NOVPUBEnya quickly walked away from the scene.
Her breath was ragged, and she forced strength into legs that threatened to give ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) out.
To face the past she thought she’d finally moved on from—here, of all places.
It felt as if the wound etched deep in her heart long ago had been torn open once more.
I was hoping, at the very least, he’d apologize.
But from the way Alex had coldly looked at her, she hadn’t felt even the faintest trace of lingering emotion.
You’ve forgotten everything, haven’t you?
She hated him—desperately so.
And so, she bit back tears with all her might.
She didn’t want to look weak in front of him.
“Enya.”
“Commander.”
Enya spotted Terrina waiting for her.
She immediately bowed her head.
“Forgive my tardiness, Commander.”
“Looks like the conversation is over.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You knew each other?”
Terrina gave her a quick glance as she asked.
Enya didn’t want to show it, but Terrina immediately noticed that her lieutenant was more out of sorts than usual.
“...Yes. A long time ago. Briefly.”
“Wasn’t that Alex just now?”
One of the Nightcrawler Knights who had come along spoke up.
Enya tried to stop him, but Terrina responded first.
“Alex?”
“Yes, ma’am. He was once considered one of the most outstanding cadets at the Noble Knights Academy.”
“Oh?”
Terrina was familiar with the Noble Knights.
If Seorn Academy was the Empire’s premier institution for training mages, then the Noble Knights was its counterpart for training knights.
Most famous knightly families had alumni from there, and admission was fiercely competitive.
To hear that Enya, who seemed acquainted with Alex, was also a graduate of Noble Knights naturally piqued her interest.
“Then he must have been your classmate.”
“...Yes.”
It wasn’t a memory Enya wanted to recall, but since her commander asked, she had no choice but to answer.
“What’s someone like that doing in the slums?”
Terrina’s question was a simple one, driven by pure curiosity.
Enya was about to say she didn’t know, but the tactless knight beat her to it.
“Oh, about that Alex fellow—”
“What happened?”
“He was dishonorably discharged.”
At the word “discharged,” Enya bit her lip.
But no one noticed her reaction.
“Discharged?”
“Yes. A few days before the commissioning ceremony, he allegedly assaulted his fellow cadets and instructors.”
Five cadets and two instructors were beaten.
No one had been able to stop him, and in the end, Alex was expelled in disgrace.
* * *
“Wait, is that true? He beat up his own classmates?”
At Arfa’s innocent question, Alex widened his eyes, then shook his head with an exasperated sigh.
“Yeah. I beat them. Happy now? Not just the classmates—some instructors, too.”
“Why did you beat them?”
“What do you mean why. Because I had issues, obviously...”
“That can’t be. You’re not a bad person, Alex.”
“......”
Alex was momentarily speechless at Arfa’s words.
“You do know we’re all doing illegal stuff, right? And you’re telling me I’m not bad?”
“But that’s just how I feel.”
Alex had been about to snap at Arfa—what do you even know about me?
But the moment he met those transparent, unclouded eyes, that instinct vanished.
What was he even doing trying to argue with an automaton?
“...It was just... problems with those guys.”
“Those guys?”
“The ones I beat up. Honestly, it was five-on-one, and I just happened to be strong enough to win. They were all nobles, and they couldn’t stand the fact that a commoner like me was doing better than them.”
Naturally.
It was the Noble Knights, an elite place entered through ruthless competition.
It was bad enough for them that a commoner was there—but a commoner outperforming them?
There was no way the nobles would let that slide.
Hearing that, Ludger thought of Seorn.
The divide between noble and commoner students.
That vast, unbridgeable gap carved deep into society.
It was a reflection of the discrimination embedded in the world itself.
“I know it sounds arrogant, but I really was the top of our class.”
In terms of grades and performance, Alex had been nearly unmatched.
Had that incident not happened, he would certainly have become an excellent knight.
Even as a commoner, he might’ve been granted a title and risen as a new noble.
“Then why did you stay here? If you’d just endured a little longer, you could’ve lived in luxury.”
At Violetta’s remark, Alex gave a bitter smile.
“Maybe I just got tired. Honestly, that day wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. It was the explosion of years of pent-up anger.”
He wasn’t the kind of person to throw away everything in a fit of rage.
The sabotage had begun the moment he entered Noble Knights.
