A sunny Monday.
At the Royal Grammar Academy, the eight o'clock morning light had just crawled up the academy's stone walls.
Students leaving the dormitories crossed the main plaza in groups of three or four. Some yawned, some grumbled quietly about how fast the weekend had gone by, while others walked arm-in-arm in friendly chatter. There was even a blonde young lady, kept at a respectful distance by the students around her, heading toward the classroom with a sleepy expression.
‘I really don't want to get out of bed...’
Of course, we won't describe that for now.
Having just finished a two-day weekend, the first week of school was ultimately a source of mixed emotions, whether for the first-years or the upperclassmen.
Except for one person.
Waldenburg walked into the corridor of the teaching building, his expression calm and composed.
He wore the white uniform of the Swordsmanship Department, with his cuffs tightened and an unadorned longsword hanging at his waist.
His short black hair was slightly ruffled by the morning breeze, and his deep gray eyes stared straight ahead, devoid of any emotion. His pace was neither fast nor slow, each step as steady as if he were measuring the ground.
“Wow...”
On the left side of the corridor, several girls from the Magic Department stopped in their tracks, unconsciously clutching their books a bit tighter.
“It's Waldenburg...”
“Heavens, he looks so handsome today too...”
“Black hair really suits him, don't you think? Like someone who walked out of a painting.”
“He seems to never look anyone in the eye, does he? Super cool...”
“It's exactly this coldness that makes him so handsome!”
A few girls blushed, softly nudging their companions.
Waldenburg's gaze did not waver in the slightest. He walked straight past them, as if those whispers were nothing more than the sound of the wind rustling through leaves.
Several boys from the Swordsmanship Department leaned against the main pillars. Seeing this scene, they crossed their arms, their gazes following his figure with complex emotions.
“Tch, what a show-off.”
“Stop being jealous, Doron. If you could beat a second-year senior, you could put on airs too.”
“...Can you not talk up others and put us down?”
“I'm just stating facts. Didn't you see it during the weekly test last Friday? He defeated a second-year senior in just three moves. I didn't even see his sword.”
A brief silence.
“Talent monster.”
“Talent monster.”
The two spoke in unison, their tones a mix of frustration, helplessness, and an indescribable hint of envy.
They said nothing more.
Because they knew in their hearts that Waldenburg's ability to stand where he was today didn't just rely on that face of his.
Though he indeed was very handsome.
He was universally recognized as the strongest first-year in the Swordsmanship Department, a consensus reached after only a single week of school. After all, unlike the Magic Department, most students in the Swordsmanship Department had been training since childhood.
During last week's weekly test, Waldenburg had utterly dominated the field.
In the end, he had even challenged a second-year student, forcing the senior to disarm and surrender within three moves during the practical combat assessment.
And in the entrance mana testing, he was one of the “three Level Tens,” alongside Liliana and Loris.
In truth, wasn't a Level Ten mana capacity talent somewhat wasted on swordsmanship? But that was not the case—he was a magic swordsman.
This was the most accurate definition for Waldenburg.
A so-called magic swordsman, simply put, was a combat class that fused magic and swordsmanship. It differed from a pure swordsman, who relied solely on physical techniques and sword skills, and it differed from a pure mage, who stayed far from the front lines, chanting spells from the rear.
The advantages of a magic swordsman lay in three aspects:
First, the flexible switching between close combat and ranged attacks.
Against distant enemies, they could use various elemental magic to keep them at bay; once the distance was closed, their swordsmanship became the most lethal killing move. It was very difficult for an opponent to find a tactical weakness to exploit.
Second, using mana to reinforce the body.
By infusing mana into the limbs and torso, one could drastically increase strength, speed, and reaction time. The instantaneous explosive power of a high-level magic swordsman could even surpass that of a pure swordsman of the same rank.
Third, extremely strong survivability.
Pure mages feared close combat, while pure swordsmen feared ranged suppression. A magic swordsman possessed both, leaving no obvious weaknesses.
In actual combat in the wild, this was the most lethal advantage.
Because of this, several of the kingdom's top powerhouses—such as the commander of the Royal Knights and the commander of the border legion—were almost all of magic swordsman origin.
If there was a single drawback to this class, it was that becoming a magic swordsman was extremely difficult, and becoming an outstanding one was harder still.
And Waldenburg was hailed as the person in this year's cohort with the greatest hope of reaching that height.
...
Waldenburg walked through the connecting corridor, gradually leaving the surrounding chatter behind. He had long since grown accustomed to such an atmosphere.
The admiration of those girls, the envy of those boys.
The labels of “genius,” “monster,” and “star of the future” spoken by the teachers—this was a burden called expectation.
Waldenburg's upbringing was not complicated.
He was born into a border knight family south of the Royal Capital. His father was the garrison captain of a border fortress, and his mother had passed away early.
From the age of five, his father began teaching him how to hold a sword.
The reason was that on the border, those who didn't know how to use a sword didn't live long.
He had no childhood.
