Chapter 11

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Ben frowned as if her question was absurd for an unknown reason.

“Suddenly, what…..”

Ben’s unfinished words scattered in the air. Vivian looked at Ben again with a relaxed smile.

“Sir Knight seems to have doubts about my abilities.”

The words thrown after an unknown question were explicit.

Ben, flinched at the straightforward remark then straightened his chest as if he had nothing to lose.

“That’s right. My Lady, who doesn’t know much about the situation, seems to be willing to follow us to gain some merit.”

Although honorifics were used, the truth was that he was busy demeaning her.

Vivian nodded as if she were sympathetic to Ben. Next to her, Roger leaned against the desk and looked at Vivian with interesting eyes.

“A lot of people do. I don’t know how to use a sword nor how to fight with my body. That’s why you might think I won’t be able to do it.”

Her voice was too powerful to admit her weakness.

“I feel that every time. Oh, the remaining spiritists are a very rare existence.”

“What?”

“You don’t know what kind of skills I have.”

The look in her eyes was ingrained with confidence. They didn’t know why, but when she met Ben’s eyes, he looked like he was out of breath.

No, it was like he was being choked.

Ben suddenly couldn’t breathe and grabbed his neck. His sudden act left the other vice captains’ mouths wide open.

“Why, Hyuk…..”

Ben’s legs wobbled and his knees sank. As he couldn’t inhale air, it quickly blurred his vision and clouded his mind. At this rate, it would not be strange for him to pass out soon.

Ben’s eyes looking down suddenly caught sight of two feet. They were white shoes that did not go with the Eckhart Knights’ palace and also did not match the rugged knights’ feet.

At that moment Ben realized.

That young lady, the aristocrat whom he despised so much, did something to him.

Ben raised his head toward Vivian, with his eyes glaring at her that he could barely keep open.

“I could kill you here without a single touch.”

Vivian said calmly as soon as their eyes met. Unlike Ben, who was just slumped at the corner, her posture was relaxed.

“It is ridiculous for such a lord to judge me.”

Vivian did not do anything more and shut off her ability as she was only giving him a warning. As soon as she finished, the air poured through every hole in Ben’s body like waves. Only then was Ben able to escape the choking pain.

Ben coughed violently and touched the floor. As the situation seemed to be getting serious, Roger stared blankly at Vivian, surprised by the situation that had happened in an instant.

“What did you do?”

Roger asked, glancing at Ben, whose chest was heaving violently.

It was the first ability he’d seen in his whole life. In particular, it was unfamiliar to knights who only used swords as weapons and were only skilled in swordsmanship.

“I used the properties of the earth to briefly dissipate the air distributed around the landscape.”

It was only then that Enka, standing at a distance, understood Vivian’s question. The question was whether this place is connected to the land.

Vivian was able to use her powers because the ground was right underneath the building. In other words, it meant that everything breathing on the ground was within Vivian’s brutal capability.

Having barely come to his senses, Ben stood up with shaky legs. The face that came out was white as if it had met a demon. His previous behavior, that was gutting Vivan until a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen.. Tainy helped while clicking his tongue like a rebuke.

“……Is that possible?”

Roger asked again as if her explanation did not come across well.

Vivian nodded and looked at Ben, who managed to pull himself up. She didn’t care if he didn’t.

“Actually, I don’t care whether you complain about me or not. That doesn’t change the fact that I was knighted by His Majesty and commissioned to investigate the West.”

Vivian’s fine voice cut through the strangely frozen atmosphere.

No one said a word, but they understood her ability as a spiritist. Given what she did to Ben a while ago, if she was wronged again, no one would survive.

The room, which realized this fact at the same time, was filled with silence.

“Pfft”

Before long, a laughter that didn’t match the atmosphere broke out .

Vivian turned her head toward the place where the laughter came from. The culprit was Roger standing next to her. The brief laughter soon turned into a cheerful laugh. Roger covered his mouth with his fist and laughed for a long time as if something was so funny.

I never saw him smile so brightly in my dreams. Vivian opened her mouth in surprise.

Soon Roger stopped laughing and came a step closer to Vivian.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t laughing at the Lady’s words. It’s just that things are fun.”

“It’s okay….”

Vivian was so dazed that she didn’t have time to be offended.

Roger, who stopped laughing, turned his head and looked at Ben, who was reaching out to Vivian, among others. The gleaming eyes were fierce unlike before.

“Lady Lector is right. Ben, whatever you say, it’s a fact that Lady’s trip to the West will not change. And well, it goes without saying that’s enough.”

