When Jade arrived at the comfortable barracks, she was already very tired. Her vision was gradually blurring with drowsiness. No matter how much she tried to force her eyelids open, they felt heavy as if someone had tied lead weights to them.

So her last memory was of nodding off and someone grabbing her shoulder. That hand was very large, giving her a strangely reassuring feeling.

When she came to her senses, it was already the next day. She must have slept longer than expected, as when she left the tent, the camp was already full of people moving about.

People who saw her blinking purple eyes in confusion and her messy tangled hair smiled and spoke to her.

“Hey, I heard you were amazing yesterday.”

“Even the knights with Northern Punitive Force experience were full of praise. We told them we’ve already seen a lot of that in the west.”

Rubbing her eyes to chase away the sleepiness, Jade boldly demanded.

“Pay up for the bragging.”

Shaking their heads, they handed her some water.

As Jade looked into the distance while wetting her throat, Blake came running over with his red curly hair flying.

“Geez. You’re so meticulous about other things, but why is it only when you go out to fight.”

Though the content was clearly nagging, Blake’s eyes were curved in a smile. Jade asked with a sour expression.

“What’s with that look?”

“Hehehe, who do you think brought you to your tent?”

Feeling hungry from the smell of soup spreading around, Jade shrugged her shoulders and replied half-heartedly.

“Sir Emmett?”

“No way. Sir Emmett was totally deflated yesterday. Many knights with pairs criticized his attitude point by point. They said he was fighting very far away from you?”

“Well, yeah. I guess it’s because he lacks experience. Good thing it’s just a temporary pair.”

“Anyway! So it wasn’t Sir Emmett. Then who could it be?”

She scratched her cheek. If it was someone Blake would be this happy about, there was only one person.

Right, no wonder the hand steadying her swaying shoulder felt unusually large.

She didn’t want to read too much into it. As she felt in the Athanase Forest, he was clearly a good person. Just hiding his inner kindness behind an indifferent exterior.

This time too, it was surely an action without much meaning. Or maybe he did it out of care for her as a friend.

“I don’t know. Don’t care.”

“Aw, why!”

Shaking off the clinging Blake, Jade went to wash up. The water-attribute mages grumbled about feeling like someone’s bathtub every morning, but it couldn’t be helped in this situation.

She barely managed to look human again, but her lips and cheeks were still puffy from fatigue.

But in the distance, she saw Axel entering the camp leading a few knights, his complexion clean as if nothing had happened yesterday.

After handing Atilla’s reins to a soldier, he raised one eyebrow crookedly as soon as he spotted Jade.

Well. What are you going to do about it? Do you think anyone will be scared if you look at them like that?

When she responded with a defiant gaze, he strode over. Surprised by the unexpected movement, Jade hurriedly flipped up her hood. She didn’t want to show her puffy face.

Standing in front of her, Axel snorted and whispered barely audibly.

“As if I haven’t seen that face many times already.”

Well, this is what she showed him every day in the Athanase Forest. Damn it.

Still, Jade stubbornly refused to lower her hood. This is the difference between before and after realizing one’s feelings. Always thinking about how you’ll appear to someone.

Clearing her throat, Jade replied in a deliberately distant tone.

“It’s not polite to say such things outright, Sir Leon.”

“It’s also not polite to speak without making eye contact, Sir Jade.”

“You’re just so tall.”

“What, should I bend down for you?”

Jade muttered in an ominous voice. If you do that, my forehead will crash into your stuck-up nose.

At the not-so-threatening threat, Axel twisted one corner of his mouth.

“I’m terrified. Such threatening words to the commander-in-chief.”

“Me? To you, Sir Leon? I’ve never done such a thing. What good would it do to threaten someone I don’t know?”

“How childish.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Isn’t it too childish?”

The two were growling very close to each other so others couldn’t hear, but somehow that distance had become almost close enough to kiss.

Of course, neither of them realized this fact. They were focused solely on each other, erasing their surroundings.

Axel had long since given up pretending to be someone else. On the first day, he decided to keep denying it because Jade’s surprised face was amusing, but as the days went by, that wasn’t the case.

He was honestly regretting his choice on the first day to pretend not to know her.

Considering the timing of when Axel entered the forest and when Jade started working as a mage, he thought there was no way they could have a connection, so he didn’t have a proper answer for people curious about their acquaintance.

