It was winter when Lumina first met him.

She was just twenty-three at that time. And just like the rest of her sisters, she would be meeting her suitor today.

Duke Dare, the father of Lumina, never had a son. He did try with his other wives, but all of it resulted in another girl.

Along with all her sisters, Lumina had a total of five elder half-sisters.

She got along with them since birth. As the youngest in their group, she received the love of all her sisters.

But, one by one, all of them vanished… or to put it more precisely, they all ran away.

It was all because of their father, the Duke of Dare territory.

As the war's stakes were rising and the neighboring lands were choosing sides, the Dare territory was losing its influence.

And to improve this, the Duke had decided to finally put a good use to his daughters.

And that was… political marriage.

As the one who held the title of Duke, he had married beauties across the kingdom. Because of this, all his daughters were as beautiful as their mothers.

Every prince, every lord wanted them in their group of harem, so the Duke decided to use their lust to strengthen his political alliance.

A few months back, the Duke had arranged his first meetup for his eldest daughter, Rosina Elizabeth Dare, with her prominent suitor from an influential capital.

Surely everyone thought of that suitor to be a young, handsome, prince charming type of man, but no. He was the complete opposite of what they all had imagined him to be.

An elderly man with two grown-up daughters, he was Rosina's so-called suitor.

The elderly suitor only wanted to have a beautiful wife, as his previous two had died while giving birth to his daughters, or so the rumours said.

He wanted a lovely wife again; he had been searching for them ever since, but today he got the chance, and he even promised the Duke to leave all his territory to Rosina.

"..."

Both the suitors saw each other.

The elderly man huffed, seeing Rosina in a delightful, lavish dress. But the sight of the elderly man, as well as her father's calm expression, felt disgusting to her.

Her skin crawled, and not just hers, but all her sisters felt the same.

On the same night, the eldest sister ran away from the territory, leaving a note behind for Lumina and the others.

Just the next day, the second eldest sister received a proposal from a prince from a faraway kingdom. But because of the bad reputation of the prince, she ran away too on the same night of the proposal.

One by one, the same fate followed Lumina's remaining sisters, leaving her alone for her day to come.

"My oh my, you look so lovely, Lady Lumina~"

"Hehehe, indeed, our Lady is the most beautiful in the whole kingdom after all, she is about to meet the first Prince!"

"Oh, lower her top a bit, rumours had it that the prince always gets charmed by more skin you show."

'What a lowlife,' Lumina thought.

The honey-laced chatter of her maids was pathetic enough to make her want to run right away.

But she held it in.

As the only inheritor of the family's sword art, the king himself had brought a proposal on behalf of his son.

They wanted her to be the future queen of the kingdom after she married the first heir of the throne.

It was an honour, really, and the Dare territory would gain back its influence if this marriage went successfully.

The maids left her room.

Lumina stared back at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes fell on all the jewellery, the handloomed silk dress, and finally… her chest.

Yes, because of her bastard of a father, and that pervy prince, half her top was exposed for today's meetup.

"Haaah…"

She sighed.

"I should just run away…"

She didn't want to see the prince or any of the people here.

Unlike her sisters, she would not wait for the late light to run away.

'All of the running away from home could be avoided if only our bastard father had just chosen a decent suitor for all of us,' Lumina thought. 'but no! He has sworn to choose either a old man, or a thug!'

At one point, Lumina just wished to see the old man calling her father 'father-in-law'.

Literally, who in their right mind would even marry an old man of their father's age?!

"That was disgusting… poor Big Sis Rosina had it the worst out of all of us."

She fell into thought.

'I wonder what she's up to lately.'

It had been several months already since she ran away. And also her other sisters.

Lumina didn't feel remorse because she knew they all would be in a better place than this shithole.

'Don't you worry, my dear sisters. I am coming for you all.'

Lumina puffed her cheeks at her own reflection in the mirror and nodded like some general making a grand speech.

She even decided to pack a few dumplings for Rosina and Aurora.

Her chest felt lighter today, because unlike all the days before, this was her day. She too would follow in her sisters' footsteps and escape.

You see, Lumina couldn't just run away before today. She was the inheritor of the Dare family's sword art. And only yesterday, after years of sweat and screaming at herself, she finally mastered it.

