SOKM 31

Chapter : 31

Hyden stood with his back against the wall opposite her, his face twisted as roughly as the words he had just spat out.

“Still,” he said, “for someone who values freedom more than anyone else, you’re strangely conservative about things like this.”

“I’m simply fulfilling a noble’s duty.”

When I didn’t give an inch, Hyden looked down at me with lazy eyes.

Unable to endure the piercing persistence of his gaze, I did what I always did—I pretended to take a sip of coffee to avoid his eyes.

“Ugh.”

The moment I filled my mouth with coffee, I jerked the cup away as if my lips had been burned.

“What the—why is there ice in this coffee?”

I stared into the cup with wide eyes. Hyden’s eyes curved mischievously.

He’s smiling at this…?

“You seemed overly agitated, so I added it to help you calm down.”

“You can’t even brew tea properly. How could you do something like this? This tastes awful. Do you know that?”

“I don’t. I’ve never tasted it.”

So he was messing with me on purpose?

I wiped my lips with the back of my hand, not even bothering to reach for a handkerchief.

Watching me, Hyden pressed his lips together, suppressing a laugh.

“Fine. I’ll make it next time, so you’d better try it too.”

“There’s a rule about not making private appointments alone with an unmarried member of the opposite sex, if I recall correctly.”

“Who even follows something like that? It’s just an excuse people use when they want to play hard to get.”

I shot him a sharp look and downed the cold, slippery coffee in one go.

When I slammed the empty cup down, Hyden stared at it in disbelief.

“Ugh. I drank it out of respect for your effort, but know this—this was absolutely terrible. And where did you even get ice?”

“…I made it while handing coffee to the Knight.”

“Just now?”

In that brief moment when I wasn’t paying attention, he had dropped ice into piping-hot coffee?

He’s only twenty.

Before the sting of long-forgotten inferiority could take hold, I deliberately looked away.

“By the way, why isn’t there a bed in here?”

Hyden didn’t answer.

He was staring at the empty coffee cup I had drained, lost in thought.

Spacing out over something like this, at a time like this.

Still, he hadn’t wandered completely off somewhere else. A beat later, his answer came.

“The more comfortable a place is, the more you want to keep resting in it. So I didn’t put one in.”

“So what? This is a place to rest. Throw away the chair in your Purification Department and put a proper bed here instead.”

“Once you have your own master room, you may do as you please.”

“No thanks. Work should be done in moderation.”

When I shook my head without a second thought, Hyden’s gaze sharpened.

“With a master room, it would be useful for working late nights—or mornings when you haven’t fully sobered up.”

“It’s fine. I’m getting a key to this place anyway.”

I smiled lightly and held out my palm. Hyden clicked his tongue and rummaged through the inside pocket of his jacket.

“By the way, Hyden. There’s something I’ve been curious about.”

“Are you asking me?”

I leaned back awkwardly against the stiff couch and looked up at Hyden standing opposite me.

“Yes. You always smoke Bernese tobacco, don’t you? And you only drink black wine. There are far better options—why insist on Bernese ones? Is it because you miss your homeland?”

Hyden shook his head calmly.

“They simply suit my palate.”

“Even compared to foreign tobacco or expensive liquor?”

“Yes. I prefer familiar flavors.”

It wasn’t a particularly aristocratic answer, yet somehow it suited Hyden perfectly.

“Hm. Then why do you smoke so much but never drink more than two glasses of whiskey?”

He looked at me strangely.

Why is he staring like that?

“I dislike losing control when drunk.”

“…But that’s the fun part.”

“Even so, please enjoy yourself in moderation. Judging by what you’re saying, it seems your energy has fully returned.”

After patiently answering all my trivial questions, Hyden pushed off the wall and walked toward the large desk.

Why is he suddenly moving?

As if he had eyes on the back of his head, he let out a low sigh.

“Knight. I won’t ask why you acted the way you did earlier, so please relax.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You keep asking questions because there are topics you don’t want to answer. Ever since earlier, you’ve only been asking about me. You aren’t actually interested, are you?”

Hyden looked at me with sunken eyes, as though he could see straight through my thoughts.

When I fell silent, he slowly turned his gaze away.

“Since you clearly don’t want to talk about it, I won’t ask further.”

He pulled out a small stool from beneath the desk and sat down beside the couch.

It was a distance that was awkward to call ‘far enough,’ yet strangely, it made me feel at ease rather than uncomfortable.

