Rohide, breathless to the very tip of his chin, struggled to follow behind Adele and Vincent.

Setting aside Adele, who had been strange from the start, why was the only son of the Rogato family doing so well? They were climbing such a steep mountain path!

Vincent, three whole years younger than himself, looked completely unbothered, and out of sheer pride he wanted to overtake him, but his body would not cooperate. His legs were heavy and his head was growing increasingly dizzy.

When Adele glanced back and sighed, his already flushed face turned even redder.

“Ugh!”

He was a prince. What on earth was he doing here right now? This time was supposed to be spent reading books and having a literary discussion with his tutor. He was giving up that productive time to be sweating away out here?

As his body suffered, his mind paradoxically grew clearer, and he found himself looking back on his earlier actions with regret. If he had been even a little more mature, he would not have gotten himself caught up in this situation.

A feeling of indignation filled Rohide completely.

At that moment.

“Aaah!”

Rohide suddenly let out a sharp cry.

It was because his body had been abruptly lifted into the air.

By the time he came to his senses, the scenery was slowly receding from his view. With a slight swaying motion.

‘Wh, what on earth is happening?’

He had just a brief thought that it felt oddly stable.

He was still a young child who could not yet ride a horse. The unfamiliar swaying made it difficult to collect himself.

Every time he tried to properly grasp the situation, nausea rose up. In the end, the prince stopped trying to think and focused on settling his churning stomach.

Meanwhile, Vincent glanced back, saw Adele’s eccentric behavior of picking up Rohide and moving with him, and nodded as though he understood. He had also been frustrated watching the prince falter and fail to pick up any speed.

The prince’s backside was bouncing up and down in time with Adele’s movements. Seeing that, a fearful thought crept in that perhaps he himself had been carried the same way from the estate to the clearing before, but he immediately shook his head. The adults always said that ignorance was bliss.

Setting that aside, running like this so freely felt refreshing and different.

To think that stamina could grow this quickly. Had he known, he should have started training long ago in preparation for the day he would fight back against his father.

To one day strike his own father, he could not keep doing nothing but crying as he had before.

The things that happened in the ducal estate were full of situations too overwhelming for young Vincent to bear.

His mother, who had been his only ally, unlike his father who had always hurled *buse at him. One day he had woken up and his mother was gone, and before he could even understand what had happened, his father’s fist had come flying at him.

〈This is all because you were born, you wretch!〉

The day he was first struck. Vincent’s mind had not worked properly. Perhaps that was why. He still did not understand the meaning of the words his father had shouted.

A seven-year-old child was far too young to understand how the world worked.

What was certain was that his father was an enemy, and someone he would have to overcome someday.

It felt like a destiny that had taken root deep within his heart.

Though he had no idea when that day would come.

At that moment, Adele passed by his side.

Atop her, looking completely unbothered, Prince Rohide had brought both hands to his mouth, his stomach apparently churning, with his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“Pfft!”

To think the always dignified prince would look like that.

Vincent forgot every thought he had been having until just moments ago and forcibly suppressed his laughter. If the prince caught him laughing, he would surely go straight to his father. Vincent composed his expression and diligently followed after Adele.

But then he noticed something strange.

“Huh?”

An adult man was standing in the very center of the clearing.

Vincent narrowed his eyes and tried to make out who it was. Could it be the sorcerer who had disappeared somewhere?

But the person standing upright in the clearing looked nothing like the sorcerer, who had seemed unsteady even just standing still.

He was also far larger in build, with a thick, unkempt beard. The man, who gave off an unmistakably unusual air at a glance, appeared to be meditating.

Even as Adele and Vincent drew closer to the clearing, the man did not open his eyes and remained perfectly still.

It was enough to make one wonder if he was truly alive, but the occasional twitch of his muscles suggested he was not dead.

Vincent glanced back at Rohide, who was hiding behind him, and asked carefully.

“Your Highness. Do you know who that is?”

