I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 56

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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 56
“Pardon?”
“There’s a way. So you go round up the others.”
Aiden vaulted from his horse and rolled his neck with a stretch, gesturing toward the Conference Room.
“And tell them I want a report the moment I arrive.”
“But the others haven’t even come in yet. There’s still time before the briefing.”
“Of course there isn’t. It’s Dawn Training time, isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
“Dawn Training. What, now that you’ve been assigned a mission, you’re going to skip training entirely?”
Ruthless bastard.
At moments like this, it infuriated Olivia deeply that Aiden wasn’t her direct supervisor.
When would she finally get strong enough to land a hit on him?
“Now go do your training.”
“B-but if I rest now, what about the surveillance later?”
“No, Olivia. This one’s still new and doesn’t know better. Conserving your strength now means you’ll have energy left for later.”
“I don’t think that’s right.”
“Look, five minutes left. You know how I feel about tardiness—I hate it. Get it done properly. Anyone who skips will answer for it.”
…….
“I don’t joke around. Now get moving.”
Aiden had already shifted back into ‘senior’ mode.
He waved his hand dismissively and began walking toward the Commander’s Office, his golden head quickly receding into the distance.
“Oh? Isn’t that Olivia?”
Just then, familiar voices reached her ears. Panya and Bennett.
“Olivia! You came early too.”
“Panya? Bennett? You two got here early as well?”
Was it instinct? Thankfully, Panya and Bennett had also arrived at the brigade in the pre-dawn hours.
Olivia let out a sigh of relief and studied the two of them.
“Yeah. We need to file reports and… but Olivia.”
“What?”
“Why’s your hand on your sword hilt? Did you see something strange?”
“…… Me?”
That’s right.
I had done it. Somehow without realizing, Olivia’s hand had gripped the hilt of the Defensor with such force it seemed it might shatter.
Once again, Olivia’s unconscious will was exerting considerable effort to refrain from striking someone she wanted to hit.
Olivia forcibly released her grip and smiled.
“It’s nothing. Just saw someone irritating.”
“There’s no one else here but us. Only the duty knight is inside.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Oh, by the way, the senior asked me to relay something.”
“What? That sounds ominous…… Can I go organize my reports first?”
“You can, but he also said if anyone skips Dawn Training, you all die.”
…….
Despair flickered across Panya and Bennett’s faces. It was deeply tragic.
“And he said you should prepare yourselves—he’ll take your report right after training.”
“He’s joking……”
“He’s not. The senior’s furious. I’m serious.”
“I don’t feel so good, Olivia.”
“If it’s the senior, he might really make you suffer.”
Their faces had gone pale in an instant. But what could you do? This was the hell they’d chosen for themselves.
Olivia sighed and dragged her two friends toward the Training Ground, their small footsteps and two dragging trails marking their passage.
And so, a spirited morning began at the Lux Knight Brigade.
* * *
Aiden entered the empty Commander’s Office.
Yugin’s arrival time was precisely 8 o’clock, so it would be a while before he appeared.
But Aiden didn’t slow his pace. He strode forward decisively and suddenly yanked open the door to the Adjoining Room connected to the Commander’s Office.
“Commander!”
“Please knock…… I didn’t teach you to do this.”
“Commander. That’s not the issue. I think we need to split into two teams for this.”
Whenever assignments were given to the new knights, Yugin always remained in the Adjoining Room—prepared for any contingency. Today was no exception.
Yugin, who had been standing before a mirror contemplating something, turned to face him and furrowed his brow.
Even at this early hour, Yugin gleamed with immaculate refinement. Silver hair with perfect texture, calm dark eyes, a flawlessly pressed shirt, and official dress trousers.
“You still lack any semblance of humanity, sir.”
“And you have far too much of it—that’s the problem.”
“That casual tone is a character trait you added for humanity’s sake, isn’t it?”
“You’re consistently impertinent.”
Yugin regarded Aiden with a worn expression before setting down what he held.
Simple Cufflinks accented with amber. Aiden approached and casually opened the conversation.
“You seem to be in a rather good mood today, sir?”
“I’m not.”
“But the stone is yellow, is it not?”
From crown to toe, Yugin, Commander of the impeccably disciplined Lux Knight Brigade, carried an austerity so absolute that no blood would spill if pricked with a needle. Yet even he harbored one small secret.
The color of the jewel on his Cufflinks shifted with his mood each morning.
Yellow meant his mood wasn’t particularly poor. Of course, a bad mood didn’t drive him to vent on his subordinates, but understanding a superior’s disposition, however roughly, was a necessary skill.
Aiden typically checked the Cufflinks’ color just before or just after causing trouble.
Upon hearing Aiden’s remark, Yugin gazed pensively at the Cufflinks he’d set down before speaking.
“It was, a moment ago.”
“Hm?”
“But thanks to you, I can now decide today’s color. How thoughtful.”
He spoke thus, fastening black Cufflinks around his cuff. The black jewel meant, in crude terms, ‘I’m furious.’
Aiden had seen Yugin wear black Cufflinks only twice before. This was the third.
…….
“So, what brings you at this hour?”
“I came to request urgent reinforcements, sir.”
Aiden answered with unusual formality.
Meanwhile, Yugin donned his jacket and checked his appearance once more.
With his appearance meticulously set down to a single strand of hair, he passed Aiden and moved toward the window, a faint fragrance drifting in his wake.
Click. The sound of the window opening. As the frame swung wide, the noise from outside poured in.
Yugin stood quietly, gazing out. Aiden hurried to his side.
“Ugh! Just ten more minutes—ten minutes of rest!”
“There’s no such thing. Stop whining and get up.”
There, in the Training Ground, three figures were rolling about. Aiden found the sight somewhat satisfying, but the moment he remembered Yugin was watching, he flinched and began making excuses.
“I’m not overseeing them, you understand? Of course not—I’m standing here with you.”
“But you did order it.”
“…… Training is necessary, is it not?”
Yugin made no reply, merely gestured with his eyes to continue.
“In any case. During the reconnaissance yesterday, we made contact with a suspicious Mercenary Band that appeared in the Village.”
“Did you? Did you find anything unusual?”
“Yes, sir. There was something odd among the items they carried.”
A Red Stone the band’s leader held. It resembled a Magic Stone, yet it radiated something distinctly different. And besides…….
“They possess a stone. It seemed to serve as a medium for the power behind their schemes. According to them, some kind of force dwells within it.”
“In your judgment, does it seem connected to this group?”
“Yes, sir. The fact that they used it to orchestrate something so particular points to it.”
Mercenaries who conjured calamity. They gathered victims through it. They said it granted them power.
“A Priest is the suspicious one. As you well know, holding a ritual doesn’t inherently grant power.”
“True enough.”
“But this Priest actually delivered to the mercenaries a stone imbued with some unknown force, and they used it to perpetrate their crimes. We need to determine what that force is.”
Previously, at the Academy’s Field Training Exercise site, Aiden had discovered similar traces—stones shattered like fragments.
‘They seemed to be Guardian Stone material, but they held no power within.’
It was crucial to determine whether these ‘stones’ the mercenaries were using matched those fragments. And if they truly did…….
‘They’ve really come back into the world.’
He had seen something exactly like it roughly ten years ago.
A cold, quiet fury settled over Aiden’s face.

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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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