Romance Master

Two weeks have passed since I started training with Lykan on the intangible breathing technique. I can still only manage one breath at most, but I could feel myself slowly improving.

Before I could even feel the longing for Luna, I was training in the sweltering summer heat, and time flew by faster than I thought.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel the absence of Luna and the club members at night. Every time that happened, reading the letters Luna sent became a habit.

Today, instead of the training where I fainted several times a day, I headed to the portal station with Lykan. It was because the Ferlkus family head sent me an invitation, wanting to meet me.

After transferring through several portals, I finally arrived at the Nord Portal Station, my destination. Perhaps because it was in the northern region of the continent, it was bone-chillingly cold here, even in August.

Lykan had warned me about the cold in advance, so I went into the dressing room inside the portal station and changed into the winter clothes I had prepared in my spatial storage.

There were quite a few people in the dressing room, probably because there were many people like me.

Did they come here to escape the summer heat? I’m not particularly envious. After all, I have a club room where I can just move my closet and have a snow mountain right there… The余裕 of the haves, I guess.

After changing my clothes, Lykan and I had a late lunch. It was almost time for dinner, so we shared a simple serving of potato stew with pork.

I was just trying to fill my empty stomach, so it was a little lacking, but I felt adequately full.

As soon as we got into the carriage heading to the Ferlkus family estate, Lykan asked abruptly, as if he had been waiting for us to be alone.

,Do you have a girlfriend?

,If you mean a girlfriend who is very lovely and I miss a lot… Yes, I do.

Lykan gave me a ‘look at this guy?’ kind of look and grinned at my lovestruck answer. After answering so confidently, I felt a belated sense of embarrassment and scratched my head.

The carriage started moving with a rumble. After that, I couldn’t feel the vibration enough to know if the carriage was moving unless I looked out the window.

It seems to be thanks to the shock-absorbing magic engraved inside the carriage.

I read on a paper attached next to the window that the vibration was intentionally created inside the carriage to indicate when the carriage was moving or stopping.

As I stroked my chin, wondering if this was magic engineering, Lykan cleared his throat and said.

,Ahem, the family head will probably be very interested in the ability you showed. The ability you showed to Eurolan is special. The family head will be interested.

Interest, that’s a relief then. One of the reasons I accepted the family head’s invitation was to obtain the Ferlkus main family’s intangible breathing technique.

Even with the restricted branch family’s breathing technique, I’m getting this much effect. If it’s the unrestricted intangible breathing technique, I could become several times stronger than I am now.

They won’t give me the main family’s intangible breathing technique easily, but I should at least try to persuade them. Wouldn’t it be good to bring up the fact that I’m Lykan’s disciple? I guess my head works well in bad ways.

After organizing my thoughts, I slyly asked Lykan, who seemed to be closing his eyes to sleep.

,Master-nim, what kind of person is the family head?

Lykan immediately opened his eyes at the magical word “Master-nim,” which I rarely used.

He was smiling slyly, which was a bit foolish, but I couldn’t help but smile at his pure reaction, which didn’t suit his sturdy physique.

,Raellan wasn’t a good brother. He’s the type to push his opponent to their limit. But he doesn’t overdo it. He gauges the opponent’s limit and uses his hands appropriately. A human who subtly makes you want his help without collapsing. To put it simply, you could say he’s good at playing hard to get? I got tired of that personality and ran away from the family.

I scratched my cheek at Lykan’s coarse curse. He’s an extra who doesn’t appear in the novel. Lykan’s family isn’t mentioned in the novel either.

Even after hearing the explanation, I couldn’t picture what kind of person the family head was. Still, if they’re brothers, wouldn’t they look alike? The personality of subtly pushing people seems similar to Bella…

Let’s combine Bella’s personality with Lykan’s face… I couldn’t feel any vibration inside the carriage, but I felt like I was getting motion sickness. It’s a terrifying combination just imagining it.

To shake off the uneasy feeling, I turned my head to look out the carriage window.

A huge mountain range stretches endlessly. At the end of this mountain range, at the edge of the continent, there is a legend completely forgotten in people’s memories.

It’s a discarded setting, but just like Estelle is maintaining the setting as is. There’s a high possibility that ‘those’ things are sleeping there too.

While Lykan closed his eyes again, I took out a notebook from my spatial storage and organized the opportunities I could get in the north.

There are many things to take, but the most important goal was just one. To take the ‘God’s Fountain Pen’ that the vice-leader of the Order would obtain.

Just taking this away would significantly reduce the Order’s influence.

The infinite replication of ‘magic scrolls’ using God’s Fountain Pen led greedy nobles to war.

The nobles who received secret support from the Order gradually grew in power. Later, they would revolt and occupy the Imperial Palace. It was around this time that the Imperial Treasury was looted and the Spear of Destruction fell into the hands of the Order.

The Order will have enough time to break down the eastern border, taking advantage of the chaos in the continent, but I’m not going to just sit back and watch.

