Namgung Se-ga, the warrior, was reincarnated in Romance

Every day and every moment passed naturally.

After about a week of feeling weak, Ruber recovered with Sheyden’s advice. I hugged him and comforted him, telling him he was doing well and encouraging him, until he regained his spirits. After hearing his repeated promises to try harder, I stopped trying to comfort him.

Looking at his flushed face made me feel like I was playing with a child, and it made me a bit uncomfortable. However, I thought it was better than him constantly losing his energy.

For the land management class assignment, I sent a letter to my father to ask about the current status of the estate’s businesses.

Though it felt a bit embarrassing since it seemed more like my father’s homework, I received a nearly completed document file from him and easily finished the report.

Calypso Agrizent had occasionally wavered, but unlike before, he no longer carried around a terrible bruise. I wondered if it was because Walter Organ whistled around every day.

Walter, knowing that I was paying attention to Calypso’s neck, conveyed that he had been careful. No matter how angry he got, he was strictly warned not to raise a hand against a trusted person.

Mage Boulder’s golem also created a rather decent energy circuit. Douglas and Boulder had started a deeper study of blood-point magic.

I had often made people sleep by tapping on their blood or prevented them from speaking by pressing on their veins, but I was still clumsy with other methods. Another long and tedious task had begun.

In the magical creatures’ growth and understanding class, the assignment to hatch a Ranunculus egg failed. After three weeks, when the egg had become swollen and misshapen, Edwin sighed heavily.

“This is mana overload.”

“Mana overload…?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you learn how to open a circle last time? Why are you carelessly pumping mana like this? This won’t work, it’s going to burst.”

“…”

I had spent three whole weeks caring for the egg. Even though it wasn’t a living creature, I still felt sorry and disappointed.

I looked enviously at the small bird perched on Edwin’s shoulder, tilting its head. Edwin took my hand and led me to Alan Lager.

Alan Lager, without showing any dislike, swapped the dead egg for a new one.

“Twice a week… wait, let me check the schedule.”

“Yes.”

“Tuesday and Friday would be the best… but the timing doesn’t work. How about this time on Wednesday?”

“I have personal tutoring at that time.”

“…At that time?”

“Yes. At that time.”

“What on earth are you doing… then let’s just do Tuesday and Friday. Take a quick break during lunch. I’ll help you.”

“Mm.”

“What’s with the ‘mm,’ just say thank you!”

“Ah. Yes, thank you.”

Despite complaining, Edwin helped me twice a week to apply mana to the Ranunculus egg.

Since I had become accustomed to the internal martial arts technique, the problem was that I couldn’t gauge the amount of mana passing through my body at once. So, Edwin taught me to draw the mana out thinly and finely, just like when casting a magical spell.

And so, August passed.

In September, Marianne became the most famous child at Shieron Academy.

It was the Thursday afternoon of the last week after the exams ended.

Today, I was exhausted after walking back to the dorm, still holding on to Douglas and Boulder while explaining all the blood techniques I knew and their functions. The whispers of passing students felt unusually loud.

“Lady Philodendore really went too far. She could have rejected him more calmly.”

“If it were me, I would have slapped him right there. What’s that in front of everyone?”

“Really? Wow, what do you think will happen now? Lord Glothin Tenner…”

I usually enjoyed listening to and observing various things about Shieron, but today was different. I felt uneasy because I had no idea what had happened to that child.

As I approached to ask, the students who were whispering bowed quickly and hurriedly left. I was confused, unsure of the reason. This had happened a few times.

I caught one student who didn’t run away and asked. They said that everyone at the academy knew I was close to Marianne, so it would be better to ask her directly.

Thinking about it, they were right. I turned my steps toward the second-year girls’ dorm.

Luckily, Marianne was outside in the garden in front of the dorm. She had been chatting with a strange girl, but when she saw me, her eyes lit up, and she walked briskly over to grab my wrist.

It suddenly reminded me of the first day she grabbed my sleeve. It seemed like we had gotten quite close. Her rough hand showed no hesitation.

“Mikael, let’s talk for a bit.”

“…Alright.”

Though I was embarrassed, I could tell she was looking for someone to listen, so I didn’t object. I quietly followed Marianne.

However, after stopping by a few places, we couldn’t find anywhere where people weren’t around, so Marianne couldn’t speak. I then led her to a small training ground where Wilton Roberts and I often practiced.

It was a desolate space, with no grass left, trampled by countless feet, including mine and Wilton’s. Marianne stood in the center and, after a moment, scowled and burst out with her frustration.

