How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love

“Tak tak! The cursed forest hunter, who was alive, finally became a brown bear’s dinner.”

“…!”

A bronzed, human-shaped horse carved out of the wood was kicked by a red bear-shaped horse with two front feet raised high and rolled on the horse board.

Colin, a huge man, slammed the table with his fists as what happened just before the finish line.

“Damn it, there’s no way I’m getting beaten by a brown bear, not even a high-level monster, and I can cut its neck without an axe.”

“Yes, yes, if you feel so unfair, go to the nearby mountain. Since you were eliminated, give me the fine. Even the people who bet on Colin crossing the finish line pay a fine.” 

David raised his glasses and called out the names of all the people who had bet on ‘Colin Crosses the Finish Line’. A total of three Heilang knights complained and took out gold coins from their pockets.

“Shouldn’t you have passed at least once by now? How can you not pass once?”

“How did you even make it to the finish line?”

“Next time, I’ll never bet on Colin.”

There is no winner in the betting game between knights and Wizards in their free time. There are only losers.

The fines paid by the losers pile up on one side of the table, and the money is used to pay for drinks and snacks at the drinking party that night.

Since everyone is a knight and wizard from Ajas, the amount of money earned through salary and special allowance is not small, but It was forbidden to bet more than 10 gold, so even if a bet took place, the amount of money collected was only 10 of gold.

Although today was a little different.

“Wow, it’s over 300 gold… Bianca! What time is it now?”

David shouted loudly and asked, fixing the glasses that kept flowing down once more and again.

Bianca, who was reading a book sitting in a rocking chair a little away from the large table where everyone was huddled together, took out a pendant watch from her pocket.

“Since the captain left to propose…It’s been 4 hours…”

“4 hours? It’s already been that long?” 

“Then why isn’t he back yet?”

“No way… has he got dumped?”

A heavy silence descended on the first-floor lobby, where knights and wizards gathered and played together. It was Sage, A wizard, a healing wizard who broke it.

“Ah, please. He took so many wedding proposal gifts. To be honest, I would say that even the enemy who killed my parents would be fine.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Do you think the lady our captain has a crush on is such a snob?”

“If she was not such a snob, why did our captain buy so many gifts?”

“Of course, it’s about his dignity! If Marquis Ajas went empty-handed to propose to the lady, People will laugh at our captain, calling him the poorest man in the world.”

“Besides, the lady’s pride is also at stake. This is something I heard as well, but it was said that if the titles of husbands are similar, the rank of the lady to enter the social world is determined by the value of the received at the time of marriage.”

There was considerable credibility in Ginger’s words that she was born as an illegitimate child of a high-ranking person and lived as a maid for 10 years in the house.

All of a sudden, the horse board and the dice were all forgotten, and the knights and wizards were busy talking about the nobleman’s marriage proposal.

“I understand what you mean. Are you saying that the item bought at a higher price is more valuable?”

“No, that’s ridiculous.…A person is not a thing…”

“That’s right. I heard that nobles value honor. Where’s the honor?” 

“Well, in the first place, a noblewoman’s rank is tied to her husband’s, which means she can’t stand on her own without her husband’s honor. Of course, it also depends on whether her husband cherishes her or treats her poorly.”

“So it’s the material thing that identifies them, huh? They’re nobles, no different from us…”

The one who grumbled was the youngest of the Heilangs Knights, Zenut, who was from the desert. It was the one-armed warrior Vermon who ruffled the boy’s short hair.

“You bastard, didn’t I tell you to fix that habit? Then, this uncle of yours will say, true or not?”

“You sound like an uncle! Stop it because it hurts!”

Zenut, barely freed from his thick arms, ran away, tied the braid on his forehead again, and grunted.

Sage, who was gently patting Ruby sleeping on his lap, raised a worried voice behind Vermon.

“Isn’t the captain too late? I mean, it can’t take this long.”

“Shall we call Robert?”

“Leave it alone, they say no news is good news. It’s not anyone else. It’s the Marquis of Ajas. Do you really think our captain could be dumped?”

“It could be. The captain has a young master Noah.” 

Silence fell over the lobby once again at the words someone had uttered.

As for Noah, in fact, opinions were divided even among knights and Wizards

Most of them thought that it was the leader’s decision and they should just follow it, but the ones who were fussing about it were those who had noble blood or had worked for nobles and knew a little bit about their story.

In particular, Melissa, the second daughter of a southern aristocrat, sighed while twisting her hair.

“Well, to be honest, I have nothing to say. What kind of woman gets married to a man who has an illegitimate child before marriage?”

“Young master Noah is not the illegitimate son of the captain.”

“But, how do other noble ladies know whether it is an illegitimate child or not?”

“Well, Master Noah looks like,…”

“They would think, that’s what his mother must look like.  Wouldn’t that be worse, you’d be constantly reminded of a woman whose face you’ve never seen.”

“….”

“What was the reason he came down to the capital in the first place? 

It’s because the vassals won’t give up his daughter. and even those who know he’s not illegitimate we don’t know if she’s lasted long or not.”

