Chapter 45: CHP 45

The jousting tournament has always been one of the most popular one among all the competitions in the Empire, and is always held in mid-August, on the birthday of the First Emperor.

It is also when the population in the Horun District increases, because many people travel to the capital to watch the matches of the most famous warriors in the Empire.

This summer, the Academy's east gate square was unusually crowded, because of Armand, but a refreshing breeze would sweep through occasionally and cool off the heat.

"Wow!"

"Amazing 😍"

As a result of the breeze, the splendid blonde hair of a man with an unrealistic appearance got scattered over his forehead, and every time his white shirt fluttered, his smooth body lines and thick muscles were exposed to the world, he looked like a Greek statue of a god that was carefully sculpted by a famous craftsman.

"Oh my Goodness! For a moment I really thought he was a sculpture that was moving…"

"I can't believe that someone is so perfect from head to toe. He looks even better than the rumors."

"How can he shine so bright 😎 when it's not even night time?"

"Isn't it because his existence itself is the embodiment of perfection."

Everyone gazed at least once at the angelic looking man sitting in front of the fountain in the square.

The golden ratio of his features seemed to have been carefully measured and crafted by God with a ruler, because his appearance made even the young gentlemen's, who couldn't believe that a man could be the flower of the year, surrender.

Then suddenly, Isidor, who was sitting in front of the fountain with his legs crossed like he was waiting for someone, raised a cup and took it to his mouth.

"Is he drinking here?"

After that, a more strange and surprising scene occurred. He took another cup and walked slowly somewhere.

"He's leaving!"

At the place he arrived, stood someone nobody imagined would be there.

...

I watched how natural Isidor was promoting the takeout.

'Just as I thought, there was no one more suitable for promoting Armand than him. He is no different from a big billboard in this world.

He presented the new type of service in a very cool and attractive way that even I, and I know that this is all an act, am tempted to try it for some reason.'

"Here, the peach smoothie that you wanted to drink, Princess Deborah."

Isidor smiled playfully and held out the cup of smoothie for me to take.

"Thank you."

When I accepted the cup he held out, the surrounding people's eyes grew more curious.

"I will drink it well."

We started to walk towards the Epsilon Frat House, occasionally sipping the smoothie without paying attention to anything.

Well, I pretend to be calm and collected on the outside, but in reality, my heart was beating violently at 150 beets per minute.

'I can't believe that I made a third-generation chaebol play the role of the delivery boy! (⁠~⁠‾⁠▿⁠‾⁠)⁠~

Maybe the reputation around you can form you as a person, because I feel like I am getting more and more impudent as days go by, somehow.

I can't imagine how embarrassed Isidor must have been when I asked him to drink a smoothie while walking along me to the Frat House.'

"It's romantic and nice to drink tea while taking a walk outside."

Not only did he buy me a smoothie and wait for me, but he also struck up a conversation first.

'Seeing him in a good mood makes me feel complicated, does he really ll-lik…

NO! That is a narcissist assumption that keeps coming to my mind. No matter how hard I think about it, there isn't any reason for him to like me.

Of course, there is my pretty face. But if the reason was simply because of looks, Isidor would have been Deborah supporter in the novel, but that never happened.'

While I was deep in thoughts, Isidor called me.

"Princess?"

"Ahh! Yes?"

"What are you thinking about so deeply? Are you worried about something?"

"No, I was just thinking about what to have for dinner."

The beautiful angel-like man in front of me made my mind go blank and I unconsciously blurted out the lamest excuse I could come up with.

I could see embarrassment flashing through his beautiful emerald eyes.

"To be honest, I feel a bit sad that I am no match for a meal. But I understand, food is important after all.

So what kind of food do you like Princess?"

Isidor quickly forgot his embarrassment and changed the topic.

"I eat anything."

"Me too. I'm not picky."

Isidor continued speaking naturally and asked all kinds of questions.

Do you like opera or plays? What kind of animals do you prefer? What are your hobbies?...

'So Isidor likes cats.'ฅ⁠^⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠^⁠ฅ

I had an inquisitive conversation with Isidor while enjoying the peach smoothie that spread sweetly throw my mouth.

Then, he approached a bench that was under a blooming tree.

"Would you like to take a break, Princess?"

I always wear high heels because I like how far away I can see in them but maybe he thought that I was uncomfortable walking around in high heels.

Isidor spread a handkerchief on the bench and I sat down on it, feeling a little embarrassed by his kind gesture.

'Do all the men of this Empire have such good manners?'

Because I felt embarrassed, I bit the tip of the cup and pretended to look at something in the distance, but because of the lush greenery and fresh scent that was coming from all directions, I started to relax.

