The battle between Annabelle and Lagian was not as intense as expected.

Robert opened his hand secretly as he was getting ready to sweat.

"Coward!"

Lagian was annoyed and yelled at Annabelle.

He was now wielding his sword wide and continuing his attack.

"Are you avoiding me again?"

From a third person's point of view, Annabelle still seemed a bit pushed by Lagian.

This was because Lagian did not attack Annabelle effectively, while pushing her.

However, wherever she ran to avoid Lagian's sword, bamboos fell.

"What?"

Carlon smiled as if it was ridiculous.

"You are not cutting Lagian, but cutting the bamboo."

The rate at which the bamboos fell was quite fast, but the forest was quite wide and there were still many bamboos swaying in the wind.

"Or is it a strategy to bury him in bamboo? Either way, it's not very good."

Carlon spoke sarcastically as he raised his chin.

"I've known since the time that lowly commoner made fun of me."

At that, Robert immediately ran up to Carlon, grabbed him by the neck, and knocked him down.

"Kaaaaa! Hey, this bastard is crazy!"

"Yes."

Robert immediately followed with a punch in the face for Carlon beneath him. (pr/n: yess go Robert he disrespected your crush get his ass!)

In fact, from the time they were left alone, there was a vague tension between them.

The two of them hated each other too much to be quietly watching the fight.

It was a conflict that would erupt at any time, but Carlon's sarcastic remarks were the fuse.

"You said you wanted to kill me every time you saw me."

Carlon also counterattacked, and they began to fight while rolling on the dirt ground.

It was as if two adult men were fist fighting and jumping back and forth like children.

"Every time I saw you, I wanted to hit you once. Wouldn't that be a more instinctive reaction?"

Carlon kicked Robert's stomach and said sarcastically, but he shut his mouth at the moment of incongruity.

It was because the screams of monsters heard from the entrance of the forest in the distance were getting closer and closer.

Robert also noticed the change and turned his head to look towards the entrance.

"What? I thought that if it was the wrong knight, he would definitely go back..."

"...Did you tell your stupid knights to enter the forest?"

"I am different from my brother. I know how to value people's lives."

While the two were fighting each other, the sound of monsters dying was heard gradually closer in real time.

"Keeeeeeek!"

"Eeek!"

"Kyagyakyagak!"

The ground shook as a huge number of monsters fell.

No matter how much hatred they had for each other, the ground was turning over, but they didn't pay attention and only continued.

Robert and Carlon eventually both curled up on the floor, grabbed each other by the collar, and looked towards the entrance.

There was not even a bird who could look at Annabelle and Lagian at the bottom of the low cliff.

This was because the battle between Annabelle and Lagian was a little sluggish, and the screams of the demons were horrendous.

Of course, at first glance, it seemed that she was completely pushed by him.

And the sounds were only of the bamboo falling.

"It's pretty darn cute-!"

Suddenly, after the scream of a huge monster, all the sounds of the monsters disappeared.

Before Robert and Carlon could finish grasping the situation, someone leapt out of the woods.

"...Who?"

It was so fast that they couldn't tell who it was, but it must have been a human anyway.

Seeing the monsters swarming and rioting at the entrance, it seemed that he was the unauthorized human who was not accompanied by the Imperial Family...

They did not recognize the unidentified person, but there was someone else who recognized him immediately.

"Ian?"

Annabelle muttered blankly as she looked at Ian as he leapt down the low cliff.

"Why are you here..."

Until now, she had been continuing the battle with Lagian quite slowly.

She wanted to eliminate the origins of black magic and completely subdue Laigan with her perfect skills.

After all, the swordsmanship contest was over, and she could never see Ian's face again, so she couldn't even ask him to fight.

So, she wanted to use Lagian to test her own ability to eliminate three origins of black magic.

But rather than attacking him, she was cutting down the bamboo step by step...

Why was Ian, who should have been at the awards ceremony of the swordsmanship competition, appearing here?

He was the unauthorized intruder who brought even the peaceful monsters out of this deep forest tunnel.

It was nothing at all in Annabelle's calculations.

"Ugh!"

Although Ian had only leaped from that distance once, he hit Laigan in the back of the head with a single blow.

