I Couldn’t Stop my Childhood Friend from Turning Into a Villain

[T/N: I think I translated the Emperor as ‘Emperor’ before. From now on, I will be translating her as ‘Empress’. Since I was not aware that she was a woman. Sorry for the confusion!]

After much deliberation, I accepted His Majesty’s request. Of course, it wasn’t because of the condition she presented.

As I thought about it, I realized that the situation of the princess and my childhood situation were very similar.

The emperor divorced shortly after Princess Chloe was born, so she grew up without a father. Her only mother was strict with her, so perhaps Princess Chloe felt like my grandmother was like her own.

So, I could understand the sadness that Princess Chloe must have felt when my grandmother passed away. I told Her Majesty this in advance.

I had no experience in taking care of a child, but I promised to try my best.

Her Majesty was grateful even for that.

She said she would definitely repay me, but in reality, being able to play with the cute Princess Chloe was reward enough for me.

Moreover, unintentionally, this could also help continue the friendship between our family and the royal family, so that was sufficient in itself.

A few days later, I returned to the palace to meet Princess Chloe again.

“Hello, Princess. I would like to formally introduce myself. I am Lucy Seywint, who has become the head of the Seywint estate. Please call me Lucy.”

I bowed my head to Princess Chloe and introduced myself.

She did not respond for a while. She just stared at me with her chubby face.

I wondered if she had any complaints because her lips were sticking out. But then, I found it cute and let out a laugh.

“Aren’t you the granddaughter of Marquis Anis?”

Princess Chloe asked me a question with her rough voice. It was hard to understand because her pronunciation was inaccurate.

But one thing was certain; Princess Chloe was mimicking the Empress’ formal tone.

I swallowed the word “cute” and interpreted Princess Chloe’s words, nodding my head vigorously.

“Yes!”

“You look more fierce than I thought.”

She gave me a cold evaluation. This time, her pronunciation was accurate, and I understood her right away.

Fierce… I didn’t expect to hear that from a five-year-old? I was shocked so I unconsciously gaped my mouth.

“Now, you even look stupid.”

I wondered if Princess Chloe didn’t like me. Even though we had only met a couple of times, a person could dislike someone based on their first impression.

If that was the case, I had to make sure to increase her liking towards me first.

“Just a moment, Princess. Even if I look like this, if I were to become serious, I would appear quite solemn.”

Liel had told me that, so I was sure it was true.

I covered my face with both hands and concentrated on my expression. Then I slowly lowered my hands and looked at Princess Chloe seriously.

“….”

“….”

“Are you ignoring me because of the fact that I’m only five years old?! I also know what the word solemn means!”

Princess Chloe stomped her foot and got angry with me.

This couldn’t be happening…

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.

Did Liel lie to me?

⁂

Meanwhile, Liel had also entered the palace along with Lucy, and he headed straight to the royal training grounds to fill his spare time.

The Empress had granted Liel permission to enter the palace himself, considering his prowess in the recent campaign.

In addition, Liel had a good relationship with the commander of the First Order of the imperial knights, thanks to Hemil.

Naturally, Liel was able to mingle with the knights of the palace and no one expressed any displeasure with his visit, no matter what they thought inside.

As soon as Liel entered the training grounds, the commander of the knights, Kamil, welcomed him.

“Has your lady entered the palace again?”

She was Hemil’s younger sister, ten years his junior. As she was close to retirement age, she often watched Liel’s training at Hemil’s request.

“She’s not a lady, but a Marquis, Kamil.”

Liel replied smoothly, removing his gloves. Kamil shrugged her shoulders and nodded obediently.

“It’s good that at least one person is keeping an eye on you.”

To Kamil, who was well past the age of Liel’s parents, his retort was merely cute.

“I’m glad you have at least one person you care about.”

Liel tilted his head and smiled, but didn’t deny it.

She often said that Liel was an unpredictable fellow and not suitable for a knight, regardless of his abilities.

But it was not a problem as long as his most important secret was not revealed.

However, as if to mock Liel’s thoughts, something caught his attention without warning.

Suddenly, a pebble blown by the wind hit Liel’s shoe. He turned his gaze to the training grounds, where the sparring was in full swing.

There was a familiar face.

It was the man he had met on the street a while ago, who seemed to belong to the Filia Knights.

