SOTBW - 230

Daniel laughed as if a great weight had been lifted, watching the flustered steward squirm.

To be honest, Daniel had been quite shocked when he first learned the secret of his birth. But by now, he had grown accustomed to it enough to hide his feelings in daily life. Of course, there were still moments when self-loathing reared its head, but he had reached a point where he could laugh it off.

However, knowing the truth made it impossible to simply bury it and move on with life.

Sometimes, Daniel would climb a hill and gaze at the place where the barley fields once stood, wondering whether the knight who had unwillingly given birth to him had forgiven his father—or if she still harbored hatred. 

And if he were to hazard a guess, Daniel believed the knight hadn’t forgiven the duke.

There are lives in this world that endure hatred despite committing no wrong. It’s unfair, but there’s nothing to be done about it. Just as some people realize too late that their lives went awry from the very first step, despite trying not to make mistakes, Daniel understood that as long as the knight continued to hate the duke, no amount of effort could straighten out the twisted path of his existence.

Daniel had merely been born, but he believed that living with this awareness was the only way he could offer even the smallest comfort to the woman who had borne him. This conclusion wasn’t born out of any maternal affection for a mother he had never met. Daniel didn’t think of the knight as his mother.

No, it wasn’t… it wasn’t… it wasn’t…

Daniel’s thoughts grew tangled as he imagined the retreating figure of the knight who had flown away like a bluebird. His conflicted emotions settled into a faint, wistful smile as he watched the sorrowful steward.

The Duke of Luamars and others, upon learning the secret of Daniel’s birth, had tried desperately to hold onto him after his sudden change of heart—but all attempts ended in failure. They assumed Daniel had fled to Noctis Fortress because he couldn’t handle the shock of the revelation.

But they were wrong. Entirely wrong.

Daniel had simply played the part of the dutiful heir to the dukedom for as long as he could. There were times when he wanted nothing more than to ride out beyond the borders of the duchy and gaze at the open horizon, but as the son of one of the three ducal families in Bastronia, he suppressed those impulses and lived cautiously.

Even Daniel thought himself peculiar for feeling this way. The duke, the duchess, the other relatives, and even his sister—all of them felt safe and content within the predictable routines of their lives. But Daniel always felt stifled by the monotony and yearned to escape.

So when he learned that the duchess wasn’t his mother, and that a wandering knight had given birth to him, Daniel realized that his desire to suddenly flee the suffocating traditions of the Luamars family stemmed from the very nature of that knight. And with that realization, he could do nothing but quietly shed tears.

“I’m not returning to the Luamars family.”

Daniel laced his fingers behind his head and chuckled lightly.

“Tell Father to stop being so stubborn and pass the title to my sister. Besides, if I die here in Noctis, she’ll naturally become the duchess anyway.”

With that breezy declaration, Daniel rose from his chair.

He intended to personally see the steward out—there was nothing left to discuss.

“At least you approached me more politely than I expected. I thought you’d bring some brutes to drag me back by force.”

At that moment, the steward awkwardly avoided Daniel’s gaze, trying to conceal his guilt. Unfortunately for him, Daniel was a man with razor-sharp instincts.

Standing by the door, Daniel narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Now that he thought about it, the hallway was eerily quiet. Gripping the doorknob tightly, he asked:

“…Don’t tell me you actually brought them?”

After a brief hesitation, the steward bowed deeply.

“I’m truly sorry, Master Daniel. Lord Luamars gave strict orders to bring you back no matter what…”

Before the steward could finish, Daniel locked the door. The sound of the latch clicking into place was immediately followed by the men waiting in the hallway violently shaking the door. They were ready to break it down.

Daniel quickly dashed toward the window. The steward tried to stop him, but he was no match for Daniel’s strength.

Just then, the door finally gave way with a loud crack.

Daniel grabbed the report he had spent days agonizing over and hurled it at the intruders.

“Master Daniel!”

The steward cried out urgently as Daniel stood by the window. But without a backward glance, Daniel leapt out of the second-story window.

