Prologue 1.
“Don’t fall asleep, Serdin Vivi.”
A low, baritone voice echoed inside the carriage.
The carriage rattled along the forest path.
The knight with light-colored hair slowly lifted her heavy eyelids. The tightly bound cotton candy-like hair rubbing against the shoulder of her uniform was forming static.
The leader of the Elche Knights, Royce Velkerente, leaned back as he observed the scene. Though his arms were crossed and the gaze he threw was seemingly indifferent, his piercing blue eyes were fixed on her the whole time.
After a while, the carriage rattled violently over the rocky path, and only then did the dozing Serdin open her eyes again.
“How far are we?”
Serdin looked indifferently out the window, while Royce’s eyes were fixed on her profile.
He had known Serdin for quite a while. It had been four and a half years from their time at the knight academy.
“Uh-huh.”
Serdin’s eyes widened, she must have spotted something.
As soon as the carriage stopped, Serdin got down and ran towards it.
Just as it seemed she was about to do something, she suddenly ran back and called out to him.
“Captain, hurry up and come down quickly.”
“Why?”
“Get off when I tell you to.”
There was a look of joy in Serdin’s expression as if something delightful had happened.
No, there was someone collapsed on the ground? What made her so happy?
Was a rich man with bundles of money lying there? That would be understandable, considering Serdin often laid out plans for wealth accumulation.
Serdin grabbed Royce’s arm eagerly.
Each time she pulled him like this, Royce was engulfed by emotions he couldn’t bear to express to her.
It was a woman with golden hair lying in front of the carriage.
Serdin’s long fingers pointed to the woman lying down with a weary and exhausted look on her face.
“What are you doing, Commander? Someone has collapsed. You must help her immediately.”
“And you are doing what, exactly?”
“Oh, seriously. I got a cramp in my foot.”
She pushed Royce.
Royce looked reluctant all over, but Serdin, on the other hand, had a face that beamed with a joyful smile.
“Finally…!”
As Royce held the woman in his arms, he heard Serdin muttering something with her hands clasped. Seeming as if she was giving thanks to the sky, but Royce couldn’t figure out why.
As Royce lifted the woman, a conversation he had with Serdin in the past flashed through his mind.
‘When you meet a woman with blonde hair and a red bead bracelet, you must never just pass her by.’
‘Since you’ve said so, now I want to just pass by her.’
‘No, you can’t. That person… is the person of destiny!’
Royce immediately looked at the wrist of the woman he was holding.
Blonde hair and a red bead bracelet.
It was clear that this was the person of destiny Serdin had spoken of.
“Serdin’s fated person?”
In Royce’s navy blue eyes, unbeknownst to him, was a rising sense of jealousy.
* * *
They finally met.
Royce finally met Lucille. How long I’ve been waiting for this day. I kept singing with joy in my heart.
The two main characters in the popular dropped novel “Kissing Your Sword,” Royce Velkerente and Lucille Ardelia.
The woman who had fallen was clearly Lucille, the female protagonist of the original work.
So finally, the original male and female lead have met. It was an unparalleled thing of joy for me.
“He finally has a new target to obsess over! The guy who always drags me around!”
Alright, alright. It’s done. I clapped my hands in excitement. Until now, the original female lead, Lucille, had not appeared. So for years, this work-obsessed male lead had been nothing but a nuisance to me, his subordinate.
“But that life is over now! Now, the male lead’s attention will be on the heroine!”
If Royce could just fall into a happy romance with Lucille and abandon his obsession with work.
“Then I can comfortably live as a knight, and we can all have a happy ending.”
Just thinking about a comfortable life made me smile.
Look at those eyes! They were going to be filled with obsession now…
“Serdin.”
Strange. Those eyes should be like that, but they turned back to me before I knew it.
Royce, who laid Lucille in the carriage, came down again and looked at me.
The gaze from his blue eyes encompassed me, and wasn’t all that gentle.
It was a fierce glare like that of a beast unwilling to have its prey taken away.
Such a look should be directed at the female lead, so why was he looking at me like that? I was about to get on the carriage after glancing at Royce with puzzled eyes, but he grabbed me by the arm and blocked me.
“There’s no room in the carriage.”
“There’s a seat for one person.”
“That’s not meant for you.”
I understood what Royce meant in a heartbeat.
Right, in my concern for my own peace of mind, I forgot something important.
It should’ve been obvious that Royce would have fallen for Lucille at first sight. He needed some time alone with her.
Wow, I’d been so tactless. I stepped back from the carriage with a faint smile.
“I’ll walk, then. Please, take it easy Captain.”
We were only a few kilometers from the village, and even if we traveled leisurely, we would arrive in about an hour.
I can manage walking that distance.
“Let’s walk together.”
“Yes… Wait, what?”