But if he honestly said they met in the Athanase Forest, he was worried Jade might get negative attention. The forest was an unknown space, a good place for useless rumors to be exaggerated.

Since Jade said many people disliked her, he wanted to be extra careful. So he firmly denied knowing her.

Thinking about it later, it didn’t seem like it was just for her sake. He may have felt a bit betrayed when he learned she was Jade Broen, not Jade Brown.

Anyway, Leon Vaintz did not know Jade Broen.

Because he had to maintain an appropriate distance, even simple conversations were difficult under the gaze of others, and he couldn’t openly sweep away the annoying gnats buzzing around her.

Not only that, he couldn’t stay by her side constantly in battle.

As discussed in the Athanase Forest, Jade was unusually effective at attacking monsters. The flames she created caused the monsters pain and made them hesitate in their movements, which was a great help to the knights.

He didn’t know for sure, but from the whispers of the mages, it seemed that even very short spells could create such power.

But after hours of participating in both defense and offense, her body was bound to be exhausted. He wanted to openly drag her back.

Take it easy, do it while holding back a bit. What on earth are you doing all that for?

When he finally saw her running alone towards that monster to draw its attention, the heat in his stomach felt like it was about to explode.

If he had been her pair knight, this wouldn’t have happened.

He guaranteed that she would not have had to face anything alone for even a moment. He would have ensured her safety so meticulously it would have been nauseating.

But it was all hypothetical. Currently, he wasn’t even her temporary pair, let alone her actual pair, and he couldn’t even call her name comfortably.

Axel glared at Jade’s hood, which covered even the tip of her small nose, and asked with a sigh.

“How’s your condition?”

“Don’t worry about it, Sir Leon.”

That damn Sir Leon again. Axel growled.

“You don’t want me to take that hood off and check, do you?”

Jade roughly pulled down her hood on her own. Her purple eyes finally meeting his were burning under the brightly risen sun.

“Make up your mind. Is it Axel or Leon Vaintz?”

Axel kept his mouth shut.

“Stop confusing people! Do you know how much I…”

The sentence trailed off without a proper ending. Jade was in the middle of biting her plump lips and swallowing her words.

Axel’s fingertips twitched involuntarily, wanting to stop that movement, but he held back, realizing it was an inappropriate action to do outside with many people watching. Still, he was displeased with the blood rushing to her lips.

Yes, she’s right. I shouldn’t confuse her.

But he thought he didn’t even know what he wanted himself.

He didn’t feel like explaining why he had turned away from her. He just wanted to see Jade’s emotions stirred up because of him for now.

It was fine if she got angry or sulked. But he didn’t like her sending him off calmly. It was punishment for leaving without even saying goodbye.

Thinking back to how he alone suffered auditory hallucinations related to Jade in the Athanase Forest, this was nothing in comparison. It should just be a bit of hurt feelings at most.

But every time Jade called him “Sir Leon,” it felt like he was the one being punished instead. He remembered her face smiling and calling him Axel. That friendly and innocent smile.

Each time, he wanted to close the gap he had deliberately created.

What kind of whim is this? Axel tilted his head crookedly.

If it’s this level of stupidity, can I now put a name to this emotion? Is that so?

‘You’re the type to abandon even me if things get annoying.’

‘Is there anything besides swords that you don’t quickly tire of?’

Axel was someone who had seen what happens at the extreme end of emotions.

The king died without ever loving the queen his whole life, and the queen had to live a painful life alone going forward after sending all the family members who followed her to their deaths. Axel was their child, and he feared the obsession that ran in his bloodline.

So he was very cautious about acknowledging it.

Not yet. It might just be a fleeting interest for you too.

Right now it’s just a brief deviation, but if he truly decides to come out, he would have to make a contract with the king. He would have to tie up his own limbs and give up his freedom.

That was a really difficult decision to reverse…

Jade was still glaring at the ashen eyes sinking deep in thought.

“Decide. I’ll do whatever you want…”

At that moment, someone cut in between the two of them.

“Ah, Sir Jade. I heard you worked hard yesterday. I was assigned to guard the camp so I couldn’t help. Are you feeling alright?”

Jade was startled and pulled back her body that was almost touching Axel’s.

Looking to the side, she saw a knight with neatly tied light brown hair who was perfectly groomed from the morning. His appearance, as tidy as a painting, truly befitted a knight.

“Ah, Sir Grace.”