I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 72

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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 72
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Meanwhile, in the Territory of House Oblivion.
“What’s this? My ears are itching.”
Aiden had barely settled into the sleeping bag he’d spread out before he bolted upright, scratching at his ears. The prickling sensation was unmistakable—someone was surely cursing him.
“What can you do. It’s probably those Knights Order fools.”
He let out a short, low chuckle and lay back down in the sleeping bag. Summer had grown deep enough that the air against his skin was cool without needing to burrow inside.
He was in the forest that belonged to the Duchy. He knew perfectly well that the Duke’s Castle would appear if he went a little further, but he deliberately chose not to head there.
‘If I did, I’d just end up seeing faces I’d rather not.'”
The thick canopy of summer foliage blocked out the sky, so even lying on his back and looking up, all he saw were the dark shadows of leaves.
The chirping of crickets and the soft rustling of leaves filled the air all around. It was a quiet night.
Lying still, he found himself thinking of the things he’d left behind.
“I wonder if the incident was resolved properly.”
The mission he’d been assigned—what had been done with the mercenaries he’d captured, how the case had been closed—he didn’t have clear answers.
He’d left the moment the situation appeared to be settling.
He blinked blankly. There were so many things left unfinished. So much work, so many people.
Truth be told, for a while now he’d been thinking rather more about one particular person he’d left behind.
“I hope the report went through. I should have emphasized it more before I left. Well, they’re not complete idiots, so they probably handled it fine.”
The students he’d been teaching. Or rather… actually, he was thinking about Olivia’s current circumstances.
“They probably all went together to give the report, right? I made that pretty clear. Yeah, that’s what they did. I’m sure of it.”
The way the Captain had looked at Olivia was far from ordinary. Aiden had seen that same expression in many people’s eyes before.
His heart beat uneasily. Aiden clenched his fist and thumped his chest a few times, his brow furrowing.
“Sir Aiden. May I ask a personal question?”
“No.”
“I hear that Miss Olivia is your betrothed. And that you wished to break off the engagement. Are you still of that mind?”
Yugin had asked him that very question once.
What had he answered then? Had he said his feelings hadn’t changed?
That was an answer he could give precisely because he hadn’t known then that the Captain harbored feelings for Olivia.
If he were asked that same question again now, if he were—
What would he be able to say? Aiden couldn’t swear to it. He closed his eyes once to shake off the memory and forced his mind to other things.
But all that remained in his head afterward was Olivia’s face.
‘She must be furious.’
After all, he’d left again without a word. Though in truth, there had been no pressing need to hurry.
Olivia was gradually settling into the Knights Order. Aiden had sensed, faster than anyone else, how the wariness in the other members’ eyes was slowly fading.
He’d always kept his focus sharp on her, after all.
Aiden’s own guard had crumbled too—undone by late-night conversations in some inn where they’d faced each other, by the warmth he’d felt in that rain-soaked alley.
He lifted his right hand and stared at it for a long moment, then curled it into a fist and hid it. His heart began to race at the lingering sensation of her warmth.
“Aiden Oblivion… you’ve really lost it.”
He closed his eyes.
She really was so adorable and beautiful, though. How could anyone not be drawn to her? His instincts whispered.
A few strands of hair clinging to her cheek, darkened by rainwater. The rain trickling down that pale cheek, crossing over her jawline and dripping downward. And those wide, round green eyes looking up at him in that moment.
He had reached out and touched her cheek, and if his heart had its way, he would have pulled her—
Crack!
“I’m insane, I’ve gone completely mad. How could I think such obscene thoughts about her and leave her behind like this!”
His cheek burned bright red. He’d slapped himself, hard. The sting helped quell some of the absurd fantasy.
But if he relaxed his guard for even a moment, he knew those thoughts would creep back in, so Aiden forced his eyes wide open.
“It can’t be. It isn’t possible.”
It isn’t possible, he repeated those words to himself dozens of times.
True, the girl might look beautiful, but his little Olivia had always been lovely. No one in the world could deny that.
‘My Olivia is the most beautiful in all the world.’
