Young Man, Black-Eyed Woman, And Young Lady

This happened when Rudel and the others, having taken on adventurer work, arrived at a town far from the academy. After completing several jobs, they had now accepted a somewhat more difficult assignment in a town near the border. The farther one traveled from the capital, the more numerous monsters became. This was partly because the knight orders could only operate effectively within a limited range, and partly because monsters tended to settle in sparsely populated areas.

Because this job took them far from the royal capital, the journey itself required several days. That was why Izumi was not participating. Since she was aiming to become a Senior Knight, she had very little free time to begin with. Still, having fewer people just as the difficulty of their assignments increased was unsettling… so Bargas had been chosen as her replacement.

“…At this point, I don’t even know what to say anymore.”

Bargas had already half given up, while Unias was brimming with excitement. Meanwhile, Rudel and Luecke were reading books in the back of the wagon as it carried them toward their destination. Incidentally, Basil was asleep.

“You don’t get many chances to hunt monsters while you’re still a student, Bargas.”

Rudel paused his reading to say that. Bargas sighed before replying.

“Haah… Once I become a knight, I’ll have to deal with them whether I like it or not. And now you’re telling me we’re hunting an ogre? I seriously want to ask if you’re all insane.”

Their current job was to eliminate an ogre that had been appearing alone near the town. If there had been several of them, a Dragoon or a knight order would have been dispatched… but since there was only one and no casualties had occurred yet, the matter had been given low priority.

And there were few adventurers capable of defeating an ogre. Or rather, anyone that strong had usually quit adventuring and gone to work for some wealthy patron or noble, just like Basil had.

“A knight shouldn’t complain. Besides, now that you’ve become one, didn’t you swear an oath to protect the people?”

Still reading his book, Luecke rebuked Bargas. It was true that he had sworn such an oath! Even so, when he wondered whether it was really right to spend the precious years when he was still a student doing something like this… it was only natural that he had doubts.

“More importantly, how are we arranging the formation? I want the front line! Actually, I refuse to do anything else!”

Unias was so worked up that he seemed eager to fight the ogre as soon as possible. Inside the wagon, Basil rolled over in her sleep and ended up in a rather indecent position. …Bargas, Unias, and even Luecke glanced her way, but Rudel simply covered Basil with a blanket.

“…Just a little longer… No, I suppose trips like this aren’t so bad after all.”

Having discovered one of the pleasures of travel, Bargas stopped complaining, while Unias protested to Rudel that he had wanted to look a little longer.

At the same time the five of them were away from the academy on their assignment, there was movement within the knight order as well. Cattleya had temporarily returned from the frontier to give a report. Ever since Cattleya—a Dragoon who had also been hailed as a genius and highly regarded by the royal family—was sent to the frontier, those within the knight order who disliked her had begun openly mocking her behind her back.

As Cattleya headed back toward her dragon after finishing her report, lower-ranking knights called out to her.

“Long time no see, ‘Genius.’ They actually let you come back?”

“Idiot, there’s no way Cattleya’s being allowed back for good. She picked a fight with one of the Three Dukes, so she’s stuck on the frontier for life.”

“Hey, surviving after picking a fight with one of the Three Dukes is impressive enough! Right, Lady Cattleya, who ‘offered up her body’?”

Cattleya ignored them and hurried toward her dragon… but she was frustrated. Until now, she had never cared much about the prestigious position of Dragoon that everyone else admired. But after being banished to the frontier and enduring its harsh living conditions, she had begun longing for life in the central regions again.

It also infuriated her that the story of her possible engagement to Rudel had been twisted into a rumor that she had offered him her body in exchange for having her life spared.

Cattleya continued walking in irritation. Then another Dragoon called out to her. …It was Lilim.

“Long time no see, Cattleya.”

Lilim greeted her as casually as ever, unchanged from before, but Cattleya could not respond in kind. Her heart had grown bitter, and the sight of Lilim remaining unchanged only irritated her further.

(I’m more talented than she is! So why does someone like her get promoted while I’m stuck on the frontier…? That’s right. This is all his fault! Rudel! If only he didn’t exist!!!)

