The outfit she had seen a little while ago, the tallest height among people she knew. She couldn’t help but recognize him just from his back.

But Spica couldn’t approach him.

Because he wasn’t wearing his helmet.

“Commander, you had silver hair.”

But was it okay to show his face to the people here? Since she had just seen him carrying even a spare helmet, she couldn’t help but think something was strange.

Spica wondered if she should go and talk to him, glancing at Alkaid’s back. Since only the manager’s face was visible from her side, it was frustrating……

‘Eup!’

Alkaid suddenly turned this way. Spica was startled and hid behind a pillar while putting the helmet on.

Her heart pounded. She could hear the manager asking Alkaid.

“What’s wrong, young Duke?”

“……Hmm, I think I smell someone I know.”

Since he was a wolf beast-human, his sense of smell must be no joke. Spica, who had lifted her visor and was sniffing her own arm, furrowed her brow.

“But why did I hide?”

She could have just said she saw him by chance, and if he felt bad, she could have apologized. It wasn’t like her.

Then Alkaid slipped past the pillar Spica was leaning against.

“……”

Spica unconsciously held her breath.

She had only seen him briefly, but maybe because it was brief, it remained more vividly in her memory.

Under the silver hair slightly disheveled from wearing the helmet until just now, intensely shining were red eyes. A neat face with bold lines drawn sharply, not crooked anywhere.

The manager and numerous staff members followed behind him, but only Alkaid’s face remained in her memory.

‘Uh…… why does he wear a helmet? Is being too handsome his complex?’

Before, she would have said what kind of complex is that, but Spica’s thinking was divided into before and after seeing Alkaid’s face.

Spica liked delicate handsome men who looked sickly. From childhood until now, it was a very steadfast preference. Alkaid shattered such preferences of hers in just a few seconds.

‘Right. To that extent, it’s possible. Yeah.’

Spica, who had been thinking blankly, slowly rubbed the top part of the helmet and returned to her room.

‘The helmet…… I should return it tomorrow.’

Somehow right now, she didn’t have the courage to break through those people and talk to him.

* * *

Alkaid was watching Spica’s reflection in the glass. Her subtly stiff expression seemed to expect something and also looked slightly tense.

The man standing to the right of the manager spoke to him.

“Young Duke.”

“……How did the house I asked you to handle last time turn out?”

“The construction finished and yesterday the nanny also moved in with the attendant maids.”

Alkaid nodded slightly. Then a cold tone completely different from when talking to Spica came out.

“Prepare the subsequent matters as instructed beforehand.”

“Must you really enter that house?”

Alkaid’s eyes looked directly at him. The man bowed his head the moment he met those red eyes, feeling pressed down at the nape of his neck.

“I, I overstepped.”

“You wouldn’t know since you’re not a beast-human.”

One couldn’t expect understanding about beast-humans from ordinary humans who weren’t beast-humans.

Alkaid had felt this fact keenly while watching his father. There was no other way than this.

* * *

The next day.

The knights swarmed over the moment they discovered Spica coming to work. They wondered what the large bundle in her hand was, but first there was a bigger incident.

“You broke up?!”

“How dare he reject our Spica!”

“Is rejection the problem? He’s a cheater.”

Spica broke out in cold sweat. The incident hadn’t even happened within the knight order but at the courthouse far away, yet they already knew about it.

“Rumors really spread fast.”

“The imperial capital is originally like that.”

“Did you feel bad? We were worried.”

These people in navy uniforms were Spica’s colleagues, knights of the Imperial Second Knight Order.

She had worried whether she could adapt because of the rough atmosphere at first, but once they opened their mouths, they were such innocent people. Was it because the Commander himself was a kind person?

Spica shook her head at her colleagues who seemed to wag their tails.

“I’m fine.”

“Really fine? Should we go find him and each give him a beating? He’ll become a bloody mess in no time.”

“Idiot! Spica already gave him a cool punch.”

“You, you heard about that too?”

Spica’s expression, which had been smiling composedly until now, crumbled.

She hid her face behind the large bundle wanting to hide in a mouse hole, but her ears that weren’t completely covered were red like summer plums.

The knights’ expressions melted at that sight.

‘Oh my, oh my. Does she think she’s hidden just by covering her face?’

‘She’s definitely our kid, right? Throwing a punch instead of tears at a cheating boyfriend…… Youth.’

