Also,
perhaps she had stopped by to put her feelings in order one last time.
Angelina Pimale.
She was truly an incredible person.
&
Two days had passed since Angelina left.
I thought about taking a short rest,
but I picked up my sword.
Since I hadn’t been able to train properly after going to file my taxes, I slowly loosened up my body.
The morning air was chilly,
and the training ground floor was still layered with the dampness left behind by the night.
Each time I put strength into the hand gripping my sword, the veins on the back of my hand stood out clearly.
“Miles.”
“Yes?”
“I hear a new knight arrived.”
Miles, who had been checking the training equipment beside me, let out a small laugh.
“I’ll run him ragged and attach him to you as a guard knight as soon as possible.”
“Why aren’t you doing it? Trying to stay in the territory and take it easy?”
Miles waved his hand and clicked his tongue.
“Good grief, Young Master. Do I look like I’m taking it easy right now? I’d love to just guard you and laze around wherever we go. Ugh, you have no idea how hard things are right now.”
That was not an exaggeration.
More soldiers,
new knights,
and all sorts of training programs that had to be made and run—Miles could no longer go around acting as my guard.
“Besides, Young Master, you don’t get pushed around by most people anymore anyway. A decent enough guy will be plenty. I’m busy. Truly.”
I couldn’t quite tell whether he was being cheeky or responsible. It was a very subtle mix.
“By the way, are you really not going to call a swordsmanship instructor?”
“I’m just going to do it on my own. It’s not like I’m going to become a knight, and I don’t think I’ll have the time either.”
Miles nodded.
“Looking back, that sounds right too. If you’re not aiming to become the best anyway, then instead of sticking only to the fundamentals, it might be better to focus on threatening your opponent in an instant.”
Without a word, I raised my sword.
Then I moved very slowly.
My movements, as I moved with extreme slowness, were truly very different from when I had first started.
There was almost no wavering in the process of a horizontal slash.
In each movement that followed, too, I could now maintain myself for quite a long time with almost no shaking.
And after that ended, I increased the speed with the exact same motions, gradually making it faster and faster.
Since it had been a while,
I kept going until my concentration could no longer be maintained.
A short while later,
I stopped when my entire body was drenched in sweat and trembling faintly.
“Haa, haa.”
“You’re good. Keep at it, sir. I have to get going again.”
I raised my hand in farewell as I watched Miles leave.
“Whew, I should rest too.”
After finishing my training and washing up,
I was walking down the corridor to return to my room when something outside the window suddenly caught my eye.
A single ribbon was hanging from a tree near the alley.
The moment I saw it, I stopped walking.
I turned around and headed downstairs,
then took out a sheet of paper hidden beneath the ribbon.
[ Go to the Pilleu Territory and investigate the cultists. ]
It was short and stiff.
There was one more line below it.
[ Meet with Aileen Belmardian and act together. Once you arrive, there will be one more helper. ]
Aileen too?
Well.
From her position, she had no choice now but to join hands with Baron.
Belmardian had already become a complete enemy of the Old Dynasty.
But suddenly,
I found it a little funny that merely thinking about meeting her made me feel good.
“A kiss.”
I let out a hollow laugh.
Let’s see if I can really do it.
***
The Pilleu Territory was closer to Beledor.
So I headed straight for Aileen’s territory.
As soon as I arrived in Beledor, she already had a carriage prepared.
“Let’s go.”
The moment she saw me, Aileen spoke curtly.
For some reason, she showed no particular reaction and immediately climbed into the carriage.
I was a little flustered, but for now, I climbed into my own carriage as well.
The carriage ran without rest,
and the sun slowly tilted west.
Only around evening did we stop to make camp.
Even while we ate together, Aileen did not speak first.
I was still bewildered,
but thinking something might have happened, I didn’t particularly try to talk to her either.
Once, our eyes met,
and for some reason, it even felt like she was glaring at me.
Then she immediately whipped her head away.
A night passed in that strange atmosphere.
Early the next morning.
