Support the translator on lazytranslations.com
November 20th.
Enos and Jean’s wedding was
being held in the only temple in the village of Rathmore.
Grandfather had invited a
priest from the town of Bogwood for them. A solemn atmosphere spread as the ceremony
was performed.
The wedding itself was simple,
with only receiving the blessing of the God of Men Whyta, but the reception
that followed was grand.
Enos was given a ceremonial garb
based on the military uniform of the Caelum Empire by his father. And around
his waist hung a magnificent sword that Grandfather had lent him.
Jean wears a white dress given
to her by her mother, and her bright red hair is adorned with pure white
flowers.
(Enos isn’t a boy celebrating Shichi-Go,
but it feels like he’s dressed for one. I thought Jean was a wallflower type girl,
but she was very beautiful. …I didn’t notice her beauty because I was surrounded
by beautiful girls like Liddy, mother, and Claire-Sharon’s mother…) (Zack) [T/N:
Shichi-Go or 7-5-3 is a festival/rite-of-passage on the 15th of
November every year. It is for 3- & 7-year-old girls and 3(Sometimes)-
& 5-year-old boys. They are dressed “to the nines”.]
They headed to the Black Pond
Pavilion dressed as they were.
Their wedding carriage is a
cart, which is charming, but still, the villagers congratulated them one after
another, as they wave their hands shyly.
As soon as they arrived at Black
Pond Pavilion, the banquet began.
My grandfather wanted to hold
the reception at the mansion, but I suggested that we do it at the Black Pond
Pavilion.
Enos is my father’s
second-in-command, and Jean’s main job is to help out at the mansion, so
neither of them has much interaction with the villagers. I suggested to Father
and Grandfather that they should take this opportunity to interact a little
more with the villagers.
The villagers knew that Jean
was the daughter of Nicholas and Kate, who were taking care of the management
of the village, and so a huge crowd had gathered that it seemed like it was the
harvest festival.
The feast would have usually begun
with a speech from Grandfather, but as the Lockhart family hates formalities,
the party starts in an informal manner.
Various congratulatory gifts
are presented to the couple because of the care they have received from
Nicholas, and they pile up. Cheese and other foodstuffs, bundles of wool yarn,
and homemade baskets made of ivy, nothing expensive, but they had been made
with care and love.
Both my grandfather and father
were amazed at the sight.
Nicholas is popular with the
villagers because he notices even small details.
He knew whose place had the
worst harvest of wheat and whose place had the best beans, and he would give
them advice on who to barter with. He even asked Guy to go into the forest to
fetch medicinal herbs and deliver them to places where there were sick
children.
I didn’t realize it until I
started working with him, but even Father and Grandfather probably didn’t think
he was this adored.
(In fact, I think Nicholas is
too good for the Lockhart family. He is very attentive and knows everything
there is to know with just a bit of listening.) (Zack)
I looked at my grandfather’s
face, who still looked amazed.
(It’s a good thing Grandfather
sent him to study abroad in Doctus. But I guess Grandfather didn’t expect
Nicholas to be this adored.) (Zack)
At the reception, Enos was
drunk until he was sloshed.
(I wonder what’s going to
happen on their wedding night today? Right, I didn’t think that far ahead…)
(Zack)
Even I, the mastermind behind
this wedding party, didn’t think about what would happen at night.
(Well, I’m sure my mother and
others will follow up on that…) (Zack)
I heard that the reception
lasted until the night, but we children returned to the mansion at about 3:00
PM.
On the way back, Mel and
Sharon, perhaps inspired by Jean’s appearance, were more clingy than usual.
Liddy, seeing this,
sarcastically said, “It’s nice to be popular with girls,” and pouted
and walked faster.
I believe that there was no
need to be jealous of children, but it was amusing, so I left it at that.
Sure enough, that night she acted
coquettishly as if she wanted to be pampered.