“Hyden. You really won’t ask me anything…? Then why did you bring me here?”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t ask anything.”

“……”

“I brought you here because it looked like you were about to cry again. If you’re fine, I’ll leave the seat to you—and if not, I intend to ask why you keep calling my name in front of people.”

The content of his words was reason enough to complain, yet his expression and tone were unmistakably playful.

When I hesitated, lips fidgeting, Hyden tilted his head.

“Isn’t it unfair? The things you said back then—I remember them exactly, and I’ve kept my word.”

“What did I say?”

“You said that since you are of noble birth, you would at least treat someone like me—whose origins are unknown—as a noble within this insignificant knight order. In return, whenever I addressed you, I was to use ‘Sir’ or ‘My Lord,’ always maintaining respect. When I asked you not to speak casually to me but to use honorifics… what was your reply?”

“No idea. I don’t remember.”

“You said you’d match how I spoke.”

Damn it. He pretended not to know, but he remembered everything.

Back then, I’d probably gone as far as insulting imperial authority just to protect my pitiful pride.

Calziren, you hopeless fool.

Blair had even changed professions, yet I seemed to have changed not at all.

“Well… that was—”

Leaving my flustered state alone, Hyden rested his elbow on the armrest of the couch.

Since the armrest was quite low, his face came closer to mine than ever before.

“Either way, I’ve been treating you with the respect we agreed upon. But you call my name freely even in front of others. Isn’t that terribly unfair?”

His grin was so mischievous that I almost shoved his forehead back out of habit, the way I used to with Amon.

Instead, I turned my head away, avoiding his gaze.

Staring at my profile, he curled the corner of his lips.

“When we’re alone, you may call me whatever you like—if that’s more comfortable for you. I’ll say it again: only when we’re alone.”

“…Hm.”

“Even you should be able to keep that much.”

His tone was unmistakably the Hyden I knew—so familiar it startled me.

Meeting his eyes as he waited for an answer, I naturally thought of the Hyden from the future—or perhaps from another world.

Whenever I spoke with him privately, I’d always felt a certain tension.

Hyden possessed a unique pressure, and whenever I was swept up in it, I felt thoroughly uncomfortable.

But now… is he teasing me?

Unsure, I held my tongue.

The fact that I was even pondering this felt absurd.

“Hyden. It feels like we’ve gotten closer somehow. Is that just my imagination?”

“?”

He silently lowered his gaze, as if measuring the distance between us.

There were only a few centimeters between the back of his hand and my arm.

No—that’s not what I meant. I meant emotionally…

After staring at the narrow gap, he quietly pulled his arm back.

“Isn’t this much acceptable?”

Despite his careful movement, his voice suggested he genuinely didn’t mind.

Is it really okay?

I never imagined a day would come when I’d talk with him like this, yet it felt more pleasant than expected.

Still, the reason this change didn’t sit entirely well was simple—I had no idea how it might affect the future.

Blair’s face, laughing wildly as he pumped bullets into me, was still vividly etched into my mind.

“Knight.”

“Huh?”

Startled out of my thoughts, I saw that Hyden didn’t call me again. Instead, his gaze slid downward.

“Why are you shaking all of a sudden?”

Following his gaze, I noticed my hand resting on the table was trembling slightly.

“It’s nothing. I’m just a little tired…”

As I hid my fingers beneath the table, he tilted his head.

What if he asks to see my hand?

But contrary to my worries, Hyden lightly withdrew his gaze.

“Do you need medicine or a fatigue tonic?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Then it would be best for you to lie down and rest.”

“…Here?”

Without answering, he moved behind the couch and began fiddling with something.

Click.

At the sound of a switch, the couch—previously uneven in height—began to level out. The chaotic texture firmed up, transforming into something like a normal chair.

I thought I’d been stuck with some junk, but was this another one of Hyden’s inventions?

After pressing down on various spots in curiosity, I turned around and lay back.

“You make some really strange things.”

“If it’s too comfortable, you’ll want to keep resting. I’ll go get the documents I need to process—so please rest for now.”

“Work… here?”

I grumbled, and the corner of Hyden’s lips twitched upward.

“I’ll do it.”

“Why would you work on your paperwork—”

Wait. That sounded like he was saying he’d stay with me.

When I frowned, he tilted his head calmly.

“Is my presence a problem? This is my room.”

“Of course it is. It’s uncomfortable when you’re around.”