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chapter 20
Night fell in an instant. Tislin looked out the window at the darkened landscape of Viera and checked the time.
“Already this late…”
That meant it was almost time to leave. Even back in Luxen, Tislin never stayed long after saying that. Whether it was the Hermiz estate or the school dormitory, she always returned to where she belonged. Adelind quickly grew melancholy.
“It’s been so long since we met, and you’re leaving already? That’s unfair.”
“You shouldn’t leave the manor empty for too long either. Count Fraune probably noticed already.”
“I don’t care if he noticed! What can he even do to me now?”
“Oh, so you really don’t want to go?”
Tislin gently pinched Adelind’s nose and twisted it slightly. Adelind struggled like she did as a child, and the brief playful gesture brightened her gloomy face.
“I don’t mind. Tis is here, Damien is here… anyway, I can’t leave the manor whether I’m here or there.”
“You could just go out holding His Highness the Grand Duke’s hand. He’d love it.”
“Grandpa’s busy.”
It was fine while Damien was around. The Grand Duke often entrusted his granddaughter to a trusted aide. With Damien, Adelind could go shopping in Kalchef’s market district or have a picnic on a quiet hill.
But without Damien, no matter how many guard knights accompanied her, the Grand Duke rarely felt at ease.
“It’s so unfair! I’m trapped like this, but Damien gets to roam around. So unfair!”
Her frustrated glare pointed at Damien.
“It’s not like you’re going out for fun.”
“Still!”
“Whether you’re forced to stay inside or forced to go out, it’s the same thing.”
“I’d rather be forced to go out.”
This could go on forever. Considering the curfew, they had to arrive before midnight.
“Adel, let’s say goodbye here. Hmm… maybe I’ll see you at graduation?”
“Forever away!”
Still, there was no choice. Tislin promised to visit Luxen as soon as she graduated. Adelind came to the front gate, waving her hand.
“Tis, come to Luxen as soon as you graduate, and let’s have the wedding!”
Eek.
Tislin instinctively drew back.
“Go inside, quickly.”
Tislin pushed Adelind inside the door half-forcefully. Once the door closed, she finally let out a breath. She didn’t know why, but seeing Adelind so happy made her pause.
Before she could think too much, a long shadow suddenly appeared behind her.
“Tis. I’ll escort you.”
“…You didn’t go inside?”
“Someone closed the door on me.”
Tislin looked between Damien and her own hands, sighing. If he had planned to go in, he would have done so. Would a closed door stop him?
“It’s fine. I have my carriage.”
“You sent it back.”
When?
Looking around with wide eyes, the garden was empty. He had rushed out without the carriage.
“Probably because you usually stay overnight when you come here, they expected the same today and sent it back.”
Was it wrong to take the school carriage? Or was it her fault for not telling the steward to hold it? Either way, she had no excuse.
“And you? You’re not going back to school tonight, right?”
Adelind was staying until tomorrow morning, so Damien would have to stay at the manor until then.
“It’ll be inconvenient.”
“Is that so? Better than sending you out alone at this hour.”
Damien, staring at her tightly closed lips like a shell, had a servant bring a horse. The black horse, which had been with him even in battle, blinked sleepily.
There was no other choice. Tislin climbed onto the horse with Damien.
The horse carried them from the Grand Duke’s Luxen residence through the upper-class district, the upscale market streets, and the administrative avenue. The night air brushed their cheeks, just cold enough to feel refreshing. Most shops were closed, but street lamps kept the streets from being completely dark.
Until they reached the market district, neither spoke. Sitting slightly apart to avoid being too close, their thighs still touched. With Damien holding the reins, his arms and thighs completely surrounded her.
Tislin had to focus all her attention to calm her wildly beating heart. If this hadn’t happened before, her face might have burst with excitement by now.
‘Calm down. It’s nothing. You’ve been escorted like this before.’
That was why she had made that impulsive confession before.
