In the training grounds of the Academy at lunchtime.

Students who had finished their classes walked toward the cafeteria while talking about the events of the day’s lessons.

The content of the lesson was difficult.
The professor always spouted nonsense.
Students grumbled that the professor expected too much from them.

Among them, a group of female students with bright smiles were engaged in girlish chatter.

-Michail, wasn’t he just amazing today?

-Exactly, in the duel with the professor he was evenly matched, and oh that moment! When he sighed deeply and wiped the sweat away, how sexy he looked… I got scolded for gawking at him by the professor.

-You were staring quite blatantly.

-But I still filled my Michail quota for today!

-Puhaha!

Michail quota.

This was the students’ own code for appeasing their weary eyes marred by the burly male students of the swordsmanship department by gazing upon the handsome Michail.

“Sigh…”

Hanna let out a long sigh as she observed the giggling group of female students.

‘Instead of studying…’

Hanna felt out of place among the group.

Hanna passed by the female students and walked towards the training grounds, preferring to swing her sword even during meal times rather than eat.

She wanted to advance her swordsmanship skills further than now, and not wanting to waste meaningless time, Hanna was crazy about practicing.

‘I will have to brag to the butler…’

Her goal had strangely shifted.

Hanna lacked social skills. She was more focused on swordsmanship than on making friends.

Even before meeting Ricardo, Hanna gave more weight to swordsmanship than to friends. Additionally, as the youngest person ever to awaken her Aura, she was not viewed favorably by her classmates.

It was always the case.

Envy towards someone who is successful.

Hanna didn’t pay much attention to such gazes.

Rather, she encountered a different problem.

‘I’m going crazy. I can’t stop thinking about him…!’

Recently, Hanna’s mind was filled with the red-haired butler. When practicing swordsmanship, when attending lessons, she would think of the butler she met not long ago, preventing her from concentrating.

-Why do you think you can’t beat Michail?

-You can do it, Miss Hanna.

She constantly remembered the butler who had looked at her with unwavering belief.

-Giggle…! Ah~ I want to see Michail again.

The female students were excited.

They were oddly thrilled, having heard that Michail had awakened his Aura and saved them in the dungeon.

Hanna let out a deep sigh as she watched them.

“Did I used to be like that…”

As someone who once had a crush on Michail, Hanna didn’t exactly see the girls’ behavior as endearing.

Although she didn’t pick up a dropped towel and vow to treasure it for life like a girl in front of her had over Michail, she had observed him from a distance in a similar fashion.

It was not a wish to continue closer relations.

She had admired Michail, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was no different from them.

‘Ugh…’

Hanna shuddered at the memory of her past self.

“I should just practice.”

There was nothing better to rid herself of these idle thoughts than practice.

Hanna quietly grasped her sword and swung it in the empty training grounds, where everyone else had left.

I wonder what the butler would say if he saw me.

-What are you doing without eating? You’re going to harm your body… It’s all done in the service of living, isn’t it. Hurry up and come back. If you don’t, you’ll be scolded by the young lady.

‘That’s what he would say.’

Hanna smiled to herself, but then shook her head as if to rid herself of the thought.

‘I must be crazy, thinking of him again…!’

Hanna found herself irritated by Ricardo, who kept living rent-free in her mind.

With the sword in hand, Hanna became deeply engrossed in thought.

‘Love… it can’t be.’

It didn’t feel like enough to label it as love.

The person who took her out of her confined, caged life.

She couldn’t call her desire to repay him in some form, even physically, as love.

After all, he was the one who led her to awaken her Aura and the first to stand up to her father, who was the only commander of the Empire’s knights.

‘Gratitude is the right word.’

A father who resents her, a brother who ignored her, a sister who treated her as nonexistent.

The person who pulled her out of that tightly sealed cage where she had lived her whole life was not Michail or the professor but a butler she had only met briefly.

That’s why his image loomed so large over her.
It seemed different from the emotion of love.

Love… that’s an emotion that would hinder swordsmanship.

The books say love is when you tremble after seeing the other person and your heart flutters.

An emotion where you constantly want to see and be by their side.

For Hanna, that was a hard feeling to understand.

Although she wanted to see him daily and wanted to be by his side for a lifetime, even that wish seemed to be an extension of her gratitude for the immense favor he had done for her.

For Hanna, who had no romantic experience, the feeling of love was too complex.

While her friends enjoyed rosy academy days with their fiancés or boyfriends, she herself was completely immersed in swordsmanship.

She didn’t have the personality to warmly approach others.

Stern and preferring sword practice over play, Hanna had not been interested in love.

