Of course, Annabelle wasn't the only one who was speechless.

"Um, Ian?"

Robert said slowly, tilting his head.

"You said it wrong because you were in a hurry, right? Didn't you want to hear Miss Annabelle's blessing? It was touching when I heard it earlier."

"...Blessing?"

Ian's brows wrinkled further.

"Is Annabelle going to do that?"

Annabelle, who had been swearing at the Knights all day and night, blinked her eyes as if she was in trouble.

Then she quickly made a decision and said with a smile.

"I'm sorry, Prince. Maybe something happened to the Knights. Judging by this rubbish, it seems that Aaron had an accident... I'm almost done eating, so I'm going back to the Knights."

"Well, alright."

Robert also stood up slowly and patted Ian on the shoulder.

"It must be urgent, so take care of it. I heard the Knights have a lot of work to do, but it must be true."

The three people came out of the restaurant.

"Well then, I'll see you guys later."

Robert, the highest-ranking person there, left for the palace in a carriage.

As soon as Robert's carriage left, Annabelle looked up at Ian and asked.

"But what's really going on? Why the hell did you bring that garbage?"

"Don't say garbage."

Ian sighed lightly and swept up his golden hair.

"Because it's the wooden sword you used at Wade's training ground when you were nine years old when and when you first fought with me."

"Oh."

Annabelle received an old children's wooden sword from Ian with astonished eyes.

"That's right, now that I'm looking at the engraved numbers. It's good that it's not rotten. I will have to throw it out soon."

"You said you wanted to find it to Aaron, how could you say such a harsh thing?"

"I think I said that, but that was a long time ago... But anyway, it's still garbage in the end. What would I use this for?"

Ian stared at Annabelle and held out his hand sulkily.

"If you're going to throw it away, give it back."

"What? What are you going to do with this?"

"I'll put it in my room."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because it's precious to me."

Annabelle's finger, which was holding out the child's wooden sword, brushed against Ian's big hand. Read only at pm tl.

Since they had been together for a long time, physical contact was nothing.

"And because it was when I met you."

It was Annabelle, who had always been evaluated as 'living only with a sword and a mouth' from Aaron.

However, her heart was pounding so much that she was speechless for a moment.

Before she knew it, she didn't want to take off her gently tangled fingers first either.

"I wanted to ask you why you quit the Knights as soon as I saw you."

"Uh... Well..."

"But now I know. The other question comes first."

"...What is it?"

"What will make you not leave?"

"The Knights of Wade?"

Ian pondered for a long time on the question of pinpointing the object.

It was enough yesterday to be embarrassed in front of Annabelle and not be able to say what he really wanted to say.

This morning without her was arguably the second most painful time of his life.

And the most painful moment was just a moment ago when he saw another man, Robert, talking to her with a big smile on her face.

It was the first time he felt like his stomach was burning and his blood was boiling.

Annabelle and Robert didn't do anything special themselves.

"No."

The reason why he stayed up all night looking at a letter of resignation, the reason why this morning was terrible, and the reason why this old small wooden sword, which was really called 'garbage', suddenly became precious.

Ian looked at Annabelle more seriously than ever and said slowly.

"Stay by my side."

Annabelle had already been acting differently because her heart was pounding, but now her ears turned red.

~*~

A few days have passed.

The story of Annabelle's resignation flew out of the window, and no one was curious about the whereabouts of the resignation letter.

"Honey, what's going on..."

Even Leslie had a panicked expression, swallowing brownies and muttering all day.

"Annabelle and Ian are dating? Those two are lovers? No, how is that possible?"

"What's impossible?"

Braden said leisurely, turning over the newsletter.

"I told you before. I think it's going to work out with Annabelle."

"No, wasn't that just wishful thinking?"

Leslie couldn't hide her excitement as if something could have happened.

"They've been together every single day since they were nine. In addition, since the two are so similar in skills, they respect each other too much, so they didn't spark at all. But why are they suddenly dating?"

"Well, who's sure there was a spark or not?"

"I'm sure!"

