Chapter 4

Wanting to Escape (3)

I spent a few days in my room organizing my thoughts after reminiscing about my past life.

When I read the original novel in my previous life, I certainly did not dislike Ian Wade.

On the contrary, I valued him highly.

Even though we had been intertwined with bad relations, my feelings for him changed as I recalled my past life and saw the situation more objectively.

The hatred for no reason disappeared and only objective judgment remained.

He was pretty much a generous, normal man, although sometimes he did intend to ignore others a bit.

The only heir to the Duke of Wade, also known for his upright chivalry, lived up to his name.

Annabelle probably wouldn’t have survived if he had a slightly odd personality.

No matter what I did and spewed insulting remarks, he just ignored it, saying, ‘you shouldn’t have personal feelings when facing the sword’.The vessel itself was a different person from the past me, who had all kinds of personal emotions.

So I was not so unwilling to save him from danger.

‘But I’m sorry too.’

No matter how much I recalled the memories of my past life, there was no villain without a story.

My mother, Caitlyn, married a poor downfall aristocrat, gave birth to Reid, and lost her husband a few years later.

She had since been obsessed with fixing her fate.

Being desperate, she seduced the Marquis of Abedes, and succeeded by getting pregnant and giving birth to me.

After she succeeded in correcting her nephew by asking a high-ranking nobleman, Caitlyn began to dream bigger.

From a very young age, it was accidentally discovered that I had a knack for swordsmanship, so Caitlyn teamed up with Reid and brainwashed me like crazy.

They would say Annabelle Nadit was a worthless person if she didn’t win first place in the swordsmanship contest.

When I was a child, she told me not to settle for nothing, and she even had me write a memorandum to hand over all of my inheritance to Reid.

Even after she died in a wagon accident, Reid continued to push me for first place.

“Your mother died without seeing you win first place because you didn’t work hard. So at the end, you have to win first place and show it to your mother in heaven.”

In the meantime, I was engulfed in guilt and trained hard, even though it wasn’t my fault. That’s why I hated Ian, who was the reason I couldn’t get first place.

But there was something else that I really hated.

‘Just because we share some blood doesn’t mean we have a good relationship.’

In my mind, no matter how much my mother was the same, I wanted to cut off ties with Reid and live as a stranger to him.

But, all the property was under the control of Reid, and I had zero money.

‘The more I think about it, the more I feel wronged. Isn’t that really shitty? You only gave me a maid after all the prize money from my swordsmanship contest.’

Caitlyn’s extravagance flooded into my memory of her not buying me a decent dress.

In a nutshell, the mansion was quite colorful and spacious, but my room was narrow and dark, and I wondered if even a single piece of furniture was properly equipped.

Caitlyn and Reid left me on the training ground all day, going to fine restaurants and shopping together.

Each time, I hung on to the sword with the hope that if I got first place in the swordsmanship contest, I could be happy with them.

The result was something like this:

A pitiful woman in a situation where she has no choice but to be attached to Reid because she has no foundation other than her excellent swordsmanship.

‘I don’t want to live with him anymore.’

I made up my mind.

‘I’m leaving the house after I play around with Reid’s ploy just before the competition.’

There’s no reason to live with Reid after things were sorted out.

‘Let’s just be a swordsman, make money, and go on dates. There are handsome guys everywhere.’

I’m only one of the supporting roles that wouldn’t even appear in the original unless I got involved with Ian Wade.

So, it was enough to enjoy the world in a small way.

Having planned my future, I hummed and left the mansion.

It was time to go see Ian.

All I had to do was to spit out abusive language to avoid suspicion.

~*~

The knights were in full swing at the Duke ofWade’s residence.

“Let’s have some snacks.”

Aaron brought a tray with a big smile.

“I personally asked my father for a special snack.”

Aaron’s father was the head chef at the Duke of Wade.

All the knights looked at Aaron’s tray with anticipating eyes.

“Ohh, hah.”

The knights who participated in the escort of the High Priest yesterday couldn’t help but burst into laughter and quickly looked at Ian.

There was a mountain of sandwiches in the tray.

“I’ll give you a quiz.”

Aaron jokingly asked a young knight who did not escort yesterday and was only cheering without knowing the truth.

“Let’s say you were eating a sandwich and a cockroach came out. How many would be the worst?”

