DZN Ch 2

Erhi Adrian Wolfgang von Langrock.

Ruan grinned menacingly and approached the man – the troublesome Crown Prince’s cousin, his fellow trainee knight, and simultaneously, the root cause of all this tragedy. Erhi raised both hands in surrender.

“I surrender! Unconditional surrender!”

Ruan laughed at Erhi’s plea for mercy.

“You think everything will be resolved just by suddenly shouting surrender after thoroughly beating someone up?”

Seeing Ruan’s displeasure, Erhi switched tactics from surrender to apology.

“I don’t know what happened, but I’m unconditionally sorry. I was wrong. So, where is His Highness the Crown Prince?”

“He’s getting ready.”

“Oh, as expected of the Crown Prince Tamer.”

Erhi clapped, praising Ruan’s abilities while simultaneously getting on his nerves. Ruan glared at him as if he wanted to grind him to dust.

“Do you want to die?”

“Thanks, but I’ll decline. I’m about to get married.”

Ruan shook his head at Erhi’s plea for mercy and rubbed his neck, as if he didn’t want to speak any further. Noticing the dark circles under Ruan’s eyes and his irritable demeanor, Erhi cautiously asked,

“…Are you tired?”

“Is that even a question? I’m already busy enough as it is…”

Ruan didn’t explicitly say, ‘Do I have to go looking for that bastard at a busy time like this?’ but the message reached Erhi loud and clear.

However, Erhi thought it couldn’t be helped. Feeling slightly guilty, he patted Ruan on the shoulder.

“Hang in there.”

At Erhi’s insincere consolation, Ruan glared at him murderously, as if contemplating killing him. Erhi, still smiling, soothed him.

“Calm down. To deal with His Highness’s capriciousness, you also have to be audacious. You’re the only one who can be so disrespectful to him and still keep your head. It can’t be helped.”

“I’d rather be beheaded.”

Ruan sighed and crossed his arms, leaning against the window, as if saying that being beheaded would actually be preferable. Erhi approached and leaned against the window beside him. He carefully examined Ruan’s face, then asked with a touch of concern,

“You really don’t look well. Are you overworked?”

Ruan looked at Erhi incredulously. Is this guy serious? he thought.

The Crown Prince upstairs was a pain, but this guy was no better.

Erhi, the Crown Prince’s cousin – the Emperor’s younger brother’s son – had become an administrative officer in the Imperial Guard after completing his knight training, and had been steadily promoted ever since. He knew nothing about fieldwork.

So, of course, he wouldn’t understand Ruan’s struggles, having started from the bottom and still serving in active duty.

“Those damn bureaucrats. Piling up the work and asking if I’m tired? With personnel transfers and new recruit training overlapping, I haven’t slept properly in three days. I don’t even remember the last time I was in my own room.”

“No, before that, I’m supposed to be a knight, but I don’t even remember the last time I held a sword,” Ruan said, bursting with frustration. Erhi looked surprised.

“You’re even doing new recruit training?”

“Then who else would do it?”

“Assign some experienced knights. Shouldn’t a 3-year veteran be capable of training recruits?”

“I need someone to assign.”

Ruan vented his frustration at Erhi, explaining that he had to transfer any promising knights because of that damn bastard holed up in the bedroom. Erhi scratched his head, looking troubled.

“Ah… frequent transfers within the Knight Order can be quite difficult.”

“Then get us some reinforcements!”

“I can’t just conjure knights out of thin air.”

“Then transfer me.”

“That’s beyond my authority. His Majesty the Emperor assigned you to His Highness the Crown Prince. And for once, father and son are in agreement on that matter. His Highness said he’d keep you by his side till death, no, even beyond the grave. So just give up.”

Ruan shuddered at the horrifying words.

“Damn it…”

He almost blurted out, “Damn junior,” reverting to an old habit, but Ruan managed to restrain himself with superhuman patience.

I must endure.

For now.

Seeing Ruan taking deep breaths to calm himself, Erhi, misinterpreting the action, patted Ruan’s shoulder again.

“It’s not easy being the favorite of someone in a high position. Just accept it as your karma.”

At Erhi’s absurd nonsense, Ruan elbowed him in the side. Erhi clutched his side and groaned.

“Ouch! That hurt! I think you broke my rib! How dare you do this to a member of the royal family!”

“You should be grateful it’s just your rib.”

