“A disease?”
“It’s a disease where if I don’t see a handsome man at least once a day, I break out in hives and feel dizzy…”
What kind of nonsense is this?
The commander of the 4th Knight Order, the evaluator, and even Giscard stared at me with bewildered expressions.
Regardless, I continued in a wistful voice.
“I feel like if I transfer to the 4th Knight Order, my condition might worsen. You understand, right?”
The commander’s face turned bright red with embarrassment.
Yes, I’m talking about you.
But that wasn’t the end of my attack.
“But, Commander of the 4th Knight Order.”
I looked up at the commander with an innocent gaze.
“I’m curious about something, why are you here?”
“What?”
“While it’s a rule that our knight commander doesn’t participate in the joint training, that doesn’t apply to you, 4th Knights Commander, does it?”
The commander, caught off guard, clamped his mouth shut.
I continued in a naive tone.
“You should be leading the 4th Knight Order, so shouldn’t you be participating in the joint training?”
“……”
With a two-pronged attacks, the 4th Knight commander’s eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
To be honest, it’s obvious why he wasn’t participating in the joint training.
The training is hot, sweaty, and dusty.
‘Plus, there’s also the deputy commander, right?’
The deputy commander who, due to being excluded from the order, cannot protest against the orders of the commander.
It’s easy for the commander to dump all the annoying tasks of leading the knights onto him.
“Th-That’s because…”
Meanwhile, the 4th Knight Order Commander’s face turned red and blue at my question.
Watching him with satisfaction, I taunted him again in a sly tone.
“You must be as capable as our commander if you’re skipping the joint training, right?”
“……”
The 4th Knight Order Commander gritted his teeth.
‘Oh, are you taking a beating?’
That’s right.
The reason Giscard skips the joint training is because he is so outstanding in his individual abilities.
It was more efficient for him to carry out missions alone rather than commanding all the knights.
It was to make the training as close to real combat as possible.
But the commander of the 4th Knight Order…
“Ahem, excuse me for a moment.”
Perhaps, realizing he had nothing to gain from continuing the conversation, the commander cleared his throat and changed the subject, forcing an awkward smile.
“Now that I think about it, I left something in the carriage.”
“Something? What is it?”
“It’s… It’s something. I’ll go get it. In the meantime, and the administrative officer can continue observing the training.”
With that excuse, the commander hurriedly made his exit, looking quite pathetic as he scurried away.
‘See, who told you to talk such nonsense?’
Watching the commander’s reetreating figure, I shrugged and turned to Giscard.
“Commander.”
At my call, Giscard, who had a stunned expression, snapped back to reality.
I asked him with twinkling eyes, full of anticipation.
“So, how will this joint training be conducted?”
After hearing all the derogatory remarks about our order, I was in dire need of some satisfying results.
Surely, we won’t lose to the 4th Knight Order again, right?
They promised full support with purification elixirs, after all.
I really wanted to see our knights crush those 4th Knight Order brats until they were crawling on the ground.
Giscard responded without batting an eye.
“First, we’ll start with the basic physical fitness test.”
Huh.
I couldn’t hide my puzzled expression.
Basic physical fitness?
Shouldn’t our guys be going straight to beating the 4th Knight Order brats?
Am I being too eager for instant satisfaction?
* * *
“Damn it!”
The commander of the 4th Knight Order stomped away, fuming.
‘Who else but a spoiled brat would be so arrogant and presumptuous!’
The red eyes staring after the 4th Knight Order commander held no expectations.
It was clear that she considered the commander less capable than Giscard and didn’t grant him even the slightest bit of trust. Moreover…
“If you’re skipping the joint training, you must be as capable as our commander, right?”
…that sharp voice openly criticizing the 4th Knight Order commander’s laziness.
‘That damn woman!’
The commander ground his teeth in frustration, unable to suppress his rising anger.
The most infuriating part was that he couldn’t refute the princess’s words.
Objectively, the difference in ability of Giscard and the 4th Knight Order commander were like heaven and earth.
‘Ha, acting all high and mighty because she’s a princess…’
The commander raised his eyes fiercely.
This put a serious wrench in his plan.
His grand plan to win over the naive princess and establish connections with the imperial family was now in jeopardy.
Of course, he knew that this unruly princess had caused several incidents due to her unrequited love for Giscard.
However, he had been confident that once she faced the harsh conditions of the Azure Dawn Knight Order, she would quickly change her mind.
Moreover,
‘Honestly, I’m not a bad catch myself, am I?’
Surely, with both his status and appearance, he was a better option than that guy with just a pretty face!
Yet, she still seemed infatuated with Giscard.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t stubbornly take his side like this.
‘Seriously, she needs to tone down the love games.’
For a moment, the 4th Knight Order commander furrowed his brow.
Then he smirked.
It was a bitter sneer.
‘How long will that infatuation last anyway?’
The Azure Dawn Knights constantly struggled with chronic shortages.
Especially when it came to using aura, purification elixirs were essential.
Although the princess had supplied some purification elixirs this time,
‘It’s probably just a handful, right?’
Rumors had it that the princess had brought in a considerable amount of purification elixirs, but rumors tend to be exaggerated.
The princess’s good deeds would soon become the imperial family’s good deeds, so the imperial family would have deliberately spread the word in the best possible light.
‘In the end, there won’t be enough purification elixirs for this training…’
This meant that, once again, the Azure Dawn Knights would be overwhelmingly defeated in the joint training.
‘Once the princess sees that, she will change her mind.’
The 4th Knight Order commander’s sneer deepened.
Only then did he feel a little relieved.
* * *
Meanwhile, at that moment.
‘Ah, whether it’s the K-country of my previous life or the empire of fantasy novels.’
I thought with hazy eyes.
‘Military training always starts with running…’
Currently, the knights were running laps around the massive track on the training field.
Despite my reservations, both knight orders seemed to handle the basic fitness test quite well, living up to their titles as knights.
“Strongest!”
“4th!”
The annoying 4th Knight Order’s chant is ‘Strongest’.
Isn’t that a bit too much?
Muttering to myself, I turned my gaze towards the Azure Dawn Knights Order.
Their faces, which usually showed no sign of energy, were now filled with seriousness as they ran around the huge track.
And the chant the knights shouted was,
“Survival!”
“Dawn!”
… Survival.
In an instant, my gaze sank deep.
I know that the knights of the empire use a variety of chants.
Victory, strongest, charge, etc.
Chants that talk about attacking the enemy in a cool way or achieving victory.
However, the Azure Dawn Knights, who have fought the most battles of all the knights of the empire, chose ‘survival’.
Before choosing that chant…
How many life-or-death situations must the Azure Dawn Knights have overcome so far?
But then, I heard a calm voice calling me.
“Astrid, the administrative officer.”
I snapped out of my thoughts and turned.
Giscard was looking at me with a concerned expression.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes?”
* * * *
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