Namgung Se-ga, the warrior, was reincarnated in Romance

Since the use of the training hall was permitted only after turning five years old, I had to hold the birthday banquet before the training.

In this world, young children easily die, so they are rarely allowed outside the mansion before the age of five, and it is also not common to hold grand birthday celebrations.

In other words, it was said that holding a banquet is usually the responsibility of the lady of the house, and since it would be a big problem if her health deteriorated shortly after giving birth, it was done that way.

Both have a point; it’s truly a valid statement.

I, Michael Ernhardt, was born as an only child, but I have not yet received a title.

My paternal grandfather holds the title of count, and my maternal grandfather holds the title of duke.

However, since my father was a viscount who would inherit the title of count, and my maternal uncle was a duke who would inherit the title of grand duke, I was to inherit the title of viscount from my father after my grandfather’s death.

Since both my paternal and maternal grandparents all cherish me, it wasn’t difficult to deal with them, as I had already met them several times before the birthday banquet.

“Have you arrived?”

“Yeah, our puppy.” You didn’t want to see this old man, did you?

“Of course, I wanted to see you again.” Have you been well all this time?

However, the behavior of my grandfather pinching my cheeks every time we meet just because I’m young is hard to smile at.

If I showed too much dislike, it would be awkward for both of us, so I pretended to be in pain and shook my head. Only then did they let go and placed a large gift in my arms.

I heard that it is customary to have a servant pile up gifts in one place, but seeing that you wanted to personally give a gift to your grandchild, I smiled and accepted the gift.

The weight was heavier than I expected, and my body swayed significantly.

The grandmother’s puffy dress, which she had tightly embraced with both the gift bundle and me, was rough, but I endured it without showing any sign.

“Mika always seems so mature, no matter when I see her.” Did you hire a tutor?

“Yes.” Now that I’ve learned how to read and write, I decided to learn etiquette after today.

“You’re already so clever, you’ll do well at anything.” Aren’t you curious about what the gift is?

“I thought it would be a doll because of its large size, but… it’s heavier than I expected.” “May I open it?”

“Then, it’s yours.” Hurry up and solve it.

What on earth makes you so confident to speak like this?

Since it was a banquet for young children, the atmosphere around was quite relaxed.

While some adults led children my age to come closer and greet, I had a bit of trouble untying the tightly bound bundle.

My mother came closer and led me to where the other gifts were piled up. When I finally unwrapped everything, I was greatly impressed.

“This… this is armor, isn’t it?”

“I had heard the story that the eldest son of our Ernhardt family wanted to become a knight since he was young.” He received it from his black father, and even though he will have a custom-made armor for when he grows up, he didn’t bother to fit one for his current body.”

Since my bones hadn’t fully grown yet, I was worried about running with sandbags or iron plates, but wearing this would surely allow me to distribute weight evenly across my entire body without much concern!

I was so happy that I couldn’t hide my delighted expression and hugged the armor.

When my paternal grandparents, with beaming smiles, nodded their heads, this time my maternal grandparents, looking delighted, presented the gifts they had prepared. I quickly tore that open too.

It is a shield that can cover the upper body and an iron sword that fits in the hand. The blade wasn’t sharp, but the ornate decoration gleamed brightly.

“This is…!” Is this an imperial knight order shield?

“Yes, in the future, Sir Ernhardt will join the most prestigious knight order in the empire, so he has been granted permission to borrow the emblem of the Imperial Knight Order.” It wasn’t planned in advance, but it looks like a matching set with the armor. Like a great hero.”

“When you press the button, it looks like the sword is filled with aura.” Do you like it?

“I really like it!”

The Imperial Knights are similar to the Imperial Palace Knights who guarded the emperor, the imperial palace, and the borders in the Central Plains.

In this land, it was said that the masters do not scatter in remote mountain areas but rather come together to work for the nation.

According to what I’ve heard, there are already two knights who have reached the level of Hwa-gyeong in the Imperial Knights Order, so it was only natural for my intentions to reach the Imperial Knights Order.

As I raised and swung the shield, the other kids watching around me erupted in applause, saying “Wow!”

It was obvious that my parents were making him praise me, but I enjoyed it enough not to care.

In my previous life, unless I was the head of the family, I didn’t hold grand birthday parties, and I often spent the night under the sky with the ground as my bed, so I hadn’t celebrated my birthday like this very often.

