Chapter 90
Roel slapped Kyden’s back repeatedly and tugged at his arm. Crossing a knight could lead to severe punishment.
It wasn’t just the knight’s sword that intimidated people. Knights with fiefs were considered minor nobility and held the same power as nobles. Commoners dared not oppose them.
“Quickly! We need to get out of here!”
Having hit the knight, if his comrades found Kyden, it could lead to serious trouble. They would try to capture Kyden, and Roel feared the worst for him.
In her desperation, Roel stomped her feet and tugged at him, but Kyden’s mouth just curled into a smirk.
Ignoring her, Kyden pulled her into his arms and rubbed his chin against the top of her head, his voice filled with amusement.
“What will you do if you run off alone? What if they capture you instead?”
“I, I’m fine. They wouldn’t kill a woman, would they? So, let’s go. Quickly!”
“I don’t want to hand you over to those kinds of people.”
“That’s not the issue right now!”
Seeing Kyden not taking the situation seriously and just grinning made Roel more anxious, and she started to tear up.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Only after seeing Roel’s tears did Kyden stop his teasing. He realized that his playful behavior had been too much given her worry.
“Kyden, please focus. We could get captured…”
Seeing her on the verge of tears, Kyden composed his expression.
“Calm down, Roel. I’m fine.”
“Fine? How can you say that?”
“He’s a squire. He’s not a knight with a title, so there’s no need to worry too much.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because the sword doesn’t bear the family crest.”
The younger sons of noble families who cannot inherit the family line often become knights through an academy. To officially be a knight, one must receive the family crest of a noble family. Until then, even if they are called knights, they are known as squires.
Those who were not affiliated and wandered were called wandering knights. Some knights are directly appointed by nobles based on their merits and skills, and Kyden was one of them.
Roel’s anxiety eased with his calm demeanor.
“But what about his comrades…”
“They won’t seek petty revenge for a loss in a one-on-one duel. This was a fair fight.”
Is it acceptable to hit a squire? Would his comrades remain passive if he’s being beaten? Even mercenaries, if they see one of their own getting beaten, will drop everything and rush to join in the fight. It seems knights are just as unprincipled.
At that moment, the door to Room 205 swung open.
“You seem to know a lot about knights?”
It was a late intervention. There was no way they couldn’t have heard the commotion in the hallway through just one door. If multiple people had joined in, they might have sided with the young knight. But since it was a one-on-one fight, they had chosen not to interfere. They considered the young knight’s defeat in a one-on-one duel to be merely a disgrace.
Kyden had been aware of this and remained calm, but now he turned to look at the intruder, surprised.
“Hmm?”
“Hmm?”
They exchanged bewildered glances and gaped. The knight who came out of Room 205 spoke first.
“Wait, is that really Kyden?”
They had heard talk of Kyden but hadn’t imagined that the Kyden they knew would actually be here.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m staying here.”
“Has the Horman family fallen?”
“No?”
Count Horman’s family hadn’t fallen, so why were the knights staying in such a shabby inn and harassing women? Were they out of their minds? Kyden looked confused and furrowed his brow.
At that moment, the door to Room 204 also burst open.
“Is that really Kyden?”
The knight who seemed to be their superior. The middle-aged knight’s eyes widened in shock when he saw Kyden.
“Wait, it really is Kyden!”
Roel, who had been watching the scene with a puzzled expression from Kyden’s arms, couldn’t contain her curiosity.
“Do you know them?”
Kyden, with a slightly annoyed face, gave a small nod.
Indeed, they knew each other very well. They were hometown comrades who had shared life and death situations. The middle-aged knight was Kyden’s direct superior who had treated him with a mix of affection and violence.
The middle-aged knight pointed at Kyden.
“You little punk, what the hell are you doing here without returning to your family?”
“…”
“It’s been ages since the former Count passed away!”
His gaze shifted to Roel. Had Kyden been staying away chasing after women instead of returning? The vein in the knight’s temple bulged with anger.
“So you’ve been avoiding returning all this time just to be with a woman?”
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