IDDYD 06

Chapter 06

Alice hoped Aiden wouldn’t draw attention, but unfortunately, he became the focus of all the servants’ attention from the moment he first entered the ducal mansion.

“Did you see the guest the Young Lady brought?”
“I saw him, I saw him! I thought he was a statue at first. He was so radiant.”

The young lady they served rarely brought outsiders to the residence. The doors of the ducal mansion only opened when she hosted tea parties or invited a few mages for research.

For her to bring a man without any prior notice—and an incredibly handsome one at that—was a big deal.

The maids were buzzing with talk about the beautiful man Alice had brought. Who could he be? A mage like other guests? A priest matching his divine looks? Or perhaps a lo—lover…?

Various speculations about Aiden’s identity flew around. Before long, they found out who he was.

“He’s the Young Lady’s guard knight!”
“What?!”

That was even more shocking than the theory that Aiden was Alice’s secret lover. In the Erdin household, everyone knew what it meant to be Alice’s guard. To become her guard, one had to clear the mission of ‘Defeat the genius archmage Alice!’—a mission no one had ever succeeded in before.

But now, someone had supposedly overcome that arduous process and become her guard. Just how exceptional was his swordsmanship? The mansion was instantly abuzz.

“Young Lady Alice hired a guard?!”

And the news that Alice had hired a new guard reached even the ears of Neil Raven, Captain of the Fort Knights.

“That’s right, Captain. Just how skilled must he be for the Young Lady to scout him as her guard?”

Said Jackson, a knight of the Fort Knights, his tone slightly sarcastic as if displeased that Alice had hired an outsider, not a member of their order, as her guard.

“The Young Lady… hired a guard… from outside…?”

Normally, Neil would have scolded Jackson for his disrespectful tone towards the Lady, but right now, no words were reaching him.

The Fort Knights, the military force of House Erdin, were a renowned knight order in the Empire. Neil was their Captain. He was confident in his skills, enough to claim he was the strongest among the knights.

Yet, there were exactly two people he couldn’t defeat: his two masters, Liam Erdin and Alice Erdin.

At first, he thought he could beat Alice. No matter how much of a genius she was, she was a mage, a profession not accustomed to 1-on-1 duels. He, a knight, had engaged in countless sparring sessions as part of his training. Experience-wise, he clearly had the advantage.

Furthermore, mages usually relied on internal mana, making them physically weaker and slower in reflexes. So if he exploited the opening when she cast spells, even Alice wouldn’t be able to evade easily.

But in this reasoning, Neil overlooked one crucial point: that Alice was a monstrous mana beast.

‘I never imagined the Young Lady would rain down meteors so fiercely that I couldn’t even get close.’

His backside, scorched by the falling fiery meteors, still felt hot. The only comfort was that he had lasted the longest among the knights. While others fell in ten seconds, he lasted a full minute. He had preserved his pride as Captain.

However, after that day, the Fort Knights had to double their training load. Partly due to Duke Erdin’s criticism of how the entire knight order could lose to one ducal princess, but mostly because the knights themselves were shocked by the overwhelming gap in skill. They all resolved to train harder to earn Young Lady Alice’s recognition someday.

And now, suddenly, Alice had hired an outsider as her guard.

“He beat the Young Lady?”

Neil glanced at Aiden, who was watching the knights train in the training ground. It made no sense. Their Young Lady was not someone who would lose to a young master who looked like he didn’t know the first thing about fighting. Moreover, since becoming her guard, he hadn’t participated in a single knight training session—a clear dereliction of duty.

The absurdities didn’t end there.

“The Young Lady seems to cherish Sir Aiden a lot, doesn’t she?”

No, wait. Was it that the Young Lady doted on her new guard? Neil recalled the maids’ conversation he had overheard earlier.