From the time I started to learn to speak, I babbled about wanting to learn the sword, so it was only natural that my close relatives all knew about my dream, but I was overwhelmed and my heart raced.

“Thank you very much.” Grandma, Grandpa.

“Now that you look splendid, let’s try it on again when the banquet is about to end.” Can I put this armor and weapons in the personal toilet?

“Of course.” “May I bring this sword into the banquet hall later, Mother?”

“Originally, it’s not allowed, but… since today is a special day, I’ll make an exception.”

With a gentle voice, warm lips touched the forehead.

Since I had long been accustomed to the culture here, where affectionate expressions are more intimate than in the Central Plains, it was nothing to be embarrassed about. I smiled and kissed my mother’s cheek in return.

Afterwards, dozens of guests came to greet me with their children in tow, but I welcomed them all with a smiling face.

With the consistent training and inner strength, I was in better shape than my peers, but with laughter filling the air, there was no reason not to smile.

The only difficulty was remembering the names of the newly introduced young children.

For nearly forty years, I had only seen names with three or four characters, and if I didn’t know someone’s name, I could just call them “young hero” or “great hero” according to their age, but unlike those days, everyone’s names were now too long. When the name was short, the surname was too long.

Even though the boy tried to call the girl by her name, Yeong-ae, and the girl by her name, Yeong-sik, he hesitated to speak first because he had always heard that it was proper etiquette to use their surnames.

Was it because they looked a bit shy? The boys and girls who deliberately tried to talk to me, being aware of my presence, were admirable and cute.

Fortunately, Logan Serbel, the eldest grandson of the Serbel family, who was four years older than me and often came over to play, already knew the children’s names and suggested bringing them one by one to play together.

As expected, since they had motivation, they knew well what to do and how to play among themselves. I was proud and impressed.

When the children, dressed up in various decorations for the banquet, gathered in the largest reception room, the attendants quickly moved the sofas and tables close to the walls and cleared the space.

As is customary for the young ones who come to the grand banquet of the powerful, they all sat dressed in fine clothes, pretending to be dignified.

The hair of the gathered children was both red and blue, and as they moved this way and that, their faces sparkled and shone.

Children aged five to fourteen gathered together, chattering among themselves, taking out dolls, and holding toys like chessboards or cards brought by the attendants, as well as wooden blocks.

Because I was the guest of honor at today’s banquet, it was quite exhausting to have to peek around both here and there.

However, since I had to act like the owner, I put on a cheerful face and meddled here and there.

I picked up a chess piece among the group of older people. According to what I had learned from my father, it was not much different from the chess of the central plains, so for me, it was a slightly easier plaything than Go.

“Has Lord Ernhardt already learned how to play chess?”

“It’s not an impressive skill.” I only played a few games for fun with my father.

Still, it seemed less embarrassing than playing house with little kids, so I quickly retorted, and laughter erupted.

I don’t know what was so funny, but since the little ones were laughing a lot, it was a good thing, so I laughed along with them.

In the Central Plains, the children of the sect would always wear sweat-soaked martial arts uniforms and play by sword fighting or throwing stones at each other.

The reason was that games like marbles or hopscotch, which common children played, required crouching down, and thus did not match the lofty spirit of the Daenam Palace family, so they were not permitted within the family.

When he won the first game, everyone looked surprised, but when he won the second game, the opponent Young-sik looked troubled, so in the third game, he played more cautiously and narrowly lost.

Even after that, while dealing with a few more young ladies and young masters, I tried to make more innocent moves, but I was already so accustomed to playing chess with my father that I ended up getting caught pretending I couldn’t.

The young children’s keen observation skills were surprisingly good, making me feel embarrassed.

Well, in my previous life, I only ever saw children from a distance, and since I turned fifteen, I haven’t been within three paces (about 10 meters). I had never been within about 3 meters of one.

It was natural not to know how clever and smart children of this age could be.

We had fun playing and then all went to the banquet together, looked at the food placed on the low tables, held our plates, and had the attendant behind us fill them with the food we wanted, and then we all gathered to eat.

I liked being able to eat as much of the food I wanted, seeing the lavish food piled up like a mountain, and having all the food I wanted on my plate without having to reach far.

When I said that the prosperity of the Ernhardt family was clearly visible and that it was a truly good way, the older kids burst into laughter once again.