Lost in these meaningless reflections, standing motionless in the training grounds.

“…Hanna.”

A familiar face appeared before her eyes.

A man with silver hair.

The most popular person at the Academy was in front of her, holding a practice sword.

Hanna, startled by his unexpected appearance, stammered.

“Michail, senior.”

Michail was in front of her, obstructing her path with his sword.

Michail held his sword lightly and politely asked her.

“Would you be able to spar?”

A duel with Michail.

If it had been before, she would have trembled with joy muttering, ‘With me… You want to spar?’ But now, the thought of sparring with Michail wasn’t entirely welcome.

Apart from being recognized by the butler and receiving an award, she had also opposed the senior students during a student council meeting.

She didn’t regret her actions, but it was uncomfortable to face him now.

Hanna lifted her sword with an awkward smile.

“Yes… I can do it.”

Michail nodded and stomped on the ground.

With a ‘thud’, the practice swords clashed, burrowing fiercely into each other’s embrace.

Hanna prized speed in her swordplay. Michail, even though slower, exhibited precise postures that unleashed his full strength.

Their swords met quickly, but it was Hanna’s blade that first reached Michail’s side.

“Ugh…”

Michail cringed, twisting his body to barely dodge Hanna’s blade.

Hanna did not give Michail any chance to recover.

Once at the neck.
Once at the thigh.
And again at the side.

To Hanna’s eyes, Michail’s unwary parts were blatantly exposed. It was a swordplay that was neither focused on defense nor decisively concentrated on attack.

Hanna clicked her tongue.

‘I used to think such swordplay was impressive.’

It was swordplay with no lethality.

Focusing not on victory, but on overpowering the opponent.

In Michail’s benevolent swordplay, Hanna felt emptiness; she could sense his nature of not truly aiming to harm but rather appearing to take it easy on the opponent.

-You’re thinking too basic. Below. Above. The side. Even after ten matches, my grandmother could predict the next attack.

-Isn’t building from the basics important?

-The basics are just that, the basics.

Ricardo, who had trampled over Hanna’s past pride in her swordsmanship.

Without any concessions for being a woman or holding back, he knocked her down and picked her up, then knocked her down again, helping her find a swordsmanship style that suited her.

And then.

-As long as I’m with you, you won’t die.

They had even engaged in battles that demanded their all.

The Michail Hanna looked at now did not invoke those feelings. He was using an indecisive swordplay as if waiting for a hero and employing only passive techniques, which felt tedious to her.

Michail attempted to harness his Aura.

His Aura shone with a golden light, appearing like a mirage.

“…”

It was clumsy.

For sure, Hanna’s past self must have been the same, but Michail senior’s Aura neither seemed frightening nor potent.

Disliking the notion that he was not seriously trying to defeat her, Hanna frowned and confronted Michail.

“Senior. Are you not taking this seriously?”

The desire to face him waned. She thought awakening his Aura meant he’d be a decent sparring partner…

This was neither a labor of love.

Disappointed in Michail’s performance, Hanna put down her sword and said.

“I don’t want to.”

“What…?”

“What are you trying to do? You don’t aim to win, no sharp attacks… Are you just a guard wandering the streets? What kind of swordsman focuses merely on overpowering?”

With no instinct for the kill, Hanna’s flat swordsmanship made her turn away and leave the spot.

Michail stood vacantly at the training grounds, gazing hollowly at the sword in his hand.

***

After class and under the setting sun.

Hanna stared vacantly at the crimson sunset and let out a deep sigh.

-A birthday present for you.

‘It just won’t leave my head.’

Whenever she saw the sunset, memories of that day surfaced.

The sunset dyed red.

The warmth of the butler’s embrace, who easily defeated a powerful adversary she met for the first time and protected her against her father’s demand to drop the sword, still felt warm as if lingering around her.

“Hah…”

Maybe I should have taken a leave of absence.

She wanted to see the butler.

Hanna looked at the letter in her hand.

[Histania Rowen]

It was a letter from her father.

She knew its contents without opening it.

It’s dangerous, put away your sword.

It’s the same letter that comes each time.

Even after proving herself, her father refuses to believe in her, and even though she awoke to her Aura faster than he ever did, his indifference only answered with urgency. Hanna’s sigh grew with each reminder from her pressing father.

“How annoying.”

Every time like this, she can’t help but think of the butler.

Most people would think of their parents when troubled… but for me…

Hanna stroked her pallid face and heaved a deep sigh as she got up.

Rising from her spot while looking at the red sunset.

-Ding.

-A quest has emerged.

[Q. If he had never been there…]

A strange blue window appeared right before her eyes,