Chapter 115

The next day.

“Aisha?”

“Kyle! We’re seeing each other in the morning today? I’m going to the royal castle again for my magic lesson!”

Kyle froze the moment he saw Aisha.

For some reason, the white dress she wore looked especially perfect on her today.

The arrowhead-like twin tails swaying as she ran toward him.

The brilliant smile that seemed bright enough to melt the white snow of the north.

“See you later, Kyle!”

“.......”

He couldn’t say a single word before Aisha disappeared into the portal, still waving both hands at him.

That same feather-light sensation was tickling his entire body.

And his heart was pounding like mad...

Is it broken?

Kyle stared blankly down at his chest.

It wasn’t because of Aisha’s breathing.

Something really did seem wrong. It felt as though there was something wrong with his body.

“Assistant Knox. Something’s wrong with my body.”

In the end, Kyle poked his face through the gap in the door to Knox’s office.

“...Kyle?”

He felt a little uncomfortable telling Knox about the state of his body, but in truth, no one paid as much attention to him as Knox did.

“What? What’s wrong with your body?”

Knox, wearing his monocle and focused on some documents, looked up.

“Um.”

Kyle shuffled inside and sat in the chair beside him.

“My heart keeps pounding.”

“Your heart? Does a brat your age have angina or something?”

Angina? What’s that?

The serious expression on Knox’s face made Kyle nervous for no reason. He pursed his lips into a little triangle before continuing.

“And it feels like someone’s tickling my body with a feather.”

“Did someone actually tickle you?”

“No.”

“Then why does it feel like that?”

“I don’t know. It just does.”

“Hmm.”

Knox rubbed his chin, took off his monocle, and sank into thought.

“Are your legs itchy too?”

Are they? Are my legs itchy?

Unable to judge for himself, Kyle nodded vaguely.

“I think so.”

“...Good heavens.”

But then—

Knox suddenly let out a small exclamation, sprang to his feet, and said,

“There’s a possibility you have angina and restless legs syndrome.”

“What?”

Kyle’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s.

A-Angina and restless what...?

“We should go see the physician immediately. Come with me.”

Frightened by Knox’s sudden change in attitude, Kyle nodded and hurriedly got to his feet.

Kyle had made one mistake here.

He had chosen the wrong person to ask.

Knox had never shown much interest in human emotions even as a child, so naturally, he knew nothing about the feeling called love either.

Thus, having diagnosed a young boy’s first love as angina and restless legs syndrome, Knox dragged Kyle off toward the infirmary.

Thump, thump.

Kyle’s heart pounded even harder.

What do I do? Am I going to die soon?

He was on his way to get treated for an illness, yet somehow it felt as though he had just acquired several more.

However—

“Your physical condition is perfectly normal. As for the pounding heart and the itching sensation... they appear to be temporary symptoms.”

Only after hearing the physician’s answer did Kyle and Knox finally breathe sighs of relief.

“For now, keep an eye on how you feel. If anything strange happens, you need to tell me again. Understood?”

“Yes.”

After parting ways with Knox, Kyle thought it over carefully and reached a conclusion.

Knox was an idiot.

Apparently, he would have to talk to Aisha directly about this.

But—

“...You’re coming back late today too?”

“Yeah. I probably won’t be able to play with you for a while. I’m really sorry. Once I’m done being busy, let’s have tons of fun together!”

Aisha kept taking the portal to her lessons, leaving him unable to play with her.

The next day was the same.

And the day after that.

Once Aisha disappeared from Kyle’s daily routine, which had always begun with his morning stretches, a huge hole opened in his schedule.

“I’m bored. This isn’t fun.”

There was nothing to do.

After knight training and etiquette lessons, he was supposed to show Aisha everything he had learned.

Kyle looked around the empty room, pouted, and flopped down.

“When is Aisha coming back? Why is she so busy?”

Suddenly, he remembered the days when he had been a kitten, waiting all day for Aisha in the bedroom.

Truthfully, he was still waiting for Aisha now, just as he had back then.

“Hmm.”

Kyle narrowed his eyes.

“When I was a kitten, I kept getting sleepy, so I wasn’t bored.”

That was right.

Back when he was a kitten, he had been busy growing. Whenever he ate, he had also been busy sleeping.

But now—

“What about now? Why can’t I fall asleep now?”

He asked himself, but only an empty echo answered.

“Where is Aisha?”

