The Failed Swordmaster - Chapter 4

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 4 2. There’s Plenty of Reason to Step In (2)

‘This is really annoying.’

The mercenary who had been drinking with his companions frowned.

He was in the middle of lying about the male waitstaff bringing out the wrong food.

Since there was no evidence either way, he thought that if the commotion grew larger, the owner would mediate and provide free side dishes.

However, the situation became awkward due to the sudden appearance of a female waitress. He looked around.

‘Everyone believes that bitch!’

Despite having nothing to feel wronged about, anger surged within him. He had raised his voice out of embarrassment, but this brazen waitress wasn’t backing down an inch and was glaring at him.

‘I need to be more aggressive!’

In most situations, the person with the loudest voice always has the advantage. That was his long-held belief. Having decided to brazen it out, he shouted even louder and approached the female waitress.

He made threatening hand gestures as well. He didn’t intend to actually hit her, but he at least wanted to crush that insolent attitude.

Then, a hand intervened between the mercenary and the waitress.

“Please stop.”

“Huh? What are you supposed to be?”

“You seem quite drunk, so please calm down first and let’s go outside to resolve this through conversation.”

The drunk mercenary narrowed his eyes and looked at the newly appeared man.

No, calling him a man wasn’t quite accurate. The mercenary burst into hollow laughter at his opponent’s appearance, who looked much younger than himself.

Then he spat out curses and swung his hand. He had gotten heated up thinking that even this young punk was looking down on him.

The mercenary’s companions, customers, and the female waitress all showed startled expressions upon seeing this.

Whoosh.

“Huh? He dodged?”

“Please stop.”

However, contrary to everyone’s expectation that he would be sent flying far away, the young man dodged the mercenary’s palm strike far too easily. People showed interest in this unexpected situation and their eyes lit up.

After all, weren’t the most entertaining spectacles fire-watching and fight-watching?

The customers who had distanced themselves appropriately from the two entered full spectator mode. The young man showed a relaxed demeanor as if he didn’t care about this at all.

However, the mercenary was not pleased with this situation at all.

‘Fuck, I was just trying to get one free side dish!’

He didn’t like how things had escalated, nor did he like the current situation where he seemed like a clown.

But what annoyed him most was the young man who had interfered with his business despite having peach fuzz on his face.

The alcohol, embarrassment, and anger made his body burn hot. He channeled that heat into a punch much stronger than before.

Whoosh, whip!

Whooom!

The mercenary’s punches were quite fierce.

Befitting his large frame, considerable power could be felt, and the speed wasn’t slow either. Each time his fist shot out, the air in the tavern screamed.

But none of those gathered in the inn paid attention to the mercenary. Even his companions were busy looking elsewhere.

This was because his target – that young punk with the delicate-looking face – was showing an incredible display.

“Wow, he dodged again!”

“Again, again! He hasn’t been hit even once!”

“It’s not even close. He’s completely relaxed, isn’t he?”

People’s reactions grew more heated. Some watched the young man’s movements with blank expressions, not even noticing food spilling from their mouths.

It wasn’t fast or flashy. At least that’s how it appeared to the customers in the inn. The young man only showed slight head movements and simple footwork.

Nevertheless, the mercenary’s fists couldn’t even graze the young man’s body.

One of the customers gave admiring praise.

“He’s young but really amazing. That big guy can’t do anything to him.”

“Hey, that’s not right. He’s too busy dodging to even attack.”

An immediate rebuttal came from nearby, but this wasn’t true.

The young man, Lumian, was in an extremely relaxed state. He was leisurely analyzing the mercenary’s attacks without feeling even a hint of crisis.

‘Still, his eyes are pretty decent.’

Lumian’s specs weren’t outstanding.

Strictly speaking, he was far inferior compared to his classmates at the Knight’s Academy. He didn’t have a large amount of aura, nor was his body well-trained.

However, his eyesight alone was excellent enough to be acknowledged by his demanding standards. With eyes like these, if he missed punches from a street mercenary, he should stick his nose in dishwater and die.

His insufficient physical abilities weren’t a problem at all. Ryan Fromhart’s combat experience was tremendous enough to more than make up for that gap. In fact, Lumian had the leisure to break through the mercenary’s punch offensive and settle the situation at any time.

‘But it wouldn’t be cool to end it too early.’

What was the reason he had intervened in the dispute between the waitress and the mercenary?

It was to look cool. To gain the attention of the inn’s female waitress, today’s greatest beauty, through this.

Beating down this mercenary wasn’t important. The point was to use this guy to create the coolest possible situation.

‘There should be scenes where I dodge narrowly like this too.’

The mercenary’s left straight grazed Lumian’s cheek. Surprised voices from people filled the inn.

Of course, this was intentional on Lumian’s part. He wasn’t in any danger right now.

‘It makes more dramatic staging possible.’

The atmosphere had built up quite well. Within it, Lumian glanced sideways to check on the female waitress.

Her appearance with hands clasped together and a worried expression was very lovely. A faint smile crossed his lips.

The inn’s customers couldn’t see this. But it was clearly visible to the mercenary at close range. He misunderstood Lumian’s smile as mockery directed at him.

“You bastard! Are you acting all leisurely!”

The mercenary, whose anger had reached his head, twisted his upper body greatly. At the same time, Lumian’s eyes widened.

A situation where his posture had collapsed due to excitement. But to a third party, the large movement would seem very threatening.

