Chapter 01

Have you ever experienced something that completely turned your world upside down?

If you had asked Olivia this question a few years ago, she would have naturally answered, “Nothing like that has ever happened to me.”

But things were different now.

“Olive, don’t joke around. You know I hate things like this.”

Olivia, who had once been an ordinary noble young lady, had gone through three years of incredibly turbulent changes after her fiancé left her. Now, she was in the process of becoming a knight who was almost suspiciously accomplished.

And so, Olivia actually felt quite grateful to the man standing before her.

He was the person who had turned upside down the world of Olivia, who had always simply followed the path laid out before her.

…Even if he had interrupted about four of her dates by now.

“I’m not joking. I’m serious.”

More serious than anything.

Olivia was genuinely enjoying this date with all her heart.

She had been having a perfectly pleasant time until this man showed up and ruined it—

Olivia fixed her sharp gaze on the man who had completely destroyed the pleasant atmosphere and still seemed incapable of realizing that he was at fault.

“My date today is Sir Eugene. Not you, Senior. Why do you keep trying to ruin my dates?”

“…What?”

The man staring blankly at Olivia with wide, incredulous eyes was Aiden Oblivion.

He was the vice-captain of the knights’ order Olivia belonged to, Olivia’s older brother Chezare’s best friend, and—

once upon a time, he had also been Olivia’s fiancé.

But…

Well, that was all in the past.

“Vice-Captain, don’t you think you’re interfering a little too much?”

“Captain, have you really lost your mind? How could you bring such a young girl with you—”

“Senior. No, I mean, Vice-Captain.”

Olivia suppressed the sigh rising in her chest and called out to Aiden.

“Are you jealous?”

“What?”

“The way you’re acting right now really makes it seem like you’re jealous.”

“What nonsense are you talking about!”

Unlike Aiden’s face, which had gone deathly pale, Olivia’s expression brightened.

Her green eyes were half-hidden beneath her gently curved eyelids, and a small dimple appeared in one cheek.

Aiden, who saw it from up close, felt his ears grow red as though they had been stained with flower dye.

“I’m just worried about you, Olive. You’re still young, and I’m your brother’s friend. I have a duty to protect you—”

“You don’t. You’re not my fiancé anymore, Senior, and I came of age a few months ago. I’m old enough to choose my own dates.”

So please, just go away.

Olivia glared at Aiden with all the force behind that thought.

“If you’re not jealous, then trust my judgment and go back. But if you are jealous—”

“…If I am jealous?”

“Bury those feelings deep. It’s already too late.”

Olivia had once loved Aiden.

In fact, she still loved him.

But she had no intention of accepting the feelings of an idiot who couldn’t even properly recognize his own heart and was throwing a childish tantrum.

How long had she waited for the day when she could finally throw those words back at him?

Olivia cheerfully slipped her arm through the arm of Eugene, the captain of the Lux Knights standing beside her, and smiled brightly.

“I thought you said your friend’s younger sister wasn’t a woman?”

Veritas Academy was a prestigious academy built alongside the founding of the Laurentia Empire.

It had produced countless outstanding knights, and normally, the academy’s training grounds should have been filled with the vigorous shouts of students engaged in sparring even today…

“Again today?”

“She really is a lunatic. It’s already been three hours.”

“If you think about it, she’s probably the craziest one among us.”

“You’re only realizing that now?”

Instead of battle cries, the training grounds were filled with the students’ conversations.

There was someone stealing the attention of the students who should have been completely focused on their sparring.

Clang! Clang!

Brown hair tied high on her head whipped wildly in every direction.

A woman wielding several daggers in her hands charged toward a greatsword nearly as large as a person’s body.

It looked like an obviously one-sided clash, yet no one dared predict the outcome.

Never underestimate Olivia Kisie.

That was the lesson they had learned firsthand after spending three years with Olivia.

The woman’s delicate figure looked as though she might sway away in the slightest breeze.

Her name was Olivia Kisie.

Three years ago, she had transferred to the Department of Knight Studies.

