I Became a Swordsmanship Instructor in a Romance Novel

The road to the Lyos Mountain Range.

“Sir Zeke Clayman.”

“Hmm?”

Zeke turned around at the sound of his name.

“I deeply apologize for my rudeness. I misjudged you and treated you with disrespect. Please, forgive me.”

“….”

Sedan Yohaiden, the second son of the Yohaiden Family, bowed deeply to Zeke and apologized.

Contrary to Sedan’s expectation that Zeke would accept his apology right away, Zeke studied him with cold eyes. It was as if he was contemplating something.

Sedan was very embarrassed.

“Wh-why are you doing this….”

Sedan asked in a creeping voice, flustered and looking around.

He swallowed hard.

‘What, what is it…? Is it because I ran at him first that day…!’

From their first encounter, Zeke Clayman and he had not been connected with a good fate.

Selena, his one and only younger sister, whose cuteness and loveliness could not be captured even if one were to bring every adjective in the world.

Two months, 12 days, six hours, and 20 minutes.

At the moment of their touching reunion that he had been waiting for, a dark-haired man suddenly intervened.

It was inevitable that his judgment would be clouded, and he would see Zeke with a biased view.

‘Ha, but…. He was holding a broken blade inside the Yohaiden mansion, and he cursed at me first! And shamelessly, he hid behind Selena and even said strange things…! ’

As a young lord of the Yohaiden Dukedom, where else would he have received such treatment?

Of course, if it were his older brother, the Young Duke, he would have calmly assessed the situation and asked a few questions to quickly clear up the misunderstanding about Zeke.

Even so, he couldn’t believe that Zeke wouldn’t even accept his apology for a mistake he made when he didn’t know any better.

His face was full of injustice.

However, Zeke Clayman’s status had already far surpassed his own.

Not only his power, but the grace he had received from Zeke was immeasurable.

“I-I’m sorry. I was so rude to my benefactor that day!!”

In the end, he had no choice but to bow his head deeper.

Meanwhile, Zeke, who was facing Sedan, tilted his head at the strange familiarity.

‘This bastard… he’s annoying, but I don’t hate him… Why does he feel so familiar? Have I met him somewhere before?’

Zeke stroked his chin and examined Sedan’s face.

Silver hair similar to Selena’s and thick eyebrows.

If Selena’s gender was changed to male and her features were made thicker, would she look like this?

He still looked a little young to be considered a full-fledged adult.

According to Selena, Sedan was exactly four years older than her and graduated from Ramielli Academy right before Selena entered.

Although he had a low boiling point and was hasty, the way he looked down with his eyes closed as soon as he realized his mistake was quite courageous.

At that time, Soi, who was walking with them, whispered in a small voice.

“Rosnante…?”

Ah.

Zeke felt as if a hazy fog had cleared from his mind.

‘I was wondering where I saw him, but he looks exactly like Rosnante.’

Come to think of it, Rosnante also rushed at him first, and after a time of discipline, he wagged his tail, looked around cautiously, and bowed his head.

Of course, unlike that time, he had never laid a hand on Sedan, but the way his eyes sparkled like a neighborhood dog with a motor on its tail was identical.

Then Zeke realized that he hadn’t responded to Sedan’s words for too long.

“Ah, sorry. For a second, someone came to mind. I made a mistake that day too. Don’t apologize.”

As he thought of Rosnante, Zeke naturally spoke to Sedan informally.

However, there was no discomfort on Sedan’s face even though he was being spoken to informally.

His face brightened up as if he had never looked dejected.

“Oh! N-no! Thank you for accepting my apology! But did you see someone similar to me, Sir Zeke Clayman?”

“Yeah.”

Zeke nodded his head.

“Are they strong!?”

“…One of the top five.”

‘Of course, out of the five.’

“Oh! That’s a real honor! To think that I resemble one of the top five strongest recognized by Sir Zeke Clayman! Actually, I also graduated from Ramielli Academy’s Knight Department! If only I had been born four years later. Then I could have taken your swordsmanship class with Selena!”

As the atmosphere between Zeke and Sedan eased to some extent and Selena’s name came up, Sedan began to talk about Selena’s anecdotes from her birth to the present as if he had a motor in his mouth.

How cute Selena was when she was born.

How lovely the shouts of a young child practicing swordsmanship alone were.

And how tenacious she was to whimper and get frustrated every time things didn’t go her way, but then get up again and grab her sword with teary eyes.

At first, Zeke thought he would listen since it was a story about Selena, but he instantly regretted joining the conversation.

Soi, who was walking with Zeke, was also bombarded with praise for Selena.

She muttered with dead eyes from the side.

“…It’s a good thing Rosnante doesn’t have a younger sister like Selena…”

“Hmm? Come to think of it, you said you were Selena’s friend.”

