I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 35

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 35
Aiden remembered the days before the Demons were exterminated. From when he was far younger than he was now.
“Mother, don’t go. Please don’t! Father can go instead!”
“My, when did this one start throwing such a tantrum?”
“Why must you go? Father is the head of the household…….”
“Because it falls to me to protect them.”
More than a decade ago, Aiden’s Mother went to the Battlefield despite his desperate pleas.
She said it fell to her to protect them. She’d promised to come back—promised this would be the last time. She’d said it clearly, hadn’t she…….
‘She never came back.’
That battle lived on in history under the grand title of the Demon Extermination War. And it was the last battle against the Demons that had tormented people so cruelly.
But no one remembered the name of the woman who had charged to the front and died in that fight. It was as though they spoke of her as though she had never existed at all.
All that remained was a Medal of Honor given to the Oblivion Duke House and the Emperor’s acknowledgment. Yet even those were meant for the living, not the dead.
Those who had sacrificed nothing for his mother now lived arrogantly, swallowing the honor that should have been hers as though it were their own. This fact occasionally filled Aiden with profound disgust.
“I said you’d see us again soon, but I never expected it to be this soon. Olivia, you’ve set quite the record.”
“I’m so sorry…….”
“No, no. Giving the same Treatment twice—that’s quite enjoyable, really. Thorough review is important, after all.”
“I’m truly sorry…….”
The Doctor finished the Treatment and then launched into a torrent of scolding before departing. He even shot a glare at Aiden, but with nothing to say in his defense, Aiden endured that gaze quietly.
With the bleeding finally stopped, Olivia crossed her arms and demanded an answer from him.
“Now, tell me. What on earth is going on?”
Thump. His heart sank.
All the matters he’d been putting off appeared before him like a rolling snowball, grown enormous.
“It’s because of the internship, isn’t it? What exactly happened that day?”
At Olivia’s question, Aiden closed his eyes firmly and exhaled a long breath. With each breath, the memories of that day scattered chaotically through his mind.
That day, Aiden had chosen to examine the scene rather than follow Ujin. It was a kind of evasion. The moment he saw Olivia gravely injured, the memories of the past came rushing back in a torrent.
His mother and the comrades who had departed before her. Their deaths, noble but nothing more, overlaid themselves onto Olivia’s pale face, and he couldn’t bear it.
The righteous and honorable people who had stood by Aiden’s side had mostly died senselessly, leaving only honor behind. If he were beside Olivia, it seemed certain she would meet the same end. That was why he couldn’t be with her.
And as time passed, that resolve only grew stronger.
“Commander. That group from before—they’ve appeared again.”
“That group?”
“The Demon Kin Cult. That mad group that tried to harm and dominate people using Demons.”
He had found a clue about those who had killed his mother.
Only after tracking down that lead did Aiden’s mind snap fully into focus.
Aiden, are you carelessly letting people in again, only to ruin everything? It was as though someone was whispering that in his ear.
Aiden lived for revenge. And he would continue to do so.
He fixed Olivia with a troubled gaze.
Now was the time to speak the truth.
“Olivia. I’m afraid of you.”
“……What do you mean by that?”
“I’m terrified I’ll lose you like I lost my mother.”
He didn’t want to lose anyone else, anyone he couldn’t protect. Especially not if that someone was his sister, the one he held dear—Olivia Kishear.
Olivia’s eyes widened.
“Aiden. That’s—”
“I heard what happened during your internship.”
“You’re certain you only heard about it?”
“Yes.”
No. He had seen it clearly with his own eyes. But he chose not to say so. That seemed more likely to make Olivia give up on her aspirations.
A bitter smile played at his lips as he continued.
“From what I hear, you really will make a fine knight. A splendid one your fellow knights can rely on.”
His mother had been such a person. None of the knights failed to trust and follow her, and not just the knights—every servant in the household depended on her deeply.
That trust, that reliance, those expectations—they were what had pushed her to the Battlefield.
“……My mother was like that too.”
“I… I won’t leave your side, Aiden.”
“My mother probably thought the same. She said she’d never even considered leaving us, that she’d come back this time as well. But, Olivia. Death isn’t something people can prevent with their will.”
“Aiden.”
“I needed time to think. Time to confirm things too. That’s all. I wasn’t ignoring you, and I wasn’t running away on purpose.”
A lie. Aiden had run. When he looked at Olivia, he couldn’t predict what he might say, so he had fled from her side for a while.
And now he had finally reached a conclusion. Because there was no more running from it.
Without thinking, Aiden touched the ring on his finger.
Olivia was looking up at him with a tense gaze.
“Olivia. Shall we make a wager?”
