The Female Knight Who Got Into A Fight With A Little Girl Was Way Too Cute

The next day, with Ena and Zena’s cooperation, I immediately headed for the room where Lilia was staying.

The door leading to Lilia’s small room at the back of the underground arena (which was apparently normally used as a training ground as well) was firmly shut. Even the lamps that should normally have been blazing brightly were extinguished, and not a single sound could be heard.

It was so quiet that I actually started wondering whether Lilia was really in there.

“――It’s quiet. Is this rumored princess of yours really in there?”

Karen-san, standing beside me, said that. She had already recovered from yesterday’s embarrassing incident――or rather, perhaps yesterday’s nosebleed had cleared her system out, because her complexion actually looked fairly healthy.

“Sorry, Karen-san. You only came here to help me, but in the end, I made you stay with me until the very end.”

“I don’t mind. Besides, since I have the opportunity, I’d at least like to introduce myself.”

I’d only heard this that morning, but Karen-san, who had contributed mainly on the combat side of things, apparently had to return to the Royal Capital by noon today. Originally, arrangements had apparently been made for her to stay another two or three days, but because she’d impulsively abandoned the work she’d left behind and rushed here to see me, Madeleine-san had ultimately ordered her to return immediately in a state of absolute fury. Wait, wasn’t Karen-san supposed to be the captain of Black Hawk, not Madeleine-san?

“Princess… Lilia-sama. It’s me, Ena.”

“I’m here too.”

When her two aides called out from in front of the locked door, the sound of the lock opening came surprisingly easily. I’d expected a little more resistance, but apparently she’d recovered some degree of composure.

“…What is it?”

Lilia poked only her face through the gap in the door and looked over each of the four of us in turn. This was her first time meeting Karen-san, but she showed no particular sign of wanting to ask who she was.

“What do all of you want, coming here together? I have nothing in particular to discuss with any of you.”

As Lilia sighed and spoke, there wasn’t the slightest trace of the vigor she’d shown when we’d first fought. Perhaps because she hadn’t seen Ena and Zena, the two people who normally looked after her, her once glossy black hair had lost its shine, and the eyes that had once gleamed brilliantly now looked sunken.

“Even if you don’t, Lilia, I have something I need to say to you. So could you let us into the room?”

When I looked straight into her eyes, Lilia showed a slightly intimidated expression. Perhaps she was seeing the phantom of what had happened a week ago behind me.

“I’m asking too. I’m worried about you as well, Lilia-sama. You went straight to bed yesterday without even taking a bath, didn’t you? And it looks like you haven’t touched your food at all.”

“…Mm.”

At the end of their gazes were cold soup and completely dried-out bread that remained untouched. In this state, telling them not to worry would have been unreasonable.

“…Only for a little while. I have something to do after this.”

Something to do――she was probably referring to Nevan, who was currently staying somewhere on the island. But right now, Lilia herself came first. That could wait until later.

“Honestly… Look how messy this place is again. You’re hopeless without us, Princess.”

The moment we entered the room and lit the extinguished lamps, Ena immediately began cleaning up the clothes and stuffed animals scattered around the bed, along with the jewels carelessly strewn about. She was rough and careless in battle, but surprisingly meticulous when it came to everyday life.

Maybe she’d actually make a good maid? I found myself thinking.

“So, what is it you wanted to discuss? You have even brought along someone I do not know. Just what are all of you scheming?”

As she spoke, Lilia sat down on the double bed wide enough to occupy nearly half the room. It, too, was covered with round stuffed animals and dolls modeled after small creatures――judging by her belongings, she really was still a girl her age.

“Nothing in particular. I just wanted to apologize to you properly, Lilia.”

I knelt in front of Lilia and lowered my head toward her. Even though I hadn’t meant any genuine harm, there was no denying that I’d done something unnecessary.

It was an apology for my lack of consideration.

“So you heard… Tch, what a pair of blabbermouths.”

After giving me a glance, Lilia immediately glared at Ena and Zena. It was a past she didn’t want anyone knowing, so naturally she’d want to blame them for revealing it so easily.

“…I’m sorry. But, um, Cap――this person feels different from the others we’ve known before.”

Karen-san’s help had played a part, but after our spar, Ena’s attitude toward me in particular had clearly changed. If someone was weak, she looked down on them; if they were strong, she changed her attitude and followed them. It was a survival-of-the-fittest mindset, but it was easy to understand, and I didn’t dislike it.

“You… fool…”

But the girl facing Ena showed absolutely no understanding of that.

“You can say that only because you know nothing. Not just him――men are beings unworthy of trust. They twist words to deceive women, approach them merely to use them as outlets for their desires, and once they have no further use for them, cast them aside like garbage.”

“…I don’t think that’s true. Haru-sa――this person isn’t someone who could do something like――”

“Shut up! Be quiet!!”

Just as Zena joined in to help Ena persuade Lilia, the emotions she’d kept under control until then suddenly exploded.

“It is true! I said it is! Am I not proof enough!? Me, and Mother as well… Do you have any idea how much that man made us suffer…!!”

