The Failure Marquis Is A Genius [EN]: Chapter 5

The Scion of the Marquisate is a Genius – 5 (5/200)

Chapter 1: Reincarnation: A Determined Scoundrel

‘Gordon, this child is special.’

I remembered her, smiling happily as she held Henon in her arms.

It was a first.

The first woman I wanted to love with all that I had.

My first meeting with her was dramatic.

It was a sunny autumn day with a gentle breeze.

Harvest season was approaching, and Gordon Lloyd and his people were excited about the festival preparations.

I was patrolling near the border of the marquisate when I happened to find her collapsed and covered in blood.

At first, I was going to leave her to the maids in the castle to take care of, but when I took off her hood and realized who she was, I couldn’t.

‘An elf?’

I knew what kind of looks I would get if I took in a member of another race.

So, Gordon secretly called Sebastian and entrusted the woman to him.

I didn’t expect her to live long anyway, so I didn’t have much hope.

The marquis’s expectations were wrong.

The woman was surprisingly strong.

She endured the pain with her willpower alone and recovered her health day by day.

Marquis Lloyd visited the woman every day.

At first, it was simple curiosity.

In the small border kingdom of Elden, there was rarely a chance to see an elf.

But later, personal feelings gradually mixed with curiosity.

‘Hena, please marry me.’

Beautiful looks and a mysterious aura.

A warm and friendly personality.

The Marquis Lloyd, deeply in love with her various charms, knelt down on one knee and offered her a ring, even though Hena was an elf.

‘Okay. If you’re okay with someone like me.’

The relationship between the two progressed rapidly, and before long, Hena’s belly was bulging.

But then a problem arose.

At the same time as she became pregnant, Hena’s wounds festered.

The marquis despaired beside her, who was about to leave behind a life.

Hena stroked the marquis’s head and said.

‘Gordon, do you know? I heard from my grandfather that children between humans and elves are loved by nature.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Yes, so Henon is a special child chosen by fate. Please take good care of him.’

Those were her last words.

The very next day, Hena gave birth to Henon, and a few days later, she died of a fever.

The marquis buried Hena himself in the deepest part of the inner castle.

He visited the place every day, remembering and longing for her.

Then one day.

A strange thing happened.

A sapling was growing from the place where Hena was buried.

I called Sebastian and asked if he had planted a tree separately, but he said he didn’t know anything about it.

The sapling became a huge oak tree in less than a month, taking up half of the garden.

Sebastian was greatly surprised by the unheard-of article, and Marquis Lloyd was convinced.

‘That tree is Hena’s alter ego.’

What the marquis was sure of was the scent.

The oak tree had the same warm and cozy scent that he used to feel from Hena.

He cherished the oak tree as much as his own life.

In the meantime, time passed and Henon began to grow.

At first, Marquis Lloyd tried to treat Henon well, as she had asked.

However, the news of Henon’s recent situation that he heard from Sebastian was full of disappointing news.

‘Today, he assaulted someone…’

‘He extorted money from a passerby…’

‘He overturned the table, saying he was hearing voices.’

In the meantime, the first wife, Rosaline, also regarded Henon as a thorn in her side and pressured Marquis Lloyd.

If things continued like this, the vast marquisate would be occupied solely by Rosaline’s son, Philip, and the only threat was the illegitimate child, Henon.

So, Marquis Lloyd half-gave up on Henon. In fact, he had given up. He just hoped that he would cause less trouble.

‘Henon has changed since he died and came back to life. He seems to have come to his senses.’

It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t excited by Sebastian’s recent report.

However, the marquis was cautious.

Vain expectations can turn into greater disappointment.

I tried to distance myself from Henon even more.

And just today.

Henon visited the garden in the middle of the night.

Didn’t the garden have Hena’s alter ego, which he cherished like his own life?

Startled, he quickly ran to the garden.

In his eyes, he saw an oak tree that was losing its vitality and withering.

