Chapter 68
After my meeting with Father, my preparations for independence began to move forward as if they had been waiting for this moment.
The place I was moving to was none other than a magical city called Montena.
It was an exotic land far from my hometown, Cercalana.
‘Thanks to this, I’ll finally be free from Father’s nagging.’
What’s more, it was the city where Schuaden had graduated from the private academy Adriel, and where his perfume shop was currently thriving.
‘If I go there, I should be able to win Schuaden over somehow.’
Kyler had disappeared after leaving me with some vague words about waiting until he returned, and Hans had been serving in the knights for years now.
As for Noah, not only was there no chance of winning him over, but he outright hated me.
The only man I could count on now was Schuaden.
‘He’s too busy with work to come find me, so the one who’s longing should go first.’
Anyway, it was with that single-minded determination to capture Schuaden’s heart that I decided to set up my workshop there.
Except for a few attendants and Sophie, everyone with me would be a stranger in that unfamiliar place.
Of course, it wasn’t just blind devotion that made me want to go to Montena.
I had always been fascinated by magical cities, and it was a place I had long wanted to visit.
‘They say one out of every twenty people there is a mage.’
As I silently watched the maids packing my things, Sophie, standing by the window with a worried look, spoke hesitantly.
“Miss, is this really…?”
She meant to say, ‘Is this really all?’
“That’s everything.”
I replied nonchalantly, shrugging my shoulders.
“Once I’m in Montena, I’ll be holed up in the shop crafting jewelry all day. What would I do with fancy dresses?”
Oh, of course, I would need at least one proper gown for the upcoming debutante ball.
‘Father will send it, I’m sure.’
The elderly tailor who had come to my room last time was one of the imperial tailors Father had sent me, so this time, he would send a perfectly finished dress.
“But still…”
Sophie glanced back and forth between the plain-colored dresses strewn on the floor and my face, then spoke with hesitation.
“Even if you plan to hide your identity as a duke’s daughter, these dresses are far too simple for you, my lady. You should bring at least twenty in different colors…”
“Sophie, have you ever seen a girl my age with more than twenty dresses?”
“….”
“I haven’t.”
I understood that Sophie cared for me, but the reason I chose Montena, instead of staying near Cercalana where I could wield my family’s influence, was simple.
I wanted to let go of the heavy responsibility of being a duke’s daughter and live comfortably as the daughter of some modest noble family, in a place where no one knew me.
‘Goodbye, boring Cercalana!’
Stretching my arms wide, I looked up at the sparkling sky with shining eyes.
Montena was an open port city, home to countless scholars and the rare mages scattered across the world, yet it was strangely indifferent to foreign news.
‘Probably because they only care about what they want to do and hear.’
Unlike Cercalana, it wasn’t a rigidly stratified society, nor a place where people pretended to be refined in public while gossiping behind closed doors.
‘It’s true freedom!’
I unconsciously raised my arms toward the sky, only to lower them awkwardly when I felt the maids’ stares prickling my back.
“Ahem, anyway.”
After clearing my throat, I clasped my hands behind my back and spun lightly in place.
My pale pink dress flared into a soft, flower-like shape as I twirled.
“I should say my last goodbyes.”
At the word last, a certain face instantly came to mind—
a man with blazing red hair and smooth, bronzed skin.
“Bring me something comfortable to wear. I need to make a stop.”
Smiling gently as I imagined Hans’s surprised expression, I turned around.
The Duke of Benestra’s household had a total of five knight orders.
‘The most famous is, of course, the First Order.’
The First Order, the household’s greatest force, was shrouded in secrecy.
It was so tightly concealed that even I, the duke’s daughter, didn’t know who the commander was.
‘If I asked Father, he’d tell me, but that would hurt my pride.’
Anyway, aside from the First Order, there were the Second and Third Orders, always ready to protect the duchy in times of crisis, and the Fourth Order, which handled defense.
Finally, there was the Fifth Order, which had the largest number of members.
That was where the trainee knights, not yet fully sworn, were gathered.
Calling them trainees was putting it kindly—they were basically stuck cleaning other people’s swords instead of wielding their own.
In any case, Hans was not in the Fifth or even Fourth Order—he was training in the First Order.
And all thanks to letters of recommendation from both the duke and myself.
He told me he’d been the subject of much envy among his peers from the very start.
Whenever that happened, I would step in to set things straight with a mix of carrot and stick, but lately, I hadn’t seen him in so long that I didn’t even know how he was doing.
‘And the First Order’s quarters are so out of the way that even visiting is a hassle.’
Unlike the other training grounds, which were open to the public, the First Order’s quarters were hidden away in a secret location.
That location was none other than—
“Why won’t this thing open?!”
—the opposite side of the passage leading to the underground prison.
The same spot where, in my previous life, I had foolishly thought was the prison entrance when I tried to rescue Noah.
‘Good thing I followed Sir Theo.’
Only Sir Theo and Father knew where the First Order’s quarters were, besides the knights themselves.
As expected, once Theo returned to the duchy, he made his way to the First Order to deliver supplies, and I carefully tailed him.
