“I think the last time I saw my father was when I was three years old. Now I can only remember the face I saw in the portrait in the hallway. People outside of me were talking as if they knew my father better than me.”
“At that time, there were a lot of wars, and Duke Baltail was busy as the commander of the knights….”
Leverticia defended him without realizing it. But Kaius only snorted as if he had already heard a lot about it.
“know. Everyone said that and told me to look and understand. But I don’t know, I shouldn’t have done that to my mother. I mean, my mother was very sick. And yet, he didn’t even show his face until the very end.”
“….”
“I needed a father to take care of my sick mother more than a hero to save the world. My mother trusted and waited until the end….”
Kaiers’ two small fists were clenched.
Hearing his story, Leverticia suddenly remembered something that had happened in the past. It was a conversation the former Duke had with a messenger from the Duke’s family.
‘I, Duke. He said he was very ill, so why not visit it at least once?’ ‘… no. done.’
‘But he’s still not feeling well, and Confucius is looking for him. Just for a moment….’
‘stop. Don’t say it again.’
At that time, I thought it was just a reason not to leave the battlefield for personal reasons.
But after hearing Kaius’ words and thinking about it again, it seems that the Duke was particularly reluctant to return to his house.
But did you have an affair with another woman?
Leverticia was betting on her own wrist to assure me, but that never happened.
He just threw everything he had into the battlefield like a madman. “And then I met the Duke of Everett for the first time.”
Kaiers continued.
“When I first saw him, he seemed like the perfect adult. Of course not as much as my father, because he didn’t even show his face in the house. I wanted to be like the perfect adult I could see right away….”
“therefore? Did you change the person you wanted to be like, Duke Everett?”
“okay.”
“I trusted and followed him like my father instead of my real father. till now.”
“… right.”
Leverticia nodded her head as if it was understandable.
The Duke of Everett had a knack for manipulating someone from behind. But the young heir of the duke’s family treats him like a father and follows him.
For Duke Everett, it must have been a rolling windfall. ‘Snake-like little boy.’
Rebertisha shook her head, remembering her black hair and dark, inexplicable eyes.
“I have a rough idea of how he educated you. They must have instilled fear in the way of doubting everyone.”
“then… Was it?”
“okay. Reading a book in a place where you can be alone every time because it is uncomfortable to have people by your side, and not being able to eat or drink anything outside as you just did. That person implicitly made you that way.”
There is no easier way to isolate than to distrust everyone else.
Kaius had a blank expression on his face as if something had hit him in the back of the head, then spit it out in a lonely voice.
“Yeah, that’s right. Come to think of it, it was at that point that I kept avoiding and being wary of someone.”
Every time the Duke Everett saw Kaius, he instilled new doubts and fears.
Although Kaius was afraid and hated it, he could not refuse the Duke’s meeting.
“Even I was afraid to be abandoned by him.” “….”
“I wonder if it was really my fault that my father abandoned me and my mother.”
The air around him sank heavily.
As soon as Kaius’s story was over, the two went silent.
Leverticia stared quietly into the distance and tapped the table with her fingertips.
After some time passed, as if she had made up her mind to something, she pulled something out of her uniform pocket.
“First… I will return this.”
“ah.”
What she took out was a red pendant, a keepsake of the former Duke of Valtail.
Unexpectedly, Kaius accepted it with a puzzled expression on his face.
He quietly fiddled with the pendant in his hand, then pressed the little button protruding from the top.
Then the jewel part of the pendant opened like a lid, revealing the space inside.
“What, was it a rocket?” “yes.”
He picked up the pendant and showed Leverticia what was inside.
There was a portrait that looked a little old. A beautiful brown-haired beauty lovingly holding a red-haired child.
“It’s me and my mother.” “… Let this be.”
“right. It was originally mine.”
Kaiers quietly closed the lid. It clicked as if it was engaged and returned to the jewel shape again.
“It was almost the last gift I received from my father, so I always carried it with me like a talisman, but I lost it one day.”
But my father had it.
Leverticia felt her thoughts deepen at Kaius’s voice.
The former Duke of Baltail was nothing less than a lifesaver for Leverticia. He saved her several times and saved her life.
Even if he died, he had no intention of forsaking his grace.
However, just because he was a benefactor to himself, he did not think that he would be a good person to others.
Leverticia quietly looked at the boy in front of her and smiled.
“… If it’s okay with you, come back to training tomorrow. Until you overcome your fear, I will help you.”