I climbed into my carriage to set off again and closed the door.
Bang.
But the door opened again right away.
“Uh, um?”
Aileen had come in.
She looked at me once, then entered without saying a word and sat not across from me,
but right beside me.
Then she spoke briefly to the outside.
“Depart.”
Clop. Clop.
Along with the sound of hooves, the carriage began moving again.
I swallowed for no reason and turned to look beside me.
Aileen was looking at me, and “glaring” was the right word for it.
“Why aren’t you talking to me?”
“Uh... I thought something might have happened.”
“Ah.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“So in the future, if I don’t talk to you first, you’re just not going to talk to me? Thinking something must have happened?”
“That’s...”
“How convenient. Truly.”
I was at a loss for words.
I couldn’t say it was because the habits of my previous life still remained.
Even so, her expression was completely different from that previous life.
It wasn’t cold.
It was sulky.
The moment I realized that, I laughed without meaning to.
“By the way, what happened?”
“I received a royal token too.”
Aileen took a token from inside her clothes and showed it before my eyes.
A golden pattern flashed briefly.
“After all, we have a common enemy.”
“That’s true.”
It was as expected.
But from there, the conversation suddenly cut off.
There had never been a time when a conversation between her and me had stopped like this.
The carriage continued moving, the rattling sound echoing around us.
In that awkward silence, I tried to open the window for no particular reason.
At that moment.
Aileen grabbed my wrist.
Startled, I turned my head,
but she did not let go of my hand.
Instead, she was looking at me from even closer.
That gaze was of a kind I had never seen before.
It was not the sort of gaze Aileen would wear.
“Do you still.”
Aileen spoke clearly.
“Doubt me?”
At first, I had no idea what she meant.
“Doubt you? That Belmardian isn’t part of the Old Dynasty...”
“No.”
She cut me off.
“Does it seem like a lie?”
Only then did I understand.
What I had been unable to believe,
and what she was asking about.
Aileen had known it all too.
All of my reactions.
There were many emotions in Aileen’s eyes as she looked at me now.
The stubborn pride unique to someone who did not want to be hurt,
and the desperate desire to be reassured, were all mixed together.
But I couldn’t answer right away.
If I said no, she from my previous life came to mind.
But if I said yes, the version of her in this life was clear before me.
At that moment, Aileen spoke again.
“At first, I was curious too.”
My eyes widened involuntarily.
“And it’s easy.”
“...”
“Winning another man’s heart.”
Her voice was low,
and strangely calm.
“Acting. Making someone feel as though I truly love them. That’s easy for me.”
I knew that well.
That was why I had doubted her.
Aileen bit her lip hard,
then spoke in a smaller voice.
“So.”
Unlike her voice, the gaze she fixed on me held an extremely strong conviction.
“I would never say something like that.”
In that moment, I immediately understood what she meant.
Something like that.
That she would have kissed me if no one else had been there.
“...”
And yet, ironically,
the moment I heard those words, I instead began to grow cold.
In the end, they were only words.
Something that could not be confirmed.
Something that could not be proven.
And yet the method that could shake a person’s heart the most.
I didn’t know about anyone else,
but I knew how easily she could shake people.
Since I had kept showing suspicion all this time, it was probably just words meant to drive the nail in.
“In the end, they’re only wor—mmph!”
At that moment.
My breath stopped.
Our lips were touching.
Warm.
Moist,
soft, and my senses were heightened so sharply it was almost too clear.
Aileen’s eyes were squeezed shut.
Then the lips that had overlapped pulled away very slowly.
There was not the slightest wavering in her eyes when she opened them.
And as she looked at me with a small smile, she asked again.
“Do you doubt me?”
I slowly looked at her lips, then raised my gaze again.
“Perhaps.”
At my slowly continuing words, Aileen swallowed without realizing it.
“It wasn’t you I didn’t trust.”
Aileen’s eyes gradually widened.
“It may have been myself.”
The current me was the same as the me from my previous life.
