I wanted to say something, but Alina spoke first.
“It was all her fault!” she suddenly shouted.
I raised my eyebrows and turned to look at her in disbelief.
Alina stole a glance at me and blushed from being flustered. “Prince Rufus already made his relationship with her public, yet she still came here to pester Warren! And she tried to break in by force just now. My four bodyguards and I couldn’t stop her.”
I shrugged helplessly, “I already told you that I’m not here to ‘pester’ Warren. We’re just friends, Plus-“
I paused mid-sentence. I was going to say that Warren already had a girlfriend, but I realized in time that they didn’t seem to know about his new relationship yet.
So I’d better let Warren tell them himself.
“Plus what, hmm?” Alina sneered, as though she had caught me in a lie. “You can’t defend yourself, can you? The guilt’s written all over your face.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and just ignored her.
Leonard frowned and squinted at me for a while before asking, “You’re that slave, right? What’s your name again?”
A bit embarrassed, Leonard turned to look at Owen for help.
I couldn’t help but frown unhappily. His first sentence to me made my high impression of him decline fast.
I didn’t say anything, waiting for him to remember my name himself.
Owen, who was standing next to Leonard, cleared his throat and whispered helpfully, “Sylvia Todd. And she’s no longer a slave.”
Leonard turned to look at me again. “It’s Sylvia Todd, right?”
“Yes,” I still replied to him out of sheer politeness, but if I had it my way, I’d have walked away from this conversation the second he called me a slave.
Although Leonard didn’t explicitly say so, his attitude obviously told me that he didn’t like me one bit.
I figured that Ethan’s arrangement must’ve made things difficult for him.
I suddenly closed my eyes, regretting agreeing to let Leonard train me.
Wasn’t I just begging to be insulted?
“Shouldn’t you be in the army already?” Leonard asked again, narrowing his eyes at me.
“My entry into the army was delayed a day because I have something important to deal with first.” I lowered my head and couldn’t look him in the eye.
Leonard snorted and asked in a dissatisfied tone, “Is coming here your so-called ‘something important’?”
“Yes, Father! Actually, Sylvia’s been bothering me here for a long time already. She’d better go to the army,” Alina sneered.
I took a deep breath to calm down. Looking at Leonard indignantly, I said word for word, “I’m not here for Warren.”
“Then don’t try to look for excuses. What’s so important that you needed to delay entering the army? Do you think that just because you topped the selection competition you can act arrogantly now? You’re so ignorant. I wonder what the hell Ethan was thinking,” Leonard snorted, his tone dripping with disappointment. “It seems that this year’s new recruits are just so-so. You all think you’ve made such a huge contribution that you let it get to your head.”
Sylvia’s POV
Leonard trained his people very seriously, and he didn’t allow anyone to talk back. I knew that if I retorted, he would only say that I was trying to make excuses.
Owen was expressionless the whole time. He looked at me from time to time as if he wanted to communicate with me through eye contact.
I also looked at him with an expressionless face. Then I calmly looked away.
I knew he wanted me to restrain myself.
Leonard’s words were strident, and he spoke in a voice dripping with sarcasm. But I couldn’t find faults in everything he said.
So I stood silently in front of him, and my thoughts drifted away unconsciously.
He kept on talking as if he didn’t plan to stop. Owen had to comfort him from time to time.
“Don’t be angry. Mind your health. You have to be careful of your body,” Owen reminded him.
Leonard snorted heavily and didn’t listen to Owen’s advice. He continued criticizing me for not reporting to the army on time.
“Why don’t you say anything? Have you lost your tongue?”
I raised my eyes and pursed my lips. “What do you want me to say?”
What else could I say? He had already said so much. I could only feel depressed and aggrieved.
“Who allowed you to disregard the military discipline? What? You can just go there whenever you want? If you want to postpone, you will just do it at will?” Leonard had a stern look on his face. He was as fierce as a raging thunder in the sky.
I didn’t say anything and just curled my lips.
Originally, I wanted to explain. But he obviously didn’t want to listen at all, so it was useless.
Regardless of my reason for not reporting to the army on time, I was still wrong because I disregarded the discipline.
And now, I was almost nailed to the pillar of shame.
“Even if you don’t tell me the reason, I know it,” Leonard sneered disapprovingly. “It’s the preferential treatment that Prince Rufus is giving you, right?”
I reminded myself to hold back. Since he was my future teacher, I couldn’t lose my temper with him.
I was tense. I lowered my head and stared at the floor, admonishing myself over and over again not to lose control of my emotions.
But thinking that Leonard would train me, I couldn’t help but break down.
“Head up and look at me! You don’t have the military demeanor at all. Going out as a soldier, you represent the image of the empire. How can you look so dejected?”
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