That is why I am returning the grace I received from you to the part you lacked in this way.
You’re sure to be satisfied, right?
*
“Wow, you did a great job. That’s all for today, Duke.”
“Heh heh, heh heh….”
At Barton’s words, Kaius took a deep breath and lowered the wooden sword he was holding.
It’s already been the 6th day since Kaiers has been surprisingly diligent in training.
Barton thought to himself as he brought Kaiers a towel and a bottle of water.
‘I think I can see why the captain tried to train him.’
The more I helped him with his training, the more Barton felt uplifted.
I had a deep sense of what it was like to be a genius with tremendous talent. I even felt the urge to bow my head at the power of the bloodline of the
Duke of Baltail.
Now Barton’s only concern was the thought of when Kaiers would ever surpass himself as an adult knight.
‘It should be long… I don’t think it will take five years.’
As Barton immersed himself in a chilling thought, Kaiers stared intently at the unusually empty bench.
‘Why haven’t you come yet?’
No matter how busy she was, Leverticia, who kept her seat for as long as Kaius’ training time, didn’t look strange today.
Barton, who noticed Kaius’ tenacious gaze, explained.
“Right now, tomorrow is the imperial banquet. You will see your Majesty.” “Oh, that’s right.”
Tomorrow is already a banquet.
Kaius realized that time flew by again.
The handkerchief ordered by Baron Bellast has already arrived. The embroidery was perfectly laid out, making it a perfect gift.
However, one very important issue remained. ‘… How?’
Come to think of it, from the very beginning, I fell into the tactics of Baron Bellast (?) and made an impulse purchase.
So there was no plan of when and how to give it.
Even after thinking about it for a while, he couldn’t find an answer on his own, so he was just about to ask Barton about the knights’ gifts.
“- These bastards!”
A loud shout was heard outside.
It sounded like it was coming from the general knight training ground outside, not the training ground dedicated to the general here.
After that, there was a loud, harsh voice that seemed to be fighting outside. Barton frowned and took a step forward.
“And these are just…!”
Kaiers also followed in Barton’s footsteps. He was wearing a towel over his head in order not to be detected by the duke who was looking for him while wandering around the Imperial Palace today.
When we arrived at the training ground outside, the knights in red uniforms and the knights in white and silver were gazing at each other as if they were going to kill each other.
It was Baek Eun’s knight who spoke first.
“Isn’t that unfair! Why are we alone all of a sudden asking you to stand on the outside all night on banquet day!”
“Oh, if you do, just do it! So who stands on the outside border on the day of the banquet?”
“Of course you have to split it in half and take turns! We’ve all been training together, but what you’re doing the day before is that you’re only going to go into the banquet hall to take care of His Majesty, and we’re not going to be able to see our faces!”
Baek Eun’s knights protested as a group. It was because of the news that only the Red Moon Knights would escort the inside of the banquet hall, and the White Silver Knights would only stand outside it.
This was a treatment that clearly showed the intention of assigning a visible and external rank to the Knights, regardless of how difficult and less difficult the mission was.
Strictly speaking, even though White Silver and Red Moon are knights in equal positions.
Egan, who was at the forefront of the group of Red Moon Knights, shouted angrily.
“Are you still knights? No matter what kind of work he takes on, he will do his best to match the mindset of the knight!”
Seeing Egan spitting out nonsensical sophistry, Baek Eun’s knights all had absurd faces. However, since Egan was the deputy commander of Jeokwol, the average knights could not openly dispute it.
Barton, who was watching this, gritted his teeth and stepped forward as if trying to mediate the situation.
“Get out of here before the headmaster comes, you filthy weaklings.” “What, what? Hey, these children!”
… But it only made the fire stronger.
In the increasingly harsh atmosphere, Kaiers suddenly remembered what Leverticia had said to him on the first day.
‘If there is a fight between the knights here, you will always fall behind. certainly. I’m worried about you, not me, so please listen, okay?’
Why did you say that from the first day, there were actually quite a few fights.
It was a dangerous atmosphere that would lead to a fistfight if someone touched it.
Kaiers clicked his tongue and quietly stepped back.
‘The training ground inside was for the general manager only, so it’ll be fine.’
Thinking so, he was about to go back.
“It would be a very interesting spectacle at your banquet tomorrow if the pendant wasn’t hanging around that damn kid’s neck. Are you okay?”
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