students and tossed them over the cliff edge with elaborate courtesy.
The students tumbled down once more in a cascade.
Having landed safely below and gathering her rage against Aiden, Olivia could only stare slack-jawed at the absurd scene unfolding above her, muttering to herself.
“Crazy bastard…”
The profanities had well and truly stuck to Olivia’s tongue now.
* * *
The grueling training never stopped, day after day.
“Hold steady! You can’t hold your ground and you want to be Knights? Keep it steady, no wavering. You’ll face far worse in the field!”
“Your Sword Form is falling apart after just ten thousand repetitions? You’ve fallen well short. Again. Ten thousand more.”
“Today we’re visiting a new cliff. After that, Technical Training begins immediately, so don’t miss it.”
Physical training gave way to Technical Training, which gave way to Meditation for the sake of disciplining the mind.
Every stage of it pushed Olivia to the brink.
Olivia had excellent adaptability and agility in technique, but her raw stamina was not exceptional—by the time training ended each day, she would stumble back to the Dormitory barely on her feet, utterly exhausted.
Every day, she wanted to quit.
But the reason she couldn’t was, ironically, the whip Aiden wielded.
“You cannot choose to be a Knight with a light heart. The Empire’s shield, the Empire’s sword—grand words, but a Knight is ultimately a killer. From the moment you take up a weapon, you must remember that you are capable of murdering anything at all. Understand?”
His piercing eyes bore down on her.
This was not a place for the light-hearted. She didn’t belong here.
So go back to the peaceful, quiet life you had before.
That’s what he seemed to be telling her with every word.
And so Olivia endured. She had to prove that she could do this.
Olivia collapsed onto her Dormitory bed still in her training clothes, staring blankly at the ceiling.
The light from the Defensor, carefully placed beside her bed, blurred her vision.
Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t had a moment’s peace to try bonding with the blade.
Olivia blinked slowly, then rolled to face the Defensor and spoke.
“When will you accept me?”
The Defensor responded by releasing a faint pulse of light twice more.
“Will you accept me when I become a real Knight?”
She reached out to grip the sword’s handle, and a sharp, stinging pain shot through her palm.
In that same instant, memories of the day she acquired this blade came flooding back.
“Are you planning to take it and use it as is?”
“I’m going to become its master.”
“Listen. Many have tried before, but it has never truly chosen a master. Not even once.”
“All the better. I’ll be its first master.”
“If that’s possible, it will become an invaluable ally. But it won’t be easy.”
Yes, this much was progress at least.
At first, merely reaching for the hilt would make it spark and reject her outright.
Most of the scars on her palm were burn marks from those attempts.
Olivia frowned and released the blade.
“That’s the nine hundred and ninety-first failure.”
Olivia felt a pang of sadness.
Aiden was rejecting her, and even this sword was pushing her away—it made the sadness cut all the deeper.
“…Why is it that everything I want pushes me away?”
It made no sense at all.
Exhaling a long sigh, Olivia carefully set the Defensor upright beside her bed again, blinking slowly as she spoke.
“I’m only letting this slide because I’m too tired today… Normally I would have given you a real piece of my mind… I would have…”
And then she fell asleep at once.
The Dormitory filled with the soft sound of her breathing.
It was the sleep of exhaustion.
And so Olivia didn’t see it.
Flash, flash!
The Defensor, propped against her bedroom wall, began to glow in the late night, shining with something sacred and reverent, radiating a presence all its own.
Light flowed from the blade and touched the limp hand of Olivia draped across the bed’s edge, then faded.
Deep night had fallen.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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