Chapter 174: FIRST SWORD (1)

Terms used in this chapter:

3D’s occupation – 3D’s refers to jobs/occupations that are avoided because they are Difficult, Dirty, and Dangerous. Difficult can also be replaced by Demeaning.

Stab with a bamboo spear – This is sort of a slang in Korea. It’s something you say if you’re dissatisfied with something. I won’t explain about the origin since it involves history, WWII, the Japanese, etc., which all confused me too.

Rubbing salt into the wound – an expression used to criticize the things that lovers do to signify their love. It generally means that couples do something in front of single people to show off their love to one another, making the single person feel very jealous and angry.

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EPISODE 162 – FIRST SWORD (1)

“First of all, it isn’t that difficult to sneak in this place. It’s really wide and has a lot of people. Of course, the most important reason is that I’m the Rouge Master. But this is really soft. It’s pleasing to touch.”

Scarlet then began to rub Cordelia’s cheeks with both hands, and Jude instinctively reached out for her hand.

He tried to grab Scarlet’s wrist in order to remove her hand from Cordelia’s cheek.

Scarlet tried to avoid Jude’s hand, having already expected it when Jude made a move, but she failed to do so. Jude’s hand movement was so fast because he had predicted where Scarlet’s hand would move next, so she was unable to escape from his hand.

“Let go of the other side too.”

Jude spoke in warning to Scarlet, and Cordelia happily looked at Jude at that moment. But Scarlet who was still holding Cordelia’s right cheek then frowned and said.

“Okay, how about we each take one side? This side is mine, the other is yours.”

“Hmm, that’s fine with me.”

Jude immediately nodded at Scarlet’s suggestion and grabbed Cordelia’s left cheek, and Cordelia blinked her eyes upon realizing that both her cheeks were being pulled.

And a few seconds later.

Jude and Scarlet pulled Cordelia’s cheeks, and the confused Cordelia was quiet for a few seconds before she snapped.

“What are you two doing!”

As Cordelia jumped to her feet and swung her arms wide, Jude and Scarlet withdrew their hands at the same time.

“It really feels good. I want to pinch it every day.”

“Are you envious? Those cheeks are mine.”

“Tsk, I’m really envious. Will the next target be Pink Bomb’s cheeks?”

Scarlet commented and Jude bragged before Scarlet spoke again. But Cordelia exclaimed again.

“Hey!”

What the heck are you two talking about?

And my cheeks are mine, why is it yours!

The last one was what her glance said to Jude, but Jude remained calm and replied with a look.

‘I’m your fiancé, your fiancé. In addition, we love each other very much. So we need to get our story straight since we’re in front of Scarlet.’

Cordelia flinched at Jude’s gaze, but it was literally just for a moment.

‘Hey, do you think I’m stupid? What does this have to do with that? And right now, there’s no need for us to emphasize that we’re in love, okay?’

To begin with, the opponent is Scarlet!

‘Tsk, it didn’t work.’

‘Are you for real?’

‘Anyway, don’t be too angry. It’s all because your cheeks are so plump.’

‘Mr. Black-hearted Black Cloak, you think I’ll believe your compliments just because you’re good at it?’

‘I mean, it’s true though.’

‘Hmmm…’

At Jude’s gaze, Cordelia slightly pouted her lips before she touched her own cheeks.

It certainly felt nice.

‘Am I not right?’

‘Dammit, I admit it.’

As the two were chatting with their eyes, Scarlet was amused at first, but she gradually had an unpleased expression.

“What are you two doing when there’s a person in front of you? Shouldn’t those kind of stares be done in the bedroom?”

Cordelia looked bothered by what Scarlet said, so she replied in a fluster.

“W-what do you mean by those kind of stares being done in the bedroom!”

“Then where else do people exchange such lovey-dovey stares if not the bedroom?”

“I-it’s not like that, okay?”

We just had an argument with our eyes, okay?

But Cordelia’s counterargument was futile. First of all, most people would think that having an argument with your eyes was silly, and such an exchange of glances was clearly done between lovers only.

“Nooo!”

Cordelia patted her chest in her frustration that she couldn’t get her point across before she gave Jude a look.

Do something. Make her understand.

Jude nodded at her desperate gaze and looked back at Scarlet as he said.

“To begin with, isn’t it your fault for intruding in the intimate time of an engaged couple?”

“Tsk, that’s true. I apologize, Pink Bomb. For disturbing you.”

Scarlet humbly apologized, and Cordelia was flustered again.

