Male Lead, Don’t Push, Pull!

~ Translation by Lurelia | Editing by Valpal | Read only at rainofsnow.com ~

Kyle swung his wooden sword at the training dummy. Like a hawk with its prey in sight, sharp as a beast intent on taking its opponent’s life.

It was a state of complete trance.

Had the original Kyle gone through the same process to become a Sword Master?

In the original novel, he never entered the Academy of Arene. The swordsmanship taught to him by Verdo Rosiere was his only training.

He must have wielded countless swords alone in the most humble and secluded parts of the imperial palace.

In order to gain enlightenment and move on to better things.

“…1000!”

By the time Kyle reached the second thousand, the sunset sky had turned dark.

“Huh, heuk….”

Kyle gasped as he dropped the wooden sword, which clattered to the ground at his feet.

I hurried over to him and handed him some water.

“Here, drink this water, Kyle.”

Kyle took the bottle with a shaky hand. After a few shaky moments, he took a few sips.

Then I heard a voice buzzing in my ears.

“Awesome, really.”

“You did finish it again, didn’t you?”

Before I knew it, the guys had returned from dinner and were wandering around the training grounds.

They must have come to see if Kyle was really still training.

Angrily, I glared at them, and their eyebrows rose as our eyes met. Their mouths dropped open, and as I continued to stare at them, they curled their tails and snuck away.

I turned to Kyle.

“Kyle, let’s get out of here.”

Kyle nodded obediently, as if he didn’t have the strength to resist anymore.

‘I’m going to take you to the best restaurant in town.’

All he needed now was some nourishing meat and a good night’s rest.

I wracked my brain, trying to decide which restaurant to take him to.

That’s when we walked out of the training grounds.

“Hey.”

A gruff voice stops Kyle in his tracks. I spun around to see the face of his caller.

It was the same person who had ordered Kyle to strike a thousand times earlier and then disappeared to eat.

His shirt had a red stain, proof of his having eaten well while Kyle was swinging his sword around. I think it was tomato sauce.

From his grumpy face to his foul-mouthed manner to his poor eating habits. From start to finish, I didn’t like him.

He crossed his arms and turned to Kyle.

“Did you do everything I ordered you to do?”

“A thousand times over.”

Kyle said in a low, sunken voice. The man looked him up and down. It was a very arrogant gaze, and then he spoke with a sneer.

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

Dumbfounded, I opened my mouth. Can’t you see Kyle’s arms and legs are shaking because he’s having a hard time right now?

Besides, he’s honestly done it a thousand times. No one was watching, so he could have done less, but he held on for dear life.

Then he looked at me and Daniel, who was standing behind him, and clicked his tongue.

“You’re letting an outsider into the training grounds; you’re not following the rules.”

“The Arene Academy is open to everyone!” I shouted, irritated by his words. 

~ Translation by Lurelia | Editing by Valpal | Read only at rainofsnow.com ~

Anyone was welcome to use the training grounds here, except when classes were in session at the Swordsmanship Faculty. There was a separate training ground for the upperclassmen anyway.

The other man shook his head in disbelief.

“You have no respect for your seniors. What the hell do you think I’ve taught you, Kyle?”

“….”

“Oh, no. You’ll start striking again a thousand times….”

“Enough.” I cut him off and stepped forward.

For a moment, I thought I’d misheard. After all the trouble he’d put Kyle through, he was going to make him do it a thousand more times?

I snapped at my opponent, who was probably two heads taller than me.

“Kyle’s done everything you’ve asked him to do, and there’s no way he’s going to do more. It’s dinner time, and it’s not class time.”

My opponent frowned.

“Students from other departments should be left out of this.” 

“If you give Kyle any more unreasonable instructions, I’m going to report you to the professors for bullying a junior.”

“Ha, what do you know? And do you think the professors will listen to what an outsider says?”

My opponent snorted in annoyance. Undeterred, I crossed my arms and held my head high.

