Only Obedient to Me! Sir Knight Chapter 14

“What on earth are those crazy bastards?! And why did they have to show up at an auction I was hosting, of all places!”

“Ugh, my head hurts, so stop shouting….”

“Do you expect me not to shout? They dared to attack the Veloa Trading Guild! If the family finds out about this… I’m ruined, I’m completely ruined!”

Seilan paced back and forth like a madman, continuing to scream.

“Ugh….”

Rowy, who had already squeezed out every last drop of his already depleted mana, lay limp, unable to function due to a terrible headache. To make matters worse, the added noise of the shouting made him feel nauseous.

“Ugh….”

“Master!”

Van, who had been anxiously hovering by Rowy’s side, panicked and shoved a bunch of stones into Rowy’s mouth. They were mana stones.

“G-ghk! No, you can’t just shove them in like that!”

“I am so sorry….”

Tears welled up in Van’s downcast eyes. Geez, really. Rowy lifted an arm to cover his eyes. He didn’t even have the strength to comfort him.

“I should have protected you….”

“Ugh, seriously. Just touch my head. It hurts.”

“Yes….”

Van hung his head dejectedly and stood guard by Rowy. Currently, they were gathered in a reception room inside the auction house. Seilan, having heard that Rowy had been caught up in the incident, had appeared late, his face deathly pale, accompanied by the knights.

“Rowy! Just how many people did you kill!”

Of course, this wasn’t out of concern for Rowy, but rather for the victims. He truly was a fellow academy alumnus of Rowy’s. Unfortunately, Rowy had been suffering from severe mana exhaustion, and his magic hadn’t manifested properly—which is to say, he’d had quite a hard time.

‘That strange goat… I missed it.’

Rowy groaned, a mix of annoyance and pain. Van, not knowing what to do, repeatedly massaged Rowy’s arms and legs. The sight of him sticking so closely to Rowy’s side was quite affectionate, but Seilan, who had suffered the unfortunate event of the auction house attack, paid no attention to what the two of them were doing and just kept on screaming.

“The family is definitely going to flip out when they find out! To think I couldn’t even handle one small auction….”

What if I get fired from the merchant guild? …Fired? Seilan’s face turned ghastly.

Veloa, where Seilan worked, was a merchant guild that traveled the entire continent trading high-end luxury goods; it was so massive it ranked among the three greatest guilds on the continent. The reason Veloa was trusted more than any other guild was that behind it stood the Count Levien family of the Empire.

Seilan was born as the illegitimate son of that very Count Levien family. Although he inherited the name, Seilan, having no backer, had left the family early to join the Veloa guild to avoid the succession struggle. Since his coming-of-age ceremony at twenty, he had been wandering the continent, never once returning to the Empire.

‘Because I don’t want to die.’

It was an unavoidable choice, as the further he got from the family, the longer his life would be. Fortunately, Seilan was well-suited for the guild’s work. Since Seilan joined, the guild had been breaking its record for highest sales every single day. Thanks to that, the family didn’t care what Seilan did.

‘But that doesn’t mean they’ll leave me alone if it causes trouble.’

For instance, an incident like a raid on an auction house targeting high-ranking nobles. Seilan shook his head frantically.

“No, no. Actually, it didn’t cause that much damage, right?”

If any other noble had suffered such an incident, it would have become a huge deal… but the only victim was Rowy, wasn’t it?

“Honestly, it’s a relief it was you who got hit.”

“Is that something you should say to someone who was attacked and collapsed?”

At Seilan’s callous remark, Van flared up in anger.

“He’s the one who caught all those thugs anyway.”

That was true, but! Having nothing else to say, Van just glared at Seilan. Seilan let out a dry laugh upon seeing that. Isn’t it the truth? The Holy Sword, their target, had been protected by Rowy, and the gang had been dragged away in a sorry state by Rowy’s magic. Even if one had escaped… he wasn’t really worried. Rowy wouldn’t have let someone escape unscathed.

‘He missed one… but he’ll probably die soon anyway. Since he crushed all his internal organs….’

Having heard Van’s testimony that the strange dark arts the guy had used had been dispelled, causing people to wake up, it was certain that the guy had suffered internal damage.

‘If we just keep Rowy’s mouth shut, couldn’t we just pretend this never happened?’

After all, the incident happened after the auction ended… and there were no customers left in the auction house besides Rowy. Hmm. Seilan looked at Rowy, who was groaning on the sofa. He looked quite ill. But even that didn’t worry him much. Because…

‘Those guys were unlucky to have run into Rowy, of all people.’

The Nightmare of the Empire. That was the phrase that always followed Rowy.

. ꕤ ｡ ˚⋆

‘When I first saw him, he was such a cute little kid.’

Seilan reminisced about his first meeting with Rowy. The two met at the academy. Having been admitted early, and with his growth spurt hitting late, Rowy was a head or two shorter than the other students. He was so cute, with a face that hadn’t even lost its baby fat yet.

‘Though, he did ask for the claw of a demon right off the bat with that doll-like face.’