It was good that she received an apology, but the process was a problem.

‘No, hey! Explain it to her, clarify!’

Why are you deepening the misunderstanding!

‘It can’t be helped. But we should continue talking to her first.’

‘Eueue, alright.’

Cordelia grumbled and accepted it as she no longer acted stubborn.

Therefore, Jude smiled and said to Scarlet.

“I’m sure you didn’t intrude in Duke Spencer’s place to steal, right? Is it because of us then?”

“No, what… uh, sort of?”

Scarlet made an awkward smile unlike before, and Cordelia narrowed her eyes in suspicion while Jude smiled quite wickedly.

“I can somehow guess why.”

The reason why Scarlet showed up here now.

At Jude’s remark, Cordelia sent him a look to tell them already, and Scarlet unconsciously flinched.

“You couldn’t wait, right? For the day you and Cordelia would meet again.”

“I-it’s not like that, okay?”

“What? Was it like that?”

Jude, Scarlet, and Cordelia spoke in turn.

In particular, Cordelia looked delighted and giggled before she said.

“My Scarlet missed this unnie, huh? Are you upset that this unnie didn’t call you quickly?”

“Hey! It isn’t like that, okay? It’s just that you said that you’d contact me, but you never contacted me, okay? And why are you the unnie? I’m two years older than you, right?”

Cordelia was 17 and Scarlet was 19.

When Scarlet, the sexy and haughty femme fatale, turned red in embarrassment, Cordelia giggled again.

“Oh my, you’re so cute. Then shall I call you unnie? Is that okay? Scarlet-unnie?”

As Cordelia teased her, Scarlet blushed again but she didn’t get upset this time.

Because the moment Cordelia called her unnie, she felt that something deep in her heart was satisfied.

“Well…if that’s what you want to call me, that’s fine.”

You can keep calling me unnie. No, call me unnie.

Cordelia giggled again at Scarlet’s barefaced expression.

“Wow, I can see your thoughts on your face. Why is my Scarlet so cute?”

‘You’re the same too though?’

Jude thought at the fact that he could also see all of Cordelia’s thoughts on her face.

But now was the time to attack Scarlet and not Cordelia.

So instead of teasing Cordelia, Jude opened his mouth again as he saw the dazed Scarlet still being teased by Cordelia who was excited after a long time.

“Moving on, I guess you couldn’t bear it.”

The reason why Scarlet showed up here.

At Jude’s words, Cordelia had a gentle smile as she put her hands on her waist as if asking if she was going to make an excuse again, so Scarlet said in annoyance.

“Argh, hey! Honestly, this is your fault! I mean, you said that you’ll contact me, but you never contacted me, right? Do you know how long I’ve been waiting on the Blue Moon’s roof?”

Cordelia replied with a shrug at Scarlet’s question mixed with resentment.

“No, I said that I’ll contact you soon, but I didn’t say that I’ll contact you right away. And why were you waiting on the Blue Moon’s roof?”

“Because she’s the Rogue Master.”

When Jude responded instead, Cordelia opened her eyes wide and said as if she had been enlightened.

“Ah, is that so?”

“It’s like that.”

“Being the Rogue Master is hard.”

“It’s not easy. You could say that it’s a bit close to a 3D’s occupation.”

“So it was true, huh.”

The last one was Scarlet as she thought that the two were indeed a fantasy couple and a crazy couple.

Scarlet fiercely stared at them as they beat her up with words, and Cordelia said while feeling a bit sorry for her.

“But it’s only been two…no, three days? Anyway, only three days have passed, so aren’t you too impatient?”

“Three days are enough. When in the world were you planning to contact me?”

“Eh…umm…”

Cordelia was at a loss because Jude was the one who managed their schedule.

She turned to Jude and Scarlet looked at him too, and Jude replied to the two beautiful girls with reddish hair.

“Around 10 days later?”

“That’s too long!”

“No, it’s an important competition for the Rogue Master position. Isn’t it more problematic to do it in a day or two?”

“So it was like that.”

Cordelia nodded as she agreed with Jude’s words, and Scarlet was dazed again before she realized something.

‘No, I’m at a disadvantage whatever I do.’

Scarlet herself had rushed here in a hurry, but she had the disadvantage in numbers.

No matter what she said or did, the two would always team up with each other, so how could she win against them?

“And.”

It was the moment when Jude opened his mouth again.

Shhwaak!

With a sharp sound, Cordelia’s detonating cord wrapped around Scarlet’s body.

