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Abel Kalia assessed the battlefield under the protection of the knights.

The monsters that had invaded were moving with the intent to destroy key facilities, and a very small number of demons were currently approaching their central position.

Knowing that the lost demons posed no threat, he focused on the movements of the enemy.

‘…Their gaze is fixed here.’

It seemed they were targeting either him or Ray, who was crazily shooting arrows up ahead.

With his sharp instincts, Abel realized their interest lay with one of the two.

Thus, he pondered.

‘Even if Allen held a grudge against me, why him?’

If he were to fall while executing the anti-cult orders at the rear outpost, it would work in Allen’s favor. Eunice Kalia was an outstanding knight; wouldn’t it make more sense for them to target him instead of her?

But Ray was different.

Even though Allen’s subordinates held a reputation for their exceptional strength, they had their sights set on Ray. As if there was a pressing need to take him down.

‘If it weren’t for Young Lady Shione, things might have been troublesome.’

Among the enemies, there was a demon with a decayed body that had targeted Ray. However, the sharp arrows Shione was loosing and the combined efforts of other knights had brought it down.

While Ray was caught off guard and hadn’t felt the urgency in his situation, he could definitely sense their malicious intent aimed not just at him but also at Ray.

Just as he took down one demon, the enemies seemed to have lost the leisure to attack them further. The battle gradually began to conclude.

Thanks to that, Abel, feeling a sense of relaxation, focused on the sight of Ray burning the remaining demons with the flames of his spirit.

‘The stories I’ve heard weren’t lies after all.’

His prowess could not be described in mere masculine terms.

Even with his exceptional bloodline, Abel was unable to handle mana and thus was doing nothing at all.

Ray’s mana pool and his ability to regulate it vastly exceeded that of an average knight or wizard.

It was precisely because of this that Abel recalled a passage he had read in an ancient text at the Marquis’s mansion long ago.

‘Those who achieve great feats sometimes wield powers that stand above the rest.’

The text spoke of men who had been forsaken by mana overcoming many events and becoming capable of wielding even greater power than women, or perhaps even surpassing them.

This was the reason he enjoyed engaging in tactical studies and mock battles with strategists rather than indulging in conversations and gossip with other noble youths.

This was a border area, where friction occasionally occurred with the Imperial Army, which harbored ambitions of territorial expansion; perhaps in all this chaos, he could build up his own feats and stature.

‘…Impressive.’

He couldn’t help but regard Ray as a prophet walking the path he himself longed to take.

There were times when he felt lost and disheartened, questioning his different approach compared to other noble youths, but now he found it easy to shake off all those doubts.

It was then.

Swish—

An arrow sliced through the air, piercing something in the thick brush beside him.

The knights guarding him drew their swords, but the enemy’s speed was even faster. These were not ordinary cultists driven mad by their obsessions. They acted like priests who had received revelations, sacrificing their own lives to enhance their speed, prompting the knights to swing their swords without hesitation.

“Throw yourself to protect him!”

In an unexpected attack, one knight threw himself to block Abel.

However, just as a demon burst a thick smoke bomb, the situation started spiraling into a maze.

A chilling voice rang out.

“Tania, ignite it.”

In the dense smoke, the flames of the spirit were ignited.

Yet, it felt warm, not hot, to the allies, which was a peculiar comfort, and just as the ominous blade of a demon aimed for the knight’s armor—

Slash!

Someone had severed the demon’s neck.

A clean cut. The head and body fell apart, rolling on the ground as they succumbed to gravity.

As he beheld the fallen demon, Abel caught sight of Ray, who was sweating profusely.

“Standing idle in the back, at least keep an eye on the surroundings properly.”

He scolded the knights who were meant to guard him, exasperated.

“Are you not doing your duty as guards?”

Ray was Abel’s idol.

*

‘Tania, thanks for helping Elvis.’

─ Park Shin-woo, you bastard…

‘…?’

─ …Isn’t it too much to call me out after such a long time and immediately put me to work?

─ This time, I’m on your sister’s side. Dad was wrong.

It should have been a time to soothe the spirits, but.

Due to that knight Abel’s guards failing to properly slice down a single demon, I found myself quite low on mana.

Whatever they had put in that smoke, I didn’t know how lighting one up drained my mana by half, but feeling the sudden weakness and thanks to those shameless knights, it was hard to align my conversation with the spirits.

‘I’m really sorry, but my mana is a bit low right now, so I can’t help it.’

─ You can just drink a Mana Potion, can’t you? Don’t tell me you don’t want us anymore?

─…!

─ Shin-woo has changed.

Tania, who used to love drama, acted as if she wanted some consolation, but it was futile. If I left it as it was, she would surely find it amusing and go off on a tangent.

Thus, I summoned her right back, only to receive glances from Tania, who looked like she lost everything, and Elvis, who looked like he’d lost his spirit.

After the situation calmed down, we moved to verify the bodies of the demons that had assaulted.

‘First, the one I cut down.’

It was clearly different from ordinary demons.

It looked as though it had long since become a corpse, with decay spread across its body.

But it had still managed to move; it certainly had to have employed some dark magic…

The wizards and priests at the outpost would figure it out.

“This is a new type of demon I’ve never seen before. Hurry up with the investigation.”

“I understand.”

Since Abel had given that order, we decided to check the enemy Shione had dealt with, which was surprisingly commendable.

As we walked towards that direction, Shione began to pout.