Then he immediately stepped on the back of the fallen man and pointed the sword at his neck.

"It is said that the Empress obtained illegal drugs. It probably went to this guy."

Ian looked at her while holding Laigan in motion.

After running for two full days, his appearance was a mess, and the blood of monsters was dripping from his sword.

Nevertheless, his eyes were staring at her more clearly than ever.

"...Huh?"

Annabelle was so startled that she looked blankly at Ian and Lagian under his feet.

And as soon as she saw Lagian's expression, she muttered with a slightly tired face.

"Hey, don't make a face like that when you're being stepped on..."

Of course, Ian did not see Lagian's expression lying under his feet.

He had already turned his eyes, and now he could only see Annabelle.

"What kind of drugs did you drink?"

"Huh? Yh... That's right, but..."

"Perhaps you were pushed because he was on illegal drugs. It is said that it is a drug that improves skills in a short period of time."

Ian did not even have time to observe the battle in detail, but only witnessed the scene in which Annabelle looked as if she was being attacked by Lagian for a moment.

So, he rushed to subdue Lagian.

Annabelle asked in a bewildered voice.

"Did you come here because you didn't know about it and was afraid that I would be attacked by him?"

She murmured as she glanced into his eyes.

"Because you didn't accompany the Imperial Family, all those monsters must have attacked you..."

"I killed them all."

Ian replied calmly as if it was nothing special.

Additionally, the screams of the monsters had become silent.

"Hey, you're more of a monster than a monster... You killed them all..."

Annabelle, who muttered blankly, recalling the huge number of monsters she had seen on her way, started pouring out questions that came flooding in in a bewildered state.

"But the capital? How..."

"I cast acceleration magic with the magic crystal in my house..."

"Are you crazy?"

As Annabelle cut off Ian's words, her eyes widened and she cried out.

And she quickly counted.

No matter how hard the acceleration magic was cast, it would take more than a day to get here from the capital.

"Hey, didn't you participate in the swordsmanship contest?"

"No."

"Are you crazy? It was your last swordsmanship contest! But why didn't you participate? You even broke that huge magic crystal!"

She panicked and let out a rough breath.

While everything was going on, she didn't know that Ian would become a variable.

"The Duke said that that was an honor that the Wade family should protect, but for such useless reason..."

"It's not useless."

Unlike Annabelle, who raised her voice, Ian, who was consistently calm throughout, spoke nonchalantly.

And a long wind blew the scent of bamboo between them.

"Because, Annabelle, I..."

Ian looked straight into her eyes and said.

"Love you."

Even Robert, who was trying to call Ian from a cliff in the distance, had no choice but to stop.

"Really, I love you so much, I can't see anything else."

He spoke in a hoarse voice as he took a deep breath.

"I can't really handle this feeling either, so if you don't like me, I'm begging you, just please..."

"I-Ian..."

Annabelle's face turned pale, and she gave him a visibly bewildered look.

"Come on, now wait!"

"As soon as I saw you, I was going to kneel down and hang onto you, but I had to subdue this bastard..."

Ian really knelt down.

"I know you sent me to the swordsmanship competition. But I came here because I thought I would go crazy if I didn't say I love you right away."

And at those words, there was someone screaming in a really crazy voice.

"What are you talking about?!"

It was Lagian lying under his feet.

"Are you possessed by some kind of black magic? Ian, your opponent is Annabelle Rainfield!"

Lagian's shouts were like whales.

"She is a woman who could somehow harm Ian, no matter how she pretends to stay by you now! She could commit some really absurd crimes!"

To be precise, she had already committed them, but Annabelle had no excuses anyway.

"I don't care."

Ian spoke without taking his eyes off her.

"I don't care what crime you have committed against me or how you've harmed me."

It was an answer to Lagian's words, but in fact, it was also an answer to Annabelle's confession.

"I love you so much that I'd let you stab me with your sword now. As you said, if crazy people do this for love..."

Ian continued without hesitation.

"I'm just going to be the craziest guy in the empire." (tl/n: SCREAM) (pr/n: i'm hyperventilating IT'S HAPPENING OH MY GODDD)