The group moved quickly, and just like before, Calyx ate dried and ground-up snake tail and cried. They ran non-stop at the same speed as last time, so he again felt nauseous.
Rosaline was concerned about Calyx and asked him to rest, but Calyx did not stop, even as his face grew haggard.
***
To his surprise, Calyx arrived at the capital alive. Their march felt too fast. If a man wasn’t as disciplined as Calyx, their speed would have been impossible.
When they arrived in front of the castle gate, a friendly face greeted them— Raymond. Rosaline smiled widely and ran towards him. Raymond was appalled by the sight of her jumping off the horse and he caught her.
“T- That’s dangerous!”
Cuddled by Raymond, Rosaline looked like a baby monkey. Raymond hugged her and gave her a subdued look, his complicated feelings fully exposed.
“Are you sore anywhere? Take a little break. Why did you come so fast?! Look at that rough face. Oh dear [Note: For our K-drama fans, he said “Aigoo”], you can’t live looking like that. Moisturize well before going to bed. What’s the point of me buying those nice things for you anyway? You never put them on!”
“I put them on.”
“Look at this girl lying with a straight face!”
He grinned and grumbled a few times, but, in the end, Raymond hugged her tightly and burst into laughter.
‘I’m glad you look healthy.’ He thought about leaving it like that, but it wouldn’t be strange to say that she recovered absurdly fast, as Rosaline was healthy enough to cover in four days a distance that would have taken a week.
Raymond held her close and looked away, terrified. He made eye contact with Calyx, who was still sitting on his horse and had a sad glint in his eyes. Calyx had lost all his fat, his bones had become sharper, and his eyes were dark.
“C-Calyx?”
“I didn’t know that you and I were friendly enough to call each other by name.”
He’s even more hostile than usual! Raymond didn’t notice at first because Rosaline was fine, but the speed of the trip was too fast, as even Calyx, always coldly put together, had become so disorganized.
“How long are you going to hold my sister? Will you take responsibility if nasty rumors circulate?” Calyx said while continuing to show off his ferocity.
Seeing that his rebellious phase had finally arrived late, the journey must have been grueling. Raymond clumsily smiled and let Rosaline go. Using Calyx’s feisty attitude as an example, Raymond admonished Rosaline not to move so quickly, especially when traveling with elders.
“Yes, Sister. It’s wrong.”
‘This guy… and his selective rudeness…’ Raymond rolled his eyes.
Rosaline first had to stop by the commander’s office to report her return. Dust covered the long cloak she’d worn throughout her travels and mud-caked her boots. Rosaline calmly tried to go to the commander’s office with such an appearance, but Raymond was terrified and stopped her. He said she had to go to the dorm and change into her uniform first. It bothered her a little, but as she began to understand the human world bit by bit, Rosaline acknowledged that it was a necessary action.
Arriving at the dormitory, Rosaline saw her door wide open with a broom and a bucket of water placed by the door. Rosaline’s apprentice knights, Leticia and Eberhard, seemed to be diligently cleaning the room. Shick. Shick. The sound of non-stop scrubbing was full of energy. Rosaline held her breath quietly as she clung to the wall next to the door. After waiting for a while, the sound of footsteps began to approach Rosaline. The weight of the sound vibrated through the floor. If she took into account walking patterns and stride length…
‘Leticia. It’s her.’
The sound slowly approached.
3.
2.
1.
Swish!
Before she even saw the target, Rosaline’s hand moved and headed towards Leticia’s neck as she was leaving the room with a broom. Rosaline was in a perfect blindspot.
From the very beginning, she used to train her apprentice knights by aiming to strike their necks. Rosaline had decided that there must be some sense of crisis in their training. However, every time she carried it out, unfortunate incidents would occur in which they would both be left stunned and paralyzed— for as long as half a day, even.
Those days, Eberhard had to lay in bed for 20 hours each day after getting attacked three times a day, so Rosaline had to change her method to just grabbing their nape. At her words, the apprentice knights shed tears of joy. It was difficult to block even that, but recently, they had become more aware of their surroundings. Still, it has been some time since their superior has been away.
Rosaline moved sharper and faster than usual. Her movement disturbed the hem of her cloak, and Leticia, hearing the subtle sound, moved her broom behind her body without looking back at Rosaline.
Clack!
The broomstick precisely blocked Rosaline’s attack.
‘Oh, that’s pretty good.’ Rosaline chuckled.
Leticia turned to look behind her with a ferocious face.
