‘What kind of life has this kid been living?’

He wondered if she was in her right mind to ask whether he trusted her or not when they had only known each other for a short time, but before that, Lea’s thinking itself didn’t seem normal.

He had never heard of such reasoning.

“If you initiated something, I wish you would have told me. Wouldn’t there be parts I could help with too?”

“Wait, Vice Commander—”

Just as Allen had escaped his momentary bewilderment and was about to say something, Evan covered his face with both hands, embarrassed for himself.

「Help, she says! Help! To boldly talk about… helping in front of other people!」

“You two should have this conversation somewhere private……”

He was trembling from empathetic embarrassment. Allen urgently turned to prevent Evan’s deepening misunderstanding.

“No, wait, that’s not it!”

“Don’t deny it. I heard you had an er*ction.”

Lea smoothly worsened the situation with her characteristic speech pattern of omitting subjects.

Evan and Tom sharply inhaled. Allen thought at this moment that he wanted to roll his eyes back and play dead. They say you should listen to the end of what people from the Eastern continent say. Lea was speaking just like someone from there, and Evan, too shocked, didn’t seem to have the composure to listen to all of Lea’s words.

Allen tried to somehow clear things up, but…

“Vice Commander! If you talk like that, everyone will misunderstand!”

“What do you mean? You’re the one who initiated something, Commander.”

The more Lea spoke, the redder Evan’s face became, like a radish.

“Commander… I didn’t hear anythiiing!”

In the end, the pure young man Evan couldn’t bear it anymore and fled from the spot.

“Wait, Evan!”

“Commander, I’ll also take my leave.”

Tom, who knew everything there was to know, showed a mischievous smile stretching to his ears and gave a fighting pose. Allen tried to stop him from leaving, but Tom interpreted it in his own way and pulled his arm from Allen’s hand.

「Commander, men should be direct.」

Leaving these incomprehensible words in Allen’s mind, he smoothly disappeared.

Allen stood blankly, watching his back before cursing.

‘Fck, I’m fcked. I’m so f*cked.’

He wanted to hurry and punish James. Lea blinked her eyes watching him, then opened her mouth again as if she remembered something she had forgotten.

“So what did you initiate?”

“…… It’s too late, Vice Commander.”

Responsibility aside, it really didn’t seem right to stay in the North any longer.

* * *

Allen couldn’t stop the rumors that had spread throughout the knight division. Everyone was already convinced, and it would be ridiculous to gather the knights and explain, so there was nothing he could do. Strong denial means strong affirmation. The more Allen ran around grabbing people one by one to tell them the truth, the more the knights believed James’s words.

It would have been better to coolly say ‘think whatever you want’ and leave it alone, but what about his pride? Trying to eliminate rumors that had become established facts was only making things endlessly bigger.

The Allen who always maintained a poker face no matter what happened was long gone. He caught James and, under the pretext of sparring, beat him to a pulp, and spent the whole day with an irritated face.

“The commander looked ready to kill someone.”

“Let’s not end up like James.”

And James became an example. He ended up physically demonstrating what happens when you carelessly spill the private matters between Allen and Lea. James, with his swollen face, told the knights,

“The commander just can’t admit it yet.”

That his body only responds to the vice commander.

James was a master of misunderstanding who wouldn’t bend his conviction.

* * *

After deep contemplation, Allen decided to write a letter to the Emperor. He thought he couldn’t continue protecting the North while suffering from such shame. The North was running well on its own anyway. The Northern Knight Division didn’t particularly like him and wanted Lea to continue leading them. They would probably be happier without him.

He had never quit an assigned job before, and his pride was hurt by wanting to leave after just three days, but thinking about the future, he felt it was right to go to an empty territory that needed him.

Fortunately, he hadn’t yet formed friendships with the people of the North. Although Tom had enthusiastically welcomed him, he would surely forget quickly once Allen left. After all, they had only built a relationship over a few days.

Allen hesitated for a long time holding the finished letter, then sent it off by carrier bird.

