One Day, My Fiancé Brought His First Love Along - Chapter 81

Aileen opened her eyes wide as the cold morning dew fell on her cheek.

The only sound was the chirping of birds. The sky was still tinged with bluish darkness, suggesting that dawn was approaching.

She gave up on trying to force herself to sleep, realizing it wouldn’t come, and carefully got up. Then, unexpectedly, her eyes met Carlisle’s.

There was no sign of surprise on his face, as if he had been watching her the whole time. His eyes looked slightly tired, as though he had spent the night alone. We had decided to take turns keeping watch through the night.

Aileen soon lost interest and turned her head away first. It wasn’t her concern. Each person was responsible for their own condition.

All she needed to do was follow the rules and maintain peak physical condition so she could perform at her best in battle.

As Aileen got up and went to wash, Carlisle became keenly aware of whether anyone was secretly following her.

It would’ve been safer to do it myself, but Aileen would’ve definitely hated that, so I had to settle for this arrangement. Fortunately, there was no one like Boris around.

By the time Aileen returned from her wash, the knights had begun to wake one by one. It was the time of morning when the noise began to grow.

“Sir Aileen, let’s go. It’s a forest now, so there’ll be some shade.”

“That’s really fortunate. To be honest, I had a bit of a hard time yesterday because the sun kept shining all day.”

“Right? Even if the road is a little less flat, I’d rather run through the forest.”

Piel was thrilled to finally meet his peers.

“And Aileen, you might not know this, but the forest we’re passing through this time is famous for being quiet. The terrain isn’t too rough, there are no monsters, and it’s full of cute herbivores—so it’s very popular among the Knights of Sel.”

“Today should be a more comfortable journey than yesterday.”

Aileen smiled brightly, feeling truly relieved. Her shoulders were a little sore—perhaps because she hadn’t gone camping in a long time, or because she hadn’t slept well.

As Piel was about to say something more to Carlisle’s deep voice signaled their departure.

“Once everything is ready, let’s go.”

The two men stopped talking and mounted their horses. Thick clouds of dust rose between the horses’ powerful hooves.

After a quick lunch and a short break, we rode our horses for a while, and soon the forest Piel had mentioned came into view. The forest was covered in thick green foliage and appeared quite large from the outside.

Although Aileen felt a slightly eerie atmosphere, she hoped the day would pass without any major incidents—just as Piel had said.

But God is always unpredictable. It was said that only herbivores lived in Sel, so what on earth was happening now?

Aileen stared blankly at the group of monsters approaching from the front.

“A monster has appeared! There are no flying monsters, so don’t worry! Everyone, quickly form a formation!”

Piel shouted urgently on Carlisle’s behalf.

It was a type of monster Aileen had never seen before. She, who had already drawn her sword, Aileen was a little nervous, but judging by the relaxed attitude of Piel and Carlisle, it seemed like this monster was familiar to them.

“You just have to dodge the tails they suddenly swing at you.”

Carlisle leapt forward first, leaving behind only a simple warning. With one clean sweep of his hand, two monsters were felled in an instant.

“Let’s go!”

“Let’s hurry up and finish this! I’m starving!”

“Get rid of them all!”

With a few swings of her sword, Aileen managed to get a feel for the fight. As Carlisle had said, they were easy to handle as long as you avoided the sudden tail strikes from nowhere.

Aileen, having just taken one down, quickly scanned the surroundings. Carlisle was nearby, cutting through monsters without pause.

Will there ever be a day when I kill more monsters than Carlisle? That thought flitted across her mind as she looked away, lost in idle musings.

“…Huh?”

A creature entered her vision, its tail whipping in a sharp diagonal streak of wheat-colored fur.

It was a surprise attack. The owner of the wheat-colored back of his head was completely unaware of the danger, too busy stabbing the monster in front of him. Anyway, Niar—that idiot!

Aileen charged forward, extending her sword as she rode through the tangled chaos of knights and monsters.

“Kaaaak!”

As the beast howled in pain with its tail severed, Niar finally turned around and finished it off with a smile.

“Oh, excuse me, Sir Aileen.”

“Please be careful! Seriously, be careful!”

“Thank you for saving my life. But Lord Carlisle is the best to me.”

“……”

It had been less than a minute since she’d saved his life, and yet she already felt as though she was being treated unfairly. Aileen let out a short sigh as she looked at the hopeless Carlisle devotee.

Niar, a young knight of the Order of Sel, had brown hair and crimson eyes. He was the one who had lost to Tanil during the preliminary round of the swordsmanship tournament.

