On the one hand, I felt ambivalent because it was so refreshing.
He sacrificed everything for me, standing up to Crown Prince Adrian. Was this guy a bit of a radical, even a cider man?
But I have to make it clear that next time you should never do that.
Rudnine tended to be a bit emotional in his judgments and actions when it came to me.
I shook my head quickly and came to my senses. Anyway, now wasn't the time.
How can the Crown Prince and the Iels family suddenly have a duel where everything is on the line?
No matter how skilled Rudnine is at swordsmanship, Adrian is also a sword master.
It's dangerous.
“It would be best to go to the training ground, Your Highness.”
At that moment, Rudnine turned his back and walked forward first.
But Adrian, who had been quiet until then, suddenly stood up and shouted excitedly, as if the courage had suddenly sprung from nowhere.
"Yes. So if I win, everything in the Iels family and Yvonne Argenthoz are mine too? I like it. I'll accept it!"
'Mine? Mine?! Am I yours?'
My hands and feet shriveled up.
Is this fucking Adrian kid sure he's going to win?
'What if that confidence is based on some kind of foundation?'
A sudden surge of anxiety came over me.
Perhaps Empress Giselle had cowardly hidden something inside Adrian's body.
I quickly calculated the search magic formula from memory and poured my magic power into it.
But suddenly, a scream burst out of Adrian's mouth.
“Ugh!”
Rudnine, who had returned to Adrian, grabbed the bastard's wrist and twisted it, then grabbed him by the collar and rushed at him.
Thud!
He climbed on top of the fallen man and roughly pressed down on Adrian's chest.
“It’s disappointing that even your way of thinking was trash.”
“Ugh... This, sugj, you little shit!”
Rudnine bared his teeth even more fiercely at the man who was swearing while gasping for breath.
“Treating Yvonne as an object... If you provoked me intentionally, it was a success, Crown Prince. Since you want it so badly, let’s begin now.”
“Ugh!”
The duel, which was expected to be an elegant swordsmanship duel, ended up turning into a dogfight.
Ah... my boyfriend. I thought he was calm, but he’s really hot-tempered.
My mouth dropped open in surprise as I discovered new sides of him, who usually seemed calm and dignified.
Once I accepted his affection, I began to understand Rudnine's actions.
'No, this is not the time.'
Rubbing my flushed cheeks, I cast my searching magic again.
Meanwhile, Adrian, who had been hit hard by Rudnine several times, quickly came to his senses and rolled over to avoid the blows.
But when that didn't work, he started kicking the Rudnine that was pressing down on him from above.
“You bastard! How dare you to me!”
“...”
The two men rolled roughly, fell from the sofa to the floor, then bounced back up, distanced themselves, and simultaneously drew their swords.
Exploration magic, come out quickly! I must uncover that cowardly Adrian's trick and beat him to a pulp...
The moment I finished calculating the formula, and was about to infuse magic power into it.
“Your Excellency!!!”
Suddenly, the door to the reception room opened without a knock, accompanied by a man's shout.
As I turned my head in surprise, my eyes met those of a young man running towards me, breathing heavily.
"Oh my god!"
A man with light brown hair, who looked like a golden retriever that could turn into a human, opened his eyes wide and smiled brightly.
“Fairy...?! It’s an honor to finally meet you in person.”
“Oh! Are you Rudd’s adjutant?”
"Yes! I am Baron Ant Rudican. I will be Duke Iels's faithful adjutant and the Fairy's servant...! Ah, now is not the time. I have urgent news that the Fairy must hear!"
Rudnine, sword drawn, faced Adrian and asked sharply.
“What is it, Ant?”
Ant Rudican ran in a panic and reported.
"Your Excellency, you must hurry to the capital! The little Duke of Argenthoz has been captured by the warlocks!"
“The little Duke of Argenthoz?”
I, too, hesitated and asked back at the absurd and unbelievable words.
“...Is this my brother?”
But Ant Rudican's answer was the same.
"Yes, the Fairy's older brother, Duke Barden Argenthoz, has been in an accident. I thought it was a simple disappearance, but it turned out to be a kidnapping!"
Barden was kidnapped?
'You weak brother!'
I screamed loudly inside.
Why was the young Duke, who was quietly confined to the Argenthoz Mansion, suddenly captured by the warlocks?
My older brother would tremble in fear and become lost in thought even if I raised my fist.
