"Well, if you have made the decision, I don't have any objection, but I need to make sure that you're aware of the danger." Anna squinted her eyes, pressuring Noel to rethink about his decision. If he still agreed to this plan, she would follow his decision.
"Yes." Noel nodded without hesitation. "Either way, I'm dead. Getting killed by you or dying in a mission is basically the same."
"…" Anna fell silent because she recalled that moment when Noel thought that dying by her hand wasn't that bad at all. It was clearly different from what Noel thought right now.
'Did something happen to Noel at that time? It felt like he wanted to kill me but not wanted to kill me at the same time. And me killing him was a kind of relief to him…' Anna noticed why Noel always said she was ignorant. 'I see. It seems that I truly don't know anything. Not only Noel, but I should also investigate the incidents too. After all, it's weird that my father has agreed to the royal family to execute his parents but exile Noel alone. And there is the family heirloom which can be seen to be a good sharp sword.
'My own family is hiding something about Noel… Is he that important?' Anna's expression darkened.
"What's wrong? Do you not want it that much?" Noel narrowed his eyes. "If you don't, then I can go there alone."
"No, that's not what I mean…" Anna shook her head hurriedly. "I don't have any problem with your decision since you have thought it through. In that case, when are you planning to go?"
"Hmm, how far is Argali Town?" Noel asked.
"…" Anna's eyebrows twitched as she was screaming inwardly, 'You can call the town's name but don't know the location? Are you serious? How in the world you know the Saintess' location without even having any kind of information?'
Anna took a while to sort out her breath and said, "Argali Town is in Earldom… Who is it again? Earl Hawkins? Either way, the distance from this place to the Earldom is around two weeks… That is because you love running."
Noel was speechless and said, "We can go with horse for this one."
"Huh?" Anna was startled and looked at Noel dumbfoundedly as if someone was impersonating him.
"Why are you looking at me as if I am a fake?" Noel held back his anger and said, "Well, we'll be training for one month before going to that town…"
"Training?" Anna suddenly smirked and teased him. "Oh, can you ride a horse? You were a lazy person in the past, right? You shouldn't have learned how to ride a horse, right?"
"Is that a problem?" Noel narrowed his eyes, annoyed. "I'll learn it in one month, alright?"
"Fine, fine. I won't be teasing you. In fact, I can teach you. I mean, we both are still 15 years old, so our body should be able to sit on a saddle together. I can make you learn horse riding in a week." Anna smirked.
Noel was taken aback by this idea. On the one hand, it was truly the best way to practice horse riding. On the other hand, he hated it so much since he didn't want to be indebted to Anna.
The question would be whether he would lower his pride in order to get the best result or kept his pride but stopped his progress for a while.
After two minutes, Noel had come to a decision. Even Anna dropped her jaw to the ground when Noel suddenly lowered his head to her.
"Please teach me horse riding." Noel put down his pride for the first time. With so much hatred buried in his heart, this wasn't an easy thing to accomplish.
Anna froze because she had an idea how much Noel hated her. Even though that hatred had been diminished a little, it was still too much for him to bow. And she felt the heaviness of this action.
Anna's expression turned solemn and said, "I understand. I'll make sure you can ride a horse within a week."
After getting Anna's agreement, Noel finally raised his head.
Anna could see that Noel was clenching his fists so hard that his nails almost pierced his palms. This was Noel's resolve.
Anna felt a bit moved for his determination and decided to make him forget the embarrassment.
She grabbed his hands and said, "Follow me."
"Huh?" Noel couldn't understand what Anna was doing. He didn't realize that Anna took his confusion to gradually stop him from hurting himself and even held his hand to make sure that he couldn't bleed his palm.
After that, she smiled and ran, dragging him to another place. "I said follow me!"
"W-wai—!" Noel couldn't finish his sentence as he already started running because Anna had been dragging him.
They ran through the forest, avoided all the trees in the way, and kept running.
On the way, Noel looked at their hands together and realized that Anna's hand was actually smooth despite so much hard work she put in swinging her sword. It seemed that she had been taking care of her skin despite all that hard work. Yes, he realized that he wasn't the only one doing his hardest.
Eventually, they came out of the forest and reached a cliff. Noel panicked because he thought Anna planned to jump off the cliff, but before he could warn him, Anna stopped.
"Tsk. I want to show you this during the sunset but I guess this is fine too." Anna smiled and spread her hands while showing the scenery on top of the cliff.
Noel, for the first time, saw everything in the horizon. The land was covered by trees, the meandering rivers, the small lake where they always camped, and the sun that illuminated the forest. It felt so vast and beautiful.
Looking at them from on top of the cliff somehow made his heart beat rapidly from excitement as if the scenery was telling him that there were many things to explore in the world. That was right, the world had many different things that could be explored. Different kingdoms had different cultures and different ways of living, and if he couldn't solve a certain problem in his territory, other places might have the solution to that problem.
His heart was telling him to explore the world to know as much as he could so that he could know what to do when he regained his territory.
"This is…" Noel was entranced by the beauty of the nature. But Anna dropped another bomb because Anna finally bowed to him for the first time.
"Noel, I'm sorry."
