“Nice to meet you. I am here to escort you today, young lady…”
Then he raised his head.
My reflection was cast in his blue eyes.
“…I am Aiden Valtera of the Imperial Knights.”
I stared at Aiden for a moment, then smiled brightly and greeted him.
“Hello, I’m Lucia Rodbell. Please take good care of me today.”
“Yes…”
Aiden’s expression, as he replied quietly, seemed very troubled.
As Lucia felt, Aiden was very embarrassed and perplexed by this situation.
‘How did this happen?’
To find the cause, one had to go back in time a little further.
He had been guarding the Crown Prince's door.
There had been a great commotion during the exam, but everyone was busy preparing for the sudden banquet.
However, the area where the Crown Prince stayed was very quiet.
The Crown Prince had locked himself in his room and secluded himself, claiming to be unwell.
He didn't even allow an escort inside the room, so Aiden was simply standing guard in front of the door.
And in the silence, Aiden’s mind was filled with…
‘What on earth happened?’
Lucia, the illegitimate child of Rodbell.
Aiden recalled the last time he had seen Lucia.
‘She's definitely changed.’
It was difficult to say exactly what had changed, but she was definitely different from when he saw her a year ago.
Besides…
‘It was Aen Rixus, the commander of the Rodbell Magic Knights, and Ligrin Pedlan, the head butler.’
He could still vividly picture the two key figures of Rodbell looking flustered and concerned over the fallen Lucia.
One could tell at a glance that they cherished Lucia very much.
It was hard to believe that she was the same girl who had been treated so poorly, being dragged away by a maid a year ago.
‘…One year.’
Aiden's gaze turned downward.
For a year, Aiden had consciously tried to erase Lucia from his mind.
But at the same time, he often thought of Lucia.
Wondering if she was doing well, if she was still being treated badly, or if things had gotten worse.
It was an overextension of Aiden's nature.
Originally, he couldn't easily ignore anything small or weak.
If there was an injured animal, he had to treat it, and if there was a crying child, he had to help them.
He had become a knight to make the most of his sense of justice.
Therefore, even though he had no choice but to turn a blind eye to Lucia, he had always felt uneasy, as if he had a thorn stuck in his heart.
But… when he met Lucia again, she was somehow very different, which gave him a sense of relief and curiosity.
‘What happened?’
No, actually, what bothered him even more was…
‘Will she recognize me?’
A year ago, when Lucia was being dragged away by the maid.
Lucia and Aiden had made eye contact across the bushes.
However, it was such a fleeting moment that he wasn't sure if Lucia had really noticed him.
But if she had noticed him, and if she still remembered that moment…
Then there was something he really wanted to say.
To do that, he had to meet Lucia, but there was no opportunity.
He wondered if he would end up going back without ever meeting her, and Aiden eventually sighed with a growing sense of anxiety.
It was then.
"Aiden."
Kara approached.
Aiden's eyes flashed with a question upon seeing her.
It wasn't time for a shift change yet.
“Kara, what’s wrong? It’s not time for the shift change yet.”
“Ah. I’ll be guarding here from now on, so you should go see the Commander now. The Commander has summoned you.”
Aiden frowned slightly at Kara's unexpected words.
"A sudden summons? Is something wrong?"
"Well, I don't know."
"…Okay."
Aiden switched with Kara and headed straight to the Commander's office.
And he received new orders.
To protect Lucia Rodbell during the banquet.
The reason the Commander had Aiden escort Lucia was as follows.
‘There is someone within Rodbell who intends to harm Lucia Rodbell. The Rodbell knights cannot be trusted, so they requested that we, who have no connection to the family, escort Lucia Rodbell.’
Aiden understood the reason after hearing those words.
‘They called it an ogre mane.’
Although it had turned into a mountain of ashes, the huge footprints in the ground and the traces scattered throughout the forest proved that it was indeed an ogre mane.
The Crown Prince and Lucia consistently stated that the ogre mane had suddenly burned down.
It was impossible to know why the ogre mane had burned down, but one thing was certain: the ogre mane had targeted Lucia Rodbell.
Considering the simple nature of a typical ogre mane, this was unheard of.
‘It was the maid’s doing, they say.’
Although it was a top-secret investigation within Rodbell, Aiden also knew some of the details.
Lucia's maid had been plotting something, and that maid was currently imprisoned.
However, no one believed that the maid had acted alone. The scale of the incident was too large for that.
There was a mastermind within the Rodbell core who had instigated the maid. Since they couldn't identify who it was, they were completely excluding them and placing a third-party Imperial Knight by Lucia's side.
It was a perfectly reasonable process, but the problem was…
‘Why me, of all people?’
Of course, he had heard the answer to that question as well.
‘Well… because you’re the most…’
The Commander scanned Aiden up and down once, then smiled and said.
‘You’re quiet, aren’t you?’
‘…….’
‘Please do a good job. It’s different from before. Lucia Rodbell is now officially a member of Rodbell. You must treat her with as much respect as possible.’
‘…….’
‘Then go. She’ll be waiting.’
At that moment, Aiden considered turning everything upside down.
Wouldn’t that stop them from calling him quiet?
But when he came to his senses, Aiden was out of the room and heading to Lucia’s room, as he had been instructed.
The journey felt very long.
An opportunity had come.
Under the guise of escorting her, he might be able to subtly test her.
Whether she remembered him.
And if she did remember him, then…
As he was thinking these things, he arrived in front of the room before he knew it.
Aiden raised his hand, which felt as heavy as a stone.
At that moment, the door opened.
And now, Lucia was standing before him.
Lucia, who was clearly different from a year ago.
After the awkward greetings, we headed to the banquet hall.
There was no conversation during the walk.
Aiden was simply guarding my side silently, and I was…
‘How can I escape from the banquet hall?’
That was all I was thinking about.
First, I had succeeded in getting out of the heavily guarded room.
I also knew the way to the underground prison.
But the problem was the knight in front of me.
His name was definitely…
“You said you were Sir Aiden Valtera, right?”
Aiden’s shoulders twitched greatly when I spoke to him.
He answered stiffly, staring straight ahead.
“…Please feel free to call me by my name.”
I couldn’t see his expression because he was only looking straight ahead, but I could tell from his monotonous and rigid voice.
‘He’s uncomfortable with me.’
Well, I guess it wouldn’t be easy.
I swallowed a scoff and said with a bright smile.
“Yes, then I’ll feel free to call you Sir Aiden.”
“……Yes.”
“Then, Sir Aiden, please take good care of me today.”
“……Yes.”
With that, the conversation ended.
Aiden was very taciturn.
He was so taciturn that he didn’t say a word.
But…
A glance. A glance.
I was pretending not to notice, but I could feel him glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
It was clear that he was parting and closing his lips again and again.
It looked like he wanted to say something to me.
Aiden didn’t know it, but I was quite conscious of Aiden as well.
We arrived at the banquet hall in an awkward atmosphere.
I heard that the dining hall on the first floor had been hastily remodeled, but it was extraordinary from the entrance, considering it had been hastily remodeled.
Ornaments made of hundreds of interwoven crystals decorated the door like starlight.
A servant was standing in front of it.
The servant's eyes widened in surprise when he noticed me, then he bowed and opened the door, shouting.
“Lady Lucia Rodbell is entering!”
His voice was so loud that my name echoed throughout the banquet hall.
“Please come in.”
The servant swung the door wide open.
A brilliant light poured out from within.
I stood for a moment, gazing at the door that was pouring out light.
‘A banquet, huh.’
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