Kane Erez was a knight who was on rest due to an injury and would return to duty soon.

And Kane’s father, Marquis Erez, said, “Watch the second prince.”

“Yes?”

Kane was the firstborn of the Marquis of Erez. He was the eldest son who would inherit the title, and somehow he had a talent in swordsmanship. For this reason, he has been escorting the royal family ever since he was knighted.

“While you were resting, your assignment changed.”

Kane was originally working in the first princess’ palace. Marquis Erez has been supporting the crown prince with Duke Ernest for generations, but he was much more comfortable working in the first princess’ palace.

“I changed it.”

Kane sighed after hearing his father’s proud words.

“What is the reason?”

“You talk a lot today. Naturally, I thought I should keep an eye on the second prince’s side.”

“….”

Kane bit his inner mouth, confused. While he was resting to recover from his injuries, rumors were spreading that a new prince had appeared. He heard that the prince was the son of a beautiful woman who had spent one night with the emperor a long time ago. Long story short, the woman’s son had been living outside the palace all along, but he made a big contribution upon his return to the capital, and was now officially appointed as a prince.

“Watch closely, and report any strange things immediately. This is very important for the family.” Marquis Erez made an order.

Kane didn’t like this order, but there was no point in talking back to his father, so he agreed for once.

“All right.”

For this reason, Kane Erez was officially assigned to work at the second prince’s palace, regardless of his own will.

“Fuuu…”

Kane sighed as he walked through the palace gardens where the prince’s palace was located. Today was his first day of work. It was customary to first greet the prince, the owner of the palace. However, the prince was meeting a guest. Kane mumbled as he stood in the garden.

“I was swept away by annoying things.”

Kane didn’t know what kind of person the second prince was, and quite disliked this mission. He was a twenty-seven-year-old man. Not to mention, he had already established himself as a knight. Obviously, he didn’t want to do anything useless.

“I can’t believe he changed my assignment arbitrarily….”

In the first place, he was not into politics personally. He intended to end this damn political dispute that has been existing for generations.

On his own, Kane eventually arrived at the exercise hall.

“—why is everyone doing this?”

When Kane arrived at the exercise hall, he saw men laying down on the dirty floor. Surprisingly, they were all knights of the Imperial Palace. Some of them were familiar to him.

A knight slowly raised his hand to greet him. “Hey Kane, you said you’d come here, it’s actually real.”

Kane then replied bitterly. “Yeah, it’s been a while. But why is everyone doing this?”

The knights, who usually talked about the honor of knights, were wriggling like caterpillars. But to be honest, it was kind of funny.

“It’s hard.”

“What?”

“Of course it’s training.”

Kane put on a puzzled expression.

“How could you guys say training is difficult as knights? Hasn’t everyone done it once or twice?”

Then a few other knights who had been squirming on the floor turned their heads and looked at Kane. It was like an undead scene, so Kane flinched.

The knight who was talking to Kane gave him a compassionate look. “You haven’t been through training in this place yet. Training here is different from other places.”

“What does it mean?”

The knight waved his hand in annoyance. “That’s it. Just try it first.”

“….”

When a colleague said something like that in a new workplace, anyone would feel uncomfortable.

‘What kind of personality does the prince have, why is everyone doing this?’

Was he a huge weirdo? Or was he very arrogant because of the sudden rise in status overnight?

Kane soon had an answer to his question. This was because Sigren returned to the exercise hall after finishing his conversation with Fiona.

Knights who saw the appearance of the prince made a groaning sound.

“I thought today was the end….”

“I guess Lady Fiona went back early.”

Who was this Lady Fiona?

Kane was not aware of what had happened in the noble society since he had been away for quite a while. But anyway, he finally saw his new boss. They said the prince had just turned twenty, and the prince certainly looked a little younger in Kane’s eyes.

‘You must be popular because you’re handsome.’

Other than that, the prince’s eyes were sharp and cold for his age. And he felt like he couldn’t help but stare at them. But that was the end of his first impression of the prince.

“Why is everyone lying down?”

The knights stood up right away even though they were dying.

Seeing that the knights regained their posture, Sigren turned his head to look at Kane.

The eyes of the two men met.

“Kane Erez. This is the first time I am meeting you, Prince Sigren.” At the same time, Kane lightly put his left knee on the ground, giving the posture of a knight greeting the imperial family. He then said, “From today on, I’m tasked with protecting your highness’ palace.”

Putting the left knee on the ground was the proper formal etiquette for greeting the imperial family. Usually, it was replaced with a light bow of the head. Kane knew too, but in the first meeting with an imperial family member, it was the principle to show formal etiquette, so that’s why he did it.

Sigren looked at him like he was a strange creature.

Kane was confused. ‘What did I do wrong?’

He wondered if he had put the wrong knee on the ground, but he definitely put his left knee.

“Get up, Sir Erez.”

“Yes.”

Kane stood up. “Ah, if possible, I would appreciate it if you could call me by my name.”

“Let’s do that.”

While answering, Sigren continued to stare at Kane with a ‘what the hell is this guy doing?’ stare.

Kane suddenly felt it was a little unfair about why he should receive this kind of stare. Fortunately, his curiosity was solved quickly.

“This is the first time someone greeted me with formal etiquette.”

“Is that so?” Kane didn’t know what other people were thinking by not following the basic etiquette as they were knights.

Sigren put on an apathetic face. “Well, that’s fine. First of all, I would like to see your skills.”

“Yes?”

“If you don’t like it, I’ll kick you out right away.”

“Wait, I can’t believe you’re kicking me out as soon as I arrive—”

Sigren didn’t listen. “Pull out your sword.”

The other knights next to him looked at Kane with sympathy. It was then Kane realized.

‘That’s why everyone wanted to die.’

“Hurry up. And for your information.”

Sigren grabbed his sword.

“I don’t wait that long.”

KLANG!

The sound of sword clashes echoed in the exercise hall.

Kane quickly blocked the sword Sigren swung.

A faint smirk appeared in Sigren’s eyes as his sword was blocked.

On the other hand, Kane felt like he was dying.

KIIK!

The sound of swords clashing against each other reasounded horribly.

‘I heard that he is twenty years old, but his skills…’

It was obvious that if Kane did something stupid, he would get hit in an instant. The welcome ceremony was very harsh.

Kane, who suddenly had a sore throat, said, “I’ll do my best not to get kicked out.”

Sigren grinned, “good attitude.”

KLANG!

The sword struck again.

Kane barely held his breath. Apparently, the new boss decided to kick him out from the beginning.

‘It’s all father’s fault!’

So the sound of iron clashing against each other rang out in the exercise hall.