“I vote that our vice commander is the ‘top’.”

“Hey hey, no matter what, our commander has the bigger build! I vote that the commander is the ‘top’!”

“What’s a ‘top’?”

“You don’t even know top and bottom? Tsk, tsk, what do you capital folks know?”

“Sheesh, seems like you don’t know what fun is in life.”

The Northern knights cackled, but the capital knights couldn’t laugh. They didn’t understand the meaning in the first place. They vaguely sensed they were being mocked, but not knowing what it meant, they could only fume.

“What exactly is top and bottom? Is the ‘top’ the stronger one?”

“Rather than stronger… Ah geez, do I have to explain everything? Figure it out yourselves. Anyway, I bet the commander is the ‘bottom’.”

“I don’t know what top and bottom means, but our commander could definitely be a ‘top’ if he wanted to!”

The capital knights pondered deeply about “top and bottom” and simply understood it as attack and defense. The limit of their understanding, having lived a wholesome life in the capital, reached only that far. They couldn’t comprehend why Northern knights would apply such terms to the commander and vice commander’s relationship, but preferring sword over shield—attack over defense—they confronted the Northern knights with the conviction that their commander Allen was the “top.”

Eventually, the knights began betting with various household items on this topic.

The result: the knight division split into two factions. They no longer distinguished each other by Northern or capital origin. Instead, they formed two organizations: “Comtop” for those who believed the commander was the “top,” and “Vicetop” for those who believed the vice commander was the “top.” The Vicetop faction had slightly more people, with a ratio of about 2:3.

“Hey you. Why are you joining the Comtop faction?”

“Because I support the commander.”

“Evan, why are you standing over there?”

Evan flinched and hid behind Jane, who stood right in front of him. He knew his large build couldn’t possibly be hidden, but he felt guilty.

‘Commander, I’m sorry…!’

Evan remembered Allen and Lea from yesterday very well. Lea shouting loudly that she would take care of his er*ction if he just told her about it. And Allen being shy.

If so, surely the assertive Lea would be the “top.” And to support the commander, he had bet three nights of guard duty.

Anyway, the battle between the two factions began.

The first topic was “Who claimed the top position in the Colosseum!”

The knights clutched their cards like lifelines, feeling tense. They were inexplicably anxious and impatient over this matter. Like a game of charades, they kept glancing at the opposing faction, wondering “Would that side have been better?” then reassuring themselves “No, this side is right,” changing their minds several times. Finally, they established a rule that once a faction was chosen, it could never be changed.

While everyone was united in silently chanting “Please be the top!” in their hearts……

Just as the sun tilted slightly westward from its zenith, a knight who had been standing watch at the training ground entrance rushed in breathlessly, claiming to have seen something shocking.

The knights exchanged glances and nodded. A wave of tension passed through them. Without hesitation, they all rushed out to greet their superiors.

And came face to face with Allen, wearing a red collar.

* * *

Returning to the training grounds, Allen wondered what was happening. First of all, he had never had so many knights come out to greet him except when returning from the battlefield.

Moreover, he was baffled that the knights’ thoughts were clearly divided into just two categories. These people who usually had all sorts of random thoughts except during training were now expressing only simple, clear words in their minds.

「Lost….」

「Won!」

What exactly had they lost or won?

Those who said they lost wore expressions like they had lost everything in the world. Those who said they won were shrugging their shoulders, saying they knew it all along. Meanwhile, Evan was alone in his mind, apologizing profusely: “Commander, I’m sorry.”

Finally, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Allen spoke up.

“What happened?”

The knights hesitated, reluctant to answer. They all kept glancing at Allen’s neck.

「Collar… collar….」

Allen finally realized he was still wearing the collar.

Then James shook his head and said,

“Nothing. Just… I didn’t know the commander had such tastes.”

“Tastes?”

“Yes.”

Allen stroked his neck and considered what “tastes” James was referring to. A collar typically put on beasts. It made sense they would find it strange that someone of his rank was wearing one. Allen hooked his index finger under the collar and tore it off. His strength was such that the sturdy leather collar broke easily and remained clutched in his hand. He pointed with his eyes at Lea standing beside him.

“There’s a reason the vice commander put this on me.”

The knights were all shocked by Allen’s bombshell statement. They had vaguely thought the two had been enjoying some kinky play, but they never expected to receive confirmation directly from the commander’s mouth.

