North x Northwest

Previous

Side Story 4 – Liloa’s Chapter 2: Mortu’s Castle

“Why does she need an escort?”

“…”

Liloa looked back at Marguerite, who asked the same thing at the same time. Her parasol passed Liloa’s parasol as she stepped forward.

“Why does Liloa need an escort? What’s going on?”

As Liloa looked at him blankly, Maxwell was having a hard time hiding his expression.

‘He seems dissatisfied with something, angry even.’

“It’s because of the wild animals in the surroundings. I was told that there was a wild dog accidentally let loose on the hunting ground.”

It sounded formal. So formal that it felt like the brilliant man who was just promoted to the Royal Guard wasn’t happy about escorting a demure young lady. Truth be told, apart from walking in the garden or horseback riding, Liloa never had other reasons to go outside and Maxwell’s expression remained rigid throughout those days.

Venua thought he was using Marguerite to keep an eye on Liloa. But in reality, it was actually Liloa who was able to take advantage of her time with Marguerite. Whenever they were on a walk together and Marguerite headed deeper into the forest with Ricard, Liloa was given a chance to spend some time alone. In addition, from the moment Maxwell was assigned to Liloa and her safety was guaranteed, the time Marguerite spent in the forest increased over time.

Although Liloa was young, she was no fool. She knew that just as Henrietta had a lover, Marguerite also had a lover and his name was Ricard.

‘In that case, was it because of Ricard that Marguerite boldly declared she had no intention of teaching Venua what love is?’

Liloa had a lot of questions, but she kept her mouth shut because she would lose her mind more if she wasn’t allowed to tag along on their walks.

As expected, she was left with Maxwell again today as well. Fortunately, Maxwell took a firm stance that the complex love affairs of nobles were none of his business.

Liloa sat on a flat rock in front of the lake and closed her eyes, basking in the gentle breeze.

Given that an energetic young man like Maxwell couldn’t bear the time spent standing next to a meditating child who was only a little over ten years old, Liloa quickly noticed that he was becoming extremely bored during their walks. It wasn’t hard to notice either. Maxwell might’ve thought that he yawned or trimmed his arrowheads in secret, but Liloa saw all his shadows. She also knew that if she waited a little longer, he, who was unable to overcome his boredom, would attempt to take the first step. This excited Liloa because in her experience in Malus, the games she played with boys were those she deemed far more interesting than the ones she played with girls.

It was after a week had passed that Maxwell scratched his forehead and complained.

“Miss, do you enjoy sitting there and breathing in air like some old man?”

“Do not disturb me.”

“You and my son are about the same age, so I can’t figure out how you’re so different.”

“..?”

When Liloa turned around, Maxwell belatedly denied it.

“I don’t dare compare my son to the young lady. I said this because I was amazed that a child as young as my son could be this well-behaved…”

“I guess you married early?”

“Yeah, well…”

Liloa heard her maids talking about her new guard, Maxwell. He was a soldier with a great desire for success, but being suddenly assigned to the position as her escort felt almost like a demotion. She also heard that a lot of people admired Maxwell for his outspoken personality and his outstanding military skills. One of them was being able to do all kinds of crazy tricks with his crossbow.

Liloa crouched down in front of the lake and picked up a stone. She didn’t even bother to look up at the shadow looming behind her.

“Do you intend to play ‘pong pong’?”

“…Pong pong… Don’t you mean, the ‘Fairy’s Lake Walk.’?”

“Ah yes, that’s how nobles call it. Regardless, do you even know how to do it? It’s a boy’s game.”

“Do you think boys knew how to do this from birth?”

“…”

Maxwell crossed his arms and stepped back, letting Liloa know he wanted her to show him how it was done. He apparently seemed to agree that it would be better for her to throw rocks than to sit still. Meanwhile, the young lady cocked her chin confidently at him, then tilted her body to the side and threw a flat stone. The rock bounced across the surface of the water and away from her. Perhaps because it was a calm lake, this rock went much further than her throws on the Malus’ beach.

Shrugging her shoulders, Liloa looked back at Maxwell.

“It is easy, right?”

“..?!”

But Maxwell had of course no way of knowing that for a whole month, she had been betting with her Malus’ playmates on whose fairy would walk farther.

Liloa chose a good rock and threw it at him.

“You try it this time.”