Marquis Lloyd, who had been watching the tree every day, knew, even if no one else did.

That she was gone.

The last link with Hena had disappeared.

Realizing this, he felt deep sadness and, at the same time, a strong desire to kill Henon.

‘Explain what you’ve done.’

The son he had seen in years had changed greatly, as Sebastian had said.

The thick layer of fat had disappeared, and his dazzling appearance, which resembled his mother, shone brightly in the moonlight.

He answered calmly, seemingly unaffected by his momentum as the guardian of the continent.

‘I spoke with my mother.’

‘I think you know that this tree is my mother’s alter ego.’

‘She said thank you for everything and that she loved me.’

Could it be true?

Did that child really talk to Hena?

Even if that’s a lie, I want to believe it.

The story Hena told me in the past kept lingering in my head.

That the half-elf born between a human and an elf was born with a special destiny.

“Could he really have changed?”

It was the moment when Marquis Lloyd began to believe in Henon’s change.

Sebastian, who was next to him, handed the marquis the cane that had fallen to the ground and said.

“I think you can believe it this time… even though it’s very late.”

The situation in the marquisate is very complicated.

Even if Henon changes now, the problem will only get bigger.

In this chaotic time, not only the Kingdom of Elden but also the entire continent is in chaos, so even if an illegitimate child changes a little, he cannot inherit the marquisate, nor should he.

Rather, a family feud will break out, and Henon will face a certain and miserable death this time, or the marquisate may be dismantled.

“Just watch. Worrying about the future won’t change anything.”

“You’re right.”

“Go in and get some rest. You’ve been working hard today.”

“No. I’ll stay here a little longer.”

“I understand.”

Sebastian stepped back and Marquis Lloyd was left alone.

Today will be the last time he visits the garden.

Looking at the withering oak tree, he once again reminisced about Hena, the woman he loved.

* * *

The Arnia continent is a world where users of divine power and mana exist, unlike Earth.

In particular, mana is largely divided into five stages depending on the amount of use and proficiency.

Beginner

User

Expert

Master

Grand Master

Beginner is the stage where mana cannot be used at all. It can be said that 70% of martial artists stay at this stage.

User is the stage of using mana at a basic level. Even at this point, physical abilities far exceed those of ordinary people.

Expert is an expert who skillfully uses mana.

Most of the chief knights and experienced mercenaries reach this stage, and can use mana swords, which is the realm of imbuing mana into weapons.

Master is the stage of gaining enlightenment by using mana and emitting an aura blade.

The Seven Stars, who defended the continent against the invasion of the Demon King in the past, were all classified as masters.

At this point, it is better to think of them as superhumans in human skin rather than humans.

Finally, there is the realm of Grand Master above Master.

Kyle, the hero who sealed the Demon King in a one-on-one duel, was the only one in history to reach this realm.

Currently, Kyle has been missing since the final battle in the northern mountains, and even 20 years later, major cities hold events to commemorate the hero.

So where am I?

Of course, I’m a newbie beginner.

“Huff! Huff!”

I swung my sword while breathing heavily.

Sion, who was fighting against me, was also out of breath, as if her stamina was exhausted.

“Sion, if you wait a little longer, the day will come when you will be punished for your rudeness.”

Sion made a disgusted expression.

No wonder, it’s strange if she doesn’t get tired of arguing with the maid every day and sparring.

Aside from this, she also showed a little surprise at my increasing skills day by day.

Look at her now.

I, who couldn’t even compete with Sion just a few months ago, am now fighting her almost equally.

In particular, after awakening as a druid in the garden a while ago, the growth rate has become clear.

The stamina, strength, endurance, and recovery power provided by the passive skill Persistent Life are quite useful, so I am confident that I will not lose in terms of pure physical strength.

“Indeed… you have grown a lot. But you are still far from defeating me.”

Sion’s words are true.

She was overcoming my strength and stamina with her skills alone, without using mana.

She was among the upper-middle class of users [those who can use mana at a basic level].

