IALFMFL CH 05

“To watch you train at the training grounds. Daisy! Come quickly, I need to get ready to go out!”

“To watch?”

While he frowned and crossed his arms, Daisy hurried over from a distance.

In her arms was a freshly laundered, pale green dress. Since I had to leave right away, there was no need to think about it. I would simply ask her to help me put that one on.

I quickly ushered Daisy inside and left the door open only a crack before speaking.

“You’re going to take me, right? Hmm? You will, won’t you?”

As I urged him in a pleading voice, Rockhard relaxed his frown and slowly rubbed the back of his neck. Even so, his eyes still held a look of complete confusion.

“Why do you suddenly want to watch me train? You never used to care where I was or what I was doing.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his lips pressed into a straight line, clearly showing how suspicious he was.

In response, I narrowed the gap in the door until it was barely wider than a single strand of thread.

I had to shut it before he could refuse.

“There’s someone I need to meet. Anyway, I’ll be downstairs soon, so don’t leave without me. Wait for me downstairs!”

I slammed the door shut, but just before turning around, I opened it once more.

Rockhard was still standing there with his arms crossed, staring at my door, so I made sure to emphasize my request.

“Make sure you wait!”

Fortunately, Rockhard didn’t leave the estate without me.

I was worried that I might be late, but judging by the fact that he hadn’t said anything, it didn’t seem like enough time had passed to cause any real problem. Still, it had been worth anxiously hurrying down to the lobby.

Even after we got into the carriage, Rockhard kept his brows furrowed and stared at my face for several dozen minutes.

I deliberately pretended not to notice and cleared my throat, but after doing it nearly ten times, I grew tired and finally gave up.

“Rockhard, please stop staring at my face. You’re going to poke a hole through my cheek.”

Rockhard maintained the suspicious look he had worn back at the estate and asked,

“Who is this person you have to meet?”

“If I tell you, will you even know him? No, of course you will… Anyway, I’m not actually meeting him. I’m going to secretly spy on him.”

At my answer, his face twisted into an even more bewildered expression.

It looked as though he had discovered his lover’s secret mistress, a mixture of confusion and shock gathering across his handsome face.

“I don’t think this is going to work. We should turn the carriage around and go back to Ezelrot.”

Rockhard said this as he leaned forward and reached toward the carriage wall.

Before he could knock, I hurriedly grabbed his hand.

“Ah, fine! I’ll tell you, so don’t turn the carriage around! …Sigh. I-I have to meet Sir Pansion Entera.”

Frightened, I finally blurted out the name of my target.

Damn it, seriously!

Unable to contain my irritation, I flung Rockhard’s hand back toward him.

“Why are you trying to meet our deputy commander?”

“I just want to get familiar with his face… All the other noble girls know what Sir Pansion looks like, but I don’t.”

“What are you planning to do with that knowledge? I’m telling you this because you seem to be unaware, but Sir Pansion already has a lover he keeps hidden. And more importantly, he’s nearly ten years older than you, so forget whatever foolish ideas you might have.”

Kind-hearted Rockhard proceeded to explain every little detail I had never even asked about.

However, his final remark was rather amusing.

In the Empire, it was quite common for a young daughter of a lower-ranking noble family to be married off to an old wealthy man or become the second wife of a widower with no children.

Of course, there was little chance that the youngest daughter of a prestigious family like mine would ever end up in such a situation.

“I don’t even know what he looks like, so how am I supposed to have foolish ideas about him? I won’t bother you, so just leave me alone. If I want to make friends, I have no choice.”

Rockhard shook his head and turned his gaze toward the window.

He didn’t seem to understand what I meant at all.

If anything, his expression looked more like he was worried about what kind of trouble I was going to cause this time.

After arriving at the Imperial Capital, we had to walk quite a long distance.

I hid behind Rockhard as we walked, carefully surveying our surroundings the entire time.

I couldn’t let my guard down, worried that I might run into Nezar.

Perhaps he noticed how suspiciously I was behaving. Rockhard, who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head just like Eden, reached out and pulled me to his side.

Phew, what a relief.

I stuck to Rockhard like a cicada clinging to an old tree and followed him closely.

“The Imperial Capital Guard’s schedule is normally kept confidential except for designated dates. But since I’ve already brought you here, I can’t exactly just show you around the Imperial Capital and send you home…”

Rockhard let out a small sigh and led me into an elegantly constructed, old-fashioned building inside the castle.

Where are we?

If this had been another part of the castle, I would have expected to hear signs of people nearby. But for some reason, this place was completely deserted.

“It’s morning training time right now, so all the knights should be at the training grounds. I’ll get special permission from the commander just for today, so forget about saying you came here to meet Sir Pansion and come up with a convincing story. You understand what I mean, right?”

“You’re telling me to lie?”

“Don’t worry. That’s my specialty.”

“Tsk. You say that like it’s something to be proud of.”

We arrived in front of a door considerably larger than those of the other rooms.

Without even the slightest hesitation, Rockhard threw it open.

Wait, shouldn’t you at least give me time to think of what lie I’m going to tell?

I was dragged inside like merchandise being put on display at a market, my eyes widening in panic.

“Commander, are you there? It’s me.”

At the same time, a man sitting behind a desk and looking over some documents raised his head.

He was a middle-aged man wearing glasses with an extremely sharp-looking appearance.

Apparently displeased by Rockhard’s overly confident greeting, the man called the commander removed his glasses and tossed them onto one side of the desk.

“Rockhard, you bastard. Didn’t I tell you that if you were late one more time, I’d shave your entire head? How out of your mind are you to be forty minutes late?”

