'Why did he have to go back to that time…'
Leslie sighed and looked at her husband in front of her.
He came to pick up the sword. Seeing what he was doing, it was as if he had gone back to his nineteen-year-old days.
'It's really hard to go back to being a teenager after turning forty.'
The lights in the room were off, and only the occasional flash of lightning and the moonlight, which poked its head through the clouds, illuminated them.
Maybe that was why, in Braden's drunken eyes, Leslie also looked like twenty-one.
"But it must have been difficult to come to my bedroom. I'm sorry, but I'm underage."
Leslie sighed deeply at Braden's sarcastic remark.
He claimed to be a minor while he was desperate to see his son get married.
'It's different, really. Just this morning, he was making a fuss saying he wanted to see his grandson…'
It was this variable that made her dislike Braden's drinking.
Braden had mistreated her until Leslie suffered an injury and withdrew from the swordsmanship contest.
'Again, I… Why the hell did I get married?'
Normally, she had completely forgotten about her life, but when this happened, she had no choice but to remember her old thoughts.
'Ah, back then…'
Leslie's expression, reminiscent of an underage Braden, began to wrinkle more and more.
'He was an unlucky kid.'
~*~
Leslie competed in her first swordsmanship contest when she was 17.
And there she first met the fifteen-year-old Braden in the final.
Of course, she often heard rumors about Wade's master swordsman, but she never encountered him as a daughter living in a shabby inn in the corner of the capital.
'He looks like a pompous person. He's a little cuter than my brother, maybe because he's wearing a good color.'
That was her first impression of Braden in the final.
15-year-old Braden grew slower than his peers and was shorter than Leslie.
At that time, she was beaten by Braden in the final.
Before he even lifted the pointed sword from Leslie's neck, Braden looked into her eyes and spoke as if he had done her a great favor.
"Come into the Knights of Wade. In a few months, I'll give you the lieutenant position."
Leslie was stunned by the scouting before she could even feel defeated and was unable to speak for a while.
But since then, a subtle sense of humiliation crept in.
"You seem to have a lot of talent, so why don't you train properly?"
It was a tone of giving a great favor, and in fact, it was a huge favor.
The Knights of Wade were flooded with knights that they even said that they could not easily enter without going through the training during their childhood.
However, it was even more shocking that he promised at once the position of lieutenant.
He was also perhaps the best scout for Leslie, who was born into a difficult family and learned the sword directly from her grandfather, a retired mercenary.
In fact, before the swordsmanship contest, she was completely unknown in the world of swordsmen.
Nevertheless, Leslie politely greeted him and answered calmly.
"Thanks for the great offer. But that seems to be difficult."
Leslie's sudden rejection of Braden's great offer was probably due to her high self-esteem.
She didn't like his tone that seemed to deny her training from the past, as if her training so far was not real training.
Although her grandfather wasn't a very good teacher, he did his best to teach her.
"…What?"
The face of the arrogant little boy, who had no doubt that she would accept his proposal immediately, shriveled.
"It was a good match, Duke. I learned a lot. Congratulations on winning."
Leslie greeted him politely and turned around lightly.
Yet she felt a little better as she saw the shock on the cheeky young boy's face.
Born all-in-one from his childhood, Wades' handsome young heir would never have seen his favor turned down.
That was why he was making such an absurd expression.
But a week later, Braden came to Leslie's house, hoping to see her face at the next swordsmanship contest, which was four years later.
Braden, who was accompanied by an escort in his luxurious attire, shone strangely alone in front of the shabby inn.
"Why do you think it would be difficult?"
The question the boy spat out at Leslie was absurd.
"Being in the Wade Knights allows for a much more systematic training than you have now."
So it was in response to her rejection of his scouting offer in the finals, saying, 'It's going to be a bit difficult'.
Leslie hurried out from helping the inn's kitchen, wiping her apron with water and politely answering.
"I have my own life. I have to help my parents with the inn. It's run by my family, so if I leave, they'll be short on hands."
At those words, Braden asked as if he couldn't understand even more.
"Do you know how much the Wade Knights' salaries are? Besides, if you become my lieutenant, you can hire five or six people at this inn with that salary. Can't you do the math?"
"As you can see, it's small, so I don't need five or six people."
Leslie had no choice but to bow her head politely, thinking that the cheeky little bastard would have had a few points nailed down.
"And… I just don't want to. It's not a logical reason, so you don't have to persuade me. I like my life now."
Actually it was true.
Leslie's life had not been prosperous until now, but she had lived as she pleased, within her limits.
Although her parents couldn't do a lot, they raised her by teaching, 'Don't do anything you don't want to, since you live your life once.'
Leslie began learning swordsmanship from her grandfather in order to deal directly with the rogue guests at her inn, and she somehow managed to ignite her crazy talents that she didn't even know she had in the contest.
Of course, she was born into a poor commoner's family, so it was true that she wanted a title.
In fact, she wouldn't change her life just because she got the title, but if she did, it would be because sometimes she wanted to retaliate with the blasphemy of the aristocrats, who sometimes had nothing to say, like, 'You act expensively on the subject of being a lowly commoner.'
It would be nice to receive a lot of money, and she also craved proper training, but then, won't she have to bow like this all day to that boy?
"But thank you so much for the great opportunity you have offered. It is an honor."
The last thing she said with politeness was not only her natural position as a commoner, but also meant as a goodbye.
And Braden stared at her with his still disbelieving face, and asked in a voice as he had just reached puberty.
"You, do you know what that means now? Aren't you going to go to the swordsmanship competition in 4 years?"
"I will. Even then, I will do my best to defeat the Duke."
"Do you think you can beat me with that cheap sword if you help out with the inn and train with an old, retired mercenary in your spare time?"
After investigating her, Braden seemed to know that she had learned swordsmanship from her grandfather.
It was only then Leslie asked a sharp question that made his mouth, which had been questioning her, shut. Read only at pm tl.
"If I join the Knights of Wade, will I be able to defeat the Duke after 4 years?"
Braden hesitated at her question, and she spoke without hesitation.
"You can't say for sure. I will train harder to defeat the Duke over the next four years, but I will just choose the way I like it."
Braden didn't respond, and Leslie thought to herself that she had finally subdued 'a teenage boy whose scouts were going on a rampage for the first time'.
"Thank you again for taking interest in someone who lacks a lot, Duke."
Of course she couldn't say it the way he thought she would, so Leslie politely smiled and bowed her head once more.
Saying 'thank you for your interest' was telling him to stop paying attention.
"If that's the case, then…"
Braden said nothing, but raised his chin up as if he was in a bad mood.
"Four years later, the swordsmanship competition, even if you don't give up and do your best, you will lose from an overwhelming skill difference."
"…What?"
"And you will regret this decision today."
His engrossing counterattack didn't do much damage to her.
To Leslie, who has been through all sorts of guests, the murmurs of a young teenage boy was nothing.
"Yes. I will do my best. It would be a great honor if we could meet again in the finals in 4 years. Thank you."
Leslie said politely and sent Braden away without any fuss.
Then she went back to the inn's kitchen without any regrets.
She hated seeing those in power shake up her life from the beginning.
She wanted to avoid it unless she could bump into it due to various circumstances. She didn't want to live with being tired and overcoming something.
'Well, the world we live in is different, so it is not like there will be any chance we will meet until the next swordsmanship competition. It's enough to just let it go.'
But Leslie's rational prediction of the future was completely wrong.