1. End of Betrayal, Beginning of the Wolf

“That’s whyyyy!”

Spica slammed down on the table. Since she didn’t control her strength, the bottles on the long bar table shook.

The glass was also full of alcohol, but not a single drop spilled. This was thanks to the man sitting next to her who had lifted the glass beforehand.

The moment he set the glass down, Spica downed it all at once again.

“We broke up. No, we called off the engagement. How could I marry someone who cheated?”

“You did well.”

“Huh?”

“……Dame Atrain. It would be better if you drank more slowly.”

“Yesss.”

Spica answered with a long drawl and gulped down the ice water the man gave her.

Just as he said, she needed to control herself now. There were five empty glasses next to her, but the man’s glass remained full as when he first received it.

‘Well, our Commander, I wonder if he can even drink like that.’

Using her drunkenness as an excuse, Spica rested her chin on both hands and stared intently at her superior’s face—no, his helmet.

Ever since she joined the knight order, this man, Alkaid Winterhold, had always worn his helmet. Not even wearing full plate mail, just the helmet alone.

In short, he was eccentric.

A kind and gentle eccentric.

“Is there something on me?”

Had she stared too much? Alkaid fumbled around the top of his helmet.

Spica smiled and shook her head.

“No, it’s just that you haven’t been drinking at all, Commander.”

“Ah.”

He who had only been holding his glass brought his hand to the visor as if he had forgotten.

‘Oh, is he really going to drink?’

Would she finally see the face he had kept so carefully hidden?

Spica’s head slowly tilted following the angle of the slightly lifting visor.

But far from seeing his face, without even touching the alcohol to his lips, the visor closed tightly again.

“Ah, what’s this?”

“I think it’s better if one of us stays sober.”

“Ugh.”

Spica, who had been pouting, soon nodded as that made sense too.

But why does our Commander insist on that helmet so much? Even when she asked Senior Adjutant Dame Megrez, all she heard was “Wearing the helmet is much, completely, totally, a hundred times a thousand times better. Don’t be curious about what’s inside. I want to see our Dame Spica for a long, long time.”

But when told not to look, that only makes people more curious.

‘I want to take it off.’

Sensing Spica’s impure gaze, Alkaid returned to their original conversation.

“But suddenly calling off an engagement. Did something happen?”

“……Something did happen.”

Thinking about it suddenly sobered her up again.

When she looked around to order another drink, somehow there wasn’t a single customer left. The bartender was nowhere to be seen either.

“That’s strange. There were lots of people when we came in.”

“These days it’s trendy to go home early and live a life with dinner.”

“Oh…… I see.”

Instead of ordering more alcohol, Spica drank the water Alkaid gave her again.

“Anyway…… today was a rare day I got off work early, right? So I was going to go on a date with my fiancé.”

Spica’s fiancé, or rather her now ‘former’ fiancé, Lepus Arneb.

He had been dating Spica for five years since their days at the academy. After their engagement, he lived with Spica’s family at her house—they were practically family.

‘Yes, that’s definitely how it was.’

Anger swirled in Spica’s voice again. This was because she recalled the scene she witnessed when she went to the courthouse where Lepus worked.

“Wow. Through the window, he was passionately kissing some woman. I really…… that was the first time I’d ever seen him smile like that.”

The Lepus that Spica knew was quiet, calm, considerate, but someone with little emotional change.

But the face she saw today was truly an expression she’d never seen before. Lepus Arneb laughing out loud without hiding his fluttering emotions.

“So what did you do?”

“The moment our eyes met, I ran over and threw a punch first…… I shouldn’t have done that to a civilian.”

Ugh. Spica suffered from a professional conscience.

Alkaid patted her back soothingly. Spica leaned into that warmth and spoke.

“Then he said, ‘How strange that you’d scratch the face you claim to love.’ Even if I did chase after him because I fell for his face!”

Alkaid recalled Lepus Arneb’s face.

Exactly the type Spica liked—someone so delicate he seemed like he’d fly away if you blew on him, with fine and pretty lines drawing his eyes, nose, and mouth. A beauty who looked both gentle and intelligent.

“You probably haven’t seen him, Commander, but honestly he does have a pretty face.”

At Spica’s words, Alkaid pretended not to know and tilted his helmet.

Since she didn’t seem to want an answer, she was busy venting about the shock she received today.

