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In one part of the forest, there were eyes watching the two.
As Rahan had already predicted, it was the knight Philod Ahen had left behind at the monastery.
'Damn it, damn it!'
There was no need to know all his pitiful circumstances.
However, it was noteworthy that it had been only a few months since he became the 21st knight of House Achen, and that the horse Rahan had stolen when kidnapping Iris happened to be his.
'You stupid brat! Do you know your sin!'
In truth, the knight had committed no great sin.
Ten knights had been sent by House Achen to oversee Philod's wedding. Naturally, all ten had tethered their horses at the monastery.
Rahan had chosen his horse simply because the 21st knight's horse was the closest.
He had released all the other horses.
But Philod, who had missed his marriage to Iris Achen right before his eyes, needed someone to vent his anger on.
'If that stupid brat had just tied the horse properly!'
The captain of the royal guard, who served Philod most closely, had tried to help the pitiful new knight, but it was useless.
Philod, who was about to be severely scolded by his father, threatened to leave the new knight behind at the monastery.
'There are only two ways you can live as a knight of House Achen again. Do you understand?'
'W-what are you talking about?'
'One, bring me the head of that Rahan Norwich bastard.'
Philod bared his teeth cruelly.
'Two, kidnap the woman. If neither works, find something to use as a pretext.'
For a knight, it was an absurd request. Those were tasks for spies or assassins.
It was not something he, who had trained only to fight on horseback with a sword and spear, could do.
But Philod didn't care.
The new knight didn't even think to protest. The heir to the Ducal House was simply too high a person.
'Keep a low profile for a bit and then just leave. With your skills, you'll be able to become a knight elsewhere.'
Before leaving, the captain of the royal guard had told him so, handing him some food and a bit of money with a regretful face.
For the new knight, it was a situation that made his blood boil.
'But, Captain!'
'You saw Rahan Norwich earlier. That man's fighting spirit... is not something you can defeat.'
The captain of the royal guard of House Achen had sharp eyes as well.
He too found it absurd that he had to send away a trainee knight he cherished so soon after promoting him to a formal knight.
But how could a mere knight defy the will of the higher-ups?
'It's better than dying. Change your name too.'
That was the captain's final act of loyalty toward the new knight. However, there was one thing the captain had overlooked.
That was the vigor of a new knight who, immediately upon becoming a knight of the Ducal House—a feat of great difficulty—was now facing the unwanted loss of both his name and status.
‘How hard I worked...’
He grit his teeth. He had barely managed to become a knight, and he thought his life was finally looking up.
A salary incomparable to his days as an apprentice, the admiration of others. The days when girls would twist their bodies suggestively the moment he stepped into a tavern, asking, ‘Is that the crest of the Achen Ducal House?’
He couldn't throw all that away. Thus, he made a decision.
‘Rahan Norwich? I’ll just kill the bastard.’
It was obvious that a newlywed couple—especially when one had been ordered into exile from the Grand Duchy—would not be allowed to eat and sleep in the monastery.
The knight hid in the forest near the monastery and observed where Rahan Norwich was heading.
Within a day, the place they settled in was a field hand's hut.
‘Ha! He really must have committed a crime.’
Not even a village, but a field hand's hut.
It was the kind of house a remote country farmer would use as a storehouse. It was obvious that supplies would be scarce.
Sure enough, Rahan Norwich soon popped out of the house.
‘Is he running away?’
He wasn't.
To his bewilderment...
He went into the forest to chop wood.
‘R-right. He probably can't just run away immediately.’
For a newly appointed knight, this was a golden opportunity. Rahan Norwich had come out alone with nothing but an axe in less than a day.
He wasn't even wearing a sword.
All he had to do was draw his blade and strike him down.
Strangely, he couldn't do it.
‘Ah, damn. It's not working.’
Even as he muttered that, he watched as Rahan felled a massive tree with only three or four swings of the axe—sheer monstrous strength.
The knight watched with a horrified face, and simply let Rahan Norwich go as he carried the wood back.
‘T-there will be a better opportunity. A better opportunity than this...’
The knight spent several days eating and sleeping in the forest.
Though it had only been a few days of camping, his body was exhausted due to lack of sleep and miserable meals.