Contrary to Braden's relaxed attitude, Leslie was constantly surprised.

"I saw Ian and Annabelle almost every day. Neither of them really cared a little bit about each other. No, they were more difficult than others and kept away from each other."

"Think about it, Leslie."

Braden replied, gloating over the crossword behind the newsletter.

"Anyways, it's not that they thought of each other differently than others. The key point was that they were always there."

"No, Annabelle even wrote a resignation letter, but how did she get caught by such a boring guy...Well, it's good for us, but..."

"They were so conscious of each other that they didn't know how to look into each other's feelings. In that case, if you throw in a very unexpected situation, it will catch fire in an instant."

"Unexpected situation?"

"Ian is a little boring, but he's not an idiot. For example..."

Braden said with a grin.

"...The letter of resignation that was just around the corner."

~*~

"Wait a minute, ah... Wait..."

It was a dark night when all the knights left work. Inside the training ground where the door was closed, Annabelle pushed Ian away with a force on his toes.

"Breathe, I want to breathe..."

"Ah, you're having a hard time right now."

Ian looked at Annabelle with red eyes full of haze and said seriously.

"I'll remember next time."

"...What, you're going to make a kiss announcement?"

Annabelle gasped and leaned her face against Ian's chest.

She always thought he was a straight man who only knew the sword, but now he was a man who only knew the sword and Annabelle.

"But if you push me like this next time, I won't let it go. I'm going to curse you for chewing your tongue while eating something sour."

"Curse me."

"...What?"

"Say whatever you say to others, because I'm jealous. Of course you can hit me. Well, why don't you talk comfortably? We're lovers, but how long are you going to be like that?"

"Well... All right, you perv."

Even when she thought about how this happened, she couldn't remember clearly.

Naturally, the resignation letter to Ian disappeared. Well, she didn't really mean to quit in the first place, so it didn't matter.

The reason for submitting the resignation was as follows.

A few days ago, Annabelle went to Braden's office on Ian's errand.

"Oh, it's Miss Annabelle. How was the business trip?"

"Yes, thanks to him, I came back safely."

"Wasn't it a little chilly? It gets a little chilly around that time. If you don't feel well, take sick leave."

"It was fine because Ian took care of me so much that I was embarrassed to use the sick leave."

"That guy... He took good care of you?"

"Yes, I had a really comfortable trip because he took care of everything."

"...Was it really comfortable? You don't look so happy looking back on that moment. Did Ian make you feel uncomfortable?"

"Well, that's not true. It's just... It's just that I'm a little awkward to see him after the business trip. It's totally my problem."

"Hmm."

Braden looked at Annabelle for a moment, then grinned and picked up the newsletter he was reading.

"Annabelle, why don't you make a bet with me?"

"What?"

"Why don't we compete with who will solve more of these crossword puzzles? I'm a little bored."

"...You are bored?"

Annabelle asked suspiciously as she looked at the huge amount of papers piled up in front of Braden, but Braden shrugged and replied.

"If Miss Annabelle wins, I will personally give you 'Areon's Tooth' in the armory."

"Areon's tooth?"

It was too good of a sword to refuse. Annabelle immediately took the newsletter.

"Instead, if I win, you just have to do me a little favor, but don't ask me why."

So Annabelle started the crossword puzzle in the newsletter with Braden and was neatly defeated.

Braden then grinned and said the request.

"It's nothing else, just hand Ian your resignation letter tomorrow, saying you're really going to quit, and fooling Aaron and the rest of the knights."

"What? I have no intention of quitting."

"According to my amazing feeling, you won't quit."

Braden answered with ease.

"Maybe you'll meet a marriage partner. You have to accept the bet anyway. This is an order."

It was the context that Aaron overheard Annabelle talking to Marilyn, about an order of a marriage partner.

"I think I met you too early. If I had seen you for the first time when my eyes had reason, I would have fallen in love at first sight."

Ian kissed her again and whispered. Annabelle closed her eyes again and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Well, at some point, why does it matter? Their affection for each other,