Perhaps because I took good medicine and had a good rest, I was able to move comfortably the next day.

“The medicine the Emperor takes… it’s nice.”

Of course, Raniero would never suffer from muscle aches like this, so it might be a bit presumptuous to call it the ‘medicine for the Emperor.’

Conceivably because of the medicine, I fell asleep yesterday without Raniero’s permission. It wasn’t until I woke up in the morning that I was startled by my own frivolity. Then, the next moment I was like, ‘Huh…? How could I not be surprised? I slept without permission yesterday though it looks like my neck is still intact.’

When I woke up in the morning and asked Cisen, she said that Raniero stayed until after midnight and left only at dawn.

“When I slept… did I sleep strangely?”

At my question, Cisen asked back with a curious expression.

“Sleeping strangely, you mean…?

“Did I make a strange expression or weird pose?”

…Why would Raniero look at my sleeping face? I wasn’t sure why he would not leave earlier if I had fallen asleep. Still, it seemed that Cisen did not quite understand what I was saying, so I just waved my hand and asked another question instead.

“When did His Majesty tell me to go out to the tourney hall?”

I thought I was going to have dynamic hunting training with him today. However, upon hearing my words, Cisen’s expression suddenly darkened.

“He didn’t say anything…”

“If he didn’t, you should have asked!”

I pulled my hair out before she could finish her words. I couldn’t bear to say anything bad to her—I couldn’t… So instead, my hair was sacrificed.

Being loyal was everything…! Why was she doing this to me?

Cisen repeatedly kept saying that she was really sorry and stopped me.

Still, it was only a little while before I had to get to the hall, and I must be there before Raniero no matter what. Although the Empress’s grooming process was long and meticulous, today, I passed everything quickly with that in mind.

Let’s not forget, life is more important than dignity…
I then sprinted to the gym, pretending to be ignorant of the members of the Imperial Palace who were gazing at me.

When I reached the gym, I was already out of breath and thought I’d die if I kept going like this. As I placed my hands both on my knees and took a breath, it seemed that there were only knights training all around while Raniero was nowhere to be seen.

…Thank god.

“Whoo. That’s a relief…”

“Did you just wake up now?”

“Euaakk—!”

Raniero appeared from behind me again this time. Even though it was really the same pattern, though every time, I was still continuously surprised by him. As I screamed loudly, I hurriedly covered my mouth with both hands and rolled my eyes. I could barely glance at Raniero.

“You’re lazy. It’s past ten.”

“Sorry… I’m sorry.”

“I’ve been waiting  for two hours.”

“Heup—”

…Two hours?

Covering my mouth, I blinked my eyes wide. Did I make this crazy man wait for two hours…?

Tuk.

I immediately knelt down. It was because any excuse wouldn’t work, only an unconditional apology. While kneeling down and choosing a sentence that would touch Raniero’s heart, a slightly blunt voice was heard above my head.

“It’s okay. I don’t want to delay any longer to receive an apology for nothing. Get up.”

At his words, I got up immediately. Meanwhile, Raniero lightly kicked the bow that I dropped in surprise as I was darting my eyes sideways.

“What is this child’s toy?”

…What does he mean? This is my bow.

I quickly picked up my bow and replied.

“I still lack a lot of muscle strength to pull the bowstring because I’m not strong enough…”

“Ho.“

The word ‘again and again’ could be read from Raniero’s expression.

Oh, was this how he reads my face?

As I was lost in my thoughts, something was put in my hand.

“Huh…?”

Glancing down, it was a smooth bow. It was smaller than the first one I used on the first day but larger than that of Duchess Nerma’s son that she had brought. I then glanced up at Raniero, puzzled, and he lifted my chin and tilted his head before gazing down at me.

“Did you not have any intention of using a weapon that fits your body size?”

…Well, at first, I asked for something that would shoot out unconditionally far away.

In the end, no matter how far the bow would shoot, it would be useless if the shooter couldn’t even pull the string, so what Duchess Nerma gave me was a bit disappointing to achieve its original purpose of threatening fire because the range was too short. I tried pulling the bowstring. It was adequate for pulling a string because the body of the bow was suitable. The arrow propulsion might be a little off, but…

I was really thankful for this.

As I lowered my head, I could feel my ears heating up.

“Thank you.”

The person on the other side was silent for a moment. A few seconds later, a cold fingertip grazed my ear. While rubbing softly on my earlobe, a whisper fell.

“You still have a fever. The medicine I gave you yesterday must not have helped.”

‘It isn’t like that…!’

Looking up at Raniero, who was getting closer in surprise, he was smiling pleasantly. Only then did I realize that he had made fun of me again.

Ha, really…

Even if he doesn’t want to go over every detail, everyone would definitely have a huge reaction to even the smallest things in front of Raniero because they would never know when you would die.

