The next day. Under the sunny sky, I started tending to the mansion’s garden.

  Since I don’t have the skill, I couldn’t take part in the mansion’s renovation, so I left it to the carpenters that Aaron had arranged.

  But I wanted to put my experience as a gardener during my time working for the Hearts into use. This kind of thing is actually fun to do for me, although it may be weird seeing the Barbatos family head himself is the one who does the work.

  Quietly went by myself, since there is no weed left after Myne pulverized the garden, I began to think about how to return the garden to its former glory, when suddenly someone called me from the direction of the Heart mansion.

  [Aren’t you Fate!? It’s been a while…..]

  It was one of the Heart family’s gardeners who I’m indebted with for teaching me the gardening techniques. He looked at me and smiled, seemingly pleased with the reunion. Then he looked at where I am, the clothes I’m wearing, before his expression turned agape.

  While I stayed in the mansion, I didn’t put my skull mask on, so I kinda knew that it will be like this.

  [It’s been a while. Long time no see.]

  […..that’s one more surprise for me. You left here, then returned, but I never expected that you’ll return as a holy knight. Oops, I shouldn’t be talking so nonchalantly.]

  [No, you can speak as usual. Let me reintroduce myself then. I’m Fate Barbatos, the successor to the Barbatos family. Now that I have, please call me Fate like before.]

  [Alright. If that’s what you want, then I will do so. Anyways, there was a talk among the servants that Aaron-sama has returned. There is also the story about succession….but I never thought that it’s actually Fate…..you hid your real capabilities really well, didn’t you?]

  I hid my real capability…..? Well, I was just living quietly as normal employee, and I didn’t have holy sword mastery skill back then, so I didn’t exactly hide anything…..

  I only obtained the holy sword mastery after I devoured the soul of Burix’s second son Hado. For better or worse, without this skill, I honestly don’t know what will become of me.

  I was just a gatekeeper at first, then after receiving serious injuries from the Burixes, I was rescued by Roxy and became the Heart mansion’s employee….I left for Gallia as a warrior, then returned home as a holy knight. Not only that, a successor to the Sword Saint Aaron.

  With a bitter smile, teacher gardener told me while giving a look at the Barbatos mansion’s garden.

  [Anyways, that seems to be in bad condition. By any chance, is Fate planning to fix the garden by yourself?]

  I supposed he guessed it from the tools I put around me.

  [Ah, yes, I am. I want to put into use everything you have taught me. Moreover, doing this makes me feel calm. I do know that it’ll take a while to restore the garden entirely though.]

  [U~n, that’s true. How about this, why don’t I help you out?]

  [Eh, is it really okay? Then what about the Heart family’s garden….?]

  He laughed at that. He said that it’s no good to look down on someone who has worked as a gardener for decades, and there was more than one gardener at the Heart mansion anyways.

  And so he decided to help during his free time.

  [Yosh, it’s decided. I’ll help you in a bit.]

  [Yes, thank you very much!]

  Teacher gardener went into the Barbatos mansion garden, and gave it another look.

  He then frowned, as he looked up to the sky.

  [I only looked her once in a while when working next door, but I don’t know that it was worse than I thought before. And……what’s with that!?]

  [Eh, which one do you mean?]

  He’s pointing at the battle traces and deep gouges on the ground. Ah, that was from yesterday, when Aaron and Myne sparred on the garden.

  Even without Myne, Aaron’s strength had also grown exponentially after defeating the【Harbinger of Death】Lich Lord. Perhaps it’s due to having broken through the limit after that battle.

  The sparring session left great damage to the garden. I also contributed to the damage, since I was also training, but I couldn’t just say that…..

  [When one becomes a master in swordsmanship, even a simple practice will do this much damage.]

  [But then, if it’s left like this there will be nothing growing on it, it will be a wasteland.]

  While me and teacher gardener were wrecking our head for solution, the two main causes of this trouble showed up. Both had their weapon in hand. Since it happens quite often recently, it’s easy to tell what is going to happen next. They are going to spar again today….those battle maniacs!

  A collision noise rang right in front of our eyes. The holy sword and the black axe clashed hard.

  Parts of the garden were leveled in each clash. Teacher gardener stared at the fight dumbfoundedly, then left the spot and returned to Heart family mansion without saying anything.

  [Please wait a moment! Aren’t you going to help me out!?]

  [As I thought, it’s impossible. Even if we fix the garden, it’ll return to nothing if they fight like this again. No, it may be worse than that.]

  [I have a good idea. Please wait here a moment.]

  I drew out black sword Greed from the scabbard and joined the fray. Although it’s just a sparring session, I had to stop the needless fights which will turn the garden into a dead land.

  Greed then said through the《Mind Reading》skill.

  『Don’t hesitate. Fate, bring down the girl who destroys your garden in full wrath!』


  [I almost thought that you are someone else…]

  『Go ahead! Use the secret first form, finish it in one shot!』


  [Are you stupid!? That’s definitely a no go. If I do that, not only the garden, the mansion will also disappear!]

