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He grabbed my wrist without putting much pressure and stared directly at me.

“You’re not a knight. Neither are you a templar. And you’re planning on taking up the sword with this frail arm of yours?”

I shook my head. I could barely lift a single piece of clothing. I had already cursed this useless body of mine more than once.

“… If I say I’ll take up the sword, will you teach me, lord?”

My arm was thin enough for his palm to wrap around it fully without much effort.

“There’s not a chance you’ll be any better than Prince Fleon, princess.”

He spoke bluntly in a firm voice.

Was he not cursing at me?

“Please do not come over here. Can you not just stay calm and hand it over?”

He let go of my wrist.

“Princess, don’t confuse what you can do with what I can do. If a sword ever appears in front of me, all you have to do is leave your position and escape. It’s my job to protect your back.”

“Even though you might die, lord?”

“Why would I die?”

A sunny day from a long time ago came to mind. The blood-stained palace and Castor appeared before my eyes. And the sword pointed at my neck.

‘I wondered what would have happened if you were there?’

I wonder what power the sword wielded by the nameless knight in the <Light of Rusbella> held. I wondered why I felt reassured just imagining him by my side.

“Lord, are you willing to risk your life for me? Even during an extremely dangerous situation?”

However, as I expected, I did not want to see him collapse with his sword.

“That situation you’re talking about, what do you mean by that?”

“What if you’ll have to face hundreds of assassins when you’re only one knight?”

“If there are hundreds of assassins then it won’t be an assassination.”

“Don’t nitpick.”

I stared at the knight who was sweeping his hair up against the wind.

“I don’t want you to do that for me, lord. If you follow me, you might get hurt or even die.”

“What kind of answer are you expecting from me?”

He cut me off by holding my hand.

“…. To be the most frank.”

“Can you handle it?’

I looked into his serious gaze and smiled.

“You have a grim expression on your face, lord. It looks as if you’re about to confess to me.”

The blood splattered on his cheeks were bothering me so I wiped it for him.

Until just a few years ago, his hair had only grown to his neckline. Now, it was long enough for him to tie it into a short ponytail.

“As long as it’s not a confession.”

My fingertips patted his forearm lightly.

“… Who’s confessing to whom?”

He grabbed my finger. When he caught me, I giggled my head off.

“If you’re going to do it, you’d better whisper something very sweet. So that I can fall for it. Will that be too much for our brusque knight?”

I watched as this knight continued to be swayed by me. But I did not feel too bad.

He frowned at my childish prank. He must be thinking I looked like a child playing with a toy. I could not hold it any longer and burst into laughter at the expression that could be hardly seen from this blunt and stoic knight.

“The look on your face right now is very amusing.”

The sound of my low laughter reverberated in the dark forest. My curiosity was suddenly piqued. I wondered what I looked like in Lord Ray’s eyes?

On a moonlit night with the moon rising in the sky like a melody and bodies of men strewn over the ground, the conversation between the princess and her knight was strange. Maybe that was why. This all felt like a dream.

The night was so fantastic it felt like everything would disappear after this fantastic night.

“… It’s a good night to whisper about secret meetings.”

It was such a beautiful night that I could see the inside of the knight’s mind when it had been usually cloudy and blurry.

“In one of the books I read, I remember the main character being confessed to by the male lead like this. Lord.”

When the moonlight was the prettiest, Rubella had happily accepted the confession of the man who sought for her.

“If anyone is to ever confess to me, I would want him to say the sweetest and nicest things.”

‘It helps me forget reality.’

I did not have a prince who would lead me to a world filled with happiness. But I had liked to capture a beautiful moonlit night like this at least once. When I was just about to forget the reality I was in, I smiled dimly at him.

“I know that’s impossible.”

Then, I lifted my white sleeves before slowly wiping his cheek.

“…..”

“That’s why I was joking.”

Even though I did not happily receive a confession from a dashing prince, I was happy in my own way.

If I could string together the flecks of tenderness I felt from moment to moment, my life might not be so bad.

Though I might have sounded like I was bitterly consoling him, I did not care.

“Miss Ashley.”

“Yeah.”

I could hear the grass crushing under his weight. He was slowly kneeling before me.

“I thought you wouldn’t believe me if I did not say it out loud.”

“What are you doing, lord? Get up!”

I shouted before blinking at his calm reply.

“Here is a sword dedicated to you.”

“… Lord?”

“I will remain true and faithful to the laws set by the Lord of the Gods and the order of this world. I will love everything you love and I will keep you away from everything you want to avoid.”

He slowly closed his eyes before opening them.

