Chapter 83: New Face (1)

After being promoted to vice-captain, Loron immediately reported to the vice-captain’s office after the inauguration ceremony.

The now-vacant positions of the 2nd squad leader and the 4th sub-squad leader were set to be filled soon, meaning the escort division would be quite lively for a while.

I casually asked Elaine if I could apply.

–I’ll be upset.

I dropped the idea.

I was still a trainee knight, so aiming for a squad leader position would be presumptuous, and I was already satisfied with my current role. If I moved up, someone else would take my place as adjutant, and I wasn’t too thrilled about that either.

…Am I actually the jealous type?

I feel like I’ve been that way a lot lately.

Just as Elaine is influenced by me, maybe I’m being influenced by her too.

Since Loron’s first day as vice-captain required some guidance, I was put in charge of showing him around.

“What do you think? Considering your usual preferences, I kept it as neat and simple as possible.”

“Did you do this yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Not bad.”

Loron, as usual, remained expressionless, but the fact that he immediately gave a positive response meant he was satisfied.

To accommodate the vice-captain, an unused room had been remodeled into the vice-captain’s office.

Setting up the space was part of my job as an adjutant, so I handled the interior arrangement myself.

I may not have studied interior design, but in my previous life, I had seen enough office spaces to last a lifetime. I had also moved between studio apartments more times than I could count.

Furniture was arranged to optimize movement, the desk was placed by the window for natural light and ventilation, and the shelves were neatly organized—just a basic model-house-style setup.

Given Loron’s personality, this would be exactly to his taste.

Elaine, who had a similar temperament, had even asked me to tidy up her room after seeing this one.

‘Ha, being too competent is exhausting.’

Still, this place was like a major corporation where skill was recognized and rewarded, so I didn’t mind.

Maybe it was because of what I saw last night, but the air between Loron and me felt awkward as ever.

We weren’t particularly close on a personal level.

And yet, for some reason, I felt an odd sense of familiarity with him.

A reserved and stoic man at work, yet warm and affectionate with his lover—a hidden charm.

I knew that appeal well. It was a good one.

Now that we would be working closely together, I decided to take the opportunity to get to know him better.

“I saw you last night while I was on duty, Vice-Captain.”

“…….”

“The lady you were with—was she your fiancée? You two looked great together.”

Since they were openly meeting in public, it clearly wasn’t a secret affair.

And judging by their affectionate expressions, it wasn’t some emotionless arranged marriage either—it was a relationship full of genuine love.

I thought it was only right to compliment their bond.

After all, I knew from experience that receiving praise about one’s relationship felt nice.

“She is the young lady of the Trovi family, my childhood acquaintance and fiancée. We are set to be married next month.”

Wow, so it’s a noble family engagement, a childhood friends-to-lovers story, and they’re getting married next month?

Man, where’s my wedding invitation?

This was getting more interesting by the second.

Come to think of it, there seemed to be quite a few soon-to-be grooms in the escort division. Must be because they were young.

I suddenly wondered about Garen, a senior knight in the 1st squad. Was he doing well in the romance department?

‘There’s no way I can hold back now.’

Just as I was getting excited to dig a little deeper—

“I had thought you knew how to conduct yourself properly. Is it appropriate to discuss your superior’s personal life? Show some restraint.”

“My apologies.”

Unlike Elaine, Loron left no openings.

I got scolded.

Now I was sulking.

Since Loron had previously managed the division’s operations alongside Elaine, he seamlessly took on his new duties as vice-captain, just as expected.

Even Grace, not just Elaine, acknowledged that he had been a great choice for the position.

Though my attempt to get closer to him had failed, my respect for him only grew.

Thanks to Loron handling much of the administrative workload, Elaine’s burden had lessened, and I had more opportunities to train with her.

Not because I was trying to get closer to her romantically.

As a trainee knight, it was my duty to improve, and Elaine was my assigned knight.

I needed to grow stronger, so I had to learn swordsmanship from her.

I suddenly remembered what Arthur had told me in the past.
A knight’s ideal should be pure and devoted love.

Though he was overly rigid in work mode,
he was competent, had no personal scandals, and was even devoted to his fiancée.