Ruan stomped on Erhi’s foot, thinking that considering what he’d been put through with that lunatic Crown Prince, even breaking Erhi’s spine wouldn’t be enough. Erhi smiled, looking troubled.

“There was no other choice at the time. You were the only one who seemed capable of handling His Highness without being intimidated by him.”

“So you dumped a bomb on me?”

“Thanks to that, you got into the Imperial Guard, which you wanted.”

If it weren’t for that, Ruan, a commoner, would have had no chance of joining the Imperial Guard. Ruan knew that, which was why he had accepted the deal.

It was like being blinded by a dangling piece of candy and throwing his life into the trash.

“Why did I agree back then…? Damn junior…”

Unable to contain his anger, Ruan finally blurted out what he truly felt.

Yes, the beginning of all this tragedy was five years ago.

Six years ago, due to various complicated circumstances, he had joined the Royal Trainee Knights. That part was fine.

Anyone, regardless of social status, could join the Royal Trainee Knights. However, only those of noble birth could survive the training, and even if a commoner did manage to survive, joining the Imperial Guard was nearly impossible.

It would have been simpler to only accept nobles from the start, but the nobles needed sparring partners of questionable swordsmanship to stab at and occasionally beat up during hand-to-hand combat training, so they admitted commoners as well.

In return, if a commoner survived to the end, they could join the Royal Guard, even if they couldn’t join the Imperial Guard. This guaranteed a certain level of income, so it wasn’t a bad deal for a commoner. However, Ruan had a reason why he specifically needed to join the Imperial Guard. While he was contemplating what to do, he received an unexpected offer.

They said they trusted his abilities and would recommend him for the Imperial Guard if he became the Crown Prince’s instructor.

He should have realized then that they didn’t have the confidence to handle the unruly Crown Prince themselves, and they were also hesitant to disobey the Emperor’s order to discipline him. So, they assigned him, the most expendable commoner, with the intention of discarding him if any problems arose. No, before that, he should have realized that Calix had an incredibly strange personality.

He shouldn’t have fallen for Erhi’s coaxing, saying it would be fun because the prince was a troublemaker but not an easy pushover.

“But, that applies to Calix as well. He also called you ‘that damn instructor bastard’ back then.”

“Tell him to put his hand on his heart and reflect on his actions.”

“Still, making him run a hundred laps around the training ground and making him plunge into ice water in the middle of winter was a bit much, even if you knew he was royalty.”

“I should have held his head under until he never came back up.”

“That’s torture.”

At Erhi’s nonchalant remark that he shouldn’t have done that to anyone, let alone the Crown Prince, Ruan stared at him as if he’d gone mad. Isn’t that why you assigned me to him in the first place? Ruan’s expression clearly conveyed. Erhi nodded, conceding the point.

“Well, His Majesty did request that we discipline him harshly to straighten him out. Thanks to you, His Highness surrendered quickly. He even swore he wouldn’t skip classes again in exchange for you being appointed as his escort knight. So it’s a happy ending for everyone. And they all lived happily ever after.”

“Except for me.”

“What are you talking about? You got into the Imperial Guard, which you wanted.”

“I wanted the 17th Knight Order.”

“Who said I wanted to be that bastard’s babysitter?” Ruan retorted. Erhi spouted more nonsense.

“Well, it’s love.”

Erhi nodded to himself, saying, “Yeah, it’s love.” Ruan stepped on Erhi’s foot again.

Then he quietly uttered one word.

“Shut up.”

Ruan snapped, telling Erhi not to add fuel to the fire. Because of Calix’s ambiguous words and actions, strange rumors about them were already circulating, which was uncomfortable. Erhi shrugged.

“It is love. The social circles are abuzz with rumors of His Highness’s passionate, unrequited love. Everyone’s rooting for you, sincerely.”

That guy, who had spent his trainee knight days with Calix and himself, was spouting such nonsense.

Ruan could understand if it was someone completely unaware of their relationship, but at this point, he was convinced it was a matter of intelligence.

“You need to get your head examined.”

“No, it’s logical reasoning. You’re the only one who hasn’t been beheaded for being so disrespectful to him. Frankly, it’s a miracle your head is still attached to your body. His Highness is going easy on you.”

“He’s not going easy on me, he’s biding his time.”

“Waiting for the right moment to kill me in one fell swoop,” Ruan replied. Erhi averted his gaze, unable to deny that.

“…I can’t say that’s not true.”