Chapter 15: 15

Episode 15: I Can Hear Your Voice (1)

TL: thursdays 

Mikhail, Altius’s emperor, was fundamentally someone who was a bit harsh about nitpicking when it came to the issues that concerned him.

Until now, most of the issues that concerned him were state affairs and policies. Each and every one of them had to go through Mikhail’s hands, and the final decision maker was Mikhail as well. 

The emperor was competent, and most policies could only be realized when touched by his influence. So maybe it was only natural for the slightly workaholic emperor to develop this sort of personality.

And even in dating, the emperor could not deviate much from the schema of his nature. To put it simply, he meddled a lot and interfered often.

Sir Bernhart, a knight of the Imperial Guards, was recently assigned a new mission: to become the swordsmanship instructor for an adult woman, training her fitness and teaching her light self-defense skills with the sword.

The person he ended up teaching was the proof of the goddess who appeared with the divine revelation, an honored guest of the empire. It was a significant mission, but Dayeon did not have much drive and the level of the lessons was just physical training.

Sir Bernhart thought there would be nothing difficult about it, but it did not take long for him to realize his great fallacy.

“What are you teaching today?”

 

“…She is practicing cutting horizontally from right to left. Her fitness is still lacking a lot and is not at the stage to learn the sword, but training just her physical strength seems too boring, so she is doing both at once.”

Bernhart enumerated each of his reasoning in his reply, in case the emperor would find him lacking. 

The emperor, despite his busy schedule, made time to come out to the personal training fields. He dropped by in between meetings, on his way to and from luncheons with the bureaucrats, coming and going so often that one might think that he would be able to teach Dayeon himself.

Bernhart didn’t think there was a lesson in the world that would not be uncomfortable when one’s superior, especially the emperor, was attending. Why didn’t the guard commander explain that it would be such an extreme duty at the get-go?

Reading the air, it seemed that the emperor liked Dayeon.

At this rate, wouldn’t his swordsmanship pupil become his boss’s lover or maybe his boss’s wife? Bernhart thought he would start losing hair from the extreme pressure and stress.

Bernhart requested a meeting with the emperor’s close aide, the grand chamberlain, to tell him that he sincerely wanted to step down. The chamberlain, though he pitied him, replied thus:

– I’m not in a position to advise you, sir.

Like that, the grand chamberlain shared his stomach medicine.

The emperor brought a crowd of people, including his attendants and knights, and watched Dayeon practice her horizontal slash.

Dayeon once again wanted to become space dust and disappear. Dayeon herself knew best that her skills were not good enough to show others, even as a joke. Something like this couldn’t have happened unless the emperor was trying to humiliate her.

At that thought, Dayeon resolutely shook herself and stood.

“Your Majesty.”

“What is it?”

“……”

The emperor kept giving tips to Sir Bernhart and interfering with the lesson. Then, when Dayeon started to speak to him, he quickly responded in delight.

Dayeon hesitated for a bit because it was hard to say bad things to a smiling face, but in the end, she quietly presented her differing opinion.

“Could you stop staring?”

“Why?”

“It’s embarrassing since I’m not skilled.”

That was understandable.

Everyone deeply understood her feelings.

Anybody could see that Dayeon was someone who had never held a sword in her life. It was clear she had not used a sword or whatever, not even her body.

How disgraceful was it for her, having so many people see such movements? And they were sorry, but they didn’t really want to see something like this either…

But the emperor said very unhappily, “Bern sees everything, though.”

“But isn’t Sir Bernhart my instructor who teaches me well?”

Dayeon replied with common sense, as if asking what sort of nonsense he was spewing, but her opponent was the emperor, and the emperor was the wordsmith of the century who could overcome any political hurdles. And, basically, he was a man who had a strong sense of self-worth and had no hesitations in saying things in his favor.

“It feels rather sad that you’re more comfortable with Sir Bernhart, whom you met not long ago, than with me. We’ve known each other for much longer and have a much closer relationship, don’t we?”

“……”

The face of Bernhart, who had swiftly become close to Dayeon, paled. 

I-I didn’t do anything… S-spare me.

Dayeon lost her will to respond and shut her mouth. She knew well from several experiences past that if she replied now, only more embarrassing words would spill out.

Dayeon was actually embarrassed and disconcerted. Since a while ago, the emperor was recklessly speaking embarrassing words into her ears without caring for time or location, as if he was very aware of her.

He who was born and raised to be emperor did not hesitate at all despite the round eyes of his attendants and the maids watching them.

Dayeon was not endowed with such a nature. There was a problem with her personality, and there was also a problem with the others’ gazes.

And, more than anything else, Dayeon did not think she could get accustomed at all to the emperor’s sweet outpour of words combined with his very handsome face.

It had been all right when she had no emotions toward him and their relationship was nothing much. Back then, his words had been venomous and he had treated Dayeon like a nuisance. Dayeon too had acted even worse because she was angry.

