How to Use the Lord’s Future Diary-Chapter 82

Chapter 82
The Lord of Haken was the first to declare the opening, and after that, according to the schedule, the first contestants entered the arena.
One of them was a young man who seemed to be a Soldier of Haken, and the other was a Mercenary warrior dressed in leather armor.
“Ugh, so it ends up like this after all?”
The Soldier approached the duel with a solemn air, but the match was decided in an instant.
The Mercenary warrior deflected the Soldier’s strike, then immediately closed the distance and struck his neck.
It was an overwhelming difference in skill, so much so that there was nothing to add.
The Mercenary warrior was clearly a knight-level fighter with abundant real combat experience. Even though they were only sparring with wooden swords instead of real blades, such a fundamental difference in skill could never be overcome.
Besides, Mercenary warriors—who usually fought against bandit groups—were extremely experienced in human-to-human combat.
Especially if one was at the level of a mid-tier knight, then he was truly a battle-hardened veteran.
That meant there was an immense gap between them and Soldiers, who mostly had real combat experience only against monsters.
In short, ordinary Soldiers had no way of winning.
“The squires aren’t able to show their strength either.”
“Indeed, the difference in practical experience can’t be ignored.”
The squires also struggled against the Mercenaries.
They were at least knight-level fighters, so they could put up some resistance, but even so, no one had the ability to achieve overwhelming victories.
In fact, it was rare to even see a squire win a match at all.
Typically, they would exchange evenly at first, but then get caught up in the Mercenaries’ psychological tactics and lose in the battle of wits.
This was entirely due to the difference in practical experience.
Many squires had even less real combat exposure than the Soldiers, which only made the gap all the more obvious.
‘So this is a disaster, then?’
The Mercenaries continued to defeat the Soldiers and squires one after another, like an unstoppable wave.
Since the same pattern played out across all four arenas, it was hard not to feel a bit grim.
Of course, duels between Mercenaries were quite thrilling to watch, but still, was this really the kind of competition that the residents of Haken had been hoping for?
Even as an outsider, I felt something strange about it. How much more confusing must it have been for the residents of Haken Castle themselves?
The organizers must have already known that many Mercenaries would participate.
After all, applications for the tournament had closed several days earlier.
That meant they must have expected this situation to some degree—but I had no idea what they were really thinking.
Did they have some other plan in mind?
“Huh?”
“The atmosphere feels different all of a sudden.”
“Yeah. Oh, over there—Arena Three.”
At some point, the entire spectator stand began to stir.
And Irene pointed toward Arena Three.
There, a man stood in a cocky pose, spinning his wooden sword as he faced off against a Mercenary.
That man was clearly the cause of the commotion.
He had tanned skin that gave off a wild aura, a tall and slim physique—
And even blond hair.
The newcomer who appeared in the arena was so strikingly good-looking that anyone would call him handsome at a glance.
He had the kind of style that women would flock to even if he did nothing at all.
But to me, he didn’t look particularly impressive.
His dyed blond hair and earrings gave off too much of a shallow, flashy air.
“That’s definitely dyed, right?”
Because I had once made the mistake of harboring a similar prejudice against Irene, I checked several times.
I even wondered for a moment if he might be of mixed blood.
But no, he gave off no such impression.
That meant his blond hair was just dye. And for a squire who hadn’t even been knighted yet to show up like that—it was unusual.
Were knights of Haken really that much freer than I expected?
The knights who crossed over here had told me they were rather old-fashioned.
‘He’s annoying.’
As I mentioned once before, Iron wasn’t fond of such flashy styles.
The reason I had treated Irene more harshly at first was because I had mistakenly assumed her hair color was also dyed.
And honestly, I felt the same way now.
Sure, you could call it personality or individuality, but I didn’t find it appealing.
“What the… why is that guy here…?”
Irene looked flustered in a way different from mine.
Since she was from Haken, she clearly knew who that squire was.
Judging from her serious expression, there seemed to be some kind of issue.
Irene was calmer than anyone in combat.
So what kind of man could make her react like this?
“Is there some problem with him?”
“Well… yes and no. It’s just… unsettling.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, that guy… he’s not the sort of person who should even be here.”
“Not the sort of person?”
“Yes. That man is…”
“That male, the Great Warrior. In other words, a Master.”
“…A Master?”
Before Irene could explain, Leisha cut in.
She was saying that the blond, tanned man in the arena was a Master.
I flinched and looked down at the arena again.
From this distance, I couldn’t make out much, but looking more closely, I could tell his aura wasn’t ordinary.
Just as Leisha said, he was no ordinary knight.
“But wasn’t this tournament only for squires and Soldiers? If he’s really a Master, then why is he here?”
“Well, strictly speaking, he is still a squire. He hasn’t officially been knighted yet.”
That was strange.
A Master who hadn’t even been knighted yet?
Even if Haken had a wide pool of talent, did that make any sense?
“Exactly.”
The oddly dyed, tanned knight—Roman—was the squire of none other than the famed knight ‘Apophis,’ Sir Durek.
Gifted since childhood, Roman was regarded as a promising prodigy, a next-generation candidate for Knight Commander.
He should have already been serving as the vice-captain of a knight order by now.
