Chapter 18: 18

Translator: Yonnee

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Chapter 18

“…Um, hello. You met me briefly yesterday, remember? Um…”

Just then I had come back from eating a quick lunch because Endymion told me he’d drag me to a restaurant starting tomorrow if I continued to starve myself, and when I returned to the library, Ares was there waiting for me. Trying not to show how flustered I was, I bowed to greet him.

“Oh, it’s okay! Please raise your head!”

Ares, whose face was bright red, spoke in a hurry. I stood silently and avoided his gaze.

“The Miss’s name is…”

“…It’s Lily, sir.”

“Ah, Lily. That’s a pretty name. I apologize for suddenly visiting you. And I’m sorry I kept bothering you in the morning.”

Sir Ares said this with a bashful smile. Until now, I’ve only ever seen him stuttering or with a heavily flushed face because he was more embarrassed than I was, but I felt conflicted for some reason.

No matter what he said, I was in a situation where I’d have to lie to him. But apart from that, Ares rarely ever pried. Whatever it was he’s trying to find out, I hope he gives up soon.

I slightly lifted my gaze and looked at him. Seeing his awkward smile and his fidgeting hands, he was like the Ares I knew now, the one I saw at night. I knew what he was here for, but… I truly couldn’t tell him anything.

The succubus Ares was looking for was me, so how could I not lie here?

With a firm tone, I spoke.

“If the Commander has no business with me, can I be on my way now?”

“…Ah, yes, um, I’m sorry I held you back. See you next time.”

Contrary to what I expected, he didn’t keep me there and Ares compliantly let me leave. If he was going to be like this, I didn’t know why he bothered to come back. I felt sorry for him, but it was best not to bump into each other as much as possible.

However, when he said he’d see me next time, I would soon regret not taking that seriously.

❦ ❦ ❦

“Sister!”

“Hello, Regulus.”

“Ah, hi.”

“…It’s nice to see you, Commander Fenril.”

Perhaps they had a short practice match, but Sir Ares’ clothes were a little unkempt and Regulus had small cuts on his face. They approached me on my break today. Yes, today again.

I took a handkerchief out of my pocket and wiped Regulus’ cheeks. He grinned and held my hand as he led me away, and we headed to the garden with a fountain where we usually stayed to talk. Ares trailed behind us and followed.

“I was beaten up again today!”

“But you’re not angry that you lost.”

“If it was Commander Damian, I’d be really mad, but I learned a lot with Commander Ares! Actually, until a few days ago, I couldn’t even see him because he was so busy, but he suddenly said that he’d have a match with me today so I went right away. But oh, I lost three times.”

“I guess Commander Fenril is really strong…”

Listening to Regulus excitedly telling his story, I vowed once again—if I could feel something amiss, I wouldn’t look back and just run away. They trained a lot and I’m not even confident I could overpower Regulus, who was very disciplined with his swordsmanship and physical training. What should I do with Ares, when he’s a league higher than Regulus?

When I first signed a contract with Ares, I took advantage of his embarrassment and pounced on him, but if Ares had tried to resist because of too much shame back then… It would have been difficult for me to sign with him.

Sir Odil was also heavily flustered at first, but he eventually relented, albeit reluctantly, because of his sense of duty to me.

“That’s not true. There’s one person that he’s never won against before.”

“Who is it?”

“I’m talking about Commander Odil. Right, Commander Ares?”

“…Right.”

Sir Ares blushed and waved his hand at Regulus’ words, but he nodded in the end. I shouldn’t have asked. If Sir Odil were to find out who I was, the image of a sword running through my chest began to feel more realistic. My lips trembled a little because I suddenly felt nervous, but I school my features calmly.

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“I was stronger than him when we were young, but now I keep losing by a hairsbreadth. If I block him on one side, he’d attack the other side. If I block him through another method, he’d go for another opening. And if I try to block that again, he’d keep coming in from somewhere else. It’s like he could read my movements.”

“Commander Odil is surprisingly fast when he’s in action. Commander Ares uses swordsmanship techniques and martial arts together, so there are no openings in his defenses. But the only person who can pierce through perfectly is Commander Odil! He’s probably the strongest person in Ciel.”

“That hurts my pride, but I can’t deny that.”

Ares was one of the key figures who led Ciel’s war of conquest to victory, and he relented to what Regulus said without any disagreement. That Sir Odil… the same Sir Odil whose pride I repeatedly crushed to the ground. I quickly bowed my head. Not only were my eyes wide open, but my cheeks were bright red as well.

Until now, I’d just been listening to them while they talked, so thanks to that, Regulus didn’t notice that I was behaving strangely. It was a relief. I bit my lips, trying to think of something else because I was afraid that I was about to tear up. But eventually, I could do nothing else but listen to their conversation again.

