Chapter 24

‘Hiccup! How did he know?’

Adel held his breath behind the pillar, having heard the two men’s voices.

Fortunately, he heard their footsteps getting farther away without any more words.

Peeking his head out from behind the pillar, he saw Nine and Norman heading to the training grounds where the knights were training.

“Phew.”

Adel let out a sigh of relief and looked around. As expected, no one was at the entrance to the training grounds that the two had entered.

“Yawn.”

The schedule of Nine, which Adel had found out by asking the servants, started early in the morning. As a result, Adel, who had to wake up earlier than usual, couldn’t help but yawn.

But the boy rubbed his eyes and shook off his sleepiness.

‘I’m sleepy, but I can’t give up.’

He had to find out what kind of man Nine was, a man who had captured the heart of a wonderful woman like Chacha and even married her.

Of course, this was just preliminary work to ultimately show that he was a more wonderful person than Nine.

Creep, creep.

Taking advantage of the empty space, Adel cautiously entered the training grounds.

Near the entrance to the training grounds, there were several barrels of his size.

Adel quickly hid behind one and peeked out, beginning to observe Nine, who was standing in the training grounds.

He couldn’t hear the sound well because of the distance. Nine had the knights, who were lined up, run around the training grounds and then handed his clothes to Norman.

Then he lightly stretched as if he was warming up, and with each movement, his solid muscles were visible.

‘…’

Adel looked down at his small, thin body and shook his head.

‘I’m still growing.’

Nine, who had warmed up, stood facing Kroel, the vice-commander of the Silver Wolf Knights’ Order, whom Adel had seen a few times before, holding swords.

Clang!

The two, who had closed the distance in an instant, clashed their swords, and a sharp sound echoed throughout the entire training grounds.

Adel, startled, widened his eyes and watched the duel that had begun so suddenly.

The movements were so fast that it was difficult to even follow them with his eyes. The fierce sound of swords clashing in succession was foreign to him.

The duel, which seemed to go on for a long time, ended with a blade pointed at Kroel’s neck.

Adel, who had snapped back to reality, clenched his hands to stop himself from clapping and took out a small notebook and a pen.

It was a gift from Chacha. The notebook was originally a simple design with no decorations, but when Adel expressed his disappointment, Chacha drew a picture on it.

Adel also started drawing pictures next to hers, and the colorful notebook was his treasure.

Adel began to write something in his precious notebook with his neatest handwriting.

1. He wakes up early in the morning and works until late at night. He seems diligent.

→ But I can wake up earlier!

2. He’s tall, and his face resembles the portrait of Father in the hall. He looks a bit different from me.

→ Height… I’ll get taller in a few years, too. I’m still growing!

‘And then…’

The moment he looked up to get new information, Adel’s blue eyes met Nine’s black eyes.

‘…!’

Nine looked at Adel with an expressionless face, then stuck his sword into the ground and walked toward him.

‘I’ve been caught!’

Adel, who didn’t expect him to come closer, was startled and quickly closed his notebook and ran out of the training grounds.

“Huff, huff.”

Adel, who had run at full speed, was finally able to catch his breath after he entered the castle.

Nine didn’t follow him this far.

Catching his breath and wiping the sweat from his forehead, Adel took out his notebook again and added a few more pieces of information.

3. He’s quick-witted.

→ But I was faster at running!

4. He seems to be good at handling a sword.

→ If I start learning from now, later on…

***

“It’s less than I thought.”

The results of his week-long observation of Nine were devastating.

First, he didn’t have many chances to observe him, and second, Nine’s schedule wasn’t varied enough to make the observation meaningful.

Nine was so busy that he wasn’t even in the castle for half of the week, and on the days he was, he only went between the training grounds, his office, and his bedroom.

‘Observing him on my own has its limits.’

It took him exactly one week to realize this.

But he couldn’t think of a better way.

Adel, lost in thought, walked toward Chacha’s office. It was about time for Chacha to come to her office.

“Chacha!”

Just as Adel expected, Chacha had just arrived at her office and was opening the door.

“Adel, you’re waking up early these days?”

Chacha greeted him warmly and stroked his head.

He had started waking up early to observe Nine, but there was a good thing about waking up early.

First, he could see Chacha earlier, and second, Chacha praised him for waking up early.

‘I won one more. Hehe.’

Adel puffed out his chest, having won both the running and the waking up early.

“Adel, did you eat breakfast?”

“No. I came right out as soon as I woke up.”

“Then you must be hungry. If you wake up early tomorrow too, should we eat breakfast together?”

“Okay!”