While Jude was talking and making jokes, she had recovered that item with her telekinesis.

“Did you really think we were only talking and joking?”

Cordelia provocatively said, and Scarlet was unable to move. She wore the Red Dragon’s Armor under her maid uniform, so she could withstand an explosion, but she felt helpless from the fact that she was restrained by Cordelia.

‘And that.’

Jude’s palm had suddenly touched her abdomen.

Scarlet had already experienced Jude’s technique. She shuddered when she recalled herself spilling lots of blood at that time.

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“Scarlet, I’ll only ask you once. How did you find out? Did you follow us?”

The fact that Cordelia was Pink Bomb.

Cordelia was startled by Jude’s chilly voice and turned to him, while Scarlet swallowed hard.

Because the eyes and voice of Jude who had been joking around until now had become something she didn’t expect.

Scarlet knew this kind of look.

The look of people who had become very sly after going through all sorts of difficulties.

Like her father who gave her everything she needed in order to become the Rogue Master.

Like her father’s colleagues.

Like the guild master she met in the empire.

In any case, it wasn’t a look that a 17-year-old would make.

That was why Scarlet was flustered and didn’t act stubborn.

“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you. So stop looking so scary, okay?”

“Depends on your answer.”

Jude’s expression softened, but he still had a fierce look.

Because this was related to Cordelia’s personal details and not about anything else.

“Yes, as you had guessed. I followed you.”

“How?”

“Vargo’s Tracking Powder.”

“Did you smear it in our bodies?”

They had stored their clothes in a space expansion bag, so it would have blocked them from being tracked.

Scarlet gently nodded again at Jude’s question.

“Yes, when Pink Bomb used recovery magic on me.”

“Wow, you smeared tracking powder on me then?”

So she did that while on the verge of death, telling us to kill her since she no longer had the will to live?

“You’re indeed a Rogue Master. Was all of that just acting?”

Jude provocatively asked, and Scarlet flew into a rage.

“It’s not, okay? I really wanted to die back then, okay? It was just…some sort of occupational habit of mine.”

“It’s not nice to smear tracking powder on the body of a person who is trying to heal you and prevent you from dying.”

“Hey, I was dying because of you two in the first place, right? And you too, you also wanted to be the Rogue Master, right?”

Scarlet pouted her lips and spoke, and Cordelia responded to her.

“Anyway, did you find out after tracking the powder?”

“Yes, I was a bit shocked too. I didn’t expect that the descendants from the 12 northern families… from those prestigious families to use the names ‘Pink Bomb’ and ‘Black Cloak.’”

Scarlet shook her head as if she was really disappointed, and Cordelia was immediately embarrassed and pointed to Jude as she said.

“I didn’t come up with that name. He did.”

“Cordelia was the one who came up with ‘Black Cloak.’”

Cordelia flinched at Jude’s plain counterattack, and Scarlet thought.

‘They’re truly made for each other.’

They had the same childish naming sense.

“Anyway, that’s how I found out, and it’s also true that I approached you first because you didn’t contact me.”

Scarlet plopped down on the sofa and drooped her shoulders while Cordelia looked at Jude in restlessness.

‘What should we do?’

‘Well… to begin with, I was thinking that she should become our ally rather than be someone hostile to us.’

Furthermore, Jude was now convinced of something after this incident.

That Scarlet was still immature.

Before she became the skilled femme fatale in the original, she was a girl who still had a naïve side.

Why did he think that?

Because Scarlet seemed unwilling to be an enemy to Pink Bomb, or to be exact, to Cordelia.

‘Rather, she wants to become friends with Cordelia.’

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have appeared here and lounge around like this.

‘Cordelia has the same thought.’

A magical woman who secretly charmed every person she met.

‘Huh? What is it? What did I do?’

Jude closed his eyes for a moment and thought, so Cordelia who couldn’t communicate with her eyes then tilted her head. Afterwards, Jude opened his eyes and looked at Scarlet again rather than answering Cordelia.

“Okay, there’s nothing we can do about it. In this case, silencing her through murder is fundamental.”

“Wait, what?”

‘Ju-Jude?!’

Silencing her through murder?

Killing her so that she won’t talk?

Scarlet was visibly shocked while Cordelia was also surprised as she widely opened her eyes.

“Of course, I won’t really kill her. She hasn’t repaid her debt to us, or have the match that will determine on who will get the Rogue Master position.”

At Jude’s words, Cordelia and Scarlet simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.