“What? Um… two? Three?”

The knight added, tilting his head.

“Anyway, wouldn’t the more the merrier?”

“I was thinking that, but someone gave me a very big realization yesterday.”

Aaron continued very seriously.

“The answer is…”

But he couldn’t finish his sentence.

That was because Ian spoke eerily with his red eyes flashing.

“Bring a special snack and shut up if you don’t want to be particularly beaten.”

“Oh my. I’m hurt.”

Aaron let out an exaggerated sigh.

“The wounds that you just inflicted on me…”

He looked up at the sky with a sad look on his face.

“In that sense, I’m thinking of keeping about ten pigeons as pets, what do you think?”

“Aaron Rainfield.”

Ian pulled out a sword.

“You’re my opponent all afternoon.”

Aaron became contemplative and took a step back from him, but he did not stop his speech.

“No, how the hell is Miss Annabelle doing that every day? Without saving poor Aaron Rainfield from this crisis!”

At Aaron’s words, the lips of the knights all began to twitch.

Ian was a blunt and refined man, but he was indifferent to his surroundings and generously overlooked most of the work.

Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to joke or prank him. It was because he was talented, his work was clear, and his impressions were cold.

There were only two people in the world who spoke to him openly except for his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Wade.

Annabelle Nadit, who took second place in the swordsmanship contest, and Aaron Rainfield, the lieutenant.

The two were inferior to Ian, but they had one thing in common: their great talents were recognized by everyone.

“Isn’t it possible that she fell ill from the darts in her back yesterday?”

Ian responded coldly to Aaron’s desperate words.

“Don’t worry, she’s fine.

“Oh oh?”

As soon as Ian finished answering, Aaron’s dark blue eyes gleamed with interest.

“How did you know that Miss Annabelle was fine?”

Aaron did not miss the slight moment of embarrassment that passed in Ian’s eyes.

“Maybe you’ve been tossing and turning all night thinking about the unexpected antics, and then sent a servant in the middle of the night to find out. You didn’t do that, did you?”

Fortunately, Ian didn’t have time to answer Aaron’s rapid fire-like remarks.

“Ian Wade!”

When there was a person who easily escaped the gatekeepers and entered the training ground without any prior notice.

“I am here!”

Her unstoppable roaring voice, high-tipped pale purple hair, dark blue eyes, and the same gray training suit.

It had been a while since Annabelle Nadit appeared.

Ian sighed softly and looked around her quietly and said.

“Stand back. There is no one else I can fight against.”

The people of the Knights of Wades already split up and were seated in the corner of the training ground.

Of course, they didn’t move away so quietly from the beginning.

Many hard-liners said that they should not let Annabelle go, who always visited them without proper procedures to apply for a match.

But they all fell to Annabelle’s sword.

Not a single one of them could stop her from running to Ian, and the conclusion was the same.

After all, the only person who could subdue her was Ian.

Aaron might be able to fight her for quite some time, but Aaron had even said, ‘I can’t bring myself to even hold my sword at her’.

Strangely, she never stepped up to the plate with an excuse that was not the same.

So, they would watch the match between the two with excitement from a certain moment, and then laugh as the defeated Annabelle would run away while spewing out all kinds of swear words.

But today was a little strange.

Annabelle stood in front of Ian with courteous manners.

It was certainly bizarre considering that she usually just ran away with no manners.

She then slowly drew her sword.

The knights looked at the two who were facing each other while holding their breath, tense as usual.

~*~

“What? Oscar made his own sandwiches? And you sent it to the knights as a special snack?”Leslie, Duchess of Wade, banged the table.

The Duke’s head chef, Oscar Rainfield’s sandwich was not easy to get a hold of.

She ordered him to make them right away, but he replied that he would need to go shopping again since he ran out of ingredients.

“How can I wait an hour! There must have been at least one left behind on the training ground!”

Leslie jumped up with the thought that if it wasn’t there, she would even steal one from her son, Ian.She was now a Duchess, but she came from a poor commoner family.

Therefore, she had no intention of doing anything, such as weighing her body to see what she could eat.

She was an excellent swordsman, and she knew that sending any maid would be slower than her going herself.

Jumping faster than anyone else, she stopped by the training ground after a long time, and was slightly surprised by the scene unfolding in front of her.