As they went into Chacha’s office, a servant came in with sandwiches a little while later.

It was a sandwich that Chacha had prepared right away after hearing that he hadn’t eaten breakfast.

As Adel eagerly bit into the sandwich that Chacha pushed toward him, he asked something that had suddenly come to mind.

His worries just poured out in front of Chacha.

“Chacha, if I want to know about someone else, what should I do? Besides observing them myself.”

“Hmm?”

Seeing Chacha’s puzzled expression, Adel hastily added,

“Just watching them has its limits.”

“Mmm…”

Chacha took her eyes off the document she was holding and thought seriously.

Adel liked that Chacha was listening to his worries so attentively, so he stared at her face.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to get to know them by talking to them than just watching them?”

“Munch, munch. Besides that… Ah.”

Adel had his mouth full of a sandwich because he was so hungry.

As he mumbled, he remembered something he had learned from Chacha and his tutor and covered his mouth with both hands.

‘Don’t talk with food in your mouth!’

Adel chewed and swallowed the sandwich in his mouth and then lowered his hands that were covering his mouth.

Chacha smiled and picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth.

“Besides that? What if it’s someone who is hard to talk to?”

“Then how about asking the people around them?”

Adel’s eyes widened. It was a method he had never thought of.

“Thank you, Chacha!”

“Who are you curious about? If it’s someone I know, I can help.”

“It’s a secret from Chacha.”

“Why?”

“I can’t tell you the reason.”

Adel, ignoring the curious Chacha, quickly finished his sandwich.

Adel, who was about to run out of the office, stopped and came back to wave at Chacha.

“I’ll be back!”

“Mmm, okay. Don’t run and be careful!”

Adel, who was so absorbed in the fact that he was “going out,” grinned at Chacha’s reply.

He immediately left the office, took out his treasure notebook, and walked around the castle.

His target was the servants and knights who had served Nine for a long time.

Every time Adel met them, he would ask them the same question.

“What kind of person is my brother?”

***

It took Adel several days to gather enough information. The people who served Nine weren’t exactly free.

After a few days, Adel, who had organized the facts he had observed himself and the information he had gathered from the people around him, felt a little crestfallen.

Nine was, more than Adel had expected, quite… a wonderful person.

*’The Duke is the youngest Swordmaster in the Empire! Have you seen the Duke’s swordsmanship skills, young master? Why don’t you come and watch next time?’*

‘He is a born leader who has led the North safely even after becoming the Duke at a young age.’

‘He is not only the best in combat but also a brilliant person who graduated at the top of the Imperial Academy.’

‘It may be a bit inappropriate for me to say this, but… he’s so handsome that there are countless women who blush in front of the Duke.’

“…”

Adel, who was flipping through his notebook and reviewing the contents, trudged back to his room.

When he entered the room, he saw a full-length mirror on one side. Adel walked up to it and looked at his reflection.

Nine was tall and had a mature aura with sharp black hair and black eyes.

In comparison, the boy in the mirror was short, had chubby cheeks, and was round, not sharp at all.

Unlike Nine, whose black hair was shiny and well-groomed, Adel’s hair was messy and stuck out everywhere.

Moreover, his eyes were a transparent blue, not the deep black of Nine’s.

He took his eyes off his face, rolled up his sleeves, and flexed his arm. No matter how much he flexed, he couldn’t see any solid muscles.

Rather, he looked so frail that he probably couldn’t even properly hold a wooden sword.

‘But my brother…’

He was skilled enough to win a duel against the vice-commander of the knight order. He was so strong that even without rolling up his sleeves, he looked sturdy.

He was smart enough to be at the top of the academy, but Adel had been running away from studying until recently.

When he compared himself to Nine, it was obvious which one was the more wonderful person.

“It makes sense. There’s no way the person Chacha likes isn’t wonderful…”

If Nine hadn’t been so admirable, Adele might have tried to get in the way, saying Chacha deserved better.

“Haa…”

Adel, his body limp with a sense of defeat, plopped down on the sofa.

“What do I have that’s better than my brother?”

That he likes Chacha more?

That Chacha likes him more?

That he spends more time with Chacha?

‘Huh?’

Adel, who was lying down listlessly and continuing his thoughts, suddenly felt a doubt.

He tilted his head and retraced his memories, and as he flipped through his notebook again, he felt a strange sense of dissonance.

Adel had spent over a week investigating Nine.

During that time, he had secretly followed Nine and spent time with Chacha, so Adel was in a better position than anyone else to understand the daily lives of the two.

But…

“Why don’t they meet if they love each other enough to get married?”