CH 274

Even if That Love Burns You

Ruby Etoile Redmoon met the love of her life when she was 10 years old. As the daughter of one of the empire’s Four Dukes, her life as a Redmoon was incredibly privileged. She was very athletic and good at both swordsmanship and horsemanship. The Duke was happy that she was better with a sword than her three younger brothers.

He would sometimes joke that instead of marrying her off, he would rather make her his heir and take in a son-in-law. People who heard him knew he was bragging in an exaggerated way because he was a proud father, but something about the way he said things always made it hard for them to ignore everything he said.

She knew what her father wanted from her and what he thought of her. Even though she was young, she worked hard to match and beat them. She was born with all the qualities of a hero, so the whole world should have been hers. The day she went with her dad to a routine army inspection, though, her life changed in a big way.

“Father, there are a lot of strong-looking people here.”

“Ha ha ha, yes, of course. Look closely at them. Doesn’t it get you pumped up to see these big men in all their powerful glory?”

Her father’s passion for finding good soldiers was so strong that it was called “Redmoon Headhunting.” Like any good fan, the Duke would get as excited as a child with his favourite toy when he finally got to see what he was so interested in.

They went on a tour of the army until her dad had to leave for a meeting with the army’s top leaders. Before he left, he told her, “If you get bored, ask them for a horse and ride it.”

Ruby did what he told her to do and went to the riding grounds. Having done quite a bit of horseback riding, the idea of being on a horse was nothing new. She didn’t give it much thought and just thought she’d ride around as usual to pass the time.

But something went wrong.

The horse she was riding all of a sudden lost its mind and started acting crazy.

“H-Hey! You! S-Stop! I told you to stop!”

She pulled on the reins with all her strength to try to stop the horse from running wild.

The sudden tug scared the horse, and it reared up hard.

“Ah—”

She felt like she was taking off.

The world turned around its centre.

The sound stopped.

As the ground got closer, time seemed to slow down to a crawl.

She shut her eyes tightly, and her whole body went still.

She had learned how to break a fall from the swordmaster she trained with, but everything happened too quickly.

Too suddenly.

She couldn’t make her body move how she wanted it to.

She couldn’t do anything but clench her teeth and wait for the pain that she knew was coming.

And then she stopped.

Just…stopped, and her body hung in midair without moving.

“…Huh?”

She couldn’t understand. She couldn’t do anything but stare blankly at the still ground. Her body was still stiff, ready for the impact.

“Are you okay, girl?”

She heard a man’s voice, which was deep and loud. She slowly opened her eyes and saw him.

Wow, he’s so big….

Vanos was trying not to scare the girl he had just saved from a bad fall by giving her a cute, awkward smile.

—

She would never forget that day.

The things she felt, like her heart beating fast and her chest getting tight, never left her. It might not have been anything important. Just a silly crush from her childhood, just like many girls her age would have fleeting moments of love that were nothing like real love.

A taste of love that wasn’t real. But that feeling didn’t turn into a sepia-toned memory of Ruby’s childhood love for him.

It grew. It shone. Like a golden treasure, its shine only gets brighter over time.

I’m going to have to see him again. See him. Talk to him. Afterward…

Slowly and quietly, that one desire pushed out all the others and became her life’s purpose.

As she got older and learned more about how the military worked, she got involved in the business of the Ebony Moon Ministry.

She had to know. The person who saved her… What was his name? Was he still alive?

She looked through the records of the ministry for clues. Things moved slowly. It took her years, but she finally found out who the man was.

Vanos was the second-in-command of a hundred-person squad.

The difficult part was over. Now that she knew who he was, she should be able to make him her own in a lot of ways. The easiest thing to do would be to put him in charge of the Redmoon’s private army. It would be easy to get the Ebony Moon Ministry to do that.

Since they knew her father liked to go “headhunting,” they wouldn’t be surprised if he showed interest in someone like Vanos. The plan should get approved with little trouble. Then she could take her time getting close to him and getting to know him.

The big difference in their social status would make it hard for them to be together. Their wedding would come at the end of a difficult journey.

But it didn’t matter. Her love was so strong that if she had to, she was ready to leave her home and family behind.