If I indirectly punch the Order like this, Roel will deliver a powerful finishing blow. The mastermind can just sit back and enjoy a cold potion from behind.

I put the notebook in my spatial storage and closed my eyes as well.

I have to go for several more hours, so I should at least close my eyes for a while.

***

,Sigh, Emma. How about this dress?

Navier sighed and held the dress to her chest, and Emma clapped her hands as if she had been waiting for it, making a fuss.

,Oh my, it suits you so well!

Navier narrowed her eyes, thinking that it seemed like a pre-prepared reaction. She pouted her lips for no reason at the sight of Emma subtly averting her gaze.

,Hmph, everything suits me.

,Because everything suits you, Agassi.

Navier turned her head at Emma’s answer and smiled with satisfaction, then sighed again. It was because of Ross, who was said to be arriving at the family soon.

Even if it wasn’t the main family’s intangible breathing technique, Navier thought that Ross would naturally accept the proposal to marry her. Even excluding the family, she didn’t have a face that she was inferior to anyone.

,Still, I’m one of the three beauties of the first year at Transcendence Academy.

Unofficially, though. Along with Ellie of the Magic Department and Aria, Navier is known as one of the three beauties of the first year.

Her cool and clear features, the innate glamour unique to her family, her transparent skin, and her innocent appearance were just about to bloom into a splendid flower.

She had received hot gazes from male students during training countless times, and there were several times when there were letters on her desk.

However, Navier didn’t intend to have a relationship that she didn’t really want. Like other girls, she was waiting for her own prince charming, but she suddenly got married to Ross, but Navier accepted her situation after organizing her thoughts for several days.

As the saying goes, if you can’t avoid it, enjoy it. This marriage was beyond her control. Rather, it was less of a loss to accept it positively.

Most of them get married after graduating from the academy. When you enter the academy, female students are required to learn contraception magic regardless of wealth, so there was no worry about out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

Occasionally, there were accidents because they didn’t use contraception magic, but that was really occasional.

Anyway, it means that I don’t have to use the same bed as Ross right away.

,If I get some affection for him over the remaining three and a half years, it’ll be worth living with him.

Few nobles marry through romance. Even Navier’s father had a political marriage with her mother.

It is said that it has changed a lot now, but the winds of change have not yet blown in her family.

Still, in order to receive a definite marriage promise, she will proceed with an engagement ceremony like other people. Navier has already finished deciding who to invite to the engagement ceremony.

Ross is a commoner, so he won’t invite many guests. She’s thinking of filling the empty seats with guests from the family as a courtesy.

When Navier picked up the third dress, she heard someone running down the stairs with a thud.

Before Emma could open her mouth to scold the maid who opened the door without knocking, the maid shouted first.

,Navier Agassi!!! The carriage is about to arrive!

,What?!

Navier, surprised by the maid’s shout, quickly put on her dress. Fortunately, she had already done her makeup and hair.

With Emma’s help, Navier put on a dress that was pulled up from under her armpits and showed off her sternum, put on an outer garment with white fur, and hurriedly went to the front gate with the maids.

Navier straightened her back, feeling strangely strange when she was about to meet Ross in person.

Not long after, the carriage arrived. She felt her heart beating a little faster. The door of the carriage opened. What came into Navier’s eyes was a huge mass of muscles.

It was Lykan, her uncle and professor at the academy.

Lykan made a disgusted expression at Navier’s appearance of hiding her disappointment and pretending to be modest, covering her chest and bowing, but when Navier slightly frowned and glared at him, he turned his gaze away as if he hadn’t seen it.

Navier, who reflexively bowed, heard someone getting out of the carriage and stepping on the ground behind Lykan, raised her head and looked at Ross.

Slightly stuffy blonde hair covering his forehead and sad-looking blue eyes. It was Ross that Navier remembered.

Perhaps because she thought of him as her marriage partner, he felt even more handsome than when she saw him in the last duel. Should I say masculine? His sharp jawline and the firm muscles under his clothes were clearly visible.

Navier felt that his sad-looking blue eyes were as beautiful as jewels. A bit of a loser vibe that stimulates maternal love…? His appearance is passable enough.

Just as she was suppressing her twitching lips, Ross’s blue eyes met her gaze.

For some reason, Ross, who met her gaze, frowned, narrowed his eyes, and looked at her, then tilted his head and passed Navier without saying a word.

Navier, watching Ross’s back as he followed Lykan, was dumbfounded and clicked her tongue.

,You heard everything from my uncle, and you’re already playing hard to get?

Navier shook her head at Ross’s appearance of ignoring her.

She has overwhelmingly more experience in this area. She won’t fall for such a childish provocation that is close to a cliché.

Navier twisted one corner of her lips and said to Emma, who was watching her, in a confident voice.

,Men are… Pfft, childish but cute.

Navier, who was the number one borrower in the romance novel section of the academy’s library, just found Ross’s actions cute.