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chapter 04
Nice
Hoeyrun did not refuse Myer’s request. He disappeared for a moment, and a few minutes later returned with a piece of high-quality raw meat, blood dripping from it.
“Here you go, young master.”
“Oh. Thanks. Then grill it for me.”
“…Excuse me?”
Myer shamelessly asked Hoeyrun to cook the meat. He said it with his chin held high, as if he didn’t even know who was actually making the request—but before he knew it, Hoeyrun found himself grilling the meat.
“Hah… wh-why am I…”
Hoeyrun, startled as he dropped the sizzling meat, looked almost hypnotized.
But he quickly crouched down again.
“Yes… I just have to do this. Only this.”
Thinking of Myer’s thin arms and frail body, Hoeyrun decided to grill the meat without complaint, simply out of pity.
He didn’t belong to the annex, strictly speaking.
A little later, Myer finished every single piece of meat Hoeyrun had grilled. Though it seemed like a lot for him, the way he chewed each bite with such fierce determination was almost as if he were fighting a battle.
And that wasn’t entirely wrong.
For Myer, surviving day by day was, in fact, a battle in itself.
A short while later, after patting his stomach, Myer noticed Hoeyrun glancing at him and seemed to hesitate.
‘A face I haven’t seen before.’
His outfit was that of a butler, so Myer guessed roughly. Though he’d seen many faces while moving around despite being confined, this one was new.
‘A recently assigned butler?’
It probably wasn’t voluntary that this second-rank butler had come here. That meant someone had ordered a second-rank butler to apply a potion to his body.
‘Who is it?’
Perhaps there was someone in the household on Myer’s side? If they sent a butler to help him indirectly, it didn’t necessarily mean they wanted to intervene themselves.
Myer stared intently at Hoeyrun.
“Butler.”
“Yes, young master.”
This new butler had likely come to him because it was his first time in the mansion. So even though Myer’s words might have seemed dismissive, Hoeyrun, being a noble, responded briskly out of habit.
Seeing Hoeyrun’s steady gaze, Myer chuckled.
“No, it’s fine.”
Hoeyrun’s eyes reflected confusion, but Myer didn’t ask further.
‘Someone offered kindness; I just have to be grateful.’
The confined young master.
Myer didn’t intend to continue living under that name. With this mysterious ability he had gained, he could escape the annex.
‘I can’t survive on tasteless scraps of greens.’
Eating meat seemed to restore strength to his previously limp limbs.
Myer looked at Hoeyrun with a fresh expression.
“I won’t ask who sent you, but please tell them thank you. And if I ever find out who it was, I’ll repay their kindness.”
Hoeyrun’s eyes changed upon hearing this. He realized that Myer had intentionally chosen not to ask.
He was not like the young master he had only heard about. Not the illegitimate or weakling they whispered about.
Seeing the soreness in Myer’s muscles from sword training, Hoeyrun bowed slightly, recognizing the discrepancy between rumor and reality.
“Yes, young master.”
He thought he might need to reconsider the rumors about Myer.
The next morning, at dawn.
“Ughhh…”
The sun was just starting to rise, and the roosters were crowing, but Myer gritted his teeth and struggled to get up.
Thanks to Hoeyrun, the pain that had made him unable to move was gone, but every movement still sent jolts of pain through his body.
Still, Myer gritted his teeth and got up.
“I have to go to the training grounds.”
One new addition to his daily routine was going to the training grounds every morning.
The frail young master, who used to wet himself at the sight of blades and faint at the sight of blood, had decided to go to the training grounds for a specific reason.
The sword.
When he held Gilrot’s sword, the knowledge of his family’s formal swordsmanship naturally came to mind.
However, it was only first-rank swordsmanship. To learn the second- or third-rank techniques, he needed to go to the training grounds.
“And I have to hold someone else’s sword too.”
Myer groaned as he forced himself to stand. Touching someone else’s sword was almost madness.
For a knight, a sword is an extension of themselves. Handling it without permission could be interpreted as issuing a duel.
But Myer had faith.
“No matter what they say about me being confined, I am still the rightful heir of the Garden family.”
Though the notion of “heir” had been somewhat diminished, to the knights, Myer was still the legitimate firstborn of the family head whom they owed loyalty.
No knight would dare kill him.
Confident in that, he moved decisively.
‘Being here doesn’t change my fate.’
To change his fate, he had to act. Having overcome fear of heights and blood phobia, he had to take action to change his life.
Grabbing Gilrot’s sword and a coat to keep out the morning chill, Myer opened the door to the annex.
