An Old Man from the Countryside Becomes a Swords Saint: I Was Just a Rural Sword Teacher, But My Successful Students Won’t Leave Me Alone! - CH 143

“Fueehh!?” Kuruni squealed. “Huh…!? Wi-Wife!?”

“Kuruni, don’t worry about it. This old bastard is just talking nonsense,” I said.

The Old Man’s remarks caused Kuruni to heat up at once.

I totally understand the overwhelmed feeling. She wanted to know her current ability, so she came all the way to the countryside, and she just met a strange Old Man for the first time. With what he said just now, it’s not weird if she suddenly gets violent.

Fortunately, Kuruni doesn’t seem to be that belligerent in temperament, so there don’t seem to be any worries about that. Seriously, this Old Man can’t complain one bit if he suddenly gets punched. It is no longer unreasonable, it is justified violence with inevitable consequences.

“What’s the matter, did I say something wrong?” the Old Man said.

“Say something wrong?!” I yelled, my voice hoarse from the shock. “How do you think I see my apprentices?!”

This bastard pretends he’s not in the wrong at all. If this wasn’t my parent’s house and this wasn’t my biological father, I would have blown him away without question. No, even if I actually hit him, he might be treated lightly. This is a matter of emotions, not fists.

“I see……” the Old Man muttered.

“Yeah, why do you sound so depressed?” I said.

No matter how I think about it, I feel like my emotions and his don’t match up.

I can’t understand the feeling of lamenting that your son isn’t married though he’s old enough. I have a lot of doubts about the methods he took to remedy that, but I’m not going to deny the worry itself.

But no matter how you look at it, it’s not something you can frankly talk about right now. The same goes for the deterioration of how Kuruni thinks she’s seen and misunderstandings, but it’s not a matter to suddenly bring up while Miu is right there.

Did this Old Man finally go senile? Even if he’s my biological father, the feelings come out a little.

“… Wife?” Miu asked.

“You don’t have to worry about that either, Miu,” I said .”You don’t have to worry about anything.”

She knows the word. However, it was unfamiliar to her, Miu had a slight frown as she said it.

No, if you only consider educating Miu, it would be better to have a future wife who would take on the role of a mother. Even though she’s not an infant who needs someone to watch them all the time, there are limits to what a single man can do.

But at the same time, I think it will be difficult.

Suppose, for the sake of argument: let’s say that a woman appears who has a crush on me and says she can marry me. It’s a pleasure in and of itself. I often think that if my wishes come true, it would be nice if I had a beautiful wife. Whether it will come true or not is beside the point.

However, it wasn’t just me, but my daughter, Miu, at least in the paperwork.

I don’t want to say that she’s like an object, but from the perspective of a woman who is getting married to me, she could be considered a foreign object.

After all, looking only at the facts on the outside, Miu was an orphan from the slums whose bloodline was completely opaque. I wonder if there will ever be a woman who wants to take care of someone else’s child, even if she has a talent for magic.

Things will change again once Miu graduates from the Academy and becomes independent, but that will take at least a few years. In the meantime, I’m getting older and older, and the number of partners for such an old man is steadily decreasing. No, I’m not talking about getting one now.

It is a matter that’s probably already close to zero and zeroing out at an ever-accelerating rate.

Of course, I would not pass the responsibility on to Miu. In the first place, the primary reason is that I have never had a single romantic relationship, let alone marriage until I reached this age. I have some thoughts about how I became her guardian, but I have no particular regrets about being it.

“I thought that if you went to the capital, you would at least bring back one potential partner,” the Old Man said.

“I’m sorry I didn’t live up to your expectations,” I said. “I’ll say it again and again, but you’re the one who raised me to be like this, Old Man.”

“But I still have Fren,” the Old Man countered.

“That’s right, but…” I countered.

Fren.

Fren Gardenant. My Mother. In other words, she is the Old Man’s wife.

Unlike the Old Man, I don’t hear about Mom’s rise with a sword or that she’s insanely strong. It’s possible that he’s only hiding it from me, but she doesn’t show up at the dojo’s practice, and I’ve never seen her train.

For me, she’s usually kind, but when she gets angry, she snaps. She was such a mother.

Even when I look back on the memory of being unreasonably scolded by my mother, I don’t remember much. She may have favored her son, but I think she must have been a good mother.

