The feelings he had been suppressing poured out unreservedly.
Her eyes, which looked like they were going to cry at any moment, in the end showed no tears.
But Blair's hand, which was gripping the sheet instead of the fork, was shaking uncontrollably.
Herdin, after contemplating that image with his icy blue eyes, turned around and left the room.
—
—Pant, gasp… I can't take it anymore… Please have some mercy…
—This is not human resistance…
Delmarck's knights, each with their groans, were knocked down on the training ground.
But Caligo had no regard for them.
—Don't come to me with weaknesses!
Whoever collapses before me, who arrived at the mansion yesterday, should know that he won't lift his head today!
—But then we also went hunting magical monsters yesterday, right?
—Well then we are the same.
I, who have slept uncomfortably for several days in a place that is not my house, and you, who have gone to hunt magical monsters having slept comfortably with your legs stretched out.
No?
Caligo, telling them to get up quickly, kicked them.
But they, far from getting up, avoided their potatoes and rolled on the floor.
Caligo was one of the Corps' most select knights.
But the knights wished that the day when he became commander would never come.
The reason was the intensity of his training, which was cruel.
At the moment when the knights were rolling on the ground with that fervent desire, someone appeared at the entrance of the training ground.
All eyes were directed to that point.
Blair and some servants were there.
With some baskets in hands.
—I brought something to eat because I see you trying hard.
The gazes of the knights, who were as if dead, suddenly lit up.
The Lord had answered them!
Even those who normally didn't view Blair favorably saw her as an angel at that moment.
—If we get in the way, we leave it here and you can eat it later if…
—No, no!
We want to eat now!
—If the lady has been nice enough to bring it, isn't it good manners to eat it before it gets cold?
The knights, who were scattered like corpses, quickly stood up and approached Blair and the servants.
Caligo kicked a subordinate who was approaching Blair in the butt, but his subordinates ignored him.
—Okay, it would not be acceptable for the lady to have come here and we say goodbye without greeting her.
Thirty minutes of rest.
A shout of joy broke out among the knights.
The servants distributed the food to them.
They were baguettes with meat and vegetables, and apple juice.
Caligo, who was watching his subordinates eat, personally received the food from Blair.
When he received it, he was happy like a child.
—Oh, that you bothered to bring it...
I feel overwhelmed, ma'am.
As expected, a house needs a lady.
—I didn't usually come here because I was worried about getting in the way of training, but if you like it so much, I should have brought you something sooner.
—Those kids, if training bothers them, they're happy to rest.
Well, thank you, I'll eat well.
He must have been hungry too, because he started eating the baguette immediately.
In reality, he had not come to the training ground with the pure purpose of taking care of the knights.
Just this morning, as soon as Herdin left the bedroom, he had sent a letter to Mikhail asking him to investigate Caligo.
But with the murderer who had killed her in front of her, she couldn't sit still and wait.
Thinking he had to do something, he had come with the excuse of the gentlemen.
—Oh, this is delicious.
All the way from the territory I haven't stopped thinking about the freshly baked, warm bread...
The bread from the inns looks like a stone.
The lady has never tried that, right?
—You say the bread is hard as a rock?
-It's true.
The lady will also have to go to the territory sometime, so she will try it.
It seems like they are going to shell all your corn...
—Corn?
—Oh, I shouldn't say these things in front of a lady...
I'm sorry, since I grew up in poverty, I don't know very well about this...
Caligo, as if he realized it too late, slapped his mouth, and then, seeing a subordinate passing nearby, he gave him a push.
—Go get another baguette.
-I?
—Don't you see that I'm talking to the lady?
The subordinate went to get the bread grumbling.
The fact that he grumbled proved that Caligo was a good superior.
Because it meant it was tolerated.
Blair was gawking at that Caligo.
The man who had killed her was too normal to be a murderer.
That she would be happy that someone gave her something to eat, that she would be happy to eat something delicious, that she would get along with people, that she would not judge them badly because of her prejudices.
That's why it was scarier.
That someone like that could have killed her.
—It seems that you have been in Delmarck for a long time.
Everyone seems to obey him well.
—I've been around longer than those guys.
I was thirteen, I think.
I came to Delmarck around that time.
—Where were you stationed before then?
If it wasn't for personal reasons that Caligo killed her, then someone ordered him to do it.
—Before coming to Delmarck…
Just as Caligo opened his mouth, a presence was felt near the entrance of the training ground.
Turning towards that presence, they saw Herdin entering the training field.
-Excellence?
What are you doing here at this hour?
Not at your busiest time?
—It's just that I finished early and I came to practice combat, but there was already a visitor.
His gaze, which was observing Blair and Caligo, was strangely cold.
Blair looked at him with distaste for his sudden appearance.
But once Herdin had arrived, he couldn't continue that conversation.
And besides, it was uncomfortable for him to see.
Because it was that same morning when they had argued.
And even more so, because as soon as he saw him, he remembered the words he had said, and felt even more eager to avoid him.
Why would he have said that?
If she's not even a little girl.
Of the words she knew, it was the only one that expressed her feelings, and she blurted it out, just as it came out of her mouth… But it wasn't like a six-year-old girl would get angry, was it?
Of course I hated it.
I hated it.
But he didn't like that his feelings, expressed in a single word, seemed infinitely lighter than the weight they carried in his heart.
—I wasted a lot of time, I just came to bring something to eat.
I'm leaving now.
Blair, as if fleeing from Herdin, left the training ground with the maids.
Herdin's cold gaze followed Blair's back.
Caligo, who had been observing this scene, breathed out a small exclamation as if he had realized something.
…To be continued