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chapter 17
“Sencha, how many times has your aunt divorced now?”
“Wait a sec…”
Lili bent her fingers, counting, then nodded.
“Before we graduated kindergarten—that was her fourth.”
“Right, right. My sister and As talked about it all the time back then.”
“When I grow up, I’m going to live just like Auntie!”
Words that would make Colonel Ice foam at the mouth if he ever heard them—Sencha declared proudly.
“Wow, what a cool new woman!”
“Sencha can do it!”
Clare and Lili cheered her on enthusiastically.
“Teacher, they’re talking again.”
“…”
A bespectacled boy tattled to the teacher.
“E-everyone… friends…”
The young teacher, in her very first post at Marei School, broke into a sweat at the children’s high-level conversations.
“This is reading time right now, so… could we keep it quiet?”
“Yeeees!”
Clare and her friends picked up their books again.
The teacher swept her gaze over the once-again quiet library, finally letting out a relieved sigh.
“…This is why country kids…”
Then a sharp, irritable voice cut in.
It was none other than the son of Lord Delat.
“Friend!”
Startled, the teacher called to the young lord, but he turned his head sharply as if he hadn’t heard her.
Still, he sneaked glances in Clare’s direction.
When their eyes met, Clare scrunched up her face in disgust.
Seeing that, Delat’s son smirked and puffed himself up with triumph, even rolling his shoulders.
“…Oh no, what do I do.”
Finally, Clare sniffled.
“He must like me…!”
“Wh-what? No!”
The young lord shot to his feet. The children reading nearby flinched and turned toward the noise.
Delat’s son was red-faced and huffing, sweat beading on his forehead from sheer frustration.
“Why would I like you?!”
But Clare pretended not to hear, instead crying even louder.
“Don’t cry…”
“Clare, are you really upset?”
The other girls gathered around, consoling her.
“My sister and As told me this.”
Clare dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
“They said immature boys bully the girls they like…”
“I—I hate girls like you the most!”
“If you like me, just say so, stupid.”
“I told you I don’t!”
Overcome with anger, the young lord pointed his finger at Clare, shouting.
“Girls like you…!”
Then he glared around at the rest of the class, his voice filled with venom.
“You lowly commoners, my father will punish all of you!”
“I’m a noble.”
The bespectacled boy rebutted crisply.
“…S-so what of it!”
The young lord faltered, then shouted again.
“When my father finishes his work, your South will be destroyed!”
“No, it won’t.”
At last, the short-haired boy who had been silent all along opened his mouth.
The noisy library instantly fell quiet, almost unbelievably so.
“The navy…”
The boy spoke in a calm but firm voice.
“The navy will protect the South.”
“…Was his name Sereni?”
That evening.
Clare told them over dinner what had happened at school.
Ami, who had been invited to supper, picked bones from a fish as she spoke.
“The kid with the chestnut hair. Quiet, not much of a talker.”
“Mature and steady for his age,” As added.
“Even the last time I saw him, I thought he seemed so clever and composed.”
“Right?”
“The real question is, why do you like him so much…”
The more they praised Sereni, the more As beamed as if it were his own accomplishment.
“Sereni is my closest friend!” Clare puffed out her chest proudly.
Ami snorted.
“There’s no such thing as friendship between boys and girls. Only love or hate.”
“Stop teaching my little sister weird stuff.”
Noah moved the fish Ami had so carefully deboned onto Clare’s plate.
Ami scowled at losing her plate, but since Clare was eating happily, she held her tongue.
“But sis.”
Clare, chewing her fish, asked,
“What’s hate-love?”
“It’s an adult word. You’re not ready for it yet.”
“…”
Feeling slighted, Clare pouted and turned away, looking to As.
“As, what’s hate-love?”
“It’s the kind of word young masters use.”
“You mean like my brother? Then it’s an insult!”
Clare cried out, scandalized, and shouted at Ami.
“You mustn’t use bad words! You’re a soldier, so use pretty ones!”
“…My apologies.”
Ami bowed her head in contrition.
After dinner, Clare and As went to her room to check the notices handed out by the school.
Noah and Ami stayed behind to clear the dishes and wash up.
“Still no word from your brother?”
“Grandmother’s furious this time. He won’t be able to come back easily.”
“Maybe it’s not immaturity—maybe he’s just brainless.”
“Grandmother said she’d split his head when he returns.”
“Puhahaha!”
Ami laughed until her stomach hurt.
But Noah only felt another headache coming on at the thought of her runaway brother.
“Why are all the men around me like this…”
“Does that include the Vice Admiral too?”
