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255. Engagement – Fixed Event

“How about this?”

Lena’s sword brushed against Leo’s shoulder. The two were sparring, and for some reason, Lena kicked off from her previously landed position and thrust again, striking with her back leg.

Leo smiled faintly.

It had been two months since the two of them had spent blissful days together, tightly bound like glue. They had gone on a hunt again with Dehorman’s hunting team and diligently practiced swordsmanship every day.

Leo had put on a bit of weight. Unlike previous times when he was always anxious and worried about the future, leaving him drastically thin, he had managed to eat and drink comfortably with Lena, causing his rock-like physique to relax.

It’s a pretty good look. Not too tense and not too lazy, Leo Dexter calmly instructed Lena.

[Leo, you have become the strongest swordsman on the continent, but Lena has not caught up with you. As consolation, I grant you the ability of {Swordsmanship Instructor}.]

“Sounds good? You mean to go forward as you land, right? I’ll try to follow up, so block me.”

“Uh-huh. Yes, like that. If you do that, it becomes an unexpected attack… Huh?”

But Lena hadn’t realized that Leo was teaching her.

If there was a difference from usual, it was that Leo had researched many unique techniques and their discussions about how to do this or that had increased.

Leo asked cheekily, “Why? Is this not it?”

“Wait a moment, more than that, what did you just…”

I tried to step towards the direction I aimed for after parrying. Even after striking with my sword, Leo’s sword was still ready to come down from a threatening position.

Why is this happening?

All because of a single step.

Lena momentarily let her sword hang, lost in thought. There was clearly something to address in Leo’s movement just now.

“Leo, how did you just do that? Why did you come this way?”

Leo shrugged nonchalantly and answered.

“You raised my sword up. To the right.”

“Right.”

“Using that recoil, I walked in that direction to spin.”

“You fool. Is anyone going to just stand still? Is there a chance of getting stabbed in the back?”

“Haha. That’s true?”

…Was it a coincidence? After prompting Leo to recall the earlier movement, Lena pondered for a while before speaking up.

“Just now, I think it would be better to stay still rather than trying to rotate. The sword’s position was threatening… Oh!”

So it was the position of the sword that mattered! Not the movement.

Like raindrops falling on a parched ground, Lena absorbed the deep essence of unrefined experience that briefly flashed past. Although such situations didn’t easily arise even after sparring a few more times, Lena muttered “the position of the sword, the position of the sword.”

Completely caught up in another world, Lena Ainar practiced, with Leo becoming her training partner.

‘This might take a while.’

He gauged Lena’s achievements.

The previous concept was quite difficult.

Mastering the space with a sword wielded by ‘Knight Commander of the Royal Guard’ Lloyd Agnak, who was tasked with protecting Prince Cleo de Frederick of the Jerome Holy Kingdom.

Throughout the time, there were a few styles of swordsmanship that Lena particularly liked.

Katrina’s aggressive and trick-filled swordsmanship was representative. In the eighth cycle, the first time Lena had (with arms intact) defeated Katrina, she accepted her swordsmanship as her own reinterpretation.

At that time, Lena was strong.

She had rapidly grown by complementing her father’s “swordsmanship that hides the flurry of a single strike,” and looking back now, it was almost like she had reached the level of a knight.

Of course, Katrina’s swordsmanship had already been taught. There were elements in the consecutive thrusts Lena had conceived that echoed Katrina’s movements, and it was clear that Lena was grasping the essence contained in Katrina’s swordsmanship.

The reason she couldn’t grow as rapidly as before was likely that she hadn’t experienced a bloody battlefield yet, and no matter how well I emulated Katrina’s swordsmanship, it was still incomplete.

The moment Lena displayed Sir Lloyd Agnak’s swordsmanship was the very day she declared her broken engagement. Back then, my skills were at {Swordsmanship.3v : Bart Style}, which far surpassed the level of a knight, yet furious Lena defeated me.

That might have been the moment Lena was strongest. It couldn’t be helped because

– “I thought you hated me because I was lacking in skills!! Now… now I will become stronger! But… but you…!”

It was the time Lena bit her teeth and threw herself into training. She left for the Jerome Holy Kingdom to undergo knighthood training, sparring with countless knights, and within a year, she had finally caught up to me.

What amazing speed.

Considering her skill immediately after the start of the scenario was barely reaching the level of a squire, it was even more remarkable. Minseo, that guy was like, ‘What’s a princess doing wielding a sword?’ He didn’t even care about Lena’s growth.

Phew.

Leo exhaled.

He was sitting on the terrace of Lena’s house, lifting and lowering his sword while watching Lena, who was deep in thought. He knew that today would be the last of peaceful days.

Soon, Dehorman would call for them. By now, the chief’s meeting was likely taking place, and news would soon arrive that Lena must go to battle in place of her father, the Great Warrior.

Preparation… is done. Except for one thing.

“Lena! Have this while doing it.”

Leo poured hot Odor tea and called to Lena. Approaching her, who was thinking while trying steps, he handed her the cup. Lena wiped off the beads of sweat dripping down and smiled brightly.

“Thank you.”

The news of war, which had suddenly flown in, began to stir the Abrival Castle. For now, in that peaceful space, Lena and Leo shared tea.

*

“Aw, aw, aw. Leo, I’m dying…”

“I told you not to drag your shoes.”

Weeks later.

