“This is Yan, my knight escort.”

“Ah, hello.”

Shankes, who hadn’t spoken politely despite hearing I was the daughter of a duchess, bowed his head respectfully upon seeing Yan.

Yan seemed displeased by this, but due to what I had told him beforehand, he did not immediately point out his attitude.

“Here’s what I’m proposing. Instead of going to the monastery, stay here. I’ll provide lodging and food. Of course, it’s not free – your job will be to receive training from Yan. Training to join the Leviche Knights, that’s my condition.”

Astonishment colored Shankes’ face.

“What? What nonsense… are you talking about?”

“You heard me, stay here, receive training from Yan, and join the Leviche Knights.”

“You’re, you’re proposing that to me?”

“Yes.”

Shankes’ eyes widened in disbelief. There were two ways to enter a noble family’s private knighthood.

One was to graduate from a knight academy and be scouted or apply to the desired family.

The second was for that family to directly sponsor and raise a child to become a knight.

And the method I was now telling Shankes about was the latter.

“Of course, if you want.”

“I, I’ll work hard! Really, really hard!”

As soon as the words were out, Shankes jumped up from his seat. At that moment, it felt like I could see Shankes’ future changing before my eyes.

The vigilante Shankes would no longer exist in this world.

‘Now he’s not vigilante Shankes, but Knight Shankes!’

A smile spread across my face. Shankes, who had been jumping for joy, suddenly asked:

“But why are you making this offer to me?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I’m thrilled, really thrilled, but it’s strange. I don’t have any special talent, and you don’t even know my background.”

The reason Shankes had been able to make a name for himself as a thief was due to his innate reflexes, agility, and excellent split-second judgment.

‘You do have talent, and I know all about your background.’

I swallowed all those reasons and brought up a different one.

“I thought we were friends…”

“!”

“I thought I could do this because we’re friends…”

“!”

[This is the timeline separator]

I left the annex with light footsteps.

I recalled my final emphatic handshake with Shankes.

‘But you can’t move to another family! No, not for life, but you have to work for the Leviche Knights for at least 10 years!’

‘Don’t worry, young lady! I’ll dedicate my life to this family!’

After receiving a brief lesson from Yan on the spot, Shankes immediately started using formal speech with me.

Yan said he would take Shankes straight to the training grounds. Before Shankes left, I offered him a final handshake as a friend.

In the end, Shankes reluctantly accepted my handshake after glancing at Yan.

“This will be the first and last time you hold the young lady’s hand.”

“Of course, Master!”

Despite Yan’s cold warning, Shankes’ eyes were filled with passion.

While Yan seemed displeased with Shankes speaking casually to me, he also appeared somewhat excited to have a disciple to teach.

“Then we shall take our leave now.”

After escorting me to my room, Yan took Shankes straight to the training grounds.

In truth, I had been conflicted until making this offer to Shankes.

Shankes was a character with undeniable presence in the original story.

The reason he could become the male lead’s helper was due to the skills he had built in the underworld and the information he possessed.

A Shankes who hadn’t developed his skills as a thief wouldn’t approach Elaizer first.

Even if he did approach, it was uncertain if he would be of help to Elaizer.

‘One of Elaizer’s helpers is gone.’

However, losing a helper wouldn’t be a big blow to him. There won’t be as many enemies for Elaizer here as in the original story.

‘The fact that I’m staying at the duke’s house is proof of that.’

Hehe, I felt good. From now on, I could prevent the Crustel duchy from treating Elaizer badly.

But in my excitement, I missed one important fact.

That the duke’s family didn’t consist of just Clemens and the duke.

[This is the timeline separator]

It was a day when I woke up early, feeling thirsty.

‘Water…’

Though I could have called for the maids, I didn’t want to wake them, so I went down to the living room alone. Suddenly, a youthful voice shouted.

“Hey!”

I turned around and met eyes with an ash-haired boy.

“You, you!”

The boy who spoke to me was kneeling in a corner of the living room with his hands raised high.

Next to him, a boy with identical features was sitting in the same position.

‘They’re twins?’

“You, come here!”

One of the twins pointed at me. It seemed they had been caught after sneaking away from the auction house.

‘Are they being punished?’

Even though the academy term had ended, they hadn’t come home right away.

The punishment they were receiving now appeared to be for running away without a word.

‘So they do get punished.’

Considering the twins’ future temperament, I had thought they might just run away saying, ‘Why should I receive this kind of punishment!’

Just then, one of the twins called out to me again, panting.

“You, I said come here!”

The other one shook his head with a disgusted expression.

‘But why is he so angry?’

I glanced around nervously. Though still young, these were the famous twins from the original story.

If they just lifted a finger, they could make someone like me disappear without a trace.

I approached carefully, trying not to irritate them.

“Did you call me?”

“Yes!”

