“...”
Aldor looked at him with rare surprise, as if Perdes' request was quite unexpected.
Perdes did not avoid Aldor's gaze and faced him head-on.
A somewhat awkward and heavy silence flowed between the two.
Perdes asked Aldor to teach him swordsmanship, but he did not think he would listen.
Clearly reject it...
"All right."
...I have to do this, do you understand?
Perdes doubted his own ears and asked Aldor.
“Did you just say you understood?”
"Yes."
“Are you really going to teach me swordsmanship?”
As Perdes continued to ask in disbelief, Aldor frowned slightly in annoyance and asked back.
“Are you unhappy with the fact that I accepted your request, Lord Perdes?”
“No, it’s just that I don’t believe you. I thought you would reject me.”
“...Originally, I was going to refuse.”
What he means is, for some reason, he changed his mind.
Perdes wondered why but did not ask.
Because if he asks for nothing and Aldor changes his mind, it will be a big problem.
“You promised to teach me swordsmanship.”
Instead, he received another confirmation from Aldor.
“There’s no point in complaining later.”
“That’s what I’m going to tell you. I’ve tried my best to teach you, so don’t give up because it’s hard.”
“Never give up.”
Aldor smiled, one corner of his lips slightly raised as Perdes answered firmly.
“Well, we’ll have to wait and see.”
“..."
The face was eerie and terrifying, like a devil crawling out of hell.
There also seemed to be a strong will to somehow treat oneself harshly.
'Did I ask you for nothing?'
Perdes regretted it for a moment but pushed the thought out of his mind.
It was already spilled milk, and he had to learn harshly to bring up the areas where he lacked talent.
He also wanted to show Adele and Aldor, who were convinced that he could never become knights, that he could do it.
'So let's learn.'
Perdes was fired up with determination, thinking that Aldor would never kill him.
***
“You decided to learn swordsmanship from Lord Aldor?”
After returning from talking with the managers, I was surprised to hear an unexpected story from Perdes and asked him.
“Really?”
“Yes. He told me to come to the Knights Training Grounds at 7 a.m. starting tomorrow.”
Oh, I guess that's true.
“You don’t believe me?”
When I looked bewildered, Perdes asked pointedly.
“It’s not that, it’s just that I can’t believe that Lord Aldor took on a disciple.”
Lord Aldor's swordsmanship skills have been famous since he attended the Knight Academy.
Not only did the academy professors beg him to stay here, but when he was about to graduate, he said he received love calls from various knight orders with enormous conditions.
However, the reason why Lord Aldor chose the knighthood of Duke Leopold was because he always respected my father.
Long ago, Lord Aldor saw my father wielding a sword and was so impressed by it that he chose to become a knight, turning down all other good offers and coming here.
And he swore allegiance to the Duke of Leopold, as well as to my father.
My father readily accepted his oath.
Thus, Lord Aldor became my father's third knight.
The second knight was Lord Olben, and the first knight was someone I had never seen or heard of.
Anyway, my father personally taught Aldor, and Aldor's swordsmanship skills, which he learned in the Leopold swordsmanship, grew by leaps and bounds day by day.
A knight with outstanding skills is surrounded by aspiring knights who admire and look up to him and want to become like him.
“I know of more than a dozen people who have come here to become Lord Aldor’s disciples, but he has rejected them all.”
Even if the Crown Prince among them offered Aldor the position of Grand Master, he would have firmly refused.
But he accepted Perdes as his disciple.
“I guess Mr. Perdes really liked him.”
“Absolutely not.”
Perdes denied it with a frown.
“If he liked me, he wouldn’t have said something like that.”
“What did he say?”
When I asked out of curiosity, Perdes hesitated, then whistled and tried to avoid the question.
You don't want to tell me.
That meant he hadn't heard anything good from Lord Aldor, so I didn't ask any further questions.
“You’ve got a great opportunity that may only come once in your life. Do your best as much as you can.”
“I admit that learning swordsmanship from that man is a great opportunity, but it’s not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Instead, I gave him some serious encouragement, but the response I got was strange.
When I looked at him curiously, Perdes opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, then shut it tightly again and left the office.
***
The Duchy of Leopold has so far suffered little from the monsoon rains, but that doesn't mean it never rains.
During the rainy season, it rained about four days a week.
It wasn't pouring down rain as if there was a hole in the sky, but it was still difficult to do outdoor activities on rainy days.
“It’s all wet.”
After returning to the mansion from the library, Perdes handed the books wrapped in plastic to keep them dry to the servant and received a towel to dry his wet body.
