Those who learn the sword without a proper master inevitably pick up one or two bad habits.
In Felix's case, whenever his opponent was taller than him, he had a habit of dodging a diagonal slash by dropping low.
By moving downward, he could slip into the opponent's guard and counter quickly.
But if you rely on the same method every time, people around you are bound to catch on.
Lucian had noticed this when he happened to work alongside Felix and watched him fight, and he pointed it out.
—Thank you. Really. If it weren't for you, that could've caused serious trouble for me later.
Anyone might have taken offense at having a technique they'd relied on repeatedly criticized, yet Felix expressed nothing but sincere gratitude.
Then, on the spot, he came up with several alternative responses and corrected his swordsmanship by switching between them as needed.
Seeing that, Lucian had been left speechless.
Mercenaries who recognized their own flaws but didn't know how to fix them were everywhere—and yet this man had completely corrected his weakness in just a few days.
So this is what a true genius looks like, Lucian had thought.
—As repayment, I'd like to fix your swordsmanship a bit… would that be all right?
Depending on how it was taken, that could've been seen as a serious insult.
Offering to "fix" someone's swordsmanship implicitly meant claiming one's own level was higher than the other's.
But Lucian readily accepted Felix's goodwill.
His self-taught swordsmanship was full of holes to begin with, and the one offering guidance was a once-in-a-generation genius.
If it meant receiving even a little instruction, he was more than willing to show everything he had.
—Your momentum when you strike is good, but the problem is how easily your stance collapses. Instead of putting all your strength into a single blow, it'd be better to let it flow and focus on counterattacks.
Felix pointed out many things, but every single one of them had been issues Lucian himself had been struggling with—it felt like having an itch scratched in just the right spot.
Lucian's chaotic, patchwork swordsmanship finally reached a level worthy of being called a proper style after that day.
They'd only worked together a few times under the same employer, but without that brief encounter, Lucian would've died on the battlefield long ago.
I said I'd rise in the world and repay the favor, but Felix rose even higher, and it all came to nothing.
From what he'd heard, a few years after they parted, a border marquis who recognized Felix's talent had formally knighted him.
When Lucian heard the news, he'd thought it was only natural—yet he couldn't suppress a bitter feeling.
Even though the news was already years old, Lucian's own circumstances hadn't changed much since then.
Looking back now, it almost felt laughable.
Then again, it wasn't even something to take for granted. "Recognized his talent," my ass. That border marquis must've been blind.
To grant someone with Felix's talent nothing more than a knighthood?
Even a junior baron title and a position among the household guard would've been far too little, yet he'd been shamelessly underpaid.
A border marquis would've known that perfectly well.
The reason he'd still lowballed him so egregiously was obvious without even seeing it.
Because of her gender.
A bitter smile formed at the corner of Lucian's lips.
After all, female knights were the stuff of fairy tales unless they were purely ceremonial.
A noble young lady might barely manage it, but a common-born woman being knighted was unthinkable.
Just being knighted while hiding her gender would've been something Felix—no, Felicia—had to be grateful for.
She hadn't been set up as a mere ornament either; she'd been given chances to distinguish herself on the battlefield and climb higher.
In a way, she was an unfortunate figure not so different from Lucian himself.
Because of her birth, she'd been forced to sell heaven-granted talent for a pittance.
But not anymore.
In this life, Felicia would never have to cheapen her gifts again.
Lucian intended to fix every flaw that had been her weakness in the previous one.
There would be a condition, of course—that she wield her sword at his side.
"Hugo, take this one away."
"Hugo? What are you doing?"
"Ah—yes. My apologies. How should we handle her?"
"Bind her so she can't cause trouble, and keep her under strict guard. But see that she's treated properly."
"Understood."
Hugo gave orders to the other subordinates and had Felicia carried off.
All that remained were the groaning, fallen knights, one maid, and Philip, the marquis's son.
With every escape route completely cut off, Philip trembled with rage and shouted at Hugo.
"You back-alley trash—selling me out!? Do you think you'll walk away unharmed after betraying the Logran marquisate!?"
"My lord!"
The knights, their faces drained of color, cried out—but it was already too late.
Lucian looked at Philip with a faint smile.
"The Logran marquisate, huh. I was wondering who was backing the attempt to sell drugs right in Valdeck's front yard—so it was you. That saves me the trouble of interrogation."
"Lucian Valdeck, third son of Sigmund Valdeck, hereby arrests you under lawful authority. If you don't want things to get ugly, refrain from resisting."
Philip's face went pale as he finally grasped the situation.
It meant that the Logran marquisate had been named as the force behind drug trafficking—right in front of none other than a child of the Grand Duke of Valdeck.
At this point, no excuse he could offer would get him out of it.
"W–Wait. This isn't that—I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding—"
"Misunderstanding, my ass. Let's see if you can say that in front of my father. Take him."
"Yes, Third Young Master."
As the Black Lions moved toward Philip, who had tried to make excuses too late, he clenched his teeth, realizing there was no escape, and shouted.
"Wait! I'll walk on my own!"
"What?"
"No matter what crime I've committed, I am the fourth son of the Logran marquisate! I demand the treatment due to me as a prisoner!"
So now that everything was exposed, he planned to squeeze what little benefit he could out of his family name?
At Philip's shallow scheming, Lucian let out a short laugh and said,
"If you don't want to walk, then be dragged along. Or I can break your shin myself."
At Lucian's icy reply, Philip tucked his tail between his legs.