At Melissa’s words, the faces of the knights and wizards hardened like rob. Each swallowed words stained with worry, anxiety, scorn, and regret.

There was a voice that quietly interrupted.

“Speaking of which, why do they hate Master Noah?”

“Isn’t it because he is not directly related to the captain? They would have accepted it if Noah was the illegitimate son of the Captain.”

“Precisely, it’s a matter of origin, I guess.”

“Doesn’t only the Captain know who Master Noah’s real parents are?”

“Anyway, I’ve been serving Ajas for hundreds of years, but I can’t guess anything from that bloodline. he’s been calling Master Noah—”

“Oooh!”

Among them, Vermon had the longest Heilang knight, and that time when everyone held their breath and listened to him.

But Ruby, who had been sleeping soundly on Sage’s lap, opened her eyes and suddenly flew up.

“Ruby!”

All the Knight tensed up and all the Wizards tried to recite a spell before the troublemaker tried to run away for the ninth time.

But fortunately, Ruby’s ninth runaway attempt was unsuccessful.

The closed door opened and Leonhardt, who they had been waiting for, came home.

“Meow!”

“Captain!”

“Ruby…! How many times have I told you to get rid of the habit of running away from home?”

Leonhard, who managed to catch Ruby, who was rushing to his face, sighed.

Robert, who was chanting a wind net magic behind him just in case, took the ruby and hugged it tightly in his arms.

“I told you to take care of Ruby. Are you going to make Ruby run away again?” 

“Whatever. This house has a big garden.”

“He flew from the hotel to the Silver Line. If it flies out of the garden, then you really can’t find it.”

“Captain! How did the marriage proposal go?” 

“Can we go back to the castle now?”

“The stakes have piled up so much that now all I have to do is buy a drink. Can we drink our celebratory wine?”

“Even if it’s not, well, it’s okay to drink a consolation drink.…” 

“Stop thinking about it, Captain!”

“It’s not that I’ve been thinking about it, it’s because you didn’t give me time to answer.” 

“So how did it go?”

The one who responded to Zenut’s impatient urging was Heliot, who came in after him with two large kegs slung across at his sides.

“You guys! I Bring a drink!”

“A drink? You already bought a drink?”

“Today is a celebration day! hahaha! Our Captain is finally getting married!” 

“Whoa!”

Behind the excited Heliot, several attendants groaned and carried the keg at the butler’s gesture. From snow beer, Ajas specialty, to strong vodka.

After drinking, everyone cheered with joy as they saw the amount of alcohol that would actually be enough to kill them all.

“Congratulations, Captain!”

“Look! I told you! No woman would reject the proposal of our captain!”

“Hooray! Now we can go home!”

Knights and wizards, who were so excited, each opened a keg or held a bottle and shouted for a toast. In the already turmoil, Leonhard lightly waved his hand.

“Drink among yourselves. I have other things to do.” 

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“What business on a good day like today! You should drink, Captain!” 

“I decided to formally send someone to Count Howard to conduct the marriage discussion. I’ll join you later in the evening, so you guys are drinking first.”

“If that’s the case— ”

“Robert! Cathy! Leona! Ethan! Come and sit down. How did the captain propose? What did our future lady say? Tell me quickly!”

“Did he really confess with the words you wrote down? What about flowers and what about stars?”

Leaving the loud noise behind, Leonhard grabbed a bottle of strong vodka and went up to his room.

No one followed Leonhardt and bothered him, perhaps because he said he had something to do or because those who went with him to propose Raenel became scapegoats.

Thanks to that, Leonhard, who was able to lock himself in the room alone, buried himself in a chair without even turning on the fireplace.

“…..”

As if he had lost his soul, he stared blankly at the ceiling, then took off the lid of the bottle he was holding and brought the spout of the bottle to his mouth.

Gulp, gulp. 

Adam’s apple in the center of his stretched neckline gurgled for a long time.

He took one shot of strong vodka at once and finally leaned over the chair as the tension was relieved.

“Hah…”

‘Thanks, god.’ 

Muttering that word to himself, Leonhard raised his left hand high above his head.

The blue jewel, which had no reflected light and was slightly darker, came into his field of vision.

“Captain, I think it would be best to hide that ring for a while.”

“Why?”

“The captain hasn’t proposed marriage yet. and I don’t think you are going to go around announcing that a lady asked you to marry her first, and besides, you’re a man who’s been dumped a few times now.”

‘I couldn’t wear it openly, so I had to keep hiding it.’

‘I had never worn a ring on my left ring finger in my entire life, but I was so concerned about my empty finger while preparing for my marriage proposal. ‘

Leonhard also suffered from nightmares.

A dream in which Raenel demands that the ring be returned, saying that she has changed her mind. 

However, when he put the ring on her hand, Raenel smiled and accepted his marriage proposal. Her guardian, Count Howard, also accepted the marriage.

Now, this ring completely belonged to him.

“….”

Leonhard didn’t realize that the corner of his mouth went up as he stared up at the ring.

Even though he knew he had to fill out the marriage application to send to Count Howard right away, he didn’t notice the time passing and he just took out a handkerchief and polished the jewels on the ring again and again.