‘I want to make her my younger sister.’

It was completely different from how Spica looked before joining the order.

Until they heard news of Spica’s enlistment, the knights had been filled with anger. It was because of rumors that she had injured one arm and was no different from being one-armed.

〈What kind of strong recommendation letter did she receive for such a person to enter the Imperial Knight Order?〉

〈Just let me catch her once. I’ll fix her mindset from the roots.〉

They had waited while clenching their fists like that, but when they actually saw Spica on her first day at work, she was a girl with round eyes that made them wonder if she was a squirrel beast-human.

Seeing her face with soft fuzz from just graduating from the academy, they felt embarrassed about getting heated up in advance and acted distant.

But now, over a year later, Spica was a colleague recognized by everyone in the Second Knight Order.

〈She injured her right arm and learned swordsmanship using her left hand from the beginning?〉

〈In the meantime, she even double-majored in bureaucratic subjects.〉

〈She either lived a day as 48 hours alone, or she’s a genius.〉

It was outstanding diligence. Spica’s such personality was unfailingly displayed in the knight order too.

Even though she didn’t have to participate in training because she was an administrative adjutant, she sweated with everyone once a day without fail. Of course, she never carelessly passed over a single document or approval.

Her personality was good enough not to be annoyed by knights buzzing around her like flies.

‘How could we not like such a kid.’

Now the knights only thought about catching and beating up the bastard who gave Spica the malicious nickname of one-armed.

No, there was someone who harbored different thoughts.

A knight with long hair tied up in one bundle said subtly.

“Since you broke up with a bad guy, you should meet a good person now. Should I introduce someone? How about it?”

It was timing for the knights with her to chime in, but for some reason they kept their mouths shut.

‘Why is that human suddenly acting like that?’

‘No sense of timing.’

Spica tilted her head, puzzled by the awkward silence. But she also had no intention of receiving an introduction. All her nerves were focused on having to find a house.

“I just broke off the engagement yesterday. I think I’ll need some time.”

“Don’t people forget people with people? Just think of it as comfortably having one meal.”

Spica smiled brightly.

“I can’t trust men anymore.”

Of course, it was half a joke.

But the knights didn’t seem to think so, and those who had become quiet in surprise all started talking at once.

“S-Spica. Not all men are that disloyal.”

“Right! I married my first love too! That bastard really needs to be beaten to a pulp.”

“Right, Spica. What about our family? If my younger brother cheats, I’ll personally split him in two……”

“Dame Talitha, was the person you were going to introduce to me your younger brother?”

How could she just eat a meal and finish it with such a person without burden?

Spica slowly backed away. Talitha still didn’t give up and pulled out a small portrait from her chest and held it out. She seemed to have been quite prepared.

“It’s disgusting to say with my own mouth, but he’s quite handsome!”

“Wow, he’s tall and handsome.”

The mention of handsome naturally brought Alkaid’s face to mind.

She wondered if there was anyone who could beat that face.

‘I think my standards suddenly became too high because of the Commander……’

Spica sighed inwardly. The person in the portrait Talitha held out only looked like a person to her. Just a person with two eyes, one nose, one mouth.

Talitha giggled without knowing this. She thought she had taken a step closer to making Spica her sister-in-law.

“Right? Worth looking at…… Aaack!”

A hand extending from behind firmly gripped Talitha’s shoulder.

It wasn’t the grip strength felt from the knights who had been chattering together. They had been about to jeer ‘You can’t trust pictures because they’re retouched’ when they discovered their superior and were shocked.

Alkaid looked around at the knights saluting him and said calmly.

“Everyone seems energetic even after morning training.”

“……”

Usually they would be knights who would run away saying ‘Ah, we’re dying,’ but today they couldn’t do that. The murderous intent directed at them from behind the helmet was terrifying.

Alkaid, who had been looking at them, gestured to adjutant Megrez standing behind him.

Megrez, who smiled bitterly, dragged the knights away.

“Come on, I’ll tell you what to do when you have strength and time to spare, you blockheads.”

However, the knight whose shoulder was grabbed by Alkaid was an exception.

“You will need an interview after a long time.”

“I, I’m doing extremely well!”

There was no response. Talitha was dragged into the commander’s office just like that.

It happened without Spica having time to hand over the helmet to Alkaid.