Spica’s face, which had been holding back with an ambiguous expression unable to laugh, froze solid right after that.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

It was a voice she couldn’t forget even in dreams. Then a woman wearing the black uniform of the Royal Guard entered with unhindered steps.

When she confirmed that face, her breath was completely blocked.

‘Diblin Sobek……’

The Royal Guard Commander’s younger sister and Spica’s academy senior.

And also the person who had brought her despair.

Alkaid also detected that Spica’s pulse became unstable.

‘Why?’

Though he was puzzled, action came before confirming the cause.

Without knowing that Alkaid had moved to a position where he could respond to an emergency situation, Spica stared at Diblin conversing with the Crown Prince with widely dilated pupils.

“It’s troublesome if you keep ditching me.”

“Yeah, I’m doing this so you’ll be troubled.”

The fact that the Crown Prince had been in a good mood the entire time he was here could be seen just from his expression, which contrasted starkly with how he treated his escort knight.

Diblin couldn’t help but feel the Crown Prince’s poor treatment with her whole body. She, who had been twitching her lips to suppress her anger, belatedly discovered Spica.

Inside the office of the eyesore Alkaid, Spica Atrain in Imperial Second Knight Order uniform.

It was a more surprising sight than Alkaid’s strange appearance wearing a helmet upside down. At least to Diblin.

“Lady Atrain? How did you get into the Imperial Knight Order?”

Spica felt her throat completely blocked.

How?

How?

Old anger and resentment mixed with fear surged up in a mess from deep in her chest. Her vision seemed to spin round and round.

“Dame Sobek, are you going to keep chatting there?”

The Crown Prince, who had appeared at the doorway, cut off the conversation. Though his attitude completely forgot that he had been playing around until now, it was something Spica was grateful for. Standing while hiding her trembling was all she could manage.

Diblin, who had been scanning her up and down, replied displeasedly saying she was leaving and turned around.

She didn’t know how what she had crushed and sunk had crawled out from the bottom of the swamp, but she couldn’t sense any mana energy from Spica.

‘Well, she had to change her nearly perfected swordsmanship, so there’s no way she would have gained enough enlightenment to handle aura.’

She was inwardly hurt in her pride for being momentarily surprised and wary because she was in the Second Knight Order.

A girl with no guardian, no power, no skill.

‘Hmph.’

The farther Diblin’s footsteps went, the greater Spica’s trembling became.

The moment the presence of both people finally disappeared, Spica, who had been holding on with all her might, lost strength in her legs like a puppet with cut strings.

Alkaid quickly caught her collapsing body.

“Arm, huk, my arm……”

“Arm?”

He reflexively grasped her arm, but it didn’t seem like a bone had suddenly gone wrong.

But Spica’s breathing became increasingly rough. It was the backlash from enduring the fear that had rushed from the past with her whole body.

“Huk, mmph!”

She wanted to breathe but couldn’t. It felt like being crushed to death by air. Spica scratched at her neck with trembling hands.

Alkaid immediately recognized what state Spica was in. There were often those who collapsed like this after major battles. It was a symptom that came regardless of rank, whether common soldiers or knights.

He covered Spica’s face with his hand. His large hand stably wrapped around her nose and mouth. Teardrops rolled down his thick palm.

The events that had just happened flashed quickly through Alkaid’s mind, but stabilizing Spica was the priority. He spoke carefully.

“Breathe slowly. You’re breathing fine. There’s plenty of air.”

But Spica’s breathing showed no signs of stabilizing. He could hear her heartbeat, which had quickened like it would jump out of her body.

Alkaid wanted to grit his teeth. While Spica was suffering and struggling before his eyes, all he could do was comfort her while covering her mouth.

“Dame Atrain, listen to me.”

“Hup. Huk, hup.”

“It’s okay. This place is safe.”

Red blood beaded on her white neck. Spica continued to scratch over it without even recognizing she was wounded.

Alkaid held down her compulsively moving hand with one hand like restraining it. He felt pathetic that this was all he could do for her while she trembled in his arms.

“……Spica.”

Alkaid’s voice slowly seeped into her tightly closed ears.

“I’m beside you. So, I’ll protect you……”

He whispered calmly and repeatedly, holding back his desire to grit his teeth.

He had thoroughly investigated Spica even before bringing her into the knight order, and thought he knew her well.

But when one layer of cloth was removed, old wounds were still bleeding. Wounds incomparably larger than something like a broken engagement.