While he was looking up at the little birds chirping in the tree, Isidor suddenly spoke.

"Princess, are you going to watch the upcoming jousting competition?"

"Yes."

'Deborah liked jousting, so she attended every year, it would be weird for me not to go.'

"Good. I will participate as well, as a player."

Because of the relaxed atmosphere and the quiet scenery and cute birds, I let my guard down for a bit, but Isidor's words made me wake up from my reverie and I felt out of place again.

'Isidor didn't appear in the jousting competition in the novel. Or maybe it was omitted because Diera Orgo played an important part in it?

At this point in time, the original flow of the novel was roughly like this.

Deborah's harassment reached its peak. Philap comforted Mia with all kinds of gifts, but he did not give her proper protection, on the contrary, he was trying to make Mia rely on him mentally and emotionally by using Deborah.

It was the time when readers complained that Philap was a piece of trash.

Mia thanked him sincerely, but behaved coldly towards Philap and refused to give him her heart. That is the moment when an unsuspected character squeezed in between them, Diera Orgo.

Philap and Diera.

The fight between the two handsome men was fun so the other characters appearance may have been cut short, but

it is still a bit strange that Isidor was not mentioned at all, no matter how much entertaining the fight was.

Isidor is an excellent swordsman who is as good as Diera's older brother, as per the Master's investigation, then shouldn't he at least appear as one of Diera's opponents in the competition?'

I looked at him, while swallowing the many complicated questions that came to my mind.

"What's wrong? Do you think that I will lose?"

I shook my head in denial.

"No. I think that you will be fine. I believe that you will have good results in your match, Sir. Isidor."

'Even if I know that the winner of the jousting competition is Diera, I can't tell him that. And since he did play the role of the delivery boy for me, I have to do this level of lip service.'

"Then cheer me on at the competition."

Isidor's smile was so large that his eye bags were slightly folded.

"It would be even better if you gave me a handkerchief as a sign of cheering me on, Princess."

Seeing his golden eyelashes fluttering like butterflies, my heart felt pressured to give him everything I had, not just a handkerchief.

My pushover instinct was screaming to give in to him, so I quickly bit the flesh inside my mouth.

'Get a hold of yourself!!ᕙ⁠(⁠☉⁠ਊ⁠☉⁠)⁠ᕗ

He is telling me to give him a handkerchief in return for buying me a smoothie. That is the only reason ! Right?(⁠；⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠）

From what I remember in the jousting competition, the young ladies gifted a handkerchief to the warriors they were cheering for.

How many handkerchiefs one received was also a measure of the skill and popularity of the knight.

As I expected, nothing is free in the world.'

In the end, I took out my favorite high-quality handkerchief embroidered with roses and handed it to him as a gift.

"Thank you. I think that I will be able to win thanks to you, Princess."

Isidor took my handkerchief and smiled brightly.

I felt like my heart was going burst out of my chest  when I saw his gentle smile, but I tried to ignore that feeling and squeezed my hands tightly.

...

"Young master, are you going to participate in the jousting competition?"

"Yes."

"But why? Weren't you disgusted by the dust and the smell of sweat?"

His master started training for the jousting competition out of nowhere, so Miguel felt very puzzled.

Isidor only rubbed his sharp, sweaty chin. At first he had no intention of participating in the competition, but he submitted an application on an impulse.

"If I win the competition, the Imperial family will give me a decent reward."

Isidor told Miguel a half-hearted lie while stroking Cookie paw's, who turned into a tiny cat.

But, Isidor soon let go of Cookie paw because he was struggling angrily. As soon as he saw himself free, Cookie ran towards Princess Deborah's handkerchief that was sitting on the desk and started sniffing it.

Looking at Cookie, who opened his mouth to reveal his sharp teeth, Isidor quickly stretched out his arms screaming. 😱

"Cookie, no!"

"Arrr! Arrr!"

"If you bite it, I won't give you snacks anymore."

In the meantime, Miguel sat at the back of the room, staring dumbfounded, at how his master was fighting with his pet over a handkerchief.

Isidor, sighed briefly and leaned back in his chair, he managed to protect the handkerchief by coaxing Cookie with dried fish.

He looked at the handkerchief embroidered with gorgeous red roses, which resembled the Princess, and then folded it back neatly.

'The jousting competition, a game that is just disorderly, noisy and simply annoying.'

His intention to just stand back and watch as usual, quickly changed.

In general the warrior's that participated in the jousting competition were only there for the attention, many young noble ladies came to watch the competition and if they played well, they would rise to stardom.

