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Chapter : 36
Jenaida shouted urgently in a cracking voice.
“Wait!”
Kaiden, who had been rushing toward her, stopped in his tracks and lowered his wooden sword.
“Isn’t it too hard? Can’t we rest a little before continuing?”
About a month had passed since she started receiving training from Kaiden. Contrary to his expectation that she wouldn’t last even two weeks, Jenaida had been diligently following his lessons. She worked on building her basic strength and would come early to practice whenever he mentioned her stance was sloppy.
Her efforts hadn’t been in vain: the calluses on her hands were noticeable, and her skills were gradually improving.
Still, she was not enough to catch up to Kaiden.
“I haven’t even reached half of the target yet.”
“But that means I’ve at least done a quarter, right? Let’s take a break!”
Jenaida answered cheerfully and plopped down onto the ground.
Kaiden, watching her sit there, sighed softly, retrieved her sword, and casually praised her.
“You lasted longer than last time.”
It was just a simple remark, but Jenaida reacted as if she had received a tremendous gift.
“Right? Just wait a little. You’ll win someday.”
Kaiden, amused, playfully flicked her forehead.
“Too early by a hundred years.”
“That hurts!”
“Well, I hit you to make it hurt.”
He chuckled mischievously, muttering under his breath. Jenaida glared at him, full of indignation.
“If you stick your lips out like that, you’ll turn into a duck.”
“Have you ever seen such a pretty duck?”
She shamelessly cupped her face with her hands, and Kaiden narrowed his eyes, silently cursing her with his gaze.
It seemed she had completely forgotten that she had collapsed from exhaustion, as she suddenly sprang up, raising her voice in disbelief.
“It’s true!”
“How many pretty ducks are there in the world?”
“But I’m really pretty!”
She boldly pushed her face toward him. Kaiden looked at her indifferently. Nothing had changed from when they first met.
Perhaps because of his natural resistance, her face didn’t look quite as beautiful as before.
“Not really pretty.”
His blunt words made Jenaida look at him as if the sky had fallen.
She must have really thought she was beautiful. Her confidence in that regard was actually somewhat admirable.
Fearing she might waste more time with nonsense, Kaiden handed her the wooden sword.
“Stop talking nonsense and take up your sword. This time, we’re going longer.”
Though sullen, Jenaida grabbed her sword and assumed her stance.
Kaiden appreciated her focus and spoke soothingly.
“You’ll look prettier when you get older.”
Jenaida was two years younger than Kaiden. Her expression darkened at the mention of age.
“Don’t say I look young.”
“Well, you look young, so I said it.”
Compared to her peers, she did appear younger. Their heights were similar, but she was on the slimmer side.
Before they began sparring, he casually asked,
“How much do you eat?”
“Me?”
“To build basic strength, you need to eat properly. Gain a bit of weight. That’s how you get muscles.”
Though she had left the imperial palace at ten and never formally debuted in society, she had picked up some knowledge through Felix: among young noblewomen, eating very little was apparently trendy.
“Don’t eat so little.”
As the adopted daughter of Pope Vedes, she would normally be treated as a noble and interact with other young ladies.
“Eat what you want, especially meat. It helps build muscles.”
Kaiden repeated what he had heard from Felix. This method had actually proven effective.
“Well, I eat properly.”
Jenaida answered reluctantly. Kaiden, suspicious, added a warning.
“That’s not a lie, right?”
“No, it’s not.”
Seeing her flare up for a moment, he naturally shifted the conversation.
“Let’s start.”
From then on, Jenaida swung her sword continuously until Kaiden finally called a halt.
After overseeing Jenaida’s training, Kaiden returned to his quarters, washed quickly, and sat at his desk.
No matter how tired he was, he never skipped reading or writing in his journal. He had been consistent in these habits since his mother was alive.
As the candle flickered in the early morning breeze, he closed his book and took out his journal.
Originally, his journal was just a record of the day’s events, but after meeting Jenaida, it became more of a reflection.
He noted the things he had said to Jenaida, how she responded, the little arguments they had, and how they resolved them in trivial ways.
Recording these trivial moments with her wasn’t bad at all. It was actually enjoyable.
“Today, Jenaida said she was pretty, and I called her a duck…”
The more he thought about it, the funnier it became.
She was someone who could outright say she was pretty.
The nobles he had known always complimented each other’s looks, abilities, and wealth while pretending to be modest. That was considered a virtue of nobility and royalty.
But, on the other hand, being straightforward and confident made her attractive.
Kaiden naturally pictured her face.
A girl with eyes as blue as a sky you could only see on a clear day, and hair as pale as the moon visible only at night.
She carried the freshness of the morning and the quiet of night all at once.
Kaiden muttered unconsciously,
“Not pretty, but cute.”
Startled by his own words, he blinked a couple of times.
“Did I just say cute?”
He had never given this kind of evaluation to anyone of the opposite sex. Well, once, perhaps, when he thought his mother was beautiful—but that was something anyone in the empire would naturally think.
Unable to finish his journal, he tossed the paper into the fireplace. The paper was swallowed by flames, turning completely black and disintegrating.
Watching the roaring fire, he calmed his mind. For the first time, memories of his mother were being replaced by thoughts of someone else.
“I understand why my mother burned her journal right away.”
Empress Aria never kept her journals; she always burned them in the fireplace. When Kaiden asked why, she only said,
“Otherwise, it would be a big problem.”
As a child, he didn’t understand, but at fifteen, he now did.
She didn’t want anyone else to see it. Whether good or bad, someone might read it and imagine all sorts of things.
“If she saw my journal, she’d tease me so much.”
Kaiden often teased Jenaida, finding her energetic reactions amusing. But how much did she sharpen her mind for revenge? If she ever caught him, she could tease him for life.
He did not want to become a source of ridicule. Ever.
A few days later, Kaiden prepared two gloves for Jenaida’s training, one for each of them.
“Her gloves are old and falling apart.”
Knights usually wore plate or main gloves for sparring, to protect their hands and wrists during training.
But Jenaida only had worn-out leather gloves. If Kaiden hadn’t scolded her during the first training, she probably wouldn’t have prepared them at all.
“If only I could spend more money, I’d get her something better.”
Being a prince, Kaiden received a monthly allowance from the Aden Empire to maintain his dignity, but he couldn’t spend it recklessly. Having come to Vedes for repentance, indulging in luxury would have drawn criticism.
“These should do for now.”
They weren’t top-quality, but they were reasonably effective. He fiddled with the gloves, satisfied, then looked up.
“Where is she?”
By now, Jenaida should have been at the training field, waiting.
“By now, she should be here first.”
Puzzled, Kaiden couldn’t properly train or maintain his weapons that day.
The next day, and the day after that, Jenaida still didn’t show up at the meeting place.
