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(Christmas week bonus chapters: 5/7)\n
Before I finished guessing in my minds, Captain Jullius squeezed the wood pieces between his fingertips. He looked around once more to make sure thereās no one saw him, then his hands moved in a flash. The wood pieces that looked like needles, fled towards the chandelier one after another at an invisible speed. The candlelights that reflected between the crystals on the chandelier, faded away in the blink of eyes.\n\nāAh!ā\n\nāWhat happened?ā\n\nThe banquet hall instantly became dimmed as if the sun was setting and the guests looked up at the chandelier on the ceiling while murmuring in confusion. Some lights on the banquet hall were still on, but not bright enough to illuminate the whole room like chandelier. At this moment, Countess Canaly also looked at the chandelier with the other ladies without paying any attention on us.\n\nāIs it the wind?ā\n\nāWho opened the window on the second floor?ā\n\nIn the midst of the commotion, Princess Aranea instructed her people to light up the chandelier again. As soon as the lights went out, Captain Jullius quickly used his fork and filled up his plate. And of course, I also quickly piled up a mountain of chocolate desserts onto my plate. Haā¦I knew what you meant. Before the chandelier turned back on, I casted a glance at Captain Jullius to follow me.\n\nLetās go this way.\n\nWe have to move quickly before getting caught. We moved to a dark spot and quickly slipped out to the balcony. This time, I didnāt forget to remove the curtainās decoration. From the balcony, thereās only darkness spreading out at the garden below. The lights from the decorative lanterns was shining like a group of fallen stars on the ground. I sat down on the balcony railing while holding a plate and a fork.\n\nāCountess Canaly wonāt be able to find us here.ā\n\nShe couldnāt just opened any curtains when she didnāt know who was behind the curtains. She might run into otherās secret meetings if she shamelessly searched for every balconies. Opened up the curtain even though thereās already a sign that indicated the place has been occupied, was a rude behavior, unless thereās any crucial issue. Thatās why, finally we can rest assured here.\n
In the meantime, the lights from inside the banquet hall leaked into the balcony through the curtains so we knew that chandelier has been lit up again. After eating a chocolate ball, I picked up another chocolate ball with the fork and fed it to Captain Jullius. He received the chocolate ball into his mouth and ate it like he always did. Actually weāve been warned not to use same tableware to feed others but, nobody see us right now so itās okay.\n\nāWhen are you going to meet with the High Priest?ā\n\nI havenāt asked the exact date yet. Even if I need to wait, it should be just a month at most. Captain Jullius replied while feeding me a piece of tiramisu from his plate.\n\nāIn a week.ā\n\nāThere isnāt much time left.ā\n\nāIf we canāt get engaged until then, youāll have to wait for another one month.ā\n\nāHmm, I see.ā\n\nJeez, the time is too tight. Maybe I should pay a visit to the Count while bringing a sword and threatened him to let me get engaged. Well, or perhaps should I just blackmail the Countess instead of the Count whose face I havenāt known yet? Even though it wouldnāt be easy to blackmail the Countess butā¦ threatening the Count seemed better after all. I can tortured a man but I felt reluctant to touch a woman.\n\n(T/N: not the literal meaning of ātouchā like skinship. But more like hit/beat/torture/etcā¦)\n\nāToday weāve let the public known about our relationship, so the next thing we have to do is to get engaged. Based on the Imperial Law, children under twenty-two years of age couldnāt get engaged or married without theirās father permission. Am I right?ā\n\nCaptain Jullius nodded to answer my question.\n\nāThatās what I heard.ā\n\nIf thereās no father, then you need to get the permission from the mother. It was an old way by the noble families to prevent noble children that hasnāt coming of age yet, from sneaking up to get engaged or married to people from lower class. Although recently those kind of cases have reduced quite a lot, but in the past, the nobles placed an utmost importance to preserve their so-called pure blue-blood.\n\nNo matter what, I need to meet with the Count, butā¦ itās quite impossible to get his permission easily.\n\nāAs long as we could get the permission, then we could just have an informal engagement ceremonyā¦ did Ortzen not say anything on this matter?ā\n\nāHeā¦,ā Captain Jullius hesitated for a moment before saying, āhas some doubts about Missā purpose for meeting with the High Priest.ā\n\nāWhat?ā\n\nIāve a puzzled expression on my face and lowered my voice that was raised for a moment.\n\nāI just want to see the High Priest as a clergy candidate. He didnāt even properly ask for my explaination and just placed his doubts on me as he pleased though.ā\n\nāHe said that Miss is suspicious because you will eventually meet with the High Priest sooner or later after you become a clergy anyway, but you insisted on getting engaged to be able to quickly meet with the High Priest.ā\n\nUhhā¦ thatās right. No matter what excuse I said, itās still suspicious unless I revealed the real story. Sadly my head couldnāt think of any convincing reasons. Ortzen was very annoying but I could understand his reasoning. Not to mention that Iām also part of Count Epheria family which was related with the demon king, so itās normal for him not to trust me completely even though Iāve holy power.\n\nI sighed and looked up to face Captain Jullius.\n\nāBut, are you allowed to tell me all of these? Like this, itāll be useless for Ortzen to hide his doubts against me.ā\n\nOr perhaps did he tell you to inform me today? After he heard my words, Captain Jullius stayed silent while biting down his fork in his mouth for a while before finally said something.\n\nāā¦ I want to tell you.ā\n\nThatās what he muttered. At that very moment, I felt like my heart raced by those words. Captain Jullius! Turns out the Captain believes me!\n\nāAnd I also didnāt hear he forbid me from telling you this.ā\n\nāErm, but you should have known that usually you donāt tell the related person, right?ā\n\nāā¦. is that so?ā\n
If I met with my deputy again in the future, I must told him that I wasnāt the most clueless captain out of other existing squad captains. Captain Jullius is far worst than me! Iām already good enough! I threw away the empty plate and the fork to the garden below. Then, I climbed up to the railing and hugged Captain Julliusā head.\n\nāEven so, Captain Jullius still told me because that person is me, right?ā\n\nāā¦, yes.ā Captain Jullius whose head was still in my embrace, said in a low voice.\n\nāThere are only a few people talking to me anyways.ā\n\nāI also donāt have many people talking to me eitherā¦ā\n\nI just have my comrades in the Holy Knight Squad, the High Priest, and few priests as friends to talk to. Although I often met with many young noble ladies who adored me, but I had a hard time to understand their conversations and I wasnāt interested in their conversations either. Itās enough for me to keep a smile while my mind was wandering around when they were having a chat. And theyāre already happy even just by having me there to accompany them. Occasionally the ladies also asked for my opinion and at that time I would just replied with āyes?ā or āwell, Iām not sureā, then they would say āah, Sir Roel is a holy knight so itās as expected of himā. And thanks to that, I grew a habit of pretending to listen to the conversation while in fact I was thinking of something else. Thus, my deputy really hates that one habit of mine.\n\nI stroke his fine black hair for a while and placed my chin over his head then opened my mouth.\n\nāI donāt want to wait for another month. Hahā¦ itās troublesome.ā\n\nIt would be hard to get enganged without Ortzen assistance. No, it might be better for him not to provide any assistance rather than he become a hindrance.\n\nāI need to talk to him after the banquet.ā\n\nI should try to solve this matter by having a conversation with him. If it didnāt work, uhh, what should I do? Well, Iāll just think about it again when the time comes.\n\n\n\nāā-the end of book 1āā-