What on earth are you doing to those guys now?
Was Barden kidnapped because he was the little Duke of Argenthoz? To blackmail my father?
My head was spinning and I felt dizzy.
But then, I suddenly remembered the time when Barden had chased me in the Nasiel district, and a familiar, Kalan, had been attached to his shoulder.
At that time, I didn't know anything and thought it was a bug, so I caught it.
The master of the familiar Kalan would naturally be Cordelia.
She must have used Barden, who lives with me, to attack me.
A strong conviction passed through me.
“Surely not, this time too...?”
“Yvonne.”
“Fairy, are you alright?”
Two men approached me, calling out to me with worried expressions on their faces, but I had no time to pay attention to them.
Let's calmly recap.
Empress Giselle kidnapped Barden and held him hostage.
Because Barden is the son and successor of Duke Argenthoz, who was at the forefront of the group formed to eradicate the power of the dark magicians.
If we look at it from an external perspective and look at it objectively, there was no other reason than that.
'No.'
But my instincts, sharper than those of my beasts, were telling me so.
'Empress Giselle is after me.'
Capturing Barden, sending Crown Prince Adrian... all serve as evidence of her threats to force me to return to the capital and stand before her.
'Why on earth?!'
I was afraid of the Empress's extreme obsession.
But then suddenly I thought I heard Liana's voice.
'Princess, there is no such thing as an unreasonable pursuit.'
As I pondered the sound of Liana's calm voice, I quickly calmed down.
And soon I was able to smile after finding the answer.
Empress Giselle is anxious now.
Rather than trying to kill me, she tried to somehow persuade me by calling me in front of him.
As Cordelia said before, it was clear that she sensed that I was a great danger to her.
As I turned my head toward the capital and tried to gauge Empress Giselle's thoughts, Rudnine, who had come close to me, grabbed my hand tightly.
As I looked up at him, Rudnine comforted me with a reassuring voice.
"The little Duke will be fine, Yvonne. The warlocks won't be able to mess with him."
“That’s right, Rudd. Thank you.”
"I know the little Duke and Yvonne have a special bond. Let's go rescue him as quickly as possible."
“Ah... yes.”
I nodded my head in bewilderment.
Were Barden and I special siblings? It felt strange.
We were blood relatives who didn't care at all whether I opened my eyes today, whether I was breathing, or whether I was eating.
The last image I saw of him waving his hand as he saw me off at the Argenthoz mansion was vivid in my mind.
'You foolish brother.'
Unlike me, Barden is particularly weak. What if the warlocks torture him so severely?
That's why I told you to work out in advance and build up your stamina, you bro!
How weak must one be to be kidnapped so helplessly by a warlock of the same level with low stamina?
'Oh, really!'
I couldn't help but sigh in pity and sadness as I imagined Barden struggling with his body fluttering like a piece of paper.
"We must hurry to the capital, Rudd. Right now."
“Yvonne, just a moment. Calm down. You can come with me.”
“Ahem. Hey, did you forget me?”
While I was having a serious conversation with Rudnine, the Crown Prince, whom I honestly hadn't noticed, raised his hand awkwardly.
As our cold gazes fell on him, Adrian smiled.
“You want to fight? What are you doing?”
It was quite a sight to see Adrian grumbling with his lips split open after being hit by Rudnine.
I guess that guy is even more clueless than me...
'Oh my.'
Rudnine completely ignored Adrian, and the only thing he paid attention to was me, glaring at him with pitiful eyes.
"This."
But the guy still couldn't come to his senses and shook the medal of the Iels family that Rudnine had thrown at him in a mean manner.
"Are you withdrawing from the duel? Give it back?"
I wanted to hit Adrian's forehead hard with a rather mean laugh and send him to the other world.
“Ugh, Your Highness, you little!”
“Yvonne, hold on. Your hands are dirty.”
Rudnine, who had stopped me from running towards him, responded coldly to Adrian.
“Of course it is valid, Your Highness.”
“But what are you going to do in the middle of a duel?”
“Because something urgent has come up for Yvonne right now.”
Rudnine glanced down at me and then raised his head again.
"Even if I don't like it, we'll clash with Your Highness's side soon. Then, I'll fight with everything I have. I look forward to it."
"A clash? What does the Duke's kidnapping have to do with our duel? And come to think of it, what's with the black magic?"
He opened his eyes wide again, as if he knew nothing.
