CH 11

Chapter 11 – Perhaps strong-willed, perhaps a mad dog

Translator: Yonnee

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He was standing next to the saintess, Seo-yoon.

However, just as how it had been in my previous life, the emotions I had for him that were boiling inside me quickly cooled down the moment someone touched me.

I glanced at the two people standing by my sides—my parents. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I was happy to see them gazing upon me with such loving eyes.

Yes, that’s right. What should be the big deal in seeing those two again here?

I was already dead in the other world. And they could no longer have any effect on me.

After calming down, I faced forward once more and saw the emperor taking a step forward.

“Holy Saintess, who was sent here by the Almighty Asteras for the sake of the Stern Empire.”

Seo-yoon took a step forward as the emperor called her.

It seemed like the emperor was taking this opportunity to proclaim to everyone that the empire had been given god’s protection.

“It must be God’s will that the Saintess is having her coming-of-age celebration here at the Stern Imperial Palace. This truly must also be a blessing that God has bestowed upon us. Saintess, what is your name?”

“My name is Lee Seo-yoon. I’ll be in your care.”

Her voice rang out. She spoke moderately, but her words resounded so clearly. This was possible because all the nobles in the great hall were listening with bated breath.

I watched indifferently, noting that her voice was familiar, yet it sounded younger than I remembered.

After the emperor’s coming-of-age blessing had ended, the hall grew noisy once more.

The emperor, the empress, the saintess, the crown prince and Ciel could be seen at the seats of honor, chatting amongst themselves over champagne.

Still, there was quite a distance between them and me.

Ironically enough, I felt a little bitter because it seemed like nothing had changed.

Soon though, I quickly shook off that feeling by talking to my older brother and my parents, who were warmly surrounding me.

“My daughter, you’re going to be an adult soon, hm?”

“If there’s anything you want, tell this father of yours.”

“Yeah, Rin. You said you want an archer’s bow, right? Ask Father to buy it for you.”

“A bow? Really?”

Surprised, Mom asked with a hand over her mouth, but I nodded vigorously. In my previous life, my main weapons were bows and arrows, and daggers. My physique from then and now weren’t all too different—still petite. I was better at long distance combat compared to short distance.

I’ve always wished to help Dad and Brother once I became an adult.

There were two main reasons why my family couldn’t escape poverty.

The first was that the territory was small and the land wasn’t abundant. And the second was that it was located at the very edge of the empire.

The emperor kept emphasizing over and over a while ago how the god had blessed the empire, and there’s a reason behind that as well.

With the help of the temple, the Stern Empire was given God’s protection—or rather, God’s barrier.

I wasn’t aware before that Espers existed in this world, but I knew well enough that there were monsters.

The enemies at the other side of the border my family was guarding were monsters.

God’s protective barrier was the strongest in the capital, which was the center of the empire.

The further away the territory was from the capital, the weaker the barrier became. That’s why most of the nobles at the very edges of the empire needed to have a knighthood to deal with the monsters.

However, not all the provincial nobles could be designated to have a knighthood.

The fief lords would only be able to call their military forces a ‘knighthood’ if they had at least two hundred knights.

Therefore, considering how our family had less than a hundred knights in total, our forces were called a ‘garrison’ instead of a ‘knighthood’.

I was familiar with monsters. They’re all I dealt with in my past life.

In general, monsters became easier to subjugate after identifying their attributes. Figuring out even just parts of their attributes would lead to fully identifying the monsters.

Besides that, I’d been studying the monsters of this world in my spare time. It was through the illustrated book of monsters that Brother had.

That’s why I wanted to help. For that, I needed a bow, but I couldn’t bear to ask for it.

A bow was a relatively expensive weapon, and if I asked them to buy one for me, I’m sure that they’d somehow get one for me, and yet I couldn’t bear to burden them.

However, since I was celebrating my coming-of-age, it was a different story.

It’s something I need anyway… Should I ask them to buy one for me?

I tried to erase my guilt, thinking that the weapon I’m asking for was necessary so that I could help my family later.

As my eyes met with Dad’s, he nodded to express his permission.

“Hoho, I never thought you’d ask me a bow for your coming-of-age celebration. I thought you’d ask me to buy you a pretty accessory…”

I took one of Dad’s hands in mine and squeezed it, and I murmured with a hint of guilt.

“I want to help. I’ll train hard so that I can help Dad and Brother.”

“Hoho, my daughter… So that’s why.”

His big, calloused palm gently touched my cheek, but soon moved away. It seemed like he wanted to pat me as he usually did, but Mom quickly elbowed him on the side.

Mom had been very keen on keeping up her sense of duty towards protecting my make-up since a while ago. After all, the coming-of-age ceremony was not over yet.

Then, a middle-aged man who was drinking champagne next to us burst into laughter.

“Haha, my word. How low are you on your personnel that even the lord’s daughter is being sent to the frontlines? If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t even use the title of a ‘garrison’. Then again, being a guard at a garrison isn’t all that of a grand title! Kehahaha!”