Maria, who spotted Lydia poking her head out of the carriage, called to them while stomping her feet anxiously.

Lydia firmly held Nella’s hand. The knight order was holding the demonic beasts back well, so it didn’t seem dangerous as long as they didn’t fall down on the way.

Just as Lydia and Nella took one step out of the carriage—

“Aaah…!”

“Miss, dodge, aack!”

A severed demonic beast head flew toward Lydia. She needed to dodge, wanted to dodge, but her body froze stiffly and wouldn’t listen.

Lydia squeezed her eyes shut. She bit her lip, bracing for the imminent pain, but the pain she expected didn’t come.

Instead, she felt a very unpleasant sensation as hot liquid thoroughly soaked her left cheek and shoulder.

“Are you alright, Lydia?”

“Sir Arsen?”

Opening her tightly shut eyes at Arsen’s voice, Lydia found herself face to face with the demonic beast’s head, now neatly split in half.

As Lydia retched at the sight of blood and brain matter flowing together, Arsen stepped right in front of her, blocking her view.

“Lydia?”

“Ugh, why are demonic beasts so disgustingly ugly?”

Couldn’t a demonic beast be cute? With fluffy fur and a round body. Surely not all demonic beasts had to look like that.

Lydia reopened her eyes after having such absurd thoughts.

“This isn’t even that ugly. Please go over there until we finish.”

Arsen, who never looked particularly gentle to begin with, was as fierce as the demonic beast’s aura with his sword drawn.

A chill dripped from around him.

After seeing Lydia and Nella safely return, he headed toward his subordinates who were confronting the demonic beasts.

The demonic beasts blocked his path but were dealt with cleanly and quickly. His sword had no unnecessary movements.

Even Lydia, who knew nothing about swordsmanship, could tell he wasn’t just swinging wildly.

Could fighting demonic beasts be so elegant? Lydia couldn’t take her eyes off Arsen as he took the demonic beasts’ lives without even flinching.

An unapproachable pressure emanated from him as he lowered his sword, dripping with demonic beast blood.

It felt reassuring. At the same time, she had the intuition that if his sword were ever directed at her, she could never escape.

Only then did Lydia viscerally understand why Devon and Richard were so desperate to secure Arsen.

He was a man who would be the most reliable ally if on your side, but a merciless sword if an enemy.

But what to do.

Lydia planned to grasp and wield the sword named Arsen. Neither Devon nor Richard would ever be able to use him.

“It’s dead.”

When Kedrick announced that the last resisting demonic beast had breathed its last, everyone’s tension dissipated.

Nella, who had been standing next to Lydia, sat down with a groan.

“Anyone injured?”

“You think anyone got hurt fighting these things?”

Kedrick asked, looking around at the knight order. Given the nature of the question, no one raised their hand to admit injury.

“If you ask like that, who would admit they’re hurt even if they were?”

Maria laughed lightly, seemingly relieved now that the danger had passed, though she found the situation ridiculous.

“Are you alright, Priestess Lydia?”

“I’m fine. How about you, Maria?”

“I was helped by the knights from the beginning, so I dodged well.”

Maria’s face clouded with worry as she examined Lydia up and down, covered in demonic beast blood.

“I can’t tell if this is your blood or the demonic beast’s. We need to wash you first.”

Lydia completely agreed with that opinion. Apart from her heart pounding with shock, the increasingly sticky demonic beast blood drying on her skin felt utterly disgusting.

“Is everyone here uninjured? Are you alright, Miss?”

“My body is fine, but I’d like to wash off this blood.”

Lydia complained to Kedrick, who had come to check on the party’s well-being.

“There should be a stream nearby. Let’s go there.”

* * *

Lydia entered the water to wash off the demonic beast’s blood, then came out and changed her clothes.

She then headed back to the stream to wash her blood-stained clothes. Lydia expected the stream to be empty, but it was crowded with men who had coolly taken off their shirts.

“Oh my.”

Maria, who had come along to help Lydia with laundry, exclaimed in pretend surprise with a voice that wasn’t surprised at all. Lydia almost dropped her laundry at the sight of the burly men all wet.

“Knights, please continue washing. We’ll just quickly wash this and go.”

Maria snatched the laundry from Lydia’s hands, waved it around, and quickly squatted down so they couldn’t be chased away.

“Maria, let’s do this later.”

Lydia’s face reddened slightly, having never seen a group of men undressed before.

“They’re not even fully undressed, why? Do you think this kind of view is common? Priestess, quickly sit down here.”

Embarrassed by Maria boldly declaring her purpose was ‘appreciation,’ Lydia plopped down.

