Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 124
***
Every hot summer, the training grounds were crowded with people. There were quite a few who came to watch not just the knights, but also the royal knights wield their swords with their bare bodies.
The person who received the most attention among them was Nigel Rosencrantz, the youngest man to have ever risen to the position of vice-captain of the royal guard.
Whenever his lean, muscular body twisted as he swung his sword, his bright red hair fluttered in the air, even without a breeze.
When he occasionally glared upward with his golden eyes, it seemed as if two suns were having a standoff.
He would train alone like that for hours and then join the trainees’ practice. He was an excellent knight, but a terrible instructor.
His training method mainly consisted of sparring with himself.
“I can’t do it!”
“Do you plan to say that even before you die? Is that all your last words are? Shut up and get up.”
“I really can’t move. It’s too much…”
“If you can move your mouth, you can move your body.”
Nigel didn’t easily accept declarations of surrender. He only sheathed his sword after he judged that continuing the sparring would affect the next day’s training.
This time was no different. He asked the exhausted knight who had collapsed,
“Where is Sir Christian?”
“He’s absent… again…”
“Again?”
“Yes, again…”
“That imbecile.”
He bared his fangs and put his sword back in its sheath.
“If you meet him later at the tavern, tell him this: If he doesn’t crawl to the Duke’s townhouse himself, he’ll find his face meeting my glove.”
Throwing a glove meant a challenge to a life-and-death duel. No one in their right mind would dare such a thing with Nigel if they wanted to continue living.
“Recover well, and I look forward to our next duel.”
Watching Nigel turn away without any hesitation after saying those words, the knight muttered to himself.
“That damn bastard…”
***
As he entered the break room to wipe off his sweat, an administrator approached him.
“Sir, a letter has arrived.”
“Can’t you just pile up the orders from the higher-ups and tell me all at once? I’d rather get pissed off all at once than be constantly annoyed.”
“Um… as I mentioned, it’s not an official document, but a personal letter.”
“A letter…?”
“Yes, it seems to have been sent to you personally… but for some reason, it was delivered here instead of your residence.”
A furrow appeared on Nigel’s brow.
“…From whom?”
“There was no name on the recipient. So I was suspicious that it might be a dubious letter, but the handwriting and the decorative stationery are quite feminine…”
“….”
Receiving anonymous love letters wasn’t a rare occurrence for him. But today’s letter felt somehow different.
“Give it to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
As he received the letter, the administrator quickly tried to hand him a cutting knife, but Nigel tore the letter open with his rough hands before that.
As he slowly read the contents of the letter, a deep smile spread across his face.
The curious administrator next to him asked,
“Could it be… from your lover, sir?”
Many nobles kept secret lovers. Although Nigel was young, he was certainly of the age to have romantic relationships.
“Lover?”
He laughed sporadically.
“I guarantee, any man who dates this woman won’t live long.”
“Excuse me?”
Without answering, he crumpled the letter.
The administrator flinched.
“…Shall I burn it?”
Most of his love letters ended up as kindling. He wondered if this one would meet the same fate.
But Nigel stood still with the letter crumpled in his hand.
With a face as wrinkled as the paper, he said,
“Bring me some paper.”
“Ah, you’re going to write a reply?”
“Not exactly.”
He cracked his neck and said,
“It’s been a while since I did some origami.”
***
A considerable amount of time passed before Cecilia received Nigel’s reply. She quietly nodded as she looked at the neatly folded middle finger made of colored paper in the envelope.
‘Yeah, I expected this.’
At least he had the decency to reply.
She threw it into the fireplace. Anyway, she had confirmed that he received her letter.
She had clearly written in it that she would make her debut in the central area with Guinevere as her chaperone.
If he had any intention of agreeing to her proposal, he would show up there.
Having achieved her primary goal, she brushed her hands as if she had touched something dirty.
It was an unusual reaction for someone who had received a reply from a romantic proposal.
