I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 9

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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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Episode 9
I’d lost all sense of time.
When you began training the moment the sun rose and kept at it until your eyes closed, you grew numb to the passage of hours.
A brief rest period during training.
Bennett, who had been Olivia’s sparring partner, dropped down beside her with a heavy sigh and spoke.
“Olivia. Did you know it’s already been two months since training started?”
“Already?”
That meant two months had already passed since Olivia had overcome Aiden’s countless schemes to obstruct her and applied to the Luxe Knights.
“I’m really impressed with you…….”
“Hmm?”
The way the instructor has been working you—and you’ve endured it all without complaint. That’s commendable.”
“……you?”
Bennett’s face hung heavy with questions like “You endured it well?”
Olivia truly couldn’t understand him.
Haven’t I held up beautifully?
Sure, I may have committed a few acts of insubordination in the process……. But surely that deserves some leniency.
There were senior students who’d done far worse, or so I’d heard.
The fact that all of them had dropped out after causing such trouble had somehow slipped cleanly from Olivia’s mind.
“You don’t remember barging into the instructor’s rest area with a sword drawn? And it was a live blade too!”
“I was requesting a proper match. A True Blade Duel provides good tension sometimes.”
“That’s not even the half of it? When you said to the instructor, ‘Are you actually insane?’ I—I thought the training had driven you truly mad!”
Why did the word “mad” appear so many times in a single sentence?
Olivia furrowed her brow.
Bennett was a good friend, but he did have a tendency to exaggerate things.
“Ever since that day, I’ve seen other students come up to you a hundred times over asking you to ‘tone it down!'”
And he had a loose mouth too.
Bennett was the one who’d leaked the whole affair between Olivia and Aiden to the other trainees.
Olivia glared at Bennett once, then shook her head.
This was why she preferred spending time with Panya.
‘Panya……. I miss her.’
Panya’s assigned group seemed to suit her so well that even while Olivia collapsed after training, Panya was busy bonding with her teammates.
Training was grueling, but the camaraderie wasn’t bad, she’d said.
The instructor had even teased Olivia more than once by saying he’d treat the students to dinner.
……I should spar with Panya soon.
Olivia smiled at the thought of how Panya would have yelped and fled if she’d overheard that.
Bennett watched Olivia suspiciously, then leaned in and whispered to her, one hand covering his mouth.
“Anyway, Olivia. Be careful. The way the instructor looks at you is really unsettling.”
“Why? Like he’s in love?”
“What? Are you really hurt somewhere? That’s not a lovesick look at all. If anything, it’s the look of someone about to execute lazy students.”
Bennett grimaced and gave a small nod toward where Aiden stood.
Olivia’s gaze naturally drifted in that direction.
Gleaming blonde hair, eyes bright as sapphires.
Together with the engagement ring that continued to command attention on his left ring finger, his furrowed brow made him glare at this place as though the sun itself had grown harsh.
“He looks the same as always.”
“Look closely. Don’t his eyebrows seem a bit raised?”
“That’s your imagination. His eyebrows are the same, but actually his brow is more furrowed. And I think that stare of his isn’t directed at me, but rather…….”
at ‘us’.
Olivia narrowed her eyes as she watched Aiden.
Normally, after three seconds, Aiden would have looked away—but now he was deliberately meeting her gaze head-on.
Why? What was different?
Olivia tilted her head and leaned toward Bennett, whispering.
“Bennett. By the way, you’ve also made a bad impression on the instructor, haven’t you—eh?”
“What?”
“Haven’t you?”
Aiden’s brow had grown even more furrowed than before.
And his mouth seemed tighter, more tense than usual.
Olivia thought for a moment, then let out a small, quiet laugh.
Right. They were two people starting from the beginning again.
The sweet, tender start of a new relationship probably began with the spark of jealousy.
“How many minutes until the next training?”
“About ten minutes. But why are we whispering like this about it?”
“Obviously. That’s right. Keeping your voice low during conversation is a combat fundamental, isn’t it? This is training too.”
