The drunkards were fast asleep, and the late-night silence was serene.

The black-haired girl lying in bed quietly opened her eyes and looked at the woman holding her.

“…….”

Affection, joy, trust, longing, obsession.

And a small question and compassion.

Those complex emotions that couldn’t be fully expressed in a word danced in her golden eyes.

Friede gazed at her knight, who was obliviously asleep, and silently reached out to softly caress her cheek.

A cautious and delicate touch, as if handling a cracked glass ornament.

Her tiny, white thumb gently brushed under Hilde’s eye, tracing the path of tears that no longer existed.

‘…I didn’t know you would cry like that.’

The wails she overheard days ago echoed in Friede’s mind like a haunting memory.

◆◆

What had happened at Veloren’s mansion.

One early morning, Friede woke up and immediately realized Hilde wasn’t beside her. Still groggy, she stepped out into the corridor to search for her.

Following the dim light like a sleepwalker, she ended up discovering Hilde and Veloren cuddled together on the sofa in his bedroom.

The sight almost made her burst into the room, but was it because of her firm belief that Hilde wouldn’t betray her?

Or was it because the scene before her was so shocking that she froze in her tracks?

Brunhilde was crying.

She lamented about her situation and all the malice and injustice she’d faced, her voice trembling with fear and anguish.

The Brunhilde Friede knew was nowhere to be found.

Only a woman, craving kindness and afraid of malice, who covered her weakness with the armor of a ‘merciless knight against enemies,’ was weeping.

The raw wounds in Brunhilde’s heart halted Friede’s steps in their tracks.

She longed to rush in, embrace Hilde, and wipe away her tears, but frustratingly, that role belonged to someone else.

Hilde had never shown such a vulnerable side in front of her.

Sure, she sometimes looked distressed or wore a gloomy expression, but never had she lamented about how difficult and frightening it was to live with tears streaming down her face.

What could be the reason?

‘…Is it because she doesn’t trust me…?’

No, that couldn’t be. Friede quickly dismissed her first pessimistic assumption.

Despite their ups and downs, she and Hilde had become a community of fate, facing everything together since their reunion.

That trust couldn’t be less than that of some random middle-aged lady. Friede believed that. No, she wanted to believe it.

So, she reflected on her past days with Hilde and tried to find more solid and reliable reasons within those memories.

‘Come to think of it… Hilde often treated me like a child.’

In Friede’s recollection, Hilde’s words and actions towards her were often… no, almost always closer to that of an elder than a peer.

During their conversations, she occasionally felt like she had an imaginary older sister.

Hilde might not even realize she was doing it, but… at any rate, it didn’t feel bad, so Friede unconsciously went along with Hilde’s behavior.

Even in situations where it wasn’t necessary, she’d fumble her words a little or imitate the speech of children she’d seen, and would grin every time she got her head patted.

‘…Could that be it? Maybe she thinks of me not as someone to lean on, but rather as a child she needs to support?’

While Friede basked in situations where Hilde found her adorable, upon reflection, it felt like a miscalculation.

Unless one is a completely deranged pervert, who would expect a motherly figure from a younger child?

To Friede, Hilde was definitely not such a twisted deviant.

Instead, she was a woman who showed only her strong and confident side before children, so they wouldn’t feel uneasy, no matter how tough it was.

‘So, if she was forcibly holding back her weakness because she couldn’t show it in front of me… and now, if she finally found someone to lean on….’

She couldn’t interfere. Friede thought this and stepped back one pace.

Though it was heartbreaking, distressing, and a bit infuriating, it was all too obvious that it wasn’t her place to step in.

Friede thought about what would happen if she entered the room in this situation.

Hilde would lose the chance to pour out her pent-up feelings and would instead force herself to wear a brave mask, hiding the tears that had flowed so freely.

‘That’s… not right. Yeah, that’s very wrong.’

The unresolved pent-up frustration would eventually become an everlasting wound, etched deep in her heart.

Friede didn’t want to see Hilde’s heart rot away. Just imagining that conclusion made her bite her lips and ache in her chest.

The sight before her—seeing Hilde embracing a woman other than herself would feel trivial in comparison.

In the end, Friede quietly returned to her bedroom, leaving Hilde and Veloren behind, without ever hearing Hilde’s confession after she left.

It was somewhat fortunate for Friede.

If she had heard that Hilde’s feelings for her were not love but deception and the guilt that came with it, she would also have been crying uncontrollably.

◆◆

The next morning,

After waking up well-rested for the first time in ages and chowing down on breakfast at the inn’s first floor, she started hearing rumors that had multiplied in ferocity a dozen times over since yesterday.

“Have you heard the news? Baron Braum is in a coma!”
“Baron? What happened?!”

“Seriously, you didn’t know? That pig was about to slay the beasts of Pinwood Forest but almost got eaten himself. It’s crazy right now.”

“Hey, hey. Could you tone that down a bit…?”

“Honestly, it’s hilarious. According to the priests, he never even laid eyes on the beast, and he fled after confronting the monsters he summoned from hell. What a disgrace!”

…What on earth happened last night?

Since they mentioned the Pinwood Forest, it certainly seemed to be about me…

“Summoned from hell…? That beast, can it exert necromancy or something?”

“Did you hear what kind of monster it is? What’s its identity?”

“I don’t know! I asked, but the only thing they said was it’s so grotesque and blasphemous that it’s hard to even utter its name.”

“…That’s terrifying. If even the priests are afraid of such a monstrous creature, why has it appeared in this mountain village?”

“Don’t tell me it’s coming to this town…?”

“Yeah, right? How can we live in fear like this?”

…The conversation was filled with stuff I didn’t know, and I couldn’t understand it at all.

I swear to the gods I’ve never even met Baron Braum, and I sure don’t have any summoning abilities.

The rumors were getting out of hand. At this point, it felt like there was actually another monster out there besides me.

“Ahem, ahem. Anyway, they say the baron is recruiting adventurers because of that incident. How about we take this chance and grab a share for ourselves?”

That middle-aged guy turns out to be an adventurer.

The man who first brought up the rumors lightly patted his chest and got straight to the point.

Baron Braum, or whatever his name is, was hiring adventurers for a second-round engagement, and they should jump in to grab a solid share.

To me, that sounded like a perfect plan for failure or death.

“Forget it. A share? It’d be a miracle if we don’t end up losing our heads.”
“That beast, or even its underlings, took out several knights. And you want us to get involved? If you want to die, do it alone.”

It seemed most of the other adventurers shared the same thoughts as me. Instead of responding to the middle-aged man’s words, they just hurled jeers and mockery at him.

“That’s ridiculous! There’s no way nothing can happen to us if we’re not the only ones going in! If we just time it right…”
“What kind of opportunity is that? A chance to have a hole blown through your head? Your own words sound like you’ve already been shot in the head.”

“…Wow, look who it is—the brat who doesn’t know when to quit!”
“What? So, you wanna give it a shot? Bring it on if you think you can.”

After a heated argument where fists were about to be thrown, the adventurers seemed to be deciding the outcome of whether to join this expedition with their fists.

Whoever won was the right one, as per the brutes.

Well, it didn’t matter to me who won anyway.

Once I finished my breakfast, I planned to leave the village and head straight home.

Whatever the monster was, I figured Braum and the adventurers would handle it without me. If such a monster even existed.