The training grounds were only open to expedition members and the Imperial Knights, but I couldn’t figure out how a nobleman, Julieta’s brother without a title, could have gotten in.
I remembered my parents who tried to get close to me through the Black Knights. The truth is, they have good guts, too. I clicked my tongue.
“For a while, your parents went in and out, and now your brother is here to bother you?”
I looked at Julietta with a pitiful gaze. But the expressions on the faces of Julieta, Nova, and Sevi were strange.
“Yes, but he went by quickly. He’ll probably never come back.”
“Why did he come here then?”
At my expression of incomprehension, the trio looked at each other. It was a look that pushed them to see who would speak first.
In the end, it was Julieta, the party who carried the gun. Julieta crept around and said.
“My parents have been coming to see me lately…? So my brother may have thought he was left out.”
“So what?”
“Um…. I guess he had something against me.”
In short, it was crooked.
I thought he was trying to be seen well by Julieta or connect with him, but the reality was beyond imagination.
I couldn’t believe it was the one visiting his sister, not the parents that caused the dissatisfaction. This was sickening, even for a late adolescent.
Sevi, who was listening to the conversation, got an itch in his mouth and eventually couldn’t resist interrupting.
“As soon as he came to the training ground, he screamed and looked for Julieta. It’s a good thing there weren’t many people at the training grounds.”
“So? What happened?”
“What do you think? When the person entered the training ground, Julieta was simply breaking logs as a warm-up exercise. Of course, with bare hands.”
“Ah…”
I sighed lowly. I could see the situation in my mind. I rushed Sevi.
“After that?”
“Well, he took his tail and turned straight back. How could he raise his voice when he saw that? He was also a non-expedition member.”
So that’s what happened. When I saw the power of the flying Black Knight, Julieta myself, I sometimes got goosebumps.
It seems that he came here thinking that he had enough muscle strength to have an accident before Julieta went to the monastery, but he must have broken out in a cold sweat when he encountered such a scene.
“It’s okay because everything’s fine. He won’t show up for a while.”
I was relieved little by little. I hated annoying things.
“He probably won’t appear in the future. He sent a letter to Julieta.”
“What letter?”
“He felt sorry. I lost my mind for a moment… Please forgive me. I’ve been working hard to be the son my parents expected me to be, but suddenly I felt like I was being pushed away, and I think I went crazy for a while… Now I’ve regained consciousness. From now on, I’m going to find my own life, not the one my parents want. The day I left you, I left home immediately and started looking for a job… If I get a job safely later, I’ll say hello briefly, something like that.”
Sevi went long and hard over the contents of the letter to Julieta. He seemed to remember the letter in a roundabout way.
“He changed his position so fast.”
“I’d rather have that…”
Julieta sighed and added.
“I’m weak-minded, so I think I’d have been bothered for a long time if my brother had gone off on some strange tangent. Gambling, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and causing accidents…”
Knowing herself well, Julieta shook her head as she counted on her fingers the stirrups her brother would pull. Just the thought of it seemed to be exhausting.
Perhaps he didn’t even dare to rebel or twist at the sight of Julietta’s power.
Maybe he didn’t dare defy his sister’s moods because he might end up in her hands if he made a mistake… It was a story with a lot of possibilities.
I couldn’t have the slightest idea what her brother was going through, but as if it was just a blessing, I looked at Julieta with a sufficient smile and complimented her on a job well done.
I looked around late and asked.
“Come to think of it, a new friend came into our special unit. Have you met her?”
“Yes. Jeanne? Began and Ginia showed her around earlier.”
“She looked pretty tired, so we put her to bed for now… Should we wake her up?”
Julieta asked, secretly looking around. I didn’t see Jeanne anyway, so I roughly guessed that the situation would be like that. I shook my head.
“No. You did a good job. Jeanne is younger than Sebi, so you have to take good care of her. Got it?”
“Don’t worry.”
Being seniors, the trio nodded enthusiastically.
Their enthusiasm was cocky, so I added a word of concern.
“Don’t say weird things.”
“Weird things?”
“Don’t scare her for no reason. Like saying things such as that you didn’t leave the dungeon for six months.”
“Ehh, but it’s the truth.”
