chapter 4
The next day, I dragged my exhausted body—having barely slept properly—to the training yard and was doing about two thousand horizontal sword cuts when Sir Hugo called me.
“Chloe Evergreen!”
In just a week, I’d gotten used to being called Chloe Evergreen, so I answered immediately.
“Yes! I’m here!”
Out of habit, I was about to raise my right hand, but I quickly dropped the wooden sword and just lifted my hand instead.
The tone of that voice had already told me something was wrong.
Sir Hugo walked toward me with a face like he’d seen a ghost—if that ghost appeared in his dreams, he’d probably wake up screaming.
Then he suddenly smacked me hard on the back.
“Agh!”
It stung so much I teared up a little.
“W-why did you do that!”
I shouted, feeling wronged.
“Why, you ask?”
Sir Hugo looked around, then motioned for me to follow him outside.
I obediently followed—and of course, I was right.
“Hey, you freeloader. I thought you finally came to your senses, but do you know how embarrassed you made me in front of Sir Catherine?”
Sir Catherine seemed like the type who didn’t put things off.
Given that Sir Hugo already knew what I’d done, she must have reported it immediately.
“If you wanted to pick fights that badly, you should’ve just become a mercenary!”
I silently resolved not to get provoked so easily again and endured Hugo’s scolding.
After venting his anger for a while, Hugo finally let out a sigh, as if calming down.
“What are you going to do, huh? The captain already heard about it too.”
I had been quietly relieved that things were over—but then froze at the mention of Elias.
“E-Elias? The captain too?”
“Yeah. Sir Catherine only meant to report it to the senior knights… but—”
I could guess the rest.
Elias must have overheard by chance while passing by.
“So, the captain wants to see you.”
After Hugo came Elias.
“Understood.”
I answered with a gloomy face.
I had two impressions of Elias.
“He looks cold enough to hate children, but he’s surprisingly kind like an older brother’s friend—and an extreme stickler for rules.”
I had almost never been scolded by anyone in my life.
“Yesterday, Elias was really sharp…”
I could only hope he had just been in a bad mood.
With that anxiety, I headed toward the captain’s office.
I prayed I would never arrive, but unfortunately, the training yard and the office were quite close.
After knocking and hearing “Come in,” I opened the door—and immediately met Elias’s eyes.
“Sir Chloe Evergreen.”
Elias called me with a troubled frown.
He recognized Chloe Evergreen instantly—the version he had seen yesterday.
And it wasn’t exactly a good thing for me.
“Yes, Captain.”
I lowered my eyes respectfully.
After yesterday’s incident, I had decided to take my knight duties seriously for my family’s sake. I was now fully “apprentice knight Chloe Evergreen.”
Seeing me act so properly, Elias sighed.
“What on earth were you thinking…?”
Being the captain right after taking office and already having one of his knights cause trouble—he probably had a headache.
“Sir Chloe, are you a mercenary?”
That line again. It must be standard knight corps phrasing.
I pouted my lips slightly behind Elias’s line of sight and firmly shook my head.
“No, I am not!”
If I were a mercenary, I could at least avoid assignments and coast through a year.
Seeing no sign of remorse, Elias’s tone grew even stricter.
“Then do military rules mean nothing to you?”
His voice, once merely cold, now felt like a blizzard.
“No, sir!”
I snapped to attention and denied it.
“I was thoughtless.”
Only after my dramatic act of remorse did the coldness in his voice ease slightly.
“Good that you realize that. Since it’s reached my ears, you’re prepared for consequences, yes?”
I’m not, actually.
But there was only one answer.
“…Yes. I am.”
At that, Elias finally looked away.
I quietly exhaled in relief.
He narrowed his brows, thinking over an appropriate punishment.
I carefully watched him.
‘All this… just because of one fight.’
I had learned that causing trouble was instant, but dealing with it dragged on.
Now it was time for punishment.
After a moment, Elias spoke.
“For the next month, after evening training, report to my office and assist with administrative work.”
It would cut into my free time significantly, but it was much lighter than I had expected.
“Yes, understood, Captain!”
I answered quickly before he could change his mind.
Elias lowered his voice.
“This is the only time I will let it pass. If you cause trouble again, I will dismiss you using the authority of the captain.”
It was meant to sound like a warning, but it didn’t feel very frightening.
Because all I could think of was the version of Elias I remembered—serious and strict on the outside, but once, as a child, he had calmly poured milk into a tiny toy teacup during pretend play.
‘And at this rate, the year will probably end before I cause more trouble anyway.’
I also had quite a lot of confidence in myself.
“Yes, sir!”
I answered brightly, forgetting my earlier act of being subdued.
The month Elias mentioned started today.
After training ended, I returned to the captain’s office. Elias was reading handover documents.
With platinum-blond hair, blue eyes, and neatly defined features, he looked like the young heir of a noble family.
I waited quietly so as not to disturb his focus.
A few seconds later, he noticed me and immediately gave an order.
“Organize the documents on that desk.”
The desk he pointed to looked like the one usually used by the captain’s adjutant.
But it was completely empty.
As I walked over, a bad feeling crept up and I carefully asked,
“Captain, when will your adjutant be reporting for duty?”
But there was no reply.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard me.
His mouth moved slightly—his habit when he had no answer.
‘Don’t tell me… there is no adjutant?’
No way. That couldn’t be it.
“You do have someone picked as adjutant, right? They’re just still transferring?”
I stared at him insistently.
Elias finally answered in a reluctant voice.
“Not exactly…”
It was absurd—but somehow, it also sounded like something Elias would do.
Usually, a captain chooses someone he already knows as an adjutant.
But Elias had been promoted too quickly; he likely didn’t have close enough subordinates to appoint comfortably.
And he couldn’t easily choose seniors due to hierarchy, while choosing someone his age would still be politically complicated.
‘So he just… doesn’t have one?’
Knowing Elias, he might have decided it was better to suffer alone than cause internal conflict.
‘He can’t possibly manage alone though.’
Even my older siblings each had more than ten assistants.
And they were still always busy.
Even if knight order administration wasn’t overwhelming, it would be difficult without an adjutant.
‘He’s just making life hard for himself.’
For a moment, I looked at Elias with a slightly pitying expression.
His brows furrowed.
‘Oops. I’m not a princess anymore.’
I quickly corrected my expression and smiled.
But his frown didn’t ease.
‘My smile used to work on my family… maybe it’s because this face is different.’
As I awkwardly stood there, Elias finally spoke.
“I will look for a suitable candidate slowly.”
He looked a little puzzled himself, as if wondering why he was even explaining this to me.
I wanted to say, you don’t really have time to go slowly, but I was just Chloe Evergreen now.
“Yes, sir!”
‘Don’t forget.’
Instead of giving advice, I decided to help with the overflowing work.
The documents on the desk appeared to be handover papers Elias had already read.
I began organizing the stacks of papers.
