My Ex-Husband Became The Male Lead - Chapter 21 – You’re Alive

“You came?”

Redin, the Grand Duchy’s butler, approached Kyrian who jumped off his horse. “Look at this kid.”

Kyrian looked behind Redin instead of greeting him back.

“How about His Excellency?”

He was looking for Kaligo first. Redin squinted his eyes seeing him like this. “…Do you expect His Excellency to greet you here personally?”

Kyrian shrugged his shoulders and showed a playful smile, “No, but he might go out himself and give a hug if it was me; you can look forward to it.”

“…How shameless.” Playfully joking, he followed Redin and walked towards the Grand Duke’s residence.

“But for real, where’s His Excellency?”

“On a trip.”

“…I beg your pardon?”

“I said he went on a trip.”

Kyrian let out a short sigh and followed closely behind Redin, who was walking ahead. “The person who told me to quickly come back here went on a trip the day I came back? With that body?”

“But it didn’t seem like he went alone.”

“That sounds crazier.”

“Be careful with your words.”

When Redin rebuked Kyrian, he raised his voice of resentment.

“Not that, hyung*! You know he wasn’t someone who would act with a group unless he was on the battlefield!”

(T/N: I know many of you know this, but ‘hyung’ means older brother used by younger males/brother. )

“He told me when he would be back.”

“When is that?”

“In about a week.”

“About a week? What is that? It’s definitely not decided, right? Then, what about me? What am I going to do in the meantime?”

Redin’s brow furrowed at Kyrian shouting behind him. “…Just spar as you like.”

A wicked smile spread on Kyrian’s face which had darkened like cloudy weather. “Ooh, does our butler willing to be my opponent?”

“Your opponent is already ready.”

“Is there anyone here capable of me other than the Grand Duke himself?”

“There is.”

They arrived at the Grand Duke’s training ground as they were talking and walking. Over there were the Grand Duchy’s knights who were sitting and chatting with each other.

Looking around, Kyrian snorted. “Oh my, them? Are those all of them? Where did the rest go?”

“They went to the border to take care of the monsters. Do you think they’re free like you? I even called the off-duty people just for you.”

“Ah, it’s not too late. You should’ve called mercenaries or the Imperial Knights at the very least.”

“What?”

“You’ll have to come at me five times more if you’re going to deal with me for a week.”

“…”

Kyrian took off his coat and threw it on the dirty floor in excitement, then he took out the sword from his waist and ran to the training ground.

“Hey! Kyrian!”

Ignoring Redin’s cry, he rushed through the gathered knights. The knights gathered in threes or fives also saw Kyrian running towards them.

“Huh?”

“Oh? Isn’t that Kyrian?”

“Oh, it’s him.”

“Oh, he’s back already?”

“What’s with that? Redin suddenly asked us out to come out; are we supposed to throw a welcome ceremony for the kid?”

“…I don’t think that’s it.”

“No way.”

Looking at Kyrian who had returned after a long time, the faces of his colleagues who were welcoming him began to harden.

“That bastard… Isn’t that a sword?”

“…I think it is? Why did he pull out his sword…”

“Wow! That crazy kid! He’s starting again!”

Because of Kyrian smiling at them brightly while rushing towards them with his sword, the knights were so startled that they quickly got up from their seats. Kyrian’s sword slammed into the ground with a terrible clang.

“Ahh!”

“Kyrian! You bastard!”

In an instant, a brawl disguised as sparring began to take place inside the raining ground.

“…Crazy bastard.” Redin shook his head and entered the Grand Duke’s residence.

And exactly half a day later, as Kyrian said, all the knights summoned to the Grand Duke’s residence were all thrown out while dealing with him.

Inevitably, Redin had to contact the Imperial Knights and ask for help.

Contacting the Imperial Knights, not mercenaries, was intentional.

Except for the emperor and the crown prince, no one could command the Imperial Knights to come and go, but nonetheless, it was the Grand Duke of Etos who dared to do so. The current Grand Duke had enough power to do so.

Kaligo had to spend frantic days adjusting to the memories of the person that filled his body and mind after waking up in a new world seven years ago. He quickly grasped the situation he was in and decided to reorganize the Grand Duchy first.

The man named ‘Kaligo Etos’ was a fool who didn’t even know how to use his title ‘Grand Duke’, but nevertheless for some reason, he was a very lucky man.

One of his good fortunes was that he had very capable and loyal subordinates. This was true with his butler Redin, Kyrian whom he met at the landslide, and everyone employed by the Grand Duchy.

Kaligo began to remove all the evil things deeply rooted inside the family, and it took him seven years to do that.

