The Knight Commander of the Second Male Lead [Novel] Chapter 100

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 100

Chapter Title: Our Starting Point

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Nina widened her eyes and said,

“I’ve never received one of these before. Yeah, let’s definitely do it.”

With that resolve, Nina turned her hand and pressed her lips to the back of his.

Adrian smiled faintly and let go of her hand. Nina tilted her head at his gaze.

“Why?”

“Just.”

“Nostalgic for the old days?”

“A little.”

“Back then, you couldn’t even leave that corner room.”

Nina dusted herself off and stood beside him.

“Yeah. That’s right.”

It felt like ancient history.

At first, when she’d arrived here, she barely remembered anything. Things after the duke remarried were much clearer.

The stepmother’s abuse and his father’s indifference.

The abusive stepmother was almost preferable.

At least she acknowledged his existence.

She hated him more—the one who pretended not to see her even when she looked right at him, who saw the blood flowing from her wounds and still said, “You’ve been well.”

As if he didn’t exist. As if he wanted to erase her.

As if she’d never existed from the start.

And yet, the moment his half-brother died, he called her back.

She hadn’t felt much when he died, either.

She’d gotten through that time solely thanks to Nina.

Even when her body was covered in bruises from wooden swords, everyone stayed silent.

Only Nina trembled with rage and spat curses.

But not all memories were bad. All the cherished moments from childhood with Nina were in this castle.

Their first moonlit picnic had been here, too.

There had been good times and bad. He let the bad ones flow away.

Traces remained, but they didn’t stagnate.

Quietly, Nina slipped her hand into his. Adrian smiled and took hold of it.

“I met you here.”

“Yeah. I met you here, Adrian.”

Our starting point.

That alone was enough.

Adrian said,

“The steward and his group will take at least three days to arrive, so we should finish up anything we need to before then.”

“I think so too.”

Adrian busied himself reviewing reports he’d put off due to the trip.

Even so, at night, violin music flowed from his window. Nina always sat right there in front of it.

Nina, too, spent her days devising a major reorganization plan for the Ebony Knight Order.

She’d decided to expand it, so she planned to grow it with all her might.

On top of that, Nina visited a workshop that produced fabric for uniforms.

They discussed flame resistance and cold resistance. Flame resistance was possible but costly, while cold resistance was tricky.

“It’s difficult unless the fabric gets thicker.”

Nina thought, Then I should ask Randell or Kiril if it’s possible, and for now, requested fabric that at least handled flame resistance for the uniforms.

“Cost isn’t an issue anymore.”

At Nina’s words, the workshop head’s eyes lit up. “Is that so?”

Specialty fabrics required endless development costs.

There had been mountains of ideas they wanted to pursue but couldn’t.

Now the ducal family was funding it—time to dive into research and development.

“We’ll definitely develop a fabric to your liking.”

The workshop head bowed with a pleased smile.

Several letters from Kiril had arrived from Silver Lake Castle.

True to form, they were just a line or two of essentials, and the last one was especially short.

[Guess I’ll have to tell you in person.]

Kiril’s coming up? When did she send this? And how’s she getting here? Alone? Is that okay?

Nina had seen Kiril handle Taruk, but she still worried.

Checking the date, it had arrived five days ago.

No, Kiril should’ve sent letters like this to the townhouse. Why here?

She should still be at the townhouse around then, right?

Why on earth…

As she pondered, a servant came running.

“Instructor Kiril has arrived.”

“Huh?”

Nina covered the letter and shot up from her seat. Hurrying downstairs, she saw Kiril dismounting a donkey.

“Kiril!”

“Ow, ow, my back. Oof.”

Kiril twisted her body this way and that, her joints cracking.

“You rode a donkey here?”

“What, walk? Goodness.”

“Why send the letter to the townhouse!”

“Who’d see it on the way?”

“But sending it here means no one sees it!”

“The steward’s there.”

“Sir Lui came up not long ago.”

Kiril chuckled at Nina’s words.

“That’s why I came to talk face-to-face. But if it’s just you here, does no one know I’ve arrived? Or…”

“Only the Young Master and I came to the territory first. For some business.”

Kiril narrowed her eyes.

“Guess I’ll have to hear what kind.”

“Please share your wisdom.”

After unpacking, Kiril claimed a sunny spot on the first floor as her workshop.

Nina showed her the silver-wrapped skull, and Kiril frowned.

“What’s this?”

“After it got rid of the humanoid Belak, this came out.”

Kiril’s face turned deadly serious in an instant. She carefully lifted the skull with both hands and examined it before speaking.

“Just this left?”

“Yes. There was a spirit fragment with it originally, but it vanished.”

“Spirit fragment?”

What’s that? Kiril’s eyes went wide.

“Ah, it’s a long story.”

Nina explained how Randell had been attacked by another sage, about the corrupted spirit lord fragment, and how she’d made it disappear.

Kiril’s expression grew profoundly serious.

“Weird how you’re at the center of everything.”

“Now that you mention it, yeah.”

Kiril looked at Nina.

“It’s like threads of fate are tied to you.”

“Hm, could be.”

Nina answered, recalling her own memories. Those memories had entangled her in all this—and let her resolve it, too.

Kiril set the skull down and lit her pipe.

“Any other info?”

“The Young Master will figure it out.”

Kiril puffed on the pipe and asked,

“Caught alive?”

“Yes.”

No need to specify it was a heretic; she got it. Kiril hummed, exhaling smoke, then asked,

“Want me to ask?”

“You?”

“Yeah. I’m a pro at handling people.”

Well, she was a pro, sure.

“Better to ask the Young Master.”

Kiril cackled.

“Fine, I’ll ask him myself.”

Kiril pulled a paper from her bosom.

“And I should report my research progress, too.”

Nina asked in surprise,

“In that short time?”

“Research stalls for ten, twenty years, then changes overnight sometimes.”

“I see.”

Nina’s eyes sparkled.

“So, what’d you get?”

“Well, found some new fibers worth processing… ways to boost firepower. Reduced side effects on the healing potion.”

Kiril folded the paper.

“I need underlings now, too. Can’t do it all alone with this old body.”

“No, Kiril, you’re still spry!”

“The fact you say ‘still’ is the problem.”

Anyway, her talk of taking disciples wasn’t bad.

Kiril handled both treatment and research now; might as well split them fully.

Separate fitting titles would open more growth potential down the line.

How important were titles, after all?

“Alright, enough stiff talk. Tell me if anything fun happened.”