Prologue

The Daughter of an Enemy Family Protected by a Rude Knight

“As knights, we must protect the weak.”

That was what my father always told me before he went off to war.

The sole purpose of our existence, as a family of knights for generations, was just that.

In that sense, I must have been a disappointing son to my father.

Although I was born as the eldest son of a prestigious knightly family…

I had never once thought about wanting to protect someone.

From the beginning, I had no desire to become a knight.

No matter how much people praised me, I thought knights were nothing but foolish.

The more I missed my grandfather, who died in the war, and the more I worried about my father, who came home injured, the more I thought that sacrificing yourself for others was foolish.

What’s so great about being a knight?

What’s so important about honour?

About family?

Why protect others?

Having something to protect only makes you weak.

Doesn’t it just lead to situations where you die in someone else’s place?

So, I thought I would never, for the rest of my life, truly protect anyone.

I didn’t want to live a life where I had to sacrifice myself for others.

But when I met you, who should have been my enemy…

When I saw you, who had lost everything because of our family, crying so pitifully…

And even then, as you struggled and fought with me for years just to survive…

…I heard the sound of my resolve wavering.

“…Don’t go.”

“…Don’t go, Kailo.”