“Good morning, Rex!”
“Good morning.”
Swoosh.
Rex ran into me and literally just passed by.
Nevertheless, I was relieved that he at least acknowledged my presence. I was staring aimlessly at Rex’s back as it vanished down the corridor when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I turned around and saw Theodore, the last person I wanted to run into in this circumstance.
“Wow, by the look on his face, I can tell that Rex is furious. What are you going to do?”
“You noticed Rex’s expression, but can’t you see my perplexed expression?”
I retaliated angrily to Theodore’s sarcastic remark. He chuckled as he moved in the direction of the hallway where Rex had vanished. Does he not intend to return to the academy? Why are you still in the Grand Duchy?
Aiden and Theodore began to sneak out of the Academy frequently after Gilbert graduated. I had decided to take Logan’s class only because I didn’t know what would happen to me outside of the Duchy and I didn’t have enough mana to attend the Academy that is run by the Magic Tower. Theodore also declared that he would leave the academy after Rex made the decision not to attend of his own accord. The declaration, however, was for naught when Grand Duke Estin called Theodore into his office and reprimanded him.
Theodore became excited as Grand Duke Estin left the castle again. Why doesn’t Aiden, his brother, take Theodore with him?
Breakfast was attended by the three brothers and Rex. Still, it’s a relief that Rex attends the meal regularly.
Gilbert, who had taken a sip of the soup in front of him, wiped his mouth with a napkin. Then, he stared at Aiden and Theodore in front of him.
“By the way,”
“Yes, brother.”
“Aiden and Theodore, aren’t you heading back to the academy?”
Gilbert made a point of it. It was very reviving. Tell them to return!
Aiden and Theodore looked at each other, silently communicating through their eyes. Aiden coughed a couple of times and opened his mouth.
“We had intended to return after this weekend.”
“You still need to concentrate on your studies, even if you feel like you’re not learning anything at the Academy.”
“Yes…”
Aiden and Theodore appeared acrid, as if they had consumed a bitter herb, in Gilbert’s rather archaic remarks. I stuck out my tongue in relief because the constant nagging was only directed at me when Aiden and Theodore weren’t present.
“Mary Conler, you too.”
“……Yes.”
“Now that you’re the fiancee of the second prince, you have to act accordingly; you can’t just stick out your tongue no matter how angry you are.”
Are the vegetables served with garnish bitter?… I don’t think so, there’s no way the chefs at Conler didn’t remove the bitterness. Like Aiden and Theodore, I felt bitter.
Gilbert sighed deeply, looked back at me and motioned towards Rex, asking if we had made up yet. I nodded in disbelief as Gilbert’s gaze moved from me to Rex, who was just eating silently.
‘I’m going crazy too…….’
Gilbert’s top priority may be repairing my relationship with Rex. I also wanted to neatly make up and sincerely apologize to Rex. I wanted to apologize for causing my brother unnecessary worry while maintaining a cool demeanor.
Rex, however, was so icy that it was awkward to even approach him. I asked Mr. Logan for assistance, but he was only happy to see how much Rex had matured.
The Grand Duchy of Conler’s mood-makers, Lucas and Hestia, are also occupied with helping Grand Duke Estin.
I sat in the garden after breakfast to clear my head. My brothers said that they would practice swordsmanship at the training ground. I was planning to follow them, but Rex said he wanted to see how they trained with the sword, so I moved aside. Is Rex aware of how this sister is feeling?
I put the book I was reading away. It was so monotonous. I was hoping to read a romance book by Lausanne. These days, Lausanne seems to be too busy to write.
‘How can I make up with Rex?’
Actually, it wasn’t that the book wasn’t interesting; rather, all I could think about was this.
To patch things up, I need to talk to him. To be honest, I was terrified to speak with him.
Of course, I could quietly approach Rex and request reconciliation while my brothers practiced, but it was too difficult to bear Rex’s cold stare.
No, according to Mr. Logan, he was also feeling his cold heart.
Was I the type to stay away from situations like this?
