***Chapter 295 Sigh I***

T/N: Sorry for the late upload

It was a bedroom.

A large elderly man lay on the bed by the window.

Beside him, a beautiful blonde-haired woman sat in a chair, old but still beautiful.

Her red dress, though simple, looked elegant on her, reflecting the dignity of a woman who had spent half her life as a marshal of the kingdom.

"Even the greatest warrior on the continent cannot win against age."

The old man responded with a bitter smile.

The woman's voice had a dignified tone and composure.

The voice was mixed with a wry smile and the old man also responded with a wry smile.

"It's hard to say if I was ever the greatest warrior on the continent. Even if there was, it was probably only for a short time before Krische-sama's first battle."

"That child is not a warrior. Now or ever."

"Even if you call her a servant, that would be problematic."

The two laughed again, and the old man coughed softly.

The woman placed her hand on his thick chest and stroked it.

"I wish I could have lasted another year. It would be a shame to lose to Aleha."

"Fufu, you sure hate to lose. But didn’t you win more times overall?"

"Yes, but he’s still refining his swordsmanship at his age. If we were to fight ten times now, my victories might be in danger."

"Even though there are no more war, you really love it, don't you?"

The woman said in exasperation.

The old man narrowed his eyes with a smile.

"Krische-sama has changed the times. Warriors like me, Aleha, and Nozan will never appear again. ... Considering that, this battle is a battle to decide the second strongest in history――it's a bit regretful to give it to Aleha. It’s that kind of a petty stubbornness."

"Stubborn, huh..."

"Still, the honorable second place in history may be Selene-sama."

"... Me?"

She tilted her head at the sudden words, and the old man nodded.

"Isn't that right? After all, time is eternal... Selene-sama has plenty of talent, and also the best sparring partner by her side. There is a good chance that in the distant future Selene-sama will become a great swordsman who will surpass even me. For me, that is much better than having Aleha take my second place."

"......"

"......? Ah, is Selene-sama perhaps still undecided?"

Seeing the silent woman, the old man looked exasperated.

"Undecided... I've mostly made up my mind. I'm just not fully prepared yet."

"...What more resolve do you need? Selene-sama have dedicated your entire life to Krische-sama."

"...But I'm not a Bery."

The woman said, sighing.

"I'm sure it will be fun. For a hundred years, even two hundred. But forever? When I think about whether I can be happy and laughing for eternity, I get anxious. Unlike Bery, I can't genuinely feel that her happiness is my happiness."

Then she continued, spitting out the words.

"...My standard for happiness is ultimately my own."

The old man, who had been looking at the woman in exasperation, laughed again.

When the woman raised her eyebrows and glared at him, he apologized insincerely while stifling his laughter.

"What? If you want to say I'm a stupid woman, then just laugh."

"No, no. I can't believe it's been decades since then, and when I hear that you're still jealous of Bery, I can't help but laugh... Selene-sama is really too serious, or rather, too sincere."

"...Shut up."

The old man laughed so hard that tears welled up in his eyes, and he coughed again.

The woman stroked his chest with an unpleasant expression on her face.

"For the life of me, I can't help but wonder why you can't trust yourself that much."

"...I don't know."

The old man looked at his master's daughter with the same gentleness as before.

"Even at your age, you love Krische-sama so much that you're jealous of Bery...I wonder where there is any room for doubt in your heart."

‘I would love to know that’, he said quietly, smiling.

--Selene woke up at dawn.

It wasn't late, but she was the fifth person to wake up.

It was just before the sun rose.

At that time, Bery and Krische were the first to wake up.

And around the time they started to move, Elvena and Anne also started to move, and Selene woke up a little later.

For various reasons, she spent most of the year sleeping in her room, and the faint noises they made served as her alarm clock.

Not being a morning person, it took her some time to fully wake up.

First, she sat up and stretched.

Then she closed her eyes and breathed quietly, opening and closing her arms and legs, spending some time like this.

After getting rid of the lethargy in her body, she stood up, stretched once more, twisting her waist to make it light and flexible.

She took off her negligee and changed into a shirt and pants that she was wearing for practice.

She took her beloved sword in her hands and went out into the hallway, and went down the stairs and outside the mansion, greeting Anne when she met her.

She swung the sword lightly as a warm-up exercise, and gradually sharpened the blade in earnest.

No matter how much she trained, the day would never come when she would be able to defeat Krische, and yet there was also no one in the world today who had honed their sword skill to the point of being able to fight on equal terms with Selene. There was no opportunity to wield it.

There was not much point in honing her sword skills, but once she started thinking about it, eternity itself was meaningless, and after several decades, she had already stopped thinking about it.

Swinging her sword in the morning like this was a habit, and a mere hobby.

It was not like she wanted to become the second best in history, as Kolkis had said.

And eternity――even if it was meaningless now, it could become meaningful in the future.

For example, while she wasn't particularly interested in it at the moment, it was entirely possible that Bery would take up the sword again to kill time.

Her nasty nature and obsession with victory were extraordinary.

