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Chapter 08
It was easy to notice that Theon was lost. He was only a trainee knight, and still in his probation period, so there was no reason for him to ever meet the commander.
He probably didn’t even know where the commander’s office was.
“Are we… lost?”
“…Yes.”
Theon confessed honestly.
When I looked up beside me, I could see his neck above his shirt collar turning red.
‘Oh no. We can’t make things awkward before we even become friends.’
This wasn’t Theon’s fault. They had simply told someone who didn’t know the way, “Escort her to the commander’s office,” and thrown him into the situation like a baby lion tossed off a cliff.
I pulled on Theon’s hand and walked ahead.
“Don’t worry! At times like this, you just keep walking forward!”
I knew where the commander’s office was.
As his arm was tugged, Theon took a couple quick steps to match my pace.
“You can’t just walk around randomly.”
Then, realizing something, he awkwardly added,
“…You know.”
“Berry’s younger than you, so you can speak casually!”
“But you’re a lady of the Travel Count family. I’m just a trainee in the knights’ order that serves the Travel family.”
“Oh. So that stuff matters to nobles?”
“Nobles…?”
“I don’t really know about things like that. I lived alone in a countryside village with my dad.”
I could feel Theon’s gaze turn toward me.
For some reason, it felt like he was only staring at my forehead, but maybe it was just my imagination.
‘Anyway, if you want to become friends, you need common ground first!’
When Theon was officially announced as crown prince, the people most excited were the newspaper companies.
The sudden appearance of a crown prince nobody even knew existed until then.
The reporters would never ignore a gold mine of stories like that.
And since the crown prince was handsome too, articles about Theon filled the front page every day alongside his photos.
“This is a newspaper or a fashion magazine?”
My other self had been speechless at the newspapers’ obsession with looks.
But thanks to those memories, I knew a little about Theon’s childhood too.
‘Baron Voltman retired as a knight, and the family finances became terrible, right?’
A grandson raised by a poor baron couple in the countryside.
He showed exceptional talent in swordsmanship, but they couldn’t even afford to hire him a teacher.
Feeling sorry for their talented grandson, Baron Voltman used every connection he had to send Theon to the Travel family as a trainee knight.
‘Well, that part isn’t important.’
What mattered was that both Theon and I came from countryside villages.
It mattered that we had something in common.
“So I don’t really understand complicated things like status. I don’t care about that stuff, so if you want to speak casually too, go ahead! If you think adults might scold you, you can just do it when we’re alone.”
“…Why did you live alone with Lord Leytan…? What about your other family?”
But it seemed the thing Theon focused on was something else entirely.
“Ah.”
So Theon only knew that my dad was a Grand Master and nothing else?
“I don’t have a mom.”
Oh, if we go up those stairs, the commander’s office is there.
I confidently kept walking while pulling Theon’s hand.
But suddenly Theon stopped following me.
“Theon?”
When I turned around, Theon was standing still with a shocked expression.
I never had a mother from the beginning.
I was a baby my dad brought from somewhere outside, and nobody in Travel knew who my mother was.
“Aren’t we generous for accepting someone like you when nobody even knows what blood runs through your veins? Even after your father died, Travel didn’t cast you out. Remember that. Live with gratitude at all times.”
After Dad died, Aunt Marian often said things like that to my other self.
It was pressure, telling me to produce achievements for them.
From the age of sixteen, I had willingly become their hunting dog, bringing them accomplishments.
That was how I survived the relatives’ schemes. To uncover the truth behind Dad’s death.
‘Hmph.’
Maybe that other me lived like that, but not this time.
This time, I’m giving all those achievements to Dad instead.
‘Hehe. What should I bring him first?’
I wanted to hum happily, but I couldn’t.
“I’m sorry. That was a careless question.”
Because Theon was pitying me for not having a mother.
Thanks to that, instead of reaching the commander’s office right upstairs, we ended up sitting side by side on the stairs.
“I didn’t know your situation was like that.”
Theon’s mood had sunk so low it felt like it might break through the floor.
“You’re younger than me too…”
“Oh, you stopped speaking formally.”
“…You’re younger than me…”
“This is confusing. Can’t you just speak casually?”
“……”
“Then should we just become friends? If we’re friends, we can both talk casually! We’ll only use formal speech in front of adults?”
Theon thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
This was only possible because I met him early.
If he had already gotten more used to life as a knight trainee, he would’ve jumped in shock and said such a thing was impossible.
‘Hooray! I became friends with the future crown prince!’
“Take care of me, Theon!”
“…Yeah. Me too.”
Unlike me, who was celebrating inside after achieving my goal, Theon’s mood didn’t improve at all.
