Chester returned to the headquarters, massaging his stiff neck.
Lately, a mountain of tasks had piled up, leaving him without a moment’s rest.
A knight’s duty wasn’t limited to subjugating beasts; their scope included anything that threatened the safety and order of the Empire.
For quite some time, the black market had been a persistent headache—illegal trades, smuggling, and the sale of forbidden goods disguised as merchandise.
Recently, they had finally caught the tail of a large organization overseeing these markets.
Chester had participated in the raid, which meant he hadn’t stepped foot back in the headquarters for nearly a week.
Between the stakeouts, infiltration, and the eventual confrontation with mercenaries hired by the criminals, the scale of the battle had been larger than expected.
“Honestly, don’t you think dealing with humans is harder than dealing with beasts?”
A man walked up beside Chester as he finally stepped onto headquarters ground after a week.
It was Varen, a Knight Commander of the same rank.
“Is it?” Chester replied flatly.
“Of course it is. They’re both evil, but beasts are… simpler, you know? Who would’ve thought those bastards would go as far as hiring mana-user mercenaries?”
Chester didn’t seem in the mood for small talk.
He wiped his face with a dry hand and pushed his hair back.
In the past week, his total sleep probably amounted to less than ten hours.
No matter how confident he was in his stamina, there was no winning against chronic sleep deprivation.
“By the way, Chester, you’re back to your old self,” Varen said, peering at him.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, after you came back from your first vacation a while ago, you looked a bit different. You had this… spark of life that’s usually missing.”
Chester was currently a celebrity within the headquarters.
Despite his short tenure, he had become a Class 2 Mage at an incredibly young age and immediately climbed to the rank of Knight Commander, just below the Vice-Captains.
Beyond his rank, Chester had plenty of other traits that drew attention.
He was a son of the Callaway family, the younger brother of the famous Ethan Callaway, and possessed looks that were impossible to ignore.
Furthermore, Chester wasn’t the “let’s all do our best together” type.
Knights often grew close through shared hardships, but he kept to himself.
He never said or did more than necessary, drawing a cold, hard line between himself and others.
The lower-ranking knights found him the most difficult to approach among the Commanders.
Yet, a few days ago, right after his first vacation, he had seemed unusually softened.
Seeing his composed, almost pleasant aura, the members of the Order had simply attributed it to the “power of a vacation.”
“So, I thought maybe you’d gone off to meet a lover or something during your time off.”
“…”
Chester visibly froze.
Varen had thrown the comment out as a joke, fully expecting a denial, but Chester’s reaction caught him off guard.
“Wait, really? For real? I’m not kidding, did you actually?”
That Chester had someone he was seeing? Varen’s eyes instantly sparkled with curiosity.
“No,” Chester replied, immediately crushing Varen’s hopes.
Varen nodded as if he expected as much.
He didn’t hear the faint “Not yet” that Chester muttered under his breath.
“You look exhausted, just head to the dorms first. I’ll report to the Vice-Captain for you.”
“Forget it. I’ll do my job regardless of how tired I am.”
“Hey, don’t be so stiff. If you feel bad, buy me a meal later. Or cover a night shift for me.”
“No, I—”
Before Chester could refuse the unsolicited favor and the requested repayment, Varen waved and vanished.
Lacking the energy to chase him down, Chester turned toward the dormitories.
Normally, his stamina wouldn’t be this depleted.
The real culprit was his lack of sleep lately.
Ruite kept appearing in his dreams, causing him to wake up several times a night.
Perhaps because they had spent the entire vacation together, the aftereffects were much stronger than he’d anticipated.
Combined with pulling all-nighters to bust a criminal ring, it was a miracle he was even standing.
Chester rubbed his stinging eyes, wondering when his next vacation would be.
He needed to send the formal proposal and get married soon, but before that, he wanted to spend as much time as possible getting closer to Ruite.
He’d heard that the longer you work in the Order, the more freedom you get with vacation time, so maybe he just had to endure a little longer.
Chester entered the dorms, acknowledging the salutes of the passing knights.
Even as he climbed the stairs and walked down the hallway, Ruite wouldn’t leave his mind.
As he reached for his doorknob, he sensed movement in the room next door.
He thought the adjacent room was vacant.
‘Did someone new move in?’