Since then, she had trampled every student who had trained longer than she had and risen all the way to the top of her class.

Considering that the Olivia of the past had been an ordinary noble young lady who possessed not even a shred of martial ability, this achievement was all the more absurd.

Whoosh!

With the sound of weapons slicing through the air, the weapons in both fighters’ hands lunged toward each other.

BOOM!

A tremendous explosion rang out.

At the same time, the match that seemed as though it could continue indefinitely finally came to an end.

Olivia elegantly evaded the greatsword descending heavily toward her with a movement as nimble as a cat.

The man visibly panicked when his attack missed its target.

Olivia didn’t miss the opportunity.

She stepped onto the flat of the greatsword embedded in the ground and launched herself into the air.

Everyone who witnessed the sight had the same thought.

It really seems like gravity works differently wherever Olivia is.

Olivia effortlessly leaped over the man and landed behind him before kicking the back of his knee, knocking him down.

Having gained the advantage, Olivia’s dagger gleamed menacingly in the sunlight.

Clap, clap, clap.

“That’s enough. The winner is Miss Olivia Kisie. Well done to both of you.”

“Thank you, Professor. Bennett, that was a good match.”

“…Don’t mention it. I learned a lot too.”

Olivia returned his smile sweetly before taking a handkerchief from her bosom and gently dabbing away her sweat.

The sight was completely opposite to the woman who had charged forward moments ago as though she intended to tear apart everything in front of her.

The handkerchief was small and elegant, the sort noble young ladies would use rather than the larger ones commonly carried by knights. It had been ironed so meticulously that its edges were stiff and crisp.

Olivia neatly folded it and tucked it back into her bosom before turning gracefully and disappearing into the building.

“……”

The sun was slowly setting in the sky.

The sparring match that had begun when the sun was still high overhead had finally ended.

Bennett had remained frozen in place until Olivia disappeared.

The moment she was completely inside the building, he collapsed onto the ground.

“Bennett! Are you okay? How did you end up being today’s sparring partner?”

“Who was the bastard who said Olivia wouldn’t come to the training grounds this afternoon? Confess right now!”

“What does that matter right now…? You should’ve been more careful during this period. Practicals are coming up soon.”

“It was you, wasn’t it? I knew it! You sacrificed me to Olivia so you could save yourself, didn’t you? Today, you die and I die with you. Get over here! I said, come here!”

“Aaaah! Y-You did it too! Think about what you did to me last week!”

An unexpected commotion spread across the training grounds beneath the setting sun.

Bennett’s resentment, after being Olivia’s sparring partner for three straight hours, was not going to disappear anytime soon.

Soon, the training grounds were filled with the screams of students tangled up in a chaotic brawl.

Olivia Kisie.

A student of Veritas Academy’s Department of Knight Studies, and a mutant noble young lady who had become a symbol of fear to everyone.

She had suddenly appeared here one day and risen above everyone else.

That had been three years ago.

“But hey, have you guys heard the rumor?”

“What rumor?”

“About why Olivia transferred departments.”

Why had that crazy noble lady abandoned the magnificent field of Monster Classification and thrown herself into fieldwork, where she went around beating people up?

Anyone who had ever been thoroughly beaten by Olivia during a sparring match had probably wondered the same thing at least once.

Bennett glanced around once more before covering his mouth with his hand and whispering.

“I heard she came here to catch her runaway fiancé.”

“What?”

“She had a fiancé who left nothing but a divorce notice behind and ran off to a dispatched knights’ order. Apparently, she’s planning to kill him once she catches him, so she’s been using us for practice.”

Good heavens.

Pity filled everyone’s faces.

Olivia was the kind of person who followed through once she set her mind to something.

So that fiancé was surely going to be found dead.

The cause of death would probably be…

“What do you think it feels like to be killed by your own fiancée?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a man killed by his fiancée before…”

Well, you’ll be seeing one soon.

Pity filled the students’ faces as they thought about “Lady Kisie’s nameless fiancé.”