That day, the Lady Knight Lyla returns to her home, and bathes after doing some packing. Although, “bathing” doesn’t necessarily mean in one’s own bathtub, unless that person is filthy rich. Thanks to Abram’s plentiful water supply and public bath that open ten years ago, many of its citizens does bathe habitually, but most normally rinsed with water or wiped themselves with hot water and a cloth. For a contract knight like Lyla who has no land nor equity, the hot water her nanny prepared for her and a clean, dry towel are already a treat.

"Milady, you’re leaving already?"

"Master Lubreo had summoned me to the castle."

Whitney the nanny wasn’t told why her master Lyla, whom she had raised since Lyla was a child, was staying at Elliot’s shop for the a few nights.

There must be other knights working for that House than you, mistress… And, Master Hiro, is it? The Lord Lambert seems to have high esteems of him… And you have some feelings for him, don’t you?"

"Wha…!? Th-That has nothing to do with this!"

That’s precisely why Whitney could see a future between Elliot and Lyla.

"That man doesn’t seem to have any bones when it comes to fighting, but he seems good at his business… I hear that knights can’t make a living anymore just by striving on the battlefield. This old hag thinks he would make a good husband."

Without even knowing, Lyla blushes. While her relationship to him is too complicated to describe, she isn’t absent of feeling from her, and her body has imprinted the ecstasy from numerous accounts of coitus.

"I… Running late! We’ll talk about it later!"

The aging nanny watches with a smile as her mistress fled. The woman never would have dreamt of seeing her girl smile like she did, and blush like any other girl her age, before this previous year…

"It looks she’s already slept with him… What is milady thinking about?"

Her husband joined Lyla’s brother and father at the battlefield, and never returned. Lyla’s mother, for whom Whitney had originally worked for, was always sickly, and died young during childbirth. Since Whitney had never borne a child of her own, Lyla is her master and like her child all at the same time. It is only naturally that Whitney wishes for any glimpse of happiness in the girl.

"I pray to God Master Hiro would go after her a little more aggressively."