On a sunny spring day, Rozen Haywood declared that he wouldn’t run a tavern that had been operating for generations. After hearing it, Rozen’s father, Chris Haywood, asked what his second child wanted to do instead of getting angry. Because Chris understood him very well, how could a healthy, fine man like Rozen not dream of becoming a Knight or an owner of a merchant guild? If Rozen wanted to be a Knight, he was ready to laugh off the ambition of the young man. No, he would’ve pushed Rozen back and told him to give it a try.
It would be easy for Rozen to graduate from the Academy of Knights because he was half a span taller than his older brother and two younger brothers that had a standard height. Although people at the Academy of Knights wouldn’t think so, Chris still believed so.
However, that wasn’t what Rozen Haywood wanted to be.
“Father, I prefer tea over the bitter liquor that makes people dizzy. But, most people only drink alcohol when they don’t feel like drinking water. I want to introduce them to a really good drink called tea. I’m going to open a cozy and comfortable teahouse so that I can make a delicious cup of tea for people who want to know what ‘tea’ really is.”
“Repeat that again.”
“…I’ll open a teahouse.”
“Get out.”
“Yes?”
“Get out I said!!!”
Chris picked up the magazine right next to him and threw it at Rozen. He soon found out that the magazine, titled ‘A Day of a Cup of Tea’, was subscribed monthly in secret by Rozen.
As soon as Chris realized it, he stormed into Rozen’s room and burned all the books related to the tea. The villagers remembered that the scale was as much as when the Royal Family confiscated and burned the seditious books 30 years ago.
That was how Rozen left his house in Annecy and headed to Langley, 8 hours away by carriage. Langley was a city that was famous for being a quite big business district. It was located at the spot where merchants trade and the only railway connecting the Weyl Kingdom from the north to the south, the Weyl Line, passed by.
But for Rozen, Langley was a bit more special. Because this city consumed the most tea in the whole nation of the Weyl Kingdom. Tea gardens at the Steyr Mountain in the east of Langley supplied quality tea to teahouses and salons in the city, making the society always have fresh tea.
In such a dream-like place, Rozen did everything he could, from working in construction and merchants to cleaning. With the money he had saved for three years, he was able to open a very small teahouse in the corner of the city.
His teahouse was as cozy as Rozen had dreamed of. Two finely crafted smooth tables were placed while five large tin caddies were displayed behind the polished counter. Teapots and teacups had been prepared in various designs to match the preference of diverse individuals. Little by little, Rozen filled his teahouse with his own daintiness.
The teahouse was named by combining two things he liked, ‘The Lion and Broomstick’. The lion symbolized the wise and gallant Weyl from a children’s story ‘The Origin of the Weyl’, a tale his mother read when he was young.
By the time young Rozen turned 10, he realized that he couldn’t have a lion in the future, even so, it was still his favorite animal. As for the broomstick, it was the most vital element and prerequisite before having tea time. Rozen drank his first tea only after sweeping in front of the house with a broom in the morning. It felt more like a ritual for him.
Rozen Haywood in many aspects was trivial. He dreamt of a trivial goal, he enjoyed trivial things, his actions even just trivial by always sending letters or tea after he ran away instead of confronting his father with guts. He was too trivial that someone who liked a decent face would scoff at him and disappeared after one or two encounters.
For that reason, never in Rozen’s million dreams, not in a bit, did he imagine himself intertwined in an absurd courtship with the nation’s most infamous Knight.
Belinda Curtis, so to speak, was a girl who was called a ‘treasure’ in the largest Curtis fief in the North. She was the only daughter of Count Linden Curtis among her four older brothers. On the day her mother, Riley Curtis, passed away, Linden was looking at clueless and three-year-old Belinda who was observing a skylark bird with bright eyes and decided, “I’ll raise my beautiful child like the precious treasure that no other in the world has.”
The four older brothers had the same opinion as their father, but the problem was they had different approaches. When the brothers wielded their sword, Belinda walked near them with a broad smile and exclaimed: “Me too! Me too!” like that. The brothers grinned then proceeded to give her a wooden sword.
And swung was what she did. Belinda glanced sideways at her brothers while swinging the wooden sword with vigor. The next thing happened, she woke up early in the morning, followed her brothers, and came in with them late in the evening. Although she had calluses in her hands while her muscles aching all over her body, she still loved spending time with her brothers and produced sweats.
At that time, Count Linden was appointed as a finance commissioner of the Royal Palace and lived almost every day there, unaware of his daughter’s day. By the time he came back home at night, he could only watch his little child snoring and sleeping with affection.
With that, Belinda’s swordsmanship skills escalated gradually. In a strangely frightening speed.
When Brady the third child dropped out from the Academy of Knights, Belinda got in as the top student.
And when Edwin the second child graduated, Belinda also followed suit. As the top student, nonetheless.
Lastly, when Ebner failed the final examination of the Royal Knights, Belinda passed it at once.
Although when they were young they trained together with his younger sister for about one year, Cody the fourth child gave up on the Knight’s path in a cool way. It was the moment when he rejoiced in his intelligence.
It was said that when Count Linden came to the King’s office to report after work then sat down, he cried while holding a conversation.
“Congratulations, Count Linden. Finally, the first Knight from Curtis’ household has arrived. I came here after seeing the acceptance of the Royal Knights.”
“Is that true? Oh~ Ebner! I knew he could do it! Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Ebner? You mean your first child? It’s not him, hahaha. I’m talking about Belinda.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“It was Belinda Curtis that passed the Royal Knights. No, she’s Dame Belinda Curtis now. Your only daughter! Wait… are you crying?”
As Linden ran home, he grabbed his sons by the collar and shook them one by one. Despite that, time couldn’t be turned back and Belinda Curtis became a Royal Knight at the age of 17.
Becoming a Royal Knight, Belinda quickly adapted herself. Though she didn’t become the Knight for war as she hoped for, she trained new recruits and was busy guarding the Royal Palace.
As a Royal Knight, she was a cold person. She was quick to make a judgement and conducted it cautiously. Hence, it was difficult to approach her for someone who simply met for the first time. The glimmering golden eyes in her expressionless face seemed to pierce through a person’s heart. And compared to her peers, she looked more dignified, perhaps because she was always spending time with people older than her as she skipped grades. The only thing she could do to show her filial affection was gently patting Linden’s shoulder when he cried.
On the other hand, unlike her careful behavior, Belinda’s speaking skills were unrestrained. As she spent her whole life with men, the way she spoke became coarse and more forthright. In addition, Belinda, who valued the unique practicality of northern people and liked criticism, showed off her more straightforward and acrimonious mouth after joining the Royal Knights.
However, Belinda Curtis also had a feminine side. If someday she found a sweet person in her cold, blunt, and straightforward eyes, she planned to make that person happy with everything she could do.
Although Linden hated the idea while releasing his crane, saying something along the line that she should be that ‘sweet person’ not the other way around to search for that, her brothers were cheering for Belinda.
And that person appeared faster than she expected one day. Seven months ago, her senior pressured her to go on a business trip to Langley, which took two and a half hours away by train from the capital. To kill time waiting for the train to leave, Belinda eventually discovered a teahouse and entered it without much thought.
There, a sweet person she was looking for.