Arsen remained dignified even on the day the duchess who had fled with him died, and on the day he first encountered a demonic beast.

Kedrick, who was only 4 years older than Arsen at the time, had marveled at what an impressive kid he was, but now he knows. If Arsen hadn’t been dignified, he wouldn’t have survived.

The boy who put on a mask of dignity to survive grew into a man who seemed like he wouldn’t bleed even if stabbed and wouldn’t break even if struck with a rock.

Sometimes Kedrick felt hurt when he put up walls even against him who knew all his secrets.

But Kedrick understood that Arsen had no choice. When Arsen wavered, the borderlands wavered.

He was no longer the little kid who had hidden away in the borderlands. He was the master of the borderlands and its spiritual pillar.

Now that he was in a position responsible not just for his own life but for the lives of the people in the borderland and the knight order in succession, Arsen’s walls grew high and strong.

While that wasn’t incomprehensible, he couldn’t live like this forever.

If no one he liked had appeared it would be different, but hadn’t someone appeared who made him pace anxiously?

Besides, Lydia knew all of Arsen’s secrets too. Since there was no need to hide secrets when meeting her, she was the perfect match for Arsen.

But he didn’t realize this himself and only pushed her away, which frustrated the observing Kedrick.

‘Should I push his back more?’

No, pushing now would only backfire. Rather, the more Kedrick made a fuss, the more likely Arsen was to do the opposite of his intentions.

But if things continued like this, they might lose Lydia. And to his own subordinate at that.

* * *

“Randel.”

While waiting for Arsen’s group who had left for Count Wonde’s territory from the dock, a fellow knight tapped Randel’s arm.

“Is it those guys?”

Randel slightly turned his head in the direction he was pointing, then turned back toward the river and nodded.

The Emperor’s men. They thought they wouldn’t be discovered since they came to the borderlands disguised as mercenaries, but rather, it was because they disguised themselves as mercenaries that their identity was revealed.

Mercenaries didn’t come to the borderlands. Mercenaries were people who sought out profitable battlefields, but hunting demonic beasts in the borderlands wasn’t profitable.

Because the borderland’s finances weren’t abundant enough to hire mercenaries.

In a place with so few travelers that it didn’t even have a decent inn, how could they not notice the identity of people wandering around claiming to be mercenaries?

Moreover, these supposed mercenaries didn’t look for work but wandered around chatting and entered the temple claiming to pray.

Their true intentions were so obvious it became laughable.

“Don’t stare too much. The Commander just told us to keep an eye on them from afar.”

“Really? Why not chase them out right away?”

“Because the Emperor would become suspicious if we did.”

The Emperor must have found it strange that Arsen refused the fertile land he offered and insisted on returning to the borderlands.

He must have wondered what was in the borderlands that made Arsen refuse to leave.

If they chased away the people sent to find that out, the Emperor would obviously start suspecting that there was a secret here, a weakness that held Arsen back.

To prevent that, Arsen told them to leave those people alone, and fortunately since the borderland people were closed off to outsiders, they hadn’t obtained any useful information.

“Here they come.”

“Finally, they’re here.”

The ship that had appeared to be on the other side of the river suddenly revealed its large presence. Of the two ships, the one carrying Arsen arrived at the dock first.

“It’s Priestess Lydia. She looks happy.”

“I heard she went shopping after a long time.”

When Lydia, holding the railing at the bow, waved largely toward them, the knights who came to greet her also waved back at her.

At first, more than half of the knight order didn’t think favorably of Lydia.

The Lydia they had seen until then certainly appeared high-maintenance, self-centered, and authoritative—a very typical noble.

And since more than half of the knight order were commoners, with some like Randel being former slaves mixed in, it seemed very unlikely for them to get along well with Lydia.

However, Lydia turned out to be somewhat different from what Randel had thought.

In other words, she was different from those stuck-up noble brats.

“Randel, the priestess is greeting you.”

“……Never mind.”

“You’re never going to get married being so gruff like that.”

The colleague beside him raised both his arms to greet Lydia on behalf of Randel.

That must have amused her, as a smile like breaking sunlight spread across Lydia’s face.

Would she have made such an expression if he had waved?

Come to think of it, she often showed such smiles when he helped catch mice at the temple or carried heavy things.

