Shuraina began to pack her things to head back to the outside world. When everyone learned that their visitor, their lovely, future duchess-to-be was departing, everyone was despondent.
"Young miss. You have to come back, you have to!"
"We'll have a mountain of dessert for you. No, we'll set up a bakery in our estate!"
Shuraina carefully placed her belongings into her dimension pocket and stood near the entrance with a simple bag. When it seemed that all of the employees she had gotten close to surrounded her in disappointment, Shuraina tried her best to look equally disappointed to reciprocate their feelings.
"Young miss, are you angry?"
…..although it didn't really work out too well.
Yulinelle, as if he was unable to sleep, rubbed his face with his hands with exhausted eyes. He looked as Shuraina tried to leave, then scowled as if he disliked the idea of it again.
"Can't you just marry into the family already?"
"Yes, I can't."
She wanted to do so, but she was going to come back once she showed off her skills in the order and go up in the ranks. There was going to be a lot disadvantages if she went into the order after marrying. They would look down on her before even testing her abilities and more. She needed to be accepted for her own talents and skills. Then she would marry him–after the obligatory dormitory time was over.
There wasn't going to be an issue–it was hard for only the first few years, after all.
"I'll make sure that you won't have any issues with your knighthood after you marry."
"I'll ask you of that once I come back. Thank you."
"If there's anyone who complains about you being married, I'll destroy them for you. Those who mock the meaning of marriage need to be punished. If there is any kind of injustice, I'll block it all."
"I'll ask you of that once I come back."
"Aren't you being too cold? Don't goooo….. If you go, what joy will I have in life.... You're rich, just relax..."
"It's still important to work."
When Yulinelle frowned as if his feelings were hurt, Shuraina tilted her head slightly and smiled.
"I'll contact you often too, father. Don't ignore me out of laziness and respond, okay?"
Yulinelle, who slowly blinked as he stared at Shuraina, turned around, leaned on Swanhaden's shoulder and hung his head.
".....hu."
Too cute. I should've had a daughter instead. When Yulinelle glared at Swanhaden with a look filled with complaints, Swanhaden responded in kind.
"If you get even the smallest injury, call your father-in-law."
Call me if you get a paper cut, if you sprain your ankle, if you wake up and your body feels stiff.
As Yulinelle explained each and every example of when to call him, Shuraina felt a wash of deja vu. She had heard something similar from Swanhaden before. Blood was blood after all.
Swanhaden didn't say goodbye. He just walked right next to the Unhorse while she was inside. Then, when it seemed like he was planning on chasing the Unhorse to its destination, Yulinelle dragged him away.
"No, Shushu. Aaaagh."
Her lover, famed for his cruelty, looked so pitiful that Shuraina handed him some trash from within the Unhorse.
The first royal order of knights had an incredible facility, as expected of them. The walls of the training hall were covered in different types of weapons to train for different skills and movements. And, of course, all of the knights using this facility need to be familiar with the aforementioned weapons.
As famous as the first order of knights was, so was their brutal training regime. They trained from early morning and then continued dueling new opponents through the day and had to practice their magic tolerance. They continued to undergo brutal training after training until they mastered their own bodies.
Most likely, one of the main reasons as to why everyone determinedly went through the vomit-inducing amount of training was because of the incredible amount of privileges they would attain at the end of it.
Everyone knew that once training was over, they would have a lot less work to do. The empire was now at peace, and knights were more to show prowess than for actual warfare. Moreover, with incredible fame came a thick paycheck. And that didn't even count all of the benefits they would receive outside of their wages.
So everyone quietly continued their training. Many of them groaned during training, but everyone in the order were verifiably skilled. The more difficult the training was, the more they wanted to do well.
And Shuraina, the only woman in the order, was constantly ignored in the beginning.
Of course, not a single one of the knights who had met Swanhaden before ignored her, but the other knights just demeaned her in front of her. They tried to make her an outcast during duels and didn't practice with her. To be honest, Shuraina had guessed something like this would happen and wasn't hurt at all. People always judged other based on their looks. So did she.
But being an outcast meant that she would have less chances to show off her talents, so Shuraina decided to target her seniors and beat them down to the ground. She would just request a duel and beat them up.
"Eaaaaagh! Aaaaaagh! Aaaaaah!"
The knights, fighting back with only their swords, were quickly defeated by Shuraina's varied attack patterns. And when they began to crumble, one by one, the other knights threw the others in the fray. They couldn't go down alone.
And with that, she began to defeat her fellow knights, one by one. She was having fun.
"Haha. This reminds me of old times."
Hylli, who had come to visit Shuraina, laughed as he watched the others get flustered in the face of her attacks.
Recently, Hylli was overwhelmed with his coronation preparation and wasn't able to visit the training hall often. He had thought that Shuraina would be getting ignored by the others in the order, but she was completely fine. Hylli was deeply relieved.
