“Are you thinking that I’m trying to hit you? Look at me! Why would I hit someone so skinny and small that there’s no place to hit? Where did you get the idea that I would hit you!”
Allen, who was speaking boldly and confidently, glared at me as if he was going to kill me, then tried to pass by.
And I…
“What, what!”
I bravely grabbed Allen, I don’t know where I got the courage.
To be honest, it was not even a day or two, but my heart was uneasy about the face that resembled Diana’s looking at me like that.
‘Besides, it’s also my fault now.’
I swallowed my saliva and spoke.
“It’s not because I thought you were going to hit me, Your Grace. It’s not because of you… I just got scared when I saw your hand suddenly rise.”
Even in my previous life, whenever I saw a hand rising in front of me, I would flinch and think, ‘I’m going to get hit!’.
I thought things would get better as I got older, but returning to the age of eight, it’s like starting over again.
If I had been mentally prepared, it would have been one thing, but in sudden situations, my body moved involuntarily.
And it was the first time, in my previous life, that I spoke such words, so I was unnecessarily nervous.
‘If Allen is still angry, I feel like it’s tiring to keep facing him…’
As I looked up with hope and fear, I saw Allen, with a twisted face.
My heart felt like it was pounding painfully at that moment.
Then, Allen flinched his hand and said, hiding it behind his back.
“You have chocolate on your lips.”
Oops!
I quickly covered my mouth with my hand and touched the corner of my lips. The chocolate I had eaten earlier had hardened.
As my face turned red with embarrassment, Allen burst into laughter.
Although I glanced at him with a sour heart, I found it even funnier and couldn’t help but say something.
“Lia?”
I turned my head at the familiar voice in my ear and saw a boy getting off the carriage.
“Jack!”
With a joyful heart, I ran towards Jack.
“Are you okay? You don’t have any pain now, right? Thank you for coming!”
As I asked while examining his body, Jack looked at me with a dazed expression.
Well, Jack and I were not that close, to begin with.
‘It would be weird to suddenly act friendly.’
But it was also something I had to hold back considering how Jack had collapsed and passed out.
“Is he your friend?”
Then Allen’s voice came from right behind me.
The sound was closer than I thought, so I was startled and raised my head.
Then, Allen grabbed my shoulder and said, “You almost fell.”
After checking my body, he immediately took his hands off of me, sticking out his tongue.
It seemed like he still felt uncomfortable touching me, but I felt the same way!
As I turned my head with a pout, I felt a sense of awkwardness.
Jack probably knows everything that happened to us while he was being treated.
So he probably came here to join the knights of the duke.
He would have known that Diana, who was with us at the orphanage, was the youngest princess of the Duke of Elad, and he would have noticed that this silver-haired boy who looked like her was one of the two brothers Diana had talked about before.
But why is he glaring at Allen with such hostility? Jack’s gaze was intense, and Allen’s momentum was not good.
It was unbelievable that two people who would become the best of friends later could create such a tense atmosphere that made one’s flesh crawl.
‘Will it be okay?’ I wondered if their relationship would change because of me.
‘After all, kids grow up fighting.’
As I tried to ignore the tense atmosphere, I turned my head and saw Taze with a gloomy face standing beside the carriage.
It seemed like he had brought Jack himself.
“I guess it’s not a coincidence after all.”
I muttered to myself and finally managed to calm down the anxiety that Jack and Allen’s relationship would not be as good as before.
“Hah, ridiculous.”
Allen scoffed at Taze.
“You couldn’t even properly guard Diana, and now you’re thinking of begging the Duke again.”
“…”
“Even if Diana comes back safely, if he has a conscience, shouldn’t he leave on his own? As the Master said, commoners are blatantly shameless, and that is also true.”
Allen fiercely retorted at Taze as if he had a knife in his mouth.
The surrounding air seemed to cool down as well.
After finishing his words, Allen turned around and looked at me, startled.
His face was red, and he seemed to be really angry to the point of forgetting my existence for a moment.
To be honest, although his words were harsh, I knew how much he cherished his younger sister Diana, and also that Taze was in the wrong, so I just lowered my head.
I didn’t want to be a fool who made the angry person even angrier.
Fortunately, I could hear Allen’s footsteps as he walked away.
‘Hmm, Jack seems a little worried.’
