episode_0081

It was an evening filled with the quiet sound of insects crying. Before we knew it, the sun had set over the foot of a mountain in the distance, staining the sky red, and the dark curtain of night began to follow behind it.

Lily, who returned to her home, was staring blankly at the sky, leaning on the terrace of her room.

At some point, whenever Lily had time, she would look up at the sky and get lost in thought. I wasn’t thinking about a certain topic. I just continued to think shallow thoughts as they came to mind.

I thought about the future and reflected on my life at the academy.

My thoughts were endless, and I delved into whatever came to mind at the time.

Then, when there was no more to think about, at some point I started thinking about things from the past.

It was about my childhood when I innocently played in the garden or when I went to inspect the estate with my father.

But the thoughts always came down to one thing.

Gilbert the Lionheart.

Lily’s fine eyebrows narrowed. Just thinking about it brought that unpleasant name to mind again.

Somehow the wind blew and Gilbert, who was no better than a madman, changed.

He showed off his unconventional giant soldier control skills in an entrance mock battle and suddenly became the exclusive student of the sword saint Brianna.

Not long after that, he was even awarded a knighthood as an academy cadet for his contribution in the operation to eradicate the resistance.

Up to this point, it was a move that could not be considered an ordinary academy cadet.

And the unprecedented attack on DeMayer Academy that occurred not long ago.

Through that incident, Gilbert became a hero.

Gilbert even disregarded his own life and struggled to protect the cadets and imperial subjects. He didn’t care how many enemy giants he had, he defeated them only to buy time for the people to evacuate.

How could that appearance not be sublime?

Even Lily, who had a bad feeling about Gilbert, couldn’t criticize him.

Perhaps Lily’s habit of looking at the sky had developed around that time. The reason was that when I encountered Gilbert’s changed appearance along with the apology he had made before, I became distraught.

It was true that I hated him, but seeing him change and move forward made me feel a little shabby for being stuck in the past. However, when she received his apology, the wounds she received as a child were so deep that she was at a loss.

“Ha… you bad guy. I’d rather remain trash until the end.”

Lily, who came out of her thoughts only when the moon rose, let out a long sigh and muttered. If he was literally still an asshole, I would have felt free to hate him, but that wasn’t easy now.

I didn’t know that maybe her good-natured personality came out in a bad way in a place like this. Except for Gilbert, she was kind to everyone and believed that everyone should be given a chance to make up for their mistakes.

The only problem was that in the past, Gilbert had lived such a life that it wasn’t worth giving him that opportunity, but now that things have changed, I thought it might be right to give him that chance.

She wandered around the terrace without coming to a conclusion until late at night, and it was only when the moon rose high in the sky that she made up her mind.

I decided to put my complicated thoughts aside for a moment and face Gilbert once again.

You said you were going back to your territory, right?

The place where Lily’s relationship with Gilbert broke down a long time ago. Reminded me of Wiesbark.

***

It was the day after the sparring that Gilbert headed to the warp magic circle heading to Wiesbark. After the sparring, we planned to head straight to the warp magic circle, but Count Tristitia caught us, so we had to postpone our schedule a day.

It wasn’t because of the exchange of emotions that resulted from sparring with Gilbert. As he was about to head straight to Wiesbark, Camilla was also preparing to leave for Wiesbark.

The Count could not stand by and watch his youngest daughter, who had no pain in her eyes, pass away less than a day after returning home. Naturally, the Count’s hidden intention was to allow Camilla to stay at home even for a day by capturing Gilbert.

This was possible because Gilbert, who could not overcome the pressure of Count Tristitia and his three sons, who had a hidden intention but had fire in his eyes, raised the white flag.

Gilbert, who had no choice but to stay overnight at Count Tristitia’s house, headed to the warp magic circle as soon as the day dawned. He intended to leave Camilla away if he could, but Camilla, who was quick-witted, had already prepared everything and was waiting for him.

In the end, he accompanied Camilla, paid for the warp magic circle, and arrived at Teline Territory, a transit point on the way to Wiesbark. Even though the warp magic circle could drastically reduce the distance traveled, it was impossible to cross half of the empire and go straight to Wiesbark.