The steward, now pale-faced, rushed to the window in a panic. Daniel, having jumped from the second floor, landed and began running down the street. With a bright, carefree wave at the ashen-faced steward, he called out as if to say, “This is nothing compared to fighting the Serith!”

________________________________________

“Goodbye, old butler! Send my regards to my lovely sister! Ah, and don’t forget to pay for the broken door on your way out!”

The butler blankly watched Daniel sprinting down the sunlit street. Was it just a coincidence that his retreating figure reminded him of the woman who had once left Duke Luamars’ side without a hint of regret?

The elderly butler, who had served the Luamars family with loyalty for many years, recalled the duke’s orders. Still, he thought it best not to stop the young master as he walked away so freely. However, a butler’s duty was absolute.

Retracting his head from the window, the butler barked at the stunned men standing idly.

“What are you all doing? Do you think I hired you for nothing? Go and catch the young master at once!”

The men finally began to move, their heavy bodies springing into action. The butler let out a deep sigh before picking up the scattered papers rolling across the floor.

The papers were filled with detailed reports on battles and soldiers’ conditions—topics the butler was not well-versed in. He had known that Daniel was doing well in the Romsoa Knights, but seeing it firsthand stirred a strange feeling in his chest.

Though the butler’s knees had long since worn out, forcing him to step away from his duties at the Luamars estate, he carefully picked up each piece of paper fluttering in the winter wind and arranged them in order.

After placing the footprint-marked reports on the desk and closing the window, he slowly began tidying up the small room. With only a bed, a desk, and a tiny wardrobe, there was little to clean.

Once he finished his modest cleaning, the butler glanced out at the now-noisy street. Daniel, the noble heir of the prestigious ducal family, was leaping over walls like a flying squirrel, skillfully evading his pursuers.

The butler observed the scene from the sunlit window.

Daniel darted across the walls as if he carried no burdens in the world—until he got caught on a clothesline and tumbled, ending up with a pair of women’s undergarments over his head. The women watching from their windows shrieked, calling him a pervert.

Daniel hurriedly apologized, but by then, the number of people chasing him had doubled. The butler sighed, covering his face with one hand, then fixed his gaze on Daniel’s figure as it shrank into the distance.

Duke Luamars had always been uneasy about Daniel’s presence at Noctis Fortress, yet he had never forced his son to return home, nor had he used his power to pressure the Romsoa Knights.

When the duke first learned that Noctis was Daniel’s destination, his feelings must have been complicated. It wasn’t simply that he found it unsettling—his belief that duty as a noble came before his son’s safety was likely what troubled him.

A man like Duke Luamars could have easily ensured Daniel’s reassignment to a safe position in the rear or even kept him from fighting altogether. Given that Daniel was the family’s only direct male heir, even the king would have understood such measures.

Yet, the duke did nothing for his beloved son.

Because he believed it was Daniel’s fate.

That knight—though she was the daughter of a fallen viscount—had also believed in fulfilling her noble duty, settling in Noctis Fortress.

She defended the field alongside Taylor. And, like so many others who met their end there, she left not even a single bone behind.

When Duke Luamars finally learned of the knight’s death…

Lost in memories, the butler took a deep breath and turned his gaze back to the now-calm street.

He prayed that Daniel would not meet the same fate as that knight.

Even though they had grown distant, the thought of the young master—whom he had raised like a grandson—perishing at the hands of Seriths sent a shiver down his spine. However, he could not drag Daniel back to the ducal estate, nor could he force him to leave Noctis. If that was the young master’s decision as an adult, then respecting it was the only choice.

Of course, he wished he could change Daniel’s mind. But if all of this was fate, and he was nothing more than a powerless bystander, then perhaps he could at least understand Daniel’s choice.

Staring blankly out the window, the butler picked up a scrap of paper he could afford to discard and wrote something on it.

Nadia Nadyr.

It was a name.

After carefully wiping the dried ink clinging to his pen, the butler took one last look around Daniel’s room before leaving.

________________________________________

Meanwhile, Daniel had managed to shake off his pursuers and had ended up at Rachel’s house.