“Ray, did you know it was dangerous back there?”

In truth, it wasn’t much of a danger at all.

With Elvis constantly relaying the enemy’s position, if they became aggressive, I had ordered Tania to act accordingly with my mana.

Still, seeing Shione worry about me made me smile pleasantly.

“In the end, didn’t Young Lady Shione protect me? I’m unscathed.”

“Still, this one felt different. It clearly attacked using mana, but I saw it disappear midway.”

“Disappeared mana? Are you sure you didn’t missee?”

“If I thought I saw it wrong, I wouldn’t say anything.”

Mana disappearing, huh? I thought I should remember that.

I lightly retorted to Shione’s whining as we arrived at the flower bed where the demon she had captured lay fallen.

In the central area of the flower bed, devastated, lay the demon. Eunice commented upon seeing it.

“It looks just like the one we confirmed earlier. Abel, it might be good to investigate together with the priest.”

“The more samples we gather, the quicker the results will come. We should request assistance with the restoration of the outpost too.”

After that, it was just simple conversation.

Having fought through battles and then come to this place for a brief rest, fatigue inevitably piled up on us.

Abel began to jot down what he had felt during the recent battle, moving with wizards and artisans for the outpost’s restoration. However, in the end—

‘I said I wanted to talk to you later.’

It bugged him somewhat that he wanted to have a meeting with me, but since the moment he’d mentioned wanting to ask something once things settled, I agreed with his request.

Furthermore, upon hearing reports about the condition of the Count’s knights accompanying Shione, Diolia went down first.

Eunice also mentioned that she would help her younger sibling and left, telling him to take a break, which left just Shione and me in the ruined flower bed.

Shione silently gazed at the shattered flower bed where the demon’s body had vanished.

‘Come to think of it, I remember this flower.’

I recalled having seen this flower in Shione’s thick plant dictionary.

It seemed that amidst all that had been happening lately, I had forgotten about flowers quite a bit, but after a bit of mental tug-of-war, I managed to recall the name of the flower.

“How unfortunate that the red hibiscus got all damaged.”

At my words, Shione, who had been quietly observing the injured flower, quickly turned to look at me.

The speed at which she turned was so fast that her flowing hair flew up and obscured her face.

“You knew the name of this flower?”

“Isn’t it the flower Young Lady Shione likes?”

“That’s right.”

Shione seemed flustered at my words, her cheeks slightly reddened.

“I remember it because I saw the folded pages in the dictionary I borrowed.”

“…Then what does it symbolize?”

Sorry, but I’m not someone who could read through a dictionary all day like Shione did.

I couldn’t tell her the flower’s meaning, so I shook my head.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know the meaning. But I can tell that it’s much prettier than the picture in the dictionary.”

At my words, Shione chuckled.

“If only it were blooming brightly instead of lying down and hurt, it would be even more beautiful. It’s a shame I can’t show you that.”

“I got curious about the meaning since you mentioned it. So would you tell me what it means instead?”

“That’s something, Ray. You should look it up later. Now we should go down and take a break.”

Finally, the sweet moment of rest had arrived.

*

A squire exists to serve their master. Their main purpose is to ensure that the one they serve can live comfortably and happily while also offering them small joys.

Although there had been tales of burning slave certificates and elevating status, she was still my squire and a slave.

Thus, I found myself doing chores I had not volunteered for, to bring joy to Shione, who was seeing a flower she liked for the first time in a while.

“Brings back old memories.”

As I stood amidst the ruined hibiscus bed, searching for the few remaining healthy ones, memories of the past flooded back.

“How huge and bear-like you were, yet you always got annoyed; you really loved flowers.”

The person who would lose their temper for no reason when asked to go outside would go out to see the new flowers blooming in the garden.

I still remember the momentary clarity in her blurry gaze.

Replaying those old memories, I glanced around and spotted a lone hibiscus blooming far away.

“I know I haven’t been getting proper rest lately, just like you, Shione.”

Wanting to relieve some stress for her, I decided to present her with a hibiscus.

Carefully, I cut the stem of the hibiscus and placed it in the vase I had prepared earlier.

With preparations finished, I knocked on the small lodging door where Shione was resting.

“It’s Ray. May I come in?”

“Come in.”

“Excuse me.”

As I stepped inside, I saw Shione sprawled on the bed.

She lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling, so I lifted the vase and said.

“I brought you a present, so could you take a look at this too?”

“A present? Cookies?”

“…It’s not food.”

“Ah, then I’m not really expecting anything—”

Shione froze for a moment upon seeing the hibiscus in my hands.

“…Isn’t that a hibiscus?”

“It’s just as you see.”

“There weren’t any good looking ones left… Where did you find this?”

“I wandered around a bit to find something for you, Shione.”

“By yourself?”

“Of course. Who would I ask to help finding flowers?”

“…….”

Shione shot up from her seat and grabbed the vase.

She glanced between the flower and me, then asked.

“Ray, you said you didn’t know what the red hibiscus symbolizes?”

Why was she asking something so obvious?

I shrugged, confirming my lack of knowledge.

Then Shione beamed at me, revealing the answer.

“Red hibiscus means connection.”

As she spoke, Shione set the vase gently on the table and walked over to me.

Suddenly, she grabbed my collar and pulled me down.

The unexpected strength lowered my height, leveling our eyes.

“How about it? You and I share the same flower meaning, huh?”

Shione pressed her lips against my forehead.

“You seduced me.”

 

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