But the only reason Roman still remained a squire was because he stubbornly insisted on being knighted by Irene herself.
It was his sole goal: to be knighted by Irene, to serve as her personal escort knight, and eventually, to marry her.
“But since Sir Durek never yielded his side, Roman wasn’t knighted. And so, he’s still technically a squire?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Wait… was he the one mentioned in that article about being paired with the Second Young Lord?”
“Yes, exactly. That’s him.”
“…Hmm.”
Yeah, I thought I had heard something like that before.
The Second Young Lord had pressured her to marry someone she didn’t like, so she kept refusing.
Of course, that wasn’t the sole reason she decided to head for Johnson, but it was certainly one of the major influences behind her journey to Johnson.
“That guy’s better than I expected.”
“His talent is the real thing.”
Even as we talked, the match continued.
But really, it couldn’t even be called a match.
With a single strike, he split the Mercenary’s wooden sword.
Then, with arrogant eyes, he looked down on his opponent, and the moment he won, thunderous cheers filled the arena.
It felt like some kind of home advantage.
The fact that Haken’s squires and Soldiers had been losing to Mercenaries all this time was now turning to Roman’s favor.
“So that’s why they let all those Mercenaries in at their own tournament. They must have been hiding one last move.”
It seemed the winner of this tournament had been decided from the start.
“Wait, if that’s the case…”
Roman was the man who had obsessed over Irene so much that he even delayed his knighting.
There was no way he would give up just because she had migrated to Johnson.
If a man like that won this tournament…
“Hah, who knew such a creature could exist? Blond hair and tanned skin! He’s absolutely someone to be wary of. If we let our guard down, he’ll snatch away every woman already spoken for.”
“What are you even saying now?”
Even Dr. Nickel was muttering incomprehensible things beside me, as if something had suddenly come to mind.
Had novels in this world also dealt with such topics? Incredible, really.
The funny thing was, I couldn’t simply laugh it off either.
–He was like the very incarnation of the Golden Sun.
His appearance alone was enough to make me uneasy.
And my instincts were sending strong warnings.
It seemed Irene had been held back in Haken because of this guy.
“Looks like the winner’s already decided.”
“Seems so.”
“And since that guy clearly has feelings for Sir Irene, I doubt he’ll just let this chance slip by.”
“Huh? What do you mean, he won’t let it slip?”
“Won’t he make some kind of move in public? Especially now that he has a Wish Token.”
“Oh, that’s…”
I had already heard some things from Celine.
When Irene was staying in Haken, there had been countless men pursuing her.
Exhausted by the attention, she had declared that she would never marry a man weaker than herself.
There hadn’t been any knight around her age who could defeat her, so she had been able to drive off all those nuisances at once.
‘This guy must have been one of them. Otherwise, Irene would already have gone over to his side.’
But the situation had changed.
Roman, who had once been brushed aside by Irene, had now become a Master.
For her, that made things complicated—because of the words she herself had spoken.
“This is taking an odd turn.”
That guy couldn’t ask the Lord of Haken for Irene’s hand in marriage just because he won.
She wouldn’t acknowledge it anyway.
But he could certainly request a duel with Irene right here and now.
And since she had once made that declaration, in such a public setting, she wouldn’t be able to refuse an order from the Lord of Haken.
“If he requests a duel, it’ll be hard to turn it down.”
“Exactly. On a day like today, with this kind of atmosphere, refusing the winner’s request would be impossible. And the residents of Haken… well, they’re quite interested in my private life. There isn’t a single person in Haken who doesn’t know I said I’d marry only a man stronger than me.”
“…It’s that well-known?”
“Yes. So if he requests a duel with me, it’s the same as proposing. Naturally, all eyes will be on us. And though he looks like that, he’s surprisingly popular. Many people even think he’s the only man suited to me.”
“And today, since he restored their pride on behalf of Haken, the reaction will be even hotter.”
“Exactly. For today, that man is Haken’s hero.”
Even I couldn’t deny it. If Roman challenged Irene today, there was no way she could avoid the duel.
The circumstances simply didn’t allow it.
“That declaration—that you’d marry the victor. Does it have to be upheld?”
“Well… I’d like to say no, but I’m not sure. I’ve never once broken a promise I’ve spoken aloud. Even if I refused, I’d at least have to meet him. Otherwise, I’d have no justification.”
“I see.”
Since she had said it herself, she would at least have to grant him that much of a chance.
So unless she avoided the duel altogether, if she lost, she wouldn’t be able to leave Haken easily—because of him.
“If I win, everything will be resolved cleanly, right?”
“But your body’s not in normal condition.”
That was the biggest problem—her body.
She still wasn’t able to fully handle her Aura.
Could she really face a Master like this?
“It’s impossible. Irene can’t defeat that male.”
“Huh? No way. Master, I’ve improved a lot.”
“If your condition were recovered, then maybe. In real combat, even more so. But in this situation, the conditions are far too unfavorable.”
“You think so too?”
“I’m certain.”
Honestly, I agreed.
That man was clearly a technical fighter, specialized in this kind of duel.
Against Irene, who swung a massive hammer, the match-up wasn’t favorable.
In real battle, things might have been different, but this was a duel of skill.
‘Alright, I think I understand now.’
That meant it was time for me to make a decision as well.