Chapter 2
Are you going to cut me off?
“Will you do what I ask you to?”
“You asked me to.”
“Me?”
Me? When?
As I blinked in slight bewilderment, Royce suddenly handed a small bag to me and Derek.
“Most of what you’ll need for survival is fit into here, so you won’t need anything else. A robe to shield from the sand, a knife that works well on vines…”
“Wait a moment, what?”
I asked back, interrupting Royce’s words. Everything is in there?
That statement was akin to having memorized ten volumes of study material to cover a test’s range, only to find out it asked for a one-page summary.
‘No. If you were going to be like this, you should have shown up earlier!’
But when I made that clear, Royce didn’t bat an eye.
On the contrary, there was even a hint of joy in the way he looked at me.
‘Look at this guy…?’
He spoke in an indifferent tone.
“It seems like my role will be the most crucial in the practical.”
“Senior, you seem to think you’re the only one who can use a sword here.”
“Simply using one and handling it are different matters.”
Royce was all too aware of his abilities. But he was overconfident.
I was about to explode and show him my fiery temper when…
“Next group, let’s go!”
The whistle blew. After glaring at him as hard as I could, I hurried towards the training ground.
Royce should really know he was saved by the whistle…
* * *
‘Wait, isn’t this cheating?’
The kit Royce brought was honestly excellent.
It was truly a perfectly compact gift set that could easily overshadow everything Derek and I had prepared so far. It was also definitely worthy of the Velkerente Ducal Household, which had produced numerous knights before.
The problem was that two of our three kits immediately disappeared into a sand-trap as soon as we entered the first course.
The moment the practical began and we set foot on the sandy dunes, a scorpion-like monster suddenly sprang from beneath the sand and snatched Derek’s kit.
“Senior Derek!”
Derek, tightly holding the kit, fell backward with it.
He exerted all the strength he could muster to keep holding on. Reaching out with his sword to cut the monster’s hand.
But in that moment, another monster emerged and dragged Derek into the sand.
It happened so quickly.
“Ah!”
I was right in front of Derek.
The sight of it momentarily froze me, but I reflexively sprang forward, grabbing and pulling Derek out.
“Get out of there, Serdin!”
I could hear Royce’s shout from behind.
But by the time I realized, it was already too late.
In an instant, the monster was already trying to drag me into the sand too.
“…!”
At that moment, Royce swung his sword.
Looking through the sand swirling in front of my eyes, I held my breath.
Standing with his weapon, Royce’s steely blue eyes were much colder and electric than before.
The chosen sword-pillar of the Duke of Velkerente.
However, his swordsmanship was renowned for more than just the movements of his blade.
It was the monster enshrined in his body, the Necroquad.
Necroquad, also called the heart of Velkerente, possessed the power to subdue an opponent by freezing them instantly.
‘That’s….’
When the scorpion monster’s eyes met with Necroquad, it came to a halt.
With arm muscles that seemed to threaten to tear his clothes, Royce swung his sword down.
The scorpion monster fell, split through the sand.
However, the hard shell of the monster fell backward.
“Be careful!”
I was knocked out cold after getting hit right on my forehead.
When I woke up again.
“…!”
I was aware of the fact that this could be a very crucial turning point in life.
That this place was a novel I read in my past life.
And the male lead in that novel…
It’s Royce Velkerente, who has been with me all this time!
“This is insane!”
I woke up shouting as soon as I opened my eyes.
“What’s insane?”
I couldn’t tell how long I had been unconscious.
The sun was subtly poised on the sandy hill, and right before my eyes was Royce Velkerente.
I immediately sprang up. My bones creaked.
“…Is this a dream?”
“No.”
This situation of being reincarnated into a novel, it’s not a dream?
Royce reached for my forehead, and with his long fingers, pressed against it
“Ow!”
It made me scream. It was natural, since I’d been hit by some strange scorpion shell there.
“You seem fine.”
“What?”
This is crazy, absolutely crazy.
I’m going insane!
I was so dumbfounded that I wanted to turn away.
Seeing me like that, Royce laughed.
He didn’t know how serious this situation was for me.
I placed my hand on my forehead and glared. I told him the truth that I had come to realize.
“I think I’m going to die soon because of you.”
“I didn’t press that hard.”
“That’s not what I mean. I might actually die because of you!”
Oblivious to my seriousness, Royce burst into a smile and just stared at me.
He didn’t understand.
This was a novel, and Royce was the male protagonist.
But more important than that.
The turning point in that novel happened when I was killed by Royce.
* * *
The original trashy novel <Kiss Your Sword>.
Even the title was trashy… Why would you recklessly kiss a sword?
Anyway, the content of the novel was as follows:
Knight Commander Royce Velkerente, who lived with the trauma of killing his deputy due to a demon inside him. Then, he meets the female lead, Lucille Ardelia, and is healed…
And so on, and so forth. It was a typical novel with this and that.
‘The important thing is that I’m the lieutenant that dies because of the demon inside Royce and becomes his trauma.’
