The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies

38 – Selassie (06)

039.

In the civil war, Selassie Hyatt defeated Torn Hyatt.

The shocking news spread rapidly throughout the northern region.

In the north, where there isn’t much to enjoy, it’s not unusual for news to spread quickly.

But that’s not the only reason.

Rumors, by nature, tend to be exaggerated and inflated.

People like more stimulating stories, so it’s inevitable.

Everyone who heard of Celacia Hyatt’s victory must have thought the same thing at first.

That this event was exaggerated and blown out of proportion.

That a small matter, luckily wrapped up well, had turned into an absurd rumor that the eldest daughter had pushed out the eldest son.

And it didn’t take long for everyone to realize that the shocking news was true.

The girl no longer walked ahead of her escort.

She stood side by side with Kallen.

Despite her young age, she walked holding a hand much larger than hers.

As they strolled through the mansion, which was as grand as a castle,

It felt even more uncomfortable, as it never really felt like home in the first place.

The only thing that brought comfort was the warmth felt from the hand she held.

Celacia fidgeted with her hand and cleared her throat for no reason.

Wondering if it was uncomfortable.

This boy named Kallen rarely spoke his mind, which was often frustrating.

Especially when it came to matters that others might worry about, he would never admit it.

You could tell just by how he dismissed his battered body on Hyatt Mountain that day, saying he was fine.

Seeing such behavior, one couldn’t help but feel sorry.

How could he be so self-sacrificing?

Celacia felt both ashamed and pleased that she was the object of that sacrifice.

Dragging the stubborn Kallen, who insisted he was really fine, to the family doctor was a story unknown to others.

Seeing the doctor, who had become quite respectful towards her, made it all the more real.

They had won the civil war.

And now, only one step remained to the moment she had longed for.

And now.

She takes that one step.

Will it soothe the heart that withered long ago?

No, it surely will.

For that withered heart had been saved by a boy.

This is just to keep the last promise I made to myself a long time ago.

‘…If that happens.’

Selassia brought her remaining hand to her chest and secretly rolled her eyes.

What was engraved in the beautiful ruby was the image of a boy taller than herself.

Then, as if to keep the boy’s image, she tightened her fist against her chest and whispered.

“What will happen to this heart?”

Selassia is not a fool.

She knows what this emotion is, which has grown so large that it cannot be ignored, even though it has intruded into her hideously rotten heart that no one else could enter.

It’s just a relationship based on a promise.

It’s just a misunderstanding of gratitude.

Even if she repeated that, nothing changed.

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No, it did change.

The more she did, the more uncontrollable the emotion grew.

So she has no confidence.

When everything is over,

When there is nothing else to distract her.

Can she handle the torrent of emotions that will pour out?

Even now, when she can barely ignore it.

In this situation without even a mask, can she handle it…

“Miss.”

“Uh, yes!?”

“Are you still anxious?”

A voice that was high and out of place due to surprise.

Without even having time to suppress her embarrassment, she felt the growing warmth of her right hand.

When she hurriedly turned to her right, there was Kallen, looking at her with a slightly worried face.

Because Selassia was so caught up in her complicated feelings, she unconsciously put strength into the right hand she was holding.

It was natural for Kallen, who did not know her inner thoughts, to remember that day’s events.

Even though she knew it would be a burden, she couldn’t let go.

Instead, she held on so tightly that the blood could hardly circulate.

Isn’t it still the memory of that time, tormenting my mind?

It was only natural to think so.

“Ah…”

However.

For Selassie, who was already trying to calm her complicated mind, showing that worried expression was.

“Ugh…”

Whoosh-

It was nothing but hastening the torrent of emotions that was sure to be overwhelming and unimaginable in its magnitude.

Selassie’s anxious appearance was related to the head of the family she was heading to now.

Kallen, who guessed so, did not say a word until they arrived.

That was truly a relief for Selassie.

*

When I was young,

That is, when the world was still full of dreams.

I thought my father’s love was everything.

Looking back now, it was more like…

Interest.

It seemed closer to interest than love.

Because my mother loved my father so much.

She dyed her red hair black.

Such efforts could not continue, it seems,

My mother was banished the day her red hair was discovered.

Even so, she must have had children and loved them, so how could she be so heartless?

If cold people were unpopular in the North, my father must have been the worst man.

My mother’s heart that loved such a father…

I don’t quite understand.

It was around the time my mother was banished, and my hair started to show a red tint.

The moment I realized that whatever I did, my brother always got more.

From material things like delicious food and pretty clothes.

Even abstract things like freedom, choice, and happiness.

Had to receive unwanted education.

Had to live trapped in a stifling frame.

I doubted whether this place was really home.

From then on, the head’s room was no longer my father’s space,

It became a place where I had to listen to unpleasant orders from the man classified as my father.

After that, it was just about building a wall in my heart.

Selassie stood quietly in front of the head’s room and let out a small sigh.

“Have a good trip, miss.”

“…Yes.”

