Chapter 2

It was a winter when Tislin Ermiz was merely eight years old.

By a stroke of chance, Count Ermiz and his wife received an invitation to the Grand Ducal Family’s hunting party. Leaving their only daughter in the care of a nanny, they tried endlessly to catch people’s attention at the event, but ended up gaining very little.

Meanwhile, while the adults were away hunting, eight-year-old Tislin escaped the watchful eyes of her dozing nanny and began wandering around Grand Duke Luxen’s villa all by herself.

The intricate mansion built in a secluded Northern style was perfect for sparking a child’s curiosity. After rolling around the dusty mansion alone, Tislin accidentally wandered into the underground wine cellar, having mistaken the staircase leading down for a secret passage.

“Oh, wow…”

The cellar, packed with massive oak barrels, smelled like nothing she had ever encountered before. It even made her feel slightly dizzy. Tislin tapped on a few oak barrels that barely reached her small height and walked deeper inside.

Then, suddenly, didn’t she hear a strange noise?

Hic, hic. It was a faint sound, like a young child sobbing.

‘It can’t be a ghost, right? Come to think of it, Nanny said the portraits of our great-great and great-grandfathers wander around at night… No, there aren’t even any portraits here.’

The chilling stories her nanny used to tell to put her to sleep flashed through her mind. Even as she trembled all over, Tislin stubbornly pushed deeper into the cellar just out of sheer defiance.

Hic, hic. The noise grew louder. She could even hear breathing from somewhere.

She hadn’t misheard.

Her short legs came to a dead halt.

“Wh-What is it? Who’s there? Is anyone there?”

She shouted loudly on purpose to act brave, making her voice echo through the space. Thanks to that, her voice sounded quite grand, so Tislin puffed out her chest and pulled her tiny shoulders back as far as she could.

It was at that moment.

“I-I’m here. Adele is here!”

There really was someone!

Tislin almost fell flat on her rear. If not for her stiff display of bravado in an empty cellar, she would have slumped to the ground and sobbed like a newborn baby.

“Where are you? Who are you!”

“It’s Adele! Adele is here!”

Listening closely to the faint voice, the words and phrasing were short, sounding like a very young child. As someone whose age had comfortably surpassed what could be counted on one hand, Tislin asked in a sternly adult-like manner:

“Where is ‘here’?”

“I don’t know, it’s dark!”

“Are you a baby?”

The baby kept its mouth tightly shut. A baby indeed. Tislin changed her tone to a gentler one.

“Baby, try clapping your hands.”

“I’m Adele, though…”

Despite protesting timidly, the baby clapped its hands soft and fast. Tislin walked toward the direction where the sound of clapping grew louder.

Because the sound echoed quite a bit, she had to pace back and forth repeatedly, but her efforts bore fruit. Now, the baby’s clapping and voice could be heard very clearly. The two rejoiced, babbling about things that would seem completely useless to adults.

“I’m Tis. Baby, I’ll save you right away.”

“Okay! Save me right away!”

Now the baby even clapped happily at being called ‘baby.’ Tislin lowered her body with a serious face, perked her ears, and said:

“Baby, try banging on the wall with your fist.”

“Bang bang? I can’t do that. I’ll get scolded!”

“It’s fine right now. It’s just the two of us.”

That strategy failed. No matter how hard a baby banged with its tiny, fern-like hands, it didn’t even make a soft thudding sound. Tislin circled around the area, wondering why she couldn’t see the baby, before suddenly realizing something.

There were only oak barrels here. In that case, couldn’t the baby be inside an oak barrel?

“Is the baby in here?”

Whenever she tapped an oak barrel and asked, the baby answered, “No!”

And when she reached the sixth oak barrel, Tislin realized the baby’s voice sounded exceptionally loud and stomped her foot.

“The baby is in here!”

“I’m in here!”

She heard the vibration of tiny fists thudding from inside. Looking closely, the empty oak barrel had a small hole just barely big enough for a little child to crawl through. The child had squeezed inside and couldn’t get back out.

“I’ll give you my hand.”

The hole was slightly higher than the bottom of the oak barrel. When Tislin reached in and waved her hand, the child fumbled around and grabbed it.

“Got it!”

“Now you come out.”

It wasn’t that easy. After a dozen agonizing attempts, the oak barrel containing the child finally tipped over, spitting the child out.

She later heard that the oak barrel had been enchanted to prevent wine from spilling. The children had no idea about that, but they hugged each other and jumped up and down, overjoyed by their great achievement.

“Oh dear, the baby’s clothes got dirty. Let’s go back up now.”

Even though the baby sat down halfway up the stairs because its legs hurt, the two completed their adventure safely and returned to the beautiful villa bathed in warm sunlight.

And right at that moment, the villa was in complete chaos.

“Lady Adelinde! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! Go fetch His Grace the Grand Duke! We found Lady Adelinde!”

A noblewoman with sharp, cold eyes burst into tears, hugging the baby tightly enough to crush her. Little Adelinde simply rolled her eyes around and clumsily patted the lady, while Tislin stood frozen, slightly scared because she couldn’t adapt to the sudden atmosphere.