Silence fell over the drawing room at the Crown Prince's reaction.
After a while, Rudnine spoke first.
“Your Highness, do you really not know anything?”
"Are you kidding me? If you're doing this on purpose, then enough is enough. Stop it and speak clearly."
When Adrian started talking back to him angrily, I couldn't stand it any longer and stepped forward.
“You didn’t know? The identity of Empress Giselle, the Duke of Cardin, and even Princess Cordelia Mare, who is close to Your Highness?”
"Cordelia? Why are you suddenly bringing up the princess? What is her identity...?"
When Adrian frowned in displeasure, I raised my voice in anger.
"Your Highness! Ignorance is no excuse, especially for someone in the position of Crown Prince. If you're responsible for the future of the Empire, you should be keeping an eye on what kind of damp mold is spreading in its shadows!"
“Damp mold...?”
The guy's bewildered expression overlapped with my past self, and I felt even more upset without realizing it.
"I regret it too! I should've told everyone when I first noticed it two years ago, and we all worked together to eradicate that mold! I was even more foolish then than I am now!"
“Yvonne.”
Rudnine gently pulled my shoulder as if to comfort me.
Adrian, who was stiff, thought deeply and then opened his mouth.
“To summarize what the Princess said, does that mean that Her Majesty the Empress and the Duke of Cardin's family supported a group of warlocks?”
“And that’s not all. There were a whole bunch of warlocks right next to Your Highness, and you didn’t even know that.”
Adrian's eyes began to tremble in shock, unable to even respond.
But gradually, his expression changed to something strange.
It's a similar state to before, like falling into a state of mental confusion.
“That’s not it. I, well... I didn’t like it either. But... it was just so hard to refuse.”
The man, his hands trembling as if he were facing great fear, reached out to me as if asking for help.
“My adoptive mother, since I was little...”
It was the moment when Adrian was moving his lips and saying something.
Push.
Suddenly, dark red smoke rose from near the floor where he was standing.
This is it!
Before I could even open my eyes, Rudnine shouted like lightning.
“Protect the Princess, Ant!”
“Fairy!”
I quickly deployed my shield, looking at the backs of the two men stepping forward as if to protect me.
Then, Rudnine also drew his sword and swung it.
He sacrificed everything for me, standing up to Crown Prince Adrian. Was this guy a bit of a radical, even a cider man?
But I have to make it clear that next time you should never do that.
Rudnine tended to be a bit emotional in his judgments and actions when it came to me.
I shook my head quickly and came to my senses. Anyway, now wasn't the time.
How can the Crown Prince and the Iels family suddenly have a duel where everything is on the line?
No matter how skilled Rudnine is at swordsmanship, Adrian is also a sword master.
It's dangerous.
“It would be best to go to the training ground, Your Highness.”
At that moment, Rudnine turned his back and walked forward first.
But Adrian, who had been quiet until then, suddenly stood up and shouted excitedly, as if the courage had suddenly sprung from nowhere.
"Yes. So if I win, everything in the Iels family and Yvonne Argenthoz are mine too? I like it. I'll accept it!"
'Mine? Mine?! Am I yours?'
My hands and feet shriveled up.
Is this fucking Adrian kid sure he's going to win?
'What if that confidence is based on some kind of foundation?'
A sudden surge of anxiety came over me.
Perhaps Empress Giselle had cowardly hidden something inside Adrian's body.
I quickly calculated the search magic formula from memory and poured my magic power into it.
But suddenly, a scream burst out of Adrian's mouth.
“Ugh!”
Rudnine, who had returned to Adrian, grabbed the bastard's wrist and twisted it, then grabbed him by the collar and rushed at him.
Thud!
He climbed on top of the fallen man and roughly pressed down on Adrian's chest.
“It’s disappointing that even your way of thinking was trash.”
“Ugh... This, sugj, you little shit!”
Rudnine bared his teeth even more fiercely at the man who was swearing while gasping for breath.
“Treating Yvonne as an object... If you provoked me intentionally, it was a success, Crown Prince. Since you want it so badly, let’s begin now.”
“Ugh!”
The duel, which was expected to be an elegant swordsmanship duel, ended up turning into a dogfight.
Ah... my boyfriend. I thought he was calm, but he’s really hot-tempered.
My mouth dropped open in surprise as I discovered new sides of him, who usually seemed calm and dignified.