“A wager?”
Aiden opened his mouth slowly.
“You know that after the internship ends, you’ll begin your Intern work, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“You’ll be coming to the Luxus Knight Order.”
Olivia nodded obediently.
Looking at her, he felt a laugh bubbling up. He now understood with absolute certainty that there was no way to stop her no matter what he did.
Aiden’s emotions were chaos itself. He couldn’t be sure what feeling was driving him to discourage Olivia from joining the Luxus Knight Order.
Was it truly just because he didn’t want to lose her? Or was it something else…….
‘Is it because I’m afraid that being near Olivia will make me content with reality?’
Because being together is happiness. It’s joyful and comfortable.
Though he had lived as though sitting on a bed of nails all these years, in the past few months since being with Olivia again, hadn’t he felt quite joyful and happy?
Revenge for his mother was growing hazy, and perhaps—yes, perhaps he had thought that living in pursuit of such joy might not be so bad after all.
Aiden was terrified of everything, terribly terrified. So he had decided to let go first, before he could be hurt.
“If you endure through your Intern period and earn the recognition of everyone in the Knight Order,”
“Everyone……. Everyone?”
“Yes. Everyone.”
He shrugged his shoulders, deliberately trying to lighten the mood. Bewilderment filled Olivia’s eyes.
“Then I won’t say anything more about your choice.”
“Is there some clear standard? Recognition is a vague standard.”
“Well, I’ll leave that to your conscience. If you don’t think you’ve earned their recognition, you’ll just have to confess it honestly.”
“But what if you don’t earn their recognition? What’s the price? Do I not join the Knight Order?”
Aiden paused at that question. He needed a moment to steel himself. After taking a short breath, he smiled at Olivia and spoke.
“Whether you join the Knight Order or not is your choice. My condition is—”
Two gazes tangled in the air. Anxiety filled Olivia’s green eyes.
Aiden read it instantly and didn’t hesitate to speak.
“If you fail, then this time we truly…… will dissolve our engagement.”
“Aiden!”
“That’s my condition. What do you say?”
Olivia’s fingertips trembled. To anyone’s eyes, she was the picture of someone wounded.
He’d hurt her again. Aiden sighed.
* * *
If she accepted the condition, she was to apply as an Intern at the Luxus Knight Order once the internship ended, and with that, Aiden departed. And Olivia—
“You!”
Thwack!
“Awful!”
Wham!
“Bastard!”
Smack!
She’d returned to the Dormitory and was furiously beating a stuffed animal. Panya, who had already forced her way into Olivia’s room and was lounging on the couch, clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
“Olivia. What did the toy ever do to you?”
Pow!
“Stop it already. You’re crushing the poor thing.”
The moment she said that, the toy vanished from before Olivia’s eyes, so Olivia’s fist swung uselessly through empty air. Her bewildered gaze turned toward Panya, who had snatched the toy away.
Panya planted herself in the spot where the toy had been sitting and spoke.
“What’s going on with you? Who are you fighting with?”
“Panya. Why are there so many cowardly people in the world?”
“Huh? Is this a lovers’ quarrel?”
“No, Panya. This is war.”
The words Aiden had spoken wouldn’t leave her mind.
Dissolution of Engagement?
‘This makes no sense at all.’
Over the past few months, Aiden had kept Olivia in his grasp like he was clenching a mouse. Yet during all that time, he had never once removed the Engagement Ring she had placed on his finger.
A swordsman would certainly know what was on his own fingers, so that was clearly an intentional act…….
“And now? Dissolution of Engagement?”
“My goodness. He’s your fiancé! You’ve met your fiancé?”
“He gave me every chance under the sun, and then out of nowhere he says he wants to dissolve the engagement? That’s just trash behavior, isn’t it?”
“How did he give you a chance?”
“……There was. But it’s a secret.”
Panya narrowed her eyes and looked at Olivia suspiciously. At that suspicious gaze, Olivia felt deeply wronged.
“Did he propose to you or something?”
“Something like that.”
“What? That’s just trash behavior!”
“Exactly.”
What else would you call it if not trash behavior? If that was his intention, he shouldn’t have worn the ring in the first place.
He shouldn’t have gotten jealous. He shouldn’t have cared about Olivia at all.
And then what? A wager?
Even the condition of that wager was strange. If she couldn’t adapt to the Knight Order, they’d dissolve the engagement? What did Knight Order adaptation have to do with that?
In Olivia’s mind, only the image of Aiden’s back of his head remained as he left—that back of his head she should have struck with all her might.
She regretted it now. She should have hit that back of his head very hard. Olivia swallowed a sigh of frustration and squeezed her eyes shut.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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