Chapter 2: The Daily Lives of Servant Candidates
2-1 Dogs
It’s been a year since the orphans came to the mansion, and now their training covers a wide range of areas.
At first, I thought about dropping Louis because he couldn’t keep up physically, but whether due to my good education or not, he gradually became able to handle the training.
Of course, there’s physical training, but I also have them learn etiquette and general knowledge from my tutors. Since they’ll be going to Rosewood Academy with me in the future, they need to learn at least the basics. At first, some of them showed defiant attitudes towards the tutors, but in such cases, I made them run in the garden and used them as moving targets for magic practice.
It’s quite challenging to hit a moving target with spells, making it good magic practice. It’s a shame they quickly stopped defying the teachers, though.
Their training was fairly harsh, but even if they got injured a bit, the ducal house has specialized healers. They usually don’t need to work at all, so I thought it was a good opportunity to make them useful.
Sometimes I overdid the injuries a bit, and complaints would reach my father, but that’s none of my concern. My life is at stake here. I can’t afford to slack off on their training.
Among the six, Alice showed potential as a mage, and Louis as a priest, so I’m having these two learn magic as well. During that time, I provided weapons training for the remaining four.
The training is progressing very smoothly. Recently, the orphans have even started to show some leeway. So, I decided to give them a new challenge.
Raising dogs.
“Sir, raising dogs, sir?”
Richard asked. Although he’s stopped making careless remarks, he still doesn’t seem to understand the danger of being the first to ask questions. Probably the other five understand and are leaving him be. A scapegoat is necessary, after all.
“That’s right. Through raising dogs, we’ll educate your hearts. As orphans, there’s something lacking in you. We’ll fill that gap through dog-rearing.”
“Sir, yes sir!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Richard accepted without any doubt. The others seemed to have some misgivings, but wisely kept their mouths shut.
Now, the six dogs I’m having them raise are strays that I had Louis collect from the streets. I don’t know their breeds, but they’re all puppies. The reason I had Louis collect them is that he’s the least likely to run away and has experience with dogs in the past, so he’s used to them.
By the way, I’ve always been—even in my previous life—uncomfortable around dogs.
They come to me uninvited.
For example, let’s say there’s a dog. Dog lovers might try their best to interact with the dog, but ignoring all of them, the dog would make a beeline straight for me. If I try to run away, I end up being chased at full speed.
It’s like a part of my constitution. However, I’ve never been bitten or injured by dogs.
There are quite a few nobles who like keeping dogs, and they sometimes bring them to royal garden parties, but I’ve always been terrified of this.
In my previous life, at one particular garden party, while I was talking with other noble children, I kept hearing a strange sound from behind. It was like the sound of many soldiers marching in unison.
When I turned around to see what it was, I saw two dogs trying to pounce on me, repeatedly pawing at the ground. The noble who owned them, along with their servants and bystanders, were all working together to restrain them with ropes.
The two dogs had their eyes gleaming fiercely, mouths open with fangs bared, tongues lolling out and dripping saliva. From any angle, it looked like they were trying to eat me.
That was a terrifying experience. It ranks as the second scariest experience in my two lifetimes. The first was when I died from being poisoned, so you could say this was effectively the scariest.
Well, my story doesn’t matter. I’ll never directly interact with dogs again anyway.
I decided to have each orphan take care of one puppy. From now on, they’ll eat and sleep together. No slacking off is allowed.
After having them continue this lifestyle for about three years and building a family-like relationship with the dogs, I’ll have the orphans, as the owners, kill them.
According to that butler, killing a dog you’ve become attached to is the finishing touch in an assassin’s education. Apparently, if you don’t do this, when it comes time for an actual mission, it becomes difficult to kill the target.
I can understand that. It’s not easy to suddenly be told to kill a person. By having them rehearse with dogs, and their own pet dogs at that, it’s meant to remove the psychological barrier in advance.
The wisdom of our predecessors is truly great. When the orphans kill their own dogs and become cold-blooded, merciless assassins, that’s when they’ll officially become my servants!
…That’s all well and good, but why are all six puppies trying to come to me?
Louis and the others are desperately trying to hold them back, but they show no signs of listening.
To be honest, I’m scared. Well, I could easily kill dogs now if I wanted to, but the fear that’s been ingrained in me since my previous life isn’t something that disappears so easily.
However, I can’t show fear of dogs in front of the orphans. I have my position to maintain.
“Sigh, how troublesome. Can’t you even tame a single puppy? Is the only thing attracted to you the mosquitoes on a summer night?”
I said sarcastically, putting on a brave front as best I could.
“Sir, I’m sorry, sir,”
Louis apologized while desperately trying to pick up a puppy. However, the puppy slipped out of his arms and ran straight towards me. The other five almost simultaneously charged at me as well.
“Huff huff!” “Woof woof!” “Arf arf!” “Yap yap!” “Sniff sniff!” “Growl growl!”
The six puppies surrounded me, barking, pulling at my clothes, putting their paws on me, doing whatever they pleased.
To be honest, I feel like I’m about to faint. If I let my guard down, my consciousness would surely fly far away.
But I can’t collapse. If I were to be defeated by puppies before even facing the Saint, it would be nothing but a comedy. I wouldn’t know why I bothered with a second chance at life.
The orphans would lose all respect for me too. I bit my tongue hard to maintain consciousness.
“Dogs are cruel, aren’t they? They make it clear who’s attractive. Abandoned by parents, abandoned by dogs, losing in strength, losing in manners, losing in magic—is there any meaning to your lives? I’ll give you a chance, so quickly take these dogs away. I have no use for those who can’t even take care of puppies.”
(Please, I’m begging you, take them away quickly!)
While pleading to them in my heart, I endured the hell of being mauled by the dogs.
Louis and the others finally managed to pick up the puppies after a fierce struggle, but I’m sure my lifespan has been shortened by at least ten years.
“Listen up. You will eat, sleep, and raise these dogs. Think of the dogs as your friends, your siblings, your children. As you saw earlier, the dogs and I are connected by heart. If you slack off, I’ll know immediately. Do you understand?”
“Sir, yes sir!”
They responded with solemn expressions. It seems they believed what I said.
This is no joke. If we were really connected by heart, I would have ordered them to “go away.”
I had planned to give the orphans three years to become close with the dogs, but couldn’t they finish in about three days? The thought of such ferocious creatures living in the mansion makes me feel like I’m not really alive.
It would be better to raise monsters instead.
TLNOTE : While waiting, I implore you dear readers to read other masterpiece novels that also written by the same author :
- When the Monster Meat I Ate Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