‘Theon lost his mom two years ago. That’s probably why my situation looks sad to him. But I’m really okay.’
Grandma Marshal once said memories create longing, but my mother didn’t exist in my memories.
I truly didn’t care about not having a mother.
‘Rather than that, not having Dad would be…’
…Waaah.
Suddenly my chest hurt sharply, and I understood how sad Theon must feel. I’m such an idiot.
Wanting to comfort him somehow, I searched my pocket.
Rustle.
My fingers found a candy. Sherry had given it to me to eat whenever I felt bored.
“Theon, eat this!”
I grabbed his hand, opened his palm, and placed the candy on it.
Theon looked at me in confusion.
“Why this…?”
Swinging my legs, I grinned.
“They say sweet things are the best when you feel bad.”
“I’m fine. You eat it.”
“You eat it.”
You eat it. No, you eat it.
The candy kept going back and forth, with nobody willing to accept it.
While we argued, the twisted ends of the wrapper loosened and the candy began peeking out.
Gasp. At this rate the wrapper’s going to come off and it’ll fall.
‘I was saving that candy!’
It falling to the floor instead of into Theon’s mouth would be a disaster. Dad rarely gave me candy because he said it wasn’t healthy.
‘Oh?’
Then a good idea came to me. There was no need to argue over one piece of candy.
I stood up from the stairs and proudly declared to Theon,
“Let’s go to the commander’s office! There’s candy there!”
“You’re saying we should eat the candy in the commander’s office…?”
“Yep!”
The commander’s office in the knights’ training hall was a place its owner barely used once a year.
Because of that, it had basically become a lounge for the direct family members who visited the training grounds.
‘That’s why Uncle Rex told us to stay there.’
Even my other self used to wait there and play after Dad returned as a Grand Master.
Which means I clearly remember everything inside!
“There are lots of other snacks too!”
I looked up toward the commander’s office upstairs.
And then I froze.
“……”
“Who gave permission?”
Grandfather’s golden eyes were looking down at me.
He looked like a tiger.
His stern voice echoed down at me.
“Who gave you permission to take candy from my room?”
“…Hic.”
A little earlier.
Kallet carefully watched the silent old man standing before him.
Despite his white hair, the old man was strong and full of spirit, more imposing than a battlefield general.
The commander of the Red Eagle Knights and their supreme leader.
Count Travel.
‘Of all times.’
Who would’ve thought Leytan’s daughter would be here?
The timing was terrible. The one day in an entire year Count Travel visited the commander’s office happened to be the same day Berry came to the training hall.
‘There should be enough people in Stone House to watch over a child. Why is Young Lady Berry here without even a maid?’
Hearing the children’s voices from below the stairs around the corner, Kallet sighed inwardly.
‘I wonder if Leytan could’ve ever imagined this situation.’
How would that man, who could never resist his daughter, react if he saw this?
There was something else bothering Kallet too.
He had also been present during the conversation between Leytan and the Count the previous night.
Count Travel’s meaningful question had sounded almost as if Berry suffered from an incurable illness and only had a few years left to live.
Because of that, every time he heard Berry’s voice, Kallet felt like he was watching a child left alone near deep water.
Of course, unlike his complicated thoughts, his expression remained completely stiff.
But Count Travel, Raksek, was the same. His thoughts also showed nowhere on his face.
Kallet quietly spoke to the count, who stood there like a stone statue.
“That boy appears to belong to the knights’ order, yet he speaks casually. I’ll instruct him to be careful with honorifics.”
“Forget it.”
“However, my lord, Young Lady Berry is also a direct family mem—”
“Who gave permission?”
Kallet couldn’t even finish speaking.
Raksek strode forward and shouted down at the children below the stairs.
“Who gave you permission to take candy from my room?”
His voice thundered through the staircase that stretched all the way to the ceiling.
And after seeing her grandfather, Berry froze in place while looking up at him, then suddenly started hiccuping.
“…Hic.”
Raksek’s golden eyes settled on the tiny granddaughter’s face.
Bright green eyes filled with fear.
Eyes that resembled Julia’s.
…Berry, was it?
“Even her name sounds weak.”
Raksek walked down the stairs.
The closer he got, the more Berry shrank back.
At the appearance of Count Travel, Theon stepped away from the stairs and lowered his head nearby, though his feet twitched nervously.
As if he were ready to shield Berry immediately if anything dangerous happened.
“Seven years old?”
“…Hic.”
“You look six.”
“Hic…”
Raksek’s hand rested on Berry’s head.
Berry’s mind turned as white as her pale face.
But then—
Pat.
“…?”
Pat pat.
Something strange was happening.
