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191. Engagement – Dream

“Then everyone, do your best.”

Leo stepped out of the armory. He reassured the saluting soldiers, saying, “Don’t worry about the lack of supplies. I’ll talk to the quartermaster,” before climbing the castle wall.

Leo was on duty.

In his stiff red uniform, the soldiers standing guard on the wall saluted in turn, and Leo returned the gesture with restrained movements. He patrolled the wall, inspecting the soldiers’ conduct and attire.

It was a remarkably serious demeanor.

As a new knight, he should have been wandering around clueless, struggling to understand military life, but Leo showed none of that. Rather, his demeanor was so familiar that the soldiers of Abrival Castle exchanged remarks like, “We had high hopes, but this is boring.”

New knights making a blunder was a delightful spectacle for the soldiers.

Unless it was wartime, the accidents that could happen in the barracks were mostly trivial happenings, and experienced soldiers knew this.

Thus, for nearly a week, their attention had been fixed on the young knight named Leo Dexter. Whether this clueless knight would end up embarrassing himself with arrogance or become overly shy and lose face as a superior was a point of keen interest for the soldiers, trapped in their mundane military life.

But he fit neither case. Astonishingly knowledgeable, and when he encountered something he didn’t know, he boldly admitted it. The soldiers of Abrival Castle were falling under the spell of this audacious young knight’s charm.

“Hey! There, squire! I know smoking after meals is good for you, but you lot are supposed to become knights! If you smell like that, the beautiful lady might just run away!”

Leo called out from above the wall. The negligent squires stomped out their cigarettes and hastily took off.

“You should eat too, Knight.”

“Of course.”

The soldier smiled cheerfully. Nodding, Leo confirmed that the soldiers were changing shifts and headed toward the training ground.

The training ground was crowded with soldiers having finished their meal. Since training was in progress, Leo took care not to be obstructive, and the squires standing in front of the barracks raised their hands in salute.

“Loyalty!”

Pfft.

Leo barely suppressed a laugh. Quickly turning around, he noticed that among the saluting squires was Lena.

“Alright. You all have done well. Lena Ainar, come here.”

“…Yes.”

He spoke as formally as he could. However, as soon as he stepped inside the barracks, the moment others turned their eyes away, he smiled brightly.

“Lena.”

But Lena looked quite displeased. Pouting, she muttered.

“Why did you call me? I told you not to.”

Lena had become a squire.

Though she boldly stepped forward to take the test, she was weak since it had only been a day since the scenario began.

There was no way the soldier who was supposed to face off against Leo, who had stunned everyone with his skills, would be able to compete, but she still managed to receive decent feedback by putting up a fight.

“You might just become a squire. There are still many immature points, but given your age, it’s excellent.”

“I like being a squire!”

To be honest, it was a rather foolish choice. It would have been far more beneficial to continue training swordsmanship with Uncle Noel, but Lena wanted to keep up with Leo, who had already become a knight, even if she only had the title of squire.

Fortunately, the Lord had made her a squire. It wasn’t an easily obtainable title, so she had to count her blessings, but a small misfortune had followed.

“Whoa. Is that how a knight speaks to his squire?”

Seething. Lena’s brows furrowed with rising blood pressure. She glared at her now-smug fiancé and sighed.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Why did you call me?”

What was it about sticking the title of “squire” on him? It wasn’t unusual for a newly designated knight to suddenly call upon a squire, but Lena was tremendously unhappy.

It would have been better if it were someone else…

“I just… came by to take a little break and maybe hear your singing…”

“Do you want to die?”

“Ha ha, you’re asking if I want to die? What kind of nonsense is that…”

“I’ll kill you at home. Seriously.”

As Lena’s eyes glinted with anger, Leo couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Got it. Sorry. I’ll stop. I came to eat. You haven’t eaten yet, right?”

“I have!”

“What? No! Wait a bit and we can eat together. And usually, it’s the squire who takes care of the meals.”

“Knights don’t have hands or feet? You go pick up your own food at the cafeteria.”

Actually, she hadn’t eaten.

Leo had been pestering her to eat together for a week now. So today, she purposely waited without eating, but for some reason, it was grating on her nerves. Only after seeing Leo’s sulky expression did Lena soften her resolve.

“Just kidding. I haven’t eaten either. Let’s go eat together.”

Leo smiled brightly.

“Lena.”

He looked around the corridor to make sure no one was watching before taking her hand. Interlocking their fingers, he rubbed her bruised hand with his other hand before speaking.

“Squire, is it tough?”

“Why would it be tough for me? I’ve got a super nice knight to assist, and I don’t have much to do. Aren’t we going to eat? What’s all this about?”

“To see you.”

He replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Leo looked down intently at her, and Lena’s neck flushed red. She pulled her hand away and crossed her arms, but she could still feel his gaze. Following that gaze, her cheeks, nose, forehead, and eyelids gradually reddened.

“Why… why is this happening, it’s so creepy.”

Although Lena found Leo’s recent frequency of affectionate gestures strange, she didn’t dislike it. She just couldn’t understand why Leo had become like this lately.

