Chapter 1

1. Prologue

Knights stood in formation in front of the main entrance stairs of the Imperial Fifth Knight Order headquarters, centered around the vice-commander. They had gathered to bid farewell to the knight commander who would be leaving the order today.

Vice-Commander Kalif glanced at the watch on his wrist. It was almost the scheduled departure time.

Eventually, the firmly closed main door opened. The knights simultaneously looked up at the top of the stairs. The protagonist of the day finally appeared, but the person descending the central staircase was not alone.

A woman with such a small build clung to the back of a large middle-aged man, almost hidden behind his massive frame.

“Grandpa, are you really leaving? Think about it one more time, okay?”

Her black hair was short, barely reaching a bob length. Her round face still retained youthful features, and her large, moist eyes appeared gentle to anyone who saw them. This was Anasha Raina, who had just turned twenty this year.

“Asha…… stop acting like a child. Even if you hold me back crying like this, it’s already decided. There’s nothing I can do.”

“But……! How can I not cry?”

“How many times do I have to tell you that knights don’t cry like that!”

When the middle-aged man shouted angrily, Anasha wiped away the tears hanging at the corners of her eyes. She sniffled back the mucus that was about to drip down and spoke firmly, in a manner that didn’t match her face.

“I hate anyone but you, Grandpa.”

“A commander is a commander, no matter who comes. This is an irrevocable imperial order. As a member of this knight order, you have no choice but to accept it.”

“But!”

“What ‘but’! Let me rest a little, you fool!!”

Even after descending the stairs, the quarrel between the two continued. The knights gathered below watched the situation between the one trying to leave and the one trying to hold him back with exhausted eyes.

“Here they go again.”

“I thought she would behave on the last day……”

Among the knights, Elvin offered a brief comment, while Chris sighed with a face that suggested a headache. Vice-Commander Kalif, who had been about to salute, had been frozen in place for a while. Conscious of him, the knights tried to suppress their laughter by pinching themselves or pretending to look elsewhere.

“Grandpa, don’t go! You can postpone retirement!”

“I can understand Asha’s feelings though. The commander has cherished her like his own granddaughter……”

Mavrik, who stood out even among the tall knights with his unusually large build, spoke with nostalgic eyes. But that didn’t last long.

“Grandpa, who am I supposed to play with when you’re gone? I won’t even be able to lie on the sofa in the commander’s office anymore!”

“…Right. He cherished her too much. That’s why she has no manners.”

Knight Chris spoke with calm, sunken eyes. Anasha had grown up in this knight order for fourteen years. During that time, Commander Abert Belders had treated Anasha more indulgently than anyone else.

And today, that very person was retiring. Leaving the tomboy behind in this knight order.

Kalif, who finally relaxed his stiff expression, approached Commander Abert.

“All your luggage has been loaded. You can board right away.”

“Good. Please keep Asha under control.”

“Grandpa!”

Anasha shouted, but it had no effect.

“On behalf of the knight order, I thank you for your hard work all these years. Everyone, salute Commander Abert!”

Receiving the knights’ salutes, Abert moved his feet to board the carriage. He turned his head to look at Anasha, who was being restrained by the knights.

“If you feel lonely, come visit my estate anytime. I’ll be waiting. Though I don’t know if the new commander will give you such a long vacation!”

With a mischievous laugh, Abert boarded the carriage. His figure, stroking his beard as he sat behind the transparent carriage window, grew increasingly distant.

“Nooooo!!”

Anasha wailed while watching the back of the carriage. For a long time, even after the carriage had disappeared.

⁕⁕⁕

“You’ve been so down since then, Asha.”

Mavrik looked worriedly at Anasha sitting in a distant tree. She rarely came down to the ground anyway, but lately, she had been sitting alone like that, spacing out.

“It’s understandable. After the commander left, she was called by the vice-commander and lectured for hours…… But I’m more worried about what happens after the new commander arrives.”

Chris sighed, already concerned. Having witnessed Anasha’s growth, he knew how ignorant she was of proper etiquette. Not just etiquette—she was slightly out of step with common sense in general.

‘If I had known this would happen, I should have forced her to learn proper etiquette.’

Of course, Chris knew it was too late for regrets now. He approached the tree instead of Mavrik and called out to Anasha.

“Asha, you’ve heard that the new commander is coming next week, right?”

