Chapter 18

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After Lestia came home wounded, Dora examined the wounds closely day and night.

She feared that the rusty nail might leave a big scar.

“It’s a relief, Miss. Judging by the depth of the scab, it doesn’t look like it will leave a scar.”

Dora tapped a piece of cotton with antiseptic on the wound. Lestia lowered her eyelids and quietly received the touch.

When Lestia looked into Dora’s worried eyes, she felt like she made a big mistake to have hurt her body.

It triggered mixed feelings of gratitude and apologetic that someone cared about her.

“Okay, Miss. I’ll make you some breakfast right away. The sooner you eat well, the sooner you will recover.”

As usual, the meal was served at a table in the room. The food was delicious, as always. But Lestia felt empty somehow.

“My brothers…Did they eat?”

Lestia hadn’t seen Joel and Mathias for two days now.

It seemed that they were busy with something and finally showed up late at night.

She wanted to have meals with them and hear them talk about the identity of the armed group that had abducted her.

However, they were not given the opportunity to get together.

‘No, it might interfere with their busy schedule. Let’s wait…’

Lestia shook her head and brushed off the disappointment.

Fortunately, however, Lysian was still coming at a fixed time to help Lestia study.

‘Today, I’m going to……I’ll have to ask Lysian to join me for dinner.’

Lestia was determined and looked forward to the end of Lysian’s morning schedule as she had always been.

Lysian told her to stay indoors until the wounds on her face healed, so instead of going to the performance hall, Lestia went to her study.

Then she reviewed what she had learned until Lysian arrived.

After how much time had passed, she felt the presence of someone and Lestia turned her gaze away from the book she was reading.

“Master Lysian! You’re here………………..”

But today, Lysian was not alone.

Oddly enough, three knights of the Verchester were standing behind Lysian.

One of them was Franker, who had asked Lestia for paper flowers the other day. Lestia was happy to see him and called out to him.

“Mister Franker!”

“I can’t believe it. You can call me Frank. Ha ha ha!”

Franker waved his hand and looked at Lysian who was standing in front of him. But Lysian introduced them briefly, as if he didn’t care.

“Lestia, these are the knights who will be your escorts.”

“What? Escort?”

Lestia blinked, unsure of the meaning of those words.

However, as if they had been waiting for this moment, the knights walked to Lestia, stood in a line, and knelt on one knee, strained at her.

“I am honored to serve you, my lady.”

“As the teeth and claws of the brave lion who rules the northwest, I offer my sword and my heart to Lestia Verchester.”

“Will you accept our pledge of allegiance?”

The pledge of Allegiance!

Lestia could only stare at Lysian in bewilderment as the knights spoke words she could never have imagined to hear.

But Lysian spoke casually.

“They swear allegiance to you.”

“What? But ……… I.”

Lestia slurred her words in panic. Then, as if reading Lestia’s mind, Lysian assured her, right to the point.

“You’re a Verchester, so it’s only natural that you have a few knights with you.”

He pointed with his chin at the knights.

“It’ll be a great shame for the knights to be refused the oath of allegiance.”

In other words, if she doesn’t want to shame the knights, she must accept it.

Lestia took a deep breath. When she looked at them again, the three knights were looking at Lestia with serious expressions.

Eventually Lestia hesitated and said,

“….I, I accept.”

Her tongue seemed to harden somehow.

It seemed that she had to answer in nice words, like the ones the knights had just said to her… ……….

But those nice words just didn’t come to her mind.

However, the knights stood up, pounding twice on their left chest where the heart was with their right hands, as if they were happy with just that. It meant that the pledge of allegiance was fulfilled.

“Thank you, My Lady.”

The tall, muscular Franker approached Lestia with a gentle smile.

“I am Franker Albaster. I’m the strongest elite knight who defeated all the knights of Verchester to become the Lady’s escort.”

am the most powerful elite who crawled up to defeat the Knights of Belchester to become a Knight of the Duchess”.

Then a sharp looking knight with short bobbed hair standing next to him said sharply,

“Don’t be fooled, young lady. I, Elliott Camatra, was the best one. That is, if that guy didn’t cowardly attack me from behind.”

“How can it be cowardly? A surprise attack is also a skill.”

Lestia thought the way they were arguing was like a big puppy and an arrogant cat.

