Episode 2

"Can you help me prepare to go see brother Levion?” (*Brother* in this situation is for someone older, but not an actual blood related brother.)

Levion was hard at work training for his upcoming entrance exam for the Imperial Knights. Leticia wanted to be of any help to her fiance.

“Please get my handkerchief.”

“…”

“Mary?”

“Yes….? Oh, what did you say?”

When Leticia called her name, Mary raised her head in surprise as if she came to her senses. The moment their eyes met, Leticia said with a worried look on her face.

“Is something wrong? Could it be that your brother has been more ill?”

“No, I was just thinking about something, My Lady.”

Even though she said there was nothing wrong, Mary couldn’t get last night’s incident out of her mind.

It was gold coins laying in the middle of the street on her way home after leaving work.

And what Leticia said right before she left the mansion.

[I hope you’ll pick up the money on the street]

It must be a coincidence.

It just so happened to be an odd coincidence.

Mary held out a handkerchief to Leticia, thinking so intently.

“Is there anything else you need, My Lady?”

“No, this will be enough.”

After Mary gave her the handkerchief, Leticia came out and walked down the corridor.

But before she could walk far, she met someone.

It was Diana.

“It looks like you’re going somewhere?”

Diana asked, looking at Leticia up and down. Despite the unpleasantness, Leticia didn’t frown once and nodded lightly.

“I’m going to see brother Levion.”

Diana’s expression hardened at the words. Soon her hateful voice came out.

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you have to go?”

Leticia felt frustrated, as if she was being interrogated. After a moment of confusion, Leticia gently tilted her head.

“It’s not right for me to go to support him?”

Before they were engaged, Leticia and Levion had been close friends since childhood. He was her fiancé, but she thought of him as family. Diana’s gaze grew even higher.

“That’s very encouraging.”

Diana glanced at Leticia fiercely, then smirked and walked past her.

***

‘What was wrong with her….?’

On the way to see Levion, Leticia couldn’t get Diana’s reaction out of her mind for a long time. I called Diana to turn around, but she just walked away.

‘What’s the matter?’

No matter how much she thought about it, Leticia couldn’t find the answer.

However, something was strange.

Leticia tightened her grip on her dress, feeling anxious that something was about to happen.

“Miss, we’re here.”

Leticia decided to think about it later and got out of the carriage. But when she actually got off, she was at a loss as to where to go.

While she was fidgeting, unable to take a single step, she heard a familiar voice behind her.

“What are you doing here?”

It was Leticia’s fiancé, Levion. His silver hair shining brightly in the sunlight and his clear purple eyes looked dreamy.

“Brother!”

Fortunately, she ran into Levion at recess time.

it was just recess time, or I would have met Rivion right away. However, unlike Leticia, who approached him with a cheerful smile, Levion looked somewhat uncomfortable.

“I’ve come to cheer you on.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Oh …… I’m sorry if I’ve been a burden. I’m leaving now.”

Levion had never looked so blatantly inconvenienced, even if he didn’t say it.

As Leticia turned to leave with a panicked look on her face, Levion said with a sigh.

“Follow me.”

“Please wait for me.”

Leticia carefully grasped Levion’s arm as he turned away. It must have been a hard day of training as there was sweat on Levion’s forehead.

The moment she took out her handkerchief to wipe off his sweat, a sorrowful voice came out of Leticia’s mouth. It was a handkerchief that she had made and ruined for embroidery practice.

Still, she wanted to wipe it with this handkerchief, but the expression on Levion’s face wasn’t so pleasant.

“What is your ability?”

“What?”

“Hasn’t it awakened yet?”

“That’s….”

Embarrassed to answer, Leticia glanced away and lowered her head.

Her family was always unhappy with her for not being awakened to any abilities.

And then there was another one.

“I’m sorry, brother Levion…”

Like a fool, she completely forgot.

Her fiancé didn’t like it either.

Unable to raise her head, Leticia grimaced and grasped her hands. At that moment a chilling voice rang in her ears.

“You seem to have a lot of time.”

“What?”

His dry, purple eyes went to the handkerchief. As soon as he saw the stitches sticking out, Levion frowned.

“Make something like this.”

“It’s…”

The moment she was about to say something, she felt strangely suffocated.

However, Levion sighed as if he was frustrated looking at her.

“I’ll leave you to it.”

“What? You’re leaving already?”

Surprised, Leticia’s eyes widened, but Levion only looked at her unsympathetically.

“Then is there any reason why I should stay here longer?”

With those last words, Levion left as if he didn’t need to be there any longer. And he didn’t even look back once.

“Ha…”

A laugh suddenly came out.

Leticia felt miserable as she was left behind.

Eventually, Leticia lost confidence in staying here any longer and turned away. No, she wanted to leave. If only she didn’t bump into a man who was passing by.

“I’m sorry, sir. I wasn’t looking ahead properly…”

The moment when a bewildered Leticia looked up to apologize, something red dropped on the floor. She was surprised to see a cut on the man’s bloodied hand.

“Are you hurt, sir?”

“It’s nothing, Young Lady.”

The man tried to pass by with a casual smile. But Leticia grabbed his arm without realizing it.

Facing the man, who opened his gray eyes wide in surprise, Leticia cautiously offered him the handkerchief.

“If you don’t mind, use this….”

However, her hand, which held out a handkerchief to the man, stopped as if it was suddenly frozen.

[You seem to have a lot of time on your hands. Making something like this.]

Levion’s voice that sounded judgmental at the sight of her handkerchief echoed in her ears in a tormenting way.

