* * *
“Is it urgent business?”
The shadow that fell was a person.
He had short-cropped black hair and deep gray eyes.
His clothes were all in dark tones, made of lightweight leather that looked easy to move in.
The moment he revealed himself, he dropped to one knee.
Seeing that, I relaxed my grip on the sword.
At the very least, he wasn’t an enemy.
“As you already know, this is my spouse, Adrian. From now on, when he calls, you’ll come right away.”
“Understood.”
Realizing there was no special mission, the man slowly straightened up.
Facing me, he offered a courteous knight’s greeting.
He was likely one of Klen’s subordinates, the ones tasked with monitoring the forest.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I’m Adrian. And you are?”
His behavior was impeccably polite, yet he didn’t offer his name.
Even when I asked directly, his lips stayed firmly shut.
It wasn’t as though he didn’t understand basic courtesy.
“I have no name. Please call me whatever you find convenient.”
Could he not reveal his real name, or had he discarded it for some reason?
I had enough on my plate with my own problems — I didn’t have the luxury to pry into his.
Besides, it didn’t seem like he wanted me to.
I turned my gaze to Klen.
“How do you call him?”
“……?”
At my question, Klen tilted his head with a curious expression.
Now I’m the one who’s curious — what part of my question was hard to understand?
With no choice, I rephrased more directly.
“I mean his name.”
“I don’t call him by any name.”
“……What?”
His puzzled eyes filled with doubt as he looked at me.
“Is there any need to call him by name?”
“Well… that’s…”
“I give him orders, he reports back. That’s sufficient.”
Was it really too bothersome to even give the man a name?
Assigning him complicated tasks, yet not even bothering with that—it felt oddly cold.
Thinking that, I shifted my gaze to the subordinate, only to frown.
They say subordinates resemble their masters.
The man was nodding as if Klen’s statement was completely natural.
“Then… why don’t you give him a name?”
“…….”
What I’d tossed out lightly now weighed heavily on my shoulders.
Even naming a pet requires careful thought, but now I’m supposed to name a person?
And not even my subordinate, but Klen’s.
“…….”
When suddenly told to decide, nothing came to mind.
Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up.
Why do I have to name him anyway?
If they wanted to keep it that way, fine by me.
But the way both of them silently stared at me told me I had no room to refuse.
I looked around quietly.
It wasn’t as though I was choosing the name he’d carry for life — just a simple code name between us.
Thinking of it like that eased my mind a little.
Black… forest… trees…
“Ebony.”
“……Ebony?”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
After Klen softly repeated the name once, silence settled between us.
Neither of them revealed whether they liked it or not.
The man only gave a slight nod.
“From now on, we’ll call you Ebony. So… any unusual activity lately?”
What if he didn’t like it?
Would it be a problem?
The heavy atmosphere pressing down on me vanished so easily it almost made my earlier worries feel absurd.
“I mainly patrol around here. Occasionally, I check the surrounding sectors. I can’t say for sure, but during my rounds, I saw no one acting suspicious. Only knights, nobles out for a stroll, and errand boys from the two towers.”
‘More people than I expected…’
This place was near the entrance to a restricted forest.
But since the immediate area wasn’t off-limits, people apparently came by now and then.
It made sense, given there were no dangerous monsters this close.
Unlike his casual tone, everyone he mentioned was someone I needed to be wary of.
That was all the information I could get from Ebony.
Plenty of suspicious people could pass through here, but we couldn’t investigate each one individually.
I decided to leave him with instructions to stay vigilant and turned away.
We probably wouldn’t find any magical traces anyway, but I still glanced around on the way back, even peeking between the bushes.
It was a meticulousness unlike how Klen had lazily rested under the trees during the hunting competition.
Is he going through all this trouble for me again?
‘…….’
I quickly reined in the foolish thought that I was moved by such a small gesture.
It was only when the sun had sunk fairly low that we returned to Elliot.
Even from a distance, his sluggish movements practically oozed laziness and reluctance.
Now I understood why Klen had been so adamant that he and Elliot were nothing alike.
Klen, despite finding things troublesome, took care of business when it counted.
Elliot, on the other hand, never handled anything with the proper seriousness — not even important matters.
If we left him to it, he’d probably waste the entire day.
We walked up to him without hesitation.
“Find anything?”
“Same as I reported earlier. Nothing special. Just a few half-finished spells lying around.”
Elliot emphasized the words as I reported earlier.
He clearly wanted to express his dissatisfaction with being ordered to redo a completed task.
His scowl alone conveyed the message, even without words.
“That so? Then investigate the remaining areas and the spells you found.”
“?!”
But Klen wasn’t someone you could trifle with.
Wearing an expression as if he had no idea what Elliot was implying, he responded cheerfully.
Predictably, Elliot’s already sour expression twisted even further.
I didn’t feel sorry for him.
Nor did I have the slightest urge to intervene on his behalf.
He brought this on himself.
If he’d just agreed to my request for a meeting back then, none of this would’ve happened.
“Oh, by the way.”
As I quietly watched him, another goal popped into my head.
“Is it true that Levatein holds magical power?”
“Ah…”
Elliot rolled his eyes, his expression anything but trustworthy.
For a moment, I imagined unsheathing Klen’s sword and pressing it dangerously close to his throat.
Wouldn’t that jog his memory?
As though sensing the killing intent still simmering beneath the surface, his face turned pale as he finally opened his mouth.
“It’s probably true. The Count asked me to check it at some point.”
“…….”
“…….”
“I was going to check it, but……”
“So it ended up in my hands before he could try? Or was he about to and just hasn’t yet? Even though it was the Count’s order, he hasn’t even made an attempt?”
“No, maybe…”
Perhaps Count Valuncio didn’t really care.
Being no mage himself, he likely wasn’t interested in whether or not magic was imbued in Levatein.
He probably assumed it would end up in Fabian’s hands anyway.
So he must’ve thought there was no harm in delaying.
“In that case, investigate everything thoroughly and report back.”
“Ugh…”
At the added workload, resentment flickered in Elliot’s eyes.
His slumped shoulders clearly signaled he wasn’t about to jump into the task right away.
“If you don’t report back before the ball, you’re not allowed to attend.”
He wasn’t a child—words like that shouldn’t have worked.
And yet, just as I let out a small sigh and turned my head, I heard something like a faint tremble.
Of course, it was Elliot.
His wide-eyed expression seemed to cry out “How could you treat me like this?”
And even his slowly parting lips were trembling.
“What?! But, I—”
“If you don’t want to be dragged away by the guards at the entrance, report before then.”
“……”
“If you think I’m bluffing, you’re welcome to check. But I’ve warned you.”
“…Fine, understood.”
His face hardened with resolve.
* * *