  『Just start up from scratch. Won’t that clean up everything nicely?』


  While listening to the usual dubious remark from Greed, I tried to stop Aaron and Myne.

  Somehow, after one or two strikes to break them off, it turned into me vs both Aaron and Myne instead. After fighting fiercely for fifteen minutes, the two finally quieted down.

  [What’s wrong? Fate. Stay away, I want to play a little with Aaron.]

  [I wanted to separate you two, that’s why I butted in. By the way, Myne…..that attack just now was too earnest, I thought I was going to die]

  [There’s no such thing. You’ll be flying in the air already if I’m serious. Wanna try?]

  Aaron shook his head, laughing as he put his holy sword back into the sheath.

  [It’s not fun barging in another person’s battle. If you want to fight that much, then take turns. I have advance arrangement with Myne earlier this morning. But, since it turned out to be quite fun, I’ll be looking forward for another session.]

  [No no, that’s not what I mean. I…..]

  Apparently, Aaron and Myne thought that I barged into the fight because I had no companion to spar with, which I had to deny with all my might whilst also trying to explain the situation.

  If those two continued to fight in the garden, I will never be able to restore the garden.

  [Umu, I see. We understand, but then you’ll have to find another place to be used for training, that actually sounds good.]

  [Yes, that indeed is. How about, using that corner at the West side?]

  [So it’ll be a fight in a limited space…..interesting. How do you think, Myne?]

  [It doesn’t matter for me. I can fight just fine anywhere.]

  [Then it’s decided. Shall we go now?]

  [Oo!]

  In full haste, Aaron and Myne rushed to the designated place and started fighting once more…..snow and dust filled the air, as the fight became increasingly fiercer than before.

  Replacing Greed back to his scabbard, I let out a long sigh, and returned to teacher gardener’s side.

  [I’ve kept you waiting. Now the damage should be halted with that.]

  […..you people are…..really valorous bunch. That’ll really help. Although, this place looks very much like Gallia now.]

  He’s reminiscing about Gallia from his childhood――which was a wasteland full of traces of battles. The aftermath of Aaron and Myne’s fight actually evoked that memory.

  I’ll just have to restore and give the garden good care from now on. Together with teacher gardener, we worked on the garden till dusk. We also discussed various things, such as how to arrange the plants, but for the time being we decided to make use of his supplier.

  [Pardon me for the hassle.]

  [No, it’s me who should be thanking you. It’s been a while since this old me has this big of a job. Now it’s mainly just garden maintenance. I’ll come and help you again. I’ll also inform the others.]

  [Thank you very much!]

  If the other teacher gardeners also joined in to help, this work will be as good as done already.

  While seeing him went back to the Heart family mansion, I envisioned the completed garden already. A large fountain in front of the mansion, large trees surrounding it, and flower bed beneath it.

  Yes, that’s wonderful. I couldn’t wait to see when it’s finally completed!

  While I was imagining that, I heard explosion coming from the west side. Yes, that’s right. Myne and Aaron is still fighting. The stamina of those two are truly bottomless.

  If I showed up there, I’ll inadvertently get dragged to the fight. When I thought about to just returning back to the mansion, I saw the face of a girl I met recently at the front gate.

  It’s the church sister from the slum. She had promised to help us gather people without proper job for Hausen’s reconstruction. But in order to do that, she’ll need the recommendation letter from the holy knights on that area.

  That girl is actually prepared. I didn’t expect her to come here today when I only asked her yesterday, so I’m quite happy that she arrived sooner.

  I approached the gate to greet her, but something about her pale complexion made me to have a bad feeling. She then told me.

  [Please! Please help us!]

  [What, what is happening?]

  Something bad must be happening if she’s that rushed. I immediately opened the gate, and invited her in.

  She actually fell off on her knees soon after. I wonder what made her running here in so much a rush that she ended up unable to keep standing like this.

  The sister looked at me still on that position.

  [I’ve committed a terrible sin. I thought…..I thought it was okay to do it. But….]

  Hearing her story, I found out why she was giving out food yesterday at the church.

  The money to buy that food, actually came from the Burixes. But it’s under the condition that the church will send out about fifty improperly skilled people regularly, apparently to work at an unspecified place.

  [There were no problems so far, everyone sent returned back home. But this time…..more than 100 people than usual are sent out. Those people didn’t come back home as scheduled. Few was fortunate to be able to escape. When we asked them what happened….]

  All other people aside from him were murdered.

  That’s more than 100 people!? What on earth were the Burixes thinking to achieve with that?

  The sister didn’t know what to do, so she decided to seek help from the Barbatos family who contacted her yesterday as they were one of the Great Five families.

  I listened to her and slowly calmed the sister down.

  [Where have they been taken to?]

  [It’s….it seems Burix family’s facility on the military district.]

  So it’s in the military district……. That place really does need a proper inspection.

  =====