The moment the thought crossed his mind, the door swung open, and a familiar figure appeared.
Shimmering silver hair and porcelain skin.
No matter how many times he saw them, those cute and beautiful features never grew old.
Chester stared blankly at Ruite before rubbing his eyes repeatedly.
When the figure didn’t disappear, Chester let out a deep sigh.
“Now I’m seeing hallucinations.”
“Chester?”
“And it talks, too.”
‘Is this what they call withdrawal symptoms?’
Deprived of Ruite, sleep, and physical energy, he figured he was seeing things.
But for a hallucination, it was incredibly vivid. It even spoke and had clear expressions.
Still, the reason this couldn’t be real was obvious: the Ruite before him was wearing a Ferwin Knight uniform.
“Hey, hey! What’s wrong with you? Are you sick?”
Chester looked down at Ruite with eyes that had lost their light.
‘Even if it’s a hallucination… I don’t care.’
If it was a fake this realistic, he welcomed it.
“…Since it’s a hallucination, I guess it’s okay to do what I want.”
“What?”
Before Ruite could ask what he meant, Chester grabbed his hand and pulled him into a tight embrace.
He wrapped his arms around Ruite’s waist and buried his face in his shoulder.
“This is nice.”
The words were so quiet they were meant only for Ruite’s ears.
Suddenly trapped in his arms, Ruite’s eyes went so wide they nearly popped out. He blinked, but all he saw was a solid chest.
“Hey… Ch-Chester. What are you doing?”
Ruite tried to pull away, but the arms wrapped around him were incredibly strong.
It was a different level of strength compared to the hug in the storage room during the Academy festival.
Ruite had been shocked to run into Chester the moment he stepped out of his room.
He had intended to tell Chester himself that he had joined the Order.
But the guy’s eyes were half-glassed over, and his face was blank.
He wouldn’t answer his name and kept muttering weird things.
Ruite had been worried he was ill, but then this happened?
Why was he suddenly being hugged against Chester’s chest?
Ruite bit the inside of his cheek. His heart pounded, and his face flushed hot.
Part of him wanted to escape, but another “crazy” part of him wanted to stay right there.
“Chester, wait, let go for a second.”
“…”
“What if someone sees us…?”
Before he could finish the question, the arms around Ruite slackened, and the strength drained from Chester’s body.
As Chester began to sway and fall, Ruite quickly caught him.
“Hey! Chester?”
‘Did he faint? Is he sick? Is he hurt?’
Ruite didn’t even know where the infirmary was yet.
As he panicked, he heard a soft, rhythmic breathing near his ear.
“…Are you seriously sleeping?”
It appeared so.
Chester was now fast asleep with his eyes closed.
A bewildered laugh escaped Ruite’s lips.
“You really know how to give someone a heart attack.”
However, it was a sigh of relief as well.
Since he hadn’t collapsed from an injury or illness, Ruite’s panic subsided.
“But what do I do with this guy?”
Chester had been standing in front of this door, so it was likely his room, but the problem was that Ruite didn’t have a key.
He could search Chester’s clothes, but just supporting the man’s weight was a struggle.
With no other choice, Ruite dragged the limp Chester back into his own room.
“Phew… haa…”
After finally hoisting him onto the bed, beads of sweat formed on Ruite’s forehead.
He lifted Chester’s legs onto the mattress and tucked him in carefully with the blanket.
“That should do it, right?”
Ruite muttered, wiping sweat with his sleeve.
He had been nervous about his upcoming meeting with the Grand Commander, but thanks to someone, that nervousness had vanished completely.
He didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed.
“You’ve been giving me so many surprises lately.”
Ruite crouched down by the side of the bed.
He had to leave, but strangely, he couldn’t bring himself to move.
Ruite stared at the sleeping Chester.
The dark eyebrows and high bridge of his nose were perfect, as if sculpted.
His skin was clear, and soft breaths escaped from lips that perfectly complemented his features.
He had seen this face countless times at the Academy, but why did the guy look even more handsome lately?
Staring blankly, Ruite reached out.
His finger brushed against Chester’s cheek and slid down to his lips.
The moment his fingertip touched the soft texture, Ruite bolted upright.
“Th-this isn’t the time!”
He had completely forgotten his important schedule.
Ruite slapped both of his cheeks to wake himself up and hurried out of the room.
