"W-Wait, Lady Yuri! Please, stop!"
"Huff... huff! Stop! I’m serious!"
"Who in their right mind stops just because they’re told to?! If you’re being chased, of course you’re going to run!"
This occurred immediately following the Royal Academy entrance exam. Specifically, just after the testing for the Commoner Category had concluded.
A young woman was currently sprinting through the heart of the Royal Capital, with several knights panting heavily as they trailed behind her.
"T-The Knight Commander... Marquis Catreia ordered us to bring you home! Please, just stop!"
"Try and make me! Are you supposed to be knights or not?!"
The girl weaving through the city streets and shaking off the pursuit of multiple knights was Yuri Catreia—the same girl who had befriended Rest during the entrance exam.
Yuri had just left the venue after finishing her interview.
She had been planning to invite the boy she’d just met to dinner when she was nearly intercepted by the waiting knights.
Using her extraordinary physical abilities, Yuri evaded their grasp and began a game of cat and mouse through the capital.
"I have already been disowned by the House of Catreia! My father was merciful enough to let me keep my surname, but I am no longer a Marquis’s daughter! Therefore, I have no obligation to answer a summons from the Marquis!"
A month ago, Yuri had gotten into a heated argument with her father, Marquis Catreia, and stormed out of the house.
At the time, he had shouted, "If you’re leaving, then you’re disowned! I won’t allow you to set foot in this house ever again!"
While she still bore the name Catreia—the same as her late mother—she no longer considered herself a member of the noble house.
"No, that was just a figure of speech! The Knight Commander regrets it! He only said it in the heat of the moment!"
"I am free now! I won't be tied down by anyone!"
"Just listen to me!"
Completely ignoring the shouting knights, Yuri leaped from roof to roof, moving with the nimble grace of a cat.
"Lady Yuri! My lady!"
While the knights cried out in despair, Yuri’s expression remained bright and unburdened.
Yuri was the youngest of five siblings. Her four elders were all brothers, making her the only daughter of the House of Catreia.
Because she was the spitting image of the late Marchioness Catreia, Yuri had been smothered with affection by her father and brothers.
She was rarely allowed to leave their country estate, and on the few occasions she was, at least five of her father’s subordinates followed her as guards.
Whenever she saw her brothers training in the courtyard, she would beg her father to let her learn the sword... but he would only hand her a padded stick, letting her engage in swordsmanship training that was little more than playing house.
As a result, she had spent her time secretly performing intense muscle training in her room, which had gifted her with an absurdly high level of physical fitness.
Yuri had endured this treatment until she turned fifteen, but this year, something finally pushed her past her limit.
She had naturally assumed she would be attending the Royal Academy, but her father had been vehemently opposed to the idea.
"If someone like you enrolls in the Academy, the filthy bugs will swarm! You'll be drowning in a sea of suitors! If you want to study, we’ll hire a tutor. You aren't leaving this estate!"
In that moment, Yuri felt a surge of intense rage toward her father for the first time in her life. She felt the same toward her four brothers who had voiced their support for him.
She had believed that entering the Academy would be her chance to escape her gilded cage and step out into a new world. She wanted to make friends, gain experience, and see for herself just how vast the world truly was.
And yet, she was being denied the very thing she yearned for. She respected her father, but this was something she could not forgive.
The argument ended with Yuri storming out of the estate.
She obtained a recommendation letter for the Commoner Category from her mother’s family and applied for the Magic Department, where her father’s influence as the Knight Commander was weakest.
"I’m free... So this is the world!"
Standing atop the clock tower in the capital, Yuri spread her arms wide toward the twilight sky.
When she had climbed it this morning, she had been so captivated by her first look at the city that she had accidentally fallen... but she wouldn't make that mistake again.
Yuri looked down at the capital, bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun, and let a wide smile spread across her face.
"All right! I'm going to make a hundred friends! I'll travel everywhere and see everything!"
The world was endless. She was going to expand the horizons that had been kept so narrow by her confinement in the estate.
"And... I'm going to find a wonderful husband!"
Yuri shouted her declaration to the sunset.
"Find a man you can respect and have a beautiful romance." "Have children with him and build a happy home."
Those were the final words her mother had left her. One of the reasons Yuri had fought so hard to enter the Royal Academy was to find her ideal partner, just as her mother had wished.
"My first day in the capital, and I've already made a friend and found one wonderful man! I've got to keep this momentum going!"
Leaving the knights to scramble around uselessly below her, Yuri made her oath to the setting sun.