That was why it had been hard to trust myself.
Because of you.
“But.”
“...”
“My thoughts have changed a little.”
The current you is not the you from my previous life.
So.
“Thanks to you.”
After that, silence flowed between us again.
A silence with an entirely different meaning from before.
Instead of words, our gazes went back and forth.
Aileen looked at my lips, then my eyes,
and I looked at her in the same way.
And then.
Just as we were about to draw close again, far too naturally.
“We have arrived.”
At Jerome’s voice from outside, both of us pulled away at the same time.
“Uh, um.”
“Ahem.”
The heat that had risen in an instant cooled completely, and the two of us awkwardly shifted our eyes around.
Then we got out of the carriage, pretending for no reason that nothing had happened.
Outside stood a temporary checkpoint.
From here on, we had to move without standing out.
The coachman returned, and only Aileen, Jerome, and I decided to continue.
The three of us immediately changed clothes.
Robes that would not draw attention.
Hoods to cover our mouths.
We also exchanged the carriage for a freight wagon,
with Jerome driving it while Aileen and I climbed into the back.
The floor of the cargo bed was rough.
Each time it rattled, our bodies bounced slightly,
and the smell of old wood mixed with the scent of dry hay rose around us.
But Aileen showed no sign of discomfort at all.
“It could be a little dangerous.”
“I know that well.”
“So if it really seems dangerous, withdraw first. We can sort out the situation and regroup afterward.”
She immediately shook her head.
“Then we’ll be delayed. They might destroy the evidence.”
Seeing how firm her will was, I nodded.
“Then we’ll have to do our best to keep it from becoming dangerous.”
“Oh my.”
Aileen’s eyes curved.
“Heart-thump.”
“He-Heart-thump?”
I gave her a look that asked what that meant.
“Pfft. Don’t tell me... you don’t know?”
Aileen burst into laughter.
“Are you an old man? Young ladies like me use it often these days.”
“...”
“It means your heart went thump. In other words, you felt thrilled.”
“Ah...”
I suppose I was an old man.
I scratched my head for no reason,
and Aileen laughed again.
It was a light, clear laugh,
different from the suffocating air from a little while ago.
“Anyway, cultists.”
“Exactly.”
Aileen wore a somewhat serious expression.
“Mr. Rayon, do you think the cultists are connected to the Old Dynasty?”
The core of this mission was simple.
Cultists.
Whether they were connected to the Old Dynasty,
that was what we had to confirm.
“In my personal opinion... I think there’s a high possibility that the cultists aren’t particularly related to the Old Dynasty.”
Aileen tilted her head slightly.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you think that?”
I lowered my gaze for a moment, then raised it again.
Truthfully, it wasn’t as if I had never heard talk of cultists in my previous life either.
But at least as far as I knew,
they had never risen as a central force that shook the entire board.
“From the Old Dynasty’s perspective, cultists are... inefficient.”
“Inefficient?”
Aileen’s gaze narrowed.
She was looking at me with the fingertips of her hands lightly interlaced on her knees.
“The center of the chaos they want will ultimately be the nobles.”
“Go on.”
I briefly steadied my breathing.
“Whether it’s territorial wars or rifts between families, in the end, things have to start collapsing from the top for it to spread downward. If they shake one noble, soldiers move, merchant guilds move, and territories move.”
“...”
Aileen slowly nodded.
“Even running the board using only nobles can’t be easy. They already need far too many people.”
I tapped the floor of the wagon with my finger.
“To plant one spark in a territory, you need justification, money, and people to move. On top of that, you have to clean up afterward. Perfectly.”
“Right.”
“But they’ve done that in several places at once.”
Halsen.
Bedberiu.
Even just around me, there had been many of their movements, and in reality, territorial wars were occurring in quite a few other places as well.
“Using commoners on top of that goes beyond inefficiency. It has to be one of two things. Either they’re far larger than we think, or else.”
Aileen furrowed her brow for a moment and continued.
“They’re unbelievably capable.”