Eyes full of summer’s verdant green filled his mind. She was beautiful indeed.
What about the bridge of her nose, flushed and warm whenever he touched it lightly, and her cheeks? He’d never seen anything so adorably insistent in its convictions and yet so endearing all at once.
And that red mouth of hers, always shifting whenever she looked at him—how could it be so—
He bit his lip and stopped himself. His body had grown warm at the unfamiliar sensation.
“No!”
Aiden cried out and shook his head violently, his face drained of color. But the thought clung to him stubbornly.
That day, when the two of them had stood facing each other beneath the yellow lamplight. He’d thought then that Olivia looked just slightly more beautiful than usual. How could a person keep becoming more beautiful endlessly? He’d definitely thought something like that before.
But wasn’t that only natural? Olivia was the most beautiful and lovely in all the world, after all.
‘Is that really all it is?’
Aiden’s hidden truth whispered at the edge of his consciousness.
Then what of that impulse to kiss her?
Crunch!
“I need to work. When the body’s comfortable, mad thoughts come calling. There must be a Ghost here. Yes, only a Ghost could conjure such strange illusions. That’s it, it must be.”
He had to stop by the Duke’s house tomorrow. He’d thought to prepare himself mentally for that, but it had only tangled his thoughts further.
Aiden touched his flushed cheeks and gritted his teeth. Then it happened.
Rustle.
Ring!
Aiden drew his sword quickly and rose from his place.
Rustle, rustle.
“Who’s there?”
After the rustling continued a few more times, someone suddenly emerged from the tall grass.
“Young master. There you are. The head of the household has sent me to bring you.”
“What? It’s Terra.”
“Rather than coming straight to the Duke’s Castle.”
“I told you. I don’t want to spend even a day in that place.”
Aiden spoke sharply to Terra, his brother’s adjutant, but Terra accepted his tone with practiced ease and delivered his message anyway.
“The head of the household insists you come at once.”
“I said no. I’ll stop by tomorrow, do what I need to, and leave right away—”
“He also instructed me to relay this message.”
What? Aiden’s eyes narrowed with alarm as he stared at Terra.
“Listen, you reckless brat. Exactly 261 protest letters have arrived from House Kishear. Get inside and start writing replies. You said you’d handle your own affairs, didn’t you? You’re not leaving until you’ve answered every last one.”
“… 261 letters?”
“For your information, that’s just the count since you returned from your assignment. There were days when messengers came five times or more.”
“…”
“Shall we go?”
Regardless of anything else, this was his karma. He shuffled after Terra with reluctant steps.
* * *
One week into observation.
Olivia finally admitted the truth—the members of the Lux Knight Brigade really hadn’t won a single duel against other knights.
“If you think about it, Olivia’s got a pretty obsessive side too.”
“You’re just realizing that now? She was always like that. Her transfer to the Knights Academy was weird from the start anyway.”
“Is that really so shocking? Why? It could happen to anyone!”
Olivia paid no attention to what Panya and Bennett were rambling about, keeping her eyes fixed on the notebook she’d compiled over the week.
[Kunta (senior) – Has a habit of shifting his center of gravity backward when pressing forward. His body moves a half-beat too slowly, causing him to lose balance easily. Observations over a week reveal this tendency appears in duels…
This was Olivia’s analysis notebook.
Over the past week, she had observed the members of the Lux Knight Brigade closely.
Why? Because, in Olivia’s judgment, their skill was just as excellent as that of other knights!
At first she’d thought there must be another reason. Perhaps they weren’t allowed to reveal their true strength, or perhaps there was some other reason to let people misunderstand. Reasons could be various, couldn’t they?
But every member had insisted with one voice that they’d lost because ‘their own skill was lacking.’
And it was the same with Yugin.
“Is it true the members have never won in an official duel? Well, yes, it’s true.”
“… But why? Are the other knights really that skilled?”
“Hmm. I don’t think that’s the issue. But I can’t say they lost purely through a lack of skill either.”
It was a vague answer, but the meaning seemed clear enough.

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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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