The boy who had been panting earlier burst out in anger.

“You said it!”

“What?”

“That we were at the auction house!”

I blinked my eyes. Belatedly realizing the meaning of his words, I waved my hands in panic.

“No, no!”

“If it wasn’t you, then who?”

Although I had almost spoken without realizing it, I hadn’t said a word about the twins.

“I didn’t say anything!”

The boy showed no sign of easily believing my words. Soon, his eyebrows twitched menacingly.

Magic began to ripple from his two hands raised above his head.

I gasped.

I had just seen Rebecca suffering terribly from that energy.

‘He’s thinking of attacking me too…!’

I needed to avoid it, but my legs were stiff from tension.

‘What should I do?’

As I was wondering if I should scream, an unexpectedly welcome figure appeared on the stairs.

“Daiban, raise your hands properly.”

The duke was coming down the stairs from the second floor.

The duke sternly corrected the boy’s posture. The boy whose posture had slackened straightened up and raised his hands high.

‘So that boy is Daiban.’

If the angry one was Daiban, then the other must be Michael?

Unlike Daiban, Michael didn’t even glance at me. I remembered that in the original story, Michael was said to have a calmer personality than Daiban.

“Papa!”

I quickly hugged the duke’s legs.

‘Wow, that was really scary.’

I wanted to tell the duke everything. That Daiban had tried to attack me.

But the twins had become part of the duke’s family before me. I didn’t want to cause discord between family members.

I thought if I clung tightly to the duke, they wouldn’t be able to attack. That’s why I had hugged the duke’s legs, but the duke picked me up.

“Why are you out so early in the morning?”

“I’m thirsty…”

“You could have called a servant. Don’t tell me they didn’t come when you called?”

I quickly waved my hands at the duke’s misunderstanding.

“No, no! I just came out on my own. By the way, why are you up so early, Papa?”

As I tried to change the subject subtly, I felt a sharp gaze from the side.

Feeling something strange, I glanced over to see Daiban glaring at me intensely.

‘What, what is it…?’

As I awkwardly scratched my cheek, Clemens came down to the living room, drawn by the commotion.

Daiban’s face lit up when he saw Clemens.

“Elder brother!”

Daiban called out to him happily. If he hadn’t been in the middle of punishment, he would have rushed over to him immediately.

“You two.”

Clemens narrowed his eyes upon discovering the twins.

At his gaze, Michael subtly averted his eyes, while Daiban maintained a cheerful expression regardless.

“Elder brother, have you been well?”

“No thanks to you.”

“Elder brother, I had something to tell you. About what you taught me last time,”

“We’ll talk later. Little one, you’re up early?”

Ignoring Daiban’s chatter, Clemens strode towards me. Daiban’s words cut off abruptly.

“Yes! I came out for a moment because I was thirsty.”

“Is that so? I’ll bring you some water, go back upstairs first.”

The duke carried me straight to my room. Clemens followed us after fetching some cool water.

And I failed to notice. That there was someone following us with fiercely burning eyes.

[This is the timeline separator]

I was able to hear from the duke about why the twins were being punished in the living room from early morning.

“Because they wandered around the empire without a word even after the academy break started.”

The duke and Clemens had been worried about not hearing from the twins.

I heard that Chrissy and Gezwil had quite a hard time searching, but it seems they managed to find the twins.

I quenched my thirst with the water Clemens brought. Clemens shook his head and said:

“Turns out they were hiding in the auction house, fooling us completely.”

So that’s why he had looked at the twins with such a reproachful gaze earlier. Apart from Clemens’ anger, I felt a pang of guilt.

Actually, I had seen the twins at the auction house too.

‘But I couldn’t say anything.’

Before seeing the twins, I had also seen Rebecca. I didn’t want to tell the duke and Clemens about Rebecca.

They must have worried a lot about me that day anyway. Besides, the twins had also given me a stern warning before leaving.

‘You can’t tell Father that you saw us, okay?’

“Father, how about assigning Yan to Diane for a while? Even inside the mansion.”

At Clemens’ suggestion, the duke seemed to contemplate. But I didn’t want that.

“I’m fine.”

“But Diane, those kids are so unpredictable…”

“I want to become friends with the twins too.”

Clemens probably made this suggestion because he saw Daiban getting angry with me earlier.

But Daiban had just misunderstood, and such a small misunderstanding could be cleared up.

However, if I went around with an escort before clearing up the misunderstanding, it might look like I was drawing a line with the twins first.

Hearing my opinion, the duke stroked my head and said:

“We were planning to formally introduce you to the twins at breakfast this morning anyway. You should be able to become friends after that.”

As soon as morning came, I finished getting ready diligently and went down to the dining room.

I waited for the twins to come down with a mix of anticipation and excitement.

However, the twins did not come down for breakfast that morning.