Ruby’s love was the best there was. She liked big men, the bigger the better, but she also liked men who were good.

Her love was fiery and came from the depths of her soul. Its heat came out of her as a fiery personality and burned her to a crisp inside. She would burn to the centre of her bones for love.

For now, her biggest wish was to be close to him. Just a few steps away.

But what she planned did not happen. Before she could do anything, he was taken by Princess Mia, who pulled him and his whole squad into the imperial guard.

The squad had always been a bit like a private mercenary company.

Because of that and the fact that the princess already had a lot of power over its members, the Ebony Moon Ministry had no choice but to follow her orders.

In the end, Mia took the man of Ruby’s dreams away from her, leaving her with the broken pieces of a failed plan.

“Now we’re getting involved in people’s love lives, are we? It looks like Her Highness can be a real fifth wheel,” she sputtered angrily at the sky.

Even though she let out her anger, she did not dwell on it. The fight was still going on. She had been trying for years to get the man she loved. She was not going to stop now. There was no way she was giving up.

Ruby has been waiting and watching for a chance to act ever since Mia started at Saint-Noel. When she thought the time was right, she moved quickly.

—

She wasn’t sure if her challenge would work, to be honest. Mia could just say no to the duel. The idea that a daughter of a duke would challenge a princess to a duel was almost too crazy to believe.

In Tearmoon, someone would never do something like that. So she did it here, at Saint-Noel Academy, while they were there. Under the control of the Central Orthodox Church and Saint Rafina, the academy was less strict about breaking social rules.

Since it was a place where young people hung out, trouble and fights happened almost every day. It was just not possible to treat every fight like it was a matter of family or world importance.

Also, based on what Esmeralda and Sapphias said, Princess Mia’s personality seemed to have changed recently, and she had become a more patient person who quickly forgot small offences. In that case, there was a chance that she would accept Ruby’s challenge.

Setting up the challenge at the stables and choosing Lin Malong as the witness were also both well-thought-out moves.

Malong caught Ruby’s eye because of his personality, and she had already looked into who he was. The best way to make sure the terms of the duel didn’t change was to challenge Mia at that specific place with him there.

Mia had been training hard for the Horsemanship Tournament, so she couldn’t look Malong in the eye and suggest a different way to fight.

So, Ruby was able to end the duel on her own terms. She had a huge advantage in the Horsemanship Tournament when she competed in an event.

A passage from a book about tactics that she had read before kept going through her mind.

Long before a battle starts, the tide starts to turn. Crossing swords is just a formality to show that the result is true. The real outcome is decided in the stage before this one.

So, in battle, the chance of losing was not something to think about.

But it wasn’t just that…

“It is about him that we are talking. I’m trying to get him for myself. I can’t imagine doing that without risking a limb or two. Or more. Or my life? Or the survival of my house? I couldn’t care less. All small prices to pay.”

Even if she couldn’t win, she would still do it.

And with pleasure. It didn’t hurt the most to lose. It was being kept from fighting.

When the prize was the person she loved, nothing hurt more than not even being able to try to win. The burning desire that had erupted in her at that terrible moment still burned her heart and soul to this day.

“Sir Vanos, I’ll get you on my side one way or another…”

Ruby Etoile Redmoon, the proud daughter of the Duke of Redmoon, was a passionate girl who lived and loved like a forest fire.

—

Mia, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on in Ruby’s mind…

“Yay, they finally made it. I have my carrot cake. So far, everything is going as planned. Now I can make him watch right in front of its face as I eat. This isn’t about getting even or anything else. That would be a very petty thing for me to do. It’s to get better at horsemanship by teaching that horse to respect me!”

She sang a happy song to herself as she walked to the stables.

“Hm hm, mmm hm hm… Ah, this is such a tasty cake,” she said as she showed it off to her enemy.

“Just take a look. Doesn’t it look tasty? Hm? You don’t want any, do you? Well, you can’t! Because I own it all! And I’m going to eat it right here while you—Eek! Wai— N-No! Stop! It’s mine! Give it— Aaaah! No! My cake!”

So, like a true friend, Mia gave Kuolan some of her carrot cake, and they got to know each other a little bit better.

The end.

For her carrot cake revenge plan, anyway.