It felt like I was being hit on the back of my head.
“Please go…”
I pushed Royce away, trying to calm my dizzy mind.
The good thing was that it was during my time as Royce’s “deputy,” in other words, as a knight.
I was currently still a freshman with years to go before joining the knights, so I had plenty of time.
I was still only a first-year student, with several years left until I joined the knighthood, so I had plenty of time.
‘Let’s just finish this practical and never get involved.’
Yes, that would work.
‘It’s really fortunate when I think about it.’
I hadn’t died yet, and I even had years to go.
Knowing when you’ll face the threat of death is such a stroke of luck.
‘I’m glad I got hit by that damn scorpion’s shell.’
Since it had saved my memory, it was as if it had saved my life.
“What are you doing? I told you to go now.”
“You said you’re going to die because of me.”
“Yes, so go before I die.”
“I don’t lack a conscience to the extent that I’d leave right after hearing that.”
Royce’s indifferent mouth drew a clear line. It was infuriating how nonchalant he was when he didn’t even know the remarkable fact I had just recalled…
In the meantime, I couldn’t help but be annoyed by how perfect his nose, obliquely exposed to the angled sunlight, was.
‘No wonder. So there was a reason why he looks unrealistically perfect.’
Since he was practically the main character of this world, he must have every good setting possible.
I didn’t know what the eyes he was looking at me with while keeping his head tilted were thinking, but in truth, it didn’t matter.
Regardless of what he thought, I was never going to see him again once the team project was over.
“Alright, just forget it and get up quickly.”
I quickly rose from my seat.
I needed to finish this practical quickly and get back to my everyday life that had nothing to do with Royce.
In that moment, and even long after.
I never even dreamt of it. How Royce had taken the series of words I’d said.
* * *
The sun went down so fast that I wondered how a day had passed.
The surroundings were blue then red, and in no time, black night fell.
“Shall we take a rest here?”
After traversing the bushes section and having barely crossed the desert, we finally reached the middle section, the grassy plain.
The journey so far… I really didn’t want to think about it again. The monsters, the traps… Ugh.
We decided to rest here for the night after setting traps around.
“Phew.”
The night here was cold. Sitting in front of the fire we’d made from gathered twigs, I covered my tired eyes with my hands.
‘I’m exhausted. I feel like I’m going to die, seriously.’
It wasn’t a smooth road, and if I wasn’t tired after walking 50 kilometers of a path filled with all kinds of traps, obstacles, and monsters, I wouldn’t be a human.
Derrick was making a good resting place for himself.
I heard a rustling sound next to me, and it turned out to be Royce.
“It looks like your forehead is getting better.”
He meant the bump that had formed a few hours earlier thanks to my benefactor, the scorpion shell.
“I usually recover quickly. It hurts when pressed though, so don’t touch it.”
“But it doesn’t seem like this has recovered yet.”
He pointed to my hand.
There were quite a lot of scars from when I was hurt. Only then did the back of my hand sting.
“Put this on.”
Royce handed me an ointment. I took it without a word and started applying it on the back of my hand.
While applying the ointment, I glanced at Royce.
There was no sign of fatigue on his face illuminated by the flickering light of the bonfire.
‘Is he even a real person? He’s worthy of being called amazing.’
I lightly poked Royce’s arm with my finger.
Royce looked at the place on his arm where my finger touched, then at me.
“What are you doing?”
“Looks like you’re really not hurt.”
I poked and poked a few more times.
The arms under the broad shoulders were as solid as rocks.
It felt like he wouldn’t bruise even if hit by a stone.
The night breeze of the grassland swept through me. I trembled at the chill as if my body was startled.
“Are you cold?”
“If you’re not cold, you’re not human.”
Royce reached out and pulled over the robe he had laid next to me.
“Put it on.”
“Are those not just empty words?”
Well, even if they were empty words.
Yeah, I’ll use what’s given to me. It’s not like I asked for it, nor did I throw a fit.
He gave it to me!
I put it on without remorse and held out my hands in front of the fire.
I felt my body warming up bit by bit.
‘Ah, I’m feeling better now.’
Royce was originally a main character, and here, he was the strongest, so even if he caught a cold, he’d recover quickly.
And if you think about it, it’s not like we’d see each other ever again.
“Let me make a prediction.”
“No.”
“Then two.”
“Just one.”
“Once this training is over, we won’t see each other again.”
Royce gave no reply.
When I turned my head to look at him, his face, lit by the fire, seemed a little stiff.
After a while, a low voice, filled with incomprehension, reached my ears.
“Why?”
“That’s just how this practical goes. Once it’s over, we all cut each other off.”
Royce remained silent for a while once again.
With a look of serious contemplation in his long eyelids, Royce eventually opened his mouth again.
“…Are you going to cut me off?”
“It’s not just me, it goes like that for both of us.”
“You said you were going to die because of me someday.”
“…?”
Why was he bringing that up right now?