(She really has the mental age
of a four-year-old kid. It is said that elves have a life span ten times longer
than humans, but do they also metally mature ten times slower? Well, then the
math fits, I guess?) (Zack)
As I was thinking about that,
Liddy must have noticed, “Are you thinking of something rude?”
I brushed it off by saying,
“I just thought Liddy was cute,” but she quipped, “You were
thinking I was being childish.”
(She is childish, but… well,
she is cute…) (Zack)
I don’t know how Enos and
Jean’s wedding night went, but it must have gone well since they were on cloud
nine the next day and the other coming days.
In December, a cold wind blew
through the hills and the village of Rathmore began to wear winter makeup at
once.
The sky was covered with heavy
gray clouds, and the earth was tinted gray and brown. The hills, which had been
so colorful in the summer, had turned dreary and monotonous.
There was frost on Castle Hill,
where the mansion is located, and the breath of the horses walking are white
and foggy.
The daylight hours have become
shorter, and morning drills are now held in the dark.
My brother and I would swing
frantically under the light of the magical tools that our grandfather would
prepare for us.
My level of swordsmanship has
risen to three, and I feel that I have somehow begun to establish the form of
my sword style. However, the moment I see my grandfather’s swordsmanship, I
realize that I still have a long way to go.
I was wondering about the
level, so I asked Nicholas to teach me.
First of all, [Level] is
officially called [Occupation Level]. The level of a swordsman’s [Occupation]
is indicated by their Skill Level, the level of Sword Arts, etc., and the lower
the Experience Level, which is not shown on the orb. The lower the Skill Level,
the higher the Experience Level, and thus, the higher the Experience Level, the
higher the Occupation Level.
In other words, Skill Level
represents skills acquired through training, etc., but if a person has skill
but no experience, his or her Occupation Level will be lower.
I wondered why my level as a swordsman
was the same as my Skill Level. I asked Nicholas about this, and he told me
that this is what happens when a person is trained from scratch by a master
like Grandfather.
I don’t know the logic behind
this, but I think I know why it could be.
The idea is that by learning
from a master who has a lot of experience in actual combat, one’s Experience Level
will increase to some extent because the training will be based on the
experience of the master. I think this is correct because I have heard that no
matter how high the Experience Level is if the training is not good, the Experience
Level may not increase.
He then taught me a rough
guide.
When considering swordsmen,
levels 1 to 5 are considered amateurs who just know how to use a sword. Up to
about 15 is the average for recruits. Up to about 30 is the general Occupation
Level for warriors. Up to about level 50 they can be called a veteran, and at more
than that level, they can be called a master.
By the way, my grandfather’s
level is 75, which can be considered master level. He was at the third level,
which is the highest level among mercenaries based on merit.
(If the settings at the time
of character creation are correct, he should have had the talent to reach level
80 in swordsmanship, and his learning speed is three times faster than that of
ordinary people, but it doesn’t feel real to me at all. Mel is going up at
about the same pace and Dan is not that far behind. I wonder what’s going on…)
(Zack)
I was getting a little bummed
out about my swordsmanship level, which wasn’t going up as fast as I hoped.
My grandfather told me that
level three at the age of four is an impossible feat, but I was depressed by
his assessment that I was only an amateur after spending half a year on it.
On the other hand, my magic is
improving steadily.
Perhaps it is because I have
been consuming my magic power every day until I am on the verge of running out
of magic power, but in the three months since September, I have improved to
level 2 in Light and Wind, and to level 1 in Fire, Wood, Water, and Earth. As
for Darkness and Gold, they have not risen in level, perhaps because I cannot
successfully conjure up an image of them.
As Liddy said, she said that
if I raise the attribute I am good at, the other attributes will go up faster.
T/N: Support me by donating on Paypal and Ko-fi or become a Ko-fi Supporter. You can also rate and review the series on Novel Updates. Don’t forget to add it to your reading list! Thank you.