“The instructors were the same. A commoner standing out in a place made for nobles? Of course, they hated it. They did everything to trip me up.”
Every little thing became grounds for punishment.
While others rested in their dorms at night, Alex was forced to run laps under the guise of “guidance.”
He barely slept. Even when he achieved results, there was never a single word of praise.
He gritted his teeth and endured that relentless inequality—for three years.
“Three years? That long...”
“You held out well.”
“No, I didn’t. In the end, I snapped.”
The weight of everything that had built up over those years finally exploded right before the commissioning ceremony.
That’s how he ended up entangled in a violence scandal—and was expelled in disgrace.
“But that lady didn’t seem mad just because of the expulsion. Wasn’t there something more?”
Phantos, who had been silently listening with his arms crossed, finally spoke up.
He pointed out Enya’s expression and demeanor.
What, here?
Wait... he’s sharp?
Everyone—Violetta, Seridan, Hans—was stunned in silent disbelief.
They’d thought Phantos was just a muscle-headed brute obsessed with fighting strong people.
“What? What is it?”
Noticing their stares, Phantos asked, but no one answered.
They couldn’t exactly say, We didn’t expect that from a guy whose brain’s made of biceps.
“...Phantos is right.”
Alex acknowledged his observation.
“She and I... we were lovers.”
“She’s the one from the auction house, right? How’d that happen?”
“She was ranked high as well—about as high as me, actually.”
Enya was small and slender for a knight.
She was born with clear physical disadvantages.
But she overcame them through sheer effort.
Naturally, Alex and Enya had ended up competing over rankings.
They each had a reason to give it their all.
Getting closer had been inevitable.
“At first, we were rivals. I was hellbent on never losing to her.”
Alex still remembered it vividly—those fiery, blood-pounding days.
It was one of the few good memories in his life.
“Then at some point, I started thinking more about wanting to stay by her side than about beating her.”
“Oh my.”
Violetta covered her mouth, reacting dramatically to the love story.
“And Enya felt the same. We were just two naive kids.”
They even made promises about their future together.
But that happiness didn’t last long.
The closer Alex got to Enya, and the higher her grades climbed, the more the attacks on Alex increased.
“You don’t belong with her. A commoner dating a noble? Ridiculous. And it wasn’t just jealous cadets—even the instructors said that.”
“She didn’t know?”
“She didn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I hid it.”
He didn’t want to tell her.
If he had, the stubborn Enya would’ve confronted them.
And that would’ve put her at risk of the same treatment he faced.
“Enya climbed to that spot through her own effort. I couldn’t drag her back down just because of me.”
Enya, as a noble, saw the judgment shift the moment she proved herself.
Meanwhile, no matter what Alex did, nothing changed.
But he never resented her.
If anything, he was proud of her.
“...Maybe I couldn’t deny what those bastards said because deep down, I agreed with them.”
The real reason Alex kept everything from Enya—was that part of him believed it too.
“The difference in status is too great. Even if I finished the program with top marks, the ‘commoner’ label would follow me forever. Even as a knight.”
Enya, on the other hand, was a noble.
She had skill, drive, and wherever she went, she would succeed.
She would surpass him—without question.
“I was nothing more than a burden in her life.”
No one could respond to that self-mocking murmur.
“So I pushed her away.”
“You pushed her away?”
“Yeah. I pretended to be with someone else and dumped her. If I’d just said ‘let’s break up,’ she wouldn’t have accepted it.”
He still remembered it.
How her lips trembled in shock.
The tears that welled in her eyes and slid down her cheeks as she stared at him.
Her voice, screaming at him through the pain.
He’d told himself over and over that it was for the best, but reality always hit harder than theory.
After parting with Enya, Alex was left with nothing but emptiness.
“I thought I’d feel better after ending it, but I didn’t. Instead, I felt like an idiot for having endured for three years.”
Then the noble cadets came to him, mocking him with her name.
So, you finally broke up. Figures. You two never belonged together.
Their sneering faces made him laugh.
And then—he snapped.
He beat them to a pulp.
Just shy of killing them.
They even had swords, but they were no match for unarmed Alex.
And when the instructor—who always played favorites—came to stop him, he beat him too.
That’s how he was expelled, labeled a disgrace.
A fitting end for a commoner.