He had his pink hair tied neatly so as not to be messy, which suited him well.

But it was his fluid swordsmanship that caught Liel’s attention, more than his appearance.

The tip of his sword curved freely, drawing smooth lines that were different from the swordsmanship Liel had learned so far.

Liel found himself unconsciously moving his hands, feeling that he could follow him if he did well.

“Stop!”

A knight who was watching the practice raised his hand and shouted when the opponent’s sword bounced off and hit the ground.

At the same time, the man with pink hair stopped moving and held his breath.

“That guy, the head of the Filia Knights, would kill our rookie knights.”

Kamil murmured, as she clicked her tongue.

The knight who had fought with the man was slumping his shoulders. It was not a matter of hurting his pride if he lost against the head of the Filia Knights in the first place.

In a way, it was a predetermined outcome.

When the sparring was over, Liel’s eyes, which had shone with interest, turned dull again. The excitement he had felt before had already disappeared.

“Nice training, Commander Kamil. The quality of the royal training grounds is not very good, as expected.”

The man with pink hair approached them, speaking to Kamil.

“What are you talking about? The training is always the same everywhere.”

Kamil replied, her expression looking a little displeased, unlike when she had made fun of him a little while ago.

“Oh, we’ve met before, haven’t we?”

Out of nowhere, the man pretended to know Liel. Liel, who noticed that the conversation had turned to him, answered after a short hesitation.

“Really?”

When he said he didn’t know, the man looked visibly disappointed.

“Didn’t I see you in the square a month ago?”

“Oh…”

Liel couldn’t just pretend not to know since he had already introduced himself before.

“I remember because I was rude to you then.”

“I remember now.”

Not wanting to go any deeper into the conversation than that, Liel finally raised the white flag before the man could say anything more.

He didn’t forget to smile at the man in greeting.

That alone brightened the man’s expression.

Kamil looked back and forth between the two and asked.

“Did you two know each other?”

“No, we’ve only met once. We don’t even know each other’s names yet.”

The man replied quickly, introducing himself to Liel with a twinkle in his eye.

“I’m Dailor, I don’t have a last name because I’m a commoner.”

Liel’s eyebrows rose at the mention of ‘commoner’. Since he had introduced himself so casually, Liel had no choice but to give his name.

“I’m Liel Marsen.”

“Ah, the second child of the Duke of Marsen, I recognize you from bits and pieces I’ve picked up here and there, and I’ve heard that your swordsmanship is as good as that of Sir Diego when he was young.”

“I’m flattered.”

If Liel said one word, Dailor said ten. It seemed the he had a way with words.

His ashen eyes shone as if he wanted to talk more with Liel. Liel, on the other hand, found his attention overwhelming.

“Ah! We’ve met twice already, so it must be fate. How about having a duel with me?”

For the first time, Dailor piqued Liel’s interest, who had been bored with the conversation so far.

However, their competitiveness was thwarted by Kamil, who had been listening to their conversation.

“Now it’s time to clean up the training ground. What duel are you talking about?”

Kamil’s frown deepened.

“Well, just a little bit of time, and…”

“No. Moreover, dueling for purposes other than training is against our knight order’s rules, especially for a trainee who is not yet a knight.”

“Sir Kamil is always so strict… Why do you make it sound like I have an ulterior motive?”

“… ”

Kamil stared at Dailor with narrowed eyes, who kept insisting until he reluctantly sheathed his sword.

“Understood. You’re really tough, even now.”

“You have an unusually free spirit.”

“You always say that. Well, it doesn’t seem like a good day for it anyway… Does Young Master Marsen visit the palace often? I train regularly with the imperial knights, so I come here often.”

It meant that they would see each other again if there was another chance.

Liel blinked slowly and smiled wryly.

“I don’t know because I came here for escort duty.”

The truth is, he used to come here often for training, not just because of Lucy’s escort duty, yet he had never met Dailor before.

It was just a coincidence, but he planned to reduce his visits to avoid meeting him in the future, as long as Lucy didn’t come to the palace.

“Is that so? If we ever meet, let’s greet each other nicely. It would be better if we could have a duel too.”

Dailor shook his sword, not even showing a hint of pride in suggesting to duel a mere trainee.

Liel couldn’t understand Dailor’s sociability. He just felt uncomfortable with him showing more interest in him than necessary.