A Villain's Will to Survive novel Chapter 311

Chapter 311: Glass Flower (2)

In the Winter Castle, within the chamber of a Freyden direct descendant—a place almost freezing—Yulie stared at her sword, her face nearly vacant as she turned the blade, examining both its flat and the hilt.

The fine metal tempered to absorb mana, the blade shaped to a fine edge through the years, the grip molded by its owner's touch, and the sword's grain reflecting the lamplight were all worthy of admiration.

"This is my sword..." Yulie muttered, gripping the sword with her own hand.

At that moment, goosebumps prickled along Yulie’s spine, and her hair stood on end. The sword gripped tightly in her hands made it impossible to tell whether it held her or she held it, providing irrefutable evidence of the passage of a decade.

“... Hmm.”

Yulie, shivering from a chill—no, actually trembling from the biting cold—sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the house’s clock as Josephine’s words rewound in her ears.

"Because he is your former fiancé, whose engagement was broken off because of your curse."

The shock was so immense for Yulie that she found it difficult to comprehend everything, since she and Deculein had been strangers with no common ground from the outset.

“Deculein.”

Yulie knew Deculein, a mage of the Mage Tower and a university celebrity who, according to noble gossip, was an exceedingly bad person known for leading bullying at the academy, engaging in cartel activities, and instigating violence among other offenses...

However, the Deculein Yulie saw then was a man who definitively claimed his own things, living only for himself, while Yulie, having nothing of her own, could not help but envy him, her eyes sometimes following him whenever they chanced to meet on the street.

"But how did it come to be...?"

Yulie looked at a specific page in the house's minutes.

Due to Deculein's undue insistence upon a mission, Yulie found herself unable to escape from Marik. Subsequently, she was caught in a violent eruption of souls within Marik, resulting in her heart being thoroughly tainted by demonic energy and a severe curse. Despite this, her recovery was nothing short of a miracle.

However, Yukline and Deculein, rather, demanded compensation...

The content of the minutes was a paragraph describing the reason Yulie fell under the curse.

Tap—

“... Is this not a relationship that cannot lead to an engagement?” Yulie muttered, closing the meeting minutes.

Accepting the weight of a decade—a span long enough to change even mountains and rivers—in such a brief period was, as expected, too much for Yulie.

“Hoo.”

Yulie stood from her chair and looked around the room. The only furniture consisted of a bed, a chair, and knight textbooks. The scenery remained identical to ten years prior except for one difference.

"... The Empire," Yulie muttered, looking at the renowned sword clutched in her hand.

Yulie had a purpose, one much clearer and more straightforward than the Yulie from ten years later, who had been beaten down by reality, to become the Empire’s guardian knight and accomplish another goal that had appeared relatively recently.

“Freyden.”

The spirited young Yulie wanted to protect her house, which had now entered an Ice Age.

***

Two days later, Yulie arrived in the Capital.

"The Capital... to think it has developed this much," Yulie muttered.

The Empire’s capital, having changed tremendously over a decade, was indeed a dazzling wonderland, so much so that Yulie could not stop marveling at the scenery. As she walked, blinking like a country bumpkin, she soon found herself at the Imperial University’s affiliated Knights’ Order.

“Proceed no further. This boundary marks a restricted area where all non-authorized personnel are prohibited,” the knight said.

Unlike the Mage Tower, which was partially open to regular university students, the Imperial University's affiliated Knights' Order was completely under seclusion.

"I am a cadet scheduled for admission starting today, sir," Yulie replied, approaching the knight at the entrance and presenting her letter of recommendation.

The knight, without a word, scanned the letter of recommendation before looking at Yulie.

“Your identification card.”

“Yes.”

“... You came from Freyden?” the knight asked as Yulie offered her identification card and letter of recommendation, which he read together before nodding.

"Yes, I am of the collateral branch," Yulie replied.

"Hmm. A case of nepotism—it's been a while. Very well, enter. If you speak to the dormitory master, they will provide you with a vacant room," the knight said, his tone immediately turning condescending as soon as he learned Yulie was a cadet from a collateral branch of Freyden.