At first, he only visited the temple to help with some work because he felt sorry for being grumpy to Lydia. Later, he visited because he wanted to see Lydia’s smiling face.

He liked how she had let her guard down around him at some point, and smiled whenever their eyes met even when he hadn’t done anything.

But why couldn’t he even manage a simple wave in greeting?

While Randel was berating himself as an idiot, the ship dropped anchor and the sailors began preparing for disembarkation.

Perhaps because the wind was stronger than usual making the current fierce, the ship kept swaying unsteadily up and down even after anchoring.

While others seemed to have no problem disembarking, Randel worried about Lydia.

She had been swaying even while holding the railing when they dropped anchor earlier.

Should he go help her? If he went up pretending to help with the luggage……

“Sir! I can walk on my own.”

Just as Randel took one step toward the ship,

“You might get seriously hurt if you fall from here, even if it looks shallow.”

Arsen, who had been behind Lydia, strode forward and lifted her in his arms.

Lydia, caught in Arsen’s arms, fluttered in surprise for a moment but soon wrapped her arms around his neck casually.

“Wow, our Commander is quite the gentleman.”

The other knights beside Randel snickered at Arsen’s unusual behavior, but Randel couldn’t laugh.

There was another person who couldn’t laugh.

“Look to your left.”

It was Arsen himself. He whispered in Lydia’s ear as he lifted her.

To the left of Lydia’s view were the men sent by the Emperor.

“Ah, are we doing an operation? But our operation was supposed to be me pretending to like you. Though it might work if we make it look like you carried me because I begged.”

While saying this, Lydia hugged Arsen’s neck tighter and nuzzled her face against his shoulder.

When her sweet breath touched his neck, Arsen secretly clenched his jaw.

Operation? He hadn’t even thought about an operation.

When Wellington said ‘Priestess, be careful, you might fall,’ his body moved on its own.

All his worrying about keeping distance became meaningless. When he came to his senses, he was already holding Lydia.

Only then did he notice the Emperor’s men and used it as an excuse for carrying her.

“Can I swing my legs? I want to show more that I’m happy being carried by you.”

“Do as you please.”

Lydia happily swung her legs as if playing in water, and perhaps feeling like she might fall, she burrowed deeper into Arsen’s arms.

His head spun from her scent that spread in concentric circles with her every movement. Did she wear perfume separately?

Arsen couldn’t think of anything else as he tried to maintain balance while resisting the urge to bury his face in Lydia’s hair.

“Hmm, dangerous, this is dangerous.”

His adjutant Kedrick was the one doing the other thinking. While pondering how to push Arsen’s back, Kedrick discovered an unexpected method.

Arsen had rushed out when Lydia was in danger.

It happened earlier too. Kedrick stroked his smooth chin and smiled deviously.

“Oh, so that’s how it is.”

* * *

The borderland dock was bustling after a long time.

“You say another ship is coming?”

Bruce, who served as both administrator and accountant while being the butler of the Edis mansion, asked while blinking his large cow-like eyes.

“One ship comes today and tomorrow…… I don’t know how many will come.”

“How, how can there be such a vague answer, Master?”

Bruce asked again in surprise, as his master wasn’t someone who gave such uncertain answers.

Arsen didn’t want to give an answer that he wasn’t sure about either.

“I bought a blacksmith shop.”

But he really couldn’t know. How many ships would be needed to move a blacksmith shop?

“What did you buy?”

“A blacksmith shop. They say it’s the second largest in Count Wonde’s territory. We plan to move it all here, but even Mallan doesn’t know how many more ships we’ll need.”

It wasn’t just Mallan. Even a sailor who had worked at Count Wonde’s territory dock for thirty years shook his head saying this was his first such case.

How could Arsen know what even a transportation expert didn’t?

“But why a blacksmith shop?”

“She wanted to buy it.”

Arsen said while glancing at Lydia who was introducing Wellington to other knights.

“Even if the priestess wanted to buy it, you should have said no, Master.”

“Why not? Our blacksmith shop is too small. We only have two blacksmiths too.”

Come to think of it, that was true so Bruce scratched his head. They needed to build warehouses to store the enormous amount of grain, seedlings, and seeds they bought, and now they would build a blacksmith shop too.