Emotional Concerns

Yuria woke up in the morning, opening her eyes and rising from sleep.

“Yaaawn~”

As she yawned, got up, and stretched, she felt that the bed she had woken up in was quite unfamiliar.

It didn’t feel like the bed in her quarters at Jeiha Academy’s dormitory, nor did it feel like the bed in her room at House Arsein’s mansion.

No, not just the bed—the room was unfamiliar too.

‘I’ll have to get used to this bed.’

Since she would be staying at Minst Academy for a year, she would need to get used to this bed.

With that thought, Yuria got up and stood in front of the mirror.

Having gone to sleep in a simple, pure white négligée dress, she habitually tidied her hair lightly before washing up.

Her beautiful silver hair, as soft as if melted from the finest silver, was easily arranged, and Yuria prepared to take a light shower before changing into the clothes she had taken off yesterday.

‘I could have just slept in my clothes.’

Yuria’s gaze turned to the white T-shirt and black leather hot pants she had taken off yesterday. Those clothes, which she favored as a swordswoman, had been custom-made for her by House Arsein with automatic repair and self-cleaning functions, so she could have worn them to sleep instead of pajamas.

But she had deliberately changed into this current outfit.

Recalling how she had changed into pajamas on a sudden whim, Yuria felt conflicted.

‘Young Lord Theodore keeps occupying my thoughts.’

She still couldn’t clearly understand her feelings toward him.

Remembering how she had thought about him even while showering yesterday, Yuria undressed and entered the bathroom, turning on the shower at the temperature she had set yesterday.

Since she wasn’t covered in sweat like yesterday, Yuria washed herself lightly and then put on the white T-shirt and black leather hot pants she had taken off the day before.

She didn’t forget to secure her belt with the sword in its scabbard.

Looking at the clock on the wall, it was just past 6 AM, so though it wasn’t time to work up a sweat, Yuria went downstairs to lightly warm up her body.

After coming downstairs, she warmed up by exercising lightly, and after breakfast, she planned to focus on training since she had no other schedule.

‘Young Lord Theodore said he would teach me well, so I should learn diligently.’

Since he had said she would work hard today, she was secretly looking forward to what kind of training he would put her through as a swordswoman.

No matter how rigorous the training might be, receiving instruction from a swordsman with superior skills was an extremely enjoyable thing for a swordswoman.

Yuria decided to think of it that way for now.

‘I’m hungry.’

She felt a bit of hunger.

Though she had enjoyed a delicious dinner yesterday, she, with her heavy training regimen, got hungry easily and felt quite hungry now.

Knock- Knock-

Someone was slowly knocking on the door.

“Lady Yuria.”

“Young Lord Theodore?”

Yuria was slightly surprised that he had come so early in the morning. Quickly approaching the door and opening it, she saw Theodore.

He was wearing a white dress shirt and simple black pants, and Yuria felt that even in the morning, his appearance was irritatingly handsome.

His tall stature, trained body, and sculptured, handsome appearance showed why so many women lost their minds over him, but to Yuria, it was just an annoyingly handsome appearance.

Something else concerned her more.

“What brings you here?”

“I came to prepare breakfast for my fiancée. I bet you were going to make do with some preserved food, weren’t you?”

Since they were studying abroad at Minst Academy, they could certainly go to the academy’s dining hall for meals.

But Yuria had guessed that if she went there, she would quickly become a topic of conversation due to her appearance and would suffer as a result.

If Theodore Skyroad hadn’t demonstrated his overwhelming abilities as her fiancé, countless male students would have been waiting to confess to her at Jeiha Academy as well.

Disliking that, Yuria wanted to focus quietly on training for now, so as Theodore said, she had planned to make do with preserved food.

At least, rather than starting by creating a buzz at Minst Academy with her beauty, she planned to prove herself after first impressing others with her swordsmanship skills.

“If you want to use Minst Academy’s dining hall, I won’t stop you, but if not, just tell me. I’ll prepare your meals from now on.”

Though he spoke nonchalantly, Yuria looked at him with eyes as if seeing something strange as he showed unexpected consideration.

After telling her that he had developed an interest in her, he was now volunteering for something he would have found troublesome before, which was very curious to her.

“Young Lord Theodore, have you had some change of heart? Did something significant happen?”

“Nothing much. Just that assassins sent by William came at night to kill me and kidnap you, so I subdued them all and sent them to the Arcan Empire. And I appropriately punished William and sent him back, but now our homeland will officially condemn the Britannia Empire’s atrocities.”

“That’s a big deal!”

Yuria was shocked by what Theodore was calmly saying.

It was no small matter—assassins had infiltrated Minst Academy to kill and kidnap foreign students.

This wasn’t an ordinary issue but one that would become an international problem, and if this fact became known, House Skyroad would certainly be greatly angered, but the Arcan Empire would express its anger at the royal level and make a big issue of it.

House Arsein would be especially thrown into uproar.

And it was obvious how her mother would react upon hearing that her eldest daughter had nearly been kidnapped.

‘Mother will be furious and demand I return immediately.’

It was honestly frustrating to have to return without having proven the abilities she had worked hard to gain at Minst Academy.

