Anne and I went towards the training ground followed by Sir Ryan, we were laughing and jumping on the way there but when we reached there what we saw made us freeze on our spots.
Knox was hanging off the second floor of the old building, that too with only one hand and with all the knights down there cheering for him.
"KNOX!!!!!!"
I shouted and ran towards him followed by Anne, all the attention went towards us and as soon as Knox noticed us he lost his balance causing him to fall.
"WATCH OUT!!!" I panicked seeing him fall but the old knight standing beneath caught him.
"Young Master! how many times I have told you not to get distracted! Why don't you listen? How will you become a knight if you cannot do this simple task?" he scolded Knox while placing him down.
"Sorry Master, I will try my best that it will not happen again" Knox replied looking down, making me shook.
'Is this the same Nox that didn't even kneel to pick up something?' I thought. The old knight then came towards us with a smile.
"Good afternoon young ladies, may I know what brought you here?" he asked.
"Good afternoon" me and Ann said in unison and bowed.
"Oh you don't have to be so formal," he said, chuckling.
"You want us to get scolded by Mommy, right, Grandpa?" Anne pouted, making him laugh and me shocked.
"Grandpa?" I asked, looking at him.
"Oh right, you lost your memory, right? That's why you don't remember me. I'm Flyn Porche, Rosaline's father, their grandfather and teacher of that brat" he said.
"Grandpa!!!!" Knox whined as he really cared about his image. The old man went towards him and smacked him.
"I told you I'm not your Grandpa in the training grounds. I'm your Master." he said.
"Yeah yeah master." Knox rolled his eyes, earning another smack from his Grandpa and making us laugh.
"Oh right, Sabi, my child, call me Grandpa like you used to, okay?" he said, turning to me.
"Okay Grandpa!" I said and he smiled.
"By the way, grandpa? Can I ask what he was doing there hanging like a monkey?" I asked.
"Hey! You are the monkey!" Knox shouted from afar.
'How the hell did he hear that?' I thought, looking at Nox with a shocked expression.
"Oh that? It is a part of our training. I train the Holy Knights and there is a reason why our knights are the best in the world. We train for every single thing even for the things people think are easy and can pass through but we don't let anything slide and that was a part of it." He replied.
"But isn't that dangerous? and what kind of things it may help with?" I asked.
"You're quite curious for an age like yours hahaha, it's nice. Well the thing is that there are many situations in which knights have to survive by themselves and this is one of those situations. It is to train your brain how to react quickly. Suppose, you are on the edge of a cliff and in front of you is a troop of enemies and you have no other choice but to jump or they push you off from there so, training for such things helps in situations like that. Do you understand?" he said, patting my head.
'Well the ratio of that happening is minor but not zero. Even as the top spy agency we didn't think that far or train for such situations. No doubt ancient people were so strong and difficult to defeat even without technology or armed weapons like guns, grenades etc.' I thought.
"Yes! I understood!" I said. He smiled and turned to Nox.
"I'm leaving you for today because of these two but remember tomorrow it will be the third floor" he said, making my eyes widen.
'He's crazy'
"Yeah yeah okay" Knox said, picking up a towel and Grandpa left. Knox came towards us while wiping his sweat with the towel and to be honest he was looking damn cute! I really wanted to squish his cute cheeks.
"So finally you are not avoiding us" he said, making me freeze.
Anne looked at me and then towards him and said, "Brother, don't be mean she didn't do it on purpose and she told me the reason so I'm not mad at her".
"You told her but not me?" he said, looking straight at me, widening his eyes, making me gulp the lump in my throat.
"It's not like that, it's just-" I was saying but got cut off by Anne.
"Yeah so what? she told me because I'm her best friend and you are not!" she said, sticking out her tongue making Knox more angry.
Anne, why are you digging the grave for your own friend?. I looked at her helplessly while she was standing there looking all proud.
"Ann wait a sec" I pushed Anne aside, held Knox's hand and dragged him far from Anne leaving her dumbfounded.
"Look Knox, I told her because that day you didn't come and we caught up in a misunderstanding so I had to explain everything to her. I wanted to talk with the both of you together but things turned out that way." I explained even though I had no intention of talking to either of them as I was busy hiding but it's okay to lie for the one's benefit...well at least it benefits me so, anyway.
"But still...." he said with a pout.
'Gosh he is so cute while sulking. I know how to handle this,' I thought while smirking.
"I know you are angry with me but aren't you my special friend? You understand me right, Knoxy?" I said, showing my puppy eyes making him blush, he became a red tomato.
"Kn-noxy? Special...friend?" he said, looking at me amazed. "Yeah why? are you not?" I asked innocently.
