Why, Can’t You Eat?

oner, Commander Ares.
How should I put it… You don’t exactly seem like a knight commander?”

“What do you mean I’m not like a knight commander? Even if I look like this, I’m still a commander…”

“But your fighting style is like a mercenary’s! Of course, Commander Ares is much stronger than one! You’re stronger, but—!”

Regulus always mentioned how he respected the Commanders—well, except Damian—so he seemed very excited because Ares was the one who often sparred with him.
I tried to nod as if I wasn’t feeling strange earlier.
Then, Sir Ares replied with an awkward smile.

“Well, it’s definitely not a fighting style that nobles have.”

“I heard this a while back while studying with Commander Endymion before.
I heard that Commander Odil and Commander Ares’ families are both from long lineages of families that had famous knights generation after generation.
And that there’s also a sword technique that’s passed down to you.
But with Commander Ares… I don’t think there’s anything like that? It’s more like your fighting style is more like freestyle?”

Regulus groaned.
Even though I stayed on the battlefield for a while, I’d never seen the Commanders fight because I was always just resting in a tent or looking around here and there while they were fighting back then.

At that time, I was interested in nothing but absorbing essence, but if I had seen them fighting like that before… Would I have come to my senses no matter how persistent Lilith was? It’s futile to have regrets now, but it still somehow made me sigh.

It seemed like there were times when they had practice matches that were open for others to see, and it was to boost the knights’ morale.
At times like that, the maids would flock to the training grounds as well.
However, after I became a maid, I never even tried to go see them because I stayed far away from the knights’ quarters.

“It used to be like that, actually, but it changed when my grandfather changed the family’s technique to focus on practical use rather than formal or chivalric purposes.”

“Really? How can a family’s swordsmanship change so easily?”

“My grandfather’s older brother—so my granduncle—was an adventurer when he was young.
He also yielded the family title to my grandfather because he had no interest in power and didn’t want to be involved with the family’s internal conflicts, so he wandered around without becoming a formal knight.
Then many years later, he suddenly came back home and passed down the techniques he learned from his adventures.
He always said that honor should be cast away when faced with a life-threatening encounter.”

“Did you learn that, too, Commander Ares? From your granduncle?”

“Yes, but he passed away when I was young, when I was about ten years old.
He lived alone and never married all his life, but he treated me really well.”

I definitely understood what his granduncle meant by throwing away honor when it came to life and death, but there were still people who valued honor as though they weighed more than their lives.
It was amazing that Ares, who was from such a family, understood that as well.

“Everyone thought he was strange, but I liked him.
Sometimes, he would let me sit on his lap and tell me stories of his adventures in the past.
But when he told me about his first love and how he couldn’t marry because he couldn’t forget her, I thought he was amazing.”

Somehow, I was surprised by what Ares said fondly.
A noble from the esteemed Fenril household who didn’t get married because he couldn’t forget his first love.
It somehow made my throat feel constricted.
I bit my dry lips, then I hesitantly asked Ares.

“He’s an amazing person.
Ah, what’s his name, the Commander’s granduncle? I think I heard a similar story before.”

“Huh? Oh, it’s Marsein.
I guess there are still people talking about my granduncle in the palace.”

“Yes, I think it’s the same person.
I heard someone talking about him… Where did I hear it…”

I calmly replied to Ares, whose eyes were wide as I trailed off.
He already passed away, and it was quite a long time ago when Ares was still ten.

‘Still’ meant that his granduncle might have been talked about a lot before.
Ares also nodded as though in agreement.

“But when you say he didn’t get married because he couldn’t forget his first love, what kind of woman was she?”

“She was an incredible beauty.
But she got married to another man…”

A friend of my grandmother.
I really wanted to meet him if I had the chance.
With a regrettable sigh, I focused back on Ares’ words, but the more they talked, the stranger it was…

“My granduncle tried to hide it, but in fact, everyone just pretended not to notice.
Did you know how he named the knight order of our family? It’s the Chivalric Order of Adelaide.”

“Adelaide? A woman’s name?”

“Yes.
Originally, the knight order was just called Fenril Knightage, but maybe my granduncle changed the name in his first love’s memory.
There’s no way to confirm it, really.
When I was young, whenever I saw my granduncle, I wondered why he felt the need to change the name of the family’s knight order… But these days, I kind of understand him.”

Adelaide was… the name of my maternal grandmother.
Did my grandmother know that a historic aristocratic household changed their knight order’s name because of her?

I didn’t know whether she’d laugh at it because she’d find it funny, or whether she’d be embarrassed by it like me, but as I listened to what Ares said, I vowed never to tell him the name Lilith.