“…New? The uncles might accept it, but I’m not ready yet!”

“Listen when someone is talking to you!”

Chris rubbed his brow as if his head was already throbbing.

“…You. Do you know how precarious your position is?”

“Why me?”

“See, you’re still speaking informally. The commander let it slide until now, but knight orders normally operate on a hierarchy. You’re routinely committing rudeness that would be unimaginable in other knight orders.”

“So you’re telling me to use formal speech now?”

Anasha snorted. It was a bit funny to hear this from him, who was like an uncle to her.

“It wouldn’t suit someone dressed like me anyway. That’s something you uncles in uniforms should worry about.”

“Don’t tell me you still haven’t been given a uniform……”

“Not at all. It’s not that I want to wear a nice, clean uniform. I really do envy it, but no.”

She had apparently been harboring these feelings. Chris clearly remembered how she used to say she wanted to wear a uniform when she was younger. Of course, there was a reason why Anasha, a proper member of the Imperial Fifth Knight Order, still didn’t have a uniform.

“I’m warning you in advance so you don’t offend the new commander. You want to keep working here, right? If you show disrespectful behavior to the new commander, you’ll be cut just like that.”

Chris made a throat-slitting gesture and continued with a serious face.

“Fired. Got it?!”

“Why are you scaring the child?”

Mavrik, who had been watching from behind, interjected.

“Mavrik… it’s because you keep coddling her that she doesn’t understand the seriousness.”

“Asha is an adult now. I’m sure she’ll handle it well.”

“That’s right. Uncle Mavrik is the best!”

“As if she’ll handle it well!”

Chris pounded his chest hard with a thump.

“Listen. The new knight commander is not like us. He comes from an ancient noble family that has ruled and protected the northern territories for centuries. Do you know what that means? He’s a great noble among nobles.”

“A great noble among nobles…?”

Anasha frowned. She had an ominous feeling.

“Commander Abert and the vice-commander are nobles too, but this person is in a much higher position than both of them.”

She nodded obediently, but her face showed that she only understood about half of what he was saying. Chris sighed and continued.

“Someone like that is coming to our knight order as commander, and you think you can just chirp whatever you want? Especially since you’re not exactly… conventional.”

“Are you done talking?”

“Yes. You’re always covered in dust and soot from head to toe. You look so dirty that rats or stray dogs might ask to be your friend.”

“But this is my job……”

“I know. You crawl around the ceiling every day doing hard work. But while we might understand, the new commander won’t.”

“…?”

“People like that detest anything dirty.”

Anasha took a small, tense breath and fell backward. With her legs firmly secured to the branch, she spun half a circle and spoke while hanging upside down from the tree, looking like a corpse.

“So?”

“What do you mean ‘so’? Did you even listen to what I said?”

Chris glared at Anasha, who was right above his head.

“Nobles easily replace their own subordinates of many years if they don’t like them, so what do you think a great noble would do? You could be fired the moment you get on the new commander’s bad side.”

“That……”

“It’s unfair, but this is the commander’s authority and power. Do you finally understand how serious your situation is?”

“No way…… Right, I need to clean up starting now!”

After looking dejected for a moment, Anasha quickly climbed back up onto the branch. Then she climbed to the top of the tree and jumped through the third-floor window of the knight order’s main building across from her.

Chris and Mavrik, who had been following Anasha with their eyes as she disappeared in an instant, looked at each other.

“I’ll go after her.”

Chris moved his feet hurriedly. Though he had been a knight in the order for twenty years, he couldn’t match Anasha’s agility.

After all, she was the knight order’s dedicated spy.

Unlike regular knights, a spy performed special missions such as infiltration, concealment, and intelligence gathering. In Chris’s opinion, no one was more suited to this job than Anasha.

Her small, petite build made her movements more nimble and quiet than most male spies. Watching her fly through trees and ceilings like a squirrel, he truly felt this was her calling.

She was not only unique in the knight order for handling such missions but also excelled in her qualities as a spy. She was truly needed in the knight order, not just because Chris had watched her grow up for so long. If that weren’t the case, Chris, who wanted Anasha to live a normal life more than anyone, would have said so.

That’s why this situation worried him greatly.

Fortunately, Chris was able to find Anasha quickly. Of course, it took over an hour to search half of the knight order building, but even this was considered fast. If she had decided to hide properly, they might not have found her even after a month.