The longer the distance traveled, the less stable the warp magic circle was, so if the destination was far away, one had to go through a transit point.

And finally, I was able to arrive at Visvark by riding the warp magic circle in the Telain territory.

It’s been a while.

Gilbert was impressed by the familiar, yet unfamiliar scenery of Wiesbark. Until I headed to Demeia Academy as if I was being kicked out, I was worried about whether I would be able to get through it, but the situation had changed a lot.

Not only was he awarded the rank of 5th grade knight, but he also became the Sword Saint’s only two exclusive disciples. Even more so, weren’t the Empire and the Academy dressing him up as a hero and using him as propaganda?

He took full advantage of the last opportunity that his father, the Margrave of Iron and Blood, had warned him about before leaving the Lithuanian territory. At least it was very encouraging that there was a time to rely on myself even if I was kicked out of the earldom.

“This is Wiesbark!”

Camilla’s eyes sparkled and she looked around.

It was her first time coming to Wiesbark, which was reputed to be the most beautiful city in the empire. Her father, who was naturally overprotective, encouraged her to stay within the estate as much as possible.

Camilla also understood her father’s feelings, so she did not bother to leave the territory. After all, there were plenty of things she would be interested in within the territory.

But these days, the object of her greatest interest was Gilbert. No matter how much my father tried to dissuade me, I had no choice but to follow Gilbert. He was the center of events at the academy, and there was never a dull moment when I was with him.

Of course, I did not wish for another unfortunate incident like the Academy attack to occur. I just enjoyed the changing atmosphere of the academy and the flow of daily life.

In that sense, I was curious about what his worries were. I wanted to know what he was worried about and worried about, as he always did ridiculous things with an expressionless face.

And Camilla wanted to help him if she could. She had finally made an interesting friend, but it was unbecoming of Camilla to pretend not to notice her friend’s difficulties.

“So, Gilbert. Where are we going now?”

“Does it come naturally?”

“Of course! The reason I came here is because of Gilbert?”

How cute is it? Seeing him winking, Gilbert shook his head.

I couldn’t bring myself to keep up with Camilla’s tension.

He thought that if he left it behind, it would become more noisy later, so he headed to the Count Hart family’s mansion without saying a word.

The story of returning to Count Hart’s family was relayed, but the exact time was not conveyed, so there was no waiting for the carriage like when they arrived at the Lyridus territory. Because it seemed like a hassle for the coachmen to bring the carriage for no reason, there were times when they did not send an arrival time.

On the outside, he was a young man from a count family, but on the inside, he still had the sensibilities of a modern man living in the 22nd century.

However, not long after heading to the mansion, Gilbert was able to recall a fact that he had overlooked. I mistakenly thought that everyone around me has changed these days.

As he started walking down the main road to Count Hart Street, he could feel countless eyes secretly watching him. When I looked around to see something, the gazes that seemed like they had been there for some time disappeared.

However, when I started walking again, gazes began to follow me. At first, I thought the Sigurdians had already arrived, but that wasn’t the case. If they were disciplined, there was no way they would have given such a blatant look.

As he was lost in thought, ignoring Camilla chattering next to him, he soon realized that the owner of his gaze was none other than Wiesbark’s territory. And at the same time, he realized why they were looking at him.

I’m the problem.

Suddenly, I was overcome with silence. It was set up as a mess with just one line of text, but to the people in the territory, that insignificant line of text could have felt like hell. What’s worse is that the name they call him is a bastard.

He came back to handle the main scenario without any damage, but to the people of the territory, he just came back as a bastard who was behaving badly. There may have been rumors circulating in the estate that he had become a knight, but how could all the rumors be believed?

Maybe they didn’t acknowledge that he had changed. This was a fact that could be seen even now just by looking at him avoiding him.

Gilbert, who had unintentionally created a sense of discomfort, walked faster. I tried to avoid eye contact with them as much as possible and headed towards Count Hart’s house.

It seemed like what he had to do in Wiesbark wasn’t just clearing the main scenario.