The early dawn.
But the Garden family had already begun their day at this hour. Myer walked briskly toward the training grounds.
‘I need to understand this family properly.’
The confined young master knew surprisingly little about the Garden family. He had long been neglected, and he himself had little interest.
But he couldn’t live like that anymore. Change required effort.
‘Step by step, slowly.’
The Garden family had four training grounds. One for ordinary knights, two for the two family knight orders, and the last for the family head and their household. Myer had rarely been there.
“Ugh… ugh…”
Even just walking to the training grounds while holding a sword exhausted him. Sweat poured, his breath came in gasps, and his legs trembled.
“It’s the sharpness and blood that scared me… but I can still run.”
His fitness was terrible. Even worse than the exam student, Park Yeon. Groaning, he finally reached the training grounds.
Iron Bear Knight Order.
Myer’s first choice was the Iron Bear Knight Order’s training ground. When he arrived, the knights were already training, their loud kiai echoing beyond the door.
“Hup!”
Myer braced his stomach and opened the door. It was lucky—he could slip in unnoticed.
Creak.
Clack.
The sound of the door was drowned by the shouts. Myer, sneaking in like a mouse, shivered.
Boom!!!
Kraaah!!!
The overwhelming power from dozens of knights moving in perfect sync under the captain’s command surpassed Myer’s expectations.
Human bodies.
And the extreme strength trained in them, radiating even to the distance where Myer stood.
‘Amazing.’
He swallowed hard, realizing anew that this was a world where aura and mana existed.
‘Now I understand why they underestimate me.’
This was every boy’s dream.
Training as a knight, building skill, pledging loyalty to one’s lord, and protecting them with one’s sword.
Few men had not dreamed of such things.
But Myer, with his fear of heights and blood, had been a child entirely unsuited to the martial family’s values.
No one would have understood him. His issues would have seemed weakness.
Myer found himself sniffing and his heart pounding.
‘Harsh, but excellent.’
The Garden family’s measures were harsh, but the discipline of the knights fascinated him.
‘I want to learn.’
Gilrot was only an ordinary knight, using a small, inferior training ground.
Garden formal swordsmanship? Basic knowledge every knight learns.
Watching the Iron Bear Knight Order train together, Myer’s eyes shone. Then someone poked him in the side.
“Huuugh!”
“What are you doing here?”
A peer frowned at him.
“The apprentice area isn’t here. You’ll get scolded if you stay here.”
He had mistaken Myer for an apprentice.
Almost all knights trained apprentices. Not servants, but talented individuals being groomed to become the next generation of knights.
Apprentices assisted the knights, who in turn taught them their skills. Those apprentices would eventually become knights themselves.
‘An apprentice? Might be alright.’
Myer’s eyes sparkled. Following the child, he saw the apprentices huddled in the permitted area.
“By the way, whose apprentice are you? You look familiar.”
The apprentice who spoke seemed to have seen Myer somewhere, but could not place him.
Just then, the training whistle blew, and the knights sat down.
The apprentices scrambled to attend to them, leaving Myer alone.
During the brief rest, he looked around quietly.
‘Swords. The knights’ swords…’
Having come early to touch the swords, he overheard the apprentices’ chatter:
“Viktor? They’re just soldiers. No matter Lord Belins is, he can’t take on a knight order.”
“Yeah, they’re underestimating the knights.”
“Viktor fighting the Iron Bear Knight Order? Waste of time.”
Rando Belins.
The top knight of Myer’s memories. But because of his antisocial nature, he didn’t join a knight order and remained an ordinary knight, training Viktor directly. Hearing the apprentices’ conversation, Myer realized it was true.
‘They’re going to spar with the Iron Bear Knight Order?’
The knights’ eyes glinted with determination. Soon, a group entered the training ground in perfect formation.
One knight in plate armor.
Followed by heavily armored infantry keeping perfect formation.
Rando Belins.
And Viktor.
They had arrived. Myer’s eyes widened—this was the sparring he had heard about.
Beeep!!!
The apprentices scrambled again, grabbing the knights’ equipment. Myer licked his lips.
‘Swords.’
Inside were the knights’ swords.
But it wasn’t yet the moment for him to hold one.
While Myer regretted this, the Iron Bear Knight Order captain and Belins spoke briefly. Then Belins approached the lone Myer.
Click.
Whoosh.
“Take my sword, apprentice.”
Belins drew his sword from his waist and tossed it to Myer. Myer’s eyes went as wide as saucers at the sight of the sword flying toward him in its scabbard.
‘Nice!’