“I’m so angry!”

“What happened?”

“No… No…”

Marianne suddenly burst into tears.

She was a child who laughed and talked a lot, but I had never seen her cry. I didn’t pull away as she clung to my chest in panic.

She cried for a long time.

I gently patted her back a few times. After she cried out loud for a long while, I laid out my outer jacket and helped her sit, her swollen eyes still wet from tears. After a long while of sobbing, Marianne spat out her words.

“That bastard Oliver is such a disgusting jerk.”

Oliver Combine was a close friend of Marianne’s lover, Glothin Tenner. I didn’t add anything, quietly waiting for Marianne to pour out her feelings freely.

Marianne didn’t hesitate and spilled everything she had been holding inside.

“Today, that bastard asked me to marry him.”

“…Combine? But what about Glothin Tenner?”

“Exactly! The ridiculous thing is, this happened once last semester too.”

Just like how Oliver Combine had talked to me, he had tried to convince Marianne to turn her feelings towards him by gathering all the bad things Glothin had supposedly done. He kept saying that he could treat her better, and tried to persuade her.

But the bad things he was talking about were just tales of how he had taken everything from Oliver, so at first, Marianne wasn’t moved by them. She had planned to ask Glothin about it and maybe even get an apology.

“But then he said that Glothin oppa doesn’t like me. He said it was just because he liked me, that’s why he was dating me. He said he’s desperate to take what’s his…”

“…”

“Hearing that made me so upset, so angry, and I couldn’t sleep for a while. After about three days, I finally grabbed Glothin oppa and asked him. I asked if it was really true, if he was dating me because he liked me. And he said yes, he had been wrong to Oliver, but…”

“Yeah, but?”

“…He said that he likes me, and that he loves me too.”

Marianne let out a deep breath. I listened in silence.

“Glothin oppa hated the fact that his fate was decided the moment he was born. He was so sick of being told to get along with Oliver Combine, and it irritated him. He thought that if their relationship soured, he could just leave, like it was some family he could quit.”

The words continued to spill out without a pause, as if she had been thinking over them for a long time.

Glothin Tenner hated that, after growing up, there was no space for him to look away from Oliver Combine, who was about his age, and the fact that he had to serve and take care of him.

So, to escape from that situation, he started throwing tantrums and acting out. He knew his actions were wrong, but he did it because he was trying to avoid the attention of Count Combine.

But Count Combine accepted every bit of Glothin’s tantrums because Glothin’s father was an influential retainer.

So, Glothin couldn’t do anything even though he was angry. If there was a fight to be had, it should have come from both sides, but when one side was pampered and indulged, how could there be a fight?

And then, Glothin began to covet what Oliver had. He thought that if their relationship fell apart, he could escape responsibility, so he started taking anything that belonged to Oliver.

Oliver, in turn, began to desire the things Glothin couldn’t take—expensive jewels, living creatures… And Glothin took all of those as well.

Eventually, when Glothin had taken over dozens of pets, Oliver stopped desiring animals altogether, and Glothin had a brief moment of relief.

But this time, it was different. Glothin knew Oliver liked Marianne, but he also confessed that he liked her too, and that he couldn’t help it… he said all these sweet words.

“…I liked him so much, I was afraid he would stop liking me if I showed him that ugly side of myself. I always told him that Glothin oppa was like a fairy, like an angel, like a spirit, so pretty. But he wasn’t any of those things, and he was scared of that.”

“…”

That might have been a little scary. I silently listened.

“But then, damn it, this summer vacation, Count Combine called for me. Not Oliver Combine, but his father! Isn’t that crazy?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, just imagine. If, just maybe, I didn’t like what Glothin was doing and decided to break up with him, I never said I was going to date Oliver Combine. But then, in front of Count Combine, when I rejected Oliver, he secretly called for Glothin behind my back. That bastard of a rich man.”

“…So?”

“Then he told Glothin that he had been very lenient with me, so this time, he should show leniency. How dare he try to get me to be lenient! Who does he think he is?”

Marianne cried out again, this time in anger, and tears spilled out. I sat there, stunned, unsure of what to think. Adults often get involved in kids’ squabbles, but this… this way of doing things was utterly outrageous.

“After that, Glothin started acting really strange with me. I didn’t even know why, I just thought it was because he was upset, since I had spoken to Count Combine. But then, today…”

“…”

“Today, Oliver Combine proposed to me and told me everything that had happened. He said I was destined not to be with Glothin.”