But it wasn’t as if Leo was doing anything (weird) to her. Rather, if that were the case, she might have understood that he had finally come into heat, but most of the time, he simply gazed at her wistfully.

“Stop it.”

Once Leo started, he seemed to lose track of time. Feeling embarrassingly loved, Lena dealt with it firmly. She caught his nose and gave it a good shake.

“Ouch!”

“I told you to stop.”

Eventually, the two found themselves in a corner of the Lord’s Castle. While some might know their relationship, they had no intention of making it public, so they secretly shared the food they had brought from the cafeteria.

It seemed Leo was quite hungry, as he stuffed bread into his mouth, and seeing him like that lifted Lena’s previously troubled spirits.

She wanted to become a knight alongside Leo. Which was why she felt impatient.

But with Leo loving her like this, what was the rush about, after all?

Someday she would catch up to Leo, and he would wait for her…

“Leo. You spilled something.”

Leo wouldn’t understand what she was thinking. She felt sorry for leaving him alone for a week, getting all serious.

Lena approached and tugged at Leo’s collar as he looked down at his clothes to see where the food had spilled.

*

After that, both Leo and Lena were busy in their own ways.

If one had to decide who was busier, it was undoubtedly Lena, as it was the fate of squires.

The appearance of a sorcerer had significantly changed the tasks of the squires. In the past, they only needed to assist the knights, but now their duties required more than just that. The way knights integrated into the battlefield had changed, leading to a more minimalist approach to their equipment.

Not only had they stopped riding horses, but the need for armors that required daily maintenance had decreased significantly, so there wasn’t much work for the squires. When knights went off to battle, they were often left behind at the base.

However, the battlefield was not easy enough to idly waste the resources of even a squire. As a result, squires were assigned tasks such as escorting generals or leading squads, which required at least some basic training.

For squires, this was a good thing.

Squires unable to become knights needed to find other jobs. It would be great if they could settle in as administrative knights in the order, but that wasn’t easy either, so most squires became soldiers. Thus, learning command skills while being a squire would be helpful for them.

Of course, Lena didn’t particularly want to be in that position, but she had no choice but to participate in training somewhat involuntarily.

Feeling robbed of training time, Lena spent her days even busier, and Leo could only see her after work, at home.

“So? What happened?”

“That little brat. He was being all territorial, so I kicked him in the shins. Isn’t that funny? He became a squire before me, but he’s trying to boss me around.”

Lena, who had taken off her leather armor and placed it on the dresser, collapsed onto the bed. Looking tired, she stretched out without even changing her clothes. Leo sat on the edge of the bed and patted Lena’s head.

“Is that okay? You should at least try to get along with him.”

“Ah— I was going to, but the more I looked at him, the more it seemed endless. He kept trying to pass his work onto me.”

Lena rolled over.

Turning her body towards Leo, she ended up resting her thigh on him, clearly enjoying the head pats.

“Honestly, if someone’s going to be territorial, shouldn’t it be me? How long have they been here to think they can boss me around? I could just call my friends and have them bury him in the night.”

A bit extreme, but it wasn’t entirely out of the question.

Since Abrival Castle was under the direct jurisdiction of the king, the soldiers and squires guarding here were not locals but were instead dispatched from the capital.

Many of them would return in about three months, as the reinforcements from capital Barnau arrived every year around the end of winter.

On the other hand, Lena was a local born here. Being from the Ainar tribe, which made up most of Abrival Castle’s residents, she was quite popular, and she was the daughter of a great warrior.

Though she didn’t go hunting this time because of becoming a squire, thus not becoming a warrior, her standing hadn’t diminished.

If Lena were to truly think maliciously, she could easily get rid of an outsider or two. Such incidents weren’t uncommon during the previous civil war, and given how many squires would run off unable to endure the harsh life, losing one wouldn’t have been a problem.

Lena, having said that, seemed to ponder, “…Oh? That doesn’t seem like a bad idea,” looking intrigued. Leo, taken aback, gave her forehead a slap!

“Ouch! Why did you hit me?”

“Because you’re plotting to kill someone. Seriously, if you’re going to do something like that, I can help. Do you want me to say something for you?”

Lena stared at him intently. After a moment, she replied with a short, “No thanks,” and propped herself up.

“Just mind your own business. You’ve been quite noisy lately too.”

Leo shrugged his shoulders. He sat cross-legged on the bed and gazed at Lena without a hint of boredom.

He wished time would stand still like this.

He knew it was the happiest time for him. Before winter fully passed, the {war} would break out, and after that, there would be no leisure. He too would have to think about killing someone then.

He earnestly wished for these days to continue, but annoyingly, the weather kept getting warmer. The “Sundry Wind” blowing from the continent toward the sea was gradually dying down.

Leo patted Lena’s head once more.

“Don’t.” He touched her earlobe as she said that, and after a while chatting with her, he returned to his room.

Feeling a sense of liberation, Lena pouted. Should she have asked him to sleep together? She pondered this but decided to sleep instead, quickly falling asleep.

[ Achievement: Twenty Photos – Lena occasionally vaguely remembers her past in dreams. ]

But she didn’t dream. Whether a nightmare or a sweet dream, she never experienced dreaming at all.