We left the training ground and came back to my house.

  Twins, Perez, and Ramona.

  It felt like the drawing-room was full of guests after a long time.

  "My request for a swordsmanship fight must have been burdensome for you. Thank you, Lady Brown."

  I said to Ramona while pouring the warm tea.

  "No, Lady Lombardy. You’re working hard to help our family. I’ll do whatever I can."

  "But you know what?"

  "Can I ask you a question?"

  Mayron and Gilliu talked to Ramona with sparkling eyes.

  "Yes, please speak, Young Lord Lombardy’s."

  "Lady Brown, how good are you at the Academy?"

  Unlike Craney, who chose the academy to study, twins have never been educated outside Lombardy.

  Lombardy’s Knights have been in charge of sword skills classes since they were young.

  It seemed they’re a little curious.

  "I wasn’t very talented. I barely passed the Academy entrance exam."

  Ramona answered cautiously.

  But Perez, who was listening to the conversation while drinking tea, whispered.

  "In the beginning, it was."

  "What do you mean, Your Highness the Second Prince?"

  "Ramona graduated second in the sword department."

  The twin’s eyes opened wide.

  "Ramona was the only one who came out to practice earlier than me throughout her school year."

  From barely passing the entrance exam to graduating second.

  It was a passage that showed how hard Ramona was.

  "I was lucky. I got a lot of things from the academy that I chose as a refuge to survive."

  A quiet voice spoke calmly.

  "The motives that always keep me strong, and the dreams I want to achieve."

  For a moment, Ramona’s gaze, who said so, was seen reaching Perez.

  "I can’t believe you entered the school to survive……"

  "You must have had a hard time."

  "But a little while ago, Lady Brown’s swordsmanship was very strong."

  "Right. Lady Brown is a person who has a strong mind and ability to handle swords."

  The twins said to Ramona.

  "If there’s anything we can do to help, tell us."

  "Lady Ramona is one of the few swordsmen we’ve recognized."

  Ramona’s face turned red again at the words.

  I can’t believe it’s that different when she holds a sword and when she doesn’t hold it.

  "I believe that I’m already receiving the benevolence of the Lombardy family that will not be enough to pay for life."

  Ramona looked at me saying that.

  She had good eyes like a deep lake.

  "I just hope that the day will come when I can repay this favor."

  "Lady Brown……"

  "What a wonderful person……"

  The twins nodded loudly as if they were deeply impressed.

  "Did you learn it at the academy?"

  "Oh, that’s……"

  Ramona smiled a little.

  "I didn’t learn it separately. It’s Brown Swordsmanship."

  "Huh? That’s Brown Swordsmanship?"

  Gilliu was surprised.

  "But there is no such part in Brown’s swordsmanship?"

  Mayron also tilted his head.

  "What you two know is ’Imperial Swordsmanship’, not ’Brown Swordsmanship’."

  The answer came from Perez.

  "These two things…… Is different?"

  Mayron asked in shock.

  "Brown swordsmanship is swordsmanship that requires a long foundation. So it needed some improvements so that everyone could learn. The purpose was to improve the power of the Empire by learning the swordsmanship of any person in the Empire."

  "Ah, so……"

  "Also, after the collapse of the family, the people of the Brown family have been studying and developing the Brown Swordsmanship, waiting for the day the family was reinstated. Some people, like my father, lost their right hand, but started training their left hand from scratch."

  Their lives would not have been so different from Ramona’s.

  They lost everything and fought for survival day by day, but they prepared for the day when the family would rise again.

  To think that someday, more advanced swordsmanship will become the power of the family.

  "Wow……"

  "Amazing……"

  The twins were constantly amazed.

  The twinkling eyes seemed to be impressed by the Brown family’s story.

  "I need to wake up and train."

  "From tomorrow, I will study the Lombardy family’s swordsmanship."

  I think they got a good stimulus.

  "Hey, Lady Brown. Why don’t you show me that improved move one more time later?"

  "Yeah, we’ll buy you something delicious."

  Ramona burst into small laughter at the twin’s suggestion.

  And she answered.

  "If you want, can I teach you the complementary parts?"

  "What?!"

  Gilliu and Mayron were surprised and waved as if they were going to fall back.

  "No, no, no! How could you teach us that!"

  But Ramona was rather nonchalant.

  "People in the Brown family hold swords from a very young age. There’s no need to be picky about men or women. And on the first day of class, there is the first thing to learn."

  Ramona said one letter at a time.

  "To keep the black, and to be strong together."

  What a Brown family creed.

  "So a long time ago, the Lord of the Brown family revealed the Brown Swordsmanship to everyone. And I have no qualms about keeping that word. Perhaps anyone in the Brown family would think so."

  Ramona will teach the twins the real Brown Swordsmanship. It was a proposal.

  "Lady Brown,"

  I called Ramona.

  "Are you serious about that?"

  "Yes."

  Ramona nodded briefly.

  "That’s what my father said yesterday. Once the family is reinstated, he’ll reveal the improved Brown Swordsmanship. I think it’s a good way to raise the pride of our shrinking family."

  Then the plan becomes a lot easier.

  I felt like the final piece of my plan was being put together.