It was entirely possible that in the future she would deliberately challenge Selene with the sword, which was Selene’s forte, in order to lure her off guard in some kind of challenge, and while she didn't think Bery would be able to catch up with her in ten or twenty years, eternity to Selene was the same eternity to her.

Selene didn't think she'd be caught up, and it was only natural that she wanted to put an edge on while she still had the advantage――no, there was a good chance that Bery was pretending to be disinterested, while secretly planning a strategy to defeat Selene in her head.

Berry was a shameless, cowardly, and hopeless woman.

It was important to not let her guard down.

"Welcome back."

"Thank you as always, Anne."

After finishing her practice, she returned to her room, where Anne was waiting.

She had filled a bucket with hot water and prepared a hand towel.

After she took off her clothes, Anne wrung out the towel and washed her back, while Selene dried her front.

This was basically Anne's role.

Although there were problems with the temperature control of the water, which was sometimes too cold and sometimes too hot, she felt much more at ease with Anne than Elvena, w who was untrustworthy in many ways.

Like Bery, Elvena was a very capable servant who could do anything well, but she also had the same bad nature.

In contrast to the naturally malicious Bery, Elvena was a woman whose purpose in life was to intentionally humiliate and corrupt people, and if you let your guard down even once, you'll be pushed off the top of a snowy mountain and corrupted before you know it.

For now, she was confining Lira to the mansion and enjoying using her as a toy, but she couldn’t let her guard down.

*Sight*, Selene sighed, and Anne asked, ‘Is Something the matter?’.

"No, I just thought my worries were endless."

"Fufu, is that so?"

Hearing Anne laughing happily, Selene sighed again, ‘It's no laughing matter’.

A predator-prey relationship had been established in the mansion, and in that sense Anne was the most trustworthy servant.

Although she was still a servant who did things in a clumsy way, she did things at her own pace and there were no ups or downs.

Every day Anne was Anne, and in that sense, it was a relief.

Although there were many difficulties, if the mansion were a dish, Anne would be like bread.

"...Um"

As she washed herself and put on my underwear, she felt someone staring at her intently and called out to Anne.

"Ah, my apologies... I got carried away and was absorbed in admiring..."

She had no qualms about exposing her naked body, but it was embarrassing to be stared at so closely.

Anne hurriedly began to put the bucket away, and Selene sighed again.

The characters in the somewhat shady stories Anne wrote as a hobby often appear to be modeled after the residents of the mansion.

From their habits to their appearance, the descriptions were strangely detailed, as if going into every last detail.

Selene had been unaware for hundreds of years since she was born, of the existence of a small mole on the border between her left thigh and buttocks, but she found out about it from Anne's book, it was frightening.

It was unnerving to think about how much Anne observed, in a sense Selene also couldn't let her guard down against her.

She wished Anne would be a little more considerate of her models, but Anne was Anne after all――for better or worse, there was no one in this mansion who could do anything about her.

Especially since it was her only hobby.

"What will you do after breakfast?"

"I will continue sculpting in the workshop. I will be doing that for a while, so do as you like."

"Understood. Call me if you need any chores done."

――And so the two of them went for breakfast.

Selene sat in the seat of honor, and to her right.

"In the first place you――Mugu"

"How do you like it, Kreschenta-sama?"

"...Hmm, it's not too bad. It's not bad."

Sat Kreschenta on Bery's lap while complaining.

It was rare for Bery to sit quietly alone at breakfast, as if it's her job to wake Kreschenta up and bringing her to breakfast.

"Ehehe, the Pirshu fruit really do have a kick to them. Krische think it's good."

"Yes, it is. Tomorrow, we should try to—"

Krische clung to Berry's chair, and today's breakfast was praised, as usual, without ever getting bored of it.

Bery, who never showed a single sign of displeasure and seemed to enjoy herself from the bottom of her heart, must be a bit crazy.

For humans, distance was important, but it didn’t exist for the two of them, and Bery's function was broken as well.

Touching each other was certainly a happy thing, and Selene of course had times when she wanted to do so without thinking, but even her favorite meat pie was painful to eat for three times a day.

It's normal for humans to get tired of being affectionate with each other all day within three days.

However, Bery, who could spend a thousand years doing so without a second thought, was a monster after all.

A woman who didn’t mind eating meat pie three times a day――something she'd vaguely felt since coming here, but Bery was a Krische that had obtained intelligence.

Maybe inside she's still a lot more childish than Selene.

Trying to compete with her would be like competing to see who was the most childish.

When was it that she realized how ridiculous it was.

Even if adults play house seriously, children have infinite physical strength.

It was pointless if there was no chance of winning.

There were times when she wanted to be a child, but staying a child forever would made her sanity suffer.

Looking to the left, she saw Anne, then Lira and Elvena.

Lira was dressed in a ladylike white one-piece dress, her cheeks relaxed as she eats her meal, occasionally embarrassed at the thought of her own clothes.