Whenever Hylli came over to the order to play, he always requested to duel with Shuraina.
Hylli had a lot of questions for Shuraina and attempted to talk to her with the excuse of a duel. He had a mountain of questions.
Of course, the biggest question of all was. About Swanhaden.
As they faced each other for the first time in a very long time, the two of them chatted about their time at the academy and the conversation naturally flowed to her lover.
"I heard that you were in a relationship with Swanhaden. Did you get a confession in that short time? He was so embarrassed about it but he did in the end, Swanhaden."
"I was the one who confessed."
".....!"
Hylli was taken aback by Shuraina's words. Who did what? Did what? Shuraina confessed first? Why? The one that was obviously head over heels was Swanhaden and Shuraina didn't even seem interested, why? What?
Hylli received such a shock that he almost got hit by Shuraina's attack.
"Since when did you like him? Why?"
No way. Shuraina definitely feared Swanhaden back in the day.
When Swanhaden just gave her favor after favor without any explanation, Shuraina assumed that Swanhaden had some devious plan and dragged Hylli around to run away from him.
"Swanhaden and I were childhood friends. But thinking back, I think I was just attracted to him. He's pretty and cute and handsome."
"He really has the best face in the empire….."
Hylli accepted it. His face was enough to cover the giant gaping hole that was his personality. His face was just incredible. A face that worked on any single human being in the world. Hylli had also been awed when he had first seen Swanhaden's face. Although he was immediately disgusted by his personality. Eugh. He felt chills.
"Anyway, you look good so that's great. Seeing how quiet Cory and Yves are, they're probably stewing by themselves. Aah, that's why the two of them were asking if I wanted to go with them to take care of the Blanche."
"...?"
"Take Swan and pour some salt into their wounds later. They need to resign themselves."
...and me too.
Hylli smiled bitterly, just so that he wouldn't get caught, as he muttered. His smile soon stiffened.
Swoosh!
Just then, an incredibly loud gust of wind blew from the west and a large stake-like stick flew. The sound of the stick flying through the air was terribly loud.
Slam!
"Whoa!"
As soon as Hylli realized that the stick was flying towards him, his eyes grew round as he stepped back. He had to move so suddenly that he fell backwards when the stick landed right in between his legs. A chill ran down his spine and his legs shook. Thanks to the stick, Hylli was forced a few steps away from Shuraina.
Hylli's pupils dilated. What was this familiar feeling. Who was it? He knew it.
He turned his head to look up to the direction the stick flew from.
"Your royal highness, have you been well?"
Swanhaden had his hair slicked back and was wearing a neat suit. His words were polite, but his tone was rude. Swanhaden had just completed his succession and was now the new Blanche duke. He looked a lot more mature than before. Swanhaden was leaning on a railing with a metal weapon in his hand. It was one of the weapons on display in the training hall.
"Swan!"
Shuraina was so excited to see him that she waved her hand.
Swanhaden visited Shuraina often, even after she had moved her residence. It had actually been a problem at first–he had visited too often. Shuraina wrote a schedule to tell him when and where he come come, and Swan visited her according to the schedule. She couldn't reject him when he brought delicious food every time.
Once Swanhaden became the duke, he was able to officially visit due to his work. That meant that he was able to visit even outside of the set schedule, so Swan was working hard these days.
No matter how often they met, they were still excited. When Shuraina seemed excited to see him, Swanhaden's lips twitched in a smile before he jumped down from the railing he was leaning from. It was quite high, but he landed lightly as if he was used to it. The white suit jacket on his shoulders swooshed in the wind.
Shuraina ran to Swanhaden and jump-hugged him. Swanhaden caught Shuraina, who had jumped up to him, and hugged her back.
Hylli was shocked at Swanhaden's appearance, but was swirling into shock at seeing Shuraina act all cute. She…wasn't that kind of person before wasn't she? He could see a proverbial tail appearing behind Shuraina.
Swanhaden checked to see if nobody was around before placing kiss after kiss on Shuraina's lips. Shuraina allowed affectionate displays when nobody was round. Swanhaden didn't even count Hylli as human, so he was obviously ignored.
Hylli's mouth hung open. He had literal goosebumps. His classmates acting like that? Moreover, they were completely different when they were dating. His face burned up as he began throwing items at them to go outside and be lovey-dovey somewhere else. Swanhaden moved his lips away from Shuraina's and stared at Hylli before grabbing the iron club from before and throwing it at him.
"Be careful not to get hurt today too."
Swanhaden's hands wrapped around Shuraina's face. Two rings glinted from his ring finger. It was soon going to be three rings. If Shuraina didn't give up on proposing, then it might be four.
Swanhaden didn't blink as he looked her in her eyes. He didn't even notice his ears turning red as he smiled and whispered at her.
"Honey."