I become more pathetic the more I think. I leaned forward and put my cheek on the table to cool my head.
I felt a vibration on the table after a while. This tremor was… the sound of horse hooves? Who’s coming?
I pushed myself up off my stomach and turned to face the main gate. Perhaps in a different way, a black horse was charging in my direction. I focused closely to see who the silhouette on the horse belonged to.
“Looking at the orange hair, is it Lucas?”
The man walking up, though, appeared to be a little bit bigger than Lucas.
The man appeared to have seen me seated at the table because he hurried over to me. I noticed that he had more muscle than Lucas as he drew nearer. Although he appeared to be slightly older, his face was confusingly similar to Lucas’. In fact, he seemed to be older than Grand Duke Estin.
The man who got off the horse approached me and knelt in front of me. I abruptly stood up.
“Why, why are you doing this?”
“Nice to meet you, Miss.”
The man bowed courteously and then stood up and looked at me. Those oddly hazy eyes were ones I was accustomed to.
“You look just like Lady Helena!”
Yes, it was the look in the eyes of the people of the Grand Duchy when they looked at me and saw my dead mother in me. Again in tears, Bonita questioned why, as I got older, I started to resemble Helena more and more.
The knights—including Hestia— who were particularly close to my mother would occasionally encourage me as I fired arrows, but they always wore a sad look in their eyes.
Thinking this far, I have a sense of who the burly man in front of me is.
“My name is Cheroke Fröl.”
“Knight Commander!”
“Do you know me?”
He was a real person!
Cheroke Fröl, who was a few years older than Lucas, was the leader of the Conler knights. I heard that he was on the border because of the conquest of beasts. I thought he was an imaginary person because I had never met him since I came to the Grand Duchy.
Finally getting to meet Cheroke was overwhelming for me, and he appeared to feel the same.
“I’ve heard a lot about you. I heard you recently got engaged….”
Cheroke said, scanning me quickly from head to toe.
“But aren’t you too young to be engaged?”
“……I’m not that young.”
“Wait, they said you were found when you were nine, so 1, 2, 3……. Fourteen?”
Cheroke appeared surprised as he repeated something to himself. He seemed somewhat shocked that I was 14 years old.
Yeah, I’m not that big.
I was the only one who was small; my siblings, despite eating the same foods, grew up quickly. All of this was brought on by the excessive stress I experienced during my growth process.
Cheroke, who is standing in front of me, is particularly large, tall, and mature. In comparison to my brothers, Rex will appear very diminutive in this person’s eyes. Lucas isn’t quite this tall either. The fact that I had mistaken him for Lucas earlier seemed like a lie.
“Haha, kids are still growing.”
Cheroke smiled at me and spoke words of hope to me as I gave him a glum look. I would have been extremely happy if I had heard those words a year earlier. But the face smiling back at me was identical to Lucas’.
When people see me and my three siblings, do they feel like we look alike too?
But why did Cheroke return so unexpectedly? Is the beast’s subjugation finally over? I was quite interested in Cheroke Fröl after I questioned Hestia about how difficult it was to serve as the head of the knights and an assistant at the same time. She responded that this was nothing in comparison to what the Knight Commander was doing.
And I felt a little sorry for him. Even though he is the leader of the knights, I couldn’t help but feel sad when I heard that he was traveling to a war zone so far away. Tears welled up in Cheroke’s eyes as he looked at me
“I can’t believe such things happened to such a small person.”
“……Are you crying?”
“Well, I, Cheroke Fröl, promised to protect you!”
Despite being siblings, Cheroke and Lucas cry in different ways. Cheroke covers his eyes with his arms and whimpers as he sobs, while Lucas sobs quietly with tears streaming down his face.
“I really deserve to die right now, but I have no face to see Lady Helena after I die…… !”
“Oh, my mother will understand!”
While comforting Cheroke, I had the urge to cry with him. Cheroke continued to cry in front of me. Until Gilbert came running and rescued me after hearing the cry.
