IDMWE 08

Chapter 08

“Good heavens…”

Leona was speechless at Rigan’s flamboyant attire.

What Rigan was wearing was a pitch-black silk nightgown, lavishly embroidered with gold thread, so dazzling it hurt just to look at.

“Crazy, even royalty wouldn’t sleep in something like that.”

In fact, even among the royalty she knew…

‘…Ah.’

She shook her head to erase the face that momentarily came to mind.

And Rigan interpreted Leona’s head-shaking in a completely different way.

Namely, ‘Ugh, there’s someone who sleeps in something like that? Crazy.’ That kind of meaning.

Instantly offended, Rigan shot back at Leona.

“And do you sleep in such rough clothes?”

What Leona was wearing was made of thick, coarse fabric.

There were tears and signs of wear in several places, showing how heavily it had been used.

“I can imagine what your sleeping habits are like.”

At Rigan’s words, Leona made a face as if to say, ‘What nonsense are you talking about?’

“What are you talking about? This is training gear?”

“Training? At this hour?”

Rigan looked out the window with a bewildered expression.

It was already evening, with darkness having fallen.

‘Now, the only thing left to do is obviously rest, isn’t it?’

Of course, it seemed he was the only one who thought that way.

“What are you saying? I need to do my night training.”

“Mages need sufficient rest to calculate their spell formulas properly.”

“Sorry, but knights can’t sleep if they miss even a single day of training.”

The two growled at each other again.

Leona raised their hands, stuck together by the constellations’ scheme, and asserted her point.

“We need to quickly defeat the Demon Lord and save the world to end this dog-like situation anyway. To do that, we need to build up our strength.”

At that, Rigan fell silent.

In the end, Rigan had no choice but to be dragged along by Leona’s hand as she cheerfully headed to the training ground.

Thus, the two arrived at the training ground, trying as much as possible to avoid others’ eyes.

“Just sit here.”

Fortunately, there was no one at the training ground at this hour.

Leona looked around and sat Rigan on a chair that was roughly the right height.

“Behave yourself and wait quietly.”

Rigan, who had been treated like a child without warning, tried to argue, but Leona had already begun her training.

Watching her wield her sword with one hand and strike down mana dolls one by one, Rigan swallowed the words he was about to snap.

‘Fine. Let me, the magnanimous one, endure.’

In the end, Rigan lowered his gaze to the book he had brought.

However, his concentration didn’t last long.

Because his arm connected to Leona kept moving, constantly distracting him.

‘Huff, because of that idiot angel, nothing goes right…’

Eventually, Rigan gave up on reading, cursing the angel who was the cause of this mess.

With nothing else to do, the only thing left for the bored Rigan was to watch Leona train.

Leona, with her sword in hand, seemed to be displaying extreme concentration, not even glancing at him. Thanks to that, Rigan, who had been stealing glances at first, soon began to observe her openly.

‘Since we’ll be fighting magical beasts together in the future, it would be good to analyze her exact combat level beforehand. That’s the reason. No other intention.’

Making excuses to himself when no one had asked, Rigan observed Leona’s training.

‘Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m watching her train up close like this.’

They had fought and exchanged blows many times, but it seemed this was the first time he was watching her train.

After all, students from the Knight Division and the Magic Division at the academy rarely had reason to cross paths. It was only thanks to the angel that they kept bumping into each other at every turn.

And the training of the knights, which he was now observing like this, was, contrary to his expectations…

‘…Interesting.’

Watching the sword being swung along precise trajectories was quite fascinating.

Rigan was someone who also preferred calculations that fit perfectly when using spell formulas.

Seeing the same movements repeated hundreds of times without error made a deep impression on him.

And whenever Leona concentrated, the red Aether surrounding her, resembling her, rippled… How should he put it.

‘It even looks beautiful…’

*Slap*—.

Suddenly struck by the thought that had invaded his mind, Rigan instinctively slapped his own cheek.

“Wh-what?”

Startled by Rigan’s eccentric behavior, Leona stopped her sword and asked. However, Rigan answered with a blank expression, as if nothing had happened.

“It’s nothing.”

“Nothing? Then why did you suddenly hit yourself?”

“There was a mosquito. It’s really nothing.”

Leona stared at him with a strange look for a long while before speaking.

“Are you bored? Should we go back to the room?”

“Do you take me for a child? Just focus on your training.”

That oddly placating tone felt like he was being looked down upon.

Just as Rigan tried to answer curtly, pretending it was nothing—

“Room? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Suddenly, the training ground door opened, and an unfamiliar voice was heard.

The one who entered was a man with disheveled black hair.

His tall stature and well-trained body, visible even beneath the Special Forces uniform, were striking.

“…And unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, it looks like the two of you are holding hands?”

Brown, beast-like eyes fixed on Rigan.

An eerie killing intent pierced Rigan’s body in an instant.

Rigan tensed up, maintaining maximum vigilance against the stranger who had suddenly barged in.

And the tense standoff between the two was dissipated so anticlimactically by Leona.

“Huh? Senior!”

“Leona~!”

As Leona turned her head toward the voice, the man’s attitude changed in an instant.

His rapid facial transformation was enough to put even a top-tier theater actor to shame.

“Headquarters where Leona is stationed—this isn’t a dream, is it?”

Closing the distance in an instant, the man pulled Leona into a tight embrace.