Perfect slash, perfect stance, perfect technique. Done. Finished. Over. And now she's free!

However, her bastard of a father had other plans.

But now that her duty was complete, she could finally abandon this rotten place.

"Alright!" she declared, hopping up from her dressing chair.

She snatched her luggage from where she had hidden it behind the curtains and swung her saber across her back with a proud little smirk. Then she marched toward her balcony.

Flopping onto the railing, she spread her arms wide.

The cold wind rushed against her white hair, carrying the smell of pine and frozen earth.

She looked ahead at the endless snowy horizon and whispered with a grin.

"Haah… freedom. Marriage is the perfect excuse to run away from home."

With her chin high, she tried to leap down.

Her silk dress betrayed her.

"..!!"

"Wooooaaa—!!"

Her foot slipped. And the ground rushed closer to her vision.

PUFF—!

A strong warmth caught her. Her body pressed against solid muscle instead of ice and snow.

She blinked rapidly.

When her eyes finally focused, she saw a pair of crimson red eyes staring down at her.

The young man who held her looked calm, almost bored. Black hair framed his pale face, and faint scars traced across his jaw. He looked like a knight in training.

"Watch where you jump, woman," he said flatly.

"…"

Her mind stalled.

'What did he just say?'

"Sorry?" she blinked at him.

"I said, watch below before you jump… woman."

Her eyebrow twitched.

"Ah… oh, alright…" she mumbled quickly, trying to sound polite.

Then she froze.

A strange sensation tickled across her chest.

Cold. She felt too cold in a particular region, which wasn't supposed to feel like this.

She glanced down.

Her top had slipped further down.

Her eyes widened in horror.

"H-Hey! Don't look!" she shouted, pushing against him.

She jumped up, stumbled back onto her feet, and hugged her chest as she fumbled to fix her slippery silk dress.

The young man simply stared at her. His crimson eyes dragged from her face down to her feet and back up again.

"Now, don't you dare blame it on me," he said casually. "I'm aware of all you women's little plays—"

"I would not!" she snapped.

'What is wrong with him?'

He looked ordinary, like any knight she had sparred with before, but there was something… odd.

And strangely, he didn't seem to recognize her.

'Does he not know who I am? Clearly every knight knows me. I beat all of them at least once.'

'Is he new? Must be.'

She coughed loudly and then pointed toward the woods.

"Alright. Pretend you never saw me, and let me pass into the forest zone."

The young man frowned.

"Forest zone? Sorry, but I can't. A delicate woman like you must not go to that place."

Her teeth clenched.

"Call me a woman one more time, and I will snap your tongue off."

Silence.

He blinked, then slowly dragged his eyes over her again.

"…Are you not?" he asked, as if genuinely confused.

There was even a hint of disgust in his tone.

Lumina's jaw dropped.

"No! When did I— You… are you retarded?"

The man tilted his head.

"No. Are you?"

Lumina stared at him.

'What? He's insane. A creep! He's a creep! I must run!'

She darted past him, her cold saber clinking against her hip, as she proceeded to head toward the forest path.

But before she could slip by, his hand clamped around her wrist.

Her breath hitched.

'Impossible.'

Her movement was light, fast, and almost silent. Yet he caught her.

"I said that place is dangerous… for a wom—young lady," he corrected himself.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Let go of me, or I'll complain to your head knight!"

His lips curled into a restless grin.

"Oh? I see you try to act bold. Who do you think you are—"

"Name." Lumina demanded.

"What?" He blinked.

"Tell me your name. You'll know soon enough who I am."

Forget running away; she will first ruin his life.

The young man grinned wider, showing no hesitation.

"Shin Kataino. But they all just know me as Shin."

.

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[A/N: I know this arc is long, but it's an important arc and will have a great influence on the overall story plot! Just few more chapters, and will move to Academy arc completely!]

Hopefully, I can do another long chapter today; let's just wish my classes end soon! Thanks for reading, and supporting me with power stones and Golden tickets, we only need 26 GT to reach our goal of 100 GT for 2 extra chapters!]

[PS: I added this A/N after uploading, so the price of the chapter won't get increased!]

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