While other children chased butterflies in the fields, he was practicing his sword swings. While other children listened to stories by the fireplace, he was practicing his sword swings. While other children were held close and lulled to sleep by their mothers, he lay in bed alone, staring at the ceiling, listening to the wind outside the window, and then closing his eyes.
Practicing his sword swings in his dreams.
His father was not a gentle man.
When teaching swordsmanship, his father never said he did well. What came out of his mouth was always that he was too slow or not steady enough. If he fell, his father wouldn't help him up, saying that a real man must stand tall on his own. If it hurt so much that he wanted to cry, his father would simply turn and walk away with indifference, returning only after he had finished crying.
Ever since he grew old enough to remember things, he had never shed a tear for anything again.
At age seven, he took first place in the border youth swordsmanship competition.
His father's evaluation was that his opponents were too weak.
At age nine, he hunted and killed a low-tier magical beast in the forest alone.
His father's evaluation was that it was just good luck.
At age twelve, his magic circuit test results were Radiant-grade, and he was evaluated as a candidate for Level Ten talent.
His father's evaluation was not to become complacent because of it.
Until he left his family to study in the Royal Capital, Waldenburg had never once received his father's praise. As for a mother's gentle and radiant love, there was even less of it. With his mother passing away at a young age, he didn't even know what it felt like to be praised by a mother. Would it be very gentle? What was a mother's embrace like?
He didn't know.
He only knew that the sword in his hand was heavy, and his arms would ache when he swung it for the thousandth time. When he won, no adults would applaud; when he lost, no adults would comfort him.
So he grew accustomed to eating alone, training alone, treating his wounds alone, and facing everything on his own.
This was Waldenburg.
A quiet, taciturn black-haired youth.
To emphasize again, it wasn't that he was intentionally trying to maintain an air of mystery; it was just that his current personality truly made him feel that language was an inefficient method of communication. The clash of swords was far more honest than the arguments of mouths—the victory and defeat were clear, with no lies.
As a result, most people's impression of him remained that of someone cold and aloof.
But those who knew him would know.
It wasn't arrogance, but rather a near-instinctive aloofness caused by his family background.
“So handsome... that profile...”
“Did he look over here? He looked over here, didn't he?”
As for the flirtatious glances from the girls at this moment and their praise as he walked along, he had suffered from such things since he was a child.
After a long silence, he sighed softly.
If nothing unexpected happened, he would never be interested in the creatures known as women.
If.
...
Turning the last corner of the connecting corridor brought him to the entrance of the Magic Department's teaching building.
Waldenburg had intended to walk straight through the courtyard to the Swordsmanship Department's training ground. The first class on Monday morning was physical training, and he was used to arriving ten minutes early.
Then, unexpectedly, he stopped in his tracks.
In front of the main entrance of the Magic Department's teaching building, someone walked past.
Her light pink hair held a very faint luster in the morning light. The ends of her hair barely reached her shoulders, and a few strands were blown by the wind, gently swaying against her ears.
She wore the Magic Department's uniform, the silver trim of her collar buttoned up neatly, and her sleeves rolled up once, revealing a small section of her fair wrist.
Her skirt hem reached just to her knees, and she wore a pair of black, low-heeled leather shoes on her feet.
The sunlight shone diagonally from behind her, stretching her shadow long across the warm-toned stone slabs, like a lively sketch of youth.
“Fiona, good morning!” Liliana waved brightly.
“Hello, hello! Good morning, Liliana,” Fiona said, turning back. Beside her, Sarah, the glasses-wearing girl who was part of their duo, also greeted her, pushing up her glasses as she said, “Good morning.”
And then—
“Hmph.” A certain elegant young lady, tsundere and standing under 1.6 meters tall, walked past with her chin held high, as her entourage began to approach to pay their respects.
“Good morning,” “Good morning,” “Good day,” “Lady Loris is beautiful today as well!”
“L-Lady Loris, good morning... I mean, good morning!” Liliana bowed somewhat awkwardly. She watched them leave with a nervous and troubled expression, ultimately letting out a helpless smile.
Loris was surrounded by several young ladies from other families who were trying to curry favor with her. They left like a cluster of flowers; after all, not having seen her over the two-day weekend, they were very eager to close the distance.
A small drama that played out silently.
The interpersonal relationships seemed incredibly complex, yet they also made one feel a sense of yearning.
In truth, Waldenburg didn't know any of those people. In fact, logically speaking, someone like him who was uninterested in women shouldn't have frozen in place because of the scene before him.
But, Liliana.
Waldenburg recognized her.
A commoner freshman of the same year with Level Ten mana capacity.
On her first day of school, she had run into the villainous young lady Loris in the lobby, only to be rescued by the Crown Prince, making it known to the entire academy. During the practical magic exam, she had demonstrated astonishing mana control and fought Loris to a draw. The brilliant light she unleashed during last week's mana testing was still a topic of conversation among the first-years, standing side by side with Waldenburg's swordsmanship feats.