Under Kaligo’s leadership, he restored the lost authority of the Grand Duchy and expanded its power to unsurpassable levels. Even if they didn’t like what Kaligo was doing, there was a reason that even the imperial family couldn’t cut him down at will.

“I heard that the Grand Duke is responsible for all expenses.”

The Imperial Knights came to the Grand Duchess’ residence. The knights, who were in the midst of training, and the deputy chief moved at the request of the Grand Duke’s butler, Redin.

“Of course. All expenses and equipment for sparring will be borne by the Grand Duchy.”

Think of this as a training session and go.

He thought that the leader’s face was very mischievous so he guessed that he roughly anticipated the situation inside the Grand Duchy.

The newly appointed vice-captain was unaware of the relationship between the Grand Duke and the imperial family. Of course, he knew that the Grand Duke had immense influence in the empire and the power he held, but he didn’t seem to like the situation where the Imperial Knights had to move at the Grand Duke’s request.

“Are you saying we will deal with only one person?”

The vice captain pointed at Kyrian with his chin, who was running rampant at the training ground.

‘Hmm.’

Redin gulped. He probably hadn’t heard about Kyrian from the manager..

“…Yes. You will deal with him. You can fight him as a group or whatever, just that I hope you can fight him as long as possible so he runs out of energy.”

The face of the vice-captain of the Imperial Knights Templar was distorted. No matter how powerful one was, he had asked the Imperial Knights to deal with him.

“We may hurt him.”

“…Yes, it doesn’t matter.”

“He may also die.”

“It also doesn’t matter.”

‘If only you can do it.’

Redin silently smiled, adding that he wished them well.

The knights were led inside the training grounds. The knights who were fighting with Kyrian were panting while lying on the floor. Kyrian looked at his colleagues and smiled.

He was in the middle of forcing his colleagues to stand and pick up their sword when he saw the Imperial Knights entering the training grounds. He stopped moving. “Oh… who is this?”

“…”

Pretending to know and speaking informally. The vice-captain’s forehead wrinkled as he watched Kyrian sneakily walking in an arrogant manner.

No matter how vulgar his opponent was, he would keep his beliefs and dignity, and that was that he should protect the honor of the knights as the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Knights Templar.

The deputy coughed slightly before saying, “I serve as the vice-captain of the Imperial Knights and….”

Kyrian grabbed his sword before the vice-chief could even finish speaking, rushing towards him.

“Wh-what!” The surprised deputy commander quickly drew his sword and positioned himself to defend against Kyrian’s attack. Kyrian jumped in the air in an instant, thrusting his sword over his head in one stroke.

Clang!!

A sharp sound of two blades clashing with each other resounded.

“…?”

The vice-captain followed Kyrian’s movements, turning his head behind him. Against his expectations, Kyrian ran towards the person behind him, not at him.

The man who had unintentionally pulled out his sword easily blocking Kyrian’s attack murmured, revealing his displeasure. “What… are you doing?”

Then, Kyrian tilted his head. “Long time no see.”

“…”

He raised the corners of his lips as he made eye contact with the man beyond the blade. And he called out his name in a clear voice. “You’re alive, Teros.”

The village was all burned down, and it was nearly impossible to determine if there were any survivors. This was a reunion after seven years of separation.

* * * 

Ashia turned down the light on the lamp that had been placed in the corner of the tent. Then Kaligo, who went to the bed first and sat down, gently lifted the quilt, as if to come in.

She looked at his face, then the lifted quilt.

‘It’s narrow.’

But this was meant for four people, so it was either Verna had cheated her or…

‘That person is too big.’

It was the latter, no matter how she looked at it. Kaligo occupied at least two times the space as she did.

“Uhh…”

As Ashia hesitated, unable to enter easily, Kaligo moved his eyebrows up and down. “Why are you like that? You can hold me anytime.”

“Something… is strange.”

“What do you mean?”

“Us…”

“Us?”

Ashia closed her mouth again.

‘How could that man make such a natural expression in this situation? Is it okay for him since he had a lot of experience with women?’

‘You, you knew me!’ She almost screamed at him in anger. Ashia looked at him as she narrowed her eyes.

‘No… if he pretended he didn’t know then I should be thankful.’

He must’ve properly checked Ashia’s face that day. He definitely… called her ‘Renna’ and knew about Ashia’s identity very well, but he was no different than usual.

“Ashia?”

He called her. An ominous feeling rose inside her. If that person was going to pretend he didn’t know her, then Ashia also didn’t want to show her face nor pretend to know him. Ashia took a deep breath and exhaled, gripping her hood a little tighter and tucking herself into the quilt he opened.