chapter 7
The next morning.
Contrary to what she had said, Camilla did not appear for morning training.
‘Was she just saying that yesterday?’
Or perhaps something urgent had come up.
Camilla was quite a busy person, after all.
‘Or maybe she overslept.’
For a moment, I imagined Camilla panicking after waking up late and couldn’t help but laugh.
‘No, no way. That can’t be it.’
Camilla was extremely disciplined. A person like her—who supposedly even scheduled her own birth for exactly 6 a.m.—and oversleeping? I really did have quite the imagination.
I quietly snickered to myself, then quickly composed my expression.
After that, I glanced around with only my eyes.
Fortunately, the senior knights who were in my direction were all focused on their own training.
I wasn’t caught.
Normally slacking off during training wouldn’t be tolerated, but today especially required caution.
If I had been caught, I would’ve been thoroughly reprimanded.
I let out a small sigh of relief.
Today was the day of joint training between the 10th Knight Order and the 9th Knight Order, who were notoriously on bad terms.
The members of the 10th Knight Order, who usually laughed things off saying “what’s good is good,” now looked unusually rigid, as if they didn’t want to be looked down upon.
Meanwhile, the 9th Knight Order was subtly mocking them.
I quietly observed the tense atmosphere between the two sides.
‘So they really are longtime rivals.’
Understanding the complicated web of high society relationships is basic etiquette for a lady.
I had never heard the full details, but I could roughly grasp the situation.
Compared to high society, relationships between knight orders were much more straightforward and easier to read.
‘It’s a struggle between the weak trying to climb over the weakest, and the weakest refusing to be stepped on so easily.’
There was no official ranking between knight orders, but an unspoken hierarchy existed.
The 1st Knight Order stood at the top, and the 10th at the bottom.
However, the difference wasn’t supposed to be that dramatic.
Most knights who entered the imperial orders were competent both in background and skill.
‘It’s only small differences that decide where you end up.’
But from experience, the 10th Knight Order was clearly an exception.
It tended to include knights with poorer backgrounds or lower entrance rankings.
Even Sir Hugo had half-jokingly called it the “discarded knight order.”
Knights of similar status and skill gathered there—
a place that collected “exceptions” among them.
So it wasn’t surprising that other knight orders looked down on the 10th Knight Order.
And the one leading that contempt was the 9th Knight Order.
‘They probably think they’re only a hair better than the 1st Order, yet they’re treated like this, right?’
But since they couldn’t deny that there was a difference, that frustration was directed downward instead.
The knights of the 10th Order were used to being treated poorly, but even they probably thought the 9th Order went too far.
‘People can endure being suppressed by someone overwhelmingly strong, but they can’t stand being suppressed by someone just slightly better.’
I clicked my tongue lightly.
It seemed more rational to focus on training than on pointless power struggles.
‘I’ll just casually mention it to my brother later.’
With that thought saved for later, I continued training.
All morning, tension filled the air—between the 9th Order, actively looking for any excuse to provoke trouble, and the 10th Order, desperately trying not to give them one.
Noon approached, and morning training was nearly over.
Just before the joint session would safely end, I had already started hoping time would pass quickly, since training in such an atmosphere was hardly pleasant.
But no matter how careful everyone was, conflict could start from the smallest accident at any time.
For example, a mistake by a 9th Order knight who had been too distracted by watching us, combined with my accidental smile at that exact moment.
“Ugh!”
A knight with straw-colored hair, while sparring with another knight, failed to dodge in time and was struck on the wrist, dropping his sword.
At that moment, I was smiling brightly, thinking morning training was almost over.
As I turned my gaze toward the sun to check the time, I happened to meet that knight’s eyes.
He frowned in pain from his injured wrist and immediately snapped at me.
“You’re smiling?”
He glared at me.
Only then did I realize there had been a knight in my line of sight.
My expression must have clearly shifted from ‘What?’ to ‘Ah.’
“You’re laughing while watching a senior knight train?”
My blank reaction only made him more agitated.
‘Yesterday when Camilla said she’d come to morning training, I had a bad feeling… so it was because of this, not Camilla.’
Honestly, I wanted to say he was the one who made a mistake, so why was he taking it out on me?
But for a low-ranking trainee like “Chloe Evergreen,” honesty was rarely a permitted virtue.
While I was thinking about how to respond properly, the straw-haired knight twisted my silence into something else again.
“So you’re admitting you laughed at a senior knight, as a mere trainee?”
“I-I wasn’t laughing. Of course not.”
I quickly put on a serious expression and tried to explain myself.
But he clearly had no intention of letting it go.
“So you’re saying I’m talking nonsense?”
‘Wow. He’s really twisted.’
Even among noble ladies skilled in indirect insults, this level was impressive.
I could only blink in admiration.
Misinterpreting my hesitation as flustered silence, Sir Hugo quickly approached.
“What’s going on here? Why aren’t you training?”
Sir Hugo asked with a forced smile.
Though directed at me, it was clearly aimed at the 9th Knight Order.
The knight sneered.
“The 10th Order’s trainee was laughing at senior knights sparring, Sir Hugo.”
Hearing the distorted version of events, Sir Hugo frowned as if troubled.
Then he shot me a questioning look.
“Is what Sir Dmitri said true?”
From experience, I could tell that look meant: even if it’s true, deny it.
‘What does he take me for?’
“No! That’s not true at all! I just happened to be thinking about something else and smiled!”
At my strong denial, Sir Hugo visibly relaxed and turned to Dmitri.
“See? Sir Chloe tends to smile absentmindedly sometimes. I doubt she meant any disrespect.”
But even with the mediation, Dmitri didn’t seem willing to back down.
“So she admits she smiled. Whether she intended it or not, that’s not something you can exactly prove, is it?”
He twisted his mouth into a mocking grin.
That bastard!
My patience, never exactly abundant to begin with, snapped for a moment.
Just as I glared in irritation, Sir Hugo quietly grabbed my arm and released it—an unspoken warning not to escalate things.
The arm he had grabbed happened to be my left wrist, where my bracelet was.
I looked at the bracelet, still glowing a stable blue, and forced my anger down.
‘Sir Dmitri of the 9th Knight Order, the straw-head. I’ll deal with you after your coming-of-age ceremony.’
As I regained my composure, Dmitri’s face twisted instead.
My lack of reaction seemed to frustrate him.
His provocations only escalated further.
As if he intended to cause a scene here and now.
“Is the 10th Knight Order so used to being laughed at that even a trainee is normal?”
That level of rudeness was enough to make even Sir Hugo’s expression darken.
‘I wasn’t rolling on the floor laughing or anything.’
What was I supposed to do if I just naturally smiled a lot?
It felt unfair.
Maybe I should just beat him up.
‘As long as I don’t get expelled from the order, it should be fine, right?’
Just as I was about to make that decision—
‘Huh?’
