ULRBE 03

Chapter 3

Upon hearing the backstory, Sierra clicked her tongue.

“You’ve known each other for ten whole years, and you didn’t acknowledge each other even once during school? You’re really something else. Was it really necessary to go that far?”

Sierra shook her head as if appalled. Tislin gave an embarrassed laugh.

In reality, however, it wasn’t as difficult as it sounded.

Classes at the Royal Academy were mostly conducted by department. Among them, the Department of Knighthood had many exclusive classes and personal training sessions, so mingling with other departments was naturally rare.

Furthermore, Damien was affiliated with the Royal Guards, meaning he was frequently dispatched outside. Subduing magical beasts, diplomatic events, managing occupied territories… These were just the known duties, and there were likely many others Tislin knew nothing about.

Because of this, unless it was a mandatory course shared by both departments, Tislin—being in the Department of Administrative Sciences—had no chance of running into him even by coincidence.

Even those mandatory courses amounted to just one subject a year: the History lecture in the first semester of their first year, the Royal Etiquette lecture in the first semester of their second year, and the International Relations lecture they were currently taking.

However, the first semester of their first year ended before Damien even transferred, and in the first semester of their second year, Damien vanished midway through the term due to his duties with the Guard and didn’t return until the semester ended.

So it wasn’t as if Tislin had exerted all her heart and soul to pretend she didn’t know Damien. To be exact, she didn’t need to—they rarely ran into each other in the first place.

On the rare occasions they did cross paths… she simply pretended not to see him. She had quite a tough time keeping her eyes from wandering on their own, though. But as proven by Sierra’s total lack of suspicion, those moments were very few and far between.

“Still, during the breaks, Adele had to come all the way to Viera and stay with us at the Luxen mansion, so it’s not like we didn’t see each other at all.”

“Wait, wait a minute. The Grand Duchess came to Viera? Why didn’t I know about that?”

“Because she didn’t go anywhere outside. That was His Grace the Grand Duke’s condition, too.”

On the day Tislin’s admission to the Royal Academy was decided, Adelinde sobbed the entire day. It went so far that the Grand Duke subtly called Tislin in to ask if she really had to enroll, but once admission was officially ordered by royal decree, there was no way to undo it.

To make matters worse, when Damien enrolled in the Royal Academy that June, Adelinde went into a complete outrage.

Having lost her two favorite people to the Royal Academy, Adelinde went on a hunger strike, insisting she would follow them to Viera. After stubbornly digging in her heels, she finally won her trip to Viera.

Naturally, she couldn’t enroll in the school at such a young age. Instead, it was agreed that during the Royal Academy’s breaks in January and July, she would stay briefly at the Grand Duke’s mansion in the royal capital, Viera, and spend time with the two of them.

However, since Adelinde’s safety was paramount, her stay was strictly confined inside the mansion. Damien and Tislin’s visits to the Luxen mansion were also kept secret.

Even so, everyone who ought to know probably knew anyway, but the important point was that only those who ought to know were aware.

“Ha, if this rumor gets out, all of Viera will turn upside down.”

“It’s still quiet so far, though. If a rumor spreads now after keeping the secret so well all this time, you’re the culprit!”

“Is that how it works? Ah, setting that aside… so when did your secret crush start?”

“Um… It really wasn’t anything special.”

Tislin muttered with an embarrassed face and rested her cheek against her knee. Seeing the skin under her eyes and her earlobes flush bright red, Sierra was startled.

“What, are you actually blushing?”

“You were the one who asked first!”

After punishing her by throwing a pillow, Tislin traced back her memories.

So, it was exactly five years ago.

Damien Xsanov participated in the Great Parpanan War at the tender age of sixteen.

Parpanan, ruled by the tyrant Hezra, was originally a nation known as a grand empire.

About fifty years ago, Prince Hezra—who was also the greatest magic swordsman of his time—slaughtered all his brothers and ascended the throne at barely twenty years of age.

In his early reign, he was a grand conqueror. Countless nations were brought to their knees under Hezra’s sword. About one-fourth of Parpanan’s current territory consisted of lands subjugated during the early days of Hezra’s reign.

However, after losing his eldest son, Hezra lost interest in conquest and plunged into extravagance, pleasure, and brutal massacres. The treasury of the once-wealthy Parpanan Empire hit rock bottom in an instant, but Hezra’s tyranny knew no bottom.

Hezra stationed his four closest confidants, the four Dukes, in each of the four directions of the land to thoroughly plunder everything—from food and luxury goods to human lives.

Among them, the Duke who ruled southern Parpanan—commonly known as the ‘Southern Duke’—was a magic swordsman on par with Hezra himself. It was said that his solitary combat prowess rivaled that of three elite knight orders combined. Even after Hezra stopped his wars of conquest, the Southern Duke’s army fought relentlessly against the countries bordering the southern frontier.

