SOTBW - 65

This was the first time Maximón was participating so actively in a meeting. Britto, flustered, pushed his glasses back up his nose and asked again.

“Are you serious, Lord Elgort? Are you really going to train women?”

“Yeah.”

“Then how do you plan to choose candidates?”

“I’ve got someone in mind.”

“What if that person refuses?”

“That’s a pointless worry.”

Maximón was certain. Amelia, due to her debts, would surely volunteer to go to the field. She had already become a hindrance to Najane because of that debt, so she would try to resolve it any way she could.

He wasn’t concerned with whether a female soldier would adapt well to the knight order.

What Maximón wanted was simple: to slowly and discreetly remove the people around Najane and leave her with only him. He smiled quietly as he stroked the rim of his empty teacup. He was thankful for the early experiences he had because of Edwin. Everything was falling into place for Maximón.

Edwin, being a successful noble with many relatives, was impossible to isolate. The only way to earn Edwin’s affection in that environment was to pretend to be the perfect, obedient child.

Moreover, Edwin, possessing so much, had people who could replace Maximón. But Najane was different. All Najane had was her ability to wield sword energy. Even that was unstable, so it was uncertain how long it would last.

If Amelia were to die on the field, what were the chances that Najane would fall into despair and drop her sword? Just keeping her in the rear wasn’t enough. There was always the risk that she might use her sword energy to help foolish people, or if a Sainth broke through the front lines and made it to the rear, there would be countless incompetent people asking for Najane’s help.

No matter what, he had to keep Najane bound to his estate. He would have liked to put shackles on her, but doing so would cause irreversible consequences. Najane, for all her reliance on Maximón, still subtly watched him with suspicion.

Someday, he would shackle her, but it wasn’t the right time yet.

Najane had always been like this. Although she came from a prominent noble family, there was something naive and innocent about her, like she had just moved to the city from a rural village.

She was like a fool who believed everything unfamiliar people told her. At one point, Maximón had even worried that she might be kidnapped by an unregistered mage and turned into a test subject, but those concerns were dismissed when she rejected the lies of scammers in the most absurd ways.

For example, when she was intrigued by a “weight loss pill” and heard the claim, “If they can make a pill that makes you lose weight, they must also be able to make hair loss medicine, but they don’t sell that, so this is a scam,” or when she saw a pair of earrings claimed to be made from dragon’s tears, she was ready to buy them but then asked, “But did the dragon cry because it was happy or because it was sad?” When the scammer hesitated, she quickly turned her back and said, “Did you make them from tears of sadness? How could you make earrings like that? Ugh, humans are the cruelest beings in the world.”

Maximón smiled faintly at the memory of Najane, but suddenly his expression darkened as his gaze dropped. Another foreign memory resurfaced. It was an unsettling feeling, and he clenched his teeth tightly.

Recalling the memory felt completely natural. He hadn’t sensed any discomfort. As he ignored the ongoing conversation among the commanders, Maximón’s expression twisted with irritation.

He wanted to understand why these symptoms were recurring, but explaining it to someone else was difficult. How could he explain that memories just came to him at random? And that he couldn’t tell whose memories they were?

Any proper doctor would worry about his mental health the moment they heard this. Maximón felt just as troubled by the situation.

Once the commanders’ discussion ended, Olkoni summarized the meeting. Maximón paid little attention. In this meeting, there were only two things he needed to focus on.

Sending Daniel away and forcing Amelia into the field so she could be eliminated. Everything else didn’t matter.

As soon as the meeting ended, Maximón stood up from his chair. Olkoni told him to wait for a moment, but Maximón left without looking back.

The foreign memories that kept resurfacing filled him with discomfort. He couldn’t understand why this was happening. He grew increasingly anxious, feeling that he was slowly losing his mind, but one thing was certain: the unexplained memories that had struck him twice were related to Najane.

Najane. Najane. Najane...

As Maximón made his way back to Romsoa, he looked up at the clear sky. In the strange memories that had intruded on his thoughts, the silver-haired woman had appeared every time. There had to be a reason why he kept thinking of her as Najane.

He walked alone down the quiet path and suddenly let out a small laugh. He tried to reassure himself that he wasn’t crazy yet, but there had been quite a few people at the Noctis Fortress who had lost their minds during battles with Serith.

Perhaps Maximón was walking the same path as they had. Fortunately, Maximón was quite accustomed to harsh, inexplicable circumstances. He had spent his whole life doubting his own identity and questioning himself.

No one could tell him the answer, so he had come this far by relentlessly questioning himself. He had been terrified that someone might discover he wasn’t human. He had been so scared that Edwin might completely abandon him.

He felt both pity and disdain for the Maximón Elgort of the past, who had struggled to be loved by Edwin while hiding his true self.

Now, Maximón had Najane.

Just imagining that Najane would stay by his side gave him peace of mind. If he could have Najane completely, he would stop at nothing.

Upon arriving at the knight order’s headquarters, Maximón instructed a servant to bring Amelia. Whether she had been near the headquarters, she quickly knocked on the door of the commander’s office. Perhaps due to some shift in her emotions, Amelia no longer seemed afraid of Maximón.