Ami peeled off her rubber gloves and flopped onto a nearby chair, untying her damp apron and tossing it onto the table.
“The Vice Admiral…”
Noah only spoke after turning off the tap and drying the sink with a clean cloth.
“…Honestly, I still don’t know.”
She tossed the rag back into the sink, her tone edged with irritation.
“…You don’t know your own feelings?” Ami asked.
Noah shook her head.
“I’m sure of that much. I do love that idiot.”
“Then why not get back together with him—”
“He proposed to me.”
“…Huh?”
Ami froze mid-sentence, jaw dropping, then rubbed at it in disbelief.
Her attention was all on Noah.
“Th-that time, the bet, you mean?”
Wasn’t that just a joke?
Everyone in the Special Unit had been there, and all of them had dismissed it as a prank, without a shred of seriousness.
But Noah shook her head.
“It was real.”
“…”
“He said he wants to marry me.”
“Wow…”
Ami paled, trembling slightly.
“…So, did you accept?”
Noah shrugged. Before Ami could press further, Noah spoke first.
“I turned him down.”
“Good! You’re still young, marriage can wait—”
“But I told him I love him.”
“…Oh boy.”
Ami nearly shot up from her chair, eyes darting everywhere, then finally shut them tight.
But something didn’t add up.
‘She said she told him she loves him… but rejected his proposal?’
The words contradicted each other.
Ami couldn’t hide her bewilderment.
Sensing this, Noah chuckled softly, turning her gaze toward the window in the kitchen wall.
Beyond the glass, faint garden lights flickered in the settling night.
“Because I’m not confident.”
“Confident about what?”
“Oh, lots of things.”
“…Did he blackmail you or something?” Ami asked half-seriously. “That bastard demanding you pay with your body?”
Noah almost wished that were the case—it would have been simpler.
At least then she wouldn’t be stuck in this endless turmoil, wondering why that mad dog was so precious and lovable to her.
‘What a ridiculous bargain this is.’
Noah had to reclaim the sword Reto had taken.
But Reto had said he’d return it if she married him, so she demanded instead his confession of love and an explanation for why he’d hindered her promotion.
She was tying the situation into knots herself.
And Reto, unable to meet even those simple terms, was floundering.
He didn’t show it outright, but Noah could see clearly.
The wall still standing between them.
The fearful look he showed behind it.
“…I think I’m starting to get it.”
The chain of recent events had begun to reveal at least a fragment of Reto’s true feelings.
“So then,” Ami asked, exasperated at her friend’s unnecessary dramatics, “what exactly aren’t you confident about?”
“About not punching that bastard first.”
“…What?”
“Before I can even think about loving him, I feel like I have to hit him at least once to get it out of my system.”
Ami nodded gravely.
“Fine. Just spare his face and back.”
The Royal Knights had now been in the South for a week.
Their planned exchange would last a month, so they’d only completed a quarter of it.
“…What on earth happened to you all?”
A passing sailor gasped when he saw the knights.
“Good grief, you look like you’ve been stuck on a ship for six months.”
“Tell me about it…”
The knights, after only a week, already looked worn and ragged like sailors who had endured half a year at sea.
Worse still, sailors at least grew stronger during that time—these knights seemed only weaker.
“Well, you see…”
A nearby petty officer explained the situation.
“They’ve been joining in all of the Special Unit’s training.”
The soldiers froze in horror.
“Special Unit training? Why?”
“Why would they choose madness itself? Did they leave their brains in the capital?”
“Probably this.”
One of the soldiers clicked his tongue knowingly.
“They must’ve wanted to ride a personal warship.”
Not just knights—even sailors coveted the personal vessels and longed to join the Special Unit.
The Unit was the navy’s new pride, celebrated by the Southerners for its dazzling feats, and rewarded with special treatment.
The most famous of which: exemption from regular ship duty.
And pay two ranks higher than one’s actual position.
That’s why senior members always laughed when clueless newcomers volunteered, only to break down crying, vomiting, and fleeing later.
“…Special Unit training is brutal.”
Those perks weren’t called “special” for nothing.
Because they handled the dangerous “personal warships,” their training was the harshest in the navy.
So harsh that when joint exercises with the Special Unit were scheduled, it became customary for participants to write farewell letters and store them in their lockers.
“…I’d rather sail a ship any day.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“Let’s go, we’ve got work of our own.”
The sailors left, shaking their heads, leaving behind something between pity and scorn.
The knights who overheard grew even paler.
“…Sir, Sir Perata.”
One of them groaned weakly.
“At this rate, we’re really going to die…”
