The Female Knight Who Makes Confessing Such A Hassle Is Way Too Cute

“――Captain!!”

When I dispelled the barrier and opened the door to the captain’s office, I found Karen-san standing crucified against the wall of the ransacked room.

“Ugh… Ha…ru…? Haru――is that you?”

She seemed barely conscious. I could not see any obvious injuries, but poison was also a possibility, so I could not make any easy assumptions.

Considering even Karen-san had been completely unable to resist a mage, I assumed she had already been struck by the effects of the “Mystic Eyes.”

“Hey, boy――no, Haru. I’m glad to see you again. Looks like you came alone just like I asked――so, have you made up your mind to become mine?”

The male squad member standing beside her, dressed in standard Black Hawk-issued equipment, rapidly changed before my eyes into her true form――Henri-san of the “Mystic Eyes.”

Those bewitching violet eyes peering out from beneath the hood pulled low over her face――the “Mystic Eyes” still gave off the same overwhelming pressure as before.

“I almost never make promises, but this time is special. After all, you’re my favorite.”

“You could’ve just forgotten about that promise, you know? Actually, I wish you’d forgotten all about it and gone home to live a nice, peaceful life.”

“I’m afraid that isn’t an option. After all, it’s already been decided that I’m going to make you mine and mine alone.”

“Even if that means using any means necessary――?”

“That’s right. Obviously.”

After saying that, Henri-san brought the sword in her hand up to the neck of her hostage――Karen-san.

“I had a hard time at first too, you know? Thanks to you telling everyone absolutely everything about me, security was so tight for a while after I slipped in here that even I couldn’t make a move easily. Especially because of this female knight who was always hovering around you and taking such devoted care of you――Haru!”

“Ugh…!?”

Henri-san struck Karen-san across the face with the flat of her blade, and the blow caused the spot on her pale skin to swell violently.

“Captain!? You――let go of the captain!!”

“Whoa there――I don’t think moving without permission is a very good idea, do you?”

Just as I carefully drew my twin swords and prepared to leap at Henri-san, the tip of the sword in her hand was pressed against Karen-san’s throat.

“I coated the tip of this blade with a powerful poison. It isn’t a magical potion, but a neurotoxin made by extracting fluids from various poisonous plants and insects. With this, even the biggest mountain of muscle would be unable to breathe within seconds and would die.”

Taking a hostage and forcing her demands through under threat――it was an utterly selfish act that considered no one but herself.

That meant I could not afford to move carelessly either.

“Drop those dangerous weapons and come over here.”

“Ha…ru――don’t worry about me… hurry and take that woman――gah?!”

As Karen-san desperately forced out her voice in resistance, Henri-san struck her again with her staff.

At this rate, Karen-san would surely reach her limit soon――.

“…Would you mind being quiet for a moment? We’re right in the middle of something extremely important.”

“…! If I go over there, you’ll release Karen-san, right?”

“Of course, Haru. You’re the only one I’m after in the first place. Once I make you mine, I’ll gladly leave this suffocating basement behind.”

“W-What are you doing… Haru? If you do that, you’ll――”

“It’s fine, Captain Karen. I’m used to being dragged around by other people.”

With that, I slowly placed my swords at my feet without making a sound, stepped over them, and walked toward Henri-san.

“Hehe, good boy. Come here.”

Henri-san reached out toward me while licking her lower lip as I stood there completely unarmed.

Her cold, pale hand, so white it almost seemed devoid of blood, carefully stroked my cheek, lips, and chin as though savoring their texture.

“Hm. I thought this the first time I saw you too, but you really do have beautiful skin. Smooth like a girl’s.”

“…I get that a lot.”

“It’s a compliment. If I’m keeping you by my side, the prettier the better――now then, enough idle chatter. I’m a busy woman, after all.”

The instant Henri-san ended the conversation, her eyes activated the magical power concealed within her “Mystic Eyes.”

“Now, Haru, I’ll give you the order I failed to complete back then once again――【Haru, my adorable doll (slave)――now, become my possession (mine)――!!】”

She grinned, revealing sharp canine teeth, and projected the command toward me like a curse. It should only have been suggestion magic, yet the magical waves crackled through the room strongly enough to make the entire space tremble.

