Chapter 24

“Derrick.” Duke stopped Derrick from continuing to berate me.

“What are you doing? Trespassing without knocking on the door while I’m talking to her.”

Derrick’s eyes falter for a second. I also find my confused spirit.

He releases my shoulders and takes a step back to bow toward the Duke.

“…… It was my fault, Father.”

There is some pain in the shoulders that have just been squeezed. I rubbed my slightly aching shoulders while watching Derrick’s movements.

‘Why isn’t he leaving yet?’

Derrick stood up to the desk, but didn’t take his eyes off me.

The Duke did the same, merely staring straight at me, as if waiting for my next words.

”Phew…… another one……

I sighed in my mind.

“…… Well. Well, I can understand what you’re trying to do now.”

The Duke cleared his throat and replied.

Fortunately, he accepted the reason I had made up a little earlier without much doubt.

But that wasn’t the last of his doubts.

“If that’s the case, then why didn’t you just restore him to freedom? Why even bring him back?”

“Ikris is a skilled swordsman, Father. That is why I bought him at such a high price.”

I began to ease out the words I had just organized in my mind.

“I hope you will allow Ikris to train as a knight. He seems to be a person who can be made.”

“As a knight in our family?”

“Yes. In order to capitalize on his value, I think it would be better for him to receive formal training rather than have him live as a yeoman and bury his talents ……”

“I can’t listen to this.”

Derrick interrupted me.

“The mansion is already full of servants who are grateful for being able to work here.”

“…..”

“But now, you’re telling us to put a slave who isn’t even a commoner through knight training? Also, what exactly do you want to do after letting him undergo training?”

The Duke seemed to be having the same thoughts as Derrick.

”Ah, go away now, don’t spoil my fun again.”

I held back the feeling of fatigue in my entire body and replied.

“I want to take him as my personal escort.”

“…… Your personal escort?”

“I can’t live without an escort for the rest of my life.”

The Duke’s eyes widened some more.

“What do you mean by that. The Eckhardt family has over 20,000 knights at your disposal.”

“Yes, but I know those knights have a bad impression of me.”

“……..”

“Isn’t that why you didn’t appoint them as my guards?”

The two men’s mouths were tightly shut and they didn’t say a word.

Every noble lady was followed by at least five or six bodyguards.

The number of personal guards, on the other hand, increases with the noble lady’s status in the family.

While I questioned Emily again, I also learned out that Pelonepe didn’t have any personal guards.

If she needs to go out for something, only a knight who doesn’t have any important business to attend to will go along with her. But that was all.

‘What will people think of her?’

Just how bad was the evaluation to be treated like that. No, it’s not even worth caring about.

While I was speculating and both of them were speechless, for a moment I lost my words.

“…… I don’t want to trust my life to someone who has no desire to protect me.”

“……..”

“When I leave here, there’s no guarantee that the same thing won’t happen a second time.”

“Leave? ”

The two shouted the words almost simultaneously.

“What do you mean by words, leave?”

The Duke looked anxious.

“As I just said, I’m an adult.”

Seeing their reactions, I slightly widened my eyes, then shrugged my shoulders.

“Please let me choose my own personal escort. Please, Father-sama and Brother.”

I went down to them in a low voice. And they both remain silent.

‘The silence looks like an unwillingness to allow it, but it can’t be done.’

What happened today wasn’t entirely my fault.

It was a big problem. After seeing their masters travel to places that could jeopardize their safety, the knights were unwilling to follow this matter.

Not to mention the fact that their master is a duke’s family whose birth and power are all in one, and whose status is so important that it can move the country’s capital.

But to be honest, I would say that not to actually obtain a personal guard.

Rather, it was to have a reason to keep Ikris in the mansion.

“First of all ……”

Fortunately, the plan seemed to work. After a moment of silence, the Duke slowly spoke.

“Alright. I’m sure you’re tired as well. Go upstairs and rest first. I’ll have the doctor check on your condition when you wake up from your nap.”

“Thank you, father.”

Even though I wasn’t injured and didn’t need a doctor, I no longer wanted to continue arguing.

With that, I bowed to them and backed toward the door.

“Derek, you stay.”

The Duke voiced as I stepped out of the office.

I glanced backward and saw Derrick who was planning to leave with me.