Once I accepted his affection, I began to understand Rudnine's actions.
'No, this is not the time.'
Rubbing my flushed cheeks, I cast my searching magic again.
Meanwhile, Adrian, who had been hit hard by Rudnine several times, quickly came to his senses and rolled over to avoid the blows.
But when that didn't work, he started kicking the Rudnine that was pressing down on him from above.
“You bastard! How dare you to me!”
“...”
The two men rolled roughly, fell from the sofa to the floor, then bounced back up, distanced themselves, and simultaneously drew their swords.
Exploration magic, come out quickly! I must uncover that cowardly Adrian's trick and beat him to a pulp...
The moment I finished calculating the formula, and was about to infuse magic power into it.
“Your Excellency!!!”
Suddenly, the door to the reception room opened without a knock, accompanied by a man's shout.
As I turned my head in surprise, my eyes met those of a young man running towards me, breathing heavily.
"Oh my god!"
A man with light brown hair, who looked like a golden retriever that could turn into a human, opened his eyes wide and smiled brightly.
“Fairy...?! It’s an honor to finally meet you in person.”
“Oh! Are you Rudd’s adjutant?”
"Yes! I am Baron Ant Rudican. I will be Duke Iels's faithful adjutant and the Fairy's servant...! Ah, now is not the time. I have urgent news that the Fairy must hear!"
Rudnine, sword drawn, faced Adrian and asked sharply.
“What is it, Ant?”
Ant Rudican ran in a panic and reported.
"Your Excellency, you must hurry to the capital! The little Duke of Argenthoz has been captured by the warlocks!"
“The little Duke of Argenthoz?”
I, too, hesitated and asked back at the absurd and unbelievable words.
“...Is this my brother?”
But Ant Rudican's answer was the same.
"Yes, the Fairy's older brother, Duke Barden Argenthoz, has been in an accident. I thought it was a simple disappearance, but it turned out to be a kidnapping!"
Barden was kidnapped?
'You weak brother!'
I screamed loudly inside.
Why was the young Duke, who was quietly confined to the Argenthoz Mansion, suddenly captured by the warlocks?
My older brother would tremble in fear and become lost in thought even if I raised my fist.
What on earth are you doing to those guys now?
Was Barden kidnapped because he was the little Duke of Argenthoz? To blackmail my father?
My head was spinning and I felt dizzy.
But then, I suddenly remembered the time when Barden had chased me in the Nasiel district, and a familiar, Kalan, had been attached to his shoulder.
At that time, I didn't know anything and thought it was a bug, so I caught it.
The master of the familiar Kalan would naturally be Cordelia.
She must have used Barden, who lives with me, to attack me.
A strong conviction passed through me.
“Surely not, this time too...?”
“Yvonne.”
“Fairy, are you alright?”
Two men approached me, calling out to me with worried expressions on their faces, but I had no time to pay attention to them.
Let's calmly recap.
Empress Giselle kidnapped Barden and held him hostage.
Because Barden is the son and successor of Duke Argenthoz, who was at the forefront of the group formed to eradicate the power of the dark magicians.
If we look at it from an external perspective and look at it objectively, there was no other reason than that.
'No.'
But my instincts, sharper than those of my beasts, were telling me so.
'Empress Giselle is after me.'
Capturing Barden, sending Crown Prince Adrian... all serve as evidence of her threats to force me to return to the capital and stand before her.
'Why on earth?!'
I was afraid of the Empress's extreme obsession.
But then suddenly I thought I heard Liana's voice.
'Princess, there is no such thing as an unreasonable pursuit.'
As I pondered the sound of Liana's calm voice, I quickly calmed down.
And soon I was able to smile after finding the answer.
Empress Giselle is anxious now.
Rather than trying to kill me, she tried to somehow persuade me by calling me in front of him.
As Cordelia said before, it was clear that she sensed that I was a great danger to her.
As I turned my head toward the capital and tried to gauge Empress Giselle's thoughts, Rudnine, who had come close to me, grabbed my hand tightly.
As I looked up at him, Rudnine comforted me with a reassuring voice.
"The little Duke will be fine, Yvonne. The warlocks won't be able to mess with him."
“That’s right, Rudd. Thank you.”
"I know the little Duke and Yvonne have a special bond. Let's go rescue him as quickly as possible."
“Ah... yes.”
I nodded my head in bewilderment.
Were Barden and I special siblings? It felt strange.