“…”

As Maxwell threw his stone haphazardly, it ended up flying at a distance about half of what Liloa achieved.

“Nice try.”

After hearing Liloa’s objective remark, it was almost natural for the guard to make excuses.

“I haven’t done it since I was a kid…”

“That is a pity.”

“…”

Maxwell chuckled at Liloa’s stern voice.contemporary romance

“If you want to join my father’s guard, you better get rid of your habit of making excuses. My father hates excuses.”

“It was not an excuse…”

Reading her countenance, Maxwell quickly picked up a good stone. He hastily threw it onto the lake, but this time, it didn’t even make it half as far as his first attempt.

Liloa glanced at Maxell, who kept grunting, and noticed the weapon attached to his waist. She already knew that her father, Joseph I, and Venua used the same kind whenever they went out hunting, but she asked nonetheless.

“What is that?”

“It’s called a crossbow.”

“It does resemble something like a bow.”

“Bows are a thing of the past.”

“If you think so, why carry a crossbow when we have guns now?”

“Because guns are too loud.”

Liloa looked at him as if urging him to further explain, but Maxwell simply dismissed it.

“There is no need for you to know about warfare.”

“…”

However, after seeing Liloa continuing her habit of simply sitting there for the next few days, Maxwell opened his mouth first again.

“Did you wonder why I carry a crossbow?”

Liloa’s eyes lit up without her realising it.

Unlike the other guards, Maxwell was a soldier who experienced real war. He seemed to have volunteered for the Royal Guard because he needed to be close to the palace to achieve even greater success. His family had only recently acquired a title, so the next thing they needed to secure was a stable position at court.

Perhaps because Maxwell’s life at court was bland and uncharacteristic, he gave Liloa vivid accounts of his adventures, with her intently listening to them as though he were telling old, legendary tales. His son never sat still and listened, so Maxwell was impressed by Liloa’s attitude of listening with enthusiasm. Through their exchanges, he eventually found out about Liloa’s skill in shooting a slingshot and brought her his son’s slingshot and toy crossbow. Of course, towards her escort, Liloa left out the part about how she had learned to use a slingshot while playing with the other kids in Malus.

Maxwell’s assignment of being Liloa’s escort eventually became irrelevant because the woods by the palace’s estate were off limits to other people, let alone the possible presence of wild dogs. So, Maxwell began to think of his time with Liloa as a kind of childcare. Although his methods were a bit on the rough side as he only had a son, Liloa never complained. On the contrary, she liked it even though she never explicitly displayed her feelings.

It was a trend for the emerging nobles to directly participate in their children’s education to ensure that they were growing up properly and Maxwell was no different. He was used to dealing with children. Although he found it difficult at first because Liloa was a girl, seeing her act humble, he soon forgot about such awkwardness. He would even let Liloa join whenever he trained alone and while she could whine as she attempted to hit the fruit hanging from the branches, Maxwell grew to like her because she never gave up until she hit her target.

Recently, Maxel was training to shoot a crossbow while riding a horse, and Liloa followed along clumsily but almost fell because of her lack of leg strength.

Liloa, calming her pounding heart, raised her voice.

“Why are you doing such a dangerous thing?”

“It’s said that the Empire will soon create a Karabinae unit that fires guns while riding horseback. In effect, it’s an elite unit. The Pontenbach War is taking longer than expected, after all.”

“You mean there has never been a unit like that before?”

“We still have the cavalry of course, but they attack while their horses are standing still. Only very few people can shoot accurately from a running horse.”

“Ah, so doing that must be difficult…”

Liloa quickly realised that Maxwell was interested in being recruited as part of the Karabinae.

‘He seems to be agonising whether to enter a new war and gain greater glory, or simply solidify his hard-earned position. The first one is actually closer to a gamble. The risk is so high that the reward for his success will be difficult to estimate. In addition, he already has a suitable title in Obernyu, too. But knowing him, I think that he’ll still choose the former.’

Just when Liloa was about to utter words of encouragement, something alarmed Maxwell that caused him to grab his crossbow.

“Shh, someone is coming.”

Maxwell, with his crossbow drawn, blocked Liloa’s path.

‘Maybe it’s because we were talking about war, but he seems to be acting so belligerently even though there’s no way an assassin could be hovering around in this peaceful place…’

– – – – –

done.co