Simply put, the competition was a stage used by many to become famous quickly.

Moreover, he had read in a past report that Deborah liked jousting, so that meant that she would also hand a handkerchief to a knight that she liked, and he didn't like that thought at all, for some reason.

'It hurts my pride that an irrelevant guy can receive something so easily and I didn't, even though I tried so hard.'

Isidor stroked Cookie who was still playing with his snack, while trying to shake off his childish thoughts.

...

"Lady Mia, could you possibly give me a handkerchief?"

Diera Orgo asked with a shy tone.

The treatment center where Mia was volunteering was located near the Black Knight's  barracks, so he went personally to visit her during a break.

"A handkerchief? For what?"

"Well, you see, I'm going to participate in the jousting competition that is held on the birthday of the First Emperor so..."

When Mia looked at him with her large, clear eyes, Diego rubbed the nape of his neck embarrassed and quickly blurted his reason.

Diera Orgo was only interested in swords all his life and was not at all used to talk with women. He was even more embarrassed because he was in front of the lady who left a good impression on him from the beginning.

"I only have this handkerchief on me right now."

"Oooo..."

Mia, was clutching a handkerchief that was soaked with a patient's blood.

"Can I give you one on the day of the competition? I will prepare a clean handkerchief."

"Yes, of course"

As soon as he received her promise, Diera Orgo went back with a happy face, and Mia reported what happened that day to Madame Ophelia.

The truth was that she had a new, clean handkerchief in her skirt, but she didn't give it to him on purpose.

"Diera Orgo is known to be one of the strongest warrior in the jousting competition, so handing him a handkerchief directly at the arena will be better for you."

Madame Ophelia praised her after a long time.

"It's proceeding smoothly as planned."

Mia felt more stimulated lately so she was working hard to achieve her plan.

But the good feeling she felt from the praise was short-lived, because Madame Ophelia's became furious again, because of the news she received later that evening.

"Deborah Seymour won the Academy's best student award?"

The top student of the academy was officially announced at the end of the vacation and the start of the new semester, but anyone could find out beforehand who it was if they wanted to.

But, of course, Madame Ophelia expected Mia to be the one nominated.

"Why? How could this happen? I put so much effort into making your divine power known to everyone!

You even showed your healing powers when the bishop came here for the missionary work, and the shrine recognized you!"

Madame Ophelia thought that they were far ahead of Deborah Seymour in terms of reputation and ability, so she couldn't believe it.

"Deborah Seymour doesn't have any talents and she doesn't even know how to handle mana, more precisely she can't. How was she nominated the best student of the year? Did she get it because she's a Seymour?"

Frowning, Madame Ophelia clenched her teeth as she wiped the fishy-smelling blood from her finger with a handkerchief.

Meanwhile, Duke Seymour was also surprised to hear that Deborah was the top student.

...

"Is it true?"

"Yes, my Lord. Yesterday evening, a letter from the president of the Academy arrived for the Princess, and I also heard from a professor."

"I see."

"Congratulations my lord,all the three oldest ones received the best student award. Seymour's prestige is rising day by day."

Duke Seymour, who was listening to his aide's report, suddenly tilted his head.

"Then why didn't she say anything to me? This is something to be proud of."

The aide hesitated for a moment but still opened his mouth.

"My lord, recently the Princess has been showing outstanding results in her academic studies."

"That correct."

"And I heard that she doesn't show off to others even in a situation where she could, and she shares her knowledge with the mages in a humble still yet prideful manner."

"Hmm… So you want to say that she's showing me that she can be modest now, is that it?"

"Yes, exactly, my lord."

"But it also means that Deborah gained enough confidence in herself to the extent that she doesn't need to show vanity and isn't ostentatious in front of others anymore."

Duke Seymour, who exaggerated Deborah's meaningless behavior, rubbed his chin with a serious face.

"She has been more relaxed lately an she certainly is smart and knows how to make people follow her."

But Duke Seymour believed that his daughter's greatest weakness was her popularity. Because even though Deborah was a Seymour Princess she had almost no subordinates who believed in her or followed her.

However, in the recent months she managed to shaken his opinion of her character.

She also provided an opportunity for her vassal, who she personally scouted at the Academy, to show her skills, and even displayed that she has the ability to give her vassal an important position with her outstanding ideas.

'She has grown up. In the past, she would have been begging for precious jewelry and expensive dresses. But now she is looking further ahead and is planning for more future achievements instead of focusing on the rewards in front of her.

Deborah is growing, differently, day by day.'

Duke Seymour smiled faintly, thinking that he would regret it if Deborah ever heard it.

...................