In fact, to say it was sloppy would be an understatement by anyone’s standards. It was only today that the stitching seemed to stick out particularly well. Then, Leticia tried to retract her hand in embarrassment. However, the man smiled faintly and accepted the handkerchief that Leticia offered him.

“Thank you, Young Lady.”

But instead of wiping the blood off with the handkerchief, he put it in his pocket.

“Why?”

“What?”

“I gave it to you to wipe off the blood.”

At Leticia’s words, the man rather asked with a quirk.

“Then wouldn’t that be offensive? It’s got blood on it.”

“…………………”

Leticia smiled a little at the way the man cherished her handkerchief, and put out her hand.

When the man realized that Leticia wanted it back, he gave it back to her.

Then, Leticia suddenly grabbed his hand as he handed it to her. Before he could be surprised by the careful yet soft hand, Leticia began to wipe his bloody hand with the white handkerchief.

“It got blood on it now.”

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to give it back.”

Leticia answered with a smile and wrapped the man’s injured hand with the handkerchief.

“May I ask for your name?”

As soon as Leticia raised her head after being satisfied with wrapping his injured hand, their gaze intertwined.

His black hair was as dark as the winter night sky and his gray eyes were reminiscent of thick fog. His eyes were slanted up and sharp.

The man gave off a great impression. Somehow Leticia hesitated to answer. But the way he looked at her, staring straight into her eyes, somehow tickled her heart.

“Leticia….”

Strangely, her fingers trembled lightly.

“My name is Leticia Leroy.”

***

Enoch Achilles.

It was a name known to all those who had their sights set on becoming members of the Imperial Knights.

He appeared as if he had fallen from the sky, and his ability to lightly subdue the knight candidates and his elegant swordsmanship were truly monstrous.

However, those who were jealous of Enoch, gossiped.

“He is only a Duke in name who hasn’t gone through a succession ceremony.”

“It’s hard to call him a Duke when he hasn’t gone through a succession ceremony.”

“Even if he wants to hold a succession ceremony, he can’t.”

“His house doesn’t have the money to do so.”

The only stigma was wealth.

Since the previous generation of Achilles family mismanaged the business and incurred huge debts, their situation was not good. Perhaps because of this, Enoch underwent various training in order to become a member of the Imperial Knights.

However, the problem was he always flunked the entrance exam.

When people saw him, they said this about Enoch.

“No money? No luck.”

“That’s right. So what if you were good? It’s not your lucky day.”

Unlucky Enoch.

His sword skills were better than anyone else, but on the day of the entrance exam, he always had an unexpected accident.

The first time he took the test, the Duchess who had been suffering from illness, died. And the second time, a loan shark came and made a fuss.

And now, there was going to be a third tryout soon. People even made a bet on what reason Enoch would be disqualified this time.

There was no way that Enoch didn’t know about those bad things they talked about him. Although it struck a nerve, he ignored it and just concentrated on his practice.

However, perhaps because the entrance exam was approaching, he felt more tense than usual. He even made a mistake and his hand got cut by a sword.

“Am I really that unlucky?”

He thought it was absurd, but when he recalled what happened in the past, it didn’t seem that absurd. Somehow, all the efforts he had made so far seemed useless, like sandcastles on the waves.

“I’m tired.”

Lately he had been wondering if his choices, the path he was on, were right.

He had doubts, but he never showed it to his siblings. Because he knew they believed in him more than anyone else.

“It’s pathetic.”

Enoch muttered to himself as he made his way to the infirmary.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the results he hoped for. He was getting more anxious and frustrated as he failed every entrance exam for reasons that were not entirely his fault.

That’s when it happened.

“I’m sorry, sir. I wasn’t looking ahead properly…”

It was the same for Enoch, who walked without looking properly. As soon as he was about to apologize, the woman’s eyes turned to Enoch’s hand.

“Are you hurt, sir?”

Her eyes widened in surprise and her gaze intertwined with his.

Blue clear eyes. The moment he looked at them, he felt a strange urge to look at them more closely.

Standing without saying a word, Enoch, who came to his senses after a moment, shook his hands lightly, saying it was okay.

But the woman held out something.

“If you don’t mind, use this…”

However, her hand froze in midair. At the end of his gaze, there was a handkerchief. Enoch naturally looked down at the handkerchief on her white hand.

”Did you make it yourself, Young Lady?”

The stitches sticking out made it seem like she wasn’t very good at it. But Enoch found it cute in its own way.

“Thank you, Young Lady.”

Enoch stopped for a moment, thinking that it was offensive to wipe the blood with something that he might have to return.

So he put it in his pocket, but the woman took the handkerchief back and took care of his hand.

When the woman was wrapping his hand with the handkerchief, Enoch looked at her silently. Somehow, he couldn’t take his eyes off the pretty, meticulous tie.

“May I ask for your name?”

He was curious about the name of such a sweet and lovely woman.

Her blue eyes painted on the small, white face blinked gently. Eventually, a small voice came from between her thin lips.

“My name is Leticia Leroy.”

Leticia smiled gently and walked away. Enoch stood alone and stared at Leticia until she disappeared. Her back to him like a pink bud that had not yet bloomed.

“Leticia …. Leticia Leroy….”

He hesitated to call her name out loud.

“My luck isn’t so bad today.”

Enoch looked down at the handkerchief tied neatly on his hand. The handkerchief was embroidered with a clover with four green leaves. The green threads were a little jagged and pointy, but strangely, it made him smile.

Somehow it was a pleasant feeling.

And that day, Enoch passed the knighthood test for the first time.

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