Then, he lightly pulled my hair that was tied up… I could now accept this level of aegyo.
[ T/N: I’m sure everyone knows what ‘aegyo’ means, but just in case ૮ ◞ ﻌ ◟ ა. Korean refers to it as a cute display of affection often expressed through a cute voice, changes to speech, facial expressions, or gestures. ]

It was fortunate that he did not seem to be offended by me being two hours late.

“Let’s start.”

As Raniero took the lead by stretching like a flexible cat, I followed him in stride.

An hour passed.

“You…”

Raniero’s sweet voice immediately flowed into my ear.

“You’re such a fool, and you have no talent.”

Today was a crisis.

Raniero, who was teaching the bow at first, got tired of the class in less than thirty minutes, where all he had to do was watch me fail to shoot. Seeing him like that, I picked up a wooden dagger from somewhere and threw it. Immediately, changing the topic and the dagger class began instead…

…It was a spartan class that started with a fight without any theory or foundation in the slightest.

Yes, it’d be like a preview of how Roberta Jacques could wield a dagger, so I followed along without any complaints.

‘Well, to be honest, I wasn’t in a position to express dissatisfaction anyway…’

Right now, Raniero was holding the wooden blade close to my neck from behind. His voice was filled with unbearable boredom.

“Did you know that you’d have already died for the sixty-seventh time?”

Saying so, he pushed me lightly, and I stumbled back with an awkward smile as he continued.

“Even though I’m not using my right arm, my right leg, my left thumb, ring finger, and my pinky?”

His words persisted in a ridiculous way.

“Besides, I’ve told you all the ways I was going to attack, though how was I still able to cut your neck in the same way for the twelfth time?”

It was as he said.

When Raniero freely used both arms and legs, the match was over in 0.1 seconds. He struck my wrist as fast as lightning, dropping my dagger and thrusting his sword towards my neck. I didn’t even know what had happened, and I died like that ten times.

If I died in 0.1 seconds to Raniero, when I meet Roberta Jacques… I’d die in three seconds, right?

To be honest, I didn’t mind since it was the natural providence of prey that I met Raniero without training that I would die in 0.1 seconds… although he seemed to have been surprised by my weakness. Still, it seemed that he was aware that he was on a non-human level, so Raniero started adding penalties to himself one by one.

At first, he hid his right arm behind his back, and then he put his right leg in the air… Now, even using only two fingers on his left hand.

Remarkably, it still didn’t help me much…

“What should I do?”

He eventually stepped on the ground with both feet after twenty-one minutes.

“You can see the attack with your eyes and avoid it, right?”

“That, that’s—”

I uttered with a little embarrassment.

“…I can’t see it.”

“Are you now confessing that you have a chronic disease that makes you blind?”

“Hahaha…“

I couldn’t see his attacks because he was too fast. So, even if I knew where he would be going, I couldn’t see the attack coming.

…I couldn’t even see an afterimage!

In the end, I was dead again as I muttered, “Huh?” Nevertheless, one strange thing was that Raniero was continuing this nonsensical repetitive labor even until now. Even though he kept grumbling, he didn’t seem to want to quit.

‘It would be better if he said he’d not do it anymore because he was tired of this!’

He would get bored with everything from time to time, so why did he continue until the end at the chance of boredom? I was afraid he would explode like this.

“Why isn’t this working? Why can’t you see and avoid it?”

As he said that, I then got stabbed by the dagger that came into my side. Thankfully, Raniero stopped before it reached me.

…Thank you for not hurting me.

Raniero would then say, ‘Why are you just standing like that?’, ‘I just couldn’t understand’, and ‘What are you…?’ As I continued to dig into the loopholes by repeating the same words about twenty times to answer him, but after realizing my level, I decided it’d be best to stop taking the class right now.

Opening my mouth, I carefully expressed my opinion.

“As expected, a long distance…”

“Where does the confidence that you’ll be able to keep your distance from your prey all the time come from?”

…That was true, too.

Not knowing what to say, I put my hands together somewhat.

Raniero began to explain one by one, starting with the basics, which he couldn’t have imagined that he would eventually have to explain something while teaching someone.

The crossroads and trajectories were most extended and most prominent when the waist was moved when using the bow. In addition, the shoulders, elbows, and wrists become shorter and smaller in the order of shoulders, elbows, and wrists.

He then gently closed his eyes as if feeling skeptical if I even understood his explanation.

I quickly bowed my head.

“Thank you for teaching me… Thank you, it was a great help.”

“What do you mean?”

“Really. This is something I didn’t know at all… It’ll definitely take time and a diligent effort to broaden my horizons, but I’ll do my best.”

Gazing down at me, Raniero untied my hair that had been tied up and took a step towards me.

“I look forward to seeing you come out early tomorrow.”

It was not a languid or bored voice but a tone that was slightly irritated.

I watched as his golden hair, which was far more brilliant than the sunlight falling on his head and shoulders, fluttered as he moved away.