“Maybe they’ll listen, because all the swords worn by the Empire’s greatest knights are made in my house.”

“What?”

“What would happen if the swords that used to be supplied to Arene suddenly stopped coming. Wouldn’t your professors and staff want to find out what happened?”

The other man looked me up and down warily, and after a moment, he seemed to realize something. He finally realized who I was.

Viviane Rosiere. The girl Kyle had declared his friendship with in front of everyone on the day of his enrolment.

But there’s more to me than that.

I come from the same family that controls the Empire’s military business!

Even the swords used here at the Arene Academy were forged in our family’s workshops. Although the wooden swords were probably sourced from a workshop within Arene.

I returned the glare. Are you trying to start a snowball fight? I’m good at that.

Finally, my opponent surrendered.

“…I’ll see you tomorrow, Kyle.”

After uttering the words of a third-rate villain, my opponent walked away shakily.

Behind him, I pouted my lips and muttered.

Don’t look at him again, don’t look at him again.

Go away, ho, ho, ho.

“Come on, let’s go, guys!”

I shooed the distraction away and strode out with Kyle and Daniel in tow.

All the while, I thought to myself that I needed to punish that bully of a senior for Kyle, whatever it takes!

***

After that day, I went straight to the source of Kyle’s harassment.

His name was Franz Dyer. 

The only son of Count Dyer, he was a fifth-year student at the Arene Academy.

However, he had actually been attending the Academy for seven years. He had been in paid work twice and hadn’t been promoted in time.

“You do look a bit shabby, and even a bit stupid, you know?” I muttered sourly, as I had a grudge against him.

He was quite a famous figure in the academy, mostly because of his misdeeds, of course.

As a member of the swordsmanship department, every year when new students entered the academy, he would pick on one person and bully them relentlessly.

He used the younger student as a servant, making him do all sorts of chores, and he didn’t hesitate to use violence and verbal abuse.

He told them that it was a natural process for seniors to teach younger students. He gave the ridiculous excuse that he was helping the younger students get used to academy life.

It was like being blindfolded.

“How did he get away with it all this time?”

There’s no way the professors didn’t know this was going on.

I looked up some more rumors about Franz and soon realized why. Franz only picked on people who were lower in status than he was, who were poor and didn’t have the support of their families.

He made sure they didn’t dare to speak up.

His victims were unable to ask for help and had to endure his harassment with their whole bodies.

Moreover, Franz was a typical bully.

With people who were older or had a higher position than him, or with professors, he acted like a tongue in the mouth – obedient and firmly in his place. 

There was also some bribery in the form of gifts.

So even if Franz wasn’t good enough to get paid, he got away with bullying the new students and doing bad things to them.

“You should be training when you’re not engaging in politics.”

I clicked my tongue bitterly.

Franz hadn’t been targeting and harassing Kyle from the beginning.

Franz, the outlaw of the swordsmanship faculty, was initially wary of Kyle because he was royalty with the surname Ygritte.

His attitude changed when strange rumors began to circulate within the academy about Kyle.

It was said that Kyle’s mother was Titania, a concubine shunned by the emperor, and that Kyle was being treated as if he didn’t exist.

The gist of the rumor was that the Empress, unhappy with Kyle’s presence, had persuaded the emperor to send him into exile here.

“Who the hell started that rumor?”

I pouted my lips in displeasure.

Kyle was being treated like he didn’t exist by the emperor?

When Kyle and I had passed the Academy entrance exams, the emperor had made it a point to congratulate Kyle on his achievement, even going so far as to have a private meeting with him.

He even offered to grant us a wish.

But it wasn’t a public meeting, so it’s not like people would know.

Besides, it was still the prevailing opinion of Kyle that he was ‘a child of the emperor’s blood and an insignificant concubine’.

Franz, too, had changed his tune, thinking that Kyle was a disowned prince.