She had far too many labels.
But for Waldenburg, there was only one trigger for his recognition of her.
...
A drowsy afternoon in the library.
High up on the bookshelf, Liliana stood on her tiptoes but still couldn't reach that thick ancient book.
She stretched her arms with all her might, her fingertips barely brushing the spine.
At that moment, a slender hand reached out from behind her. Their hands brushed against each other, and the other person easily took the book down.
Liliana turned around.
Short black hair, deep gray eyes, expressionless, with a longsword hanging at his waist.
Waldenburg looked down at her.
CG Unlocked: 《The Black Knight Before the Bookshelf》—From Liliana's looking-up perspective, Waldenburg's tall figure, his silhouette reaching for the book against the light, and the gold-embossed letters on the book spine glowing.
“An interesting woman” love main quest first marked.
...
If this were a game, that would probably be the trigger for their meeting.
But to explain it more deeply, it was essentially that Liliana didn't show much interest in him, unlike those superficial women. After all, from childhood to adulthood, wherever Waldenburg went, he was always the center of girls' praise.
He was truly very handsome.
And the way Liliana looked at him made him feel that she was special, completely unbothered by his charms.
Come to think of it, that afternoon they hadn't just simply passed a book. They had also shared a brief exchange, and it was during that conversation that Waldenburg became interested in this commoner girl who could treat him so normally. Until now, that interest seemed to have transformed into some kind of special feeling.
Because yesterday, over the weekend, he had also run into Liliana by chance in the Royal Capital. That was truly an experience that had given him a sweet dream.
In short.
Waldenburg finally walked into the entrance of the Swordsmanship Department's teaching building. His footsteps paused slightly, the morning light shining from behind him as he turned his head to look back at where Liliana had been standing earlier.
He thought, this was probably the first time he had ever been so interested in a woman.
He had planned not to take the initiative to talk to Liliana, not to deliberately show off his swordsmanship in front of her, and not to engineer any chance encounters...
He would likely just stand in a corner, holding his sword and watching her, letting slip a gentle smile that even he himself didn't notice, muttering, “An interesting woman.”
He would observe her like this.
But before long, he thought he would have to confirm one thing—to confirm if she harbored any other feelings.
(Voiceover: Sunday dusk.
The evening twilight spilled over the fountain pool in the Royal Capital's central plaza, the water surface rippling with beautiful, shimmering light.
Liliana crouched on the stone slabs by the fountain, holding a small handful of breadcrumbs she had brought from the cafe's kitchen in her palm.
Grayish-white pigeons cooed and gathered around her feet, and a few bolder ones hopped directly onto her lap.
“This is all that's left today, sorry about that,” she said softly, scattering the breadcrumbs bit by bit.
The pigeons flapped their wings and scrambled for the food.
Waldenburg held a bag containing manuscripts of the kingdom's knightly history that he had dug up from a bookstore. He liked reading, which was why they had run into each other in the library in the first place. He had originally just wanted to take a shortcut through the plaza to return to school, but his gaze was involuntarily drawn to the pink-haired girl crouching in the middle of the flock of pigeons.
Liliana.
He couldn't help but recall that afternoon in the library, as well as some rumors. After all, there was only one commoner student in the entire grammar academy, not to mention that her mana capacity evaluation was Level Ten.
She was smiling warmly.
Surrounded by pigeons, with a few even stepping onto her shoulders and the top of her head like adorable creatures, she didn't get annoyed or dodge. She merely laughed softly, playing along with them.
Waldenburg stood beneath the corridor, not walking over.
He just watched quietly for a moment.
After some thought, he pulled out the unfinished bread from his lunch from his pocket, walked over, and stopped three paces away from her.
“Here.”
He handed the bread over, his voice deep and brief.
Liliana raised her head, looking at the black-haired youth in surprise, and then remembered who he was.
After she gave a simple and formal thank you, Waldenburg didn't say another word. He simply walked away and stood among the crowd, watching the pigeons peck at the food in her palm.
The setting sun stretched her shadow very long, with a small flock of grayish-white pigeons in between them.
After some thought, he turned and left.
When he appeared again, he laid a purchased illustrated booklet on the low stone ledge of the fountain pool. Taciturn as ever, true to the impression he gave, he departed in silence.
“Eh, what's this?”
A moment later, Liliana turned her head and noticed it.
“《Barton Kingdom Continental Bird Illustrated Guide: Square Pigeons Edition》.” She paused as she read it out loud, utterly confused. “Who left this here?”
Looking left and right, there was no one paying attention.
The downside of being taciturn was that doing such things wouldn't increase favorability, but that was fine—he had a clear conscience.
Liliana had no choice but to flip open the booklet. The title page was printed with a grayish-white pigeon spreading its wings, and the page was densely packed with notes on the habits, distribution, and feeding methods of pigeons.
The pigeons cooed at her feet, flapping their wings as they chased the final golden afterglow at the edge of the setting sun.
)
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