If she decided to start turning the mana circle in her heart [activating her mana], the game would definitely go back to square one.

‘I need to grow technically and mana-wise soon…’

So far, Sion has been helpful as a good sparring partner, but there are also clear limitations.

Above all, you can’t learn skills from someone who hates you.

I need to find a good teacher, but the problem is that the teacher I know is in a place that is quite difficult to access.

‘Is there a good way?’

I finished today’s practice while pondering.

As usual, when Sion was wiping away sweat with a towel, the entrance to the training hall suddenly became noisy, and knights with swords rushed in.

“Kuhahaha! This is pretty good too? It’s as good as the main training hall.”

“From now on, we will do basic training here and swing our swords in the main training hall.”

“Young master, I feel motivated to come to the new training hall. Let’s start training right away.”

The noisy young knights were free knights [knights not directly sworn to a noble] under the marquisate, and at the head of them was my half-brother, Philip.

“Oh? Isn’t that Henon?”

Philip was talking to the knights without a care, and then looked at me as if he had discovered me by chance, but I barely held back the laughter that was about to burst out because the acting was so clumsy.

I stepped forward because it seemed like he had come here on purpose.

“Brother, it’s been a while. What brings you here?”

“What brings me here? That sounds like I shouldn’t come here.”

“How could that be? However, this is a small training hall that only the marquis’s direct family can use. I know that there is a separate main training hall for the knights.”

In other words, it was a training hall that only family members could use, so why did he allow outsiders to enter?

Philip expected my answer, so he retorted as soon as I finished speaking.

“Recently, I and the knights started a new training regimen, and it seems more efficient to use two training halls, so we decided to use the small training hall together.”

“Did the marquis also allow this?”

Philip’s face contorted at my words.

Judging from his expression, it was like, ‘Since when did this scoundrel start using such logical words?’ That’s exactly what his expression was.

But soon he smiled mockingly and laughed at me.

“The knights are performing important duties to protect the territory, so wouldn’t it be okay if the marquis family couldn’t even provide a proper training environment? Don’t say anything more.”

“Okay. Then I will use the main training hall when the knights use the small training hall.”

“Impossible. We decided to divide into groups and train half in the main training hall and half in the small training hall.”

In the first place, Philip came here because he was upset that I had recently shown dramatic changes and was even training in swordsmanship, so there was no way he would let me train.

He came to pick a fight on purpose.

“Then where am I supposed to train? Isn’t it funny that I, a direct descendant of the marquis family, am training outside the inner castle?”

“What’s so funny about that?”

While Philip and I were talking, a guy suddenly jumped in.

He was the youngest of the knights, and his face already telegraphed his lack of manners.

The guy, who was closer to a thug than a knight, deliberately shrugged his shoulders and sneered.

“In my opinion, it looks funnier that Henon is playing house with a girl while training.”

“Kuhahahaha!!”

“Kikikik!!”

The knights grabbed their stomachs and burst into laughter.

Sion’s gaze next to me turned cold.

She slipped her hand into the pocket attached to her maid’s uniform, and it was clear that she had a sharp weapon in her hand.

“Ivan, that’s too harsh. Still, Henon said he’s having fun, so there’s no need to be so harsh.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. Still, isn’t it funny? You keep talking about the direct line of the marquis from earlier, but you’re the first bastard I’ve ever seen who cares about bloodlines.”

“Kuhahahaha!!”

Once again, the knights laughed.

To be honest, I wasn’t that angry.

People get angry when they get into unexpected fights, but they tend to be calmer in expected fights.

I thought that Philip would check me someday, and that’s just today.

If I back down here, I won’t get anything.

Besides, I’ve gained confidence since I awakened as a druid.

I took off the gloves that were soaked with sweat from training.

Then, I threw them with all my might at the guy called Ivan.

Whoosh! Thud!

Oh my.

Maybe it’s because they’re soaked in sweat, but the glove stuck to his face very well.