Of course, if Rahan Norwich, who had returned from an expedition, had seen him in that state, he would have scoffed and asked if that was all it took to be exhausted.
But the new knight truly felt like he was going to die at this rate.
Eventually, thinking ‘Let's just get this over with,’ he approached the hut at dawn yesterday.
However, Rahan Norwich was indeed a meticulous man. Even before the sun had risen, he was using the hearth and keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings.
‘You demon...’
Of course, Rahan was simply preparing breakfast for Iris.
But the knight, who never imagined someone like Rahan Norwich would be cooking, gnashed his teeth. He really was a meticulous bastard.
However, there was something strange.
‘Huh.’
It was pure chance that he noticed a pink lizard walking slowly beside him.
And then, the knight witnessed something shocking.
He saw Rahan squeezing blood from his finger and feeding it to the lizard.
‘W-what is that?’
He doubted his eyes. Keeping a lizard was absurd enough, but squeezing blood to feed it?
A chill ran down his spine.
‘Come to think of it...’
Only then did he remember a few rumors he had heard about Rahan Norwich.
Stories that he was the child of a demon, stories that he had cut people down like a demon during the expedition.
Among them were rumors that the Church of Eridrahan had raised issues, claiming there were traces of demon summoning during the expedition.
‘Could it be... is he summoning and raising a demon?’
Maaa...
It was then that a female goat, being milked by Rahan, bleated.
The knight was terrified. The ignorant peasants of the countryside might not know, but goats were representative pets raised by demons.
Furthermore, a lizard.
Were not snakes the eternal symbol of the demon who betrayed God!
Of course, that lizard was neither a snake nor even a lizard, but an axolotl, but the knight had no way of knowing.
And if one looked into the origins of that axolotl, his guess wasn't entirely wrong.
‘Wait, this...’
The knight trembled with excitement. He felt that he might have caught Rahan Norwich's weakness.
It was said that the priest of the Church of Eridrahan, who had raised objections regarding Rahan Norwich's demon summoning during the expedition, eventually let him go after failing to find evidence.
‘But what if I accuse Rahan Norwich of being a demon summoner?’
It was inevitable that he remembered Philod Ahen's words, telling him to find even the smallest flaw to nitpick.
However, it was impossible for now. He needed definitive evidence.
So, he stayed awake for another full day.
‘I am merely waiting for the right moment...’
Muttering this, he fell asleep from exhaustion while picking wild raspberries near a thicket.
The knight woke up purely because he sensed someone's presence.
A man and a woman picking raspberries.
He slowly opened his eyes, and upon realizing it was Rahan and Iris, he curled up in terror.
I mustn't be caught. I mustn't...
Fortunately, the two seemed unaware of his presence.
The knight listened intently. He wondered if he could find another weakness of Rahan Norwich.
“Priest Marid always looks like he's about to die, and Abbot Wilbert is the same. But now that we're married, it's great!”
...
“You could just heal them.”
“Rahan said I shouldn't do that.”
“Wouldn't it be fine where others can't see?”
“Eridrahan would be watching.”
...
“The ointment you gave me really worked. It healed quickly.”
“That's a special blend from our monastery. I made it myself; did it work well?”
“Yes. It works great.”
“I'm glad. Still, let me see it once.”
As he listened to the conversation, he felt somewhat irritated. Was it because he was still unmarried?
The knight sat huddled, controlling his inexplicably boiling heart.
Furthermore, there was something puzzling.
‘Wasn't that woman kidnapped and forced into her first night? Is she stupid, or what?’
Affectionate conversation, a man and woman exchanging smiling glances while he picked raspberries for her.
No matter how he looked at it, they were a newlywed couple head-over-heels for each other.
‘Was the suspicion actually true?’
Philod Ahen had been furious, claiming Grand Duke Lacheize had forced her way into this marriage.
The Grand Duke had denied it through her subordinates, claiming she had been attacked, but seeing how those two were acting, his lord's guess was correct.
Not only that.
“Aren't you approaching a man too without any hesitation?”
“But you're my husband?”
What kind of absurd conversation was this? The knight listened even more closely.
It was then.
“Even so. Strictly speaking, you and I haven't even done... that, in the first place.”
The knight's eyes snapped open.
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