“Sevi, you’re becoming more like Axion?”
“Ack!”
Scary to hear of Axion, Sevi shuddered. Nova and Julieta pointed and giggled at the sight.
As I was bickering with the trio, I felt like I had returned home for some reason.
A sense of belonging that I could not feel in the Fabian expedition.
I stroked Sevi’s hair and immediately opened my arms to hug the trio at once.
The children, who were much better than me in terms of strength and muscle power, easily followed me and made sleepy noises in my arms. I laughed out loud at the peace that this moment gave me.
The Fabian Expedition returned to the capital one step later than the Black Knights. The excitement that had greeted the Black Knights had already cooled down.
The pain in Fabian’s right arm kept reminding him of the humiliation he had suffered. Fabian gritted his teeth.
Thus, Fabian’s expedition stepped between the indifference of the crowd and entered the Imperial Palace.
Among the expeditions that were still in the imperial palace, one who recognized Fabian spoke without noticing.
“Yo, Fabian expedition. How do you feel about breaking the dungeon with the Black Knights? Did you see the wizard’s skills?”
“…”
Fabian passed by them silently. The mere mention of the Black Knights raised his fever.
The ignored expedition sarcastically looked at Fabian.
“Look at this, you’re an expedition in the lower and middle ranks yet you’re acting all cocky because you’ve broken a dungeon with the Black Knights once,”
It was not a small voice, so it caught his ear. The rest of the expedition followed him with restless faces as Fabian gritted his teeth and stepped forward.
The rest of the expedition, who had been waiting at the Imperial Palace when they heard the news of Fabian’s arrival, welcomed them with bright smiles.
“Fabian, did you level up a lot? How did you experience breaking a dungeon with the Black Knights?”
The same words he heard earlier in the hallway.
Deca gave the expedition members a look that told them to be quiet. Realizing that there was something wrong with the atmosphere, they all fell silent.
At that time, someone who noticed something asked confusingly.
“… Huh, Jeanne?”
All the eyes of the expedition members who had been to the dungeon turned to Fabian.
Fabian felt their sharp stares as if it were an accusation against him.
He couldn’t keep his mouth shut forever. Fabian smiled with all the pretense he could raise.
“She moved to the Black Knights.”
“Wow, really? How? Is that possible?”
Fearing Fabian’s words that fell, the expedition members made a big fuss. They all seemed to be in disbelief.
“Well, Jeanne’s talent is outstanding, so it’s worth aiming for in the Black Knights. There’s no ice wizard with a title there either.”
“But she’s raised her level in our expedition so far. Aren’t the Black Knights eating too raw?”
“I know. They have enough manpower, so do they have to bring a mage from a small and medium-sized expedition like us?”
“Jeanne is Jeanne, too. No matter how young she is, she’s going to go right now just because the Black Knights offered her a proposal? She’s not loyal.”
“She’s young. She can’t see things far away.”
Those who had been to the dungeon in a whirlwind of noise and maintained only silence. April’s expression, in particular, was frosty and very horrified.
April said in the middle of everyone’s commotion.
“Why aren’t you saying anything, Fabian?”
“…”
“You have to tell them that I sent Jeanne to the Black Knights at will and that Jeanne didn’t go because she wanted to go. Jeanne is the only one being criticized.”
“… April?”
“Your error in judgment put Jeanne in danger, so I sent her to the Black Knights where she would be safe. Why are you aiding and abetting the story to go back and forth as if Jeanne had gone on her own?”
April’s voice echoed low in the common room.
The gazes of those who had remained in the palace and those who had gone to the dungeon were mixed with anxiety.
Those who didn’t know what was going on stared at Fabian in bewilderment.
“I thought I wouldn’t be disappointed anymore… You’re the worst.”
April said and kicked her way out of the common room.
No one could easily open their mouths to the unexpected situation.
In the cold, watery atmosphere where everyone was just looking at each other, Fabian tried to fix the situation with an awkward smile.
“There was a misunderstanding with April in the dungeon. I think she’s completely mistaken.…. I’ll try to persuade her.”
Then he rushed after April.
Deca also hurriedly followed the unusual momentum of his friends.
Fabian called out to April from the other side of the corridor as she walked in a wide stride.
“April!”
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