‘… A sword’s oath?’

In this still and quiet atmosphere, his head slowly tilted towards his sword.

“For as long as I follow you, I will be your sword built from your joy and trust, a sword that will slay any enemy going against you. I will not carry out anything, be it any words or actions, that displeases you.”

“… Is this your answer to whether you are willing to risk your life for me?”

He then kissed me.

I had once seen someone else kneel before me and swear an oath in the back garden. A white-haired man in a white attire had knelt in front of me in the bleak back garden during the beautiful point in the season when spring was just about to come.

And once again, someone else was kneeling before my eyes.

If there was any difference, he was not forcing me to accept it. He just spoke what he wanted to say before calmly waiting for me to accept his oath.

“Can you… protect me?”

It was not as beautiful as it was then.

“I’m already doing that.”

“… Can you… continue to protect me in the future?”

Nevertheless, my heart was in disarray.

“I may not be a templar of the sword but I have never broken an oath I had sworn on my sword in my entire life.”

He was in bloodstained clothes in a garden filled with blood and collapsed men who could be found at every three steps.

“Will you accept it?”

The shallow silence lingered for a while. He stopped staring at me and I stopped smiling. I did not know why but even though I could not touch his skin, I felt so close to him.

“I will.”

He shuddered with a more relaxed expression.

“You’ll need to be more dependent when moving around.”

“Yeah. I think so too. Will I only have to depend on you, lord?”

“Anyone would be fine but I would be happy to.”

“But is that your confession?”

He was not in the <Light of Rusbella>. Maybe that was why I felt like his oath was more realistic than Hernan’s.

An unnamed knight’s oath to an unnamed princess.

When I first saw Lord Ray, he had been nothing but a blunt knight who had walled himself in from the world. I could clearly see that he was merely protecting both the princes due to his sense of duty.

“Who said this was a confession?”

“Well, you looked so determined. In the romance books I read, there were also romances with the knight.”

He smirked.

“With that calm expression of yours, I’m not convinced that there’s any romance at all.”

Lord Ray spoke sarcastically in a low voice.

“It’s a talent to be able to speak such tiring things in this situation.”

As if he was rebuking him, he lowered his head.

“Anyway, you won’t need to struggle on your own. Don’t you have quite a few capable people around you?”

I tilted his head.

“Are you talking about yourself? Something like ‘I have such an amazing knight’?”

The moment I held his hand, his shoulders trembled.

“… I was not specifically referring to myself but well. You aren’t wrong.”

It felt like the tension between us was going away.

“Haha. That’s really funny.”

I burst into laughter before saying.

What amazing arrogance.

“Alright, I’ll admit it. You’re an amazing person in many ways.”

“You can be proud as well. Since you have me.”

Lord Ray’s navy eyes sparkled in the moonlight. I could not take my eyes off him because his gaze was so subtle and beautiful.

As the wind brushed against my cheeks, I finally parted my lips that had been hesitating.

“Lord, would you like to join me at the Founding Festival?”

“… What?”

I might have been speaking nonsense seeing as how dazed I was. Why was 1 in the early morning considered to be a dangerous time to be out? It was only considered dangerous for those who wanted to erase their SNS records for the next day. However, it did not feel too bad.

To be on the highway to success. Could I do that to him? I smiled slowly. He did not panic in front of the assassins. But based on the exclamation he made on impulse, he sounded so flustered.

“Don’t you want to come with me to the Founding Festival?”

I heard that my patronus could be an extremely skilled knight. I thought I had proposed not a bad idea but his response did not sound so positive.

“What’s with that face?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Hm, well, so what’s your answer?”

“You weren’t asking me seriously anyway.”

“Oh my. What if I was serious?”

“… The Founding Festival is not a joke.”

He remarked sarcastically.

“Then would you really like me to reply you?”

For some reason, I could hear a lot of sarcasm laced in his voice.

“That’s what I’m saying. Are you coming or not?”

“I don’t want to.”

I stared at Lord Ray who had refused me quite adamantly whilst pretending to be really surprised. But I had already expected him to refuse. I had proposed this idea to him courageously but I smiled cheerfully and exclaimed.

“What’s your reason? If you’re refusing me, you should have a reason, Lord.”

“… I’m a knight. Isn’t that enough of an answer?”

I shook my head with a big smile.

“Denied. That answer is not valid.”

Lord Ray looked this way before letting out a low breath and adding bluntly.

“I just don’t want to.”

“That’s why I’m asking you why? Why not? Dancing to the [Primo Salvatio] with me is your shortcut to success. You don’t want to get ahead?”

“Yes.”