That’s how I ended up here, struggling to pull open this stubborn door.
“Ugh, seriously!”
The handle was wedged tightly between the bricks.
If you pulled it, a long brick would pop out, revealing the hidden passage.
‘Damn door handle.’
Even after all this time, it was still as hard to open as ever.
Sweating as I yanked on the moss-covered metal handle, I thought to myself:
‘Who would’ve thought this was the First Order’s quarters?’
“Haa…”
Patting my aching shoulder, I heard Kim’s smug voice in my head.
‘I told you I could open it for you.’
“No thanks. You’d just break it like last time.”
I grimaced at the memory of what had happened just a few days ago.
Back then, I had gone to the market to buy some local delicacies before leaving for Montena.
As I strolled leisurely, a gust of wind blew my wide-brimmed hat into a tree branch.
Since his magic had been gradually returning, Kim offered to use a spell to get it down.
And the result?
Crash!
The tree fell.
A massive tree, at least four meters tall, toppled right in the middle of the street.
“No way! Absolutely not!”
He had been sealed in a sword for a thousand years, so his mana control was still rough.
From nearly burning down my room trying to light the fireplace, to almost sending me to heaven while making me float for fun—he had quite the criminal record.
‘It’s a problem whether his mana is weak or strong.’
He said controlling it was easier if he shared it with his contractor.
And the method was…
[A kiss.]
…Like that would ever happen!
Shaking off the memory, I tightened my grip on the handle. The bricks began to shift with an eerie creak.
Sensing an opportunity, I pulled harder, and the handle finally moved as smoothly as if it had been oiled.
“Hnnngh!”
And at last—
‘Huh, guess you didn’t need my help after all.’
—the hidden passage was revealed.
Dust rained down on my head, making me cough violently as I scanned the dim interior.
I saw a single purple lantern hanging low, a few small arched windows in the walls, and stacks of books piled like puzzle pieces on the floor.
‘Why are these books here?’
I picked up one titled The Origins of Dark Magic, brushing the dust from its cover—when footsteps echoed in the distance, making me freeze.
“My lady?”
I looked up to see the familiar face I had pictured so many times before.
“Hans?”
Relief washed over his features when our eyes met, and he stepped closer.
“It seems the duke already told you, since you came here first.”
“Huh?”
When I tilted my head in confusion, he chuckled softly and ran his hand along the wall as if shy.
“That I’ll be accompanying you to Montena as your escort knight.”
I stared at him, jaw dropping at his shocking words.
“…You’re coming with me?”
He nodded lightly and continued.
“The duke was worried about you going to a foreign land alone without protection.”
He explained that thanks to this arrangement, he was able to become a full knight without completing the remaining two years of training.
“…I see.”
I had known Father cared for me, but I didn’t expect this level of consideration.
They say when you’re too shocked, you feel oddly calm—that was me.
My flat response seemed to hurt Hans; his eyes drooped with quiet sadness.
“It sounds like… you’re not too happy about it.”
“That’s not true.”
“But still…”
He gently caught a strand of my hair, knelt to meet my gaze, and looked at me with glistening eyes.
“After that day, you never came to see me again—not even secretly.”
That day… He meant my sixteenth birthday.
After Hans joined knight training, our meetings had already dwindled from a few times a week to just a few times a month.
‘That was part of it, but…’
The real reason we couldn’t meet often was because he had incurred Diehl’s displeasure.
‘Yuria, you don’t have feelings for that boy, do you?’
‘That boy?’
‘Hans. He’s a good friend, but nothing more.’
Diehl pitied Hans for being an orphan, yet still disliked him—probably because of the nasty rumors floating around the mansion.
Some were absurd beyond belief, but I won’t even mention them.
The most famous one claimed that the duke’s daughter liked “that boy” so much she climbed over the wall to see him.
‘I did climb the wall, but not because I liked him.’
I had enjoyed his company as a friend, but never once thought of him romantically.
‘Maybe because we’ve seen each other at our worst since childhood.’
So my feelings would never change.
As I looked into Hans’s face, his childhood image overlapped in my mind.
Slowly closing and opening my eyes, I let out a deep sigh.
“If I kept meeting you, it would only bring trouble for you.”
“….”
“And for me too.”
It was a line drawn in the sand—a declaration that we could never be more than friends.
Hans’s face darkened like storm clouds gathering overhead.
{System: ‘Hans Damon’’s affection has decreased by 2. Current affection: 42.}
The drop in affection was a little disappointing, but it was better than giving him false hope.
He lowered his gaze, a bitter smile tugging at his lips as he said:
“You’re right. A man of low birth like me standing near someone as radiant as you… it would look strange.”
“….”
“And it might cause misunderstandings with whoever you meet in the future.”
There was a tinge of sorrow in his voice as he spoke.
“Yeah.”
I didn’t deny it.
A love without true feelings was nothing but an empty illusion.
Raising affection levels was important, yes—but my ultimate goal was to find true love.
So this was a choice I had to make, for both our sakes.
“We’ll always be good friends.”
Cruel words for someone who loved me, but…
It was the only choice I could make.