Lena was holding onto her blistered foot and whining. Even though Leo had tightened her shoes repeatedly, she dragged her feet during the march, and inevitably developed blisters.

There seemed to be no way around this. A fixed {event}. Leo clicked his tongue, looking at Lena pityingly.

“Don’t touch it; just wait.”

As was customary, Leo fetched hot water from the cooking area. He advised the stumbling Ainar Tribe warriors, “You guys should also bring hot water and soak your feet,” and pulled Lena’s foot, which was helplessly sprawled out in the tent.

“Ah, hot…! It’s hot.”

“Bear with it.”

It was a method Minseo had taught him. Soaking the blisters in hot water to let them burst naturally. Much more hygienic than bursting them with hands, it was good for relieving foot fatigue too. Lena’s face, which had been frowning for a moment, relaxed.

“Ah… Now I can finally breathe. Leo, how come you’re fine?”

“If you drag your feet because it’s hard, that’s when you get blisters. Keep walking steadily, and you won’t get them.”

…Did he say he was a sergeant in the Republic of Korea Army? Sergeant. Representing soldiers, Minseo probably had risen to a high rank in the military.

‘But why is his swordsmanship that shabby? Surely not as a staff officer…’

There was no way to know.

Minseo’s memories were extremely faint.

Faceless images of people presumed to be his parents faded into view, and the image of a lover named Chaehwa overlapped with Ksenia, completely replaced. The guilt of having treated her poorly remained as scars.

The world he lived in conjured abstract concepts like ‘democratic,’ ‘hard to make a living,’ ‘equal but unequal,’ ‘scientifically advanced and affluent,’ which were quite contradictory. He had no way to discern whether he had lived in a peculiar world or if he had made some mistake in judgment.

“What are you thinking about?”

“…Thinking about some foolish friend.”

Friend… a word that means someone I’ve lived closely with for a long time, but besides that, there was no word to define the relationship between him and Minseo. No matter what, that impurity was a bit excessive.

The early scenario filled with various horrific memories had passed. Anyway, Leo, defining Minseo as a (foolish) friend, turned over. In the cramped tent, beside him lay Lena, with her feet dipped in a water bucket… her eyes squinted.

“I’m sorry for being foolish!”

“Not you.”

“Don’t joke. Hmph! Blisters can happen. Is it just me? I don’t want to see it; just get out… Kyaah!”

“Hey, you idiot!”

“Oh no, what do I do? This, this…”

Pretending to be morose, Lena suddenly turned over, causing the bucket she had her feet in to topple over. As the place turned into a water disaster, Lena, hastily trying to get up, hit her head against the low tent ceiling and slipped on the softened blister.

It was only natural for a flimsy tent held up by a few thin poles to collapse. Lena fell into the water, landing on her rear as she crashed down the rest of the tent.

After floundering for a while, the two crawled out from the broken tent. “What are you two doing?” “What did you do to make the tent fall?” Warriors around them burst into laughter. With a red face, Lena knelt and raised her arms.

“Sorry! It was my fault. Please forgive me. Okay?”

So cute.

At that moment, Leo, who had been angry, burst into laughter as if nothing had happened. Leaving the squirming Lena to her punishment, he started to fix the tent.

“Can I… lower my arms now?”

“Nope. Stay like that until the tent is all fixed.”

“I’ll fix it myself…”

“Not if I say no.”

Though he wasn’t angry, he wanted to see her like this a bit longer. Lena’s head bowed, turning a bright red. Being good, she kept her arms raised.

But it wouldn’t be good to leave her like this for too long. Leo lifted her up, as she was starting to feel her pride hurt, rather than feeling sorry or embarrassed, under the gazes of the Ainar Tribe people and passing soldiers.

In front of the completely wrecked tent, he kissed Lena’s cheek, who wore a complicated expression.

– Whoosh!

“Now that you’re outside, there’s no one to watch, right? Hahaha! It seems they’re going to get married on the battlefield!”

Everyone knew we were engaged. Reminded of that fact, Leo helped Lena fix the tent and lay down inside together. After a while of silence, Lena cautiously opened her mouth.

“Leo.”

“Why?”

“Our marriage…”

After both of us become knights together, can’t we do it then? I wanted to say that while I’m a woman, I want to have children but don’t want to give up on my dreams due to parenting issues.

But Leo was faster. It was as if he read her mind when he said,

“Sorry, but let’s take our time with the marriage. We can wait until after the war to get married when we become knights. Oh, what if we… get married during our knighthood ceremony?”

Gasp.

Lena’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s, and she took a deep breath. Leo was worried if he said something wrong, but it turned out he was completely right.

It was the wedding she had always dreamed of.

Instead of wearing a flowy dress, she would marry Leo in solid armor. Lena was so overjoyed that Leo shared the same thoughts that tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes.

Since Lena usually never showed tears, Leo was taken aback. The last mention of marrying during the knighthood was just something he thought sounded good…

Inside the narrow tent, Lena knelt with her face buried in her hands. Leo also knelt in front of her.

The contact of their knees felt suddenly warm. Even though they were a couple who had done everything together.

Leo embraced Lena’s shoulders. Lena whispered, burying her tears under Leo’s ear.

“It’s a promise. We promised. We’ll definitely marry like that.”

“…Yeah. We promised. It will definitely happen. I’ll make it happen.”

The last part was a vow to himself. The hearts of Lena and Leo beat in sync, painting a rosy future.