CH 150

Gerald, whose facial muscles didn’t even twitch as usual, saw Warren, and his eyes narrowed for a moment.

Aah, that’s the face that says he didn’t want to see me.

Because the sons of Warren were all raised to be paladins from an early age, their emotions were very subtle. Even among his siblings, the youngest son Gerald was particularly hard to read.

Although it was hard to read, it didn’t mean Warren couldn’t understand it.

Gerald’s face seemed to say he didn’t want to see Warren right now.

It was because Gerald was aware he would be reprimanded if he met Warren.

Since Gerald was aware of it, Warren opened his mouth to act according to Gerald’s expectations.

“Oh, where are you going?”

Warren asked such a teasing question.

It didn’t need to be said why Gerald came to this place, since he was the person in charge of escorting the purple star.

The reason Warren asked despite that was out of sarcasm.

“…I came here to see how Sophie-sama is doing.”

“See how she is doing, huh? Originally, aren’t you supposed to be by her side to protect her instead of seeing how she is doing, especially as the person in charge of escorting her?”

Even though they were aware their voices wouldn’t reach Sophie’s room, they still avoided using words that might make others think they were parent and child.

They wanted to avoid overconfidence as it might lead to undesirable results. That was even more the case for Warren, who swore to not look at the purple star girl as a fourteen-year-old girl just earlier.

“Are you aware of your role?”

“I fully understand it. However, it is the order of ‘that person’.”

Warren also knew that.

That was why he let it slide until now.

“How is the progress?”

When Warren asked briefly, Gerald’s gaze fell to the floor.

Gerald seemed to have not found it yet.

Warren already expected it would turn out that way, ever since he heard the contents of the order.

I don’t think Gerald can successfully carry out that order, thought Warren.

The reason Warren didn’t say anything about it despite that was because he was curious about how Gerald would respond to the setback.

Even so, it was hard to give a passing grade to Gerald’s result, so Warren put his hand on his mouth and sighed exaggeratedly.

“I see. So you think as long as you carry the order faithfully, you don’t care how much time it would take, huh.”

“Such a thing is…”

“You are too slow to judge your incompetence. How do you plan to make up the time you have wasted?”

“I have heard that Sophie-sama didn’t feel inconvenienced about that, though.” 

“That meant it didn’t matter even if you weren’t there. That’s the judgment Sophie-sama gave to you.”

Gerald calmly listened to Warren’s merciless words, but Gerald’s blue eyes shook slightly as he heard that. For Gerald, who barely changed his facial expression at all, that was a comparatively easy-to-understand show of agitation. 

Warren had a soft smile on his mouth, but his words sharply delivered additional attacks.

“You have too little sense of crisis toward Sophie-sama’s acceptance of your failing to do your responsibility as the person in charge of escorting her. You ought to pay more attention to people’s thoughts and tendencies.”

Gerald shouldn’t have paid attention only to the purple star girl, but also to his surroundings—that included the students of the black star, but Warren chose to convey it in a vague manner on purpose and stopped there.

The moment Gerald became a paladin, Warren already inwardly considered that Gerald already graduated from the status of being his son and become a knight who would protect the nation and its ruler.

Warren had no intention of spoiling Gerald or pointing everything out in detail. If answers were kept being given, the mind would stop thinking. As a result, a person might become a doll that only moves as ordered. Warren didn’t want that.

While trying to grasp the true intention of his silent father, Gerald pondered for a while and asked, “May I ask for some more time?”

I think it’ll be useless though.

Lining up a reasonable excuse to avoid command and create an environment where they concentrate on their original duty was a necessary ability, but it seemed Gerald still lacked the ability in that department.

Was it because of youth that Gerald thought every task given had to be accomplished?

Warren swallowed the voice of his inner thought and furrowed his eyebrows before reluctantly accepting.

But that didn’t mean Warren was convinced.

Warren gave the condition that until said order progressed to a considerable degree, Gerald wasn’t allowed to visit Sophie’s dorm, which made Gerald’s eyes go wide for a moment.

“That’s…”

“I don’t want you to mistakenly think that you are carrying out your responsibility just by periodically visiting Sophie-sama and seeing how she is doing.”

Never forget the fact that it is a dereliction of your duty.

With that said, Warren pointed in the direction of the front door.

Implicitly being urged to leave, Gerald looked back, gave a bow, and proceeded to leave.

However,

“—Wait.”

After taking a few steps, Gerald was stopped by the very person who asked him to leave for some reason.

Gerald turned around, thinking Warren still had something he forgot to say, but he didn’t expect his father’s face to be closer than he expected, which made Gerald almost take a step back by surprise.

Apparently, Warren’s skill didn’t decline even after retiring, and that agile movement didn’t even leak a single noise.

Since Warren’s presence completely disappeared, Gerald failed to notice it until he looked back, despite Warren being so close to him.

Something similar to frustration filled Gerald’s chest.

“…Is there something else?”

Gerald hid his agitation and asked as expressionless as possible, yet Warren didn’t answer Gerald’s question and just looked into Gerald’s eyes silently.

Warren’s expression wasn’t that of trying to see through others he had just now, but a serious expression as if desperately trying to see something invisible.

What on earth was Warren looking at?

Gerald only realized Warren’s gaze was on Gerald’s insignia after Warren sighed loudly.

“Here I thought my eyes hadn’t declined.”

Yet I still can’t see the difference even though I’ve lined them up side by side, thought Warren as he dropped his shoulders in disappointment, which was rare for him. Gerald didn’t understand what his father meant and could only stand in silence.