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Translator: Lizz
Edward was born as the second son of a marquis family, with his father holding a high-ranking position in the government.
He had inherited the best features of his parents and was handsome with a tall stature and exceptional athletic abilities.
The skill he was granted was Heightened Sensory. Not only intelligent but also possessed outstanding athleticism, he consistently achieved top grades at the noble academy.
After graduation, he aspired to become a knight. Due to his noble lineage and excellent academic record, he was chosen as a royal guard for the third prince, and his position within the guard continued to rise.
He became close friends with the man who was his runner-up during their student days, and they joined the knight order together, supporting each other in various ways. He was relied upon by his superiors, subordinates, and colleagues, and he took care of them.
A supportive friend, and a third prince who trusted him. A workplace where he was admired and relied upon.
He had not seen anything, and had only believed in the surface brilliance of his surroundings at the time.
– Suddenly, he was made to know that it was all an illusion.
One day, he was suddenly captured by the colleagues who were supposed to admire him and thrown into a cell without understanding what was happening.
Then, he was interrogated.
Edward was informed that he was suspected of attempting to assassinate the third prince, which left him bewildered.
He desperately insisted that he was innocent and falsely accused, and although the case went to trial, he was acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
…Although he was acquitted, he was dismissed from his position as a royal guard for the third prince. Moreover, he was also removed from the knight order.
Then, his father, the head of the marquis family, effectively disowned him, telling him to start from scratch to make up for his blunder.
Even the easygoing and good-natured Edward realized everything at this point.
The man he thought was his best friend had secretly resented him.
It was him who had set Edward up.
All the evidence was submitted by his friend. It was unmistakably proof that his friend had framed him. After all, he was innocent.
His friend had acted out of jealousy and a desire to gain the third prince’s trust and make him a puppet.
Although his friend was also talented, he was always a step behind in everything. Instead of being frustrated, he would say things like, ‘You’re amazing. I’m proud to have become friends with someone like you,’ deceiving everyone around and splendidly framing Edward.
At the time when everyone, including Edward himself, believed in his facade, he had executed his plan to frame him. He had tearfully declared, ‘It’s painful to accuse my friend, but I have my convictions as a knight,’ which had deceived everyone. Everyone, except Edward, believed his words and the fabricated evidence.
Even Edward’s own father.
Despite his desperate claims of innocence and wrongful accusation, his father chose not to believe him and decided to get rid of the evidence.
If he had investigated that evidence, it would have proven that his friend was the one who did it!
And so, the third prince, who had trusted him so much, and the knights who had relied on him until now, none of them listened to his claims of innocence. They spat out that he was a criminal who had suppressed evidence with the power of the marquis family, as if they had always thought so.
Edward’s father had probably disowned him with the intention to make him rejoin the knight order and rise from the ranks of a lower-class knight. He had thought it would be easy if Edward was truly innocent.
However, Edward was in despair.
Why should he make an effort to be believed when no one trusted him?
He might as well become the despicable and vile person everyone thought he was.
Edward sold all his possessions and the valuable items he could find in the marquis household, even the sword given to him by the third prince, and fled.
Along the way, he sneaked into the knight order, destroyed all the tasks and documents he had been working on, and took all the prepared salaries, which he had taken the liberty of naming severance pay. He sold the written acknowledgements of debts of the members who had borrowed money from him to a loan shark.
For the remaining amount, he broke into their rooms, took valuable items, and sold them.
And then, he disappeared from the royal capital.
Normally, a noble would not be able to endure the life of a commoner, but Edward was accustomed to it because he had been made to do menial tasks and work equivalent to those of commoners during his time in the camp. Therefore, he was unfazed by sleeping outdoors, eating poor meals, or staying in dirty lodgings.
Edward, who had been unaware at the time, now realized that he had been bullied and harassed, which deepened his despair even further.
His attitude changed abruptly; he became distrustful and cunning, living by imitating fraudulent merchants.
He originally had black hair, but now most of it had turned white, with only some black remaining. In the past, as a knight, he stood tall with a well-built body that commanded respect. However, now he had lost much of his muscle and had become thin due to a poor diet.
He drifted from place to place, and was now wandering through a duchy.
Missing the time for the stagecoach and with the next town being close, he decided to walk there for a change. On his way, he saw something strange in the distance.
A little girl walking with many livestock like cows and goats.
She was probably sent by her parents to sell the livestock, but it was extremely careless.
Such a young child being alone would likely end up with all the livestock being taken by bad people, and the little girl herself being sold off somewhere.
Thinking this, he watched as the little girl and the livestock strayed from the path.
With a vast grassland and a water source nearby, they were probably taking a break.
Edward intended to pass by them.
He thought that even if he reached the next town, they wouldn’t make it there.
…But before he knew it, he had strayed from the path.
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