Chapter: 369
After starting training in the Allen Knights for two weeks, Joy was staring blankly at the meal in front of her when her hand went limp and she dropped her chopsticks.
If she had made such a mistake in front of the young ladies, it would’ve become a scandal, but today Joy couldn’t care less about that. Both her body and mind were pushed to their limits, to the point where she couldn’t think of trivial matters.
As the young lady of the Partlan Ducal Family, Joy had watched her family’s knights train numerous times.
Just before entering the academy, she had even trained with the knights to gain real combat experience.
Therefore, Joy was well aware of how an ordinary knight squad’s training typically progressed.
Basic stamina training. Strength building. Personal skill enhancement. And then cooperative training divided into several teams. Finally, collective training where the entire knight squad moves together.
The training, carried out without a moment’s pause amidst the shouts, seemed like a process to turn an individual knight into merely a tool belonging to the squad.
The Allen Knights’ training was no different in essence. Before being knights, they had to be the strength of the Allen Family, training to throw their lives away without hesitation in the midst of combat.
However, the difference between the Allen Knights’ training and that of other squads was that their concept of real combat differed entirely from what other knights thought.
“Our Allen Knights guard the borders of the Soladin Kingdom, heralding the onset of war, and are the ones charging into the frontline of battle. Therefore, we must always be prepared for crises that may come at any time.”
The real combat described by the Allen Knights’ captain, Possell, spoke of the ability to fend off foreign invasions with the squad’s strength alone.
“In the worst-case scenario, we must possess enough strength to maintain the frontline. This is the belief of the Allen Family.”
If someone from an ordinary household said something like this, Joy would have simply thought they were overflowing with pride and laughed it off.
However, having trained alongside the Allen Knights, Joy knew that there was not even a hint of exaggeration in their words.
They had learned to forgo rest to maintain the frontline alone. They had trained to take on a hundred as one. They practiced repeatedly to crush any dungeon that might emerge.
“Sir Possell. I wonder if it’s appropriate for a student of yours to say this, but if the loyalty of the Allen Family hadn’t been shown until now, you would have been treated as rebels.”
“We know this, Your Highness, the Third Prince.”
“…You know that, but you’re still doing this?”
“We understand that Allen’s loyalty won’t be questioned.”
With such absurd standards, the training of the Allen Knights was on a different level than that of other knight squads. Anyone watching would think, “So this is what it takes to be one of the strongest on the continent.”
If Joy had been a spectator, she might have felt a mix of exhaustion and reassurance.
But Joy wasn’t a spectator; she was a participant, and she had to endure training designed to face a kingdom.
Ever since Lucy left and training intensified, Joy found herself staring blankly at her bed, terrified by the thought that she had to walk back into hell after just three hours of fitful sleep.
Of course, that fear didn’t last long; her worn-out body had reached the point where it could sleep soundly even on the street.
“Haah. Look at you drooling. It’s been a while, but you’re just as pathetic as ever.”
As Joy snapped her head up at the teasing voice she hadn’t heard in days, she saw Lucy’s irritatingly smug smile and immediately got up from her seat.
“Lady Allen!”
“Looks like you’re really excited. Did you miss me that much? Feeling lonely while I was gone?”
“How dare you leave us in this hell and go have fun alone! I can’t forgive you!”
Although Joy yelled with all the anger she had bottled up over the past few days, Lucy remained unfazed.
With an expression that clearly showed she was in the right, Joy desperately scanned her surroundings. She felt it would be meaningless to accuse Lucy all by herself, so she wanted to call for backup.
Fortunately, support was already waiting nearby. Arthur, who had undergone an even harsher training than the others for reasons he couldn’t voice, approached Lucy with a fierce look in his eyes.
“Your complexion looks good, so you must have had a great time! Did you enjoy abandoning us?! Was it fun?!”
“It wasn’t that fun. It was just full of sloppy people. Well, of course, those sloppies were still better than the Pitiful Prince.”
“Lucy Allen!!!”
Arthur, filled with fury, suddenly stopped as he felt multiple gazes directed towards him.
The knights from the Allen Family were glaring at him. Their eyes, devoid of the usual warm gaze during training, looked like they could draw their weapons at any moment.
Feeling the heavy atmosphere in the dining hall, a cold sweat trickled down Arthur’s forehead.
“Those sloppy, stupid knights. Don’t you have friends? You’ve been holding onto swords for your whole life and know nothing about socializing, huh?”
Blocking those stares was Lucy, who had just been teasing him. With her eyes narrowed, she met the gazes of each knight in the dining hall and spoke with a sharp voice.
“Get your eyes off him. It really pisses me off.”
The knights obediently followed the order of the girl who would one day become the head of the family. Once freed from the oppressive stares, Arthur let out a long sigh just as Lucy began to giggle and mock him.
“You’re scared of those sloppy ones? Are you really a prince? You look a bit too small for that!”
Arthur felt wronged. After experiencing firsthand how monstrous they were during training, how could he not feel scared?
