Take Off Your Shoes
“Looks like everyone’s gathered here.”
At that moment, the student council’s general affairs officer, Aaron, approached.
He was just as small as Lukna—slender build, delicate features, slightly pointed ears, and pink curly hair. The small tattoos on his cheeks and the backs of his hands were adorable, but among the student council members, his expression was the coldest.
The reason Lukna was never suspected of being a girl was because there were small and pretty cadets like Aaron.
He was a gnome, known as a spirit of the earth.
Gnomes liked decorating their bodies with tattoos and enriched the soil by striking the ground with wooden mallets. Aaron’s family, a race that valued farming as a virtue, owned the Empire’s central Golden Plains and was responsible for more than half of the Empire’s grain production.
In other words, his family was one of the richest in the Empire.
Like any proper gnome, Aaron always carried a wooden mallet, but he was more interested in law than farming.
Whenever he encountered a disobedient cadet, he would imitate a judge with his farming mallet, declaring guilty or not guilty before delivering punishment.
“You’re here now, Aaron?”
Bolton greeted him while mockingly comparing their heights with his hand, but Aaron completely ignored the provocation.
Still, Bolton was glad Aaron had arrived.
The atmosphere had been so tense just moments ago that he had nearly suffocated.
Watching Lukna and her gang disappear into the distance, Aaron spoke in a dry tone.
“That’s Lukna Golden, the ‘student of interest.’”
“Our blockhead’s gotten famous. Even you recognize her now.”
Bolton chuckled and jabbed Aaron’s shoulder with his elbow.
“I know about students of interest. And filthy contact is guilty.”
Aaron immediately swung his wooden mallet and struck Bolton on the back. Bolton rubbed his back dramatically.
“Hey! You can’t hit someone over that!”
“Over that? Did you shower today or not?”
“……”
“Walking germ colony. Death penalty.”
Aaron struck his back once more with a solid thwack.
Hit squarely on the spine, Bolton rolled across the floor.
Watching the scene, Ched burst out laughing.
“Pfft—haha! Ah, my stomach.”
“Ugh, my back’s killing me. Is this funny to you? A man’s collapsed here!”
“Yeah, it’s funny. Hahaha! I laughed too much—I’m getting dizzy. I should go take a nap.”
Ched, who never exercised and looked like bones wrapped in thin skin, turned toward the student council room.
Bolton muttered tearfully after him.
“How does a guy that weak even attract women? Sure, he can use magic, but he’s weaker than a blockhead physically.”
“A guy like Ched is far better than someone who thinks stamina alone can win women over.”
Aaron shook his head at Bolton, who clearly didn’t understand the obvious.
He continued lecturing him not to fantasize about dating but to wake up to reality.
“Fantasize? I’d be pretty popular if I just dressed up properly!”
“According to who?”
“My mom.”
“……The more I hear, the more pitiful this becomes. I’ll declare that last statement not guilty.”
“Not guilty.”
Aaron tapped his palm twice with the mallet and headed toward the library.
“That tiny snot-sized gnome brat!”
Furious, Bolton fiddled with his black eyepatch and looked for Matian.
“Hey, Matian! Why is the student council full of weirdos like that?”
Huh? Matian?
Bolton looked around. The place where Matian had been standing was now empty.
“Hi, Matian. Haha.”
When Lukna arrived in front of her dorm room, she greeted Matian, who was waiting in the hallway.
He had clearly been standing far away earlier—how had he arrived before her?
Does he use teleportation with those long legs?
“Matian? Are you sick?”
Though he wore his usual perfect smile, his complexion looked pale.
If he’s sick, shouldn’t he go to the infirmary? Why come all the way here to bother me?
Matian rubbed his solar plexus with his palm and simply smiled without answering.
“Did you come because you needed something from me? I’m honestly exhausted and need to sleep.”
Lukna truly had no energy to deal with him.
Training at dawn, packed lectures, and her gang growing stronger and more troublesome by the day.
At this rate, her ultimate goal—living as a wealthy extra after graduation—felt increasingly distant.
