Chapter 18.
Enoch, who had been blankly staring at Elisa’s brightly smiling face, cleared his throat and turned his gaze away.
“When all the nobles know he was expelled from the academy, to think he can shamelessly hold his face up in a place with so many naval personnel and knights like this. I envy that thick skin of his at least.”
It was an awkward change of topic to avoid getting caught that his ear rims had flushed red, just in case. Enoch scanned the profile of Elisa, whose red hair hung loosely down.
Whenever this kind of silence descended, Enoch’s heart fluctuated in two ways. Half was the thought of wanting his heart to be found out, and half was the thought of wanting Elisa to never notice like this so he could stay by her side forever.
It was a weighing where even Enoch himself could not realize which side’s weight was heavier.
Therefore, there was no way Elisa would notice this heart either.
“Enoch, why did you interfere?”
At Elisa’s sudden question, Enoch noticed that now was the timing for him to return as the Colonel who ‘respects the Admiral’. Although he knew his position better than anyone, his mouth tasted bitter whenever he realized that fact.
However, it was something he had become as accustomed to as could be. Enoch pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled slickly. So that his heart would look infinitely light.
“I did it because I thought the Admiral might bring shame upon the Navy.”
“What?”
“No, I mean, you are still a Naval Admiral in name, so would it be alright to beat someone up here?”
At Enoch’s absurd excuse, a dry laugh burst out of Elisa’s mouth. Yet Enoch remained shameless to the end.
“Do you think I wouldn’t know that the Admiral’s true personality comes out at times like this?”
“Oh, please, right. Since your superior’s clean-up has been resolved, why don’t you stop now and go inside the party venue? Still, you are the son of Earl Fitzgerald’s family in name, so what if a rumor spreads that you haven’t even been able to dance a proper dance?”
“How do I know who the Admiral might fight with again? For the honor of the Navy, I must stick closely and monitor you.”
As if Enoch were cute, Elisa smiled faintly and did not add any other words. Enoch, who read Elisa’s expression, realized that it was permission and settled himself right next to Elisa.
“Being like this, it feels like the academy days.”
She knew too well which time Enoch was reminiscing about. Because she, too, had been chewing over that day all day long today. There were too many people here who knew about the events of that day.
On the day that almost became the most terrible ball thanks to Adrian’s damn bet, the one who saved Elisa was Enoch.
The rumor that Adrian had played with Elisa and dumped her spread throughout the entire academy, so there was no way anyone who wanted to be partners with Elisa would remain.
Elisa, too, had naturally intended not to go to a ball where it was certain she would be treated like a zoo monkey.
The one who approached such an Elisa was Enoch Fitzgerald.
“I will become Senior’s ball partner. In exchange, please teach me how to shoot a rifle.”
“Isn’t it fine if I just don’t go to the ball? No matter how much I think about it, it seems like a losing business for me?”
“Of course you wouldn’t have to go, but still, if you go with me, wouldn’t you be able to see the faces of those bastards twisting with your own eyes? Senior gets revenge, and I get the technique. Isn’t it a win-win?”
“How do I trust that you aren’t in cahoots with those bastards?”
That day, Enoch was shocked and stood frozen in that spot for a while. And Elisa left Enoch behind in the hallway just like that and leisurely departed the spot.
Elisa thought after that that he would never appear before her again. Because most of the nobles did so. If Elisa even refuted their words, they acted as if they had suffered an insult.
But Enoch was a little different. No, maybe it was just that Enoch’s personality was persistent.
“If you can’t trust me, wouldn’t it be fine if you teach me how to shoot after the ball is all over!”
“It is fine even if you just show me shooting from the side. I will not even breathe so as not to be a disturbance.”
Like that, Enoch followed Elisa around like a shadow for several days. Coming to find the training ground where Elisa, who was one academic year above, was during every break time was a common occurrence, and there was even an incident where he was caught by the dormitory warden while lingering in front of the women’s dormitory and chased away. Even after that, Enoch did not stop following Elisa’s tail, asking her to teach him how to shoot a gun well.
“Please, stop following me around now.”
In the end, the one who raised the white flag first was Elisa.
“Then, are you becoming my ball partner?”
“I’m not going.”
“I want to go.”
“So what? You find a partner on your own and go.”
“I couldn’t find one. Please help me just this once.”
Later, he even made such an absurd excuse. Even though he was the third son, Enoch’s surname was Fitzgerald. One of the oldest noble families in Sepia. There was no way he wouldn’t receive even a small title, and even if he did not receive one, Enoch’s path to success, being from the academy, was as good as guaranteed.
Therefore, that lie was no different from being for Elisa’s sake.
Ultimately, Elisa chose to go to the ball with Enoch, and that choice was right.
Because she was able to see Adrian Oberon’s shocked face.
Was it only Adrian Oberon. She was able to shut the mouths of everyone who had gathered to mock her.
Even after that, Enoch often approached Elisa and pestered her to teach him this and that.
Enoch Fitzgerald followed her words as if they were scripture. The way he held a rifle and a bayonet was a spitting image of Elisa.
Elisa did not purposely push away such an Enoch. Although it was a bit bothersome, because she thought that the remaining one year spent at the academy was the entirety of this connection anyway.
For Elisa, since she had no option but the Navy, let’s leave it at that, but Enoch could have sufficiently entered even the Royal Knights if only he wished.
She really did not know that such a son of Earl Fitzgerald would follow her even to the inferior Navy.
Elisa, seeing Enoch Fitzgerald who had been assigned to the Navy, blurted out like this without realizing.
“Why on earth did you come here?”
“Because I couldn’t find anyone who shoots a rifle better than Senior, I came to the Navy!”
Enoch, who was looking at Elisa who had lost her words out of absurdity upon hearing that speech, said that he had made a slip of the tongue since she was now the Admiral and not Senior, corrected the title, and then saluted.
At the old memory that came to mind after a long time, a smirk-like laugh flowed out of Elisa’s mouth.
“You remember all of that time? Hasn’t it been too long?”
“What do you take a person for.”
Enoch leaned against the deck and faced Elisa.
“Would it be just the ball? I remember everything down to the Admiral teaching me how to shoot a gun after that.”
“How did I teach you? Well, I was a grander teacher than anyone.”
“No? You rolled me. Quite a rolling. If I had collected the water that came out of the blisters caught from being burned by the gun back then, it would have filled a dried lake.”
“Hey, at that level, I taught you well and kindly. What do you mean rolled, rolling indeed.”
Enoch held his hand and threw a full tantrum, saying that his fingers seemed to swell even now if he recalled that time.
When she was conversing with Enoch for a long time like that, someone grabbed Elisa’s shoulder.
Just as Elisa, taking this as an attack, reflexively turned around and was about to twist that arm, snake-like red eyes were seen.
Elisa let go of Adrian’s arm as if tossing it into the air, as if it were something dirty. Elisa, calling Adrian Oberon’s name like a sigh, asked.
“What kind of act is this right now.”
“You are the one, what kind of act is this right now? Do you not know what you should be doing right now that you are killing time miserably in this manner here?”
“Then what more do I do. I danced with you, I showed my face to the nobles. There is nothing I haven’t done, so what on earth more-!”
“If you don’t know, I will tell you. Follow me.”
Just as Adrian was about to take Elisa away like that, Enoch’s hand abruptly stretched out and caught Adrian’s arm.
“Let go of that hand first. Vice Admiral.”
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