By the Knight Commander’s logic, wouldn’t Vice Captain Loron be the ideal knight?

And there was one more person whose opinion of Loron had improved.

As I walked down the corridor, I ran into Squad 4 Captain Wiesel.
Grinning, I greeted her.

“…Don’t smile at me like that.”
“It’s a sign of affection. We’re comrades, aren’t we?”
“What kind of comrades?”
“Supporters of Captain Elaine. Everything’s clear around the captain today, as always.”
“Ugh.”

Realizing I was teasing her, Wiesel looked flustered but couldn’t come up with a rebuttal and fled.

‘Tsk, tsk.’

It was all self-inflicted.

Still, considering she had personally restocked supplies for the Vice Captain’s office as a congratulatory gift,
it was clear that while she was a devoted fan, she still had the conscience befitting a squad captain.

For me, it was a win-win—saving the escort unit’s budget while gaining a new target to tease.

Beyond Loron’s promotion, there was another major change in the escort unit.

“It’s been a while.”
“Should I say, ‘I’m back’?”
“Then I’ll say, ‘Welcome back.’”

During the Snowflake Tower incident, she had sustained the most severe injuries.

It had taken her some time to recover, and her pride had been so wounded that even after healing,
she had holed up in the tower, focusing entirely on strengthening its security and defenses.

She had even skipped high-level meetings involving the Northern leadership and refused to attend upper-class parties.

“I’m glad to see you looking well. No lingering side effects, I hope?”
“That b*stard… He left me a mess, yet somehow, all my vital organs were intact. He really beat me up with surgical precision.”

Sophia gritted her teeth in frustration.
Even though she was a bit eccentric, she had always maintained her dignity in public.
Seeing her openly express her anger like this meant that while her body had healed, her pride hadn’t.

“I heard from my father. The mastermind behind all this was Central, and now we’re gearing up for a fight against the Western forces under their control?”
“That’s an excellent summary.”
“Good. If there’s going to be war, let them try. I’ll drop volcanic bombs on their heads.”

Yet, that very frustration had become the driving force behind her development—more than what had been written in the novel.

Previously, Sophia had been dispatched to the Winter Palace because Snowflake Tower had been investigating me, the rising rookie.
Additionally, Tower Master Dariel had harbored a personal ambition to match us together.

However, after the Snowflake Tower incident, the investigation had been thoroughly conducted under the guise of my recovery.
And since Sophia’s connection to me had been Dariel’s personal desire, it remained a secret.

Even so, the reason she was dispatched again was that she had now officially joined the escort unit as a magic consultant.
It was a temporary assignment, but her presence was a significant boost.

Since the escort unit recruited from the military, all its members were knights or soldiers.

Grace had once considered incorporating mages, but most of them, accustomed to an academic lifestyle,
refused due to concerns about losing research time.

As a result, the only magic users in the escort unit were knights who had learned it as a secondary skill.
With Sophia’s arrival, their magical capabilities had improved significantly.

The Northern Escort Unit also functioned as a personal guard force,
and with the Northern Grand Duke personally leading battles,
strengthening the escort unit meant bolstering the North’s core military power.

‘Maybe young mages, inspired by Sophia’s achievements, will join in the future.’

Whether in a fantasy world or a civilized modern society,
people admired heroes and wanted to follow in their footsteps.

Ultimately, the person who benefited the most from Sophia’s arrival was, of course…

“Hmm, judging by the flow of your mana, you haven’t been slacking off.”

Using her Mana Sight, Sophia examined me and smiled in satisfaction.

“I see the rumors were true. You really have ice mana. They say you absorbed some of the Frost Crystal’s power?”
“I absorbed it, yes, but I still can’t use it.”
“That seems about right. Your heat mana flows smoothly through your body,
but your ice mana remains frozen in place, as if locked.”

She could tell that much?
As expected of someone with Mana Sight.

Sophia had originally been my magic instructor.
I had become more proficient in controlling heat thanks to her teachings.

But Sophia wasn’t just a fire mage—she was also a high-ranking elder of Snowflake Tower.
And if she was an elder in the sanctum of ice magic, wouldn’t that mean she could use ice magic as well?

