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Chapter 4
“So that is her boyfriend! But why is he crying like that?”
“Tsk, tsk. Looks like Teacher Yurian made him cry.”
“She’s pretty, so why would she make him cry? Earlier she called him ‘master,’ didn’t she? What an unusual taste.”
To make matters worse, as the commotion dragged on, local residents began gathering one by one. Many people in the shopping district recognized Yurian’s face, since most of their children attended the school. And in this neighborhood, “Teacher Yurian’s” love life was a hot enough topic to be printed in a gossip column.
Yurian waved her hands, insisting it was nothing, but no one paid any attention to her.
“It’s not like that, everyone. This kid isn’t my boyfriend—he’s just a friend. There’s a family matter, that’s all. Please go back to what you were doing. Yes, you can just pass by!”
Seething with frustration, Yurian tried to disperse the crowd, but people only attracted more people. Before she knew it, a large ring of onlookers had formed around them. If this went on, it felt like she’d actually have to put on a real show, so Yurian grabbed Sol by the back of the neck—still sobbing uncontrollably—and made a run for it.
Just imagining what kind of rumors would spread tomorrow sent a chill down her spine. She shot Sol a glare with narrowed eyes. Even so, she couldn’t truly hate him.
Sol Edgar—he was a painful weak spot, someone Yurian had rescued long ago from an illegal slave market and painstakingly turned into a functioning human being.
* * *
I’ll buy that kid.
Back when she was ten, in the turbulent throes of childhood rebellion, Yurian bought Sol at a secret slave auction she’d attended on a whim, following her childhood friend Randel Meitz. At the time, she was deeply dissatisfied with the world.
Yurian Barf, the only daughter of Duke Barf. With no women in the imperial family, she was the highest-ranking woman in the Latem Empire. Everyone adored her—but Yurian herself was unhappy. Under the guise of protection, everyone watched her every move. The only choices she could make of her own will were which dress to wear and which jewels to put on.
Her fiancé was chosen to suit the imperial family’s circumstances. Her studies followed the needs of the nobility. Even her friends had to align with her father’s interests. In that suffocating life, she encountered someone whose freedom was even more severely suppressed than her own. And what was more, she could save that person’s fate with just three months’ worth of her allowance.
It was nothing more than self-satisfaction, but Yurian wanted to set the child before her free—since she had no way to free herself.
You’re free now. Go wherever you want.
After receiving the boy from the slave trader—his hair so tangled his face was barely visible—Yurian immediately removed the restraints binding his limbs. Then, with a proud smile, she handed him a pouch filled with silver coins.
Yet despite her kindness, the child just stood there, eyes blankly wide, unmoving. Then, looking at Yurian with a puzzled expression, he said:
“I don’t have anywhere to go.”
That was the truth. He had nowhere to go and nowhere he wanted to go. He’d been born in the slave auction house and raised there. The world inside a small iron cage was all he knew. Yurian had always longed for freedom—but he didn’t even know what freedom was.
“My name is Sol. Young mistress, please take me with you.”
Left with no choice, Yurian took Sol in. She brought him home and hired him as a servant. When the duke—her father—later found out she’d bought an illegal slave, he flew into a rage, but the punishment for a ducal daughter amounted to little more than house arrest or skipping a single meal.
While Yurian went without dinner, Sol was transformed into a surprisingly presentable boy. Beneath the filthy, matted hair was an unexpectedly handsome face. Once his hair was cut and he was dressed in clean clothes, he quickly became an innocent and likable child. Seeing his change, even the servants of the ducal household—who had initially shunned him because of his origins—began treating him kindly.
Despite all the trouble she’d caused to bring him in, Yurian showed little interest in Sol afterward. She vaguely assumed he would work as a servant for a while, learn about the world, and eventually find his own life. Instead of pursuing a new life, however, Sol followed Yurian everywhere. Even when she told him he was no longer a slave, he stubbornly attended to her and constantly watched her mood.
Yurian found him troublesome—until one day, purely by chance, she saw him helping the gardener prune branches. Watching Sol swing a hand axe nearly as big as his face with the ease of an extension of his arm, she asked:
“Sol, how would you like to learn the sword?”
“If that is what you wish, Master.”
Sol accepted her words without the slightest question. It was the first thing she had ever asked of him. With her help, Sol entered the household knight order as a squire. Until then, the other knights regarded him as nothing more than a pretty-faced toy of a noble young lady.
But Sol absorbed the basics they taught him halfheartedly after only a few demonstrations. Just as his instructors let their guard down with a startled “Huh?”, he surpassed the abilities of his peers in an instant. In only three years, he rose from squire to apprentice knight.
He was a genius—there was no doubt about it.
“Sol, Sir Edgar says he wants to adopt you. What do you think?”
“If that is what you wish, Master.”
The one who recognized his potential early was Baron Edgar, who was training as a knight in the ducal household at the time. By becoming Sol’s patron and shielding him from attacks over his origins, the baron bet on his future—and the result was spectacular.
Sol shed the apprentice knight title—normally a year-long process—in just three months. At fourteen, he received a full commission. At his first imperial hunting competition, he set an unprecedented record and rose to fame like a blazing star.
People buzzed about how the “duke’s daughter’s toy” had turned out to be a hidden gem. No one considered that it was Yurian who had recognized Sol’s potential and guided him onto the path of knighthood.
“Sol, if you’re willing, how about attending the knight academy in Ingzak? It’s a nation of knights, and unlike here, they judge everything purely by skill. You’d learn a lot there.”
“—Where is Ingzak?”
On his fifteenth birthday, Yurian suddenly suggested studying abroad. Telling someone already knighted by the family to enroll in a foreign academy was, in essence, a polite way of kicking them out. But as always, Yurian spoke calmly and gave him the option to refuse, saying the choice was his.
“Do you want me to go?”
For once, Sol—who had always obeyed Yurian without complaint—hesitated. Knight academies were strictly boarding schools. Once enrolled, students were barred from leaving campus for four years, except in the event of a direct family member’s death. If they awakened aura, they were required to undergo an additional year of safety training, binding them for up to five years. His hesitation was only natural.
“Seeing how other countries are, how people your age live—it’ll help you decide the direction of your life.”
Holding his hand, Yurian gently yet firmly pushed him forward. In truth, she wanted to send Sol away to get him out of Latem. At the time, he stood out far too much.
Latem was a nation of absolute hierarchy, overflowing with authoritarian elders and patriarchal values—a perfectly vertical society. In such a place, talented young people without solid backing were easily exploited and discarded. Yurian hoped Sol would go out, meet many people, see a wider world, and learn to tell chocolate from shit.
“…Very well. If that is what you wish, Master.”
Sol would regret those words for a long time.
During the four years he spent cut off from outside news as an undergraduate, Yurian steadily lost her footing. In high society, she was branded a vile woman who envied her friends and committed evil deeds. Her family and relatives all turned their backs on her.
When Sol finally learned the truth, he went to find Yurian and suggested they leave together. She refused. To Yurian, it was only natural. Latem was the largest and most powerful empire on the continent. If he fled with its only ducal daughter, what would become of the brilliant future he’d earned after walking the elite path to knighthood?
“Sol, go back to where you belong. We live in different worlds.”
Sol persistently tried to persuade her, but in the end, he returned to Ingzak after hearing words from Yurian that cut like a dagger.
Three weeks later, Yurian was accused of attempting to poison a noble lady and was exiled from Latem.