"N-no...t-that's not it, you never call me that so I got surprised, haha" he said, scratching his neck. Oh how I wish he knew I can see his red ears.
"So, now that the issue is resolved let's go, Ann is waiting" I said and he nodded but stopped midway I turned and looked at him then he said something making me laugh,
"When did you start calling her Ann?!!"
"Just how I started calling you Knoxy. Now let's go dummy." I said and started heading towards Anne.
"Hey! You are the dummy!!" he said following up with me.
"Yeah yeah now shush." I said to him and he shut up, making me chuckle. And that's how our friendship started...
<><><><><>
"WHAT?!!!!! YOU WANT TO LEARN SWORDSMANSHIP???" Dad shouted, shocked with Mommy sitting there, frozen.
"Yes! I want to learn swordsmanship and become strong just like Daddy." I exclaimed.
"Well that's not a lie I sure am stron-" he got cut off by Mommy's cough which she did intentionally.
"Oh y-yeah, so as I was saying there's nothing wrong in learning it but you are very young and it's um... unladylike? yeah, it's not very ladylik-"
"What do you mean not ladylike? What's wrong with a girl learning swordsmanship? At least give a reasonable example, even she knows that you will not object because you taught me swordsmanship yourself." Mommy cut off Daddy while objecting to his stupid excuse.
Well I knew this because it was mentioned in the novel how the Duke taught the Duchess to wield a sword, he wanted his Duchess to become strong enough to protect herself when he was not around as he had many enemies, now that's a perfect husband material.
"I-it's not like that but you know why I'm objecting, honey" he said while whining, making me laugh but I suppressed it.
"*sigh* I know" Mommy said and came towards me and said, "Baby, want to take a walk with Mommy?".
'Huh? well that was random.' I thought, as I was dumbfounded by the sudden action but I nodded as we didn't spend that much time together due to her pregnancy so it was a nice chance.
After that we went towards the garden. We were strolling around the garden and Mommy asked the maids to leave us alone for a while and they stepped back while we kept walking.
We were strolling when Mommy suddenly stopped in front of a flower, it was really pretty. It was silver in colour with small stigmas sticking out of it which were similar in colour to my eyes, that flower was surely a beauty.
'Why didn't I see this before?' I thought since I never saw this flower before.
"You must be wondering why you didn't see this before? right?" Mommy said.
'sbkjtsyvfy…Did she read my mind or what?' I thought, getting shocked.
"Y-yeah" I replied. She smiled and said, "This only blooms when the wedding anniversary of me and your father is near. It only blooms once a year for a week and becomes a bud again."
"What is it called? and why does it bloom before your wedding anniversary?" I asked with curiosity visible in my eyes, making her giggle.
"You're quite a curious one," she said.
"Woah, Grandpa Flyn also said the same thing" I said.
"He did? That's something new." she said to herself.
"Well anyway, I never noticed you were this interested in flowers before your memory loss. You didn't like them at all, to the point you visited the garden pretty rarely because of them" she said.
"Well, now I like them so can you answer my question please?" I said, showing my puppy eyes.
"Okay okay my little one, you're so cute" she said, hugging me and squishing my cheeks.
"So the name of this flower is 'Angel's segment', given because of its silver colour and lilac stigmas" she said looking at the flower.
'Angel's segment? where do they get these names?!!! I guess it is because of their rarity just like how angels and devils are, makes sense right?...yeah it does' I shrugged my thoughts and continued listening.
"It is not a flower that grows naturally, it is made by magic which is why the general public cannot afford it. It was kind of difficult to make because mostly couples request to make other kinds and this one is a pretty uncommon request and costly too but your father was convinced that this is the one for us, at first I didn't agree but eventually I couldn't win over him since he started whining haha...but now...I can see why he thought this is the one, guess he has a great sixth sense" she said looking towards me smiling.
Then she continued "We never knew that the flower would come to life in the form of our little princess, this Angel's segment always reminds me of mine and Carlos's segment, our angel who became our happiness, our world, our everything and your father loves you more than anything. I think you will still be his favourite even after your sister or brother's birth". We both giggled.
"We planted this flower six days before our wedding and it blooms every year on the day it was planted. That's just it's characteristics. It blooms every year six days before our wedding and it becomes a bud on our wedding anniversary's night and I enjoy it everyday until it becomes a bud again. It is a symbol of our love. Mostly couples plant flowers before their marriage as a token of love. Sweet, isn't it?" she asked and I nodded cutely making her smile go wider.
"You must be wondering why your Dad is not agreeing for you to learn swordsmanship?...." she asked, I nodded. She smiled and continued walking with me following her.
"There's a reason behind it and that is...."