012. A Bit More Often (5)
Owen was sincere.
He remembered every line Lucia had spoken in the original work.
Even the seemingly unimportant lines that had passed by fleetingly, or the scattered words in side stories or behind-the-scenes pieces.
If it was related to Lucia, he was the next person who knew the most after herself.
So, it was natural that he wouldn’t forget the words Lucia actually uttered.
With Owen’s good memory, it was even more expected.
“….”
It never felt natural to Lucía.
It was expected.
The Owen she knew was someone who found her annoying.
Even after figuring out all his schedules to participate in events he attended, it was still difficult to come face to face with him. And even when they did, he didn’t easily give answers.
That someone remembers everything I say, never forgets.
That’s what he said.
Emotions welled up inside Lucía, causing her to bite her lower lip.
Unable to respond, just nervously biting her lip, Owen reached out his hand.
“It hurts. If you keep biting like that.”
With his long fingers, he gently pressed Lucía’s lips.
Startled, Lucía opened her mouth, and a trickle of blood ran from where she had bitten.
“It’s a bad habit.”
Owen, with worried eyes, mumbled as he took out a handkerchief from his pocket.
Instead of handing her the handkerchief, he wiped the blood himself and spoke.
“It’s better not to bite your lips in the future.”
With his concerned advice, Lucía managed to muster a voice.
“…Yes, I’ll do that.”
Her voice seemed calm, making Owen appear oblivious to her feelings.
He softly smiled and reached out his hand to Lucía.
“Shall we go to the exhibition hall over there?”
“Sure.”
And Lucía, at Owen’s gesture, concealed her true feelings once again.
* * *
Even after visiting the art gallery, the two of them met about five more times.
Cafés, restaurants, by the lake, even on the streets.
As they frequented crowded places, rumors started to spread.
The rumor was none other than Lucía and Owen becoming lovers.
Unfortunately, most of the nobles who heard the rumor did not believe it.
Owen’s usual behavior led them to think the rumor was baseless.
He was usually aloof, emotionless, and seemed devoid of feelings.
Such a person dating someone?
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Especially someone like Lucía, whom he found so annoying.
Most considered it nonsense.
They thought Owen was simply being capricious, giving her a chance out of curiosity.
Hearing this story, Lucía harbored expectations.
‘Will he be able to say those words even after the hunting competition?’
A villainous, glamorous, and cruel smile crossed her lips.
Thinking that those who boasted would fall for her words, she even hummed a tune while rearranging the flowers in the vase.
“Are you really enjoying it that much?”
Though it had been a while since she received the gift, Lucía was still treating the vase and flowers she received from Owen with care.
She cleaned and maintained the vase daily, and the flowers were preserved by a magician.
Thanks to this, the vase shimmered like new, and the flowers remained vivid and fresh as if picked today.
“Yes.”
In response to Marie’s question, Lucía nodded her head.
Marie then made a comment as if amazed.
“You used to quickly grow tired of things you had longed for so much once you had them in your hands.”
“That’s true….”
Agreeing with Marie, Lucía spoke affirmatively.
She loved beautiful things and desired them, but once she had them, she quickly grew tired. In the case of flowers, she often got bored within a day, and vases or her own accessories lasted about a week.
But strangely, this time, she had far surpassed that duration without growing tired of the vase and flowers.
“Could it be because it’s a gift?”
Lucía whispered cautiously as she caressed the pink rose petals.
Marie’s expression showed doubt at her words.
“Unlikely. You quickly grew tired of gifts from other nobles.”
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
Marie answered firmly, nodding her head, leaving Lucía looking puzzled.
Then, after a short sigh, Marie added:
“Just, maybe it’s because it’s a gift from Count Verdin?”
“…Could be.”
In response to Marie’s direct question, Lucia slowly spat out her answer.
The ambiguous answer neither affirmed nor denied the question, but Lucia’s expression seemed to reveal the whole truth.
Her ears and cheeks tinged with a rosy hue couldn’t hide anything.
Marie inwardly sighed, wondering why Lucia alone didn’t know the fact that everyone else seemed to know.
‘Is she confusing the desire to possess with affection?’
At a glance, they seem similar.
Moreover, as someone who had never properly received love-like feelings from others, Marie thought it was understandable.
After coming up with a somewhat plausible conclusion, Marie fell into contemplation.
She pondered deeply on how to make her mistress realize this fact, but she couldn’t find a suitable answer.
Marie swallowed a sigh internally, deciding that she would help whenever needed.
—
Clang!
The sound of metal colliding heavily reverberated through the training ground.
Owen furrowed his brows slightly at the piercing sound of metal in his ears.
Although he had been hearing it for a while, the sound of blades clashing was far from pleasant.
Perhaps it was because Owen’s hearing was exceptionally acute.
