Someone called out, “Lady Walz?”

The word slid in like a blade through the heart.

It shattered every reason she’d gathered to demand answers.

Yeah… I’m already “Lady Walz”…

What right do I have to interfere with Yuna…

Her world drained of color, lost in an unending blizzard.

“Sorry, I have urgent business.”

Reina pretended not to hear.

Even with the crowd parting for her,

she turned on her heel and left.

She hadn’t gone far—

“Please wait, Lady Walz.”

The Frost Knight stopped her.

She didn’t want to answer, but—

“What is it?” She kept it polite.

With righteous poise, the Frost Knight asked, “We seek you as witness to a duel!”

The crowd roared again.

“A duel witness?”

“Yes—As the Lady of the Silver Silkworm, your authority is fitting!”

Reina was still in the storm.

Have they forgotten I’m a knight?

At least call me the Rose Knight,

or some other gifted title—

not “Lady Walz.”

She had no way out.

Disgust rose in her throat.

“Sorry, I have urgent business.” She brushed off the Frost Knight’s request.

“Please wait!” he blurted.

His chill dropped. He begged, “It matters. It decides if my fiancée can come back to me!”

A similar wound tugged her interest. Reina turned, a beat late. “Your fiancée?”

“Exactly.” Chill restored, he pointed at Yuna clinging to Lance’s arm, but spoke to him. “The Blazing Fire Knight has seized my fiancée!”

“Slandering me?” Lance’s tone held.

He kept it by the book. “Under the Royal Constitution, you’ve violated honor by defaming me. You attempted to infringe on my property—robbery…”

Frost cut across him. “Shut up!”

He raised the paper. “The betrothal’s black on white, its legal force recognized by the Tribunal. Lance Morrison, how do you answer?”

Lance forced restraint.

Inside, Fulin kept paging through the statutes.

A full minute ticked past.

Lance said, “The Edwal house has already fallen, right?”

“Right,” the other shrugged. “So what?”

Frost snapped, “Don’t think a fallen house voids a betrothal—that stupidity!”

The crowd roared again.

In the Doran Kingdom, a betrothal carries unlimited liability.

Put simply, even if parents fall—

children must fulfill the contract.

Turns out the Royal Constitution the Blazing Fire Knight loved to cite had its rough edges.

Just as people thought Lance was cornered—

“First, you haven’t proved my Yuna is the Yuna Edwal you claim. Second—”

Lance built the case. “Marriages involving houses go before the Tribunal—”

“Which Tribunal will you choose?”

His words hit like a bomb, and the crowd ignited again.

“Yeah, which one?”

“The kingdom has five ducal domains.”

The Frost Knight first thought it was a dumb question. He answered offhand, “Maple City, obviously. Where else?”

Then he stalled. “Wait! Don’t tell me—”

The ground slid under him.

“No ‘don’t tell me.’”

Lance bit down. “Under the Royal Constitution, if you want to prove my thing is yours, you first prove that thing isn’t mine.”

The Mountain Wind Knight thought it through and took the baton. “Since you must prove the young lady doesn’t belong to Lance, you start in Mubay City…”

“Beautiful move, Lance.” Mountain Wind smiled.

The crowd boiled like cheers.

Even the jealous started to admire Lance.

“Blazing Fire Knight, who knew…”

“Didn’t expect such a strategist!”

The praise thinned.

Frost still wouldn’t yield.

He taunted, “You’re the Blazing Fire Knight. Why keep parroting the Royal Constitution? Prove honor with your sword.”

The air tightened.

For a knight, that cut deep.

But Lance didn’t bite.

“First, I don’t draw unless I must. Second—” He thumbed his chest. “Have you ever beaten me?”

A breeze slid through. The crowd fell quiet.

The line carried clean.

Frost rattled. “Wh-why wouldn’t I? I’m not afraid.”

He remembered the Blazing Fire Knight could only ignite four Battle Aura stones.

By raw power, Frost could fire seven. He believed he’d win.

Yet panic pricked him.

A wrongness crept in.

The young knight felt unbeatable.

Maybe he shouldn’t have poked this man at all.

Just as Frost thought of backing down, Reina spoke.

“By Academy tradition, duels are too barbaric.”

Her voice was elegant and firm, easy on the ear.

And true.

People quickly agreed.

But Reina wasn’t speaking for either side. She had a plan.

“When there’s dispute, we solve it in ways fitting to the Academy.”

The crowd blinked.

What?

Academy tradition?

Have the Mage Association vote?

None of that.

