Wocco

A young man with short ruffled dusty grey hair walked forward and bowed. "What made Lady Faenia want to see us?"

Noticing that the young lady was staring at him with big, curious eyes, he was confused. "Lady Faenia?"

Faenia reached out her hand and waved it down and up, gesturing him to come closer to her. The knight obediently got down with a knee. "Yes, Lady Faenia?"

Even when he was kneeling, he was still too tall for her to reach his head. Faenia frowned, she turned to Ella and tugged at the end of her maid dress. Then, she extended her arms out, signalling Ella to carry her. Both the knights and Ella thought that she was scared and their mood faltered. When Ella picked her up, ready to bring her back, Faenia quietly spoke up:

"Ella, go closer to the big brother." She pointed her finger at the knight that was still kneeling.

The knight was taken aback by being called a big brother by the young lady. Ella didn't understand but did what she was told to.

"Lower," Faenia said.

"Uhm… Lower?" Ella asked hesitantly.

"Lower."

"Like this?"

Faenia could now face the knight head to head. She nodded in satisfaction and what happened next shocked the knight and Ella, and also the people around them. Faenia placed her small hand on the knight's head and rubbed it against her palm, feeling his soft hair that she had wanted to touch.

Smiling, she exclaimed, "Hair so soft, it feels good… I like!"

At those words, it seemed like the world has stopped around her. The knight that had received a head pat from his little lady wanted to succumb, perish in contentment and bliss, and finally rest in peace. To him, this gesture from his young lady was a blessing he could never forget.

Faenia saw his state and wondered if she overdid it. 'Ah, shoot, he looks like he's in heaven,' she thought.

The other knights came back to reality and cried with jealousy:

"Ulric, you bas——bad boy! How stealthy of you!"

"I never knew you were actually so sly, I misjudged you!"

"Boo! Boo! I also want a head pat from lady Faenia!"

"Me too! Me too!"

Each of them came closer and began to talk to her, asking for requests. Faenia became so dizzy, especially having her eyes witness so many bare-naked upper bodies close up. It was simply too much for her, she felt like her nose would bleed soon. Fortunately, or maybe not, someone came and interrupted the farce.

"What's going on?! Why don't I see any of you train?!"

The knights immediately stopped fooling around and saluted. "Commander!"

A heavy-set man with a beard in a military uniform walked forward with a stern face until he stopped with his gaze at the kneeling knight.

"Ulric, what are you doing?"

However, the knight didn't budge. The commander narrowed his eyes and shouted the knight's name again: "Ulric!"

This time, the loud, serious voice woke him to reality and he finally reacted. He clumsily stood up and saluted.

"T-this… Sir, I think you should lower your voice…"

"What did you say?"

Although the commander's tone scared him a bit, the knight moved aside and pointed his finger at a direction. The commander raised his eyebrows, looked at the direction and spotted a little figure in the arms of a maid. Upon seeing the child, the commander was shocked and took a step back.

"Lady Faenia… Why are you all showing yourselves in front of Lady Faenia?" As if he came to a conclusion, he looked at all directions. "You… You guys, how dare you trying to scare Lady Faenia?!"

The knights were quick to defend themselves from being falsely accused by their own commander.

"Sir, it's not true!"

"Sir, Lady Faenia wanted to see us herself! She laughed!"

"Yes, she even patted Ulric on the head!"

"What?" The commander shifted his gaze at the young lady.

Faenia admitted that the commander looked intimidating at first because of his huge body but then she spotted a little heart-shaped scar on the side of his face, and her opinion on him changed.

'Looking closer, he does look like a cute grandpa.'

The commander saw that she wasn't crying or afraid and soon afterwards, his facial expression changed to a happy one. Without hesitation, he took the child from the maid and began to toss the child high up in the air.

"Haha, my lady Faenia is no longer afraid!" he said, caught her and tossed her back up in the air again.

The knights and maid were aghast at his actions and immediately shouted in a panic:

"STOP! STOP!"

But the commander didn't listen, he was too busy being happy. Faenia, on the other hand, was giggling non-stop. It was like riding a rollercoaster, and she loved it. So to the knights' dismay, as well as the maid's, with her cute, soft voice, she cheered:

"Higher, higher!"

"Oh, so my lady Faenia likes this? Such a brave lady!" The commander laughed and tossed Faenia up higher.

The maid screamed, "Ah! Ah! Please stop the commander! You guys! Stop your commander already! Aren't you knights?! Don't be so useless!"

Ella called the knights back to their senses, all of them feeling embarrassed. One of them quickly stepped in, he carefully grabbed Faenia in the air and landed safely on the ground. His back was covered in sweat and he almost had a heart attack.

He turned his head to his commander and yelled, "Sir, you can't do that to a child! What were you thinking?!"

Confused, the commander scratched his head. "Don't children like this kind of thing? See, Lady Faenia looks so blissful."

Faenia was contented and with her pleased face, she gave the commander a thumbs up.

The knight was startled and quickly disapproved, "That's not the point, it's not safe! You're a commander, why are you so unreliable now?!"

Being scolded by his soldier, the commander sighed, "Alright, Lewin. I will stop, but at least Lady Faenia had fun."

"Sir!"

Ultimately, the commander stopped doing reckless things to Faenia and Ella went back to the mansion to bring snacks and drinks for the knights while they were supposed to continue practising. In reality, they were having fun entertaining their little lady.

"Lady Faenia, we apologize for our commander Rocco's act."

Sitting on a garden chair, Faenia clumsily shook her head. "It's okay! I like Wocco."

"Wocco?"

Immediately, the knights burst out of laughter and made fun of their commander but they quickly stopped once they received his scary look.

"Wocco is fun," she quietly said.

The commander was proud, the brown-haired knight beside him saw it and couldn't help but ask her: "What about me? I'm Julian."

"Juian? Juian is a cool name."

Faenia noticed she couldn't pronounce some of the names correctly, as she was still too young. She was ashamed but then she got over it, thinking that it could add up her cuteness as a child.

"C-cool?" Julian was embarrassed and happy.

The other knights hastily followed him up:

"I'm Ulric."

"I'm Lewin, Lady Faenia."

"Nigel!"

"My name is Hanes."

"..."

Faenia felt like having a headache, there was no way she would remember each and every name of the knights right away. She rubbed her temple, slightly regretting to meet the knights. At least they didn't disappoint her, they were all good-looking. Lots of eye candy for her.

There were twenty-five of them present, excluding the knight commander. Faenia suspected if they were a special force because having knights practice in the backyard of a noble family didn't sound normal. The other possibility was that they were knights arranged to guard the household, using the backyard as their practice ground in their free time. Faenia bet on the first one, however, it turned out to be the latter.

After spending time with the knights and the maids that came with snacks, Faenia was exhausted. Admittedly, she did have fun having to know them. This kind of thing was bad for her; the more time she spends with them, the more attached she will be. But she was only a child, this was inevitable. She couldn't avoid it, she had to go through it. This was only the second day and Faenia started to doubt herself if she could pull it out.

"I reported this to Lord Orephia. Lady Faenia, your father wants to see you," Commander Rocco informed.