CHAPTER 94
“No! How could I possibly refuse the Princess?!”
Leonel flinched and shook his head in alarm.
Though he hadn’t known the princess for long, he had come to understand that while she was quite particular, she was generous as long as boundaries were respected.
“I’ll be the one to court her!”
“That won’t work. Then you’d have to go to the capital.”
When Leonel hesitated before speaking, Elliot shook his head.
“Once the training ends, the Imperial Knights will head to the capital first. You and the Count’s knights will need to stay at least another month.”
As Elliot finished, Evelyn nodded. She was planning to visit the capital after the mercenary recruitment was complete.
“That’s unacceptable.”
The princess shook her head.
“You underestimate the power of a ruler in love. Unlike you, he must fall into my hands easily.”
“Even so, calling him ‘that thing’ is a bit much, isn’t it?” Leonel muttered softly to Evelyn about how she referred to him.
Evelyn suppressed a laugh at the princess’s sharp glare.
“Ahem. Anyway, unlike the Grand Duke, the Barrett heir needs to be mindful of me. Why not just go to the capital with me now to appease me?”
The princess continued with a sigh.
“Not a month later—go back to the capital right after the training ends. Better for you to speak directly to His Majesty than for me to speak to my father.”
With that, Isabelle also internally decided to dump the matter of the evil god onto Elliot.
She had no intention of involving herself in northern affairs anymore, pretending to be some woman crazed by love.
If it’s such an important matter, her father or brother should be the ones concerned with it.
As for her? She’d bide her time and eventually retreat to the temple claiming convalescence—or just get married.
“Saying the Grand Duchess got homesick after her brother left and chose to return to the capital for that reason doesn’t sound too bad either.”
“I’m… homesick?” Evelyn asked.
She did miss her parents a bit, but had absolutely no desire to return to the capital.
Evelyn chuckled at Elliot’s talk of homesickness.
“Then let’s recruit the mercenaries in the capital instead. That way, they won’t have to travel all the way up north for nothing.”
Evelyn, after pondering the new schedule, nodded.
“I’ll issue the updated announcement right away. Will that be a fair compromise?”
“This isn’t a compromise,” Elliot said, glancing at the princess.
“It’s a total loss,” Isabelle said, shaking her head.
“It won’t be a total loss. If we fail to protect the north, we’ll all be wiped out anyway,” Elliot replied coolly.
Isabelle sighed at his calm tone.
“Let’s eat. The food is getting cold.”
As the conversation came to a close, Elliot gestured toward the food.
“No, I’ve lost my appetite. I’ll head upstairs.”
“Please, Your Highness, just try a little. This salad dressing is made from mountain berries found only in the north,” Leonel gently coaxed when Isabelle merely poked at her salad.
“You like refreshing flavors. I’m sure it’ll suit your taste.”
His warm gaze made Isabelle pick up her fork again, though she’d been about to say she was done.
“Bring her some warm tea,” Leonel instructed the attendant as the princess began eating the salad.
Evelyn widened her eyes at her brother’s natural, thoughtful behavior.
Then her eyes met Elliot’s.
She noticed that the princess’s sharp mood always seemed to soften whenever her brother spoke.
In the meantime, a nicely portioned lamb chop had appeared on Evelyn’s plate.
It was Elliot.
She had planned to enjoy lighter dishes after her salad, but the sight of the glossy meat made her mouth water.
Every time Leonel did something for the princess, Elliot followed up by placing meat on Evelyn’s plate.
Tilting her head in curiosity, Evelyn still ended up eating everything that had been stacked in front of her with great enjoyment.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So, you’re going to the capital once training ends? What about here?”
“The knight commander will take responsibility.”
The next day, Evelyn updated Raven on the upcoming schedule. Raven was lying on the sofa in her reception room, flipping through a magical book.
“Then I’ll go too.”
“You’re not training more?”
Evelyn’s eyes widened at Raven’s sudden interest in following her to the capital, when he’d been obsessed with the ruins.
“It’s no fun without you.”