‘I don’t have the energy to waste on emotional battles with Matian.
And when he’s around, even the Holy Sword disappears, so I can’t get help in a crisis.’
Seeing her obvious discomfort, Matian slowly opened his mouth.
“I heard you’ve been using something like a mop as a weapon lately.”
He recalled the thugs collapsed in the alley and deduced the weapon from their bruises.
“I—I’m not sure what you mean…”
Lukna felt guilty but pretended ignorance.
“You’re small. That kind of weapon doesn’t suit you. It throws off your center of gravity.”
He offered the random advice in a gentle voice.
What? Whether I beat people with a broom or a mop, what’s it to you?
You waited here looking half-dead just to say that?
She looked him up and down indignantly—
…and immediately lost her fighting spirit.
‘…He’s tall. Annoyingly flawless.’
Still, that didn’t make him any less irritating.
“That’s why you look weaker, Lukna.”
“What?”
“Hyenas leave someone like Aaron alone but pick fights with you because of that.”
Excuse me?
“If you don’t want to be underestimated, don’t make that pouty face.”
Matian reached out and pressed her puffed lips inward with his finger.
Her soft lips sank in obediently under the pressure.
His smiling blue eyes felt strangely cold.
“…There.”
He quickly withdrew his hand.
‘This feels strange.’
How could a guy’s lips be that soft?
Even through thin gloves, the sensation was vivid.
Frowning, he stared at the hand that had touched her.
‘If I touched them once more, I might understand what that feeling was.’
The unfamiliar curiosity unsettled him.
‘And… the pain in my chest is gone.’
The throbbing ache in his heart had subsided.
Coincidence?
Meanwhile, Lukna misunderstood.
Does he think touching me was disgusting?
“You came all this way just to criticize my expression?”
She grumbled and unlocked her door.
But the inside of her room was a mess.
“W-What happened here?”
Drawers under the bed, desk, wardrobe—everything had been ransacked as if a thief had broken in.
The window stood wide open. Cold evening wind blew in, curtains flapping wildly, hinges creaking.
“There was an intruder.”
Without hesitation, Matian stepped inside.
With his shoes on.
“Ah—no!”
Honorary Korean Lukna, who lived shoe-free indoors, stopped him in horror.
The room was already trashed, but dirty shoes were still unacceptable.
“Please take them off over there.”
She grabbed the hem of his clothes and pointed at the entrance.
“You want me to… take them off?”
Matian repeated, misunderstanding. His ears had turned red.
“The shoes. I don’t wear shoes inside my room.”
“….”
He looked down at her feet.
Her shoes were neatly placed by the cabinet. She was indeed only wearing socks.
‘Did the Golden Count’s family teach their adopted child not to wear shoes?’
Was it discrimination? Or family tradition?
And how could such tiny feet even support her?
Those feet small enough to fit in his palm had endured military academy training and beaten up delinquents.
He couldn’t take his eyes off them.
“Your feet are really…”
“My feet are what?”
“…Nothing.”
Why stop halfway?
After a moment of hesitation, Matian removed his shoes and entered.
“Uh… thank you.”
She scratched her head awkwardly.
She’d expected him to ignore her or leave entirely.
For a noble who sometimes didn’t remove shoes even on a bed, this was practically an insult.
“It’s unsettling. Next time, prepare indoor slippers.”
“Oh? Ah, okay.”
“And you should wear something too. If other cadets see you barefoot, they might think you lack basic manners.”
He added that unnecessary lecture while surveying the messy room.
Normally, cadet rooms reeked of male body odor.
But Lukna’s room carried a faint scent of lilac.
Taking off shoes was strange enough. This was even stranger.
Meanwhile, Lukna checked whether anything had been stolen.
Fortunately, no money or valuables were missing.
‘Strange. If it wasn’t theft, then why break in? Were they searching for something?’
The first thing that came to mind was the Holy Sword.
If so, then the one who wanted it most would be the culprit.
Lukna’s round eyes slowly rolled toward the strongest suspect.
