Four days later, at sunset.

The knights filling the training grounds of the Holy Knights scattered, shouting energetically.

Amidst the hazy dust, a squire ran up to the vice-captain, who remained alone, removing his helmet.

“Sir Leon! The captain is calling for you!”

“Tell him I’m busy.”

“…Pardon?”

The squire, who had barely been in the order for three or four months, let out a dumbfounded voice at Leon’s reply.

Whether he cared or not, Leon only shook out his sweat-drenched hair with an expressionless face.

‘Oh… what should I do? Do I really have to relay that to the captain?’

Just imagining conveying the message, “The vice-captain says he can’t come because he’s busy,” to the fierce-looking captain, enough to make one’s legs tremble just by looking at him, made the squire dizzy.

Actually, when considering only appearance, Vice-Captain Leon standing before him was the complete opposite of the burly captain. He was someone with a beautiful appearance like a knight in a minstrel’s song, and perfect etiquette to boot.

Nevertheless, it was only surprising that he exuded an aura that was as difficult to approach as the captain, if not more so at times.

In the end, the squire turned back without being able to say a word. However, before he could take a few more steps, quick and heavy footsteps began to overtake him.

“Never mind. I’ll go, so you can rest. We’ll be marching out soon, so don’t do anything reckless and go straight home.”

Looking at Leon’s tall back figure, which had already walked far away, the squire saluted vigorously with a brightened face.

“Yes, Vice-Captain!”

“Why did you call me?”

Seeing Leon open the office door and enter after a short knock, Captain Alex Redding of the Knights shook his head.

“You seem to have even more energy? You must have been up all night preparing for the expedition for four days.”

“I’m fine. What do you want to say?”

Leon replied stiffly, brushing back his hair soaked with dust and sweat. His appearance was clearly haggard. However, he overflowed with a vitality that had been hard to find in him recently, and his eyes were also clear and clean.

Alex stared intently at such a Leon and replied bluntly.

“What do you mean, what do I want to say? I told you to hand over the Tyrot duchy’s illegal tali distribution case to Lord Shask. Lord Shask says he hasn’t heard anything about it yet. What’s going on?”

“That’s not possible.”

“What, not possible? Ha… Leon, you really.”

Alex held his forehead as if trying to calm his rising blood pressure. However, due to Leon’s nonchalant expression, his anger finally exploded. Alex forgot his dignity and shouted loudly.

“Damn it, why are you so eager to tear apart the Tyrot Duchy? I told you that orders came down from the Grand Temple to handle it moderately!”

Alex Redding, who usually tries his best to maintain a noble appearance befitting the title of captain of the Holy Knights. However, even at his roar, which would have made other knights tremble in fear by now, Leon didn’t even blink an eye.

“I’ve already been given full authority over the matter. I’ll take care of it after returning from the expedition, so please leave it to me.”

There was a dignity in Leon’s sharp reply that didn’t seem like a subordinate.

‘Well, that bastard has been like that since he was twelve.’

Alex shook his head. However, putting aside his innate unpleasantness, his current stubbornness was actually very unlike Leon.

Leon Aranias was a stubbornly perfectionist youngster who made those around him stick out their tongues in disbelief. Despite his perfect conduct that put his seniors to shame, he never disobeyed orders or acted on his own.

‘But why is he suddenly acting like this these days, Leon.’

Alex gripped his temples and opened his eyes.

“…You’re the one who tipped off Arkin Daily about this case too, right? Tyler Mariano, the editor-in-chief of Arkin Daily, is your friend.”

After the tali distribution case was reported in large font on the front page of Arkin Daily, the capital’s influential daily newspaper, the elders of the Grand Temple were in a very unpleasant mood.

It seemed they had planned to receive a lot of donations from Duke Tyrot and wrap up the case loosely… But it was Leon Aranias, the “Empire’s Jewel” whom the elders adored, who properly escalated the case.

Of course, the elders, unaware of that fact, were only grilling Alex.

‘This bastard, really, why is he doing things he didn’t even do when he was twelve at the age of twenty-four!’

Alex swallowed all kinds of curses inwardly and pointed to the chair across the desk.

Although he looked reluctant, Leon sat in the chair as told.

“Do you have anything more to say?”

“Leon.”

Alex’s voice became serious.

“Yes.”

Leon replied with his usual calm face.

“His Highness the Crown Prince has appointed you as the sole person in charge of this expedition.”

Leon briefly hesitated.

“…Are you saying the Imperial Knights won’t be dispatched at all?”

“He says he’ll allocate twenty lower-ranking knights. It’s just a token gesture. In the end, the main force will be our Holy Knights.”

It was true that the Holy Knights had mostly been in charge of handling magical beasts that emerged from the ruins of the ancient magic kingdom.

However, this case was large enough to be called a magical beast “rampage.” The fact that the great Count Lyuschino requested reinforcements from the Imperial Palace meant the situation was serious.

