The Female Knight Who Tried To Give Up On Everything Was Just Too Cute

“Haru—do you have a moment?”

“? Yes, what is it?”

The next day.

After doing my best to stay calm about what Madeleine-san had revealed yesterday, I went about my duties as usual and returned to the workplace, where Karen-san immediately spoke to me.

Since I’d gone straight to the field that morning, this was actually the first time I’d spoken with Karen-san today.

“Um… there’s something important I need to talk to you about. Could you give me some time after work?”

“Yes. Of course.”

I nodded. There wasn’t a single reason anywhere in the world for me to refuse a request from Karen-san.

“I-I see. Then wait until I finish my work. Um… at my house—”

“”””!!!””””

The instant Karen-san said, “At my house—” the other squad members who were still nearby were so shocked they nearly fell out of their chairs.

Captain Karen was formally inviting the rookie Haru to her house—there had been times when circumstances happened to lead to that, but this was the first time the Captain herself had invited me over out of nowhere, so of course everyone was surprised.

“Ah, damn it, I said that without thinking… W-What are all of you staring at us like that for!? Scatter! Get back to work! Haru, you get into the captain’s office too!”

With the squad members jeering behind us—“The Captain finally invited Haru on a 【home date】!” and “So the rumors really were true!”—Karen-san and I retreated into the captain’s office alone.

“S-Sorry, Haru. I should have brought something like this up when we were alone. That was careless of me.”

“Don’t worry about it. The rumors haven’t died down at all anyway, so even if we hid it, they’d find out eventually.”

Besides, the Black Hawk members had already more or less figured out what was going on between us.

At worst, we’d get teased a little more from now on.

Mostly me.

“…This is about continuing yesterday’s conversation, isn’t it?”

This time, Karen-san quietly nodded.

“Yeah. After that, I spoke with Commander Gares—or rather, I suppose I can just call him Father—about whether what Madeleine told us yesterday was really true… and a number of other things.”

Knowing Karen-san, she’d probably spoken properly with Gares-san about what would happen between me and her from now on.

“And… you reached a conclusion.”

“I thought it had nothing to do with work—but it looks like I’ll have to spend a while trying to put out the rumors.”

Karen-san gave a bitter smile and nodded.

Given Karen-san’s personality, she’d probably spent the entire night agonizing over it.

Seriously enough that she’d lost sight of everything around her.

If so, then I needed to properly accept and respect whatever conclusion she’d reached.

But before that—

“—You should probably get a little better at eavesdropping.”

I had already sensed the people whispering far too obviously outside the captain’s office, so I suddenly flung the door open and welcomed the gawkers crowding around it inside.

The group came tumbling into the room, and among the Black Hawk members, for some reason, there was even Mulberry wearing White Cross armor—

She seemed to have become pretty friendly with the other members during her cross-unit training—

At this point, maybe she should just transfer here permanently.

“O-Oh my, well… g-good day, Haru. Lovely weather we’re having today, isn’t it?”

The weather had nothing to do with Black Hawk since we were underground without a single small window, and besides, it was cloudy today.

Apparently there would even be a brief shower starting tonight.

“Y-You people! What are you doing slacking off!? Get back to work immediately! And Mulberry, you get back to White Cross too! I’ll tell the Commander on you!”

“Eek… then good day to you both—!”

Her blond hair fluttering behind her, Mulberry cast a speed-enhancement spell on herself and sprinted back to her post.

“Honestly, that girl. I feel like I used to see something like this pretty often a little while ago—”

“…Yeah.”

Just as Karen-san said, I vaguely remembered something like that too.

Of course, I wasn’t going to say who.

“But that just means we’ve been causing everyone that much trouble with this whole situation. Which is exactly why we need to settle things today.”

I agreed with her on that.

Either way, we couldn’t leave things like this forever.

—No matter what kind of result that conclusion brought between Karen-san and me.

“This is the first time I’ve properly invited you over, isn’t it? The place isn’t messy today, so come in and make yourself comfortable.”

“Yes, excuse me.”

After work, I left a little earlier than usual and was invited to Karen-san’s home, where she had gone ahead and prepared everything.

The neatly tidied room carried a faint, pleasant scent.

There were no liquor bottles or cans lying around like before.

“”Grrr…””

Cerberus—the culprit behind that drinking party when Karen-san got completely wasted—

No, the culprit behind the kissing incident that happened that night—somehow looked unusually listless.

Normally, he would charge straight into me at tremendous speed.

He didn’t seem sick—

So what was wrong?

“Surprised? I’d like to say that if I got serious, cleaning this much would be nothing—but actually, Father came over yesterday. So I desperately cleaned the place before he arrived. He also got extremely angry with me about Cerberus.”