Although she couldn’t look him directly in the eyes like before, at least she no longer seemed intimidated or nervous. Instead, she wore a solemn expression, as though she had been waiting for this moment.

Maximón wanted to kill Amelia. He wanted to twist and rip her slender neck, but if he did that, Najane would truly abandon him. Amelia had to die because of Najane. It wasn’t about Maximón; it was entirely because of Najane’s mistake.

Amelia fixed her gaze on the clean desk and spoke first.

“You called for me?”

To hide the trembling of her hands, Amelia clenched them into fists. Maximón looked at her with disgust, as though she were a bug he wanted to crush underfoot, and began speaking.

“The royal family has issued an order to select a few women and train them as regular soldiers. It won’t be a large sum, but during their service, they will receive special allowances. What do you think? Will you do it?”

Amelia’s face quickly turned pale at Maximón’s words. Becoming a soldier meant going out to fight on the battlefield.

Amelia thought about her family members who had died on the field. While staying in Noctis, she had tried to avoid longing for her father, brothers, and younger brother, who had all died. The more she imagined how miserable and painful their final moments had been, the harder it was to breathe.

Amelia couldn’t escape from here. No. She couldn’t run away. She had to stay here, desperately, if she wanted to survive. Amelia wanted to live. She wanted to live longer than anyone else, happily, and without poverty.

She thought that Najane could fight on the field because she was special. The other female knights were the same. Amelia, who came from a peasant background and couldn’t even read properly, wondered if it was possible for someone like her—who couldn’t do anything right—to fight as bravely as Najane. The only thing she thought she could do was marry a rich man.

Amelia, frightened, lowered her gaze and swallowed nervously. Maximón could see the fear that had overwhelmed Amelia’s mind. This wasn’t just Amelia’s fear. Even soldiers who had survived on the field for years imagined horrific deaths before facing Serith.

Limbs torn off by countless bodies, intestines devoured, leaving only a hollow shell...

Especially, there were few people in Noctis Fortress who weren’t afraid of fighting a Sainth. That was why Maximón could never understand the fear of ordinary people like Amelia.

Weak, fearful, and foolish humans. The fact that such pitiful creatures, who could barely be of any use, expected to be loved and protected was disgusting to him.

Maximón hardened his expression and scolded Amelia.

“Pathetic. You’ve indebted yourself to many people and trapped Najane, and now you’re willing to give up the chance to pay off that debt?”

Amelia couldn’t respond to Maximón’s mocking words and only clenched her apron tightly. She knew. She knew that Maximón was slowly paying off her debt as long as Najane stayed with the Romsoa Knight Order.

She didn’t even know how much she wanted to die when she heard that. But Didina had told her she had to live.

The only way to repay Najane’s kindness was to endure every day with everything she had...

After being kicked out of the knight’s quarters and becoming a kitchen servant, she cried for days. She had lived a life where no one had ever stopped her. She had been pushed to do everything on her own. In reality, even her youth had been pawned for the sake of her family back home. It wouldn’t be surprising if the ground beneath her feet crumbled, but Najane had never left her behind.

Amelia hadn’t stayed by Najane’s side just for this. That’s why she hated herself. The only thing she could do was cook for Najane or pray for Sylin every night. She wanted to be of help to Najane at least once.

But she never thought about fighting alongside Najane. Fighting Serith. That Serith...

Amelia, with a pale face, didn’t know what to do. Maximón silently sneered at the sight of her.

Why does Najane hold such trash in such high regard? Maximón, feeling frustrated, looked at Amelia, who was standing there trembling, and for the first time, he blamed Najane. It was pitiful that he, of all people, had to feel jealousy and hatred toward someone like Amelia. Maximón was convinced that, in every way, he was vastly superior to her.

That thought made him even angrier, and he wished more than anything that Amelia would die at Serith’s hands as soon as possible.

“I’m giving you a chance, Amelia. A chance to become an equal to that guy, not just his weakness.”

Maximón spoke in a tone that dripped with disdain, hoping to provoke Amelia.

“Are you afraid of fighting Serith? You have no conscience. Najane fights those monsters on the field every day, protecting losers like you.”

Amelia recalled Najane, always returning to the quarters covered in blue blood, looking worn and exhausted. She knew how much sacrifice she and the other knights made to protect Noctis.

How she had wished, more than once, that Najane could rest peacefully for even a single day without having to fight Serith. Slowly, a massive sense of guilt weighed down on Amelia’s shoulders. Maximón watched her, his eyes following her every movement as she seemed to wander, lost in thought.

It seemed that a mere tap on the shoulder would make her break down in tears and proclaim that she would stand with Najane. He sighed deliberately.

“Before, you babbled on as if you’d do anything for Najane, but now you’re no different from the hypocrites I know.”

“No, I...!”

Amelia shouted, her voice trembling with emotion.

Maximón suppressed a laugh.

“One last question, Amelia Royan. Will you fight alongside Najane?”