Chapter 384

Chapter 8: Gentle Twilight

Victoria shook her head, picked up another grape, and placed it in her mouth, chewing slowly as she gazed out the window at the moonlight. After a moment, she spoke.

“In truth, it’s not something worth mentioning… When I was seven years old, in the spring, I met my teacher, Sir Ryan the Sword Saint. At that time, he had just returned from the East, and my father invited him to instruct me in swordsmanship. It was the first time I saw him in the palace. He was accompanied by a boy who was dark and skinny. The boy’s eyes were always wandering, looking around curiously, like an eel…”

“Hmm…”

Eel?

What a strange description…

But—

I scratched my cheek, unable to hold back and interjected, “That would be Carlos, right?”

“Yes.” Victoria nodded gently. “That boy was Carlos. He was the most favored and talented disciple of Master Sword Saint, or so it is now. At that time, we studied swordsmanship together in the palace. Carlos was a naive fool who liked to babble nonsense, which I didn’t like very much… But what I disliked even more was that the teacher favored him.”

“I possessed great talent and shared the same wind order as the teacher. Many sword techniques came easily to me, and everyone praised me for being smart, but not the teacher… He praised Carlos far more often than me, because although Carlos had average talent, he worked especially hard… Children’s minds can easily become imbalanced, so over time, I began to resent Carlos.”

“Oh…”

Apart from nodding blankly, I didn’t know how to respond.

For such a trivial matter, you actually resented him until now… You’re too—

Of course, I only dared think this in my heart and couldn’t say it aloud.

“Actually, I later understood. The reason I disliked Carlos so much was fundamentally… Because he lacked talent yet managed to achieve the same level as me through hard work… and even surpassed me in speed and skill. Meanwhile, I, at that time, was proud of my natural talent, thinking I knew everything when I only grasped the surface. I became complacent and lazy… ultimately failing to truly understand the teacher’s sword like Carlos did.”

Wow…

So that means—

“Victoria, if you fought Carlos, would you lose?”

“No.”

A resolute answer.

Yet I remained skeptical and tilted my head to ask, “Really?”

“Yes.”

“But—”

“There’s nothing to ‘but.’ I can fly.”

“… ”

That makes sense.

No matter how fast your sword is, if you can’t hit me, what good is it?

I’ll drive you crazy!

And then, I can fly too…

Thinking of this, I suddenly felt incredibly happy for no reason, leaped up from the sofa, leaned forward to grab a plate, pinched some grapes, sat back next to Victoria, fed her one, and stuffed the rest into my mouth.

Plop plop plop—

The grape seeds burst in my mouth, the sweet and sour taste enhancing my mood.

Hmph, old scoundrel…

If you want to leave, go ahead. Don’t talk to me again, and never show your face to me again!

… Oh, right.

Suddenly, another thought came to mind.

Victoria said she saw Carlos when she was seven. How old was he then?

I asked right away.

“Hmm… gulp, Ji.”

As I spoke, I swallowed the grapes in my mouth.

“When you saw Carlos, how old was he?”

That mustached scoundrel always says his age is a “man’s secret,” probably too embarrassed to admit he’s getting old and can’t find a wife.

Extracting the real age of the old man from Victoria will allow me to mock him shamelessly next time I see him…

“He’s… not quite four years older than me.”

“… What?”

I stared blankly at Victoria, thinking I had misheard.

Is he really not even four years older than her?

Victoria just turned 23, which means—

“Carlos this year… is probably not quite 27?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“…”

Then what’s the point of him keeping secrets!

And that overly mature-looking stubble, is he trying to look mature or scare people!?

I thought he was in his thirties…

“Can you please stop asking about Carlos?”

Victoria seems a bit angry.

Forget it, let’s talk about something else…

Such a beautiful night, shouldn’t be wasted on Carlos.

I turned my head to look out the window.

The night breeze rustled the curtains, bringing the chirping insects to my ears.

The summer evening truly is captivating.

We talked about Victoria’s favorite flowers, to the children who once bothered me in the village, from the living room to the second-floor balcony, until I started nodding off, until deep into the night when most of the houses on Longdale Street had gone dark, and only then did Her Majesty leave.

The next morning, before the sun rose, I got up from bed, washed up, changed into clean clothes, and left the house. I walked on rooftops, jumped to the top of a grand building opposite the academy, sat cross-legged with my back against a green brick chimney, placing the large bag of almond cakes Carlos bought last night by my feet, watching the white walls covered in roses, the scattered students, eating while waiting.

Until the dawn light gradually became splendid, a simple carriage pulled by a unicorn drove out of the academy gates, crossed the high bridge over the Zaber River, and Carlos’ face faintly appeared in the carriage window, then faded away as the carriage moved further, finally disappearing behind the tall buildings.

And among those accompanying him, there seemed to be familiar faces.

After that, a gentle rain suddenly fell.

Over five hundred workshop cavalry from the Valen Empire, escorting dozens of carriages of supplies from the Central Workshop, arrived at the capital the next day under the protection of nearly a thousand guards.

Victoria and I received them at the palace. The leading envoy was a bearded man I didn’t know, but he greeted me warmly. We talked for a long time about the situation in the empire. I learned that my father had met with the Church Knight Order, urging more nobles to join the Winter City and obtain as many usable resources as possible. Karie New City recently swore allegiance, ready to serve as vanguard once the war began.

My mother and Percival were still in the city, shuttling between the castle, church, and workshop every day. More and more merchant caravans were willing to enter the Winter City, the circulation of currency inside the city accelerated rapidly, and the workshops could hardly keep up. They planned to expand their financial management staff and officially establish a Minister of Finance, who would be the bearded envoy.

After counting the military supplies, Victoria held a grand ceremony at the palace, personally awarding me the “Peace Medal,” symbolizing a millennium of prosperity in Ethanbell.

At that moment, the neatly lined-up workshop cavalry and palace guards raised their swords to the sky, the sound echoing like the roar of the sea. People seemed to have forgotten what happened yesterday, all immersed in this atmosphere, while I felt a mix of emotions, unable to be moved.

Because the last person to receive the “Peace Medal” from the king was Sister Teresa.

Two days later, the bearded envoy left the city with the cavalry, and in the afternoon, the Church Knight Order, with great fanfare, arrived at the city. Victoria met with Angel for only an hour, then led more than ten thousand newly reorganized guards and eight thousand knights of the Church’s Fourth Knight Order out of the city.

I stood far away on the city wall, watching Victoria, clad in silver armor, riding a white unicorn at the forefront of the army, dragging a long iron chain, with Duke Lex covered in dirt being dragged behind her, crawling like a dog.

A dragon-like procession divided the sunset-drenched wilderness, setting out on a journey to Fort Fleresk.

The sun gradually sank below the horizon.

I closed my eyes, hoping Victoria would return victorious soon.