“Yes, sir,” Yulie replied, nodding.

Yulie, with her duffel bag slung over her shoulder, walked through the corridor, since she was intimately familiar with the internal structure of the affiliated Knights' Order.

Dormitory

Yulie soon arrived at the dormitory and unpacked her bags in Room 303, assigned to her by the dorm master.

"A case of nepotism—it has been some time," the dorm master said, glancing at Yulie by the dormitory door. "The other cadets will only arrive tomorrow due to outdoor training, so get some rest."

"Yes, thank you," Yulie replied, sitting down on the bed.

Bang—!

The dorm master closed the door to Yulie's dormitory.

Then, silence fell, and Yulie remained by herself.

“Hmm...”

It's a wooden single room. It used to be a double room, but now it's a single room. I guess a single room might be more comfortable? Yulie thought.

"Let's study," Yulie muttered after a moment of reflection.

Yulie had a long way to go before accepting the passage of ten years, as she failed not only to comprehend the house’s minutes but also how the Empire had changed, and how its political situation had developed over the past decade.

For Yulie to come to understand that...

“The library.”

***

Tick, tock... Tick, tock...

In the hushed Imperial University library, marked by the ticking of a watch, Sylvia was currently engaged in studying, not magic, but education, and indeed found it a difficult task to teach the foolish ones.

Creeeeeak—

With the sound of a chair dragging, a woman sat not far from Sylvia, and at first, Sylvia thought nothing of it.

Tap— Tap— Tap— Tap— Tap, tap, tap, tap—

However, the sound of books being piled up bothered Sylvia, as it was characteristic of students who struggled to study and merely stacked books they wouldn’t finish. Sylvia pressed her temples, glared in that direction, and at that moment, her eyes widened.

"... You," Sylvia muttered, the word startling her as it left her lips.

The woman, who had just opened her book, looked at Sylvia and tilted her head.

Yulie. ... No, looking closer, it's not Yulie. This woman is much younger, isn't she? Sylvia thought.

“Do you, by any chance, know me?” asked the woman resembling Yulie, breaking Sylvia’s silence.

“... My mistake.”

“Oh~ I see... But are you the Professor?”

"I am a magic professor," Sylvia replied, nodding.

Part-time or not, a professor is a professor.

"Oh, a magic professor... that's amazing. I am a knight cadet."

“Are you a university student?”

“Yes, pardon me, but if you are a magic professor, may I ask just one thing?”

What is it about this child that makes her so sociable. Well, if I think about it, I was the one who initiated the conversation, after all, Sylvia thought.

"What is your question," Sylvia replied, her features composed in a cool manner.

"By any chance, does learning magic also help with swordsmanship?"

"It does help," Sylvia replied without hesitation, raising her index finger and gathering mana over it as a blue current formed into the shape of a sword. "Mana Resonance refers to knights forming sword qi, sword aura, or the release of a sword strike—all are related to this resonance, and its connection to magic is paramount."

"Hmm..." the cadet murmured, raising her own index finger.

The knight cadet tried to gather her mana as Sylvia did, but naturally met with no success.

How dare a mere knight try to imitate a mage, Sylvia thought.

Whoosh...

Sylvia found the cadet—who, like that knight, was also from Freyden—somewhat suspicious, yet she stared at the knight without a word.

"Haha. To think the Lead Elite Guard would honor us with a visit so early in the dawn..."

“Oh... As expected.”

“Should an agent of the Altar be engaged in missionary activities here... considering we do not constitute a judicial institution... Haha.”

To think a grand knight would try to earn his achievements by selling his own cadet, I thought.

I used Telekinesis to pull the cadet list toward me, flipping through it and scanning the names, but found no particular peculiarities.

“Oh, yourself, the Lead Elite Guard?!”

Furthermore, I planned to utilize my Comprehension to prepare a curriculum for the knights, for even if the world were to go to pieces tomorrow, planting an apple tree would be the very nature of humanity.

“Hmm?”

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