From the very first meeting, it felt like a complicated situation.
Well, they’ll figure it out themselves.
When I turned my head to look at Jack’s expression, he spoke up.
“Do you feel wronged?”
As one person leaves, another person appears.
He was also a knight, and he was as big as Taze.
I went to meet Jack, but I’m not sure what’s going on.
I guess even Jack in my previous life didn’t always walk an easy path, but as I shook my head inwardly, the man sneered.
“But you didn’t say anything wrong, did you? It’s His Excellency’s intention, so we have no choice but to overlook it, but even if we have to cut off one of our limbs, we can barely make ends meet for a few days. Even if you have no shame, you should have some limits.”
“… Do you really think so?”
“What?”
“It’s true that I didn’t perform my duties properly, but the commander-in-chief must not be complete without fault either.”
“This bastard!”
The man who grabbed Taze’s collar said, gritting his teeth.
“From the start, this Duke Elad, and the Lexion Knights! This is not a place for commoners like you to step in.”
“Please stop. We are in front of children.”
Taze lowered his voice, perhaps realizing our presence.
However, the man began to taunt me even more, seeming more displeased.
“This is really ridiculous. It’s not like we’re fighting or anything.”
Then, he roughly pushed Taze aside and strode towards us.
Instinctively, my body flinched and froze, but Jack stood in front of me.
The man pushed Jack’s forehead with his finger and said, “Don’t dream of becoming a knight just because you were lucky enough to enter the Lexion Knights through the grace of His Majesty. Your fate is to be a seed for your whole life.”
Commander!”
Taze tried to stop him in a hurry, but because the hierarchy within the knight’s order was clear, he couldn’t touch him. Instead, he pushed Jack and me back and stood in front of the man, who sneered and turned away.
As he turned away with his arrogant attitude, I felt a boiling mixture of discomfort and anger.
To be honest, his insult about being a commoner was no worse than the knives I had heard when I was living as a beggar, so it didn’t have much impact on me.
But I was angry at the fact that Jack had to suffer such baseless contemptuous remarks.
Despite the man’s cursing words, I knew better than anyone that Jack would become a knight who would make a name for himself on the continent someday.
However, my anger quickly subsided.
Perhaps it was because of my training as an intelligence agent.
I had a gut feeling that there was something about these men’s conversation.
***
“What, what did you say? Then it’s not that the uncle failed to protect the young lady!”
Afterward, I persistently grilled Taze and made the two reveal the hidden secret.
The full story of the incident was truly shocking.
“The deputy commander of the Lexion Knights told such a lie!”
Taze, who had been innocently withdrawing from his escort duty as per the deputy commander’s orders, only realized he had been deceived after Diana went missing.
Then Jack, who was listening to the pre-and post-story, suddenly asked, “You didn’t really make a mistake, did you?”
It was a suspicious tone, as if he was doubting himself for mishearing and shifting the blame.
I can’t believe he’s talking to him like that, he’s going to be your adoptive father, Jack!
As I silently bit my tongue, Taze spoke with a stern face.
“I swear I’m not lying. It’s just a bit strange to be telling you, kids, this.”
He seemed to have been holding back for a while, as he grabbed onto us and began to ramble.
“I was a mercenary who fought in wars, and by chance, I caught the attention of His Excellency.”
To be more precise, it started when Taze noticed an enemy trap during a battle.
Knowing how he came to join the Lexion Knights through stories from knights who admired him, I expected that the ambition of the deputy commander who boasted of being close to Duke Ellard had been twisted.
I was also familiar with being resented and hated in that way.
“Joining the Lexion Knights was an unparalleled opportunity for me. Becoming a knight has been my dream for a long time, and it was also my father’s dream.”
As he spoke, Taze bit his lips several times, as if struggling to hold back tears.
The sight of a grown adult crying was a little surprising, but Jack seemed deeply moved and was listening intently without even blinking.
“But lately, I’ve been questioning why I have to keep being a knight. I even feel like I don’t fit the image of an honorable knight, as the captain says…”
As I listened to Taze’s rambling, I couldn’t stand it and shouted, “Sir, are you stupid? You’re not the one who doesn’t fit the image of a knight, it’s that bastard captain!”
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Translator Note:
This chapter was translated by Bree.
Next chapter will be released tomorrow. To read chapters in advance support us on Patreon!!