“There’s a perfectly good reason I’m late today. It’s not like I was slacking off as usual.”

“I don’t need your excuses. Get over here and put your head down. I’ll shave every last hair off, right up to your eyebrows.”

That was when it happened.

Rockhard grabbed my shoulder from behind and pulled me out in front of him.

Is he seriously trying to use me as a shield?

Forty minutes was already a ridiculously long time, even considering that he had spent part of it waiting for me.

Perhaps my sudden appearance had caught the commander completely off guard, because the man, who had been rolling up his sleeves and preparing to stand, suddenly froze.

Rockhard gave me a slight pat on the back, and I instinctively bowed deeply.

“Hello, Commander. I’m Katrina from the Count Ezelrot family.”

What was I supposed to do next?

After fifteen years of having my brain completely hardened, proper etiquette suddenly felt impossibly distant.

I shook my blank mind and opened my mouth, saying whatever came to me.

“Could you give Sir Pansion Entera to me?”

The commander’s office immediately fell into a heavy silence.

D-Damn it.

Trying to hide the cold sweat trickling down my back, I moved my lips again, attempting to fix the ridiculous thing I had just said.

“Ahaha! I-I think I misspoke. I didn’t mean that you should give him to me. I meant… could you lend him to me?”

“…Wait. You come behind me first.”

Rockhard hurriedly grabbed my shoulder and pulled me behind him.

I followed without putting up even the slightest resistance.

The commander, who was probably just as—or perhaps even more—flustered than I was, stared at me with a bewildered expression.

“I’m sorry, Commander. Katrina only learned how to speak recently, so she still doesn’t know how to form appropriate sentences for different situations.”

“…She only learned how to speak recently?”

The commander examined my eyes with a suspicious gaze.

His face was filled with disbelief and uneasiness.

You idiot, Rockhard!

Do you really think that man is going to believe that?

I was fifteen years old this year, and in terms of mental maturity, I was well beyond seventeen.

In other words, even if I was a little short, I was hardly someone who could be considered mentally deficient.

W-Well, perhaps the habits I had developed from living however I pleased were the reason situations like this happened…

But still, saying that I had only just learned how to speak was taking things a little too far, wasn’t it?

“Yes. She kept begging to come watch the training grounds, and I couldn’t bring myself to leave her behind when she was crying and throwing such a terrible fit, so I brought her with me.”

“Hmm… If it’s Lady Katrina Ezelrot, I’ve heard a little about her.”

Contrary to my expectations, the commander nodded as though he completely understood.

Just how horrible were the rumors about me if he was willing to believe Rockhard so easily?

My heart, which had been pounding nervously, quickly cooled into a rather bitter feeling.

I didn’t feel even the slightest bit proud of the reckless way I had lived.

“Well, it can’t be helped. Even if our order is strict about discipline, we can hardly be cold to a young lady who has shown an interest in the knights.”

The commander stood up and strode toward Rockhard and me.

He pushed Rockhard aside and bent down in front of me until our eyes were level.

His pale blue eyes, light as though reflecting sunlight off water, smiled at me.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Ezelrot. My name is Breite Taliya, commander of the Second Knight Order of the Imperial Capital Guard. May I have the honor of greeting you?”

The smile at the corner of his mouth was gentle and kind, completely unlike the intimidating first impression he had given.

His entire demeanor was unmistakably that of a man speaking to a much younger child.

“Of course. Please call me Katrina, Sir.”

Breite politely extended his hand toward me.

After a slight hesitation, I gently placed my fingertips on top of it.

His warm lips touched my skin.

“Contrary to appearances, watching the training from the grounds is quite dangerous, so you should go down to the second floor immediately below us to watch. You’ll have a clear view of the training grounds from the window inside the drawing room, so you won’t feel confined. And be sure to remember that the tallest knight among them is Sir Pansion Entera.”

“Is that really okay? If I’m going to be a bother, I can come back another time. I have plenty of time, so it’s fine.”

Actually, it wasn’t fine.

I had traveled three hours to get to the Imperial Capital. There was no way I could go back home this pointlessly.

Fortunately, Breite shook his head at my polite words.

Perhaps it was because he was a knight, but despite being a man well over forty, there was a vibrant energy in every expression he made.

“Not at all. Please don’t worry. A knight order is always happy to welcome a lovely young lady like you.”

What kind of rumors had he heard about me that he was being this kind?

I was beginning to worry.

What if, instead of being known as a reckless troublemaker, I had become known as a somewhat dim-witted fifteen-year-old girl?

Breite guided me to the drawing room directly below the commander’s office.

The moment I sat down in a chair, he grabbed Rockhard by the back of his neck with a hand as large as a bear’s paw.

The two of them left for the training grounds as though they had become a single unit.

I was suddenly left completely alone, so I looked out the window.

Just as Breite had said, I had a clear view of the knights’ immaculate training grounds.

But there was someone else who caught my attention.

I hadn’t noticed her when I first entered, but sitting in the area beside me, separated by a partition, was a girl who looked about my age.

I quietly approached her so that she wouldn’t hear me and secretly observed her.

Her silver hair shimmered in many colors like a mermaid’s scales as it caught the sunlight.

Although her face was mostly hidden behind her hair, making it difficult to see her features clearly, the atmosphere surrounding her alone was enough to tell me that she was an extraordinary beauty.

After pondering for quite some time, I gave a small cough and stood beside the girl.

She was about a handspan taller than me and was leaning against the window, watching the training grounds.

“Hello.”

It felt as though I had used up every bit of courage I had accumulated throughout my entire life just for this moment.

In a tiny voice, almost as though whispering into her ear, I greeted the girl.