The Great Parpanan Coalition—formed by numerous nations including the Grand Duchy of Luxen and the Kingdom of Cassady-Minorca—failed to conquer even the southern region of Parpanan for half a century.

Until that year, when a sixteen-year-old magic swordsman named Damien Xsanov struck off the Southern Duke’s head.

The summer in Luxen was cool, and so was the face of the young knight beneath his helmet. Tislin still vividly remembered holding onto Adelinde’s shoulders so she wouldn’t run out recklessly during the triumphal parade.

That street where glory settled like sunlight. The flags fluttering like the wind and the deafening cheers. The air mixed with the scent of iron and flower petals.

Until then, that boy was merely ‘Adelinde’s Damien’ to Tislin. He was close yet distant, and she had never particularly wanted to become closer to him.

Like everyone else, Tislin admired the young man when he removed his helmet—his delicate cheeks shaded by thick eyelashes beneath slightly damp hair, and his vivid eyes. But it was nothing more than that.

It was barely half a day later that her peaceful heart was completely turned upside down.

Damien, who had been hounded all day by the Grand Duke and various officials, finally visited Adelinde’s reception room in the evening.

“Here. A present.”

As if returning from a simple trip, he held out identical bracelets to both Adelinde and Tislin. Attached were Parpanan-style inlaid gold and agate pendants. Though the design itself was simple, it was a precious item that yielded nothing to the jewels in Count Ermiz’s wife’s jewelry box.

“Wow, ours are identical!”

“Mine too?”

“Mine too?”

Not expecting a gift for herself, Tislin blinked her eyes wide in surprise. The cool touch of the bracelet hanging from her fingertips felt utterly unfamiliar.

The Grand Duke chuckled heartily and teased Damien.

“You managed to find matching ones in the middle of such a chaotic battlefield.”

“Because there are two girls.”

It was truly a trivial remark, and it wasn’t even addressed to Tislin, but she couldn’t understand which part of those words had left a mark on her heart.

“…Thank you.”

He might have heard the gratitude she mumbled in a voice as small as an ant’s. Tislin was too busy hiding her burning face to care about anyone else’s reaction.

“Just that? Is it really just that? This is the Damien Xsanov we’re talking about! Wasn’t there a heroic rescue from a crisis or something like that?”

“Nope. Nothing.”

Sierra let out a hollow sigh. Because big names like Damien Xsanov and the Grand Duchess of Luxen were involved, she had built up high expectations, but the story was unexpectedly mundane, leaving her utterly deflated.

The only real achievement was Tislin’s ears burning bright red.

‘Is she really that embarrassed? The blush isn’t fading at all.’

That was indeed an achievement.

Sierra didn’t ask how Tislin ended up confessing to him. There was no need to dig into her friend’s open wound.

More than that, Sierra Pontinaire had actually learned for the first time through Tislin’s engagement letter that Damien Xsanov was even on the marriage market.

Despite his legendary war achievements and guaranteed path to success as the sole disciple of the Grand Duke of Luxen, the reason marriage proposals hadn’t flooded in for Damien Xsanov was simple:

‘That’s obviously because everyone assumed Lord Xsanov would marry the Grand Duchess of Luxen!’

Although there was a bit of an age gap, a seven-year difference was nothing in noble marriages.

If considered as a deliberate arrangement made by the Grand Duke for his orphaned young granddaughter, everything fit perfectly. The unusual bond between two people without a drop of shared blood also made complete sense if one assumed they would become one day.

But that wasn’t the case?

Since Damien Xsanov’s engagement was arranged by his master and lord, the Grand Duke of Luxen, this engagement must have been approved by the Grand Duke himself. In that case, the Grand Duke never had any intention of joining Lady Adelinde and Damien Xsanov together in the first place.

One might ask if this engagement was a smokescreen to eventually marry him to the Grand Duchess later.

However, such an action was meaningless when everyone already took a marriage between Lord Xsanov and the Grand Duchess for granted. Besides, Count and Countess Ermiz had no incentive to participate in such a charade at the cost of ruining their daughter’s reputation.

Therefore, barring any variables, there was a high probability that this engagement would lead to marriage.

It was a conclusion that felt entirely surreal. My friend? With Damien Xsanov?

“So Tislin, what do you plan to do?”

“What else? …I told you, I’m going to break off the engagement.”

“What else? …I told you, I’m going to break off the engagement.”

Her cheeks, which had been glowing like peaches while talking about her secret crush just moments ago, were now dead pale, devoid of any trace of excitement.

She was completely serious.

Tislin Ermiz had not the slightest intention of marrying her longtime secret crush.