Kyle suddenly jumped to his feet and shouted.

“I’m so bored, so why am I just sitting here like this?”

He was unbearably frustrated.

“What am I living for? When I was a kitten, I could live however I wanted, so why do I have to take swordsmanship training and etiquette lessons I don’t even want now?!”

No matter how much he shouted, only silence answered.

That was right.

This was something Kyle had to figure out for himself.

“......!”

Realizing that he had run into an obstacle, Kyle’s mouth fell open.

For the first time in his life, he began to do something called thinking.

***

A few days later.

Iris, commander of the Fourth Knight Order, was responsible for the trainees aiming to become full-fledged knights.

“Any promising kids lately?”

“Promising kids?”

Thirty minutes before training began.

Jude, commander of the Third Knight Order, approached and asked him. Several trainees had already arrived at the training grounds and were practicing individually.

“You know that kid. Kyle. Didn’t you say before that he was pretty decent?”

“Ah.”

Iris’s brow furrowed faintly at his colleague’s words.

It was hard to believe he had ever said such a thing now, but he had once casually mentioned to Jude that Kyle was a fairly promising trainee.

At first, the kid had even struggled to put on a knight uniform.

“Brat. What are you?”

“Why? Ah, no. Why?”

“...You’re already holding the sword like...”

Pretty well.

Of course, his actual skill was still at the level of a complete novice, but judging solely by the speed of his growth...

He might even become a Sword Master.

Having realized early on that Kyle was no ordinary child, Iris sometimes boasted about his student whenever he met his fellow commanders.

But now...

“Hey, isn’t that Kyle?”

That was when Jude, who had been chatting with his arms crossed, jerked his chin toward someone.

Kyle really was standing where he had indicated.

“.......”

The problem was that Kyle entered the training grounds with a crooked expression and walked right past the knight commanders without even greeting them.

“Hey, brat!”

Jude shouted.

Kyle, who had been walking slowly, stopped.

Then the boy—

“What do you want, mister?”

He pouted with a delinquent expression.

“......?”

“?”

Whoosh—

Every knight in the area froze at the bizarre form of address that none of them knew where he had picked up.

Iris and Jude were no exception. Their mouths fell wide open.

But Kyle merely shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, gave a little hmph, and continued on his way.

Even after stopping at his place, his attitude didn’t change.

He grudgingly picked up his wooden sword, then began swinging it lazily with an expression that made it obvious he didn’t want to be there.

“...What the hell is wrong with that kid...”

“Jude, sorry, but let’s talk later.”

“Huh?”

“He used to be stupid but nice. I don’t know what got into him lately, but he’s been acting like that nonstop.”

Crack.

Iris clenched his fist hard enough for his joints to pop.

Jude nodded and hurried away without another word.

That was right.

For the past several days, Kyle had become so rebellious that he seemed like a completely different person from before.

I don’t know why, but I absolutely refuse to let him call the commanders of House Kreutz ‘mister.’

Iris strode toward Kyle with a fierce glare and crossed his arms.

“Kyle.”

Thump.

The boy didn’t answer and simply swung his wooden sword.

“Kyle!”

At last, Iris snatched the sword away and raised his voice.

Only then did Kyle look up, pouting.

“Ah, what?”

“What? ‘Ah, what’?”

“.......”

“What’s with that tone? And what kind of brat calls his knight commander ‘mister’? You’ve been acting like this for days. If you don’t reflect on your behavior, you’re out of swordsmanship training from now on!”

The knights nearby sucked in startled breaths at Iris’s shout.

Being removed from training as a trainee was practically the same as being expelled from the Kreutz ducal castle.

But Kyle—

“I’m not doing it.”

“What?”

He set down the sword as though he couldn’t be bothered.

Then, as if that weren’t enough, he fidgeted with his uniform and began taking it off.

“Even if I do all this, Aisha doesn’t notice anyway. I’m done. So you can do this, mister.”

“......?”

“And biting is easier for me than using a wooden sword.”

Thud.

The gauntlet Kyle had removed hit the ground with a heavy thump.

Iris stared blankly after Kyle as the boy toddled away, unable to process the attitude of a trainee unlike any he had ever seen in his life.

And a short while later—

“Princess Aisha!”

“...Bring Kyle here.”

After hearing the entire story, Aisha’s eyes flew open.

“Kyle. Get over here. Right now!”