Sedan reacted to Soi’s muttering.

“Ah! D-did you hear that!? Yes, yes! I am fortunate enough to be friends with Lady Selena Yohaiden!”

“Haha, there’s no need to be so polite. If you’re close enough to Selena to speak comfortably with her, you can do the same with me.”

Sedan said with a hearty laugh.

“But how can I…. I heard that you already graduated from Ramielli, Young Lord Sedan Yohaiden….”

“Huhut. That’s right. I know what you mean. That’s how Ramielli is. They talk about equality, but they’re not equal, and the relationships that are formed there are ultimately only for a limited time. When I was enrolled there, I also had a commoner friend.”

“Then, in the end…. Can you no longer be friends after graduation?”

The faces of the friends she took swordsmanship classes with came to Soi’s mind one by one.

“Hmm, well…. In a way, you could see it that way. But I just said I had a commoner friend.”

“Yes….”

“Let me introduce my friend to you for a moment. Gaius! Come here for a second!”

Sedan turned around and called the name of one of the knights.

Then, a brown-haired knight, who was walking in line behind him, frowned and walked towards Sedan.

“…What is it, Sedan? I’m working as a Yohaiden knight right now, so how can you call me by that name?”

He whispered quickly.

“Haha, sorry, sorry. I just wanted to introduce you to Selena’s friend.”

“I know enough that Lady Selena is cute now that I’m a Yohaiden knight too, right?”

He replied to Sedan’s words as if to say, “Not this again.”

“Ah, that’s really great. To think those words would come out of your mouth. When we were in school, you used to hate it whenever you heard Selena’s name. Huhu. Bringing you to the White Tiger Knights was the best decision I made.”

Soi’s eyes widened at their friendly conversation.

“…A-are you a commoner…?”

“Hmm? You’re that…. Ah, the girl who gave me the bread. Thanks to you, I lived. Thank you very much.”

“Oh, no, it was nothing.”

“By the way, to ask about my status. Does that mean you’re also a commoner…? Ah. So that’s how it is.”

He nodded his head as if he understood the situation.

“You asked what happens after graduation to those who formed friendships at Ramielli Academy. This is my answer.”

Sedan put his arm around the knight’s neck.

“Cough! Hey! His Excellency the Duke is watching! The Knight Commander is watching too. Hey, hey! Hurry up and let go! This guy! I’m going to get punished!”

The knight desperately pounded on Sedan’s arm, but Sedan didn’t seem to want to let go and spoke to Soi.

“In an official setting, there’s no helping that we have to maintain respect for each other’s status, but that’s just a kind of show, that’s all. However, if my friend and I decided to get along like this in our actual relationship, who would dare say anything? It’s just between the two of us. It’s not an obstacle at all.”

“Ah…”

An exclamation flowed from Soi’s mouth.

“Of course, it takes a lot of time to build that kind of relationship. After all, there are people watching. I’m not going to say it’s easy.”

Sedan looked into Soi’s eyes and spoke in a serious voice.

“However, what’s clear is that it’s ‘you.’ If you keep in mind what you want to do, you’ll definitely be able to build good relationships and graduate from the academy.”

Zeke watched the scene silently from the side and finally exclaimed in admiration.

‘Yeah, I knew he was just Rosnante MK.2. He’s quite something…. Will Rosnante change like that when he gets older?’

Rosnante… speaking maturely…?

Tsk, no matter how much he imagined it, he couldn’t picture it.

The knight, who had stopped by for a while, returned to the ranks.

Soi fell into deep thought.

Silence lingered among the group.

It was Sedan who broke the silence and spoke again.

“……Um, Sir Zeke Clayman.”

“Hmm. You can just call me Instructor.”

“Yes, Instructor.”

“Anyway, if you’re going to talk about Selena again, you can tell me later.”

As the Selena alarm rang loudly in his head, Zeke quickly added.

“Ah, yes. Instructor. I’m not trying to talk about Selena right now. However, there is one thing I’m curious about.”

“Hmm. Go on.”

Zeke responded in a noticeably relieved voice.

“What I want to ask is… Is it okay to leave her like that?”

Sedan glanced at the gray-haired woman who was walking with her hands tied with a rope at the end of the line.

“I believe you have some intention of leaving her like that…. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but she’s a dangerous person who tried to take our lives…. I-isn’t it too much to just leave her be like that…?”

“Ah, I’m leaving her like that because I have a use for her. Don’t worry. I will make sure she pays the price in due time.”

“The price, you say…?”

“Yes. That woman will drive a knife into the heart of Lost Hope with her own hands.”

At Zeke’s words, which were uttered with a twisted smile, Sedan’s eyes were dyed with question.