I had no weapon, and my body was nowhere near its normal condition――I was such a pathetic wreck compared to my usual self that merely being struck by those waves felt like it might overwhelm me.

――Except that every spell Henri-san had just cast was currently completely ineffective against Haru.

“Hehe…”

“!?”

Henri-san’s face twisted in shock when she saw Haru, who should have been unable to resist, smiling.

She had prepared meticulously and even taken a hostage to prevent me from using abilities like magic reflection that could completely overturn the battle――and yet, her spell still had no effect.

“You don’t understand why it isn’t working――that’s the expression… you seem to be having, isn’t it?”

“Wha――?”

When Haru’s manner of speech suddenly shifted into a girl’s voice, Henri-san’s thoughts froze for an instant.

And the moment she realized everything, my fist precisely slammed into Henri-san’s solar plexus――a critical point from which, due to the structure of the body, magical power was circulated throughout the body.

“The Haru standing there isn’t actually me, so of course your commands wouldn’t work――right?”

“Ha…ru…”

“I will not become yours. I’ve always belonged to Karen-san.”

“I… al…rea…dy…”

Henri-san had anticipated the possibility of trouble and layered multiple physical-defense enhancement spells over her magical clothing――but I could use magic-breaking techniques even without a sword, so it did not matter. I suppose I could call it a “Magic-Breaking Fist.”

For now, the battle is over.

“…Is it finished?”

As the transformation spell came undone and Mulberry regained her original blonde appearance, she timidly reached toward the unconscious Henri-san and poked her cheek.

“I knocked her completely unconscious, so even if we leave her alone, she probably won’t wake up for about two days. For now, take Henri-san straight to the commander-in-chief. I’ll follow with the captain shortly.”

“Understood. In that case, I’ll leave Captain Karen in your care, all right?”

With that, Mulberry winked at me, hoisted Henri-san onto her shoulder, and left the room ahead of us.

At last, we were alone.

“Captain, are you all right?”

When I released Karen-san from her restraints, the strength seemed to leave her body, and she sank to the floor as though collapsing.

“Haru――that was incredible. I never imagined you’d actually been ‘transformed into’ your own sword.”

“Yes, it was extremely difficult. We even needed Madeleine-san’s help just to make it work.”

Changing one’s appearance through transformation magic itself was not especially difficult, but changing one’s own body not into another person but into a completely different material was extraordinarily hard. We had also combined stealth and illusion magic so I would not be easily discovered, and simply maintaining that state consumed magical power.

Mulberry, whose appearance resembled mine and who knew the way I normally spoke, transformed into me, while I used the split second when Henri-san activated her Mystic Eyes to strike her down with everything I had――that was the improvised “plan” Madeleine-san had devised.

Incidentally, Madeleine-san had completely exhausted her magical power while applying the spells needed to keep Henri-san from noticing, and she was currently sleeping like a log in the infirmary.

Me, Mulberry, and Madeleine-san.

The three of us had worked together and seized this victory.

But there was still one more thing I had left to do.

“Captain――no, Karen-san.”

For the first time, I addressed Karen-san that way while standing before her. The way we defeated our enemy might have been a little underhanded, but I was still the warrior who had rescued the captured princess.

So surely it was fine for me to confess one more time.

“I love you. Karen-san, please become my girlfriend.”

At my third confession, spoken after steeling my resolve, Karen-san’s eyes widened.

But she soon lowered her gaze and answered with a sigh.

“…You really never learn, do you? Fine, then I’ll tell you as many times as it takes. I can’t date you. A knight must never overturn a decision once it has been made――”

“No.”

“What?”

The air between Karen-san and me froze at my response.

Apparently, she had not expected me to say something so childish.

“…Haru, listen.”

“No. I said no. There’s no way I can forget about you, Karen-san, and I don’t want to hear excuses either.”

“Excuses――what are you talking about? I gave you my answer after thinking it through properly.”

“That’s not what I mean. What I want to hear is what you actually think about me, Karen-san.”

I leaned my face closer to hers.

“Karen-san, do you――love me?”

“L-Love…!? W-What are you saying all of a sudden, here of all places――”

Karen-san instinctively tried to pull away, but I ignored that and leaned even closer.