His body reacted sensitively to sounds due to his ability to hear even the slightest noise.
To evade the unpleasant sound, Owen twisted his sword to deflect the opponent’s blade.
Screech-
The sharp scratching sound tormented him.
‘…I’d rather drop the sword.’
Not wanting to hear that sound anymore, Owen stepped back and swiftly brought down his sword on the opponent knight’s blade.
“Ugh!”
Whether due to the difference in strength or a momentary lapse in focus.
The knight dropped the sword he was holding.
“I have lost.”
With a face that seemed to say losing was only natural, the knight raised his hand in surrender.
Nodding his head, Owen lowered his sword.
“Good work.”
He had come to the training ground for the inspection and sparring of the knights, as requested by the commander.
‘Not bad as I thought.’
Since he had been practicing alone, he wasn’t sure of his skill level.
Using Owen’s body, agility and strength were naturally superior.
Even practicing alone, he could feel that.
‘Performing swordsmanship or wielding a spear is just a matter of focus.’
It was truly strange, but raising the sword or spear was not difficult.
Just imagining Owen’s actions made everything fall into place.
Thinking of the heroines in other fantasy novels he had read, Owen recalled they either struggled to learn or gave up.
‘…But I could do everything as long as I was conscious of it.’
In my case, it was completely different from them.
Noble etiquette, usual behavior, or way of speaking, all were effortlessly resolved by Owen’s body.
His body moved naturally.
It felt completely natural and familiar.
The same applied to swordsmanship and other combat-related skills.
Riding, swordsmanship, handling spears or other weapons.
Even though I had never tried them before.
‘Today was a bit of an exception.’
When practicing alone, the opponent was a scarecrow or a target, so it didn’t matter much.
There was no problem if the opponent got hurt, and inanimate objects couldn’t harm him.
But today’s training was different.
Today, his opponents were all living people.
He couldn’t swing his sword without thinking.
Therefore, he wielded the sword consciously for the first time.
Thanks to that, there were many mistakes in the first few attempts that didn’t seem like ‘Owen,’ but Owen quickly filled those gaps.
Even if he couldn’t match ‘Owen,’ he had Owen’s body and swordsmanship.
With the deceptive talent innate in Owen, if he only instilled the will to act on his thoughts, everything came to fruition.
The sword flying at a fast speed seemed slow, and the speed of dodging was excessively fast.
Thanks to that, Owen was able to finish training with the knights of the Order without much suspicion.
“Your Highness.”
When Owen finished training with the knights and was lost in thought.
The knight commander, Jade, who had been observing from behind, approached him.
As Owen was facing a swordsman directly under the Sword Master, Sword Expand, he replied with a slight tension.
“Sir Jade.”
“I apologize for troubling you. The hunting competition is approaching, so I asked for this training to discipline these fellows.”
Jade had no doubts, to the point that Owen’s tension was almost comical.
Perhaps it was because Jade was the first to train with Owen.
He didn’t seem to even consider doubting Owen’s skill against the aura and swordsmanship he displayed against me.
Maybe he didn’t even realize that Owen had spared him.
Actually, Owen had been doing that until now.
“It goes without saying that it was necessary. More importantly, how are the preparations for the hunting competition?”
Thinking he had successfully overcome Jade’s suspicions, Owen turned the conversation to the preparations for the hunting competition.
To which Jade, bowing his head, replied, “The horses, carriages, weapons, everything is prepared. The participants for the hunting competition and those who will stay at the mansion have been selected. I will organize the related documents and present them by the end of today.”
“Good, well done.”
Owen nodded at Jade’s report.
Since Jade had been in charge of matters related to the hunting competition throughout his tenure as the knight commander, there was no need to worry about that.
However…
“The hunting competition will be real.”
The worrying part was that the hunting competition was indeed as real as it could get.
Today was the first time he had faced people with swords in hand.
In the hunting competition where he had to face creatures capable of killing him, it was worrisome whether he would be able to perform well.
Of course, he wouldn’t die.
Even if he suffered a fatal blow, a signal could be sent through the communication device, and personnel would be deployed to save him.
There was no way they would leave me to die like Viscount Verdin.
But whether he could perform as effectively as the original Owen was still unknown.
One of the key figures in the hunting competition was Owen.
“Can I imitate him and do well?”
Honestly, he wasn’t sure.
Given the variety in the sizes of creatures, he might be able to handle small ones.
Maybe even medium-sized creatures.
But large ones…
He wasn’t confident.
“I need more practice.”
Amidst the growing complexity in his mind and concerns, Owen took a short breath and came to a conclusion.
There were things he had to do even if it seemed impossible.
The hunting competition was one of those things.
It was inevitable, and at the same time, he had to excel at it.
So, it seemed like he would have to focus solely on swordsmanship until just before the hunting competition.