We were blood relatives who didn't care at all whether I opened my eyes today, whether I was breathing, or whether I was eating.
The last image I saw of him waving his hand as he saw me off at the Argenthoz mansion was vivid in my mind.
'You foolish brother.'
Unlike me, Barden is particularly weak. What if the warlocks torture him so severely?
That's why I told you to work out in advance and build up your stamina, you bro!
How weak must one be to be kidnapped so helplessly by a warlock of the same level with low stamina?
'Oh, really!'
I couldn't help but sigh in pity and sadness as I imagined Barden struggling with his body fluttering like a piece of paper.
"We must hurry to the capital, Rudd. Right now."
“Yvonne, just a moment. Calm down. You can come with me.”
“Ahem. Hey, did you forget me?”
While I was having a serious conversation with Rudnine, the Crown Prince, whom I honestly hadn't noticed, raised his hand awkwardly.
As our cold gazes fell on him, Adrian smiled.
“You want to fight? What are you doing?”
It was quite a sight to see Adrian grumbling with his lips split open after being hit by Rudnine.
I guess that guy is even more clueless than me...
'Oh my.'
Rudnine completely ignored Adrian, and the only thing he paid attention to was me, glaring at him with pitiful eyes.
"This."
But the guy still couldn't come to his senses and shook the medal of the Iels family that Rudnine had thrown at him in a mean manner.
"Are you withdrawing from the duel? Give it back?"
I wanted to hit Adrian's forehead hard with a rather mean laugh and send him to the other world.
“Ugh, Your Highness, you little!”
“Yvonne, hold on. Your hands are dirty.”
Rudnine, who had stopped me from running towards him, responded coldly to Adrian.
“Of course it is valid, Your Highness.”
“But what are you going to do in the middle of a duel?”
“Because something urgent has come up for Yvonne right now.”
Rudnine glanced down at me and then raised his head again.
"Even if I don't like it, we'll clash with Your Highness's side soon. Then, I'll fight with everything I have. I look forward to it."
"A clash? What does the Duke's kidnapping have to do with our duel? And come to think of it, what's with the black magic?"
He opened his eyes wide again, as if he knew nothing.
Silence fell over the drawing room at the Crown Prince's reaction.
After a while, Rudnine spoke first.
“Your Highness, do you really not know anything?”
"Are you kidding me? If you're doing this on purpose, then enough is enough. Stop it and speak clearly."
When Adrian started talking back to him angrily, I couldn't stand it any longer and stepped forward.
“You didn’t know? The identity of Empress Giselle, the Duke of Cardin, and even Princess Cordelia Mare, who is close to Your Highness?”
"Cordelia? Why are you suddenly bringing up the princess? What is her identity...?"
When Adrian frowned in displeasure, I raised my voice in anger.
"Your Highness! Ignorance is no excuse, especially for someone in the position of Crown Prince. If you're responsible for the future of the Empire, you should be keeping an eye on what kind of damp mold is spreading in its shadows!"
“Damp mold...?”
The guy's bewildered expression overlapped with my past self, and I felt even more upset without realizing it.
"I regret it too! I should've told everyone when I first noticed it two years ago, and we all worked together to eradicate that mold! I was even more foolish then than I am now!"
“Yvonne.”
Rudnine gently pulled my shoulder as if to comfort me.
Adrian, who was stiff, thought deeply and then opened his mouth.
“To summarize what the Princess said, does that mean that Her Majesty the Empress and the Duke of Cardin's family supported a group of warlocks?”
“And that’s not all. There were a whole bunch of warlocks right next to Your Highness, and you didn’t even know that.”
Adrian's eyes began to tremble in shock, unable to even respond.
But gradually, his expression changed to something strange.
It's a similar state to before, like falling into a state of mental confusion.
“That’s not it. I, well... I didn’t like it either. But... it was just so hard to refuse.”
The man, his hands trembling as if he were facing great fear, reached out to me as if asking for help.
“My adoptive mother, since I was little...”
It was the moment when Adrian was moving his lips and saying something.
Push.
Suddenly, dark red smoke rose from near the floor where he was standing.
This is it!
Before I could even open my eyes, Rudnine shouted like lightning.
“Protect the Princess, Ant!”
“Fairy!”
I quickly deployed my shield, looking at the backs of the two men stepping forward as if to protect me.
Then, Rudnine also drew his sword and swung it.
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