“I suppose……. But it seems like the instructor is glaring at us even more intensely now. Am I imagining it?”
“Probably not.”
Standing on the dais, Aiden’s expression had grown positively grim—as though he were chewing dirt.
He tapped the floor once with the sword sheath he held, making a dull thud.
Olivia thought she understood what that meant.
He was in a foul mood and wanted them to keep their distance.
But Olivia had no intention of complying with his wishes.
With a deliberate, mischievous smile, Olivia leaned toward Bennett again and whispered.
“It’s fine. We won’t die.”
“You sure about that? The instructor looks angry.”
“No, no. It’s really fine.”
Though admittedly, she was a little nervous.
Aiden had a rather narrow streak to him, and on days when he’d seen something that displeased him, training always became a bit more grueling.
But the thrill of having his full attention turned toward her was far more intoxicating than any fear or trembling.
Olivia was fully prepared to sell her future self—the self from ten minutes from now—if it meant having this moment.
Just as Bennett, sensing goosebumps prickling at the sound of her delighted laughter, began to push her away—
A dark shadow fell over their heads.
“I-instructor?”
It was Aiden.
Olivia slowly withdrew from Bennett and stood directly in front of Aiden.
“You seem to have quite a bit of free time.”
“It is rest period, so I was having a conversation with a friend.”
“During rest period, one should be easing muscle fatigue and reviewing what was taught earlier—not idling away time having idle, idle, idle romances, wouldn’t you say?”
Aiden had stumbled over his words four times. This was unlike him.
“Listen here. You dolt.”
“Pardon? Are you speaking to me?”
“Who else is here? Instead of lounging about with such leisure, go get some training in. I heard you passed out yesterday.”
“I-I’m sorry!”
Having heard Aiden’s reproach, Bennett’s face went deathly pale as he scrambled away.
Aiden watched Bennett retreat with evident displeasure, then leaned down close to Olivia and whispered.
“……You’re not actually interested in that fool, are you? When you choose a companion, you should be careful. I’m only saying this because I’m worried.”
“Worry? That’s what love is.”
“What kind of love is—”
Aiden, who had raised his voice without meaning to, quickly fell silent.
This wasn’t something to be said in such an open place.
Over the two months of training, Olivia and Aiden had been treated as legendary rivals.
They trained together with looks that could kill, and bickered constantly whenever they met—it was their daily routine.
There were even rumors that the two might have ended up together if they didn’t each have someone already betrothed.
Of course, this was gossip spread by those unaware that the two were already betrothed to each other.
Aiden bit down hard on his lip.
The surrounding students were watching him and Olivia with great interest.
Olivia laughed as she looked at Aiden.
And then, in an equally hushed voice, she asked him a question.
“Instructor. Do you like me, perhaps?”
“W-what?”
“Could this be jealousy?”
“You……are you actually insane?”
Aiden let out a sharp shout and rushed toward the dais.
A gaze far more murderous than usual turned on the students.
‘Why is he taking out his anger on them?’
He was truly incomprehensible.
Olivia nudged the frozen Bennett from a distance and dragged him back toward the Training Ground.
When Aiden saw the two of them still standing close together, he clenched his jaw and shouted.
“Today we’ll conduct one-on-one True Blade Duels. The first match will be—”
A flash.
His bright blue eyes, gleaming with lethal intent, fixed on where Olivia was.
More precisely, they fixed on Bennett standing right beside her.
“Yes, Bennett.”
“Sir?”
“Volunteering so eagerly—how admirable. Come forward and draw your blade at once.”
“Me, sir?”
Watching this unfold, Olivia took a moment to consider.
This man’s jealousy is certainly lethal.……
Then she immediately raised her hand and called out.
“I’ll volunteer instead.”
Bennett, whose face had gone pale, turned back to Olivia with tears in his eyes, visibly moved.
But there was one thing Bennett had misunderstood.
Olivia hadn’t stepped forward for his sake.
The only reason she had stepped forward was—
‘I won’t give up first place to anyone.’
She wouldn’t surrender Aiden’s ‘first’ to anyone else.
That was all.

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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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