But it was too early to be relieved.

“So I’m going to feed her this.”

Jude took a small glass bottle from the bag he had placed on the table, and suddenly pushed something inside Scarlet’s mouth.

“Mmn?”

“Swallow it. It will melt in your mouth anyway even if you don’t swallow it.”

Scarlet trembled for a moment when she closed her mouth and tried to not swallow it. Because it melted in her mouth just as Jude said.

“I-is it poison? Did you use a slow release poison?”

Like if she doesn’t take an antidote in a few days, she would die.

Scarlet looked at Jude with eyes full of spite, and Cordelia nervously turned to him too. Jude then said as he nodded his head.

“It’s the candy that Cordelia particularly likes. It’s from the wild lands, so you can’t get it here even if you want to. There are only five left, so if you want to steal it, come back in five days.”

“…What?”

“Cordelia’s favorite candy. Don’t you want to steal it?”

When Jude asked, Scarlet unconsciously nodded and Cordelia frowned at them.

I’m glad that he didn’t poison Scarlet by force, but what kind of bullsh*t is this?

Scarlet was freed from her embarrassment and looked at Jude with a similar but also different thought, and Jude spoke to Scarlet as he looked her in the eye.

“You want to be friends, right? With Cordelia.”

Like the Rogue Master and Thief Master who became friends.

That was why she came here defenseless.

Feeding her candy was sort of a confirmation done by Jude.

A sense of betrayal was then revealed in Scarlet’s face.

An emotion that she would never reveal if she didn’t trust them in the first place.

“I’m sorry to have scared you, but you’re the one who interrupted our time to begin with. Think of it as a sweet punishment.”

Jude spoke as if he was appeasing a child before he removed the detonating cord himself. Scarlet firmly bit her lips as her face was filled with a mix of embarrassment and shame. Her current situation was somewhat embarrassing, but she was also ashamed of the fact that he had figured her out.

“Now that I’ve released you, you can leave. I’d like to enjoy the cozy atmosphere with Cordelia again.”

Scarlet shuddered when Jude smirked, but Cordelia quickly hugged Scarlet’s arm.

Because Cordelia wanted to run away rather than go back to that previous atmosphere.

“Scarlet, since you’re here, let’s hang out. Okay?”

“What?”

Hang out?

“Yes, yes, I mean…something like girl talk?”

As soon as she said that, Cordelia raised Scarlet up and said to Jude before he could say anything.

“Then I’ll talk to Scarlet and go to sleep. Good night, Jude. Let’s go, Scarlet.”

Cordelia quickly pulled Scarlet’s arm without listening to Jude’s answer as they headed straight to her bedroom.

And a few seconds later.

Cordelia closed the bedroom door tightly and breathed a sigh of relief.

“What the heck?”

Scarlet stared at Cordelia as if she had seen something strange.

Because she couldn’t understand the current situation or the so-called girl talk.

“What is it?”

“I mean, you two were rumored to be so blind in love with each other, so I find it suspicious that you two smell so fresh as if you’ve only just began dating.”

As expected of the original Rogue Master.

Cordelia thought and flinched at Scarlet’s sharp observation that was a complete bullseye, and she quickly walked to her bed while trying to act indifferent, but it was only for a moment. She soon turned around and asked Scarlet.

“By the way, Scarlet.”

“Scarlet-unnie.”

“Then Scarlet-unnie, does it look…real?”

“What?”

“Does it look like Jude and I are da-dating?”

Like a real couple?

Cordelia’s cheeks blushed as she shyly asked, and she looked really cute and adorable at that moment, but Scarlet could only say one thing to her.

“I want to stab you two.”

I want to stab you two with a bamboo spear.

What exactly are the lovers of the century, whom the entire Sälen Kingdom knows, saying now?

Is this a new way of rubbing salt into the wound?

Scarlet couldn’t bear it anymore.

She grabbed the cheeks of Cordelia, who was still fidgeting in embarrassment, and pulled the cheeks without mercy.

***

The next morning.

Jude and Cordelia greeted each other a bit awkwardly than usual, and walked together as they headed for the Red Rose Castle’s main building.

For three purposes.

One was to meet with Duke Spencer, and the other was to build a closer relationship with First Sword, whom they had talked to yesterday.

And the third purpose was the most important one, at least on the outside.

“We will begin the Banquet of Swords starting now.”

Prospects had gathered from all over the Sälen Kingdom.

At Sir Cornwell’s declaration, the Banquet of Swords officially began.

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