Hmm. Could it be that it’s not the enemies who are being controlled, but himself?
Kayan blankly pondered the thought.
‘Seriously… Do I really have to do this?’
Before he knew it, he was at the training grounds.
Ivnoa was excitedly inspecting the swords.
“Oho, this one’s nice. This one’s pretty sleek? Hmm, and this one’s kind of heavy.”
Naturally, Ivnoa didn’t have any training clothes. So she was wearing Kayan’s spare set.
Since Kayan was taller, she had to roll up the cuffs and hems.
Still, because of her graceful gestures that never seemed rushed, and her soundless, gliding steps…
It almost felt like the clothes weren’t his to begin with.
In the end, just like before, Ivnoa said she wanted to spar—not because she was “bored” this time, but to “wipe out an illegal organization.”
“I need my own close allies, a noble house that’ll stand by my side. I hope that’ll be you and Barcklith.”
From Kayan’s perspective, those words of hers were very reassuring.
At the very least, it meant he had something to offer her in return.
Knowing that Ivnoa genuinely cared about them, he felt even more relieved that they could be of help to her too.
He truly wanted to turn Barcklith into a “proper noble house” and be of some use to her.
“We—we—we have to become an awesome noble house and be the princess’s rock-solid backing! Maybe we can’t match the Duke of Cerno, but we’ll give it our best!”
To be honest, he wanted to become an even bigger support than the Cerno Dukedom.
When Connie said that, a calm but persistent competitive fire ignited within him. That’s why he followed Ivnoa’s instruction and came to the training ground.
But it still felt utterly uncomfortable.
Kayan felt a pounding headache.
‘Is it really okay to spar with the princess? Can I really train with her like before?’
Sadly, there was no one to ask whether this was right.
“I’ll go with this one!”
After some deliberation, Ivnoa picked the slimmest sword.
She looked beautiful as always, spoke kindly, and smiled brightly. Her gestures as she picked the sword were delicate.
“You know I haven’t trained in swordsmanship at all for a year, right? Go easy on me.”
“I…”
Kayan was about to refuse with an unwilling expression when—
“Here I come!”
Ivnoa dashed forward.
Even her gaze was different from before. Even the wind swirling around her carried a familiar scent.
Caught off guard by the familiar intensity, Kayan instinctively dodged.
“Once more!”
After missing her strike, Ivnoa quickly spun to the right and thrust again.
Her tightly tied blonde hair tickled his vision like sunlight.
Kayan easily dodged again and narrowed his eyes.
“You might need to put a bit more strength into your arms.”
Just two attacks were enough to tell.
Ivnoa’s movements were indeed quick and agile. But her attacks were pathetic compared to before.
‘Is it because she’s been out of training too long? She never really got along with thin swords, but she wasn’t this bad…’
Looking more closely, she wasn’t even handling the sword properly. Though her swings looked decent, her form was strangely unsteady.
She didn’t have great talent, but Arthur had taught her directly, so her basics had been solid.
“Your Highness, your attacks are very sharp. I wonder who you take after?”
“Thanks, Baron. Really. Hmm… If I had to guess, maybe my mother, who successfully killed her husband in one blow?”
Just holding the sword brought back old memories.
But her current movements were leagues away from how she used to be.
“Wow, I’m getting completely crushed! This is so fun!”
And yet Ivnoa cheerfully shouted.
“People with way higher skills usually don’t even bother sparring with me! If we weren’t old friends, I wouldn’t even get to experience such an overwhelming duel. I’m really enjoying this!”
Kayan had no idea how to respond.
It wasn’t sarcasm in a naive tone—she was genuinely amazed, which made him even more flustered.
“You… you’re going to become a Sword Master soon at this rate. You might even become the youngest one. How did you improve so much?”
“Well… I’ve never seen a Sword Master myself, so it still doesn’t feel real.”
Ivnoa adjusted her grip on the sword and replied with an elegant tone.
