The Sub-Heroine’s Butler Is a Vicious Bastard

30. bandage

… Koyono recalled the memory of that day.

The day he cut off his own hair that reached down to his waist.

A ponytail tied tightly as a symbol of bushido.

The day he decided to abuse himself, cutting it with the sword he had wielded all his life.

Koyono stepped into the ordeal.

Without attaching affection to anyone, without talking to anyone, he focused on accepting the ordeal.

To punish himself for abandoning bushido.

A child, and with a woman’s body.

It was never easy to endure the arduous ordeal that even adult men struggle with.

However, every day I neglected the ordeal, I was plagued by terrible nightmares.

‘You are a disgrace to the family.’

‘I thought I was going to fall down after pretending to be smart.’

‘Put down the knife. Unless you want to commit seppuku.’

On days when such nightmares turned into sweat and tears, she dreamed of suicide countless times.

But even that was impossible for her.

Because I didn’t want to die.

Because she already knew the fear of standing on the threshold of death.

At that time when the days of living without being able to die continued, he appeared.

A boy of the same age with blonde hair and a sleek appearance.

He was a man who looked fierce, but had clearer eyes than anyone else.

At first, I wasn’t very interested.

There were a lot of peers who entered the ordeal during the immature rebellious period.

Most of those types quickly went downhill.

Contrary to Koyono’s expectations, however, he broke through the trials one after another.

By overturning the records he had set, no, the records of the entire history of trials.

At first, I felt jealous of her appearance.

Because it was impossible for me.

It was impossible for her to go through trials with a pure purpose, not to torment herself.

However, his overwhelmingly strong presence turned jealousy into respect.

And when that respect turned to awe, Koyono had a question in her heart.

What makes him endure the ordeal?

What is the beotimmog that supports your back?

what… Will it be the driving force behind him?

She was crazy about it.

So break the ordeal of silence you inflicted on yourself,

It was barely a question to ask him.

Ahead of the 10th stage ordeal, where everyone who tried failed to come back alive.

[why… So desperately, step 10… ?]

To the point where I felt like an idiot for having suffered so much,

He answered without the slightest hesitation.

[This is to protect someone important.]

Laughter came out.

Important person.

Because it was something that no longer belonged to him.

So, with a resigned heart, she asked him again.

[…] What if, if I couldn’t protect someone important to me… What are you going to do?]

The man, who had been choosing an answer to his question with a dark expression, calmly said:

[…] You should protect the things that person wanted to protect.]

In an instant, I was overcome with shock as if I had been hit in the head with a hammer.

She had only tried to forget the person she had left.

Because I worked hard on the ordeal to forget, and I have been abusing myself.

However, the man in front of me suggested an alternative that was the exact opposite of that…

I stroked her hair and left.

Looking at the back of her head toward the ordeal without hesitation, she involuntarily shed tears.

he will die

Even the high priests who devoted themselves to training for decades and those who were called heroes all met a bad end.

So Koyono left the ordeal.

It was because I didn’t want to see the man who would burn to ashes.

However, the small flame he lit was not extinguished… She was determined to live the future.

5 years after that.

Many things changed her.

I melted down the sword I was carrying around like luggage and made it into a shield.

He sought instruction from a famous shield magician, even doing doggeza.

It was to abandon the swordsmanship he had dedicated his life to and become a guardian who saves others.

Indeed, to deny one’s past calmly.

The reason it was possible was because I had a new goal.

The man pointed out, ‘what his precious person wanted to protect’.

Because I found out what it is.

It was one day when she was sweeping the streets of Heirin City.

True to its name as the center of Eastern trade, people of various races came and went.

The elves of the west, the peoples of the east, the peoples of the north, and the beastmen of the south.

Everyone went up and down the street without discrimination.

Wouldn’t this scenery be the utopia that one’s precious person wanted?

If so, wouldn’t she have to protect all of these people?

Even knowing to herself that this was an absurd goal, she was determined to go ahead.

‘Because he, too, calmly stepped towards the impossible.’

It took several months to protect people here and there with the help of a shield mage.

One day, out of the blue, she held out a document with an ornate seal.

[How long can you live as an unpaid mercenary? You’ll be 20 next year It was hard to find, so go there.]

What she delivered was a letter of recommendation from the highest academy in the empire.

Koyono tried to refuse it, but after endless persuasion, she finally agreed.

Thinking of the man who gave me the strength to live on,

To become a stronger shield.

***

“Are you feeling better?”

“… ?”

A hospital room-like space hidden behind pure white curtains.

Koyono, who was buried in the bed, was brought to her senses by the man’s calm voice.

It was a blonde-haired man who was his sparring partner and who had made him fall into an illusion for a while.

“What the hell is going on… ”

“If you come to your senses, stop… ”

“Now, wait. wait! I have something to ask… Ugh.”

I hurriedly tried to stand up, but I felt intense muscle pain all over my body.

It feels like you are forcibly squeezing your whole body.

Eventually, with a groan, he collapsed back onto the bed.

I haven’t been feeling well since the day before, but I thought I’d have a problem in Dalian.

“this… Wake up and listen. Dalian ended with my victory, but probably both will be placed in the lower class.”

“ah… ”

Effortlessly avoiding eye contact, Schmitz spoke up.

Through this, Koyono faintly remembered what had happened before collapsing.

He blocked all of the man’s attacks and even dealt effective hits, but at the end of it, he himself lost consciousness.

As he said, both of them were idiots worthy of being in the lower class.

“Since the party is waiting, I’m done. I’ll leave the bandages here.”

The man put a huge pile of bandages on the bed and got up.

Koyono had more questions and tried to stop him, but-

The man quickly left the health room without even looking at me.

“… Pooh.”

Infirmary left alone.

For some reason, I kept bursting out laughing.

Yeah, things won’t be that easy.

He was a man whose life and death were unknown.

It must be impossible to meet the person you’ve been looking for for years by chance at the academy.

The decisive factor was the difference in behavioral patterns.

The sparring opponent, a man named Schmitz, was far from the man he remembered.

They were just strangers with the same name and similar appearance.

At least the guy Koyono knew wasn’t that ruthless.

Looking at the shield leaning limply on the bed, Koyono couldn’t help but ponder her own incompetence.

“… Still, I am not a man without a perfect case.”

I had a sudden thought.

Even now, when I think of the disrespect I had in Dalian, I still feel a burning fire.

I realized that I was worried about myself who had lost consciousness and waited for me to wake up.

Feeling a little grateful for that, I remembered the man’s last words behind him.

The man said so clearly.

“I’ll leave the bandages here” –

Right after that, Koyono realized.

“Boo, bandage… … !!”

Koyono held her chest with a bewildered gesture.

The feel of her breasts overflowing through the cracks of her hands was softer than necessary.

“… no… ”

A bandage that used to compress one’s chest instead of underwear.

His own bandage to cover the humble flesh was not in place.

Koyono’s head turned mechanically.

The huge bundle of bandages the man had left on the bed caught his gaze.

A wad of bandages large enough to wrap around itself…

Only then did she recall the image of the man who kept avoiding her gaze during the conversation.

The fact that the face of the man who hurriedly left the health room was very red.

The fact that she exposed her skin to a man for the first time.

And the fact that the man, strangely resembled him, made her face heat up…

“…this… figure… someday…”

Carefully tucking herself under the white blanket in the health room,

I wiped away the tears of shame.