“You sounded like my father, Captain,” Timothy said.
I squeezed his cheeks and smiled. “Am I?” I asked.
Timothy aggressively nodded his head. It was good to see such a young lad once in a while. Bruce sighed as he lifted his brother and carried him. I stood up and brushed Timothy's head again.
I haven’t realized it until now but Timothy’s head looked like a chestnut. He looked like a squirrel and his older brother looked like a bulldozer.
“Let’s go,” I ordered.
Without waiting for their reply, I walked out. It didn’t take a minute for them to catch up.
I never met Bruce in my past life nor did I have the chance to take a glimpse of the Marquis family. They are exactly the total opposite of the Duke’s family. They are loving and kind. Humble, even.
Such nice people wouldn't look in my way — the way of a greedy young lady.
The atmosphere at the training ground was pleasant. I could smell the pungent smell of sulfur wrought by exploding gunpowder. The smell of the rust of the steel of the sword mixed in.
It was comforting.
Noble ladies would find it unpleasant. It is given that by the way they were brought up by their noble parents, the smell of a proud Knight would even be disgusting and nauseating for them. They have sensitive noses and it is annoying.
If the anticipated war happens, I’d doubt they would survive it without the Knight's protection.
I looked at the swords and the guns. Swords are meant to kill monsters and chimeras. Guns are for war between people.
The Royal Knights are divided into two factions. The first is for hunting monsters. The second faction is for the war. The two factions focus only on one weapon that's why when the war happened, the Elthanium Knights won the war. They petted monsters with them and the Libarnia focused only on shooting bullets.
Bullets weren't enough to kill monsters and chimeras.
If it was only based on forces, it wouldn't even be called a war. War is a battle; a contend; a fight. It is a state of armed conflict between different Empires. What happened between Libarnia and the Elthanium Empires was colonization and forced submission.
Th Libarnia was bound to fall when the Elthanium Empire colonized them.
Before I was shot by Jaeda, I saw a man with blissful blue eyes riding on a gigantic cockroach.
“Though the training was more difficult, I think it was a good idea for every Knight in the Dukedom to be hustled with two weapons,” Bruce stated after we arrived at the stage where I could see all the men and a few women master the swordsmanship and firing.
I nodded as I sat on the chair. Bruce stood behind me while still carrying Timothy.
“I heard in the banquet at the royal palace that some Empires are trying to tame monsters,” Bruce declared.
“I bet the Emperor didn’t do anything, did he?” I asked.
Bruce sighed. “His Majesty believed that it wasn’t possible.”
I licked my lips. “It is. Taming monsters is impossible but dominating them while it is still a baby is possible.”
Bruce furrowed his brows. “What do you mean?”
“What I am saying is that hunting an egg of a monster is easy and raising them could make it easier to dominate it as they see their raiser as their parents. Monsters have boundless loyalty. Unlike humans who are selfish and greedy, monsters are undoubtedly devoted,” I stated.
Bruce faked a cough. “Did I already tell you that you are weird, Captain?”
I chortled. “You did. A couple of times.”
Honestly, I didn’t know how the Elthanium Empire did it. In a concept, taming it is really impossible as monsters were human beings' mortal enemies. Taming monsters is risky and problematic.
What I said was probably the most possible way of taming monsters, unless, if they turned humans into frightful beings.
I looked at the training ground. I saw the man who owned those remarkable blissful eyes. After the incident at Amber’s funeral, I tried to remember where I met that guy in my past life. It is indeed the guy I saw who was riding the gigantic cockroach before I was shot dead.

They do have a similar eye color but they are different in many ways.
The man I saw in my past life was remorseful. His eyes were full of anger and resentment. That man had blonde hair while the one I am looking at right now has hair that was as black as charcoal.
“Who is that person?” I asked Bruce.
Bruce followed my line of eyesight and stared at the man I am looking at.
“That’s Callisto. A commoner,” he answered. I nodded.
“He seemed talented,” I mumbled.
Bruce let Timothy go. Timothy immediately ran towards the Knights who were resting. He unruffled his hair before looking at me. “At most, he doesn’t seem to be confident. The other knights looked down on him.”
“Bullied?” I asked while chuckling.
Bruce looked at me. “Yes. Is that funny?” he asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Isn't it given?”
“What is given?”
I licked my lips. “Being bullied especially if he came from a poor household. Money is power. Talent doesn’t matter if you're underprivileged. Being tormented is a given because that's how the world works. It is expected to happen unless he’s foolish enough to expect he could gain respect from nobles,” I explained.
“Some nobles aren’t like that.”
“But most nobles are like that. The majority substantiate the nobility, hence, stereotypes come into place. No matter how noble a noble is, if most people who are of the same prestige act like trash, people would conclude that all nobles are trash,” I argued.
Bruce looked at Callisto again.
Aside from Callisto, the Knights were all nobles. As an adopted gloomy child, I was also bullied. They questioned my ability as the Captain; degraded my reputation as a lady but all of them stopped when I stood up for myself.
Really. No one could save you from that. You have to save yourself.
You have to be your own shining armor.