A month ago, Tislin had made a rash confession while returning from the Grand Duke’s Luxen residence to school. Thinking about that day, her racing heart cooled as if doused with cold water.
At least she was calm now. She forced her gaze on the darkened shops.
As they reached the end of the market, where the street began to disappear into darkness, Damien finally spoke.
“Tis. Did you submit your assignment?”
Breaking the silence, the question was surprisingly mundane. Tislin, who had been obsessively holding her tongue to avoid mentioning last month’s confession or the engagement, relaxed slightly.
“Yeah. You weren’t in class.”
“I had duties with the Royal Guard. By the time I finished, Adel had arrived, so there was no time to go back to school.”
Tislin had anticipated that and had completed the assignment in one day, submitting it for him.
“Good thing you finished it that day.”
“Yeah. You did well.”
“In first grade, it used to take a week just to research… I got the hang of it. History assignments used to take almost a whole month.”
The history assignment was a first-year end-of-term task, mandatory across all departments.
The workload had originally been lighter, but from that year, a strict new professor assigned huge, research-heavy free-topic assignments. Compared to that, this assignment was nothing.
“Oh, spring semester classes. You didn’t have those.”
Damien transferred in June.
Tislin was about to mutter that she was jealous, but Damien answered with a playful tone:
“I did it too.”
She blinked in surprise. Reflexively, she looked at Damien, stiffening as her chest brushed his. She hadn’t realized how close they had been.
“You transferred in June. They still made you do assignments?”
In June, there were only a few days left in the semester, so it was basically a second-semester transfer. Assigning first-semester work made no sense.
“Someone was pressuring to keep me there for half a year longer.”
She didn’t even want to know who. Tislin glanced around the quiet streets.
“Don’t talk about that…”
“Yeah. I won’t.”
Earlier, she had said she wouldn’t. Tislin’s thoughts shifted from pouting to Damien’s history assignment.
She wondered what topic he chose. Being a knight, military history would be safe. If he’d chosen the Great Parfan War, that would’ve been interesting—he’d know more than the professor anyway.
Laughing to herself, Damien asked lowly, “Why?”
“I thought it’d be fun if you wrote about the last war. Even that professor couldn’t have penalized you.”
It was a joke, but no answer came. A sudden silence from Damien in conversation like this… meant something, considering his personality.
“Really?”
She couldn’t help but turn. The horse fidgeted between her legs. Damien adjusted the reins, calming the horse while answering.
“I didn’t have time. They said to submit it in three days. And as you said, that topic was the only one safe from criticism.”
Even speaking, his voice trailed with embarrassment. Tislin giggled.
“If you write it, it’s not an assignment—it’s a historical document.”
Even the strictest professor couldn’t deduct points from an actual historical source. Tislin remembered her first semester’s assignments, covered in red marks, and felt triumphant.
All the ridiculous corrections they forced her to make… Damien’s work wouldn’t have faced the same red pen frustration.
“You’re that happy?”
“I got scolded a lot by that professor. After that, I avoided his classes…”
“Really? Revenge achieved?”
“Looks like it. Big time.”
With royal pressure behind him, the professor had surely tried to find fault, but Damien’s choice of topic foiled him. She laughed at the thought of the frustrated professor’s face, remembering how her own struggles disappeared in an instant.
Then, her head bumped against his solid chest.
Her laughter stopped abruptly.
Looking into Damien’s eyes, even in the dark, Tislin could trace their shape. She had observed them for a long time.
Eyes she subconsciously wanted to trace with her hand. Elegant, with a sweeping line and delicate curve at the corners. Despite his large frame and knightly authority, they made him seem boyish.
Had she been staring too long? She quickly averted her gaze. Her wandering eyes landed on Damien’s hands on the reins. Amid the now-faded scars from the battlefield, she noticed a new, unseen scratch.
“…More wounds.”
The flutter in her chest vanished as if by magic.