Tainy stood supporting Ben, blinking his eyes and nodding his head. He meant that he agreed with Roger.

“But you should apologize properly. What you’ve done to the Lady was rude.”

“…… I’m sorry for being rude.”

Ben said, biting his lower lip. After seeing that he couldn’t beat her, all his motivation disappeared. The pain from suffocating a while ago was a traumatizing experience that he had never felt before. It was also a pain that he didn’t want to go through again.

“Lady Lector is a knight whose title was personally conferred by His Majesty. You’re not someone who can question it. In the future, I will regard any discourtesy to Lady Lector as an act of disobeying me. Tell the others who aren’t here.”

Roger added in a lowered voice. Ben bowed his head as if he had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths.

Vivian quickly became a little intimidated by the desolate atmosphere. She didn’t use her powers to do this.

When the conversation was almost finished, Roger spoke to Vivian.

“Let’s wrap up today’s introduction here. I’ll see you off to the front of the palace.”

“What? Never mind. I can go by myself.”

“You are a guest, so I can’t do that.”

Crazy Dog saw her off, but Vivian smiled nonchalantly, even though she thought it was not good for her. Roger reached for the door and Vivian slowly moved. Before stepping out the door, Vivian bowed slightly to the three vice captains.

The two people left and the door closed.

Inside, where only the vice captains remained, Tainy scratched the back of his head as if something was wrong.

“That was weird. Don’t you think he was pretending to be nice today?”

“I guess he likes her.”

Enka spoke on behalf of Ben who had no energy to answer. Then Tainy laughed out loud, ‘haha’.

“What? Like? The leader? I’m sure he already does.”

“There could be a woman he likes, Lady Lector is beautiful.”

“How long have we been together? In that case, the Lady, who just came here, should have caught the eyes of the team leader. You know he is not the type to be taken aback by appearance.”

There was a lot of talk, but no clear answer.

At least one thing was certain. That Roger and Vivian they know are very different.

* * * 

“It’s because he’s low-born, but he’s a good-natured person.”

Towards the end of the palace, Roger suddenly opened his mouth. Blinking her eyes, Vivian quickly realized he was explaining Ben’s behavior.

Vivian smiled awkwardly as she got on the carriage that had already arrived.

“What about you?”

“I’m a mercenary, so I only know how to compare myself to others. My brain is full of muscles.”

“……You are a mercenary?”

She was aware of the fact that the knights belonging to the Eckhart Order came from quite rough backgrounds. But she thought it was half a joke. Rumors were supposed to be exaggerated.

However, when she heard that the battlefield was a workplace where chemical weapons flew like arrows, she thought that it would not be a false rumor.

“Then the other two vice captains…”

Vivian asked, recalling Enka and Tainy, who supported Ben.

“Those two aren’t easy either.”

“They were both mercenaries…..”

“They were both on death row before.”

At the end of his words, Vivian froze like a statue.

She doubted her ears.

“What are you saying now?”

“I said they were on death row before.”

She didn’t hear wrong.

Vivian couldn’t control her expression and hardened her face. For a moment, she remembered her parents’ words that they were worried about the Knights as much as the demonic beasts. Vivian now knows what they were talking about.

Roger smiled briefly, as if he understood her hardened reaction.

“There’s nothing to be wary of now that it’s in the past.”

It was not a very comforting remark. While Vivian was struggling to clear her worries, Roger, who grabbed the top of the door, shoved his upper body into the carriage. Rather than trying to get on the carriage, it seemed to be a move to get closer to her.

“More than that, Lady Lector.”

Vivian opened her eyes wide in surprise at his sudden approach.

“What?”

“Don’t you want to learn how to use a sword?”

“….Me?”

“There’s a little time left before we go West.”

Vivian rolled her eyes at the unexpected suggestion.

“I thought it wouldn’t be bad to learn. Maybe you’ll end up using a sword in the West. It’s not necessarily just for the Western mission, but it will also be a self-defense lesson.”

Roger calmly persuaded her, unlike how vicious he was at love making. Looking at him like this, she couldn’t tell which one he was. Vivian, who was agonizing, finally accepted his offer. That’s what happened when I tried to turn down his persistent eyes that only kept an eye on me.

“But who are you learning from?”

A big hand approached Vivian’s face, which asked questions. Vivian forgot to speak and breathed in.

His fingers, thickened by training and practice, rubbed lightly around Vivian’s eyes.

“Excuse me, there was dust.”

Vivian’s mind froze, to the point where she couldn’t even hear his greeting.

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