“Listening to you just now, all you’ve been saying is things like ‘I can’t betray my father.’ You haven’t once told me whether you actually ‘love’ me or ‘hate’ me.”

“Ah… th-that’s because…”

“No ‘because.’ You always run away like this, Karen-san. This time, I’m not letting you escape until you answer me properly.”

“Eep!?”

I drove the retreating Karen-san all the way into the corner of the room, then planted both hands against the wall on either side of her so she could not escape. (Apparently this has become popular in the royal capital lately. They call it a “wall slam,” I think.)

“So, what is it, Karen-san? Do you love me? Do you hate me? Which is it??”

I stared at Karen-san’s face without looking away for even a moment.

She was already so flustered that her eyes were barely focusing properly, and her face was burning red all the way past her ears and down to her neck.

“Um, well, I mean…”

“Come on, Karen-san. Come on!”

“Uuu… you’d better remember this later…!”

Apparently realizing that I would not let her escape until she answered properly, Karen-san, despite stumbling over her words, gradually raised her gaze to meet mine, and then――

“…ove you.”

“What? What did you say? I couldn’t hear you, so please say it again.”

“I-I said, I… love…”

“You trailed off again. Come on, it’s only two words, so answer clearly――”

“I love youuu! I, Karen, fell in love with Haru, who’s more than ten years younger than meeeee!!”

Karen-san shouted the answer in complete desperation.

Because she yelled from the pit of her stomach, the word “love” echoed throughout the entire underground area. I had a feeling――that confession might actually have been heard throughout the whole castle.

“Of course I was going to start caring about you!? From the moment we first met, you told me you loved me, and after that you kept showing me affection so blatantly! Of course I gradually became conscious of you, and before I knew it, I couldn’t think about anyone but you――that’s just how it naturally happens! I’ve been pure and untouched for twenty-nine whole years, you know!? When someone with a cute face like yours keeps coming after me, of course I’d eventually start taking it seriously!”

Once the feelings she had suppressed burst free, they probably would not stop until everything came pouring out.

That was why I quietly listened to Karen-san’s true feelings.

“So, when Father told me, ‘Haru apparently wants to date you officially,’ I was incredibly happy. Sure, I worried about people calling me some kind of boy-crazy older woman, but that was a tiny concern compared to everything else. I thought, I’m not giving Haru to some other woman. Haru is mine, mine alone. I think there was even a period when I was blatantly mixing my personal feelings with my work.”

She was talking about the time rumors had begun circulating about our relationship. Thinking about it that way, when Henri-san nearly kidnapped me, Karen-san must have been beside herself with worry. I completely understood why she had ended up constantly clinging to me. I felt the same way.

“After I rejected you the second time, everything inside me was a complete mess――Father looked at you like you were some kind of cold-blooded creature and said, ‘If you date that suspicious bastard, I’ll disown you.’ I didn’t know what to do anymore, so in the end I piled up all sorts of reasons and rejected you, but I was still hopelessly hung up on you. …Well? Disappointed in me now? I became the youngest woman in the history of the Royal Guard to hold a management position, yet all it took was one failed romance with a rookie squad member to reduce me to a complete wreck.”

I silently shook my head at Karen-san’s words.

There was no way I could ever feel that way. If anything, it was precisely because Karen-san was like this that I found her adorable and had fallen so deeply in love with her.

“Haru, let me ask you one more time――do you love me?”

“Yes.”

I answered immediately. I did not have a single doubt left.

“You could date a girl much younger than me, much cuter than me, with smooth, firm skin that practically repels water, instead of a woman like me who already has one foot in thirty. And you’d still choose me?”

“Yes.”

“I’m an adult, but I’m incredibly childish, you know? If you so much as get friendly with another girl, I’ll get upset immediately. I’ll tell you to go die without thinking.”

“That’s fine.”

“…If you date me, it means dating with marriage in mind, you understand? Marriage, all right? We’d start a family. I’d tie you down with the chains of a ‘family’ right when you’re reaching the age when you’ll want to go out and enjoy yourself. Are you still fine with that?”

“Yes, of course.”

“After asking you all these things and putting up all these safeguards――you understand now, don’t you? I really am an incredibly troublesome woman. Even so――even then, do you still… want to become my boyfriend?”