Cattleya’s emotions surged to a degree that even she could no longer understand. In that state, she lashed out at Lilim with sarcasm.

“What is it, Lilim, ‘Captain-dono’? Why bother speaking to someone banished to the frontier like me…? Are you here to brag? Did you come to show off because you got promoted after I was sent away?”

Lilim was somewhat startled by Cattleya’s blatant hostility. Cattleya had been acting strangely lately, especially whenever Rudel was involved. And then she had been sent to the frontier. Since she had always been proud, perhaps the experience had embittered her. Thinking that, Lilim did not become particularly angry.

“I’m not bragging. I was simply wondering how you’ve been doing.”

Cattleya felt as though something pitch-black was taking control of her, and she blurted out something she never normally would have said. It concerned a secret Lilim desperately did not want mentioned.

“Terribly! People say I offered my body to a man I don’t even like! …But perhaps I’m still better off than you. Compared to a ‘black-eyed woman’ whose fiancé ran away from her, I can still get married whenever I want.”

“Black-eyed woman”—that was Lilim’s secret. The reason Lilim never opened her eyes was connected to how an elf’s individual magical nature affected the colors of their hair and eyes. Just as her younger sister Milia had green hair, even close blood relatives could possess completely different colors depending on their magic.

…And Lilim’s eyes were entirely pitch black, even the parts that should normally have been white. Both the quantity and quality of the magic she possessed placed her among the highest-ranking elves. Her eyes were also the reason her fiancé had abandoned her.

“…What did you just say?”

Lilim lowered her face slightly as her clenched fists trembled. Cattleya delivered the final blow.

“I called you a black-eyed woman, Captain-dono! Well, thanks to that, at least you don’t have to marry Rudel anymore. Though perhaps that was your last chance.”

At those words, Lilim completely lost herself to rage. Then it was Lilim’s turn to be consumed by something pitch-black… while Cattleya, conversely, suddenly became so calm that even she was surprised. …And then she understood. She realized just how badly she had behaved up until now—and just how dangerous her current situation was.

“Cattleya!!!!!”

After that, a battle broke out between two active Dragoons.

Meanwhile, near the town close to the border, soldiers from the Gaia Empire had infiltrated the area in disguise. Their mission was—

“Field Test of the Enhanced Ogre”

That was their objective. They had arranged the job so that adventurers would be used for the first test, after which Courtois knights would be used for further experimentation. They had infiltrated enemy territory specifically for that purpose.

And the person who accepted that request was Basil. Naturally, Rudel and the others would be taking part in the assignment as well.

The captain of the experimental unit was a girl dressed in expensive-looking clothes, with long blond hair styled into elaborate curls. She came from an Imperial noble family and was named Mies Licorice. Despite her young age, she had a well-developed figure and the somewhat airheaded demeanor of a sheltered young lady. There was a reason she was forcibly conducting the Enhanced Ogre’s field test in enemy territory.

Relaxing elegantly in a high-class inn in town with the soldiers serving as her entourage, Mies belonged to an empire that appeared on the verge of civil war over its succession dispute. They urgently needed to prepare powerful new weapons. Crossing the border itself was not a crime, since they had completed the official procedures.

They were merely having Courtois conduct the field test for them… That was all Mies thought it amounted to. In reality, however, this mission had been arranged by the deeply entangled upper echelons of the Empire as a means of discarding both Mies and House Licorice.

Unaware of that, Mies ordered around the attendants who knew the truth and waited for the time to carry out the mission.

“Are those adventurers still not here? It’s already been three days! I’m completely sick of living in a backwater like this!”

Her subordinates inwardly pitied or looked down upon their selfish superior.

“It will probably take several more days… Most of Courtois’s skilled adventurers gather around the central regions.”

“Haah… Mere adventurers have the nerve to keep me waiting… And when I think about how many more days it’ll take before the knight order shows up afterward, it’s downright depressing.”

Mies spoke while reclining on a luxurious sofa.

This mission, which would drag Rudel and his companions into its midst, would become increasingly complicated as it intertwined with the events unfolding among the Dragoons. This was an incident that had never existed in the original scenario.