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At that time, their relationship had been really bad, so she wasn’t affected much. But when the emperor with his amazing face gushed such determined and kind words, anybody with a heart would feel shaken.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

The emperor watched Dayeon with an odd gaze, then reached out to carefully brush back her sweaty hair. It made his heart happy that Dayeon, who used to hate moving her body, worked out hard enough so that sweat formed on her forehead. It was beautiful and commendable.

Y-You’ll wear it out.

That was what the grand chamberlain thought inwardly as he watched.

The emperor actually wanted to do more than just warmly patting her head. It may be vulgar, but to put it honestly, he sometimes really wanted to touch Dayeon.

The feeling on his fingertips from the time he touched her face and the heat as she turned red was still clear to him. Once he became aware of her, he continued being conscious.

However, the emperor was a true gentleman in that respect. He was a man with a very honest mindset. He thought that he should not carelessly touch Dayeon just because he wanted to when he had not yet expressed his feelings to her definitively and received her permission.

So the emperor continued to control himself. He was the sovereign of the empire who could do whatever he wanted, but surprisingly, he was an old-fashioned, earnest man who thought to follow all the steps and procedures for a relationship.

The compromise between that surprising earnestness and his desire to be close to her resulted in this stroking of her hair. The problem was that his desire and his self-control clashed too frequently, agonizing those who watched him.

Her head really will be worn out like that, Your Majesty! thought the grand chamberlain distressfully, having seen this scene multiple times just today.

Overruling Dayeon and her swordsmanship teacher, the emperor made a fuss out of nothing and decided to send away Bernhart and watch over Dayeon himself while he was at it.

“Well, I have time until the meeting, so I will accompany you today. Bernhart, you can return to your platoon.”

Bernhart, who had been suffering eternally between the two of them, immediately said his greetings. Then, he left the exercise field without a backward glance.

No, but I haven’t agreed to this! Feeling betrayed, Dayeon stared blankly at Bernhart’s back.

“First, hold the wooden sword and show what you’ve learned,” the emperor said, unconcerned.

Ugh, huff, huff…

A long time later, Dayeon gasped for breath and flopped to the floor for the first time in a while.

The emperor’s instruction was on a different level than Bernhart’s, which had been moderate out of courtesy.

Actually, Dayeon had had some hope because the emperor had been so gentle with her recently. She thought that he wouldn’t be as strict and go easier on her than before.

However, the emperor was, as expected, a person who pulled no punches once he had a clear objective.

Of course I like you a lot, but you have to run at least ten laps around the training ground to call it a warmup. The effects of the exercise will be halved if the rest is too long, so it has to be less than five minutes. Wouldn’t it be unfair if the exercise had little effect after working so hard? You are very lovable, but you only really start doing the horizontal slash after the first 500 times.

Is he training her like a doll who will not just cut her opponents but shred everything? Everyone who saw the emperor’s objectivity felt goosebumps.

This place here must be my grave today. Exhausted, Dayeon laid down on the ground right away, not caring if she got covered in dirt. She placed her hands on her stomach like someone patiently waiting for the coffin lid to close on top of her.

“I really think my ribs are broken.”

“They didn’t break.”

“Then my lungs must have torn.”

“As if that could happen.”

“What could be the problem? I’m not hurt anywhere, but I feel like I’m about to die.”

It was both funny and absurd, so the emperor began to snicker at Dayeon’s words. When Dayeon glared resentfully at him, he again reached out his hand and fixed Dayeon’s hair, which was wet with sweat. Her appearance, muddled with sweat and dirt, looked so… unbelievably grubby.

That was when Dayeon suddenly made a strange face and looked around her. 

It was obvious, but the emperor, who had the skills of a knight, had better hearing than Dayeon. 

The emperor clicked his tongue.

“Um, don’t you hear a dog’s barking coming from somewhere?”

Before Mikhail could respond, Dayeon abruptly stood up. Then, with a face alit with curiosity, she began to search the area.

The emperor was somewhat dumbfounded. It was only natural since her hearing was worse than the emperor’s, but wasn’t her level rather serious? The sound was coming from the north, but Dayeon was wandering to the complete opposite direction.

Clicking his tongue, the emperor grabbed Dayeon as she was headed toward some strange place and gestured to the thicket at the end of the eastern wall.

“It’s not that way, but this way.”

 

Indeed, as they headed the correct way, they could hear the barking and whining sounds more and more clearly.

For the unusually motivated Dayeon, the emperor personally went to the thicket to track down the sound.

The unkempt road was a blind spot that the emperor would normally never walk on. The attendants followed along, cringing.

While walking ahead, the emperor stopped several times to glance back and see that Dayeon was following.

The source of the sound seemed to be coming from a naturally made pit in the grass. The emperor, arriving first, put his hands behind his back and looked inside. Dayeon, who was a few steps behind, followed and craned her head.

Inside the dirt pit, a young dog covered in dust was ceaselessly struggling to get out.

The name of the dog popped out of Dayeon’s mouth.

“Samsik?”

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