“Right. I heard the Young Lady bought all the men’s clothing at Bijou Tailors and gifted them to Sir Aiden? Thanks to that, his wardrobe is so full they might have to make a separate dressing room.”
“Not only that, but our Young Lady has been sticking with him ever since he arrived.”
“Could they already be lovers? I saw them having an intimate conversation in the hallway the other day…”
“Really?”
“Why are you only telling me now?! Tell me more details!”

While Alice stuck with Aiden almost constantly to monitor him and prevent any foolish actions, in the maids’ eyes, they looked like a fresh, new couple in love.

‘The Young Lady, in a relationship with *him*?’

But Neil didn’t think so. Installing one’s lover as one’s guard was nepotism, and Alice wasn’t that kind of person. So that meant he became her guard through proper procedure. Yet Neil couldn’t understand this either.

At the very least, there was no one in the Empire who could defeat Alice. The Young Lady he served was the world’s strongest mage.

If this flashy-looking Aiden possessed combat prowess enough to defeat Alice, his name should have been famous worldwide. Yet, no one in the ducal mansion truly knew the extent of his skills.

In the end, Neil decided to approach Aiden himself, intending to verify if he was truly worthy of being Alice’s guard.

“Hey.”
Neil called out to Aiden, who was watching the knights train. Establishing dominance from the start was important. Neil deliberately lowered his voice.
“Are you calling me?”
Aiden, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, shifted his gaze to Neil.

*-2 points.* Addressing the Knight Captain disrespectfully: *-1 point*. Poor posture: *-1 point*. For reference, *-10 points meant failure.*

Neil flinched momentarily at Aiden’s informal speech but quickly regained his composure.
“Yes, you. I heard you’re the Young Lady’s guard.”
“And?”
Aiden tilted his head. His posture showed no sign of attentive listening. *-1 point.*
“What are you doing just standing there? To be the Young Lady’s guard, daily training wouldn’t be enough.”
“Observation. Alice permitted it.”
“……”

Rude tone even towards Young Lady Alice. An attitude showing no interest in training, calling it mere ‘observation’.

Less than 30 seconds into the conversation, he was already at *-5 points*. Neil could bear it no longer. Just as he was about to raise his voice at Aiden…

“Observation, my foot.”

The knight order members, seeing Neil confronting Aiden, joined the conversation.

“You seem full of yourself just because you were recommended by the Young Lady. Being her guard doesn’t automatically make you legitimate, you know?”
“Right. You have to pass our Fort Knights’ entrance exam to be officially recognized as the Young Lady’s guard.”
“……Huh.”

Aiden scoffed at the knights picking a fight. Clearly, they were dissatisfied with him being Alice’s guard. But this wasn’t very important to Aiden. What could they do with their dissatisfaction?

“If you have a problem with me being Alice’s guard, take it up with Alice. What, are you picking on me because the ducal princess Alice is scary, and I seem like a pushover?”
Aiden smirked, twisting one corner of his mouth. Neil’s eyebrow twitched at the provocation.

The standoff between Aiden and the knights continued. Maids who had stopped by the training ground to fetch laundry began to linger, one by two, peeking at their confrontation.

As it dragged on, more servants, having heard the rumors, gathered around them to watch the spectacle.

“You insolent brat.”
Neil clenched his fist tightly.

With a decent crowd now gathered, it was time. Neil drew the sword at his waist and pointed it at Aiden. It was time to teach this arrogant newcomer a lesson.

“I cannot tolerate your disrespectful attitude any longer. I challenge you to a duel.”

At Neil’s challenge, the crowd buzzed. Aiden looked at him with an amused glint in his eyes.

“What’s going on here?”

Just then, Alice pushed through the crowd and stepped in front of Aiden, shielding him. As the sword was now pointed at her, Neil reluctantly lowered it.

Confirming the sword was down, Alice immediately whipped her head around to glare at Aiden.

*’What on earth is happening?!’*

*We agreed to lay low!* Alice’s eyes screamed the words.

“I really didn’t do anything.”
*They started it, why are you suspecting me first?* Aiden looked at Alice with an expression of utter grievance.