IDIBC Chapter 9

Ambidextrous

Ricardo swung his sword with his left hand again, making whooshing sounds while wearing an enigmatic smile. A cool breeze passed down my spine.

“What, what? You were left-handed?”

“No.”

Ricardo kept his gaze on me while extending his sword straight toward Harold. Harold swallowed and stepped back as the sword stopped precisely in front of his throat with a sharp hiss.

“I’m ambidextrous.”

“Why…?”

“Does being ambidextrous need a reason?”

As if to prove his words, he adjusted his stance. Was it my imagination that he looked even more perfect holding the sword with his left hand than with his right?

“You’re trying to break my wrist so I can’t draw, aren’t you?”

“I-I’m not trying to break it!”

Ricardo laughed out loud. At the sound of his refreshing laughter that I was hearing for the first time, my throat suddenly constricted. But I rubbed my face hard to collect myself from being enchanted by him. Count Fennel and Justin would return to the mansion in just two days.

“If I lose and both my hands become unusable, you’ll have to attend to all my needs.”

Ricardo smiled brightly and pointed his sword at Harold again. Harold, who had been unable to understand the situation and had only been looking back and forth between the two of us, finally came to his senses and took an attacking stance.

“Of course, there’s no way I’ll lose.”

This time Ricardo was different from before. As if he had learned all of Harold’s swordsmanship in the meantime, his movements were much faster and more precise.

“Argh!”

Harold was pushed back by Ricardo’s strike and fell on his behind ungracefully. When I glared at him, he came forward with an excuse.

“I-I’ve never faced someone who uses a sword with their left hand before.”

What a thing to say. Earlier he was asking how I could do such a thing to a child.

Of course, even to me, Ricardo’s swordsmanship was remarkable. But even if his swordsmanship had surpassed his teacher’s in just one sparring match, I couldn’t back down like this. I went to where the wooden swords I had laid out earlier were placed. And among them, I chose the wooden sword made of the darkest wood.

“Huh? That’s…!”

Harold seemed to shout something, but I couldn’t hear anything.

I closed my eyes tightly and swung the sword randomly, and Ricardo began to only defend without attacking.

“Ugh! Since you already know my intention anyway, you might as well just let me hit you.”

“I don’t want to.”

He lifted only one corner of his mouth in a mischievous smile. Did I know Ricardo could smile like that?

I shook my head again to dispel the distracting thoughts and focused on the hand gripping the sword. Then I heard Harold shouting from the side.

“Please handle it gently. That sword is made from wood from the Black Forest.”

“So what?”

“It’s a very expensive sword!”

Really? Then it must be incredibly strong. I took about three steps back and then charged toward Ricardo. I could see him sneering, but there was nowhere to retreat. Anyway, this time he would let himself be hit by the sword I swung. I was certain of it.

But.

“Uh, huh?”

My foot caught with a thud. Ah, damn. I tripped over my own foot. The moment I realized it, my body toppled forward. In an instant, Ricardo threw away the sword he was holding and reached out his arms to catch me.

“Crack!“

With all the force of falling, I struck something heavy enough to strain my wrist. I opened my eyes with a start to see my wooden sword striking his forehead precisely.

I met Ricardo’s jet-black eyes head-on.

“I-It wasn’t on purpose.”

The moment I made that excuse, a brilliant white light bright enough to blind flashed once across the entire world. After that, darkness where I couldn’t see an inch ahead spread out.

‘What… is this?’

“Rica? Where are you?”

As I reached out my arm looking for him, heat spread through my entire body as if I were engulfed in flames.

‘Hot, it’s hot.’

As fear washed over me, lightning flashed before my eyes once more. Only then did I realize with all my senses what was happening now.

Ah… this is it.

Manifestation.

The first demonstration of the ability that only the imperial family of the Dermeier Empire and the three ducal houses possessed.

At that very moment, words from a dream I had several years ago echoed in my ears.

[The girl from the eastern country who couldn’t even read or write was finally burned at the stake.]

Whoosh, as the words ended, Ricardo’s entire body was engulfed in bright flames. It wasn’t the red light rising from inside a fireplace, but a blindingly white heavenly light.

Only Ricardo and his surroundings became a single ray of light in the dark world. In the distance, the midday sun that had been hidden by the moon began to reveal itself again.

[How dare a witch try to take the place of the saintess—that was her great sin.]

Looking at the sun shining brightly on the earth again in the sky where even the dark clouds had disappeared, I suddenly realized something else.

Ah, I’m doomed. Completely doomed.

That was my last thought as I lost consciousness, overwhelmed by the enormous power.