“I have seen one. The Captain of the Imperial First Knights was…”
And then—
Whoooosh!
Suddenly, a sharp killing intent filled the air.
Just as she was about to strike Kayan, Ivnoa rolled to the side. Even without training for a long time, dodging something like that was easy for her.
At the same time, Kayan swiftly subdued a black-clad figure. An assassin.
“See?”
Unfazed by the ambush, Ivnoa smiled slyly and whispered.
“I told you, if we cleared all the guards, someone would crawl out on their own.”
Kayan nodded without a change in expression.
“I see.”
He quickly gagged the captured assassin.
“Mmgh! Mmmph!”
From head to toe, the person seemed to be a fairly young man.
“What do you think?”
Ivnoa asked calmly, hands behind her back.
“Do you feel anything?”
Kayan furrowed his brows and lowered his voice.
“…There’s something strange. Doesn’t feel human…”
“Yeah. That’s black magic. Honestly, I don’t feel anything, but I guess your high-level senses picked up on it.”
Listening to her calm explanation, Kayan looked down at the assassin.
The assassin’s eyes were so unfocused it gave him a sense of unease.
“Mmmph! Mmmmmmph!”
Even completely restrained, the assassin thrashed violently—only aiming for Ivnoa.
Kayan felt it was extremely odd.
He was the one who subdued the assassin, and there was a clear gap in skill. Yet, the assassin stared only at Ivnoa and charged only at her, blindly.
“Why…?”
Sensing his confusion, Ivnoa answered.
“He’s been branded.”
Branded?
A term he’d never heard before.
While he tilted his head in confusion—
“Watch carefully.”
Without hesitation, Ivnoa cut open the assassin’s clothing with her sword.
“Hey! What are you doing? Are you crazy?!”
Kayan reflexively shouted.
“Who are you undressing?!”
***
Oh my!
Kayan just yelled at me!
I thought he’d always just repeat, “Thank you, Your Highness,” like a stone wall!
“Wowww, did you just talk to me like you used to?”
I grinned and leaned my face close to his.
“This is great! It reminds me of the old days! You’ll keep talking to me like this from now on, right?”
Kayan’s face instantly turned bright red.
“N-no, Your Highness, that’s not what I meant…”
“I love it! Who else do I have to undress for you to act like this?”
“N-no! Absolutely not!”
“Why? You used to snap at me, get mad, scold me— I loved it!”
“If you say that, it makes me sound like I was some horrible person in the past! Don’t twist it! I wasn’t like that!”
Kayan got all flustered and irritated, snapping and scolding like old times.
It was wonderful. Honestly, I wanted to keep pushing to break down more of that emotional wall.
His flustered reaction was still an expression of emotion!
But given the situation, I couldn’t joke around any further.
‘Guess being called “Iv” again isn’t going to happen. He really must’ve said it by accident back then.’
I shrugged and gestured toward the assassin.
“Here, look. This is what it means to be under black magic.”
On the assassin’s exposed back was a black butterfly emblem. Just looking at it gave off an ominous feeling.
“Black magic is a form of brainwashing. You input a command, and it forces them to follow it unconditionally.”
“Ah…”
Kayan furrowed his brows.
Black mages were scattered across the empire, but they were physically very weak. So they wouldn’t even dream of going to dangerous places like the North.
It made sense that Kayan didn’t know much about them.
“Because of human mental limits, you can usually only input one command. The one given to this assassin is probably, ‘Kill Princess Ivnoa.’”
Which is why he was relentlessly charging at her even after being captured by Kayan.
Black magic is illegal in the empire.
Naturally. It violates a person’s free will.
Right now, my grandfather is racking his brain over this black magic issue.
“This assassin can’t speak about black magic at all. No matter what you ask, he won’t answer. You could torture him for days and still not find out who’s behind it.”
Because of this, it’s nearly impossible to eliminate black magic organizations.
“…Then this person,”
Kayan asked slowly,
“How long will they keep following that command?”
“For life.”
I replied with a bitter smile.
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