Normally one usually find it more embarrassing to wear her usual clothes, which were almost like underwear, but Lira seems to have a strange sensibility that made her feel embarrassed when there's a lot of fabric.

It was probably a cultural difference from their upbringing.

Elvena asked Lyra about the fit of the dress with great satisfaction, praised her for how well it suited her, and cheerfully discussed what the next dress should be.

Lila also didn't seem to mind the compliments, saying things like ‘You're still making more!’, but also expressed her preferences, saying things like ‘I'd like it to be like this if possible’.

Most of Lilr's preferences were the exact opposite of Selene's common sense, like a short skirt or a more exposed midsection.

She rubbed her brow, thinking that she had to give Elvena a warning again.

Cultural differences were troublesome.

The clothes that Lila would be happy with were really shameless and completely unacceptable in Selene's eyes, but to point that out so strongly would be like denying the culture she was born and raised in.

When Elvena first mentioned Liea's clothes, she had thought lightly that she was using that excuse to corrupt Lira.

But that pretense was probably her true intention.

Because of Lira, Selene couldn’t say anything openly about the dress being made.

And it was not just for Lira.

She was probably trying to fill the mansion with Lira's preferences――revealing clothes that Selene considered obscene.

‘Fufu, that's nice. I can wear these just like normally...’

‘It suits you very well, Lira-sama. ...Fufu, how about you, Krische=sama? It's easy to move around in and comfortable.’

‘I see... that's nice. It might be perfect for the hot season.’

‘Yes, yes. If you don't mind, I can sew some for everyone too. I'm getting used to sewing now...’

Like that, Elvena's plan was easy to imagine.

Something had to be done before it spread, but culture was a delicate issue.

She had to be very careful about what she do.

As Selene looked at Anne, who was clearly listening while eating, she sighed.

Next to a workshop that was too big to be called a shed.

A hammer was used to strike a chisel, and a large rock was carved out.

For Selene, who was always troubled, the time she spent in the workshop was an important time when she could clear her mind.

She started out thinking of creating a hobby that she could enjoy forever, in order to spend eternity, but that was a long time ago.

Crafting was good.

When she was making something, her whole being was focused on it.

The touch of her hands, the observation that almost erased everything else from her vision, and projecting the ideal final form she envisioned.

Sometimes, a small mistake would lead her to think of something better than she had imagined.

At those times, she surrendered herself to that sensation, slowly solidifying a vague image.

It was probably all the same.

She had made many different things, forging, kneading clay, and carving wood.

She couldn’t say she had mastered any of them yet――that said she felt like she coud see many things now that she couldn't see when she was making sashimi knives.

Observation and imagination were important.

In anything, you start by imitating through observation.

In the process of imitating, you learn why something was bad, examine it closely, and eliminate the inferior parts one by one.

If there were no missing parts, the perfect, finished form would become visible.

If you imagine an uncertain ideal, you would only lose your balance.

Just like climbing a mountain, check each step and proceed.

If you do that, before you know it, your imagination would take a clear shape.

All that was left was to make the shape emerge exactly to the last detail.

The sashimi knife sleeping in the workshop――it was purchased a long time ago in the east of the continent, but that delicate piece of art taught Selene the depths of craftsmanship.

No matter how many times she tried, the blade never reached her ideal.

After worrying about why she couldn't make something at the same level, she had taken a detour to relax, but now she finally understood.

To put it in perspective, it would be like a child challenging Kolkis to a duel.

Once you had stripped away the unnecessary and refined it, it was at its bare minimum.

Selene hadn't grown up, and had simply tried to imitate the look of that art――and that was the cause of her plateau.

The reason she was able to realize this was down to the two of them.

What makes Krische and Kreschenta so great was, above all, their keen observational skills.

When the two of them look at something, they could clearly read its purpose, its use, and what is emphasized.

They then accurately strip away only the unnecessary parts from the imitation in a rational way.

She didn’t think she could do it as easily as them, but there was plenty of time.

If she couldn't reach it in ten years, she could just use a hundred or a thousand years.

It was fine to add value to it after that.

Until now, she had probably been asking for too much extra.

It was like chasing a bird and stepping off a cliff.

First, it was important to go step by step.

――Once this is done, let’s try to make a knife that surpasses that one again.

With that thought, she swung the hammer down.

A pleasant sound, clink, clunk, echoed, and she focused her nerves on that sound as well.

Adjusting the angle and force according to the sound of brittle and hard parts.

For the past thirty years, she had spent time making statues, and compared to everything else she had done, it felt more tangible.

She knew she was clumsy and rough, but building houses and carving statues, creating something relatively large, wasn't so difficult for her.

A pair of young angels huddled together were being dug out of a large block of stone.

Each had one wing, and she was imagining Krische and Kreschenta.

She carefully poured what she had learned from them into her own creation.

She brought her awareness all the way down to the tip of the hammer as she bring it down, and continued digging.

At this rate, she might be able to finish it in another week.

She took a breath and prepared herself again.

"Selene――! Please hear this!"

An unpleasant reverberated from the stone statue.