It absolutely wasn’t to peek at the knights bathing, absolutely not.

“They all have such nice bodies.”

Maria had only put the laundry in the water; her arms weren’t moving at all. Her gaze was directed not at the laundry but at the knights washing off the demonic beast’s blood.

“Don’t stare, Maria. It’s impolite.”

Lydia’s mouth and eyes were at odds. She swallowed hard as she watched Arsen, wet with water.

He looked completely different from when he wore his uniform. Lydia had imagined his body under the uniform to be like a smooth statue. But his revealed body was that of the wild.

Taut chest muscles, defined abs below. The scars scattered here and there made him both barbaric and erotic.

Lydia couldn’t take her eyes off his thick thighs visible through his wet, clinging pants, which were excessively impressive.

“Who do you think has the best body, Priestess?”

“Huh?”

At Maria’s question, Lydia’s gaze, which had been fixated on Arsen, shifted to the entire knight order.

Looking around, she realized that while their faces might not match Arsen’s, the other knights’ bodies were quite impressive too.

After quietly observing them, Lydia shook her head and sighed.

“What’s wrong, Miss? None of the bodies to your liking?”

“No. I was just thinking why I only ever looked at one man when there are so many men like this in the world.”

Why had she devotedly only looked at Richard? When there were so many other men besides Richard.

“Well, you can enjoy looking from now on.”

“I’m a priestess, Maria.”

“Ah, right.”

Maria awkwardly squeezed the laundry.

“But just looking and enjoying shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“……The goddess would probably allow that?”

While Lydia was arbitrarily assuming the goddess’s permission, a strange atmosphere flowed among the knights.

They pretended not to care about Lydia and Maria’s gazes while very much caring.

The same was true for Arsen. At first, he was bothered by Lydia’s gaze persistently sticking to him.

He deliberately ignored how he was unconsciously tensing his abdomen and shoulders, when suddenly Lydia’s gaze shifted to the other knights.

As her gaze passed Kedrick and moved toward Randel, Arsen saw Randel unnecessarily shaking his wet hair and flexing his arms.

It wasn’t just Randel. Everyone was pretending not to care while perking up their ears to Lydia and Maria’s conversation.

“In my opinion.”

Arsen’s shoulders stiffened at Lydia’s voice.

Maria and Lydia had lowered their voices to whisper, but they underestimated the hearing of men trained to be sensitive to presence.

“I think Sir Kedrick has the prettiest body.”

Hearing this, Kedrick covered his mouth with his hand and bowed his head deeply.

“What about you, Maria?”

One vote remained. The knights subtly anticipated.

If it was about faces, they might lose to Arsen, but when it came to muscles, they all had confidence.

“I also vote for Sir Kedrick.”

Kedrick received all the votes. With his head still bowed, his shoulders shook.

“He’s loving it.”

Randel sneered.

“Maybe they couldn’t see well from a distance?”

“She doesn’t realize those aren’t practical muscles and are completely useless.”

Criticism poured from the other knights, but it didn’t affect Kedrick at all.

“Just admit you’re jealous, you guys.”

That’s right. In reality, it was the other knights who were affected.

And that included,

“……”

Arsen as well.

* * *

Lydia and Maria didn’t know, but their conversation caused ripples in the Black Wolf Knight Order.

“Commander, are you also envious of my body?”

“Not at all.”

“Ah, not envious at all, I see.”

Kedrick flexed his arms, brought them forward, and tensed his abdomen, showing off his muscles in front of Arsen.

In truth, Arsen mocked Kedrick’s daily ‘for show’ muscle exercises.

He couldn’t understand the purpose of muscles that were only for show. In fact, bulging muscles had the disadvantage of reduced agility.

So Arsen and the other knights criticized Kedrick whenever he slipped during sparring, saying he neglected training because he was busy with useless exercises.

But today, those ‘for show’ muscles were the winner.

‘She likes muscles like that?’

Arsen frowned, finding Kedrick’s self-absorbed boasting distasteful.

He couldn’t understand why such a body was appealing, but if Kedrick’s body was the best, why had she spent so long admiring his?

No, if she preferred such crude musculature, what about Richard? The Emperor didn’t have such muscles.

Are taste and love separate? If so, it must be true love. It even overcame her preferences.

‘But why am I caring about this?’

As he was inwardly sneering, Arsen suddenly realized he was paying too much attention to Lydia’s evaluation. There was absolutely no need for that.

Somehow, whenever Lydia was involved, he kept losing his usual composure, whether it was his mind or his attention.

“Commander.”

“What?”