“Who… Akh! S-Sir Rosaline!”
Leticia let out a scream of fear or joy. In Rosaline’s judgment, it was closer to fear.
“That was great, Leticia.”
Eberhard rushed out of the room at Leticia’s scream. Rosaline then grabbed the bucket of water from the hallway and threw it at him. Eberhard dodged the bucket by rolling forward with the speed and straight trajectory of an arrow. It was a wonderful maneuver.
Behind him, the bucket rolled and clattered on the floor. Eberhard got up gently, not paying attention to it.
“Sir Rosaline! When did you arrive? No, wait, um, the black moon…”
“Ah, the one who parts the black moon…”
[Note: They’re trying to say the greeting, not talk about the group.]
The faces of the two people flushed red. They had to salute first and were glad that the words came out without too much babbling. Rosaline nodded with a happy expression on her face.
“You’ve both done great. I’m not officially back yet, so it’s okay to skip greetings.”
Even without Rosaline, their hard work and practice yielded perfect results. At Rosaline’s praise, the two of them were moved and couldn’t stay still.
‘I haven’t been away from them for more than two months, but they’re growing up.’
Eberhard, whose physique had been similar to Rosaline’s, now surpassed her in height, and Leticia, who was already taller than Rosaline, grew to be on par with Calyx.
“We’re glad that you are back in good health. You came back sooner than expected. It’s a good thing we cleaned your room in advance just in case.”
“Thank you. You did a great job.”
“Well, this is the only thing we can do.”
The apprentice knights were right next to Rosaline, chatting like little birds. Since she wasn’t there, it felt like something was missing, so that’s why they attacked each other. They also shared some useless stuff, like the other apprentice knights were envious of them these days, but Rosaline simply nodded her head to each news.
Rosaline untied the laces of her cloak as she looked around the cleaned room. Noticing Rosaline was about to change her clothes, Leticia glanced at Eberhard. Even though he must have known he should get out, Eberhard remained silent and did not leave the room.
“I thought I’d be able to surpass Leticia because I’m very tall myself, but Leticia is still taller. Will it be hard to catch up after all?”
He was even talking nonsense. Meanwhile, Rosaline did not stop taking her clothes off. Leticia’s heart raced as she was now touching her hood and her cloak, and now her shirt as well.
Leticia tried to jab at Eberhard’s ribs with her elbow but avoiding it was simply too easy as they had become highly skilled at avoiding.
‘This…?!’
Leticia groaned and pushed him away.
“Get out.”
“Just a little longer…”
“You want to see more? Are you crazy? Go away!”
“I still want to talk more!”
Eberhard resisted Leticia pushing him out. Compared to his old skinny days, he had now grown taller and more muscular. ‘Why are you so hard-headed!’ The two of them grappled and made some noises, but Rosaline didn’t care.
“Sir Rosaline, how was Vista?”
“There’s a lot of good stuff.”
“Ah, right. People say there is a lot of good food from other regions.”
Eberhard continued to talk to her while being pushed away by Leticia. His eyes gleamed, and his face was red. He was like a boy meeting a hero from a fairy tale. Leticia, who had so much respect for Rosaline, was tired of his act.
Leticia had the upper hand but still barely won. She drove Eberhard out before Rosaline could touch the third button. She laid out Rosaline’s uniform then kicked Eberhard in the shin as soon as she came out.
“Akh! That b-broke skin! Wait, is it bleeding? It is bleeding!”
“If you want to be in Sir Rosaline’s room while she’s changing, leave your petty…”
At the sound of her lively voice, Eberhard flinched. Heck, thinking about it, he was a little crazy. But still, hearing those things, he couldn’t stay still.
“The Roots like easygoing heroes, Leticia!”
“How can you easily say that the young lady from a family with a long history in the Empire is ‘easygoing’?”
“I’m someone who doesn’t care about nobility.”
Eberhard was clever enough to say that he was not aristocratic. Leticia sighed afterward and agreed. How hard their lives were because of these so-called rules and nobles. Moments of hardship she endured in the past flashed before her eyes.
Eberhard had suffered similarly, but he seemed to accept it differently, perhaps because he’s from the Roots region. His inelegant family name, Roots, did not hide that they were commoners but instead served to highlight their status.
It was not uncommon for them to be humiliated and despised in this aristocratic world. Therefore, even though there was solidarity between the Roots, they had no one to rely on outside…
The hero of the heroic tale that hit the continent is his senior knight, and since she is also his teacher, it won’t appear unusual for him to approach her.
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