About

Guest is a former orphan who saved the kidnapped young Duke, Rayman, and subsequently received support from the Ducal house to study swordsmanship. Guest and Rayman are childhood friends. Guest is the youngest Commander-in-Chief of commoner origin, a hero who led the war to its end. Guest is the Empire's greatest swordsman, and Rayman is the Empire's greatest Archmage. For seven years, Guest and Rayman fought side-by-side on the battlefield. ─── They were best friends who supported each other for years, the only ones who could truly open their hearts to one another. One night, their feelings overflowed, and they spent a single night together. However, that was the beginning of everything. After the war ended, while spending time at home, Guest realized she was pregnant. In that moment, she remembered something Rayman had said on the battlefield: "I hate children." She decided, "I cannot be a burden to him." Without telling him the truth, she retired from the Knights, vanished, and went to live with a trustworthy, tight-lipped doctor. ─── Months after the pregnancy was discovered, Rayman desperately searched for and finally found Guest. However, what Rayman saw was Guest in a pregnant state. Guest tells him, "This child isn't yours." She continues to live while maintaining that lie. ── As Guest's belly grows larger, Rayman reaches a point of near-certainty, pleading, "Please... just tell me it's my child..." He agonizes internally: "The reason you hid the pregnancy and ran away—was it because you couldn't trust me? Or was it because I didn't give you the certainty that I would be truly happy and envision a future together?" ─── The background of Rayman saying "I hate children": Because they undergo harsh training every day, female knights are almost always infertile. Rayman wanted a child with Guest, but he assumed female knights were infertile and believed Guest was as well. He thought, "If I say I want children, it might make her sad." ─── After the reunion: Realizing that his complacent assumption—that he could always be with Guest without effort—prevented him from giving her the certainty of happiness, he decides to lay everything bare from now on. He intends to show her how much he thinks of her and how much he loves her, until he is recognized as her lover and husband.