Perhaps reading her anxiety, Theodore placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry. That’s a matter for Duke Arsein to handle.”

“My father?”

“Yes. Lady Yuria, you know that I promised to protect you, right? I’ll continue to protect you as I did last night, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“…Yes. And Young Lord Theodore, thank you.”

Yuria expressed her gratitude to him.

“What are you thankful for?”

“For stopping the assassins who tried to kidnap me. And I want to thank you again for saying you’ll continue to protect me.”

Yuria sincerely expressed her gratitude, though he had protected her because of their obligatory relationship as fiancé and fiancée, the fact that he had protected her was clear.

She was also grateful for his promise to continue protecting her like this in the future.

“That’s enough. I’ll make breakfast for now. Do you like bread and sausage?”

“Yes. I’m not particularly picky about most foods. Pickles are fine, but I’m a bit allergic to cucumbers.”

Yuria really didn’t discriminate against most foods except for cucumbers.

Though she was born as the daughter of House Arsein and was practically treasured like gold, she had an extraordinary passion for swordsmanship from a young age and focused on training to improve her skills even a little rather than caring about delicious food.

Because of this, if it weren’t for going with her friend Ashley, she wouldn’t have known how to visit cafes after entering Jeiha Academy, and she wouldn’t have known most types of cakes.

Hearing Yuria’s answer, Theodore nodded.

“Alright, I understand. Then wait a moment. Go ahead and sit down.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Theodore took out a few items from his spatial storage, and soon he was seen preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

‘I feel like I’m just receiving too much from Young Lord Theodore.’

He protects her, he trains her, and he even cooks for her.

While receiving all this, Yuria began to feel a slight burden and simultaneously wondered what she could do for him.

‘Nothing.’

But no matter how much she thought about it, there was nothing she could do for him.

Cooking skills? She would be lucky if she could properly grill meat.

Swordsmanship skills? She was in the position of learning from him in the first place.

Housekeeping abilities? She could barely clean her own room, and hadn’t she just yesterday seen him easily finish washing dishes with magic when she tried to do it for him?

Realizing there was nothing she could do for him, Yuria felt almost self-deprecating.

‘Ah, that person… the more I think about it, the more irritatingly perfect he is.’

Apart from gratitude, she kept having thoughts like this.

And she was also inwardly annoyed that she kept thinking about him, perhaps because of her experiences since coming here.

“It’s ready.”

Then she saw him bringing two plates.

The two plates were floating in the air, perhaps using telekinesis with mana, and one was placed in front of Yuria. Then Theodore placed the other one across from her and sat down at the table.

“Is orange juice alright for a drink?”

“Yes.”

A glass was placed in front of Yuria, and it was filled with orange juice.

On the plate with the breakfast menu were well-baked muffins, butter, sausage, fried eggs, hash browns, and thinly sliced tomatoes, which looked like quite a rich breakfast.

“This is quite an elaborate spread, isn’t it?”

“Eat well. Today’s training will be quite difficult.”

“Yes. But Young Lord Theodore… is there anything I can help you with?”

At Yuria’s words, Theodore chuckled and said:

“Not really?”

Yuria felt a surge of indignation at his blunt statement that there was nothing.

Not just his words but his tone implied “How could there possibly be anything you could do?” which somehow made her angry.

“…You’re always like this! Ugh!”

Feeling more irritated than usual, Yuria slowly began her breakfast.

The breakfast Theodore had prepared was delicious enough to get a perfect score.

“For someone who cooks, it’s enough if you enjoy the food. There’s no need to attach strange thoughts to it. Lady Yuria, just enjoy your meal and train hard, that’s all.”

At Theodore’s words, Yuria, who was cutting the sausage bit by bit, blinked slightly.

‘Why is his manner of speaking so different?’

His annoying face was still the same, and his irritating way of speaking seemed similar… or did it?

‘Why does his speech suddenly have consideration in it?’

It was a question Yuria naturally couldn’t help but have.

Could it be that the interest he said he had in her was really…?

“Young Lord Theodore, do you realize you’ve suddenly become kinder?”

“Really? I don’t notice it. Did you need some comfort for something?”

At Theodore’s tone, Yuria shook her head, thinking it was her imagination.

‘Yes, it must have been my imagination.’

She had just had a misconception after seeing him protect her from the assassins and seeing him trying to fulfill his duty.

Normally, even with these two things, she wouldn’t have had such a misconception, but because of what happened yesterday, she must have been paying excessive attention to him and ended up having a strange misconception.

Thinking about it that way, she felt embarrassed for just having spoken.

‘I hope he’s not laughing at me inside.’

Even having such thoughts, Yuria pushed back the embarrassment as much as possible.

“No. It seems it was just my imagination.”

After answering like that, Yuria began to cut the sausage somewhat nervously with her fork and knife, when Theodore, who had been watching her while slowly eating, suddenly said:

“Still, if you ever need comfort, let me know. As I said yesterday, you’re a woman who’s more impressive than I thought, so I’ve become interested. As your fiancé, if you need help with anything, I’ll help you.”

“…Are you making fun of me?”