Well, there weren’t many knights capable of sparring with someone who had reached the 7th Circle.
“Could you help spar with the knights?”
“I’ll think about it once I improve more. I’ll probably have to overhaul all my previous research when I get to the Tower.”
“What?!”
Raven spoke casually, but Evelyn knew how awful that would be.
“You’re going to hole yourself up in the Magic Tower again? You’ll rot in there!”
“The Tower is equipped with a constant flow of fresh air and has active cleansing magic. Unless I rot on purpose…”
Raven boasted about the Tower’s cleanliness, but Evelyn shook her head.
“If you stay locked in a lab, all the training you’ve done here will go to waste.”
If you didn’t keep moving, all that hard-earned muscle would disappear.
Listening to him, Evelyn could already tell that once mages returned to the Tower, all their progress would be undone.
‘At the very least, he needs to train once every two weeks.’
A strong body with a strong mind—that’s the source of real power, whether for knights or mages.
Being a knight to her bones, Evelyn quickly thought of a way for the mages to maintain their fitness.
“Train with me sometimes in the capital.”
Since Raven would never willingly stay in the north, she needed a fallback plan.
“I’ll think about it.”
“You sure talk a lot for a slow mage.”
Evelyn’s lips curled into a mocking smile.
“Ha, we’ll see about that.”
Taking the bait, Raven ran a hand through his hair, his red eyes full of determination.
“Let’s fight every day. I can take down someone like Evelyn in one minute.”
“Make sure you keep that promise.”
Raven blinked as Evelyn grabbed his wrist tightly with her pale hand.
‘Wait, did I just dig my own grave?’
He was about to shake his head but hesitated when he saw her smiling brightly.
They’d be too busy once they returned to the capital. Surely, she wouldn’t chase him down daily.
Maybe she’d drop by once in a while.
Swallowing back his rejection, Raven ended up sitting there for a long while, held captive by Evelyn.
Click.
There was a knock, and the reception room door opened. Tinya entered, pushing a tray with dessert and tea.
“You’re not fighting, are you?”
Tinya’s eyes fell on Evelyn’s hand still gripping Raven’s wrist.
“Ah—no, not at all!”
Evelyn flinched and let go. Raven finally began rotating his wrist to relieve the stiffness.
“Thank goodness. I thought Sir Raven was being dragged off.”
“You saw that correctly.”
“Hey! You’re going to make Tinya misunderstand!”
The two began raising their voices again in front of the relieved Tinya.
“For now, please have your tea.”
Tinya set down the tea and dessert in front of them.
“Oh, your body looks better,” Raven said as he lazily watched Tinya place the teacup down.
“Seems the training is finally paying off.”
Tinya spun around once shyly. Her now-slimmer waist and straighter posture stood out.
“Though I still lose to everyone else every day!”
“You’ve fully adapted to the north.”
Raven’s red eyes scanned her. Other than looking healthier, there wasn’t much else he noticed.
“Still, you won’t beat me.”
“Tinya might be better at swordsmanship than you.”
Evelyn laughed at Raven’s confident voice.
“Wanna try?”
“Me? Against Sir Raven?!”
Tinya blinked at the unexpected challenge. Evelyn’s eyes sparkled at the sudden mention of a duel.
“Let’s go.”
“How could I beat a man?”
“Tinya, you need to show the results of your training in the north.”
Thanks to the two who found it amusing, Tinya ended up being dragged to the knights’ training grounds.
As Tinya went inside to change into her training uniform, knights and servants approached the Grand Duchess.
“What’s going on?”
“Tinya is going to duel Sir Raven.”
Leonel, the first to approach out of curiosity, widened his eyes.
“Raven, do you even know how to hold a sword?”
Having been introduced as her younger brother’s friend, Leonel had treated Raven casually.
“Of course I do.”
Not really.
Everything he knew, he’d learned in the ruins. He’d never even held a sword outside of them.
But it wasn’t blind arrogance.
Before leaving the north, Raven planned to test every single person around Evelyn.
