I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 70

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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 70
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The Lumen Knight Order members fled in panic.
Without so much as a single word of rebuttal, they repeated senseless utterances like “uh, well, um” several times over before bolting away like fools with their tails between their legs.
And a considerable number of Luxes Knight Brigade members witnessed it all clearly.
“……They really ran away like that?”
“They disappeared way earlier than usual today, didn’t they?”
“Well, of course. Today they only mocked us. If it were any other day, they’d have hurled insults dragging up distant relatives before disappearing.”
Nobles. Especially those bastards from rival knight orders.
Some of them were decent enough, but there were certainly strange ones scattered among them.
Such people are always hunting for ‘weak things’ to become their targets, wherever they go.
And, unfortunately enough……. The Laurentia Empire had targets openly marked.
A knight brigade packed with commoners who’d risen in rank without any procedure, purely by the captain’s favor; a brigade that survived by taking contracts like mercenaries; a brigade claiming to be knights while occupying land without any proper achievements to show——.
The Luxes Knight Brigade, in other words.
The refined nobles always looked down on the Luxes Brigade members with contempt.
It couldn’t be helped, given that the work they did was nothing to boast about, but truthfully the real problem lay elsewhere: their status.
Once lowborn status was added to the equation, the malevolent gazes directed at the Luxes Brigade swelled beyond all measure.
They had become a place these people could insult without the slightest pang of conscience.
The members had adapted to this reality. If recognition had been their goal, they would never have joined in the first place; they reckoned they could endure such dismissal.
But today, they finally understood something.
“……How come I never noticed water could look that beautiful?”
“You too? I had the same thought.”
“When it poured down on those bastards, it was truly——spectacularly satisfying!”
That holding back nothing was truly a good thing, they comprehended. The scene they’d witnessed moments before played vividly in their minds.
Olivia chased the Lumen Knight Order members away like that and then vanished as if nothing had happened.
“Good morning, senior! Is there any knight brigade work today that I could assist with?”
“Huh?”
“If you give me anything, I’ll study hard. Oh, and first I’ll do morning training!”
“Training?”
“If I skip it, senior Aiden might come charging over with fire in his eyes…….”
“Then train, of course you should! Come on, hurry up and finish!”
“Yes. Thank you, everyone. See you later.”
There was no commentary on the situation, no concern about whether anything was amiss.
She simply exchanged greetings naturally and walked away with her usual expression, moving at her typical pace.
The faces of those recalling that moment grew complicated.
“She’s really quite respectful, isn’t she.”
“She’s from the Kishier House, right? Completely different from the Marquis himself.”
“Does she not know we’re commoners?”
“No way. Everyone knows that.”
Olivia saw everything, yet still treated them with courtesy.
Among them were several who had exchanged something resembling a conversation with Olivia for the first time today. Their expressions were noticeably more vivid than the others’.
“I thought only Aiden was some kind of aberration.”
“That’s probably right.”
“That Young Lady——or rather, that girl too, is she the same sort of person?”
“……Hmm.”
They discussed it among themselves.
“If she’s like Aiden, wouldn’t that be fine?”
Someone said that during the discussion.
“No, it wouldn’t work.”
Another answered firmly. People’s eyes widened as they looked at the speaker, but soon their expressions shifted to understanding as the explanation followed, and they nodded in agreement.
“Luca’s here. Even if we don’t care, he’d never accept it.”
“Oh, that’s true. Didn’t he faint on the first day?”
“Yeah. And even if that weren’t the case……. Honestly, it’s just not something we could do to Luca.”
Everyone expressed their agreement one by one.
“Too bad. She seems like a good kid.”
“That she does, but……. There’s no helping it.”
That’s right, this was unavoidable. The members smacked their lips a few times and shrugged.
And in a place a little ways from them.
“Spouting nonsense.”
The gray-haired man glowered at them and muttered curtly.
* * *
Luca, the recluse of the Luxes Knight Brigade, blinked slowly as he shifted his body with deliberate sluggishness.
While the gathered members murmured and chattered amongst themselves, Luca couldn’t blend into their midst. The sight he’d witnessed moments before didn’t leave him feeling particularly satisfied.
“As if that’s something to be pleased about. Idiots.”
As the sun had shifted, his body had moved out of the building’s shadow. Luca stepped back and stared blankly at the boundary between light and dark.
Darkness. Where he’d always been, and likely where he’d remain.
He found comfort in dark, quiet places. There was no choice in the matter. This was an ancient habit of his, and a scar he bore.
“Olivia…….”
He slowly expelled the name that had been circling in his mouth.
Olivia Kishier. The Young Lady of the illustrious Kishier House and a high-ranking noble——the Luxes Knight Brigade’s new intern.
The others seemed to be adapting to her presence, but Luca was the sole exception.
On the first day, the moment he heard her introduction, he’d collapsed. It looked pathetic, but this wasn’t something he could control.
‘Noble.’ ‘Young Lady.’ All of it triggered Luca’s deepest trauma.
“That one would suit perfectly. I like the look in those eyes. Things like that don’t die easily.”
“I’ll have everything prepared at once.”
“What are you—— let go, let this go! Aaaahhh!”
“Even in this, her spirit doesn’t break. I like that even more. Take her with you.”
Luca, dressed in long sleeves despite the summer heat, quietly rubbing one arm while gnawing at his lip, could feel the memories clawing at him.
His childhood was punctuated by memories like hell itself. There must have been brighter, warmer ones from when he was even younger, but because everything that came after was nothing but horrific, those early memories had nearly all faded away.
The one who’d pulled him up from the edge of death to this place was Yugin, the captain of this brigade. The only ‘decent noble’ he’d ever met.
He was Luca’s benefactor. And once he came to understand the circumstances tied to Yugin, Luca had accepted him within his boundaries.
But the others——
‘Nobles can’t be trusted.’
Untrustworthy. Luca knew all too well how cruel and terrible nobles were, didn’t he? Every time he thought of them, the arm he’d barely managed to revive throbbed and ached.
This place was no different. The more he watched those troublemakers coming around to cause a scene whenever bored, the stronger that conviction became.
“But setting all that aside, Olivia—— doesn’t that girl seem a bit different? She seemed to get along well with Aiden and Sena too.”
“I told you! She’s really, incredibly, better than I expected?”
“Nick, Kunta. When did you two start taking her side like this…….”
“Olivia’s different. I’m telling you, for real!”
Different how?
In Luca’s eyes, she still seemed no different at all.
Besides, he was the only person in this brigade who wasn’t close with Aiden Oblivion. He didn’t even trust Aiden.
He acknowledged that Aiden was somewhat ‘different’ from other nobles, but it didn’t mean he trusted him completely. That was all it meant.
He hadn’t shown Luca anything to change that. Aiden’s outstanding qualities as a knight had helped Luca regard him as a ‘competent coworker,’ but that was the extent of it.
He recalled Olivia again. The way she’d stood with a bucket in hand, pouring water on them…….
Yes, honestly, it had been a bit cathartic.
But ultimately, wasn’t it Olivia’s status, not her actions, that had stopped them in their tracks?
The backing of the Kishier House.
“Olivia’s not that kind of noble!”
Those idiots are all being fooled.
Luca scraped at a hangnail until it bled, then irritably turned away. In the distance, he could see Olivia laughing and talking with her peers.
I will never fall for that mask.
Luca clenched his teeth with resolve.

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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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