***
After capturing Philip and his cohort, Lucian immediately set out for Kelheim.
At the same time, he dispatched a messenger ahead of him to inform Grand Duke Sigmund of what had happened and to request several preparations.
—Gather the townspeople and let them see the criminals being taken away. Since the culprits themselves confessed their identities, we can make it known that all of this was the doing of the Logran marquisate.
"That's a great idea! That bastard Bernhardt will be sweating bullets trying to deny it!"
The moment Grand Duke Sigmund heard the proposal, he burst into loud laughter and immediately had the townspeople summoned.
By the time Philip's group was nearly at Kelheim, they froze at the sight of the crowd that had gathered like clouds.
At this rate, their faces would be publicly exposed beyond all doubt.
"Sir Lucian! Do you intend to make a spectacle of us!?"
"This isn't right! At least preserve the bare minimum of our honor!"
"Just kill us instead! Death would be better than suffering this!"
Leaving Philip aside, it was the knights who protested most fiercely.
They hadn't been caught in an assassination attempt, but for aiding in the manufacture and sale of drugs.
For a knight, it was an indescribable disgrace—yet now he intended to reveal it to the entire populace.
To prevent their family's honor from being dragged through the mud, they naturally grew desperate.
Lucian, however, found their attitude laughable.
"The moment you aided in the sale of drugs while bearing the title of knight, you forfeited your honor. Something that doesn't exist can't be sullied, so stop worrying and keep walking. It was already a rag rotted in filthy water—what difference does wiping a bit more dirt make?"
"What—!?"
"Sir Lucian!"
At Lucian's words, two of the knights flushed red with shame.
It seemed they still had some conscience left after all—but only those two.
The rest merely raged on, shouting that they had been insulted.
Well, if they'd had any sense to begin with, they wouldn't have agreed to this job in the first place.
With a sigh, Lucian turned toward the troops the grand duke had dispatched and issued his command.
"Grab them so they can't resist. If they struggle while being moved, you're free to beat them."
"B–But they're knights in name—will that really be all right?"
"Knights? Drug-peddling trash like them don't qualify. Don't worry about it—handle them roughly."
They might earn some personal grudges, but these were expendable, low-ranking knights thrown into a job meant to be discarded anyway.
If it were the marquis's son, that'd be another matter, but men like these would be cut loose without a second thought.
No matter how they were treated, there would be no backlash—nothing to overthink.
"Let go—let go of me!"
"You bastards! How dare you lay hands on a knight!"
The knights resisted fiercely, but it was futile.
They were already too injured from their beating by the Black Lions to even stand properly.
Before long, dragged along by the rough hands of soldiers, Philip's group began their march under arrest.
"Huh? What's going on? Why's a knight being dragged off by soldiers?"
"They say he was caught trying to manufacture drugs. It's ridiculous."
"What? A knight? Why would a knight stoop to something that filthy?"
"I heard it was something the Logran marquis secretly did because he hates His Grace the Grand Duke."
"And that young master being hauled off there—that's his son, right?"
"My word, making his own son sell drugs? Looks like the marquis has really hit rock bottom."
As the murmurs rose from all sides, Philip's body trembled with shame.
Ironically, despite the humiliation, he didn't resist at all.
It seemed he'd decided it was better to endure the disgrace quietly than to fight back and get beaten.
"Apparently, the one who figured out the plan in advance and rounded them all up was the Third Young Master."
"What? That 'Deer Young Master'? That's nonsense!"
"Nonsense my foot. Don't you see the lord leading them from the front? That's him."
"People said you changed after coming back from the brink of death."
"They say you can steal gold but not seeds—guess he really is His Grace's son after all."
In the midst of it all, stories about Lucian were quietly spreading.
Lucian straightened his back to look better to the townspeople, suppressing the upward curl of his lips.
One of the reasons for staging such a grand spectacle was precisely to improve how people perceived him.
Rumors always spread from the bottom up, never the other way around.
If he didn't actively reshape his image at a moment like this, the stigma of being the "Deer Young Master" might linger for a long time.
"Y–Your Grace!"
"His Grace!"
As they neared the road leading to the inner fortress, a brief commotion broke out and people bowed all at once.
When Lucian lifted his head, he saw Grand Duke Sigmund Valdeck waiting to receive him.
Lucian dismounted and knelt before the grand duke, calling out loudly.
"Lucian Valdeck, acting under my father's command, hereby reports the escort of Philip Logran and all those under him who took part in criminal acts! They attempted the manufacture and sale of drugs—please punish them with the utmost severity!"
At his ringing declaration, the townspeople's eyes went wide.
That bold young lord was the so-called Deer Young Master?
Sensing the shift in the surrounding gazes, the grand duke narrowed his eyes slightly.
You cunning little rascal. So this was your aim?
Two birds with one stone. Surely you won't say this much is unacceptable?
When Lucian gave a quick wink, a snort of laughter escaped the grand duke.
But only for a moment—soon he raised his voice so all could hear.
"Indeed, my son! Splendid work! I shall grant you a reward in due time, so go and rest your weary body!"
"I will do so gladly!"
When the usually reserved grand duke offered such lavish praise, the townspeople's mouths fell open.
So the Deer Young Master really has changed enough to earn His Grace's approval!
It was proof so complete that nothing more was needed.
After finishing his words, the grand duke gave Lucian's shoulder a few congratulatory pats and whispered,
"Are you satisfied now?"
Lucian broke into a broad grin and replied to his father,
"More than satisfied."
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