At the question, Rohide made an expression of alarm, then quickly shook his head and brought a finger to his lips as if to say to keep quiet.

“If that man tells my father about me, will you take responsibility? If we are found out, I will blame it all on you.”

At the absurd threat, Vincent’s expression hardened.

“Just who is he, for you to say that?”

At that innocent question, Rohide let out a small laugh.

‘Well, this one is barely ever taken anywhere by the duke, so it is possible he wouldn’t know.’

He had never imagined that a capital noble would not know that person, but thinking about how many times Vincent had appeared at official gatherings, it was entirely plausible.

Rohide lowered his voice completely, worried his words might be heard, and said.

“The strongest person in the current empire. The professor of the swordsmanship department at Pilonia National Academy, Sir Theodore. Hard to believe, but he is in his early twenties.”

“The strongest in the empire……”

Vincent turned his head forward again and looked at the man.

True to bearing such a fearsome title, his appearance was also far from ordinary. There was a long scar on one cheek, and his firmly clenched jaw made him look even more fierce.

With such a strong impression, it seemed no one would be able to deny that he was the most powerful man around.

Except for the absurd claim that he was in his early twenties.

But what on earth was Adele doing right now?

To stand before that enormous man without showing even a trace of fear.

‘Hmm, is that……?’

Vincent recognized the stance Adele had taken.

A slightly tilted upper body and bent elbows. Feet planted at shoulder width. And a fist clenched tightly, as always.

It was the stance of someone on the very verge of throwing a punch.

Vincent realized that and cried out urgently.

“Adele, don’t!”

Even for Adele, winning against that man did not look easy. Knowing Adele’s competitive spirit all too well, Vincent went pale.

The fists of that man called Sir Theodore were far larger than Adele’s entire face. If she took a hit from those fists, Adele could disappear without a trace.

But despite Vincent’s plea, Adele did not stop moving.

Wind began to gradually gather around Adele.

“Has the sky clouded over? The wind has suddenly picked up.”

Rohide had not yet properly noticed the strange phenomenon and shivered, wrapping his arms around himself.

“No. That is……”

Adele’s fist drove straight forward.

“Good form.”

And the man’s eyes opened.

Charles Theodore.

Adele knew this man very well.

How could she not? Her teacher, who had died at Vincent’s hands on the battlefield. The bulging muscles, the beard she wished he would just cut already, and the severe case of looking far older than his age.

None of it was any different from back then.

‘I had completely forgotten.’

In this world, before the war had broken out, all those who had been close to her would still be alive.

Few had survived that terrible war. But now was different. And the future would be different too. All of them were destined to survive.

Because Vincent Rogato would not become a villain. She intended to make sure of that.

“Remarkable.”

A deep voice filled the clearing like thunder. At the resonance, Vincent and Rohide were startled and immediately covered both ears with their hands, but Adele simply grinned.

She was still in the same stance with her fist extended, and Charles had shifted slightly to the side to avoid it.

Adele had not frozen in surprise at her opponent’s skill in evading her. She was in the process of searching for an opening in her opponent’s guard.

Charles seemed to realize that as well, for he grinned in exactly the same way as Adele and took one step back, adjusting his stance. The sight of a sturdy man in his twenties, no, a man beyond sturdy, with a powerfully built and rugged physique, taking a proper stance against a small child far below him in height was deeply strange.

To someone who did not know what was happening, it might have looked like a scene of child *buse. But anyone who saw the expressions on the two people facing each other would immediately change their mind. The faces of the two, so deeply absorbed, were positively radiant.

Charles and Adele stared each other down for a long while, each searching for an opening. But neither of them could find a single gap in the other’s guard.

“Just what is that little one called Adele? Young Viscount Rogato. Do you know something?”

Rohide, having erased the embarrassing attitude from moments ago, stood composed and asked Vincent. He was, of course, standing at a considerable distance from the two of them, and was still behind Vincent.

Vincent answered Rohide, who was acting as though he could not be bothered to reply, in a short and indifferent tone.

“Boss.”