‘Ah, what the hell is wrong with this guy?’

I quickly shut the door behind me.

It’s over, what the hell does he want to say to me? Other than cursing, I can’t really think of his intentions for following me.

“Ha……”

The door that was closed didn’t open again, and I was finally able to catch my breath and rest a little.

But the white window suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.

.

[Attend the festival with Derrick] Failed the quest challenge!

Want to challenge it again?

(Reward: Derrick’s favorability increases by 3%)

[Accept]/[Decline]

‘What. Reject! Refuse forever!”

Even though there are still many days until the end of the festival, I clicked on the ”Refuse” option.

I definitely don’t want to go to another festival with him, absolutely not!

I stared at the white box that was fading away, and felt a sudden sense of injustice in the world.

‘How could the quest fail? We did go to the festival together, huh?’

Being able to safely go out with those two assholes was already a very incredible thing. What else does this broken system want from me?

Since Derrick failed …… then Leonard’s mission should have failed as well.

“Whatever, despite failing, the favorability has increased by 8%.”

I still remember the favorability on Derrick’s head from earlier.

[Favorability 13%]

Yes, I didn’t succeed in completing the quest, but the favorability still went up.

‘I knew it, as long as I don’t meet with Penelope, the favorability will go up.”

I walked towards the stairs, reminding myself to avoid contact with those two no matter what.

It didn’t take long, and I immediately encountered one of the two.

“Hey, are you dumb? Why don’t you answer me? I asked you where you came from?”

What caught my eye was Leonard rudely questioning Ikris, while the butler and Emily stood by the side at a loss for words.

Frowning, I walked towards them.

“What are you doing?”

With an idle voice, Leonard turned his head.

Frustrated, I looked over his head.

[10% Good Feeling]

Like Derrick, the favorability has gone up another 3% from the last time I saw him.

“How is this guy?”

Ignoring my question, he nodded at Ikris again.

I shifted my eyes to [10% Favorable Sense] as well as [18% Favorable Sense].

The choice was quite obvious.

“Ikris, come here.”

Ikris moved her body, and the body drive that was originally ignored and motionless even when Leonard was pointing his finger approached me, finally stopping in the direction where my hand was gesturing, which was behind me.

“Huh!?” At the sight, Leonard tightened his upper brow as he let out an angry huff.

“Didn’t you hear what Emily said? He’s my personal escort from now on.”

“Personal guard? You’re going to use a slave as your personal escort?”

“Yes.”

“Did you take some kind of drug to bring this guy back? Are you forgetting what is being said about you around here?”

“I told you, I’m not running away.” I said tiredly, turning my back to him. I was so tired now that I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment.

“I’m tired, we can discuss anything afterward.”

But just as I was about to take a step, he stepped in front of me.

“Want to leave? Door’s closed, and I’m not done yet.”

In that instant, I felt Ikris behind me move slightly. Perhaps because Leonard wore a frowning expression menacing me, a sharp murderous aura radiated around him.

I raised one hand to block Ikris.

I couldn’t let him get kicked out of the dukedom in just an hour.

“Leonard.” Calling out his name while I inwardly sighed and pressed down the temple annoyance in my mind.

“You still need a personal escort? Aren’t you locked up in your room all day working on something?” He yelled.

“It’s necessary now, in case what happened last night happens again.”

“Then you could have picked one of the heel knights from the Duke’s mansion, too?”

“I don’t need the kind of knight who will talk too much about me and has enough content to write ten books.”

“… …..”

Leonard showed the same expression as the Duke and Derrick. The lips were as tightly closed as if they were glued shut.

“Do you really think that these people who disrespect and dislike me from the bottom of their hearts can protect me when I’m in danger?”

In other words I mean: so do you.

He knew that the Duke’s daughter wasn’t being treated in a manner befitting her status and position, but chose to stand by and watch.

Who knows, he might even tell the servants to speak ill of her.

His blue pupils wavered. After a few moments, he seemed to find an excuse and spoke slowly.

“Penelope. That ……”

“If it’s to say you were joking about those, save it. It was a very lucky thing that I was able to escape from there, if the same thing happened a second time ……”

“Leonard. If Ikris hadn’t been there, I could have gotten lost over there, or even raped.”

As if he was being choked, his face turned very pale.