I'll Stop Regressing and Raise a Baby Dragon - Chapter 11

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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 11
Theodore’s lips twitched upward.
“……I didn’t expect you to notice.”
He spoke with satisfaction, then tilted the water bucket to his lips again.
“Do you always train alone like this?”
At my question, he stoppered the bucket and nodded.
“I could train with the knights if I wanted to, but for now I prefer working alone.”
For now he prefers working alone.
So the knights he’s crossed paths with in this house his whole life make him uneasy.
I didn’t quite understand, but I nodded as if I did.
After all, I also like to keep my personal relationships separate from my professional ones.
“Anything else you want to know?”
Unusually, Theodore asked me first.
I paused to think, then fired off the first question that came to mind.
“How did you end up taking up Swordsmanship?”
“My grandfather and father taught me.”
Theodore’s grandfather—that would be Swordmaster Jack Croiman.
If he learned from him, it made sense.
I hadn’t known Luke could wield a sword too.
I smiled at him, silently impressed.
“Do you prefer Swordsmanship to Magic?”
“Of course. Magic is complicated and exhausting. You have to keep thinking the whole time.”
Theodore seemed to drift into thought for a moment.
Then he let out a small laugh and tapped his toes with the tip of the wooden sword.
“Though my grandfather got angry at me for saying you don’t have to think to use a sword.”
“That’s surprising. I would have thought your physical Mastery Level would be higher than your magical one.”
“Well, it is compared to Magic.”
Theodore rose to his feet, speaking softly.
“But listen, Eria.”
With that, he placed the wooden sword’s blade against his own shoulder.
“The higher you climb in any discipline, the more you have to think instead of just fighting like a brute.”
“……I suppose so.”
“I hated that. I like simple things.”
Theodore smiled softly and turned toward the wooden training dummy.
“So I’m trying to shut out everything that requires difficult thinking.”
With that, he wiped the smile from his face.
Then, serious once more, he rushed forward and brought the wooden sword down on the dummy.
Crack!
The dummy rang out with a clean, sharp sound.
At the same moment, a recoil shot through the wooden sword he held.
Pain flashed through his fingertips, and his face twisted briefly.
But he quickly regained his composure and struck the dummy again.
‘Shutting out everything that requires difficult thinking……’
An envious thought.
I couldn’t do that.
I’d already lost far too much for it.
Already walked too many paths.
“I wish I could do that.”
My gaze drifted blankly to his pendant, glinting in the light.
I muttered without thinking, and Theodore looked toward me.
“What did you—?”
He tilted his head closer, asking again.
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? But you just said something.”
He lowered the sword in his grip and stepped closer to me.
“……I just said it was a good thought.”
“What was?”
“The idea about giving up on difficult thinking.”
“Oh, that? Honestly, I can’t really do it either.”
……That doesn’t seem true.
Among everyone I’ve seen, he seemed like the type who’d do things best.
I watched him with suspicious eyes.
But Theodore didn’t notice my gaze—he only smiled awkwardly.
“I keep practicing alone, learning to let things go.”
“……Let go of what?”
“Things too difficult to hold onto.”
Theodore spoke those weighty words, then
hid his darkened expression behind a towel.
Why was it
that watching him like this beside me
“If letting go is too hard, then just hold on.”
The words tumbled out before I could stop them.
“……Just… hold on?”
Blink—
Surprise flickered in his eyes as they opened and closed slowly.
The regret I felt at my own impulsive words vanished the moment I saw his face.
“Yes, sometimes that becomes the driving force itself.”
Because it had been that way for me too.
Unable to let go of the past I’d lived through.
So I’d sworn to live by that strength, to take revenge.
“…….”
Theodore, towel in hand, stared at me as if entranced.
Was it just my imagination, or were the corners of his upturned eyes tinged red?
“Ah, I think we should end training here for today.”
Theodore said this and picked up the water bottle beside me.
“I’m exhausted. This is tedious. I’m just going to slack off somewhere—want to join?”
He wiped his sweat-dampened forehead with the towel and asked in an offhand tone.
As I was about to answer,
Throb—
a light pain fluttered through my heart.
It was a pain I couldn’t name.
A vague thought crossed my mind—perhaps this was the emotion Theodore felt.
But even knowing that, there was nothing I could do.
It seemed he didn’t want me to know.
“……Sure. Shall we go see that rabbit?”
I stood up as I said this.
“Whatever you want.”
Theodore answered with a slight smile.
***
From that day on, Theodore often wandered near my room.
Whenever we crossed paths, he’d pick a quarrel, and whenever I went to the Garden, he’d appear with the white rabbit in tow.
His rudeness, casual as breathing, still bothered me.
But it was good that information about him was steadily accumulating.
‘Well…… we’ve certainly grown a little closer.’
His words and manner were rough.
But I’d learned he wasn’t a bad person.
Looking closely, he even seemed to have taken a liking to me.
He simply expressed it poorly.
As I thought of him and reached for the Training Grounds entrance, I stopped—I’d spotted someone still inside.
‘What is it. Why is he still there.’
Short blonde hair catching the light, a frame smaller than a grown man despite being larger than his peers.
Theodore was battering a Wooden Training Dummy with irritable intensity.
Crack—
With a rough sound, the dummy split in half.
The Wooden Sword he held had met the same fate.
“Huff, huff…… Ugh—”
Theodore regulated his ragged breathing, hurled the sword and dummy into the corner,
then retrieved a new one from storage and immediately began swinging again.
From the state of his soaked clothes, it seemed he’d been at this for more than an hour or two.
I recalled the time when I’d left my room for the Training Grounds.
Soon the Training Grounds would be closed off to visitors.
I looked around.
As expected, there was no one passing through, and since I’d arrived earlier than the appointed time, Kai wasn’t visible either.
Watching Theodore carefully, I closed the entrance to the Training Grounds and walked slowly toward him.
With each step closer, a sharp thwacking sound struck my ears vividly.
I hadn’t heard it from that distance before, but now I could make out fragments of his muttering as well.
“……Damn it!”
Other broken words spilled out, but without context I couldn’t quite make sense of them.
His shoulders were trembling.
Was it from pushing his body to its limit?
Or from emotions welling up inside him…….
As I moved closer, roiling feelings crashed over me all at once, and I stepped backward.
‘Oh no, I feel…….’
Like I might lose it.
I quickly covered my mouth with both hands.
I couldn’t understand why Theodore was like this.
But the raw, violent emotions he was feeling poured into me uncensored.
Rage, terror, emptiness, despair, dread…….
And beneath all of it, pressed down like a heavy seal, a profound sense of loss.
“Hnn, haa…… urgh.”
I couldn’t stay there any longer and bolted through the door.
I dry heaved onto the ground,
but since I hadn’t eaten anything, there was nothing to bring up.
‘I’ve always known I’m too susceptible to other people’s emotions.’
This is just more of the same.
Perhaps it’s connected to being a Beast Tamer.
I wiped away the tears that had gathered in my eyes and thought desperately.
I couldn’t let myself get confused.
I couldn’t vividly recall that nightmare again.
Even if we felt the same emotions, Theodore and I had completely different experiences, so I absolutely couldn’t…….
I mustn’t take his feelings as my own.
“Eria?”
Kai’s voice reached me from some distance away.
When I turned around, he had already come close and was looking at me with concern.
“Are you all right?”
“……Yeah, it’s nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
“…….”
Kai placed his hand on my cheek and stroked it gently.
It felt cool, almost cold to the touch.
“Eria. Is it because of ‘that’?”

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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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