I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 45

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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 45
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Few today could imagine it, but the Lux Knight Order was once among the foremost knightly orders of the Laurentia Empire.
Combat knights who stood at the vanguard against the Demon Race.
Knights whose names would echo through generations—honored, celebrated, unforgettable!
……Or so they should have been. Of course, now they were nothing at all.
“So when you say you take ‘all’ commissions……”
“Why do you keep asking? It means we take whatever jobs come in and do them.”
“Regardless of what sort of commission it is?”
“As long as it doesn’t involve treason or other criminal acts—probably, yes.”
Which was precisely why they were here now, personally dispatched to find a dog.
Academy students rarely sought out the Lux Knight Order. Only those poorly informed, or the rare few for whom reputation mattered less than other things, found their way here.
Like these three standing before them. Aiden clicked his tongue and turned toward the Client’s House, his footsteps ringing with each metallic scrape.
“Is there a reason for that?”
“Hmm? Of course there is.”
The eyes of all three gleamed anew.
What they were thinking was painfully obvious. A secret knight order performing covert operations while bearing shame for the peace and security of the empire—some fantasy like that.
Half the few who ever applied here had dreams precisely like that. And Aiden never missed the chance to gently disabuse them of the truth.
“And that reason is……”
“Is?”
“We have no money.”
“No money because—I’m sorry, what?”
That was it. The Lux Knight Order had no money.
With not even enough to eat, the members of the Lux Knight Order ran themselves ragged earning what little they needed to survive.
“A truly tragic tale.”
Aiden wiped the corners of his eyes with exaggerated flair. The three exchanged glances, uncertain whether he was joking or entirely serious.
Though Aiden had never once told a lie.
“Does it sound like a joke?”
“Well—but the order receives government funding, doesn’t it?”
“We don’t.”
“But everyone knows all knight orders receive that support……”
“I suppose we’re not ‘everyone,’ then.”
Of course, there was a long and complicated history behind how things had come to this.
But the interns had no need to know. They were still outsiders, after all.
Aiden clapped his hands once, sharply. All three pairs of eyes snapped toward him.
“So we earn what we need and spend it!”
“……I’m sorry?”
“Those who do not work shall not eat. A saying I’m quite fond of.”
“Oh, Olivia. Something here seems rather—”
“Once you’ve entered, there is no way out. You understand? So we shall……”
Thud. Where Aiden’s foot came down, the earth left a shallow footprint. The eyes of all three interns widened in shock.
“Go wherever our help is needed!”
For the first time in weeks, Aiden felt something like joy. He grinned wickedly and drove the point home with another shout.
“Even if it’s a tiny little commission from an ordinary civilian!”
……
They walked the rest of the way to the Client’s House in silence. Only Aiden hummed merrily to himself the entire time.
The dragging footsteps of the three interns burned into his vision. His smile widened just a fraction more.
‘I wonder how long they’ll hold out.’
Quiet laughter followed them from behind. The three felt it, shuddered, and quickened their pace.
* * *
So the order truly had no money.
“No money means you have to earn it……. He’s not wrong.”
“What?”
“I—I was just thinking about where we’d find Dorothy.”
“Hmm. Olivia, something about you is genuinely suspicious. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
Aiden pointed at his own eyes, then at Olivia, then back again, as if that constituted a threat. It wasn’t particularly intimidating.
‘Is that why she tried so hard to talk me out of joining?’
Because seeing a girl who’d never worked a day in her life stumble through a penniless knight order would break her heart?
Though that was Olivia as Aiden imagined her, truth be told. Still, it occurred to her that this could indeed be one of the many reasons she’d discouraged her own application.
Olivia studied Aiden carefully, without his noticing.
Now that she thought about it, he was leaner than three years ago, his hands far more roughened, and his body more muscular from hard labor, it seemed—
Clap!
“What, what is it?”
“Nothing, ma’am. Just a stray thought.”
“Tch. Stray thoughts during a mission. You’re quite talented at that.”
She let his reproach slide past without a word.
So Aiden really had been struggling. And he wasn’t the sort to have been raised doing rough work.
He was the second son of the Oblion Duke House, and the Oblion Duke House carried far more authority than the Kisir Marquis House.
He might have suffered emotionally, but he should never have known physical hardship from want.
“How…… it is.”
“What now?”
“I’ll do my very best. Please don’t worry.”
“You’ve been acting strange since earlier. Haven’t you?”
“So that’s what happened.”
In Olivia’s eyes, Aiden had become a pitiful figure—a man ground down by hardship until his very nature had turned jagged.
The stories Aiden had pressed upon her weeks before, told with utter seriousness, had already faded somewhat from memory.
“Commission fees, yes. Quite important, really!”
“This won’t do. I need to have a word with you.”
“I can—no, I mean, I could support one senior member if needed.”
“What are you talking about? Hey, you two. Your friend has lost it.”
“……She’s always been a bit like that.”
“I’ll do my best!”
……
Aiden’s mouth fell open, his eyes blinking rapidly as if deeply moved. Olivia clenched her fists tight and urged her friends forward.
“Come on, everyone. Let’s finish this commission quickly.”
“Olivia. Get a grip on yourself.”
“We need to settle the mission—no, get the commission fee.”
“You’re a noble lady. Why are you so fixated on money?”
“What does that matter? Our senior has been through so much. It’s only right that we, as his juniors, lighten that burden. Isn’t it?”
At this, understanding flashed across the other two’s faces like a spark.
“Ah……. So that’s it?”
“Oh! That makes sense. We should help him!”
The three swiftly came to unanimous agreement.
“So yes—that’s how everything finds peace.”
Relief washed over Olivia at last.
She didn’t realize that in that moment of clarity, Aiden—still standing dumbfounded—had unwittingly become a pitiable senior who’d vented his hardships to sympathetic juniors.
It was the instant Aiden snapped back to himself, startling visibly as he began to protest.
“Wait, wait. You’re all misunderstanding something—”
“Right. Isn’t that the client’s house? The one with the red roof?”
“Where, where? Oh, yes!”
Their destination appeared right on cue.
“Just listen to me for a moment—”
“Senior, I’d prefer to focus on the mission now.”
“This is going to drive me insane.”
“My goodness. There’s someone standing by the front door.”
Panya pointed toward the gate of the Client’s House. She was right.
A man with dark brown hair stood at the entrance, arms crossed, watching them approach.
“Here. Straighten your clothes. First impressions matter.”
Aiden shed his light demeanor and offered the advice seriously. The three hurriedly tidied their disheveled appearance and approached the man.
Dark brown hair, eyes nearly black.
Those eyes held a sharp wariness toward those who approached.
Handsome enough by any measure, yet something in the alertness of those eyes and the sharp upturn of his gaze made him seem somewhat sensitive.
“Who are you people, and what brings you here?”
“We sent word ahead, but it appears the message didn’t reach you. We’re from the Lux Knight Order—”
“I’ve heard of it. That’s not the problem.”
His eyes swept quickly over Olivia and her friends. In one hand, he held what looked like a rather thick poker.
The man raised the poker and leveled it toward them, asking again.
“You’re not con artists, are you?”
What kind of situation was this?
Caught off-guard, the three froze momentarily.
It was in that instant—

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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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