After Elliot and Franker engaged in a battle of nerves, a knight of rather small stature with a hint of a scowl introduced himself in a humble and polite manner.

“I am Uiel Husler. I’m not as powerful as Franker and Elliot, but I’ll do my best.”

Lestia smiled shyly and gave a small nod.

“I look forward to working with you all.”

The three knights sucked in a breath at the smile.

It was not what Lestia had intended, but the child’s clear smile was enough to stimulate the protective instincts of the knights who had been in numerous battles.

“I never thought I’d see such an adorable Verchester…”

“Of course, we have to protect her.”

“Oh,……..”

The three knights were proud to have come in first, second, and third place side by side in last night’s fierce “Princess Protection tournament”.

“That concludes the greetings. Lestia, let’s go pick out a book to read today.”

“Oh, yes!”

When Rishian stepped between the bookshelves, Lestia hurried after him.

And behind Lestia, the three knights also stepped in unison.

Lestia was startled and turned around.

“Um…do you have to keep following me?”

The three knights answered in strong voices.

“Yes! Because we have to protect the Lady!”

“We will see to it that she is safe!”

“You don’t have to pay any attention to us!”

The eyes of the knights who spoke were already half unraveling sluggishly.

They wanted to watch the cute Lestia chasing after the stern Lysian closely.

Unlike them, however, Lestia felt burdened.

Did the Pledge of Allegiance mean that they would all have to walk together like this for a long time to come?

How disappointed they would be if they found out that she was a Verchester who couldn’t even read properly, or that she doesn’t know how to use silverware…

Lestia was worried about her aspects, which were too clumsy to be called Verchester.

“…”

Lysian found Lestia twitching her fingers with a troubled expression.

Somehow, this rabbit was strange.

She was more mature and courageous than anyone else. But now, she looked like a scared rabbit, which stimulated his protective instincts.

‘If you feel trouble, just say you don’t want to, why is that so hard to do?’

Lysian shook his head soon after he thought about educating Lestia that the lower ones were like furniture and that she didn’t have to care. But Lestia hadn’t gotten used to the life of a noble so he didn’t want to force her.

If she needed to be educated about such things, that was the job of Gerard, the master of Verchester.

Instead, Lysian turned to the knights and said coldly on behalf of Lestia.

“Lestia’s uncomfortable. Show up when she needs you.”

His golden eyes glittered with arrogance as he stared piercingly at the knights.

Then the knights bowed their heads with sad expressions.

Then they disappeared in an instant as if they had never been there.

Lestia looked around in surprise.

“Huh……? Where did they go?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. That’s their job.”

Lysian moved his feet again as if it was no big deal, and Lestia ran after him again.

The three knights could do nothing but watch, hiding themselves in the distance as Lysian had ordered.

* * *

The Verchester brothers were tracking down the identity of the person who had tried to kidnap Lestia.

It was the phenomenon of a human being turning to powder in an instant.

It was magic.

It was obvious that someone had used some magic to silence the people who had kidnapped Lestia.

Lysian recalled each and every one of those who could use magic in the Morcatium Empire.

There were families everywhere that could use the magic passed down in their bloodlines.

Lanante, who could use healing magic to drain life force.

Rock who was born with a magic eye that could see the truth and lose its sight at a young age.

Truss, who used his magic to create and wield a sword that can cut through anything, destroying his mind and finally turning him into a madman.

Glarien, who could foretell the future but must spend more than half of his life asleep, regardless of his will.

There were a few others, but they were all tragic inheritors whose end was close. At least Verchester was able to prevent the tragedy with mana neutral stones.

If the pedigree wizards were excluded from the suspect list, magic researchers remained.

If that was the case, then the Morcatium Imperial family was still the most suspicious.

It was not just the bloodline magic, but the magic inherited from the grimoire, that the Morcatium family has researched and secured the most.

They were able to study the grimoires and create fossils in the magic, allowing them to put a collar on the Dukes of Verchester.

They were able to build a huge empire that ruled the continent, thanks to the fact that they were able to study all kinds of grimoires and secure many technologies that allowed them to create powerful tools for killing.

There was the “Inheritors of Truth”, a group that studied grimoires in a different orbit than the Imperial Family, but they were suppressed by the Imperial Family and disappeared along with the founding of the Morcatium Empire ………200 years ago.