“Oh, that punk? Eh, he’s training diligently.”
“Yes, that’s r-right! He’s working harder than anyone else, putting all his heart and effort into training.”
Thomas replied calmly, while Max awkwardly avoided Yelena’s eyes.
Yelena watched their conflicting reactions quietly and then started walking.
‘Sir Max is bad at lying…’
Did something happen to Colin?
But if it was true that he wasn’t skipping out on training, perhaps there was nothing to worry about.
‘Well, maybe he felt a sudden sense of shame after hanging around those two all the time.’
Yelena imagined that could be quite plausible.
She moved around the castle for quite some time.
As she was walking through the first floor corridor, she encountered a face she was happy to see.
“Mina.”
“Madam.”
The maid named Mina was carrying the laundry when she noticed Yelena and bowed in greeting. She exchanged a silent greeting with Abbie as well.
“I heard that you were coming back to work today… Are you really okay?”
“Oh, of course. I’m perfectly fine.”
On the day of the kidnapping incident, Mina had suffered a blow to the back of the neck by Incan’s companion that had knocked her unconscious.
She had lain there, in a remote area, for several hours until she was rescued along with Yelena. Fortunately, she hadn’t suffered any severe injuries or aftereffects. After resting for a few days, she returned to work starting today.
“Eh, I only rested for those few days because I was forced to. I’m as healthy as a horse…” Mina trailed off, as if something else had come to mind.
“I don’t know if Sir Colin is okay though.”
“Sir Colin?”
The name Yelena had just been thinking about moments before was conveniently brought up.
Just as Yelena concentrated more on their conversation, Mina said, “Truthfully, I asked about him because I was worried about him, and from what I heard, Sir Colin’s face…”
“His face?”
“Is far from looking okay…”
Yelena naturally turned to Max and Thomas.
This time, both of them avoided her eyes.
“Let’s go to the training grounds.”
***
Colin was at the training grounds.
What Max and Thomas had said about him putting all his heart and effort into training was true, but what Mina had said wasn’t wrong either.
Colin’s face was an absolute mess, mottled with bruises and scabs as if he had the living daylights beat out of him.
While Yelena was staring at Colin, speechless, the latter flinched when he noticed her and ran away. Too flustered by the condition of his appearance, she was unable to catch him.
Instead, she went back to her quarters and hit two other people.
“This isn’t fair!”
“We’re innocent! We didn’t do that to him!”
The two knights kneeled modestly before Yelena and zealously asserted their innocence.
Sitting in her chair, Yelena crossed her legs. She stared down at the two men with her arms crossed.
“You really didn’t?”
Her gaze was full of suspicion, for good reason.
There were similar incidents in the past. Just the other day, the three men had been caught red-handed brawling inside the castle.
Unlike the previous incident, Colin was the only one whose face was busted this time around, but that could simply mean the fight had been two-against-one.
But Thomas and Max looked like they were seconds away from falling forward from how unjustly accused they felt.
“I swear on my entire career as a knight, we didn’t!”
“I swear as well! It wasn’t us!”
“Then why is Sir Colin’s face like that? Who did that to him?”
It was somewhat difficult to admit, but Colin, Max, and Thomas often fought about the rankings of the castle knights. Ben had explained that if you were to line everyone up in order of skill, the three men would be in the top 10, even if they performed poorly.
‘Especially Colin.’
Colin may have been predisposed with a weak personality, unable to even shout, but his participation in the monster subjugation eight years ago was no stroke of luck.
In other words, Colin was the best of the best.
But to think that he had been beaten to a pulp.
‘Who in the world…’
“If it was neither of you, then who was it?”
“We don’t know either.”
“Y-yes, that’s true. We don’t know.”
Once again, there was a stark contrast in their reactions.
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