Nevertheless, the Crown Prince decided not to dispatch the regular imperial army.

In other words, if this expedition failed, Leon, as the person in charge, would have to bear all the blame and disadvantages.

However, even after hearing those words, Leon remained unperturbed. As if he had anticipated everything.

“It doesn’t matter.”

‘You’re so great, you bastard.’

Alex inwardly grumbled as he faced Leon’s composed face.

That bastard was always like that. From the first time he saw him.

Alex first met Leon when Leon was twelve years old. Upon hearing that the eldest son of the Grand Duke Osilote’s family had joined the Holy Knights, Alex and the other knights all scoffed.

‘I wonder if the precious young master will even last three days properly.’

The Holy Knights are the only order in the empire that does not place restrictions on status for joining. As long as one has sacred power and swordsmanship skills, the opportunity to join is open.

Therefore, people from all classes and backgrounds, from the son of a prostitute to a stable boy, gather here, and it is a group that applies hellish training and strict discipline to control such individuals.

Alex himself was born as the third son of a general store owner in the outskirts of the capital and achieved success through bone-cutting efforts. To someone like him, the precious eldest son of a grand duke couldn’t have looked good from the start.

That perception of Leon changed when Leon became Alex’s apprentice during his squire days.

Alex worked Leon really harshly, wanting to see the sight of the noble young master leaving the order with his hands and feet raised.

He would drop the training clothes Leon had painstakingly washed into the sewage tank, render the blade Leon had carefully sharpened unusable in a day. Deliberately embarrassing and humiliating him in front of other squires was also common.

However, no matter how badly Alex treated him, Leon was always the same.

With that handsome face, he would expressionlessly carry out the tasks he was told to do and silently listen to the curses he had never heard in his life.

Then one day, as Alex was scolding Leon like catching a rat, he suddenly realized.

This precious young master was not struggling to barely endure this situation. That enduring the suffering and unfairness that had befallen him was as familiar to this kid as breathing.

Despite being barely a teenager. Just what kind of life had he lived to be like this.

After that day, tormenting Leon became really boring. Since then, Alex watched right by Leon’s side as he became a full-fledged knight, a senior knight, and finally rose to the position of vice-captain.

No one mocked him as a “noble son” anymore as he always silently endured those harsh training sessions without a single complaint. No, now the entire order deeply respected Leon.

Perhaps if they had to trust their back to just one comrade on the battlefield, everyone in the Holy Knights would point to Leon.

He’s so great that he’s unpleasant, but if that excellence is consistent, anyone would look up to him. Leon was that kind of person. Frighteningly consistent, making him even more abnormal.

About a year ago, such a Leon began to drive himself to an even more exhausted state. It was enough to make onlookers astonished. They were even anxious that he might cause an accident at this rate.

But then at some point, Leon changed again. If he wasn’t spacing out like a crazy person, he was skipping training at the drop of a hat. Doing things he hadn’t done for 12 years, he made everyone around him, including Alex, tense.

‘I heard rumors that he’s in a relationship, but I didn’t expect a person to change that much.’

As a Holy Knights captain who was not of noble birth, Alex knew nothing about Kasha and thus had no prejudice against her either. He only guessed that a woman who could change that formidable guy must be extraordinary.

And actually, Alex didn’t dislike such a change in Leon.

How should I put it. For the first time, Leon seemed human.

It was also secretly pleasing to be able to openly reprimand Leon, who had never felt like a subordinate despite being one.

All of that was fine. But Leon, who had recently returned early from the vacation Alex had reluctantly given him, suddenly started acting like a madman again.

He insisted on taking charge of the reported case against the Tyrot Duchy, ignoring orders from the Grand Temple to handle it moderately.

‘I let that slide. But why is this damn ordeal befalling you again.’

Alex inwardly sighed.

This magical beast expedition did not bode well. Starting with the Crown Prince’s attitude of driving the Holy Knights into a corner as if he had been waiting for it.

Perhaps he thinks it’s a golden opportunity to shake the temple and the Holy Knights, which have always been a thorn in the eyes of the imperial family.

But the strangest thing was the fact that even he, the captain of the Holy Knights, would unconditionally nod his head at whatever the Crown Prince said and inexplicably grovel.

It was really incomprehensible. In front of the Crown Prince, he felt like he had to flatter and fawn like those disgusting nobles. As if he was being controlled by someone.

‘Something… doesn’t feel right. Crown Prince Nigel.’

The problem was that such thoughts didn’t occur at all when he was in front of the Crown Prince. Only after stepping back from him and reconsidering the orders with a clear head did he pull his hair out, wondering why he had given such answers.

It was the same today.

He had nodded like an idiot at an order that would clearly place all the burden solely on the Holy Knights and returned.

And now, this unpleasant and handsome junior would have to bear the consequences of Alex’s stupid and irresponsible actions.