The person who arrived a moment later was not the Grand Duke, but a boy nearly two spans taller than Tislin. Looking to be around twelve years old, the handsome boy knelt on the floor without hesitation upon spotting Adelinde.

“Adelinde, where on earth have you been?”

“…I was looking around the house, and I went inside a barrel and couldn’t get out. But then Tis gave me her hand and I got out.”

The boy turned his head and locked eyes with Tislin, who was standing frozen in place. Tislin thought the boy’s eyes resembled the sapphire necklace her mother cherished most.

That was the very first meeting between Tislin Ermiz and Damien Xsanov.

There wasn’t much after that.

For some reason, Adelinde—who had fallen head over heels for Tislin after that day—sniffled and demanded Tislin come over regardless of whether it was summer or winter. The Grand Duke was weak to the tears of his orphaned granddaughter, and Count Ermiz and his wife never missed an opportunity to attach their daughter to the Grand Duke of Luxen’s granddaughter.

Thus, Tislin came to spend four months a year at the Grand Duchy of Luxen—two months twice a year.

And by Adelinde Lux’s side, Damien Xsanov was always present.

Having shown talent as a magic swordsman at a young age and becoming the disciple of Grand Duke Armart Lux, he was extremely busy with training. Yet, he made sure to drop by Adelinde’s room at least once a day to listen to her childish tantrums.

The orphaned child relied on her grandfather’s young disciple as if he were her own older brother, and Damien did his absolute best to live up to that expectation.

Tislin never thought to ask why. Young Tislin simply accepted the sight as something natural.

“Damien, braid my hair. Braid it on both sides.”

The boy’s hands, roughened from grueling training, skillfully braided Adelinde’s hair. He wasn’t naturally deft with his hands, but having practically raised young Adelinde, he was a veteran at tying ribbons and making flower crowns.

When he finished the cute pigtails in an instant, Adelinde jumped up and down, admiring her hair in the mirror.

Twelve-year-old Tislin smiled along as she watched seven-year-old Adelinde giggle merrily.

“Wow, Adele. It’s pretty. It suits you really well.”

“Is it pretty?”

“Yup. Super pretty.”

“Then Tis, let’s do it together!”

“Huh?”

“Damien, do it for Tis too!”

Although Tislin and Damien shared a connection through Adelinde, they weren’t particularly close. Even if they played together at Adelinde’s persistent urging, playing with Adelinde always came first for both of them.

So, even after years of becoming accustomed to each other’s presence, eye contact between the two wasn’t very frequent.

“Sit down.”

Damien had no intention of refusing Adelinde’s request from the start. Tislin had no choice but to sit down as well.

“…”

The hair neatly braided with the cute hair ties Adelinde used looked completely ridiculous to Tislin’s eyes, like an adult wearing a child’s clothes.

‘It looked cute when Adele did it, though.’ Her dissatisfied mood leaked right out through her eyes.

“Wow, Tis looks just like me!”

“Mmm……”

“Do you hate looking like me?”

When Adelinde looked ready to cry, Damien spoke up right away.

“Why? It looks good on you.”

“Why? It looks good on you.”

It was nonsense containing not even a speck of sincerity. When Tislin glared at him, Damien feigned ignorance and turned his head away.

Still, the fortunate thing was that, unlike Damien—who usually either indulged Adelinde’s stubbornness or reduced her to tears—Tislin knew how to be a bit more flexible.

“Since I’m older than Adele, we shouldn’t look identical. Only Adele looks cute like this.”

“But I want to match with Tis.”

“No. Just wait a second.”

Tislin unraveled her tightly braided hair and sat back down.

“Loosen your grip and do it again.”

“Do it again!”

Damien braided her hair once more. Every time his hands tightened, Tislin called out, “Gently!” and Adelinde bounced around excitedly, chanting, “Gently!” after her.

Tislin focused entirely on her hair, completely unaware that the boy behind her had a strangely pouting face.

“Done.”

Even though it was the same pigtails, the loosely braided hair falling lower looked fairly mature. Twelve-year-old Tislin was satisfied, and Adelinde was equally pleased to see Tislin with hair similar to hers.

“To think Adelinde actually listened…”

Damien was also satisfied, at least in the sense that there was someone who could make Adelinde yield her stubbornness.

It went on like that.

While Tislin stayed in Luxen, the two practically raised Adelinde together. Thus, there might have been a sense of camaraderie or a bond formed between them. Even if not, it was a connection that lasted over ten years. It couldn’t be said that they lacked familiarity.

And at seventeen, Tislin entered the Royal Academy.

Since she had to attend school, she couldn’t stay at Luxen for four months a year like before. She thought her relationship with the Grand Ducal Family of Luxen would naturally grow distant, but that thought was short-lived.

In June of that same year, as soon as the pacification of southern Parpanan completely concluded, Damien Xsanov received an order from the King to enter the Royal Academy and transferred into the Department of Knighthood.

And so, the two came to attend the same school together.