「The woooorld!」

「The commander admitted it!」

And the Vicetop faction savored their complete victory.

* * *

After the Colosseum infiltration, changes came to the knight division.

The knights strictly divided their activities between the Vicetop and Comtop factions. Each faction was desperate to give gifts to the person they supported.

“Commander, here’s an eel I brought from home.”

Evan presented Allen with a box of eels, brought secretly from the Vicetop faction. To keep the eels fresher, Evan explained he had packed plenty of ice sourced from the North’s snowy mountains. Cold air rose from the box. Perhaps because of this, Evan’s nose was particularly red. Allen received the chilly box with a sour expression.

“Why are you hugging that box so tightly?”

“Well… the Vicetop fac— I mean, it’s so precious that I carried it carefully to avoid losing it.”

Evan had been suffering from guilt since the last incident. Having served Allen as commander for five years—joining the knight division at sixteen and becoming a proper knight under Allen’s guidance—his conscience was deeply troubled by the fact that he had betrayed the commander who raised him by joining the Vicetop faction.

So Evan had brought an eel, with great difficulty and away from the other knights’ eyes, to support Allen even a little. It was something that would shock Jane, the leader of the Vicetop faction, if she found out.

“Vicetop faction?”

“Such a thing exists.”

Allen couldn’t figure out what the knights were up to even after hearing their thoughts. For Northern people, “top” and “bottom” were such familiar terms that they didn’t need to consider their original meanings. And the capital people only thought of them as abbreviations for attack and defense.

‘Attack, defense? Are they talking about sparring?’

「Commander, please forgive me. Though I’m in the Vicetop faction, my heart supports you.」

Evan sniffled and left with a thought of “fighting!” Allen was simply dumbfounded.

Lea’s situation wasn’t much different from Allen’s.

“Vice Commander, please accept this.”

“This is….”

“A pumpkin. Steam it at home. They say it warms the body.”

“Thank you.”

Lea nodded as she accepted the pumpkin from James. She wondered what this was about, but a good thing was a good thing.

The Vicetop faction mainly brought Lea foods that were good for health. Power, broadly speaking, ultimately meant health. Judging that a strong body was needed for powerful “attacks,” the Vicetop faction knights offered Lea everything considered beneficial for the body.

“Vice Commander, they say nuts are very good. Put them in your soup.”

“Vice Commander! This is beef we caught at our house yesterday!”

“Vice Commander, this is ginger I bought at a high price from a merchant who came from the Eastern Continent.”

Thanks to this, Lea’s home became overflowing with food.

* * *

Allen narrowed his eyes as he watched Lea enter with her arms full of cooking ingredients.

“What’s all that?”

“The knights gave them to me.”

“By any chance, were they from that Vicetop faction or whatever?”

“Vicetop faction? What’s that? First time I’m hearing of it.”

“Never mind.”

Allen scanned the vegetables in Lea’s arms, then turned his gaze to the eel box under his desk. Thinking about the fish that would be flopping around inside made him uncomfortable. Somehow, the knights’ behavior seemed to be getting stranger by the day. What exactly did they want? It was suspicious that they kept bringing things, especially eels, at every opportunity, but since it wasn’t necessarily bad for the recipient, he couldn’t really complain.

Allen heaved a deep sigh. He felt like he would be sick of even hearing the word “eel” now.

“Commander, what happened to the things we bought before?”

“Before?”

Lea nodded.

“What about that gel and massage powder?”

“I obviously threw them away.”

Allen flinched before answering firmly. Since the Colosseum incident, Allen had to endure various product promotions whenever he met merchants on the street. If they were just ordinary items, he would have dismissed them, but the merchant only introduced strange things, and each time Allen couldn’t bring himself to refuse, so he ended up buying them.

Recently, he had received black raspberry wine supposedly purchased from the Eastern Continent and herbs claimed to delay ej*culation.

“What a waste.”

“Not a waste at all.”

In truth, Allen hadn’t thrown everything away. The black raspberry wine looked tasty, so he took it to his mansion, and he passed the ej*culation delay herbs to his butler. He had put the Love Plenty gel and massage powder in the bottom drawer of his office desk.

Rather than being unable to throw them away because they were valuable, he kept them in case they might be useful someday. But he felt too embarrassed to tell Lea that. So he ended up lying.