“Sitting in the carriage has made my body stiff. I’m going to walk too.”
“Then I’ll ride in the carriage.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“You said you’d walk, didn’t you? A Knight doesn’t go back on their word.” After leaving instructions for the coachman to take Lucille to the clinic, Royce dragged me along.
As the departing carriage grew further and further away, I stood there for a moment, bewildered.
“….”
In order to understand his strange behavior…
I might need to explain the day I first met Royce, and perhaps the day I first recalled my previous life.
* * *
“First year? You seem like quite the eager and model student, man.”
I first became aware of my past life about four years ago.
That spring, upon coming of age, I entered my first year of the knight school Eudelin.
“To think a first-year would take this class! You’ll go far!”
“…Thank you.”
That day, after having failed to enroll in the courses I wanted, I had to pick up a practical training class typically taken by seniors.
The elective class, <Knight Survival Practicum> was notorious as one of the most rigorous courses at Eudelin.
‘Still, how can I be the only first year here?’
The notoriety of <Knight Survival Practicum> stemmed from its viciously challenging team projects.
A saying went around as if it were gospel truth that those who ended up in the same team for this class, would never set foot in the same knight order.
“I will now announce the members of the practicum teams.”
As the professor lifted the paper with the list, I focused all my attention on it.
The team assignments for this class was arguably the most important and crucial event for the entire semester.
It was no exaggeration to say that our mental and physical stability for the next six months depended on this moment.
“…Serdin Vivi from the first year, Derek Musket from the second year, and… Royce Velkerente from the fourth year.”
“Royce Velkerente?”
The name was familiar: there would likely be no one at Eudelin who wouldn’t know him.
No, not just at Eudelin, everyone in the empire would know him.
Royce was a person with a perfect background, as if he was a protagonist plucked from a novel.
The sole heir of the Velkerente Duchy of the empire, and an elegant appearance and physique that made people look twice. Extraordinary swordsmanship that earned him the title of the “Sword’s Avatar” and the incarnation of a sword, with the ability to join the imperial knight order “Elche” as a first-year student.
And the Velkerente Duchy’s chosen sword heir.
The term “chosen sword heir” referred to a person who inherited the family’s sword, having been chosen by the sword. Since the sword possessed properties akin to magical mana, the chosen sword heir could wield swordsmanship skills beyond what a regular sword would allow, by using the sword as a medium.
‘He’s in the same group…’
…I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Rather, it felt like a blow to the back of the head.
But then again, it wasn’t surprising. Royce Velkerente had never attended a single class until now, despite his impeccable background.
What that meant for members of the group project… let’s save our words, for now at least.
* * *
“Serdin, calm down.”
“I’m not angry.”
“Your expression looks really bad though…”
Derek interrupted me as I stood in line at the training center. From the times Royce never showed his nose in class, things seemed off! In the end, Royce only showed up the day of the practical.
I tried every possible way to contact him, but I couldn’t even see a single strand of his hair.
I showed up at the meetings the day after drinking heavily at a party and blacking out!
I even showed up at the meetings the day after getting hurt rolling down a hill!
‘Just show up today…’
The team project for <Knight Survival Practicum> was literally surviving on an island for two days.
The survival area and the obstacles set up there were unknown until the start of the practical, so the participants had to prepare everything in anticipation of them. So, while the actual execution was important, the preparation was just as crucial.
So far, Royce hasn’t even shown a strand of his hair. My anger, simmering as I stood in line, was now boiling over to the point that I could cook a stew.
“Wow, there’s Royce Velkerente.”
“Is that him, Royce?”
“…Wow.”
The murmurs of the people hit me like a blow to the back of my head. This damn pheasant was nowhere to be seen until now, but now he suddenly shows up at the day of the practical training?
I jumped up and looked in the direction where everyone’s gaze was fixed.
“……”
A man with an unrivaled aura that simply turned everyone else into background characters was approaching.
His striking cold and stern navy blue eyes were focused ahead. The black hair that partially covered his forehead lightly brushed against his dark eyebrows. The wind seemed to adjust its pace for him, as it had paused for his arrival.
‘Handsome….’
For a moment, I just looked at him, forgetting what I was going to say. The good thing was that I wasn’t staring blankly at him in a daze, but rather, with a somewhat glaring expression that I did not realize I was making.
Having come to my senses, I walked towards Royce, making a tapping sound with each step.
“Hello, senior.”
Royce looked at me and smiled.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Are you Serdin Vivi?”
An unexpected counter-question. He knows me?
“If I am?”
Royce burst into laughter at my response. I didn’t know what was so funny.
“Alright, what can I do for you?”
Royce asked as he approached me.
A thin smile etched on his ill-natured face seemed to pierce into me like a thread into a needle. I bit back the urge to throw the 30kg bag on my shoulder at him and replied.