Why did such a woman end up with the Old Man? Speaking of which, I haven’t heard any past stories about that. It’s partly because I’ve been practicing swordsmanship for a long time, and partly because I haven’t been very interested in romance since back then.

First of all, it’s rather embarrassing to ask my parents such a thing.

At least from my point of view, the relationship between husband and wife seemed to be good. Of course, sometimes they fight, but when that happens, it’s usually when the Old Man starts it. And then, the Old Man apologized in a faint voice that was too unimaginable from his usual state.

Sometimes, the amount of food lined up on the dining table was visibly too small for the Old Man. That was probably the result of the fight.

“Fufu, aah, no, excuse me,” someone said from behind as they tried to resist their laughter.

I left my thoughts about this empty exchange with the Old Man and turned around. It was Henblitz who said that.

“So you’re saying that Sir Beryl can’t win against his Father?” Henblitz said.

“… Well, I’m ashamed to admit it, but yes,” I said.

To both my parents, to be precise, though.

You can’t beat the Old Man by force. I can’t win a lot of things against the Old Lady. If it’s simple physical strength, he’s just an old man, but in every aspect other than that, the Old Lady has the upper hand.

“However… could this be one of the reasons Sir Beryl came to Baltrain…?” Henblitz said.

“Oh, as expected of the Vice-Captain, you have a good guess,” the Old Man said. “I wonder if you can’t use your power to find one or two good women?”

“Stop it, Old Man,” I said. “You’re causing trouble for Henblitz, too. And me, as well.”

Stop it, stop it.

I don’t want to use his power to introduce a candidate for a wife or something like a political marriage for nobles. If that’s the case, then I’m fine with being single.

Or rather, I want to shut down this topic right now. I was prepared to have it discussed, but I didn’t think that I would be exposed in front of these other guests.

“Auuh… ssu……ssu,” Kuruni moaned.

Her soul had not yet returned from its trip to the other side.

I understand very well the feeling of freezing up, but I also wonder what it was like as a Knight. On the battlefield, a moment’s hesitation or carelessness can easily lead to death. Around here, I feel that my heart is still weak compared to Thyssel when I was her age.

Well, it’s absurd to replace this current turmoil with a battlefield. Does that mean I’m upset enough to suddenly freeze with stress?

“Well, I’m sorry,” the Old Man said, with a tone that said he didn’t think he was the slightest bit in the wrong. “It’s certainly not a topic to suddenly bring up.”

But well, at least for now, he apologized. It’s kind of uncool to keep poking at him. He also had a petty stubbornness that I didn’t want to show Miu, she can’t see his narrow-mindedness.

“Miu.”

“… Eh, ah, right,” Miu said.

I didn’t say that.

The Old Man suddenly walked in front of me and said that with a suddenly relaxed expression.

“I’ll say it again,” the Old Man said. “There’s nothing here, but please take it easy. You’re my grandchild. That fact hasn’t changed.”

Coming from the Old Man who’s the swordsmanship mentor, his voice is unimaginably gentle.

I haven’t told everything about Miu to him. There is a limit to what can be said in a letter.

However, the spirit of the words had a resolve. I don’t know what to say even if I’m asked to explain in detail, but my Old Man is prepared. That was in the letter. And it was never a bad thing.

“…… Kay,” Miu muttered.

Miu is certainly not smart. Although she is not bad at street smarts, her formal education and culture are overwhelmingly lacking at the moment.

However, she is sensitive to the subtleties of human emotions. She could not say exactly what kind of feelings the Old Man had when he said those words, but she was able to guess in some way.

And she was smart enough to notice the expression of that emotion, and she was a good person to the extent that she didn’t completely dismiss it at hand.

“For the time being, let’s have some food,” the Old Man said. “Let’s talk about the fine details then.”

“Well, you’ve got a point,” I said. “We’re hungry too.”

While traveling by carriage, we took some breaks and ate some food. But that was just the bare minimum while on the move, and more time had passed. I was so hungry that if there was food in front of me, I would eat it.

I can also taste my Old Lady’s cooking after so long.

I don’t think my mother’s home cooking is exceptionally delicious or elaborate. If anything, the food you eat in Baltrain would be better in terms of quality.

However, after all, the taste of your mother’s cooking is exclusive to it. This has an irresistible appeal to any high-end cuisine.

Then, guu.

As if I couldn’t contain my excitement, my stomach let out a growl.