“Yes. Karen-san――I love you.”

No matter how many times she asked, my answer would remain the same. And I would gladly give her that same answer as many times as she needed.

As many times as it took for Karen-san to be satisfied.

And finally, that moment came.

“――Then… um, please… take care of me…”

“What?”

For a moment, I did not understand what she meant, so I instinctively asked her to repeat herself.

“Eep… I-I mean, um… I may not be perfect, but please take care of me, or something like that…”

“――So… does that mean your answer is ‘yes’…?”

“Mm…”

She was probably too embarrassed to look me in the face――Karen-san trembled with tension and excitement as she slowly, but firmly, nodded.

“Then, shall we go back to everyone for now?”

“…Yeah.”

When I held out my hand, Karen-san intertwined her fingers with mine without hesitation.

Karen-san, the female knight who captained Black Hawk and bore nicknames such as the “Impregnable Female Knight” and the “Iron-Wall Empress”――had finally fallen to the advances of a rookie like me.

“Haah…”

After leaving Black Hawk’s quarters, we slowly climbed the stairs hand in hand, and I heard Karen-san sigh beside me.

“What’s wrong, Karen-san? Just a moment ago you looked so happy you could’ve ascended to heaven.”

“Ugh… no, I was just brought back to reality a little… and started wondering what we’re supposed to do from here. About our life from now on and everything.”

As expected of Karen-san, her thoughts were already racing ahead toward our future daily life.

Judging by that sigh, though, she still seemed troubled. What exactly was she worried about?

“Because… accepting your confession means breaking my promise with Father, doesn’t it? Which means I can’t stay in the knight order――though, well, if it’s with you, maybe I wouldn’t mind that either.”

“Hm? Karen-san, what are you talking about? Quit the knight order? Obviously you can’t do that.”

“What?”

“What?”

Apparently, there was a discrepancy in what the two of us had been thinking. And Karen-san――seemed to have imagined something absolutely outrageous.

“Th-That’s… not what you meant? I… assumed that from here, um… you and I would…”

“…Elope?”

“…(nod)”

So that was what she had been thinking. Well, I could understand why. When emotions got this intense, it was natural to imagine throwing aside everyone else’s opinions and objections and fleeing together to the ends of the world――!

But I had been thinking of something slightly different.

“S-So… that’s not it…?”

“Um, well… no, it isn’t.”

“――――”

――Thump!

“Ow!? W-Wait, Karen-san, could you not suddenly hit me on the head!? I’m already pretty woozy from mental exhaustion!”

“S-Shut up, idiot! I-I thought that was what we were going to do!? I was already thinking things like, maybe my savings would cover our living expenses for a while after I quit being a knight, or maybe we could leave the kingdom and run a little bakery together as husband and wife somewhere nobody knows us――give it back! Give me back the pure maiden heart that was seriously trying to make some clichéd romance-novel ending come true!”

Completely dragged back to reality, Karen-san began pounding my head while calling me an “idiot, idiot”――though it was less gentle pounding and more full-force thumping and hammering. Please, seriously stop. My skull is going to change shape.

“Karen-san, let me ask you this then. Are you really okay with having a permanent falling-out with Father-in-law? If we elope, knowing both your personalities, you’ll probably never see each other again for the rest of your lives.”

“Ugh――I definitely wouldn’t want that… but then what am I supposed to do? Between you and Father, which one am I supposed to――”

“――Why not choose both?”

“What――?”

At my words, Karen-san stared at me blankly.

Apparently I had not explained myself clearly enough, so I elaborated.

“There’s no need to give anything up. Your current position, your job, and your love life――you can choose all of them.”

D-Don’t say it like it’s that easy! You know perfectly well how stubborn that old man is. You could smash him with a hammer and still never crack that skull.”

Karen-san was right. It had been difficult enough to make even Karen-san say the single word “love.” Convincing her father, Gares-san, to change his mind would obviously be extraordinarily difficult.

Still, I thought there might be one way――although it was somewhat forceful and underhanded――.

“Um, Karen-san. There’s something I’d like to ask you as a special favor――”

“!! You――that’s…”

I pulled a document partway out from inside my coat. Written on it was――.

“Captain――I’m thinking of resigning as a knight.”