The answer came a day later.

[No empty territories. The North might look good now, but you never know when problems will arise. Don’t think about running away, focus on how to rule.]

It was a moment that made his determination seem futile.

Finally, Allen entered the training ground with a resigned heart. The knights all kept their mouths shut in front of him, but their minds were not quiet, continuing to torment Allen.

Being able to hear thoughts was really uncomfortable at times like this. He had to hear what he didn’t want to hear even if he covered his ears.

Allen looked around at the knights and bit his lower lip. He could hear the sound of his life in the North becoming increasingly tangled, which was sad on top of being flatly rejected by the Emperor.

Still, since he had to stay, he needed to do his job.

“Today, Team 1 will guard the border. Keep a close eye on the monsters’ movements in the Border Forest.”

“Yes!”

“Team 2 will patrol the plaza. I heard there are still many robbers. Make sure no more merchants suffer damage and catch them all. And if you see anyone plotting rebellion, report immediately.”

“Yes!”

“And……”

Allen stopped speaking mid-instruction.

It was because he remembered the Colosseum matter. Currently, Lea was away attending to other duties. Thanks to that, he had been speaking well without any stimulation, but when he tried to bring up the Colosseum, worry overwhelmed him and he lost his words. Soon it would be time to go to the Colosseum with Lea.

Fortunately, they had planned to go during the day, not at night, but it was still a closed Colosseum. A place with no lights, no people, and a chilly atmosphere. Whether they could safely go and return from such a gloomy place with just the two of them remained to be seen.

Allen swallowed a deep sigh and continued speaking.

“I heard the former duke’s son has appeared at the Colosseum. I’ve decided to go with the vice commander to infiltrate and see if any remnants of the royal faction are plotting something, so Evan and Jane should, you should both go at night.”

“Yes! I mean, what?”

Jane answered loudly and then gaped. Infiltrating with that annoying original First Division knight who had argued with her yesterday? She shuddered at the thought.

Evan felt the same way. The corners of his mouth drooped and he shook his head vigorously from side to side.

“Commander, you know my skills. I’ll go alone. Please don’t include that knight.”

“No, Commander. How can a knight who lived in the capital go alone to a Northern Colosseum? Just send me alone. I know the geography and the hidden spaces of the Colosseum.”

“Perfect, go together.”

At Allen’s words, the two knights bristled. They seemed frustrated by the reality that they couldn’t keep refusing an order.

“So the commander and vice commander will go during the day?”

“That’s right.”

At that moment, the knights began to whisper, saying “How could they” and “Is that possible?”

「Hup… doing that kind of thing under the daylight?」

「Indeed, how bold…!」

Allen tilted his head at the knights’ strange reactions. He couldn’t understand why they were acting that way about going to the Colosseum during the day.

Indeed, there was something Allen didn’t know.

The Colosseum was an illegal arena. It operated actively only at night. For this reason, it was equipped with a system where magic activated at sunset, brightly illuminating all the lights in the Colosseum. Conversely, during the day, it was a place with firmly closed doors, pitch dark no matter what you did, and consequently used by nobles for their secret rendezvous.

Allen had no way of knowing this fact. Not unless he had gathered and investigated information about the Colosseum beforehand.

The North was quite a promiscuous and irrational country. Allen, having grown up well in the Empire’s imperial palace, found it difficult to understand this country where night and day seemed naturally reversed. So he couldn’t comprehend what the knights were thinking.

「I wonder if the vice commander suggested going during the day.」

「I heard that place is quite passionate during the day.」

「Is infiltration just an excuse?」

Allen frowned with uneasiness. He couldn’t quite grasp whether the knights were simply misunderstanding again or if there was something about the Colosseum he should know.

‘Still, it’s fortunate we’re going during the day. If I had said night, the reaction would have been worse.’

So he was careless. He thought, what could be there? Had he known what was coming, he would have learned more about the Colosseum. To him, the Colosseum was just a closed arena, and he hadn’t even considered what else might be waiting there.