“To heighten apprentices’ honor, the Academy admits knight candidates like us and sets class-versus-class trials—”

“Let’s decide it by the results of those trials.”

The apprentices watching were all upper-year.

They loved a good mess, but with rules.

“Sure, sure!”

“But 10 days give only three trials. With eleven transfer classes, whether they meet depends on the Saint of Wisdom’s will?”

“You’re overthinking. Every class has three trials—compare total wins.”

“And if the wins tie?”

“Overtime, tally the score, or change the duel format… settle it then!”

No wonder they made the Academy.

Even their chaos followed procedure.

The situation left Fulin stumped.

The boiling crowd made its own call.

Class trials would decide the outcome, hammered through by sheer noise.

Lance had no room to speak.

Lunch ended. The crowd thinned.

Because he wouldn’t face Lance directly, the Frost Knight left with a spring in his stride.

The Mountain Wind Knight looked at Lance, awkward.

He knew if he hadn’t muddled things, none of this would’ve happened.

But in Fulin’s view, it could’ve been resolved—

if not for Lady Walz jamming the gears.

Lance looked at Reina, faintly pleased.

“What do you mean, honorable Lady Walz?”

She stared at Yuna glued to Lance’s arm like resin. His question drew back her gaze, restored her poise. “Since you used ‘honorable,’ why ask ‘what do you mean’?”

Flames coiled around Lance—

then guttered.

He throttled his mood and switched to the noble game of slicing words. “Because you instigated it first. I should say ‘to hell with this.’ But you’re high-born, so I lowered my hostility and chose ‘what do you mean.’ So ‘what do you mean’ and ‘honorable’ can sit together.”

Reina flushed. Her face stayed elegant, but her tone slipped. “Why are you always so ‘good with words,’ Lance?”

“Because talking is the first step to avoiding conflict. It helps me live a quiet life.”

“But I remember you didn’t want that at all!”

“Shut up!!” Lance snapped.

Reina froze.

She’d never seen him this angry.

Was he angry for Yuna?

Then what am I to him…

Lance didn’t care about her private drama of points and rankings. He went straight for it. “You came to make trouble, didn’t you? You knew that gentleman knight can’t out-argue me or outfight me— you knew I could keep Yuna safe right here.”

“But you threw in chaos!”

“It makes you happy if Yuna can’t stay by my side, doesn’t it?”

“Then you, the Lady of the Silver Silkworm, can devote yourself to moonlit strolls and gilded debauchery with that damn Silver Silkworm Young Master!”

Reina flared. “Why would you think that?!”

Lance’s words stayed sharp. “Because some people’s joy stands on others’ pain.”

“To me, you’re turning into that kind of bastard—Reina Walz!”

Reina shot back. “Didn’t expect your heart to rot so dark and fake!!”

“You told me on the plains that night you’d guard my dream. And then—”

“You don’t care how I feel. Like before, you sneak around chasing girls behind my back!”

Lance laughed coldly. “A dream’s like a star. Out of reach, but steady and bright. I thought you’d be a star too—”

“Turns out I was dead wrong.”

“Hearts are fickle… You’re not the ‘Reina’ I knew. You’ve become an overly perfect noble lady—arrogant and selfish.”

Reina refused it. Her voice sharpened. “I haven’t changed! You have!”

Lance sighed. “That’s why you’re arrogant and selfish. What’s on your ear? What do they call you?”

Reina couldn’t answer.

“When you only do what’s good for you— when you don’t even see betrayal as wrong— if that’s not selfish, what is?”

Lance’s voice thinned in the cold wind.

Firelight dimmed.

His gaze slipped back—

back to the days he tore himself apart to pull Reina out.

In a quiet life, Reina shouldn’t have mattered.

Fulin struck only because he worried.

And when he struck, he staked his life.

Fulin doesn’t ask repayment.

“Half a year ago, I risked everything to break you free… If you had to leave, at least say goodbye.”

“I lay dying and you ran out of patience. At least leave a note.”

“If writing was too much, pay someone to carry the word.”

“If no messenger could be found, leave a token.”

“You’re a Charge Knight. Even bound, you should have found a way.”

“But you said nothing. You left without a sound—”

“Was the life I bled for you that cheap?”

The cold bit hard.

A crystal trail slid down Reina’s face.

In the whiteout, Lance turned away, dim.

“Betrayal is a sin. Tricks are a sin. Selfishness is a sin. Even lowness is a sin.”

“A quiet life needs no sin.”

“I’ll bring sin to its end.”