“Haha, you’re still the same, Senior. Can you let go of me?”

As if this was a regular occurrence, Leona naturally dislodged the man.

The man pouted his lips, a sight so incongruous with his large frame that Rigan felt like stabbing his own eyes out for witnessing it.

“You said it was a long-term mission, right? Are you all done and back?”

“Of course! It’s our Leona’s first day being assigned to the Central Branch. You have no idea how hard I worked to finish it by today~.”

The man whined, trying to subtly cling to Leona. However, all his attempts were thoroughly thwarted by her impeccable defense.

Eventually giving up, the man stared at Rigan, who had been bothering him from earlier, and opened his mouth.

“By the way, who the hell is this bastard, holding our Leona’s hand? It’s not like you suddenly got a boyfriend while I wasn’t around, is it?”

Although he spoke in a jokey tone, the man’s eyes, glaring at Rigan behind Leona’s back, were icy cold.

“Come on, Senior. Don’t make such unlucky jokes.”

Leona chuckled and gave the man a light *thump* on his side.

“Ugh!”

The man’s scream echoed through the training ground.

“H-ha ha… Our Leona’s strength is as impressive as ever.”

The man clutched his side where he’d been directly hit and laughed awkwardly. Having experienced it himself, Rigan could fully sympathize with his pain.

“This is Rigan Clanford. A mage and a new recruit who came in with me. And this is Nathan Starlight. A senior from the Knight Division. He was the 3rd-year student representative when we were first years. Do you remember?”

Of course, there was no way Rigan would remember something like a Knight Division student representative.

The man called Nathan also seemed to have little interest in who Rigan was.

“So, about the hand?”

“This is… something got a bit messed up during a mission… so we’re stuck together for just one day.”

“Oh dear, shall I cut it off for you?”

The man said this, moving his hand toward the sword sheath at his waist.

His glare at their connected hands seemed quite serious.

“Hahaha, Senior. Seriously, stop with the jokes.”

“Hwueek!”

Leona hit the exact same spot again, laughing.

Nathan immediately crumpled, clutching his side.

“Oh, Senior. Are you okay? Well, since you just finished a mission, you must be tired. You should hurry to your room and get some rest.”

Before Nathan could say anything more, Leona dragged him by the scruff of his neck to the door.

“Then I’ll train a bit more, so get some good rest and see you later, Senior.”

“Le-Leona!”

*Bang*—.

After closing the door without mercy, Leona turned around and looked at Rigan.

“That senior is usually a bit silly, but once you get to know him, he’s not a bad person.”

Having chased away the intruder, Leona began to focus on her training again.

‘Ha. Does this woman have no sense?’

And Rigan was incredulous at the sight.

From what he could tell, Leona seemed to think of Nathan simply as a close senior-junior relationship.

Rigan recalled Nathan’s face, which had been glaring at him intently.

It was the face of a male on guard against a rival eyeing what was his.

‘Who would fall for such an uncivilized gorilla of a woman? That man isn’t in his right mind either.’

He looked decent enough, and if he’d been a student representative, his abilities must have been outstanding.

He simply couldn’t understand why anyone would set their heart on a woman like Leona.

‘Could this gorilla possibly have some advantage I don’t know about?’

Rigan’s mage-like mindset sparked a desire to explore this unknown situation.

Rigan carefully observed Leona, who was relentlessly swinging her sword beside him.

‘Her appearance is… well, not bad. Though she’s inferior to me.’

Leona’s trademark, her vividly shining red hair, was an extremely rare color even in the Empire.

Beneath it, her clear forehead, straight eyebrows, ruby-like red eyes, straight nose, and soft cheeks…

As Rigan scrutinized Leona, his eyes caught the droplets of sweat streaming down her cheeks.

‘Ah.’

Unconsciously tracking them with his eyes, Rigan involuntarily caught his breath upon seeing their final destination.

His gaze landed on the nape of her white neck, where damp, red baby hairs clung.

The beads of sweat rolled one by one down into her collar.

At that moment, he felt as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

Leona’s scent hit him all at once.

His head spun.

‘Crazy, what am I thinking?’

Startled, Rigan slapped the same cheek he had hit earlier once more.

*Slap*—.

After one hit, his mind seemed to clear up.

The fact that he kept having these strange thoughts, both earlier and now…

It was definitely the power of ‘that’!

Convinced, Rigan shot up from his seat and shouted.

“Angel! Are you playing tricks with the constellations again?”

“Huh?”

Even Leona was startled by Rigan, who had been quietly hitting his own cheek and shouting, and stopped her sword.

“What trick are you pulling this time?!”

“What? The angel is here?”

Leona looked around, turning her head, but there were only Leona and Rigan in the training ground.

“I know you’re hiding, so come out now.”

Rigan shouted loudly, searching for the angel in the empty training ground.

However, no matter how desperately Rigan called, the angel did not appear.

“……”

Only the silent training ground and Leona’s gaze, which looked at him as if he were crazy, existed there.

And Rigan’s all-too-brilliant mind quickly grasped what that meant.

‘So, that feeling just now wasn’t the angel’s power…?’

If so, then the dizzying feeling he had while looking at Leona was…

Finally understanding the situation, Rigan’s face turned bright red in an instant.

“That’s impossible! Why would I feel that way looking at such an idiot!”