Chapter 12

She had heard people mention the dukedom.  

But everyone treated him as if he wasn’t truly part of the ducal family, like he had almost no chance of inheriting the title.  

That’s why Rodella had never thought of him as the next Duke, nor treated him as such.  

But Aivert stated it clearly.  

“Royden doesn’t choose its successor based on blood alone. But no one other than me has ever been considered a candidate.”  

Not once, ever since his father died during the monster war, had any other name come up.  

“Was that when we got close…?”  

Rodella tilted her head, trying to recall the serious expression on young Aivert’s face.  

That probably wasn’t it.  

They must’ve been close even before he told her that.  

After all, he wouldn’t have shared something like that if they hadn’t already been friends, right?  

But how did they become close in the first place…?  

Even when she searched her hazy childhood memories, no clear moment came to mind.  

They had simply spent a lot of time together because of his power control training.  

And at some point, Aivert started following her around, and they became childhood friends who did everything together.  

Later, by chance, Cecilia joined them, and after Aivert learned to control his strength, he got along well with the other kids too.  

Still, if asked to name their closest friend, both of them would have named each other.  

He grew up safely, became an adult, and officially inherited the Royden dukedom.  

Now he was the Vice-Commander of the Azure Knights—cold, composed, and strict about separating personal and professional matters.  

Rumors said he’d changed so much it was hard to believe he was the same person.  

…The only thing that hadn’t changed was how much he still broke things.  

“What happened to turn this kid into such a rotten adult?”  

Rodella frowned as she recalled his laid-back voice from earlier, saying he’d “forgotten” mid-training.  

But she quickly shook her head.  

“Ah, this isn’t the time for that.”  

Rodella glared down at the documents she held.  

She was trying to familiarize herself with the Azure Knights’ operations.  

Thanks to that, she’d been working late even in her first week—but she’d expected as much.  

The previous person who should’ve handed things over was hospitalized, and he’d been part of that noble cartel.  

What kind of work could someone from that kind of elitist, power-drunk group have possibly done?  

It was better to just start from scratch.  

Having reached that conclusion, Rodella’s eyes gleamed as she scanned the documents again.  

First: focus on monitoring the person responsible for the most property damage!  

And that person was, obviously—  

[Aivert Royden]  

Her childhood friend.  

Rodella’s face twisted with irritation.  

Okay, sure, breaking things in the field could be forgiven if it was to save people.  

But what was with pretending to forget how to control his strength earlier?  

It’s not like he actually forgot and then got hit and magically remembered.  

What was he, a malfunctioning artifact with tangled mana circuits that fixed itself if you smacked it hard enough?  

“If this guy just broke things a little less often, we could cut our costs by like 60%.”  

Honestly, it would be a lie to say she hadn’t been hoping for something when she joined the Azure Knights.  

She was the one who’d helped him learn to control his power back at the academy.  

Even if he’d forgotten for a while, she’d thought her presence might bring him back on track.  

But after what happened earlier… and seeing how he was surrounded by others just like him, it felt like he’d only gotten worse.  

This wasn’t going to be easy.  

“Fine. Time to give up on the easy way.”  

First step: pick out a few of them—including that guy—and start monitoring them closely!  

Rodella’s hands moved quickly as she flipped through the personnel files of the knights.

* * *

The Azure Knights were not the kind of group that encouraged working late.  

“At night, you sleep. Sleep!”  

Latine would say that and promptly turn off the lights in the document room.  

He claimed it was to save fuel or conserve magic stones, but given that he himself worked late every night, it was clear he was simply concerned for the knights.  

So whenever Rodella did need to work late, she would just bring the documents back to her room.  

And so, one night, the lights were on in her room.  

In contrast, the room next door—Aivert’s—was dark.  

But that didn’t mean its occupant was asleep.  

Reading without a light wasn’t difficult for him, so he left the lights off and merely pretended to be asleep as he read the memo left for him.  

After decoding the complex cipher used within the Royden household, the message was roughly:  

 [Red Knights Quartermaster Officer – now under surveillance]  

Just as he’d suspected.  

His current surveillance target had been Ryan Diepelt, so it looked like the plan had gone smoothly, and the Quartermaster had been reassigned to the Red Knights.  

Whoosh!  

He tossed the memo into the hearth and sat back on the edge of his bed.  

People were more easily swayed by rumors and whispers than they realized.  

For those who called themselves Royden’s black ink, blending into the shadows and nudging stories ever so slightly in their favor was no trouble at all.  

Those who inherited the will of “Royden” didn’t exist only in the main house.  

This time was no different.  

Assigning Ryan Diepelt to the Red Knights as Quartermaster wasn’t about achieving any concrete outcome.  

It was simply about introducing a bit of unease to those on the opposing side—making them think their plans were starting to unravel.  

Rodella Siverick had been sent to the Azure Knights as a wildcard.  

She was already conducting special training.  

If the Azure Knights were to change, even slightly—  

Then, coincidentally, the Quartermaster of the Red Knights was injured…?  

If Rodella Siverick actually did change the Azure Knights, then the noble faction, who wanted to push Ryan Diepelt as chancellor, would feel the pressure to match that level of success.  

That left them with only one answer:  

Push Ryan Diepelt onto the battlefield.  

Just as expected, things unfolded accordingly.  

He had done nothing more than blow a faint breath of wind—and yet, people moved so easily.  

But.  

“……”  

Aivert glanced toward the lit window of the room next to his.  

“You’re just pretending not to know!”

Rodella, who had smacked his back while saying that—  

She was the one person he couldn’t sway at will.  

“Could you… teach me again, like back then?”  

He had asked her that—almost on impulse.  

Like back at the academy, when it had felt like only the two of them existed in the world.  

He wanted to exist only in her time, only in her gaze.  

For that—he wasn’t pretending to forget.  

He was willing to forget everything else that wasn’t her.  

Rodella.  

He whispered it like a secret.  

Words that couldn’t reach the one person they were meant for.

* * *

The next day.  

As usual, Latine Modilac, the Captain of the Azure Knights, arrived at headquarters—and promptly dropped his jaw.

“What on earth are you all doing?”

Before him was a parade of bizarre antics.  

Some knights were using tongs to move beans, while others behind them were playing a sort of tennis game with dolls.  

Further back, a few were showing off “advanced” techniques like peeling apples as thinly as possible with daggers.  

All of them were smeared with dried egg or bits of eggshell on their uniforms, faces, and even necks.

At this point, it was hard to tell whether he’d walked into a wandering clown troupe’s rehearsal or an apprentice chef’s kitchen—certainly not a knight training ground.

“Ah, Captain! Good morning!”  

At that moment, Lanark—the one who’d broken the first egg yesterday—bowed his head in greeting.

“Yeah, yeah.”  

Latine gave a half-hearted wave in return.  

Unlike a certain red knight order, he didn’t want his knights to drop everything and run over just to greet him, so he never made a big deal out of his arrival.

Still, he needed to know what the hell was going on here.

“So… what are you all doing?”