After hearing Ernant’s request, Martin expressed his refusal without any hesitation.

“We will attend the event as a group on the day of. We cannot send the Vice Captain alone.”

“Yulia will attend the event as my partner, not as the Vice Captain of the Knights.”

“…”

Martin’s brow, which had been motionless until now, twitched slightly.

Noticing that small signal, Ernant continued speaking without pause.

“This has already been agreed upon between us. She’ll wear a regular dress instead of the Knight’s uniform.”

“…”

“When I said I would personally provide her with a dress, she was very pleased. I suppose Yulia also wanted to wear a glamorous and expensive dress rather than the drab Knight’s uniform.”

To Martin, who remained silent, Ernant added one last thing.

“So don’t think about interfering with Yulia’s attendance at this event and make sure to send her on time.”

With those final words, Ernant turned to leave.

Even as he watched Ernant’s retreating figure grow distant, Martin was unable to open his mouth.

Yulia herself had expressed her desire to be the Emperor’s partner rather than the Vice Captain of the Knights.

If that was the case, then neither Martin himself nor anyone else had the right to forbid it.

So Martin had no choice but to keep his mouth shut until Ernant’s figure disappeared from sight.

For three days after Ernant left, I rested continuously.

Frostbite on my forearm, a cut on my leg – I had been injured in various ways, so even with a sturdy body, rest was necessary.

For that reason, I enjoyed a comfortable daily routine of playing, eating, and resting in my tent during that time.

Elma, my closest friend, personally brought meals to my tent, which allowed me to hear various stories from her.

Like how the members were excited because of the Foundation Day event, or how the Captain was extremely on edge… stories like that.

Even now, Elma was chattering away about various things while eating with me.

“Then the Captain glared at me with such a piercing gaze! I thought I might faint! Really, it was the first time I’d ever received such a fierce look!”

Unlike during meetings, Elma’s voice was lively.

Although Elma only showed a serious demeanor when with others, she was different when alone with me like this.

She would become bubbly and talkative.

So, being accustomed to this side of Elma, I casually responded.

“Oh…? Is the Captain in such a bad mood these days?”

“Yes, it seems to be because of the Emperor’s visit before… Although he usually looked uncomfortable after seeing His Majesty, this time it’s particularly severe. I wonder if there was some kind of tension between them that we don’t know about?”

“Hmm… Then I’ll go visit the Captain myself.”

At that moment, Elma, who becomes chatty in front of me, abruptly stopped talking.

She froze like that, with her cheeks stuffed full of bread like a squirrel, and only after a long while did she speak again.

“Umm… Hmm… That might not be…”

“Why?”

“Wouldn’t it be better if you just didn’t go? Because—”

She seemed to hesitate whether to speak or not, but in the end, Elma couldn’t suppress her inner chatterbox and opened her mouth.

“I heard that the Captain is actually angry not just because of His Majesty… but also because of you, Vice Captain.”

The words that came out of Elma’s mouth were enough to surprise me.

I gently put down the fork I was holding and questioned Elma.

“The Captain is angry because of me?”

“No!! It’s not your fault at all!! You haven’t done anything wrong!! It’s just that I heard something—”

Elma seemed to hesitate again, but eventually spoke up.

“You were injured that day, right? And then you received support from His Majesty.”

“Ah…”

“Captain Martin was uncomfortable with His Majesty being there and wanted to send him back to the palace right away, but at that time you interfered by receiving His Majesty’s support… I heard from Simon that the Captain’s nerves were slightly on edge because of that.”

“Simon is the attendant who serves right next to the Captain, isn’t he? Tsk, then it’s probably not incorrect information.”

As I pressed my throbbing forehead, Elma immediately shook her head in denial.

“Even so, Simon’s words aren’t always accurate. He tends to exaggerate things… So I was wondering whether I should tell you this potentially inaccurate information or not…”

“No, you did well. Thanks for letting me know. I should definitely go see the Captain.”

“But if you do that, you might get caught in the crossfire… Wouldn’t it be safer to just wait until his anger subsides?”

Of course, as Elma said, it would be safer to wait for the Captain’s anger to subside.

With time, even sharp emotions would likely soften a bit.

However.

