A Time for Growth (2)
I quickly pulled off the headgear. Inside the familiar container barracks, I saw a hulking man with his wrist locked in Arsia’s iron grip.
“Sir Dalton?”
He was the Vanguard who had lectured me on the hospital train.
Dalton frantically tried to shake off Arsia’s hand, but it might as well have been a steel vise.
“What kind of freakish strength does this woman have!”
I reached for the Mankyung resting beside the bed and slipped it on.
The information made me frown. Among the listed states was a clear entry for sexual desire.
Oh? This son of a bitch…
I made him release Arsia and gave him a light shove.
“You had better explain this situation very carefully.”
If he had entered my room without proper justification, I would not overlook it even if he was a Vanguard.
“I was merely checking on the young master’s condition as his escort, since you have been inside the game for a long time. But this woman suddenly—”
I expressed my mood by driving my knee into his joint.
“Ugh! What the—?”
He clearly had not expected any resistance from the fool who only ever smiled like an idiot.
Dalton’s face filled with shock.
“Didn’t I tell you to send a message if anything happened? Besides, Arsia stands guard right beside me. Try a more believable excuse.”
Entering my quarters without the permission of the brigade commander and acting lord—how exactly was I supposed to interpret that?
Everyone already knew I had survived an assassination attempt.
“What, were you planning to kill me?”
“Those are harsh words! What exactly do you take me for? I am Dalton, a Vanguard!”
“Then make your actions make sense, you moron.”
I saw no reason to maintain polite speech with someone who showed me no respect.
I dropped the honorifics and kicked his joint again. The commotion drew the waiting knights rushing in from outside.
“Arsia. Tell me exactly what happened.”
The Mankyung had already shown me he had not come merely to relay the division commander’s orders.
At my question, Dalton’s murderous glare snapped toward Arsia.
The clear warning not to say anything unnecessary hung in the air.
But threats meant nothing to a homunculus.
“He attempted to separate me from Master Adrian.”
“So he tried to drag you away?”
“Correct.”
The first emotion the Mankyung had displayed was lust.
There was no chance he would feel that way toward me, the lord’s son, so the target had to be Arsia. It was not difficult to guess.
Every knight knew that once I entered the game I remained motionless for four or five hours, and that the beautiful Arsia simply sat beside me the entire time.
Since she was officially a commoner, he must have assumed he could silence her without consequence.
All the knights outside must be in on it.
It was a perfect illustration of how little my own family thought of me.
But Dalton had forgotten one crucial fact.
This was not the territory.
Cedric, the knight order’s powerful patron, was not here. I held the authority of brigade commander granted by the kingdom itself, and I was the acting lord fighting in my father’s place.
“Are you framing me?! Young master! Would you really doubt a Vanguard on the word of some unknown wench who crawled out of nowhere?”
That damn word again—Vanguard.
I gave a small, dry laugh at Dalton’s continued denial and held out my hand to Arsia.
She understood instantly. She drew the dagger from her belt and placed it in my palm.
“Violation of military regulations. No, this is outright insubordination, isn’t it?”
The mood in the room churned violently, but I ignored it. I leveled the blade at Dalton and gave the order.
“Come on. One step forward.”
The sword pointed straight at his abdomen. If he advanced even an inch, the edge would sink into flesh.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Commander, please calm down first.”
Dalton snorted in disbelief. The surrounding knights tried to intervene.
“Calm down? Like hell.”
I remained motionless, only twitching the sword’s tip.
They finally realized this was no empty threat. Every voice fell silent.
I had not been enduring all this time because I possessed a gentle personality.
I had simply killed my true nature to survive.
Here, beyond Anna and Cedric’s reach, I had no need to watch anyone’s eyes.
A perfect justification has appeared. Time to make an example of them.
“V-Vice-Commander William!”
William, vice-commander of the Lawrence Knights and overall knight commander of the expeditionary force, raised an eyebrow at the panicked subordinate sprinting toward him.
“What is it?”
Was the battle beginning?
Unless that was the case, William saw no reason for his man to be this agitated.
But the next words made him doubt his own ears.
“The brigade commander requests your immediate presence.”
“Who?”
“The brigade commander, sir. You must go at once.”
William let out a hollow laugh.
He had never imagined a day would come when he received orders from Adrian.
That simpleton was now commanding him to come and go.
“Why are you so flustered?”
“The brigade commander is raising hell about executing Sir Dalton. You really must hurry.”
What kind of absurd nonsense was this?
William could barely process the report.
At his subordinate’s urgent insistence that he would understand once he saw for himself, William finally moved. Even so, he maintained his composure.
Yet the moment he arrived at Adrian’s quarters—
-Whoosh!
A blood-stained dagger came flying straight at him.
William caught it effortlessly, but when he realized Adrian had thrown it, his brows drew together.
“Did you not hear me say to come quickly?”
Then he noticed Dalton on the floor, clutching a bleeding stomach and kissing the ground.
“May I ask what is going on?”
Adrian stared directly into William’s eyes, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“I find it impossible to understand, on any rational level, why a knight would harass his commander’s woman. What is your opinion, Vice-Commander?”
William glanced around at the other knights in confusion. When the men assigned as Adrian’s escorts averted their gazes, he immediately understood that Dalton and these soldiers had committed a grave error.
“What the hell were you bastards thinking!”
William’s face hardened as he barked at his subordinates.
He then turned back to Adrian, honestly admitting fault and begging forgiveness.
“This is entirely the result of my poor oversight. I am truly sorry. Please show mercy.”
Seeing such a reasonable reaction, Adrian clicked his tongue and kicked the groaning Dalton, who was still face-down on the floor. The man toppled over.
“I am stripping Sir Dalton of his Vanguard rank. Confiscate his weapons and throw him into the underground prison. Those three knights permitted his unauthorized entry and are therefore accomplices. Send them to the cells as well.”
“……”
“As long as I am commander, I will accept no objections.”
William did not like it, but the situation left him no room to refuse.
He nodded in understanding.
Adrian walked over and patted his shoulder.
“This place is not the territory.”
William remained rooted in place, speechless, until Adrian had left the room entirely.
“The smell of blood has ruined this room. I will move to the one next door. Have the servants clean everything.”
The knights watched William’s reaction as they examined Dalton’s wound. A heavy silence settled over the area.
“So that was his true nature?”
It was not a question directed at anyone—just a quiet mutter.
From William’s perspective the situation should have been infuriating, yet the corner of his mouth was curving upward.
It must have been hard for him to live while holding everything back until now.
William decided it was time to revise his opinion of Adrian.