  "It’s also a great decision for the Brown family, who had been an Imperial Knight for generations until more than 40 years ago."

  I smiled at Ramona and said.

  Perhaps the awkwardness has gone a little since then, Ramona smiled brighter than before.

  Despite the mischievous twins’s words, the conversation continued.

  "By the way, it was the first time I had ever seen Your Highness the Second Prince ever drink tea. I thought you didn’t like tea."

  "I don’t really like water, but I drink tea that Tia made from time to time."

  Perez replied indifferently to Ramona’s words.

  "Ah……"

  Ramona smiled blurrily.

  But Perez did not see the figure.

  The red eyes were looking at me, not that way.

  It was red and round red like a drop of blood.

  "I need to talk to you, Perez."

  As I rose from my seat saying so, I could feel Perez quietly following behind me.

  Where we headed was my study.

  "Close the door."

  I said to Perez.

  He shut the door silently.

  "Sit here."

  I pointed to the chair in front of the desk.

  This time again, as I say, Perez meekly sat down on the chair.

  "Take off your clothes."

  Also, as I said, the hand of the guy who inadvertently tried to unbutton his shirt stopped.

  And he looked up at me standing with round eyes.

  "Take off your clothes."

  "……Tia?"

  Perez’s eyes shook wildly.

  Even his long eyelashes trembled.

  I urged such a fellow.

  "People are waiting outside. We’re running out of time, so take it off."

  "There are people out there……"

  Perez murmured in a small voice, frowning his brows.

  However, he soon began to unfasten his buttons by teasing his finger that had stopped.

  His fingertips seemed to tremble a little.1

  Woosh.

  The sound of the shirt slipping off the flesh was clearly audible.

  "Whoa."

  Along with the short breath that Perez exhaled, the guy’s hard chest went up and down.

  Perez and my eyes met.

  I opened the desk drawer quietly, looking into the red eyes.

  There were clean bandages and vials in it.

  I’m glad I prepared it in advance.

  "It’s the medicine that Estira made."

  I said, handing Perez a round, small box of medicine.

  "Put it on."

  Just a moment ago, wounds on his forearm were being left untreated while confronting the twins.

  I knew this would happen.

  Perez accepted my medicine bottle and sat there staring up at me.

  "Are you not going to apply it?"

  "Medicine…… Were you going to give it to me?"

  "Then, would you like some chocolate?"

  "Sigh……"

  Perez suddenly let out a big sigh.

  Why, what, why are you sighing?1

  Perez, who had been looking at the medicine bottles alternately with half resigned eyes, laughed and smiled in despair.

  I took the bottle back from Perez’s hand and said, opening the lid.

  "Even if it’s not that big a wound, it’s definitely a sword cut. You have to apply for the medicine well."

  I took out the sticky ointment and applied it thoroughly to the wound.

  "Anyway……"

  "Don’t think it doesn’t matter if you get one or two more scars anyway."

  Perez’s half-open mouth closed again.

  "And what was that sigh earlier?"

  Perez was silent for a moment on my question.

  And answered quietly.

  "……No, I like this, too."

  The meaning of the phrase was still unknown, but I didn’t think I had to dig it up. (Perez would become a husband who obeys his wife word XD)

  But his long, deep sigh bothers me.

  I said, putting a bandage over the wound on which the medicine was applied.

  "If you receive treatment well, I will give you chocolate."

  Perez replied with a laugh at me.

  * * *

  It’s well past midnight.

  Bate was picking up and reading the papers one by one.

  At first glance, they were pieces of paper that seemed to be heating up, but they were classified and piled up one by one through Bate’s eyes.

  The tedious work was repeated for hours.

  But Bate’s face didn’t show signs of exhaustion.

  However, over time, wrinkles formed between Bate’s eyebrows.

  "Eh…… Huh……?"

  Bate, who had been staring at a piece of paper for a long time, took another piece of paper out of another package.

  "That’s weird."

  Mumbling low, Bate rubbed his brow.

  Something didn’t add up.

  The information sent by the sources was unclear and confusing.

  But Bate could sort them out as real and fake and to connect things that seemed irrelevant at first glance.

  And he did a very good job of it.

  But there were days like today.

  It’s hard to see the road as if it’s covered with fog.

  He knows there’s something beyond the fog, but he didn’t pinpoint what it was.

  "At times like this, you should take a break."

  Bate stood up talking to him like that.

  And he approached and opened the window.

  As the cold dawn air rushed in, his tired head seemed to wake up a little.

  "The sun is already rising."

  Bate, staring blankly at the sky, lit up a cigarette.

  But the red cigarette stood still to make long ash.

  Eyes blinked from time to time, fixed in the sky.

  Thoughts and thoughts followed one after another.

  The line that seemed irrelevant was revealed.

  The fog was clearing up.

  Then a cigarette fell from Bate’s hand as he was following the path he began to see.

  "……Damn it!"

  Bate, who sprang back to his desk, frantically searched the packet of papers.

  "Chanton Sussew……!"

  It was the Lord of Sussew, who was bothering him like poking in the back of his head.

  After tea time at the Empress Palace, the whereabouts of the Lord of Sussew were unknown.