“There’s no time. The Foundation Day event is coming up soon. I want to deal with one more rift before then. For that, I need the Captain’s permission, so I have to go see him anyway.”

“What? You’re going to the rift again when there’s so little time left until the event… Isn’t that pushing yourself too hard?”

“At the rate we’ve been going, it looks like it will take 5 years to close all the rifts. I want to work hard and shorten that time even more. To about 3 years.”

“My goodness, I’m struggling just to get through each day, but you have such ambitions… Is it really possible within 3 years? For the Empire to regain peace?”

I nodded confidently to Elma, who asked with a voice seemingly full of hope.

“It’s entirely possible. Because I’ll make it happen.”

“Ah, if you keep saying such cool things, I might fall for you, Vice Captain!”

“Haha, that won’t do. You should fall for someone even cooler than me.”

I ruffled Elma’s hair playfully as I stood up.

Then, just as I was about to leave the tent with my finished meal tray, I suddenly remembered something I had to tell Elma.

“Oh, and Elma. I have something to tell you before the event.”

“…?”

“At the Foundation Day event, be careful of a brown-haired man who asks you to dance.”

“A brown-haired man?”

I nodded, recalling my memories from before the regression.

“I think his name was ‘Olen’…? Anyway, if a man with that name approaches you, avoid him at all costs. He’s a bad guy who will cause you trouble.”

Elma looked perplexed.

She seemed surprised that I suddenly gave her advice as if I had seen the future.

She probably doesn’t understand what I’m talking about right now, but she’ll know everything when the Foundation Day event comes.

I left the tent without adding any further explanation.

After that, I cleaned up the meal tray and quickly brushed my teeth, then immediately went to see the Captain.

Although it was quite burdensome to face him since his low mood might be my fault, I couldn’t postpone it.

I needed his permission to go close the next rift.

“Captain, are you busy?”

I called out to him like that, standing outside the tent.

There was no answer.

I had definitely heard from the members that the Captain was inside the tent.

Did he step out for a moment?

I didn’t want to think he was deliberately ignoring my call, so I decided to assume he had gone for a short walk or something.

If that was the case, I couldn’t wait indefinitely for him to return when I didn’t know when he’d be back, so I was about to leave.

“Come in.”

Just as I was about to turn away, the Captain’s permission came.

I entered the tent with somewhat cautious movements.

The Captain was sitting at his desk, busily examining something.

I tentatively opened my mouth first, addressing him.

“Um, I’d like to go to Rift No. 1 in Viscount Parmart’s territory. Alone.”

“…”

“If you give me permission, I’ll leave this evening. We need to hurry if we want to deal with it quickly before the event starts.”

Even after hearing everything I said, the Captain didn’t respond.

The heavily accumulating silence was burdensome, making my mouth feel increasingly dry.

Just as I was thinking it would be nice to have some water to drink, the Captain’s lips finally moved.

“Is my permission really necessary?”

“Pardon?”

“Since when have you followed my orders so well?”

It was a cutting remark.

Since I had already heard from Elma why the Captain might be angry with me, I immediately bowed my head.

“My receiving His Majesty’s support that day was to prevent the situation from becoming complicated. If that appeared to you as disobeying your orders… I apologize.”

“No, I’m not like this just because of that incident.”

“Not because of that incident…?”

“That’s right. You receiving His Majesty’s support, letting him into the tent, becoming his partner and acting independently unlike anyone else in our Knights… Those things were the ‘trigger’ that made me come to my senses. I almost forgot that you’re not my person, but thanks to that, I was able to snap out of it.”

He paused for a moment and approached me.

Looking down at me with a cold gaze from up close, he continued speaking.

“But I started distrusting and feeling uncomfortable with you long before that. To be precise, it was from the moment you barged into our Knights on His Majesty’s orders a year ago and suddenly became the Vice Captain.”

“…”

“So you don’t need to apologize to me for being swayed by His Majesty’s orders. After all, I’m not your real superior, am I?”

As the Captain said, I entered the Knights a year ago on Ernant’s orders.

To closely monitor the Captain and report his every move to Ernant.

So if the Captain had felt uncomfortable with me in the past, I could understand that.

However.

“When we entered the rift together this time… didn’t you trust and acknowledge me as your subordinate?”

“I told you. I almost forgot for a moment that you’re not my person.”

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.