I thought she looked familiar—as if I’d seen her somewhere before. And then he recognized Aileen and approached her first to say hello.

“We’re in the same group, Sir Aileen. Please take care of us.”

“Ah… Please take care of me.”

“My name is Niar. I saw you briefly during the last preliminaries.”

“Oh, I remember. Nice to meet you, Sir Niar.”

“The final match was also very exciting. Compared to our captain, there were many parts that were disappointing, but he was still great. I hope to learn something from him during this subjugation.”

Niar, who spoke in a way that made it hard to tell whether his words were compliments or subtle jabs, was still a decent knight—though he had a rather Carlisle-specific taste.

Niar, always polite and courteous, seemed to be well-liked even among the Knights of Sel—so long as the topic wasn’t Carlisle.

“I know this isn’t a one-on-one duel, Lord Niar. Even when fighting monsters, you mustn’t forget your surroundings,” Aileen advised, having just cut off the head of one of the monsters approaching him.

“I’ll keep that in mind. But I think it’s better if you stop here for now. It’s too much of a hassle to cut.”

“……Is that so.”

As I was cutting down several of the monsters that kept coming, Niar suddenly spoke.

“But Sir Aileen, why do you think the monsters are flocking to us in particular?”

Aileen quickly scanned her surroundings, wiping the sweat from her temples.

Now that I think about it, it was a little strange. I didn’t think it was just Niar’s imagination.

At that moment, something fell on Aileen’s head. She looked up.

A round sphere covered in sharp thorns was descending rapidly. It was already just about two hand spans away.

Aileen instinctively swung her arms and turned her head, but realized she was a step too late.

It was a mistake to let my guard down—there hadn’t been any flying monsters until just a moment ago. On top of that, the monsters seemed unusually drawn to the two of us. Because of that, my senses had become a bit sharper.

“Sir Aileen!”

Someone called her name.

A few seconds passed. It should have been a There should have been burning pain—but there wasn’t any at all.

“Captain!”

Niar’s bright voice pulled her out of those few seconds that had felt like an eternity.

“Be careful.”

Carlisle, who had come closer, was looking down at her indifferently with Niar standing between them.

“How can you throw a dagger so well, Commander! I really wanted to see it, but I never thought I’d witness your dagger skills today. I could die right now without any regrets!”

Only after hearing Niar’s endless praise did Aileen realize it was Carlisle who had saved her by throwing the dagger.

“Thank you.”

“Save the greetings. Get your mind together.”

Aileen snapped back to her senses at his cold, dry words. The monsters were still around.

She reawakened her dulled instincts. Niar, now even more fired up by Carlisle’s arrival, swung his sword more fiercely than before.

A few more exchanges of blows followed, and before long, it was all over.

Carlisle, who had brushed his soaked hair away, drenched in demon’s blood, he spoke clearly enough for all to hear.

“We’ll proceed under the assumption that monsters can appear at any time. Therefore, during tonight’s camping trip, we’ll cut our sleep time in half and divide the night watch accordingly. That’s all.”

A heavy silence fell.

Why did something like this have to happen? I can’t even sleep properly now…

It was a thought that crossed everyone’s mind. Aileen was no exception. But she had something more pressing on her mind.

While the knights were tending to the wounded and repairing weapons after the battle, Aileen quietly approached Carlisle.

“Captain.”

Carlisle stared at her with dry, unreadable eyes. Piel, who had been talking about the sudden attack, also turned to look at her.

“I have a question for you.”

“What.”

“Does the monster we fought this time also choose its opponents?”

At the look on his face, which seemed to require further explanation.

After a moment of silence, Aileen cautiously added,

“Both Lord Niar and I felt the same way. It really did seem like the monsters were flocking to us.”

“……That’s not the case. However, if that’s how it felt, then next time I’ll stay close to you two and keep an eye on things.”

“Thank you.”

Aileen bowed her head politely, then turned to walk toward her horse. Every eye followed her.

It had been unexpected for Carlisle to use a dagger to save Aileen in front of everyone. Especially considering he was both a commoner and an earl, he was more vulnerable to criticism or disgrace for showing any signs of weakness than those born noble.

A dagger—something often looked down upon among the nobility. Of course, the Knights of Sel, who had witnessed Carlisle’s overwhelming strength in battles of life and death, admired him even for throwing daggers.

But now, there were other knights among them. And it was impossible to know what kind of jealousy or judgment he’d face—especially as a commoner.

Yet still, he’d saved Aileen, despite those risks.

There were quite a few surprised expressions among the knights. They had clearly heard that it.

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