Karen-san let out a small laugh with a hint of playfulness, but somehow she looked just like Cerberus.

“No point standing around talking, so sit wherever you like—this is going to take a while.”

“Yes. I’ll listen properly, for as long as it takes until you’re satisfied.”

After confirming that I’d sat down facing her, Karen-san slowly began to speak.

“First, I suppose I should explain my relationship with Father—actually, we’re not related by blood.”

“What…?”

“That’s the face of someone hearing this for the first time. Naturally. Haru, you’re the first person outside the family I’ve ever told.”

Even I was taken aback by the first thing Karen-san revealed.

Since they worked in the same place, I’d simply assumed they were strict about separating work from private life—

But apparently that wasn’t the whole story.

“My real parents are already dead. Father was their closest friend, and he took me in when I had only just been born. We aren’t related by blood, but he raised me as though I were his real daughter… I could never thank him enough. He cares about me so much that sometimes he loses perspective, like with the matchmaking meeting or what happened this time.”

But that probably only meant he cared deeply about his daughter’s happiness.

Because he cared that much, rather than immediately making a decision about me, Gares-san had even asked Madeleine-san to investigate my background.

All because he was worried, in his own way, about Karen-san’s future.

Then Karen-san shyly prefaced her next action with, “Don’t laugh,” before taking something from an old, worn box she’d prepared on the table beforehand.

“Captain… may I read it?”

“I-I dragged it all the way out of storage for exactly that reason! So read it properly.”

Inside was something Karen-san had written when she was very young, back in elementary school, in the clumsy handwriting of someone who had only just learned to write.

【My dream for the future is to become a very cute bride.
I want to marry someone strong and cool, like my father.
And then I want to be happy. —Karen】

That was the general gist of it, but there were also plenty of thoroughly girlish lines like, “We’ll go on dates like this,” and “We’ll go somewhere like this for our honeymoon.”

“—Looking back on this now, it’s so embarrassing I could burst into flames. Considering how things turned out, I’m the complete opposite.”

Karen-san mocked herself like that, but I didn’t agree.

She had simply taken a slightly different path.

Karen-san was undoubtedly still the same girl with the pure heart she’d had when she wrote this.

And even now, at any time, Karen-san could still choose that path instead of remaining a knight—

“Father told me. Haru… about the feelings you have for me. Even though I rejected you once, I was honestly happy that you still kept thinking of me. That someone would still want a woman like me after I’d already missed my prime marriage years. I even got carried away over it.”

But—

Karen-san looked straight at me.

And then—

“I’m sorry, Haru—I can’t go out with you.”

She lowered her head and formally rejected a relationship with me.

“Is that really what you—what Karen-san truly want?”

“…Yeah. I thought about it over and over, but I just can’t bring myself to betray Father. Dating alone might still be one thing, but once it becomes a serious relationship and then marriage, it stops being a matter between two individuals. If I were younger, maybe there would have been other choices.”

Both Gares-san and Karen-san held positions as commanders in the Royal Guard.

They were responsible people occupying fairly high ranks within the kingdom.

That was precisely why too much time had passed for them to simply throw everything away and think only about themselves.

“That’s everything I wanted to say. Thank you for listening all the way through. Truly.”

Saying that, Karen-san bowed deeply to me once again.

It was a complicated gesture containing both gratitude and apology.

“—I understand. If that’s the answer you’ve reached, Karen-san.”

Knowing Karen-san’s personality, there was almost no chance she’d change her answer no matter what happened afterward.

Even if they weren’t related by blood, she’d clearly inherited that stubbornness from her father.

Of course, part of me wanted to scream that I hated this and refuse to accept it.

But the more I did that, the more pathetic I’d only make myself feel.

And I didn’t want to cause Karen-san any more trouble.

“—Then, Captain. I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”

“Y-Yeah. Be careful on your way home.”

“Yes. Good work today.”

I gave Karen-san a small bow, then fled the room as though escaping.

My still-unknown origins.

And what I should do with my life from here on—

My footsteps back toward the knight barracks were dominated entirely by thoughts like those, leaving me wandering unsteadily all the way there.

Then came the next morning, after Karen-san had formally rejected me.

I somehow convinced myself that my relationship with Karen-san hadn’t been completely severed and came to work—

Only to find another scene waiting for me that felt like a finishing blow.

【Personnel Transfer Order】

Effective today, the following individual is reassigned to the unit listed below.

Royal Capital Guard, Fourth Knight Squad (Black Hawk): Haru

New Assignment → Royal Capital Guard, First Knight Squad (White Cross)