****

The heirs of the ducal houses other than Rochester suddenly manifest their abilities one day. Afterward, they awaken those powers according to their ancestors’ guidance and eventually become the head of the family.

However, the imperial family and all the ducal houses had to pay a price corresponding to their power in order to exercise their authority.

The ability was naturally given to only one bloodline during childhood, and over time they wielded that power freely.

But Rochester was different.

Rochester’s manifestation and awakening could only be achieved through a saintess.

Rochester’s saintess and companion. It seemed somehow impious to call the woman who would become the duchess rather than the empress a saintess, but there was no other name to call her.

Sometimes the woman who would become empress was also determined by divine oracle, but this wasn’t always the case.

The only woman determined by God from birth was Rochester’s companion.

I couldn’t regain consciousness after Ricardo’s manifestation.

Having encountered his tremendous power right in front of me, I was fortunate just to be alive. While unconscious and unable to wake up, I had an incredibly long and tedious dream.

A strange and sad dream of meeting and parting with Ricardo, then meeting and parting again.

Even in my dreams, I loved Ricardo. As if I had been born to love him.

“Lienne?”

The first voice I heard as I gradually regained consciousness was Sabrina’s. I nodded at her call.

“Are you conscious?”

“Yeah.”

At my quiet answer, I heard a sigh of relief.

“How long did I sleep?”

“About two weeks.”

Even though only fifteen days had passed, I felt as if I had traveled back through a lifetime. I collected myself and sat on the edge of the bed. My body wasn’t as heavy as I expected.

“What on earth happened? The doctor says there’s nothing wrong, but you wouldn’t wake up.”

“Sorry.”

“Who asked you to apologize? I’m just saying I was worried. Everyone said it didn’t make sense to sleep this long. That you might already be dead, and I… do you know how scared I was?”

Tears welled up in Sabrina’s eyes.

“I know. That you and Jonathan were worried about me. That’s why I’m sorry. For making you worry.”

She said that during those fifteen days, only Sabrina and Jonathan had stayed by my side. Without any adult’s help, she must have been very frightened and at a loss.

“How… did it go?”

Though I didn’t say who, Sabrina immediately understood that I was asking about Ricardo.

“Did you know that the boy from the east wing was a Rochester?”

“…No.”

“Ha.”

Sabrina let out a long breath and began explaining what had happened. The fact that Ricardo was actually the only son of the Gardarelli Rochester family, that news of his manifestation immediately reached the royal palace of the principality, and that shortly after, people from the ducal house came to take him away.

Perhaps even from the Empire’s lands, they immediately noticed his manifestation. The entire sky had turned pitch black with darkness.

“I met the boy from the east wing yesterday, and he really didn’t recognize me.”

Even though I knew this would happen, my throat tightened and I couldn’t respond. Why had he erased his memories so quickly? Had he already forgotten everything about me too?

“I’d heard that Rochester gradually loses their memories when they manifest, but seeing it in person felt a bit… strange.”

It was mandatory for the nobles of the Principality of Resotia, which was practically a vassal state of the Empire, to learn about the Empire’s history from childhood.

Both Empire citizens and principality people knew that the ducal houses had authority, but they didn’t know exactly what kind of abilities those were.

“When did he leave?”

“Not yet, he’s supposed to leave soon.”

“What?”

Only after hearing that Ricardo was still at this mansion did I hear the commotion outside. Sabrina opened the window, but there was no way to see the main house’s garden from the east wing.

I immediately got up from the bed.

“Don’t get up yet.”

As soon as she finished speaking, my head spun, but I couldn’t stop.

“I want to go see. I really want to see him before he leaves.”

“The atmosphere at the mansion isn’t normal right now. The entire mansion is surrounded by knights from the Rochester house.”

“Still, just once more, just to see his face.”

Sabrina and Jonathan could move around the mansion relatively freely because they were children. Being a child myself, if I could just avoid the knights’ attention, I might be able to see his carriage passing by the back of the mansion.

“Alright. The knights don’t pay much attention to the east wing anyway.”

Crouching down and slipping out of the rear garden, I climbed the path leading to the low hill, and in the distance, I could see the ducal house’s carriage that had already left the mansion.

It was a rarely clear day that didn’t suit the desert’s rainy season.

The pitch-black twin carriage pulled by black horses gleamed in the sunlight. The family crest symbolizing Rochester glared at me like a living beast. The carriage carrying Ricardo looked so heartless and massive.

When the carriage turned completely to the right, I could see his face. There was some distance, but not enough to prevent identification.

‘Did his hair grow a bit more in the past two weeks?’

While I was having such irrelevant thoughts, my eyes met Ricardo’s. No, I wasn’t certain that our eyes had met. There was not a trace in his gaze of having recognized someone he knew.