Chapter 9 – Don’t Do Anything Brash
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Jack was one of Viscount Bourdain’s six sons, and grew up with the misfortune of constantly being compared to his superior older brothers. It was safe to say that he wasn’t a top potential heir to inherit their father’s title.
When Jack realized his superior swordsmanship abilities compared to his brothers, he immediately threw himself headfirst into the path of a knight. At a young age he learned to wield a sword from the knights who served the family, and soon entered the social circles of the royal knights. With a little flattery and a bit of bribery here and there, he skipped over being a page and went straight into becoming a squire. What followed afterwards was an unending succession of hardships.
The knight he served always yelled at him, saying ‘You have not yet learned enough to become a knight’. In the end, Jack sold information about the knight’s weaknesses to another rival knight, which opened up a new path for Jack to swiftly ascend the ranks. His decision proved profitable. He was finally knighted at the age of twenty without too much difficulty in the end.
Jack thought he could finally relax a bit—that is, until he was placed as a knight companion in the Ninth Order of Chivalry, the most trivial of the royal knight orders. However, he was still a knight of the royal family, and commanded a considerable salary and power over others.
And yet…he was still at the very bottom of the order. The whispers and snickers of the people around him dented his pride, and he turned his focus towards the orders that belonged to the high nobles. Even if he was in the Ninth Order, he was still a royal knight, so he felt that the nobles in general would welcome him with open arms.
As he kept his ears open for rumors circulating around the social circles, he picked out a number of noble families he could potentially serve. He finally landed on the Marquis Laima family.
And the target he decided—
Was Duke Cabrian’s fiancée, Leticia; specifically, the role as her bodyguard knight.
If Jack was lucky, he would serve as her knight when Leticia finally married Duke Cabrian and became a duchess. Then, his affiliation would increase from a marquis to a duke. If that happened, he would not be ‘just a knight of a marchioness’ but ‘a knight who personally guards a duchess’. It was a guaranteed check with a bright future ahead. That was what he thought at the time.
…Until he realized that Leticia’s favorite person was this damned knight of commoner origin.
“Please do not get too close to her. Keep a certain distance at all times. She reacts negatively towards people she is not familiar with,” Zed said.
Jack stared at Zed as he explained a number of things to him, and Jack mentally threw insults at the other knight. Marquis Laima’s daughter always had that damned knight by her side no matter the time of day. Jack, meanwhile, was delegated to merely guarding the outside of the daughter’s room. Moreover, he had to stay all night as well, meaning he had no chance to talk with anyone else. The sparse interactions he had were simply a few words to report what happened during his shift.
This couldn’t happen. This could not be at all. Jack thought this was too unfair.
It was true that the commoner knight entered the family’s service first. But didn’t Jack have more experience than Zed? Zed wasn’t even from a royal knight order. Why…why was Jack being treated this terribly?!
Jack once had gone straight to the daughter of the Marquis to argue with her. He told her that he had more experience than Zed, and therefore he would be of more use to her. He told her she will never regret it if she were to have him by her side.
But the answer she gave trampled on his self-esteem.
“Someone like you? As if.”
Her bright, reptilian-like eyes looked back at him with a mocking stare. She tipped her teacup towards her lips, and she ridiculed his actions quietly.
“I do not need dogs that wag their tails to their masters endlessly for their own profits. No matter the quality of the breed, a hunting dog that doesn’t stay loyal to their master and wags their tail at anyone is useless, honestly. I’d rather have a terrible mutt that’s loyal rather than a pure breed that isn’t.”
Jack gritted his teeth, and he clenched his fists so tight that he could have crushed bone. As he trembled in rage and humiliation, Leticia smirked at him.
“Why, you’re going to hit me or something?”
Her voice dropped to an icy temperature, and the air seemed to freeze slightly with her subtle shift in mood.
Shiver.
Although he couldn’t figure out the reason why, he remembered that his whole body momentarily shook with fear.
He was like a frog thrown to a hungry snake. Although it was laughable that such a delicate and weak woman could ever hurt him, he felt as if she were crushing his neck with an unknown force. In the end, he couldn’t fight back at all and simply ran away with his tail tucked between his legs like a scared dog.
‘But now that bitch drank some poison and now has amnesia, huh?’
Jack licked his own lips in anticipation.
An unknown fear had kept him quiet, but after overhearing the shocking news, he was ecstatic. She was a little girl who needed to know her place, and she deserved it.
Jack quickly fixed his expression, then snapped at Zed.
“You’ve been monopolizing protection for Lady Leticia these last few days. What changed your mind and why are you giving me this role now?”
“Although she’s finally woken up, she’s far too wary of me. I believe that it would be better to re-introduce to her the people of this house one-by-one, rather than doing it all at once,” Zed explained.
Despite the clear hostility in Jack’s voice, Zed answered in a calm tone. The latter continued to speak in a business-like voice as if Jack’s aggression meant nothing to him.
“On top of that, I am unable to protect Lady Leticia all the time due to all the work I have to do in her stead. The pile of documents that need attending to are piling up high.”
Zed rubbed the dark circles around his eyes. The redness of his eyes were evidence of the all-nighter he had been pulling.
However, Jack’s irritation only grew as he watched Zed. It was as if Zed were boasting of his closeness to Leticia, and Jack had to fight the urge to land a punch on his face. He clenched and unclenched his hands several times while Zed explained his role to him. Jack only listened with half a mind as the other half fantasized about a good bashing.
“—now, if Duke Cabrian were to suddenly try to barge into the place without going through formal procedure, please do your best to send him away.”
Crazy bastard. How could Jack block a duke? He would probably get arrested for treason. In any case, the whole public’s eyes were directed at Duke Cabrian right now, if the Duke were to illegally attempt to trespass this place, everyone’s perception towards him will sour.
Jack gave a silent mocking laugh towards Zed and ignored everything he was saying. If something like that did happen, Jack would simply pretend to protect the young lady and back away once it started to become a problem. One had to be quick in adapting to a situation after all, and know when and whom to bow down to.
“I get it, so please leave it there and I’ll do my best,” Jack said.
He couldn’t handle this commoner’s rambling any longer. He didn’t want to be lectured by someone who looked down on him. Jack disregarded Zed’s words and brushed past him.
“Jack.”
At that moment, Zed called out his name.
Thoroughly crossed, Jack turned his heel and saw the other knight staring at his face.
“Don’t do anything brash,” Zed cautioned.
Hearing the advice—no, more like warning—Jack clenched his jaw and felt ready to scream out his rage to him.
However, he swallowed back his anger because of the strange feeling scratching down the side of his heart.
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