“I was arrogant. A commoner who dared to look up too high.”
He hurt the woman he loved. Was thrown out of the place that held his dreams.
And after that—there was nothing left for Alex.
* * *
“It seems he had talent, yet was discharged in the end.”
Terrina, hearing her subordinates’ report, brushed her chin with a gloved hand and slowly shook her head.
“What a waste.”
She didn’t know exactly what had happened between Enya and that man.
But when Alex had first entered the room, Terrina had sensed it immediately with a knight’s instinct.
He was a trained and formidable fighter.
“A man like that... why would he be under the command of someone like the Owner in a place like this?”
Even if he’d been expelled, being from the Noble Knights alone should have guaranteed him a respectable position anywhere.
And yet he was now working under the ruler of the slums.
“Well, in the end, he’s still a commoner, isn’t he?”
“It’s the only thing he probably knows how to do.”
The words of the Nightcrawler Knights, muttered among themselves, made Enya bite her lower lip hard.
Terrina noticed her reaction and asked,
“Are you all right, Enya?”
“...I’m fine, Commander.”
“But still...”
“There’s nothing between me and that man anymore.”
Enya’s voice was sharp and decisive. Terrina did not ask further.
* * *
“After that... I wandered.”
Alex drifted from place to place like a vagrant.
He lived in a haze of alcohol and gambling.
There were days like that.
Once, he got into a dispute with a group that had rigged a gambling match. Alex could’ve easily beaten them all if he wanted—but he didn’t.
Instead, he let them beat him, and ended up thrown out, rolling through the mud.
It was a day of heavy rain.
Lying flat in the mud, Alex stared up at the sky.
The dark, gloomy heavens seemed to sob with endless downpour.
He knew his life was pathetic.
But he didn’t care.
Someone like him—trash like him—deserved nothing better.
Maybe it’d be best if he just died out in the streets somewhere.
That’s when someone appeared in his blurred vision.
—Why are you letting someone weaker than you beat you?
In that alley, where passersby deliberately ignored him, someone actually spoke to him.
—Who the hell are you?
—I saw what happened at the tavern just now. You knew the other guy was cheating, yet you let him win. Do you enjoy getting beaten?
—Don’t talk crap.
—Then let me ask you this instead. Are you satisfied with this way of living?
That question struck Alex’s most sensitive nerve.
He lifted his upper body and bared his teeth.
—Say what you want, then leave. You fancy-looking bastard.
—Depends on what you say.
Even when met with open mockery, the man’s voice remained calm.
Alex ground his teeth.
He knew it.
The man really had approached him out of genuine concern.
If he hadn’t cared, he would’ve ignored Alex just like everyone else.
But knowing that still didn’t help him control the rage boiling inside.
—Self-loathing, huh. Turning your rage inward.
—You think you know me?
—Doesn’t it infuriate you?
—What?
—To bow your head to those beneath you. To have the skill and never be recognized for it. You must be burning with anger.
—Stop talking crap.
—Then why blame yourself for it?
—I said shut the hell up!
Instead of more words, what came was a hand held out toward him.
—Come with me.
—Why would I trust you?
—You don’t have to.
—What? Are you out of your mind? Why would I go anywhere with you?
The man smiled and said,
—Because at the very least, I won’t look down on you for being a commoner.
......
Maybe it was just lip service, Alex thought.
No—maybe he wanted to believe that.
But he knew.
When everyone else walked past him, treating him like filth, this man had been the only one to speak to him. To reach out.
There was no way someone like that could be lying.
—Even if you take my hand now and later push me away, that’s fine. You can borrow money from me. I’d lend it—believe it or not, I have plenty. But... just promise me one thing.
—What.
—Don’t hurt yourself anymore. That’s the one thing I can’t stand.
......
It was the first time.
The first time someone had ever genuinely comforted him.
No... not the first.
There was once a girl who used to care for him with all her heart.
But he had pushed her away.
And run from her.
In that moment, the dam that had long sealed his heart broke.
—Damn it. Why... why am I...
When he broke up with the woman he loved.
When he was expelled from the Noble Knights.
When he wandered rock bottom, drunk and lost.
Not once had he cried.
But that day—he wept like a child for the first time.
—It’s raining hard.
Ludger, watching the downpour, muttered.
—Too hard.
Alex, head bowed, could not respond.