Kallen, who sat down in front of the head’s room as if nothing had happened,

Brought a bit of relaxation into that tension.

Even if that relaxation was very small, it was enough.

Knock knock-

Soon, there was a sound of knocking on the head’s room door.

-Come in.

A voice resembling that of a beast.

But it sounded somewhat resigned.

Selassie smiled once at Kallen and then entered the head’s room.

Kallen, sitting with her back against the closed door,

Looked out at the snowy field visible through the window.

Was the North a home for Selassie?

Or was it something else?

Thinking of such unknown words.

*

“You’ve come.”

The head’s room, a bit grotesque with a few monster heads hanging.

A huge sword hung right behind the chair, as if boasting of its massive muscles.

Selassie looked at the sword and opened her mouth.

“I won, Father.”

“Yes. I heard it too.”

“Brother…”

I can’t do it.

This was the thought that crossed Selassie’s mind when she realized Thorn’s secret business.

She pondered for days and nights, but the conclusion was always the same.

She couldn’t tell her father about this.

She didn’t know whether her father knew about Thorn’s affairs or not.

But either way, Selassie was too afraid of what might happen next to muster the courage.

However, now it’s different.

She found a place to lean on, to overcome all of it.

Even if she faced the worst-case scenario she had imagined.

She was confident she wouldn’t crumble.

The disappointment in her father would be the same, but she no longer had a reason to be afraid.

“Prince Thorn has been found buying and selling northern women as slaves, and he has confessed. He will be dealt with according to imperial law.”

Selassie asked, her ruby eyes flashing red.

“Perhaps.”

Would he just be a father who favored his child?

Or would he fall into the abyss of being a scum who knew his child’s repulsiveness and still turned a blind eye?

“Did you know?”

The Grand Duke Azkal, who was looking at the ruby burning towards him, said.

“I knew.”

“…”

He nodded calmly.

What stopped Selassie, who was about to shout in a fit of rage, was.

“Now that things have come to this, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Azkal, her father.

It was the face he had erased after banishing her mother.

“I didn’t want you to get hurt. Selassie.”

Was it too much?

Still called a prince.

A childhood guaranteed a dazzling future.

In a remote village I happened to visit, I saw a girl.

The girl’s hair and eyes were red.

The moment I first saw her, I understood what it meant to fall in love at first sight.

The ominousness that blooms in the north.

The unending battles are the curse of the north.

It was natural to be hated for resembling such a color.

It was a well-known fact, but my heart felt differently.

I couldn’t help but think her eyes were like rubies.

Since that day, I pretended to be coincidental and tried to win the girl’s heart.

The girl became my wife, and my wife lived with her hair color changed until our daughter turned six.

Whoever she asked, she also changed the color of her eyes.

I felt endlessly sorry.

The appearance I loved was not like that.

I was sorry for the paradox of having to deny her original appearance to keep her by my side.

But still, even like this.

Isn’t it fortunate to be able to be together like this?

In the north, where tradition is valued, it was unthinkable for the head of the Hyat family to be with someone with red hair and eyes.

-That hope was shattered just a few months later.

I had no choice but to banish my wife.

On the day I couldn’t bear the fact and cried out in apology.

My wife smiled gently and told me she loved me.

My daughter resembles my wife.

Selassie’s eyes resemble the ruby that was so lovely.

It was a kind of fear.

So I made a vow to myself.

To abandon parental affection to avoid banishing my daughter after my wife.

It was okay to call it selfishness.

I know Torn’s nature is twisted.

Even though he is my son, I didn’t like what he did.

However, he pretended to care for Torn more than Selassie.

Especially whenever he thought of his wife’s face.

Hearing the words about jumping into the civil war made him dizzy.

So he erased all the ways the child could win.

He swallowed his disgust for his son.

So that Selassie, growing as she is, wouldn’t incur the resentment of the many who support the North.

So that she wouldn’t be driven out using that red light as an excuse.

So that he wouldn’t be forced into a situation where he had to make such a choice.

The Duke of the North, born from twisted love, who didn’t want to send his daughter away and ignored the wounds the fragile child would receive.

Thus, he withdrew his parental affection.

Was it because of the cheeky brat named Kallen?

Unintentionally, old memories surfaced, and he allowed the path to the front lines.

Because it was the first time someone compared his daughter’s ruby to wine, not blood.

He ended up recalling his former self.

“I have no regrets. The knights of the North do not look back. This is also something I chose, and something I decided to bear.”

“…”

“Still, you overcame all that pain and stood before me.”

-Doesn’t it hurt where the villagers hit you?

-Who are you?

-Oh, I…

-Hmm~ Just kidding. Who in the North doesn’t know Azkal Hiart?

-Oh.

Yes.

At that time, brushing off the pain as if it was nothing.

Smiling confidently in front of me,

-Does it hurt? Of course, it hurts. But it’s the first time someone has worried about me like today, so it hurts a little less than usual.

Like a girl resembling a beautiful ruby.