“At first, I thought you were also a commoner, Commander Ares. How should I put it… You don’t exactly seem like a knight commander?”

“What do you mean I’m not like a knight commander? Even if I look like this, I’m still a commander…”

“But your fighting style is like a mercenary’s! Of course, Commander Ares is much stronger than one! You’re stronger, but—!”

Regulus always mentioned how he respected the Commanders—well, except Damian—so he seemed very excited because Ares was the one who often sparred with him. I tried to nod as if I wasn’t feeling strange earlier. Then, Sir Ares replied with an awkward smile.

“Well, it’s definitely not a fighting style that nobles have.”

“I heard this a while back while studying with Commander Endymion before. I heard that Commander Odil and Commander Ares’ families are both from long lineages of families that had famous knights generation after generation. And that there’s also a sword technique that’s passed down to you. But with Commander Ares… I don’t think there’s anything like that? It’s more like your fighting style is more like freestyle?”

Regulus groaned. Even though I stayed on the battlefield for a while, I’d never seen the Commanders fight because I was always just resting in a tent or looking around here and there while they were fighting back then.

At that time, I was interested in nothing but absorbing essence, but if I had seen them fighting like that before… Would I have come to my senses no matter how persistent Lilith was? It’s futile to have regrets now, but it still somehow made me sigh.

It seemed like there were times when they had practice matches that were open for others to see, and it was to boost the knights’ morale. At times like that, the maids would flock to the training grounds as well. However, after I became a maid, I never even tried to go see them because I stayed far away from the knights’ quarters.

“It used to be like that, actually, but it changed when my grandfather changed the family’s technique to focus on practical use rather than formal or chivalric purposes.”

“Really? How can a family’s swordsmanship change so easily?”

“My grandfather’s older brother—so my granduncle—was an adventurer when he was young. He also yielded the family title to my grandfather because he had no interest in power and didn’t want to be involved with the family’s internal conflicts, so he wandered around without becoming a formal knight. Then many years later, he suddenly came back home and passed down the techniques he learned from his adventures. He always said that honor should be cast away when faced with a life-threatening encounter.”

“Did you learn that, too, Commander Ares? From your granduncle?”

“Yes, but he passed away when I was young, when I was about ten years old. He lived alone and never married all his life, but he treated me really well.”

I definitely understood what his granduncle meant by throwing away honor when it came to life and death, but there were still people who valued honor as though they weighed more than their lives. It was amazing that Ares, who was from such a family, understood that as well.

“Everyone thought he was strange, but I liked him. Sometimes, he would let me sit on his lap and tell me stories of his adventures in the past. But when he told me about his first love and how he couldn’t marry because he couldn’t forget her, I thought he was amazing.”

Somehow, I was surprised by what Ares said fondly. A noble from the esteemed Fenril household who didn’t get married because he couldn’t forget his first love. It somehow made my throat feel constricted. I bit my dry lips, then I hesitantly asked Ares.

“He’s an amazing person. Ah, what’s his name, the Commander’s granduncle? I think I heard a similar story before.”

“Huh? Oh, it’s Marsein. I guess there are still people talking about my granduncle in the palace.”

“Yes, I think it’s the same person. I heard someone talking about him… Where did I hear it…”

I calmly replied to Ares, whose eyes were wide as I trailed off. He already passed away, and it was quite a long time ago when Ares was still ten.

‘Still’ meant that his granduncle might have been talked about a lot before. Ares also nodded as though in agreement.

“But when you say he didn’t get married because he couldn’t forget his first love, what kind of woman was she?”

“She was an incredible beauty. But she got married to another man…”

A friend of my grandmother. I really wanted to meet him if I had the chance. With a regrettable sigh, I focused back on Ares’ words, but the more they talked, the stranger it was…

“My granduncle tried to hide it, but in fact, everyone just pretended not to notice. Did you know how he named the knight order of our family? It’s the Chivalric Order of Adelaide.”

“Adelaide? A woman’s name?”

“Yes. Originally, the knight order was just called Fenril Knightage, but maybe my granduncle changed the name in his first love’s memory. There’s no way to confirm it, really. When I was young, whenever I saw my granduncle, I wondered why he felt the need to change the name of the family’s knight order… But these days, I kind of understand him.”

Adelaide was… the name of my maternal grandmother. Did my grandmother know that a historic aristocratic household changed their knight order’s name because of her?

I didn’t know whether she’d laugh at it because she’d find it funny, or whether she’d be embarrassed by it like me, but as I listened to what Ares said, I vowed never to tell him the name Lilith.

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