However, he couldn’t voice his excuses. Though he was turning his head due to Lucy Allen’s orders, there were surely something building up inside him.
What would happen if he attacked Lucy Allen again during training later on?
“Lucy. Lucy. I’m trying my best.”
“Wanna hear praise? If you kneel and beg me for a compliment, I might consider it.”
“Is this good enough?”
“…”
While Arthur was mumbling to himself, Frey, without a moment’s hesitation, knelt down to receive head pats from Lucy.
Frey’s face, lighting up with a happy smile as if he was compensated for all his struggles with that one moment, made Joy shake her head in envy and raise her voice once more.
“Lady Allen! I’m still angry!”
“Huh? And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’? I’m—”
“So you won’t go with me to another place then? You actually liked being in the sweaty knight squad?”
“…What?”
“Too bad, but there’s nothing I can do about that. If the fool wishes for that, then so be it.”
“No, wait! Please speak properly!”
“Why? The angry fool will sulk and refuse to come with me, right? So why should I tell you?”
Joy was left with no options in front of Lucy’s nonchalant attitude. Not only did she want to escape the hellish training, but the very idea of having fun with her friends there made it hard for Joy to keep arguing.
Clenching her hands tightly and trembling, Joy finally bowed her head.
“…I’m not angry.”
“Huh? What? The fool’s voice is too small; I can’t hear!”
“I really want to go with you! Please let me go!”
“Haah, hahah! Hahaha!”
Watching Joy’s cheeks turn bright red, Lucy laughed for quite a while before wiping her eyes and continuing.
“Alright. I didn’t realize the fool wanted to go to the dungeon so badly.”
“Yes! Exactly! I want to go to the dungeon… the dungeon?”
“Yeah. We’re all going to raid a dungeon together.”
At that moment, Joy finally realized she had fallen into a trap. She thought she had escaped from hell only to find out it was another hell!
Going into a dungeon with Lady Allen meant it was going to be a disaster. She had been rolling around in the academy dungeon for so long, and if it got worse than that, it wouldn’t get any better.
What should she do? How could she escape this hell? Oh! Right! That…
“I—I want to go with the young lady into the dungeon, but for dungeon raids, I need to get my family’s permission.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Lord Partlan told me I could do as I please. He said there wouldn’t be a problem as long as I was with Allen’s knights.”
They had already blocked the escape route!? Joy, stunned with horror, stood frozen as Jack, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
“Lady Partlan, wouldn’t raiding the dungeons here be better than just rolling around and dying?”
“That… might be true. There’s a limit even to hell.”
“Ah, you’re not coming with me, so just stay here and roll around in hell.”
“…What?”
Jack’s face turned pale at the realization that he would be left behind in hell, but unfortunately, he had no way to resist. Unlike everyone else here, he was in an unilaterally subordinate position.
As Jack shuffled back to his place and gripped his chopsticks, Lucy shrugged her shoulders and turned toward Arthur.
“Pitiful Prince, you memorized all the things I gave you last time, right?”
“Are you serious? How can I memorize that thick book in tandem with knight training!”
“Oh~ Are you saying you cried too hard from how hard it was? Well, that can happen. I guess I was wrong to expect anything from you, Pitiful Prince.”
“Damn it! Either way, I just need to have it memorized before we arrive at the dungeon, right?! I’ll memorize it! I’ll show you!”
Unable to endure Lucy’s provocations, Arthur burst out while Lucy told him to do his best and began humming, sitting down on a nearby chair.
Just then, Frey, who was standing next to her, spoke up.
“But Lucy, which dungeon are we going to?”
The moment she finished asking, Arthur fixed his focus.
“What’s going on? You, who usually only talk silly, got straight to the point.”
“That’s because I’m smarter than the prince who’s treated like a toy by Lucy.”
“I have a lot to say about that, but this time, there’s something more important, so I’ll let it go. Lucy Allen, answer me. Where are we going to raid a dungeon? A large one near the Kurten territory? Or the small-medium dungeon the Allen knights usually train at?”
“Pitiful Prince, are you stupid? Why on earth would we go to a place we could smash with our eyes closed?”
“Then what? Where are we going?”
“We’re heading to the countryside of Gun-do to crush all the trash-like dungeons there.”
As soon as Lucy finished speaking, silence fell over the dining hall.
Not just Arthur, Joy, and Frey—who would be raiding the dungeon with her—but also the knights who were listening to her words were shocked.
The first to speak up among them, accustomed to her eccentricity, was the guard knight Karl.
“Um, Lady. Are you saying that you’re going to raid every dungeon in Gun-do?”
“And?”
“As far as I know, there’s a medium-sized dungeon on each of the 14 islands there. Is it even possible to raid them all within the vacation period?”
“Shoddy Dog. Did you maybe trade brains with the real dog? Where’s the reason for it to take so long? If we raid two a day, we’ll finish in a week.”
With a statement that deviated far from common sense, even Karl fell silent, leaving only Lucy breezing along in the dining hall.
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