Uhm…
Sharp sunlight stimulated my eyes.
As I rubbed my heavy eyelids, I realized that morning had come.
Stretching my arms made me feel refreshed, as if my body had become much lighter than before.
Wasn’t it just an expensive bed for no reason?
“My lips… are all chapped…”
Gently touching my lips with my fingers, I felt a slight sting.
Memories of being ravaged by Athena rushed back into my mind, making me blush again.
‘Even if it’s just between girls… Isn’t that a bit too much…?’
She wanted to erase every trace that had touched Lily and Dania.
It wasn’t just a light expression of affection. It was a deep kiss that lovers would share.
This wasn’t just a one-time thing either. It would happen every night going forward…
No way.
While Athena might just be aiming to erase traces, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to endure it.
Having once been a man myself, the sensation of her diving into my mouth was dizzying to the point of making my head go blank.
Lily and Dania thought it was a comfortable expression of familial affection, but Athena was a completely different matter.
If I meet her later, I thought I should talk about it as I got out of bed.
As I stepped out of the large bed and looked around, the scene of the messy room compared to my first arrival became clear.
On the floor lay the tattered clothes I had worn, and the bed was in such disarray that it didn’t resemble its originally neat appearance.
…I should clean up first.
If I left it like this, I felt like I would be a burden to the maids, so I quickly got up and started to tidy the room.
‘Even though I look like this, I can clean!’
I had been living alone for five years. Having mastered most household chores, cleaning the room was no big deal.
I folded the blanket in a perfect rectangle and neatly placed it at the end.
I neatly gathered my scattered clothes and placed them on the table.
Once I figure out where the laundry place is, I should go wash them.
I also carefully cleaned the other messy areas.
I closed all the curtains to let the sunlight brighten the room and opened the window for ventilation.
I even adjusted the slightly crooked furniture to achieve perfect balance.
Not long after…
“Hmm. Perfect.”
Unlike before, I felt satisfaction at the sight of the neatly organized room with symmetrical alignment.
Seeing the tidy scene filled me with an inexplicable sense of pride.
Knock-knock-
– Miss. May I enter?
As I was lost in self-praise, I heard the voice of a maid from outside.
With a confident voice, I told her to come in.
‘They must be surprised to see the room!’
As I opened the door, two maids stepped inside.
“Did you sleep well, Miss?”
“I heard some noise, so I came in to check.”
They briefly looked around the room as they spoke.
“But… it looks a bit different in here?”
They immediately noticed that something had changed.
I puffed out my chest and raised my chin as I said to them.
“Hmph… When I woke up this morning, things were a bit messy, so I did a little cleaning.”
What do you think? This is the K-army style perfection!
As I looked at the maids with a hint of anticipation,
They gazed at the room with somewhat bland expressions.
“Uh…?”
“Um… is it strange…?”
When I asked in a timid voice, they exchanged glances before speaking up.
“No, it’s not that, but there are certain regulations set for the mansion as a whole. This doesn’t quite match that.”
“Oh… really?”
“You don’t need to do anything, Miss! We’ll handle all this from now on.”
“That’s right. Just relax and enjoy yourself, hoho.”
My heart sank slightly as the expected reaction didn’t come.
Well, if there are established rules, it makes sense to follow them.
Feeling a little disappointed, I quickly shook it off.
“What would you like for breakfast, Miss?”
One of them asked about the meal.
Do I not have to eat with Athena after all?
I wish so.
If I have to share every meal with her, there’s bound to be a day when I’ll be significantly embarrassed.
“Can I eat now?”
“Yes! Of course. Shall we bring it to you? Or would you prefer to eat in the dining room?”
I worried that if I went to the dining room, I might run into Athena, so I just asked them to bring it to me.
That day, I experienced a new world of eating on the bed.
It felt like on a cool day, opening the window and covering myself with a blanket. An inexplicable sense of satisfaction settled throughout my body.
Eating food in the most comfortable place in the world.
Once you get used to it, it’s an addiction that’s hard to break.
Eating breakfast like this every day would surely be heaven.
After that heavenly breakfast, I fell into a serious dilemma.
‘What should I do…?’
There was nothing to do.
I had come here as Athena’s slave.
Unless she specifically called for me, there wasn’t anything for me to do.
I thought about helping the maids with their tasks, but they firmly refused.
“We’ll take care of our own work!”
“Miss can just rest comfortably.”
So here I am, lying back on the bed, doing absolutely nothing.
I wasn’t tired, so I found myself staring blankly at the ceiling with my eyes wide open.
In the past, I would have spent the whole day on my phone reading novels, but that was now impossible.
After tossing around in bed for a while, I couldn’t bear the boredom any longer and dashed out of the room.
As I wandered around the mansion, the person I found was…
“Are you bored?”
“Yeah…”
It was Alina.
After chatting about various things with her, we became quite friendly.
Alina asked me to speak informally with her, and I accepted her request.
I asked her to speak informally with me too, but she said she couldn’t as she was a maid.
But I’m a slave.
In terms of social hierarchy, shouldn’t I be lower?
Anyway, Alina was the only one I could comfortably interact with in this mansion.
“Um… how about checking out the study?”
The study…
That didn’t sound bad.
Considering that reading novels was mainly what I did in my free time, it could actually be quite good.
But I wondered if there would be any novels here.
There might be in a large library or something.
But this was Athena’s mansion.
I didn’t think there would be any entertainment books available.
Still, it seemed better than just sitting around.