After being together for five years, he said no feelings had developed.

He called them family only because Spica’s father had taken responsibility for his tuition after the engagement.

All the lies he had told during that time.

“What makes me most angry is that while my father was bedridden, he went around cheating under the pretense of getting medicine. But no one in our household suspected that bastard!”

Spica pressed her heated forehead against the cup from anger.

Of course, there were things she was too embarrassed to tell Alkaid.

If you won’t quietly let this pass, let’s call off the engagement.

You’re someone I have to take care of or less than that.

No man feels desire for a high-maintenance woman like you.

Things like that.

But the realistic problems were more troublesome than the sh*t coming from a cheater’s mouth.

Alkaid asked perceptively.

“Did he demand something troublesome?”

“……He told me to leave the house.”

“Isn’t the house you’re currently living in owned by Viscount Atrain?”

“Father transferred the ownership to Lepus before he passed away.”

Both Spica and her younger brother Heze only learned this fact after the will was announced, so the shock was great.

No matter how much he was her fiancé, transferring ownership before even getting married?

Even thinking about it now, she couldn’t understand it. Did he really regard Lepus like a son?

“So you were wandering the streets like a ghost?”

“A ghost…… I was walking aimlessly because I felt lost thinking about where I should live now. There are no vacant rooms in the knight order dormitory right now.”

Since Spica handles the administrative work for the knight order, she knows these details well.

She had no close friends and no relatives, so she was walking around in a daze wondering where to go when she met Alkaid.

No, it was more like being caught than meeting.

〈Spica!〉

The moment her waist was suddenly pulled with a shout that seemed to echo from inside a barrel, a carriage brushed past in front of Spica. It was close enough that she could see the bloodshot eyes of the horse.

Spica bowed her head politely.

“Thank you for saving me once again. You’re my lifesaver.”

Alkaid also seemed to recall the same moment and sighed briefly.

“I thought you might make a bad choice out of despair.”

“For whose benefit? If the person making a fuss about giving up the house disappeared, only Lepus would be happy.”

“Are you thinking of filing for return?”

“If possible. There’s a lawyer among Father’s friends, so I’m going to ask him for advice.”

The Atrain viscountcy’s mansion was directly granted by the Emperor when the family was ennobled.

She couldn’t just sit idle when the house containing the family’s and household’s history was taken away.

Alkaid tapped the table with his fingertips and made a suggestion.

“The more heads we put together, the easier the work will be, so I’ll send a few lawyers from my family.”

“Really? I’m grateful, but Winterhold is a ducal family, so you must have a lot of work to handle.”

“It’s not as much as you’d think, so they’ve been salary thieves for a long time.”

Alkaid turned his busy lawyers into idle parasites and continued speaking.

“Legal battles will take quite some time. How about I purchase it and return it to you? You can repay the money slowly.”

She was briefly tempted, but Spica soon shook her head. ‘When money gets involved between people, all that remains is embarrassment’ was her late father’s philosophy.

Spica liked Alkaid. She didn’t want to become awkward with someone like him.

“That…… honestly, I’m not sure if I can pay it all back with my salary.”

“I’m concerned that my adjutant has lost her home.”

Though he spoke as if worried, Alkaid knew Spica would refuse.

She wasn’t someone who would eagerly accept things just because they were beneficial. Innocent, trusting of people. An upright person to that extent. That was the Spica that Alkaid saw.

She pressed the glass to her cheek and giggled. She seemed hot from the alcohol.

“It’s fine. I’ll have somewhere to live, just me. Anywhere.”

Now Spica’s only remaining family was her younger brother Heze. He was living in the dormitory while attending the academy.

“Ah! What should I tell Heze? That kid will be hurt.”

“He must have been close to Arneb.”

“Yes……”

Spica’s shoulders drooped.

“He’s similar to Dad in personality. He really hated Lepus at first, but over time he followed him like a brother.”

Come to think of it, that was true. During those five years, memories with Lepus had accumulated in layers. For Spica herself, and for her younger brother. Looking around, it would be the same.

Suddenly something hot welled up from inside. Until just now she had only felt angry and lost, but maybe it was because someone was calmly comforting her beside her.

If she was like this outside, it was obvious what it would be like when she went home.

‘Maybe it’s actually better to stay somewhere else for a while.’