“You can use ice magic?”
“Of course, I can. I just don’t use it often because it’s not my preference.”

“Could you teach me how to handle it?”
“Fufu, I joined His Grace’s guard as a magical advisor. Of course, I can teach you.”

Sophia readily accepted my request.

“Then let’s start the lesson right away. If this were magic, it wouldn’t be particularly difficult. You just input the designated magic formula and inject mana—that’s it. Of course, the method of injecting mana differs depending on the attribute, but since you’re not a mage, there’s no need for me to explain that far.”

I had only asked a simple question, yet Sophia immediately launched into a lesson.

As expected of a mage who can’t resist anything related to magic or mysterious phenomena.
She had already been in charge of my mana training.

Now that she had confirmed the presence of the Frost Crystal’s cold energy within me, her curiosity must have been piqued, eager to turn it into a tangible result.

Since I had been frustrated by my inability to utilize the power of the Frost Crystal, I silently listened to Sophia’s explanation.

“Do you think fire and cold are opposing concepts?”
“Aren’t they? Fire melts cold, and if the cold is strong enough, it extinguishes fire.”

“Then, I assume you’ve been handling cold mana differently from your usual heat manipulation to prevent them from clashing?”
“Well… you could say that. I’m much more proficient with heat manipulation, so if the cold energy comes into contact with it, it’ll just melt away.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”
“?”

Like a teacher gathering attention, Sophia clapped her hands.

“Fire and cold aren’t opposites. For example, people say that night and day cannot coexist, right?”
“That’s true.”
“Then how does dawn exist? It’s both the end of the night and the beginning of the morning. Is dawn night or day?”
“!?”

“Fufu, you still have great comprehension skills. In nature, there is no absolute concept of opposites like right and left. Even right and left can change depending on the observer’s perspective. Fire and cold are the same. When the heat decreases, it gets cold, and when cold winds blow, the heat lowers.”

“…Doesn’t that mean they are opposites?”
“Not at all. If I had to use an analogy, fire and cold give birth to water when they meet. Rather than being opposites, they are more like a man and a woman, existing in harmony and coexistence.”

“Harmony… coexistence…”

“With that in mind, instead of handling cold mana too far apart from heat, try letting the cold flow along the paths where heat is already moving. If you move the cold energy along the mana pathways you’re already accustomed to, it will be much easier.”

I now fully understood why people say that having a good teacher is crucial when learning something.

In every fantasy story, fire and ice are always depicted as opposing attributes. Because of that, I had always trained them separately, treating them as distinct forms of mana.

I had never even imagined that fire and cold could coexist like a man and a woman in harmony.

“Thank you! Thanks to you, I feel like I’ve found a clue.”
“Fufufu.”

Sophia proudly basked in the joy of having helped yet another seeker gain enlightenment.
Then, she started glancing around.

“But I don’t see the captain anywhere?”

Back when Sophia and I used to have mana training sessions, Elaine would always find a way to watch under the guise of supervision or coincidentally pass by to strike up a conversation—despite her busy schedule.

It was clearly her way of keeping an eye on me, wary that I might show interest in Sophia, who possessed both intelligence and an adorable appearance.

Yet now, Elaine was nowhere to be seen.

Ever since the party, she had grown more confident that no matter how many other women approached me, my heart wouldn’t waver.
She had even casually agreed when I told her I was going to meet Sophia.

Of course, I still had to kiss the back of her hand before leaving.

According to Elaine, kissing the back of the hand was a common greeting in social circles, so it didn’t count as excessive public affection.
I didn’t bother trying to understand—I just accepted it.

“Back then, I was still just a soldier, so she worried about me. But now that I’ve become a knight, she won’t come unless there’s a real reason.”

“…I see.”

Noticing the disappointment on Sophia’s face, I watched her silently for a moment before speaking.

“Speaking of the captain, you should congratulate me.”
“For what?”

“We’re officially dating.”
“?”

“We’re even considering marriage.”

That day, after Weasel, yet another one of Elaine’s admirers saw their world crumble.

I guess I wasn’t in any position to criticize Elaine.

Their reactions were so dramatic that it was unexpectedly entertaining.
I really am awful.