I Will Be the Greatest Knight-Chapter 422: Felix’s Night (II)

Down one of the thinner halls reserved for servants, Felix saw a stablehand he had met before talking to his maid. She giggled and seemed nervous. The man stood too close to her than was appropriate, and it made his head feel hot.

He realized he wasn’t as good a person as people always painted him out to be.

Despite how he was dressed and his status, he stalked down the hallway.

"Ah, so this is what you get up to when you aren’t busying yourself with me," he mentioned as he passed by.

"S-Sir?!" she exclaimed, confused, and the stablehand at her side immediately backed off. How could he compare to a knight?

Admittedly, Felix wondered why he sounded so bitter when he wouldn’t return her glances or feelings, but he was too prideful with a stomach full of ale. He merely shook his head and returned to where he supposedly belonged for the night—a banquet hall far beyond anything he had ever witnessed.

A couple of dances more and a bit more alcohol, Felix felt upset that he never saw Irene again after that. He had thought she would be by his side for the night since neither one of them particularly belonged in a place like that, but the moment she was able to, she escaped into the darkness, and he realized he should have expected as much.

All he could do was return to his room, but what he wasn’t expecting was a maid with an angry expression on her face while she waited outside his door.

"Eira," he greeted her as usual, as if he hadn’t said something nasty to her before.

Despite her anger, she still managed to remain polite.

"Sir, if I can be so forward, I didn’t like your implication when you saw me before," she explained.

"I implied nothing," he insisted. "I was merely making an observation."

"You already know that you make me nervous, but I’m not foolish enough to think I have a chance with you," she continued. "I am only here to do my job, so I don’t see why if I’m not doing my job, I’m not allowed to talk to someone who might be interested in me. Isn’t that what you were doing all evening? There were plenty of beautiful women to dance with, and you smell a bit like perfume as if someone is marking their territory."

The scarf that one of the ladies had gifted him, sitting in his pocket, wasn’t lost on him.

However, her comment woke him up enough to realize something.

"I’m a hypocrite and a bad person," he settled with. "Would you mind excusing me? I would like to settle in for the night."

However, her frustration changed, and instead of being defensive towards herself, she was surprisingly defensive of him.

"You’re not!" she insisted. "You’re an honorable knight. I find it endearing that you will not even look in the direction of another person on behalf of your late love. Just let me daydream, and I won’t ask you for more."

Felix seemed to truly look at her for the first time. So, she was there when Agnes was. That seemed to have slipped his mind. They were probably even friends since they were similar in age and had gone to the Duke’s Tower around the same time. Moments like that, he realized just how not alone he was in his grief.

"What is there to daydream about when it comes to a man who closed off his heart?" he wondered. "There are plenty more men for you to pine for. The Commander, for example..."

"He’s just not my type," Eira persisted and crossed her arms as she glanced away.

"Shall I repeat the first question?"

Her gaze snapped back towards him.

"It’s fun to daydream that I could ever convince you to like me, or perhaps get you to want me when you’re feeling particularly lonely during winter," she admitted, but her blushing face caused her to look away. She took Felix’s momentary shock as a perfect time to escape as she slipped away from his door and rushed down the hallway. "Excuse me," she uttered, not caring much if he heard her or not; she had said enough.

However, she could only make it so far, going around the corner, as a gloved hand stopped her wrist. Her head turned, and she was shocked.

"I’m feeling particularly lonely now," Felix admitted under his breath. "But I can’t promise it will go how you want it."

It turned out to be good enough for her.

Eira pushed his blonde hair away from his face and closed the space between them. That hallway had been particularly dead since most people were already settled where they would be for the rest of the night. This wing of the estate only had a few guests as well. She thought she was in the clear.

In an act of boldness, she kissed Felix once. When he accepted her actions by placing his hand on her cheek and returning the kiss, she deepened it rather quickly by slipping her tongue between his parted lips. The kiss tasted like wine, and she wanted a drink.

They missed the red-haired knight passing by and reaching out to break up the passionate embrace. Both were distracted by the heated moment, and the surroundings became a blur.

Irene left quickly when she realized it was Felix and, surprisingly, Eira. Something was transpiring that she had always wanted for her friend, and she was certainly not going to get in the way.

However, with the corner of Felix’s mind that was still sober, he only pulled away enough to grab her hand.

"We ought to go someplace else," he whispered. "I would hate for your honor to be put to question."

As if he had to worry about her being worthy of marriage in the future, she silently sighed.

The closest place was his room, and despite his insistence to preserve her honor, the things they did with one another for the rest of the night were less than honorable.

Yet, even when Felix awoke the following morning completely sober compared to the evening before, the image of a sleeping woman beside him in the faint glow of the fire in his room, he didn’t find particularly offensive. He would still pretend to be drunk, he decided, as he cuddled up to her closer, not an inch of fabric between the two of them.