Just as I was about to ask her to guide me to the study…
“Ah! Or perhaps, the knights are currently sparring, so how about we go watch them?”
With her second suggestion, the thought of the study flew right out of my mind.
Knights.
An occupation that cannot be missing from a fantasy novel.
Knights who follow noble chivalry and dedicate their lives to serving their masters.
An existence that is romance itself.
‘…I want to see them.’
It felt as if a fire was igniting in my heart, one that had once been a man.
Watching knights spar.
“Yeah. Let’s go that way.”
How could I hold back from this?
.
.
.
As I followed Alina to the training ground…
Clank-
The cheerful sound of metal clashing filled my ears.
Looking in the direction of the sound,
I saw muscular men vigorously wielding swords against each other.
As I got a little closer, the fiery heat emanating from them reached my skin.
Their movements were as solid as a mountain, and their sword strikes seemed capable of splitting even rocks in half.
“Wow…”
As I murmured, staring blankly at the knights, Alina nodded in agreement beside me.
“Knights are always so cool, right?”
I thought to myself how wonderful it would be to marry one of them. I could just watch their muscles all day.
Ignoring Alina’s ramblings, I continued to stare at them.
‘They’re all expert-level.’
In the world of The Indomitable Hero, swordsmen are divided into five categories.
Beginner, User, Expert, Master, and Grand Master.
While each level is further divided into upper, middle, and lower grades, they can be broadly classified into those five.
While beginners might be clumsy, even a Sword User can perform attacks using mana, and Experts can skillfully use mana.
Masters are only reachable by the chosen few, requiring exceptional talent and grueling effort to attain.
As for Grand Masters…
In this empire, there was only one Grand Master.
Swordsman Carlos.
A man who had surpassed the realm of humans and reached the extreme of swordsmanship.
The title of Grand Master was solely his.
Hints suggesting that the protagonist could reach the Grand Master level show up near the end of the novel, but for now, that thought was out of reach.
From Athena’s own mastery lingering at the upper Master level, I understood just how exalted the Grand Master realm truly was.
But if there is a Swordsman, why is Athena considered the strongest human in the empire?
While in terms of sword skill the Swordsman might be stronger, Athena was both an outstanding swordswoman and a powerful sorceress.
Moreover, she had reached the level of great sorceress, hitting the 8th circle.
The realm that only gifted sorcerers could reach by researching and training magic until the point of death, inclusive of a good deal of luck, is the 7th circle.
Anything beyond that is the realm of geniuses.
However, she reached the 8th circle at such a young age—a being feared even by those gifted.
That person is Athena.
In any case.
While the conversation drifted elsewhere, what’s important now is that every knight present is at least an expert level.
As I carefully observed their sword strikes, I noted a significant amount of mana condensing around the swords.
If they swung like that, they could easily split even a solid rock.
But it wasn’t only attacks I noticed.
They had mana surrounding their bodies too, indicating they likely possessed a defensiveness that standard strikes wouldn’t even scratch.
Suddenly, my heart began to race violently.
For the first time since being possessed, I felt like I was diving into a fantasy novel.
Having only seen low-level criminals and weak monsters in Drax’s place, the sight of true strong opponents began to fill my heart with excitement.
Of course, I had faced Athena, but she was an exception.
There’s a saying that it’s more frightening to fall from a 10-story building than from a 1000-story building.
The more supernatural a realm seems, the less it resonates with you.
But now, witnessing knights spar, I felt that I had truly stepped into the world of my favorite novel, The Indomitable Hero.
‘I want to fight.’
The thought of wanting to contest my strength against them gradually spread in my mind.
While I had fought countless battles up until now, I had never engaged in a proper fight.
I didn’t want one-sided fights; I wanted a true battle where both offense and defense were exchanged.
I possessed a unique ability. I’d be sure not to fall behind them.
Having gained such abilities and being transported into a fantasy story…
Isn’t it natural to feel this way? That thought crossed my mind.
It felt like the competitive spirit that had been suppressed by Athena was finally bursting forth in flames.
…Should I ask for a sparring session?
If I plead earnestly, I doubt they’ll turn me down.
In fact, if I reveal that I’m a unique ability user, they might even come to me asking for a match.
Furthermore, since it’s a sparring session, there won’t be any serious injuries.
Knights certainly, but I’d be able to control my strength as well, so there’d be no problem whatsoever.
“Alright.”
I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart and walked towards them, filled with anticipation.
But what awaited me ahead was not a duel or contest.
It was one tragic scene.
.
.
.
“What…?”
What could this be?
What lay before my eyes was a horrifying spectacle.
It was as if I was watching a movie on fast forward,
as numerous people hurriedly rushed about, moving in all directions.
“Hey!!! Dylan!!! Damn it! Where’s the healer?!”
His cry pulled me back from my daze.
My eyes began to shake violently.
As if an earthquake had struck, my hands trembled uncontrollably.
My feet wouldn’t budge, leaving me only able to gaze at the horrific sight.
My mind, unwilling to accept the current situation, felt completely blank.
“Cough…”
“Focus! The doctor will be here soon. Just hold on a little longer!”
I tried to step closer to him, but…
“Get away!! You monstrous bitch… Are you even going to be safe after this?!”
“I… I’m… I’m not…”
“Please just hold on, Dylan. Think of your wife waiting for you.”
Before me was a man with a gaping hole in his chest, spewing blood.
In his fading gaze, there was only fear directed towards me.
“This… this must be a dream…”
It’s a dream.
I’m simply having a bad dream.
That has to be true.
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