Rachel looked at him in disbelief, watching as the commander of the Subjugation Corps was chased down the street while being called a pervert.

Not wanting to acknowledge him, she hurried to shut her window—but Daniel spotted her first.

Stopping in his tracks, he cheerfully waved at the window and called out with innocent enthusiasm:

“Hello, Lady Rachel!”

Rachel, hearing her name ring out across the street, frowned and looked down—only to see Daniel scaling the building, gripping the windows of each floor as he climbed.

Shocked by the absurd sight, she abandoned the idea of closing the window and instead threw it wide open. If he fell from that height, he wouldn’t just break a bone.

Daniel quickly reached Rachel’s room, flashing an apologetic smile as his eyebrows softened.

“I know I shouldn’t barge into a lady’s room like this, but I have a bit of a situation right now.”

________________________________________

Daniel squatted on the window frame, shrugging as if asking for permission to come in. Rachel let out a sigh as if telling him to do as he pleased. As soon as Daniel stepped into the room, voices from the street shouted that they had lost the underwear thief.

At the mention of an underwear thief, Rachel widened her eyes, glaring at him as if interrogating whether he had really stolen something.

Daniel, looking utterly wronged, waved his hands in denial.

“It’s a misunderstanding, a complete misunderstanding. Why would I steal underwear?”

He turned his pockets inside out, pleading his innocence. Rachel shot him a suspicious look before leaning back against her pillow.

“You don’t seem very surprised to see me.”

Just as Daniel was about to leave Rachel’s bedroom, he turned around at her words. Wrapped in bandages from head to toe, Rachel was clearly in critical condition.

Daniel had expected her to be in this state. If it were anyone else, they might not have even recognized her or realized that the person wrapped in bandages was a woman, let alone Rachel. But Daniel had no trouble recognizing her instantly.

Standing in the doorway, Daniel quietly observed her before suddenly approaching the bed. Rachel looked up at him, her expression asking why he hadn’t left yet.

Daniel took her hand, which was damp with blackened blood, and kissed the back of it. A faintly rotten smell lingered from the bandages that hadn’t been changed in time, but Daniel didn’t even blink. Instead of asking what he meant by this, Rachel simply stared at him.

Lifting his head, Daniel smiled brightly.

“That day, I was too caught up in the moment and forgot to thank you.”

Rachel let out a short laugh at his words. Kissing a decaying hand as a gesture of gratitude for helping with the subjugation—what a ridiculous man.

Rachel liked that Daniel didn’t scream or recoil in horror upon seeing her. Slowly lowering her hand back onto the bed, Daniel stepped back and bowed respectfully.

“It was an honor to fight alongside you, Rachel Rochelle.”

Even though Rachel’s expression was hidden beneath the bandages, Daniel could tell she was smiling.

“As a token of gratitude, I’ll escort you to Noctis Fortress. We’ll depart as soon as you’ve recovered.”

Instead of replying, Rachel gave a single nod.

Daniel, moving stealthily like a stray cat, was just about to slip out of Rachel’s bedroom when he suddenly seemed to remember something. Poking his head through the partially closed door, he added,

“But seriously, I’m not the underwear thief. Please don’t misunderstand. I’m begging you.”

With that, Daniel finally waved goodbye and shut the door.

However, it seemed his bad luck hadn’t run out yet—he had run into the maids of House Rochelle while walking down the hallway. From Rachel’s room, she could hear their sharp voices interrogating him.

“How did you even get in here, sir?”

Imagining the ever-strict Rochelle maids surrounding Daniel and scolding him, even Rachel couldn’t hold back her laughter.

A short while later, Popin entered the room, carrying a bowl of porridge, looking utterly perplexed.

“My lady, you won’t believe this! The maids just ran into Lord Luamars in the hallway. How in the world did he get in here? There’s no way someone of his stature would sneak in through the window like some petty thief… Oh, by the way, did you hear the commotion earlier? Apparently, there’s an underwear thief in the area! People saw someone trying to steal women’s undergarments in broad daylight—wait, my lady, what’s so funny? Are you even listening to me?”