It had been bewildering, but Seilan had still hand-delivered the demon’s claw. And immediately got called a swindler. Rowy’s terrible attitude had been there since then. Still, Seilan felt quite proud to have spoken to Rowy. Because back then, Rowy was already famous for being a genius.

Having never missed the top spot since admission, Rowy treated academy classes like a game, writing countless magic theses throughout his enrollment. The magic towers and imperial mages visited the academy almost every day just to meet Rowy.

If he had graduated without incident, he might have become a professor of magic at the academy. Or perhaps become an unprecedented imperial chief mage. But unfortunately… Rowy was a massive troublemaker at the time.

‘The biggest disaster was when he smashed the academy’s ancient sealing formation.’

Rowy had almost been executed back then. Because the crack in the academy’s seal had caused the imperial palace’s sealing formation to shake violently as well. Rowy was branded with the crime of treason against the state. If not for the Irad Duchy, and if Rowy hadn’t been a mage brilliant enough to restore that seal, he surely would have died.

Of course, Rowy didn’t stop even after going through that. Even after that, countless “mistakes during magic research,” big and small, occurred. Along with the fainting of the headmaster who couldn’t take it anymore, Rowy was eventually forced to graduate at the youngest age ever.

‘He was so disappointed at the graduation ceremony.’

Rowy, who had enrolled later than Seilan and graduated earlier, was still a head shorter than Seilan at the graduation ceremony. The image of that small, doll-like kid pouting his lips and accepting his diploma was still vivid in his memory.

‘And then they said he was locked up in the Duke’s mansion.’

It was the price of the trouble he’d caused. And the next time Seilan heard about Rowy, it was that famous incident. The very thing that happened at Rowy’s coming-of-age ceremony… the so-called “the small, impotent” one, the very incident that sent Rowy into exile after he was guilty of treason but came out unscathed. He had heard rumors that the Crown Prince still flew into a rage whenever he mentioned Rowy.

‘Like someone who has a guilty conscience….’

He gets so angry that it makes you wonder—is it actually true? But if he were to speak those words out loud,

‘It’s straight to the executioner.’

Seilan, terrified, hurriedly shook his head to banish the thought. In any case, Seilan actually quite liked Rowy, who engaged in such eccentric behavior. Watching Rowy break through social norms and common sense was very exhilarating. It was a kind of vicarious satisfaction. Because Seilan thought Rowy’s situation wasn’t much different from his own.

‘No, if anything, his life is even harsher, if that’s even possible.’

Rowy was also born as an illegitimate son of the Irad Duchy. But unlike Seilan, who was just an ordinary child of scandal, Rowy was….

. ꕤ ｡ ˚⋆

“When will the healer arrive? I think you need to take your medicine.”

“Goodness, you’re making such a fuss, Rowy. Do you need medicine?”

“…No.”

“He says he doesn’t need any.”

“But he’s in so much pain!”

Van barked. Then, at Rowy’s remark that it was noisy, he hurriedly hushed himself. It was a laughable sight.

‘And he called himself a bedtime slave, yet already like that….’

Seilan’s displeased gaze swept over the two. The affectionate display was quite an eyesore.

“I’m sorry, Rowy, but this incident needs to be buried between us. Will that be okay? I’ll compensate you however you want.”

“Mm. Okay.”

At those words, Van glared at Seilan again. The murderous look in his eyes was absurd.

‘Tsk, his attitude is just like his master’s… I just want to….’

Seilan thought to himself. Van’s aura was too menacing to speak it out loud. Seilan, who had surreptitiously stepped a foot away from Van, waved his hands.

“I said I’d compensate you, didn’t I? It’s not like that guy is an idiot. He’ll probably wring me dry.”

“That’s right.”

Rowy answered promptly.

“…Huh? You agree?”

Since the person himself was so affirmative, Seilan felt rather uneasy.

“Hey, Rowy. Seriously? Are you planning to extort me?”

“We’ll talk about the compensation separately later….”

Rowy’s face as he said that was as blank as usual. But the feeling that something was very wrong… Sigh, I feel like I’ve been caught in something… Still, compared to the family finding out about this… is it really okay? Feeling like he was being taken for a ride right before his eyes, Seilan hesitated and couldn’t leave the room. Seeing Seilan like that, Van cautiously asked something he was curious about.

“Um, but if I may ask. Where exactly did you obtain The Holy Sword?”

“Hm? The Holy Sword?”

“Yes. Because clearly, The Holy Sword had been in the Empire.”

“Hm? The Empire? That couldn’t be right. I received The Holy Sword directly from an Elysion priest. They asked me to sell it.”

“…A priest?”

Van asked back, taken aback by an answer he hadn’t expected. Seilan nodded as he traced his memory.

“Yeah. It was a black-haired priest. They said it was a sword bestowed by God, so I took it thinking I could sell it for a high price.”

“…”

At Seilan’s words, Van froze mid-movement.

“Why? Is there a problem?”

A problem? If you called it a problem, it was a problem. Because in the Elysion temple… there was not a single person with black hair besides himself.