Rian, who was enjoying my hand stroking his hair, turned his head toward the knights. Then, the man, who was horrified, looked at Rian’s face and hesitated to open his mouth.
“…With all due respect, what is your relationship with him?”
As I turned around, my eyes widened when the man who grabbed me and Rian asked carefully.
‘What’s the relationship between me and Lian?’
“Well. I don’t know. It’s hard to define in words.”
It was so embarrassing to say that it was between a pet dog and a trainer. In the first place, the title of the Crown Prince’s trainer was strange.
“Why do you ask that?”
“I ask because the man seemed to value the Lady very much. He was very worried earlier.”
I glanced at Adrian’s face at the man’s words. He must’ve been very anxious that I had been away from his side for so long that he shut his eyes.
“Rian is a precious person to me.”
“Hooo. I see.”
I patted Adrian on the forehead and affirmed the man’s words.
I never dreamed that my own private villa would be set up in the imperial palace with just that short conversation.
* * *
“Clive, Clive!”
Clive Norton, the eldest son of the Earl of Norton and the owner of the Wiseman Tower, put down the kettle and turned at the sound of a knock on his door early in the morning.
“Are you in there?”
BANG! BANG!
When he pushed the door open at the urgent knock, Jian’s innocent face distorted and she hugged him.
Clive patted Jian on the back affectionately and asked, “What’s the matter again, saint?”
“Oh, my!”
Jian burst into tears in Clive’s arms, her body shaking like a child until his chest was wet.
“Calm down, saint.”
Clive swept away his calm dark brown hair and handed a handkerchief to Jian who was crying.
“Do you want to cry like that and collapse again?”
Jian already had several records of fainting after she cried. Jian, whose nose was so red, opened her eyes at Clive’s words.
“…Curtis said he’d reconsider serving as my knight.”
“Oh dear.”
Clive tilted his head at Jian’s melancholic murmur. It was strange that the man who abandoned Edith Abina, who was engaged to be a knight of the saint, suddenly changed his mind.
“You must be very upset.”
Anyway, the first thing to do was to soothe the crying saint in front of him. Although he had a sweet nature, he had a slightly difficult, misleading habit of being unable to ignore a crying woman.
“Don’t cry, saint.”
“Huuuu! But everyone will laugh at me. In the words of the vicar, there is no saint without her own knight.”
Clive nodded to Jian’s words, “That’s true.”
In the first place, the saint herself was very rare and could have a powerful influence on the empire, so it was possible to surround the border by lining up men who wanted to become her knight.
“Why don’t you choose someone else as your knight?”
“But I don’t like it unless it’s Curtis!”
Jian screamed at Clive’s suggestion.
“Clive said it, too. Curtis Caballero is the best knight of the empire.”
“Because he is the only Sword Master in the empire. He is also the head of the Grand Duchy of Caballero.”
It was said that just mentioning Curtis Caballero’s name, barbarians crossing the border would run away in fear. Clive added, recalling Curtis’ stern face.
“But that doesn’t mean Sir Curtis is the only knight qualified to protect the saint.”
Jian glanced at Clive, who gently wiped her tear-stained cheeks with a handkerchief, and opened her mouth.
“Sweet Clive. Can’t you be my knight?”
Although his fame was slightly lesser than that of the Grand Duke Caballero, Earl Norton was also from a great family with a long history. In addition, Clive was the owner of the magic tower and was a sweet and delicately handsome man.
“I haven’t held a sword for a long time, and I’m merely a scholar now.”
Clive shook his head with a caring but troubled face.
“But if I don’t find my own knight, he will…!”
Jian firmly gripped Clive’s clasped hand. Clive, holding her small hand that was so strong that veins were visible, opened his mouth with a sigh.
“Are you seeing visions again?”
Contrary to Clive’s speculation, what Jian was seeing wasn’t a hallucination.
“…Couldn’t the Young Lady Edith Abina put a curse on me?”
Clive scratched his chin at Jian’s words. When his reaction wasn’t good enough, Jian added urgently.
“Why else would the visions I see mention her name? Clive was like that too. Someone seems to have cursed me.”
“But is there no reason for her to curse the saint.”
“No. Edith… I don’t know why, but it seemed like she didn’t like me from the beginning.”
Jian looked up at Clive with tearful eyes and moved her lips.
“Clive, can’t you help me?”
Want to read more chapters and support us? Please consider becoming a patron to read up to 40 chapters in advance!