“Hup…… Huuu……”

Contrary to Alkaid’s self-reproach, his warmth was definitely helping Spica.

Her breathing gradually stabilized following his slow whispers.

Finally, when even the pounding at her temples subsided and Alkaid felt relieved, Spica’s body went limp.

“……!”

Alkaid hastily threw off his helmet and put his ear to Spica’s nose. Fortunately, both her breathing and pulse were normal.

Alkaid’s breath, which had stopped for a moment, finally burst out. Even if her heart stopped briefly, if he was a Sword Master, he could somehow revive her by pushing in mana. However, when Spica fainted, his head went blank like white paper and no thoughts came.

Alkaid sat slumped on the floor with his face buried in Spica’s hair for a while.

“Commander.”

Megrez called him carefully.

Beast-humans was a race said to have received the power of ancient beast gods. Though it had been a long time since beast-humans transforming into animal forms became an old tale, the fact that they awakened strong abilities when they imprinted with their destined partner and formed a pair remained unchanged.

But a beast-human’s mate wasn’t an existence that could be met so simply. They could live anywhere on the vast continent without regard to species. They might not even be born in the same era.

That’s why once they met, they had no choice but to obsess regardless of being like fire or water.

For Alkaid, that existence was precisely Spica.

“Young duke.”

Megrez, also a beast-human, fully understood Alkaid’s feelings. However, they couldn’t leave the unconscious Spica like this.

At the second call, Alkaid finally raised his head.

“……Bring a recovery potion.”

“Here, I prepared it.”

When it came to potions, she had already brought out the one kept for emergencies in the office when Spica was scratching her neck.

“Don’t we need to take her to the infirmary?”

“She’s just sleeping.”

She deeply felt that he didn’t want to be separated from her side. But Alkaid wasn’t someone who would lie because of that. Having grown up as milk brothers and served Alkaid from childhood, Megrez knew him well.

Alkaid laid Spica on the sofa used for meetings and treated her wounds. Thanks to the potion, the wounds disappeared without a single mark, but the shock she had shown wouldn’t have disappeared.

He gently stroked her bright wheat-colored hair.

‘That was fear.’

There were two people Spica met for the first time today: the Crown Prince and his escort knight, Diblin Sobek.

The Crown Prince couldn’t be considered the cause. Though Spica was flustered by the Crown Prince’s friendly attitude, she found the other party fascinating.

On the other hand, from the moment Diblin appeared, Spica tensed up completely.

Winterhold and Sobek, the two ducal families had a long-standing bad relationship. But the Atrain viscountcy had no dealings with the Sobek ducal family.

If there was a connection between the two, it was the point that they were from the same academy.

Numerous pieces of information gathered into one to draw a picture.

‘What Spica said.’

Half out of her mind, she had tried to check her right arm.

“……”

Spica was injured during her first practicum in her second year of the Knight Department and nearly had to give up the sword.

Field practicum leaders were usually handled by fifth-year graduating students. Diblin, who was the same age as Alkaid, was three years older than Spica.

If the two had been paired as leader and member then…..

“Megrez, we need to reinvestigate.”

Alkaid had begun handling aura at a younger age than the Crown Prince.

Duke Sobek, who had a bad relationship with Winterhold, wouldn’t have stayed still seeing that sight. He drove his children hard to draw out achievements.

The current Royal Guard Commander, the young duke, didn’t seem to receive much stress due to his particular personality, but his younger sister Diblin had tremendous inferiority complex toward him, perhaps because she was the same age as Alkaid.

Diblin, who picked fights whenever she saw Alkaid, and Alkaid, who ignored her like dust.

“It’s because of me.”

“Why are you saying such things?”

“If Spica suffered because I didn’t nip it in the bud from the beginning, it’s my fault.”

Though they hadn’t even begun reinvestigating yet, Alkaid’s intuition rarely missed the mark.

Megrez sighed. It was within a beast-human’s instincts to sense the bloody wind that would blow in the future.

“Instead of that, why don’t you just confess? Dame Sobek the younger would have noticed if she has a nose.”

“Spica isn’t a beast-human. Even if I tell her about imprinting, she won’t feel anything. I can handle Sobek.”

Alkaid spoke rationally.

However, the person who wanted to call Spica not my adjutant, my accomplice, but my mate was none other than himself.

He also wanted to press foreheads together without something like a helmet and look closely into those pale sky-blue eyes.

But.