He went out for a bit and came back looking like a drowning rat.
It seemed that simply wiping it wouldn't do, so Perdes washed it cleanly and changed into new clothes.
“Did you hear that story, Perdes?”
Jack, who had resolved the misunderstandings that had built up over time and whose bond had become stronger, helped him change into his clothes and said.
“His Highness the Second Prince is going to study abroad in the Kingdom of Agros.”
"What?"
It was common for a Prince who failed to become Crown Prince to study abroad, but it was quite unexpected that it was to Chernosser.
That is understandable, as Chernosser was a lazy person born with no interest in learning or broadening his horizons.
A few years ago, he had the opportunity to study abroad in a better place than the Kingdom of Agros, but he turned it down because he found it annoying.
The one who seized that opportunity was the 3rd Prince, Ian.
Thanks to this, Ian's status rose further and more people followed him.
On the other hand, Chernosser, despite being the son of the Empress, had a very narrow position among the people of the empire.
Although it was all his fault for being lazy and incompetent, Chernosser foolishly lamented his fate, thinking that it was because he had not become the Crown Prince.
By the way, Chernosser is going to study abroad?
And to the Agros Kingdom, the weakest among the kingdoms?
'It looks like he's being kicked out.'
Perdes heard that because of the champagne incident, the Emperor and his mother, the Empress, completely fell out of favor, and it seems that he was exiled to a foreign country because of it.
They're making up a plausible excuse about studying abroad.
It's been almost a month since that happened, and now they're kicking him out.
'Still, it seems like you've been worried a lot since you gave birth to a child after ten months of hardship.'
Perdes inwardly laughed at the Empress, who must have been groaning with her head wrapped around her neck by now, and took the books he had brought from the library.
"I will be back."
"Bye."
After a quick greeting with Jack, who was organizing his clothes, he headed to Adele's office.
Perdes was the only person who could enter Adele's office without her permission.
So he opened the door without knocking and went in, but stopped when he saw an unusual sight.
Adele was sitting at her desk, nodding off.
She's human too, so she can fall asleep when she gets tired from work, but it was a little strange seeing her for the first time.
'Well, she's been working too much lately.'
Adele always arrived at work before Perdes and left work later.
He once heard Sarah get very worried, saying that she even took documents to her bedroom and stayed up all night working.
Adele indeed had a lot to do, but it wasn't to the extent of doing that.
Especially since Perdes took some of her share of the work, it was only natural that Adele would have some free time.
But why does it seem like there's more work to do?
Perdes was puzzled.
What's even more puzzling is that even though he offers to help, she doesn't share those things with Perdes.
She refused all of them, saying that she could do it alone or that it was something she had to do.
It seemed like the other managers didn't know either.
'Is it about revenge?'
If that's the case, she can share it with him.
Perdes sighed inwardly and approached Adele.
Even if she only sleeps for a short time, she should lie down and sleep comfortably. If she sleeps like that, it's worse than not sleeping at all.
So he was planning to tell her to lie down on the sofa and get some rest, but the papers on her desk caught Perdes' eye.
When he looked into it, it was an annual estate management plan, and the date written on the document was for next year.
'You're already making next year's management plan?'
The estate management plan was usually drawn up after a lengthy meeting of managers convened in late November or early December of that year.
This is because only then can they make better plans, such as what they did well and what they did wrong while running the estate for a year, and how to fix and implement them for the next year.
But he was curious that Adele was already writing this all by herself.
What was even more strange and absurd was that Adele was also writing up a plan for the management of the estate for the year after next.
How can she understand next year's one, but why is she already writing about the one for the year after next?
“Ugh.”
“...!”
When Adele woke up, Perdes quickly put down the papers he was reading and returned to his seat.
And then, as if nothing had happened, he sat down calmly and opened the book he had brought.
“...”
Immediately after, Adele came to her senses, blinked slowly, and then found Perdes and asked.
“When did you come back?”
“Just now. You were so sleepy that you didn’t even notice I was here.”
As Perdes spoke teasingly, Adele smiled bashfully and naturally organized the papers on her desk.
“You seem very tired. Should I help you?”
“It’s okay. This is something only I can do.”
Is it true that only she can create a management plan for the estate?
That was nonsense.
“Then don’t worry.”
Perdes, who thought that Adele was hiding something, continued to pretend to read the book, thinking that he had to find out what it was.
“Mr. Perdes, you are holding the book upside down.”
...Until Adele pointed out his oddity.
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