A lightning-like counterattack bursting forth in such a situation, and the result of the fight reversed in one blow.

From a spectator’s perspective, how would this feel?

‘Not bad. No, excellent!’

Lumian clenched his fist tightly. Though he had remained calm even with a large fist before his eyes, he couldn’t contain his excitement thinking about the result that would soon unfold.

Whiiiiish-!

While he was thinking, the mercenary’s fist was shooting out powerfully like a spring. Very fast speed. But to Lumian, who had concentrated for his desires, it looked slow enough to make him yawn.

One, two, now. Aiming for the perfect timing, he attacked for the first time. The young man’s small fist struck the forward-leaning mercenary’s jaw.

Thunk!

Thud.

That was the end.

The large mercenary collapsed forward like a marionette with cut strings. He had been knocked unconscious in one blow.

Lumian, who caught his breath with a “whew,” straightened his clothes.

He turned his head. Then he said a word to the mercenary’s companion who had a dumbfounded expression.

“Take him away. Don’t cause any more trouble.”

“Wo, wooooooh!”

“What? Did he just knock him out in one hit? That big guy?”

“This can’t be! He looks much younger too!”

A huge cheer erupted.

The young man’s unbelievable martial prowess displayed against the large mercenary!

There couldn’t be better entertainment than this. People burst out with the breath they had been holding since the latter half of the fight and talked loudly. Taking advantage of this, the mercenary’s companions carried him up to the 2nd floor lodging, but no one paid attention to this.

Well, it was natural. They weren’t today’s protagonists. Several tipsy people approached the young man who had created unbelievable results and spoke to him.

“Hey, that was amazing! How did you do it?”

“Your courage is remarkable. I was also frowning at that guy’s misconduct.”

“Me too. If you hadn’t stepped in, I would have taught him a lesson…”

“Ah, yes…”

Lumian awkwardly smiled and responded to them.

He felt terrible. He had finished things coolly as desired and become the star of the inn. But this was to win the female waitress’s favor, definitely not to become the idol of drunk old men.

To make matters worse, the male waitstaff with a tearful expression and the inn owner approached him.

They clearly looked like they had a lot to say.

‘Shit, this isn’t right.’

Lumian slightly closed his eyes. It was terrible. It was terrible that he was monopolizing men’s popularity in his new life as well as his previous one, and the dark-faced men who would be surrounding him when he opened his eyes were also terrible.

It was as if he was under a curse.

Amid the smell of the old men’s sweat, he exercised superhuman patience to suppress the urge to scream.

Then.

He felt a touch grasping his hand.

Lumian startled and opened his eyes. The sensation felt so soft that it was hard to believe it belonged to a man.

Fortunately, his assumption was correct.

In front of Lumian stood the well-figured waitress from before, wearing a worried expression. She was holding his hand tightly with both of hers.

His mind went blank as white paper.

“Thank you, sir! Thank you so much for helping me!”

“Oh, yes…”

“I should have stopped them, but I was too scared to do anything. I’m sorry, and thank you so much!”

A commoner had freely grabbed a noble’s hand. This was quite rude.

But Lumian had no leisure to worry about such things.

The waitress holding his hand was bouncing excitedly, and her chest swaying up and down mercilessly shook his mind.

‘Is this… heaven…?’

His first physical contact with a woman since getting his equipment!

Lumian’s body stiffened. It was from tension. Incomparable pressure to fighting the mercenary made sweat pour down his back like rain.

He couldn’t even remember the cool lines he had prepared.

Helplessly, Lumian gave a very safe and bland response.

But this was a huge mistake.

“No, not at all. I just did what I had to do as a knight cadet…”

“Knight cadet… Oh my!”

The waitress startled and let go of his hand.

Lumian was even more shocked. As the sensation of the soft woman’s hand disappeared, it felt like falling from heaven to hell.

‘Hold it just a little longer!’

It was something he could only think to himself, words he couldn’t dare speak aloud.

The waitress bowed politely to him and said.

“You were a cadet from the Knight’s Academy… I’m sorry for not recognizing you! For a lowly woman like me to dare touch your noble hand… I’m truly sorry!”

“Oh, no. You don’t need to apologize like that…”

Most members of the Knight’s Academy were nobles, and even the commoners were talented individuals with high chances of becoming nobles in the future. The female waitress’s apology was natural.

But from Lumian’s perspective, apologies were utterly useless. He would rather feel the female waitress’s hand for longer.

“Indeed, I thought your skills seemed extraordinary. You were a pillar of the Academy!”

“Amazing! Magnificent!”

“We’ve been rude to you. Please be merciful and forgive us…”

However, the hand that had left once did not return.

Between him and the waitress, bald-headed and red-faced drunk patrons filled the space.

Their apologies and flattery were also completely unnecessary.

Lumian looked like he was about to cry.

“It’s fine. You don’t need to worry about it so much…”

But he couldn’t take out his frustration on people who had done nothing wrong.

Neither Lumian Calard nor Ryan Fromhart had such a vicious personality. In the end, he could only watch the well-figured female waitress from afar as she retreated.

‘Damn… no… let’s be satisfied with this much today…’

With a bitter expression, Lumian accepted the patrons’ flattery for a while before returning to his room. He had suddenly become tired and wanted to rest. Even after he disappeared, the inn’s guests continued talking about Lumian for quite some time.

‘What? Lumian defeated a large mercenary with his bare hands?’

And the news of that day reached the ears of Lumian’s classmate, who arrived at the inn much later.

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