“Princess…”

Tears welled in Lilia’s eyes as she lashed out emotionally, leaving the two of them able only to stare at her in confusion. If those two couldn’t get through to her, then even if I stepped in now, it would probably accomplish nothing.

Unfortunately, it seemed we’d have to withdraw for now. The ship coming to pick Karen-san up would be arriving soon as well.

“Karen-san, let’s leave the rest to those two and excuse ourselves for now. It’ll probably take a little more time to solve her problem――Karen-san?”

Seeing an opportunity, I urged Karen-san to leave with me. But perhaps she couldn’t hear me, because she didn’t move even slightly.

Karen-san’s gaze was fixed on only one person――Lilia, who was still shouting at the two girls.

“――Pathetic.”

“…What??”

The instant Ena and Zena finally managed to calm her down somewhat, Karen-san’s single remark reached Lilia’s ears.

From an outside perspective, it was a disastrously tactless thing to say――and Ena and Zena’s faces instantly turned pale.

“Hey, you old woman. What did you just say? What did you call me?”

“I said it was pathetic. Lilia, was it? If you didn’t hear me, shall I say it again?”

With something like a derisive snort, Karen-san delivered the decisive words to Lilia.

“I said that continuing to hold such absurd resentment toward all men simply because your father treated you horribly as a child is utterly pathetic.”

“!!!!”

At those merciless words, Ena and Zena’s eyes widened even further. Mine did too.

Karen-san, whom I’d thought had been unconscious, had apparently heard last night’s discussion after all――including the story about the person who had caused the trauma that still tormented Lilia.

Still, I’d never imagined that Karen-san, who had quietly watched events unfold until then, would suddenly say something like that――.

“You… What is your name?”

“I am Karen. Captain of the Fourth Knight Squad of the Royal Capital Guard. I am also Haru’s superior.”

“Karen, was it? Retract what you just said immediately and apologize with your forehead pressed to the ground. If you do so, in my generosity, I shall forgive you after merely shattering every bone in your arms and legs.”

“Ha! That’s an amusing joke. Can you actually do that in your current state? You were defeated effortlessly by Haru, and then disgraced yourself in front of your subordinates by begging him not to bully you.”

“You… old hag!!”

Lilia finally exploded in rage, easily shaking off Ena and Zena as they tried to restrain her, then closed the distance to Karen-san in a single leap and thrust a straight punch directly at her face.

The fist came so fast that even I could barely follow it with my eyes, striking Karen-san squarely in the face before she could even assume a defensive stance.

A heavy GONG!! rang out like two solid objects violently colliding――it was a straight punch that could have knocked someone unconscious with a single blow if it landed badly, or even killed them, yet Karen-san caught it directly on her cheek without so much as closing her eyes.

She remained fully conscious, of course.

And her fighting spirit was absolutely blazing.

“――Weak!”

“Mmph――!???”

Karen-san’s return punch slammed straight into the bridge of Lilia’s nose. It produced another unpleasant crunch, as though the nasal bone had been completely crushed.

The blow, backed by Karen-san’s body weight and the weight of her armor, carried more than enough power to send Lilia’s tiny body flying effortlessly toward the wall.

“――Nngh!!”

But Lilia performed a full rotation in midair, kicked off the room’s wall, and used the momentum to launch herself bodily at Karen-san’s abdomen.

The two toppled over tangled together, and while lying on the floor, they began pulling each other’s hair and ears, eventually even sticking fingers into each other’s nostrils as the fight deteriorated into a full-blown scuffle.

“You――someone who lived comfortably in a wealthy place like the Royal Capital, where people and money gather, could never understand how I feel…!”

“That’s exactly what I’m calling pathetic…! If you were merely a child, that would be one thing. But Lilia, who are you…? You’re not just some child. You’re someone who stands above the people of a nation called the Republic――and I’m telling you that someone in such a position has no right to drag her subordinates around because of her personal problems!”

A little girl and an adult woman――although their ages were vastly different, in the sense that both stood above others, they were in a way standing on the same stage. Faced with the collision of their fists, words, and completely exposed emotions, the three of us could only stare in stunned silence.

“Shut up…! I don’t want to hear such lectures from someone like you, who must have been lovingly raised by both her father and mother…!”

At the words Lilia spat out while grappling with her, Karen-san gave a self-mocking smile.

“――I… I don’t even know what my real father’s face looked like. The same goes for my mother, of course.”

“Eh――?”

Lilia let out a stunned sound at the sudden confession.

Karen-san rarely spoke about it herself, and I never actively pressed her on the subject, but Karen-san’s birth parents had died shortly after she was born, and she had been taken in and raised by the commander-general.

The commander-general treated Karen-san like his own daughter, and because he cared so deeply for her, he sometimes behaved in ways that could only be described as an excessively doting father, but Karen-san must still have had moments when she thought about her birth parents.

“You’re better off simply having someone to hate. At least your anger has somewhere to go. It’s certainly unfortunate that the love you should have received was replaced with violence, and I do sympathize with you.”

“Then, if you truly think that, why would you――”

“Because――”

Karen-san had just begun opening her mouth to answer Lilia’s question when it happened.

“――Oh my~? I came because it’s our appointed time… but are you in the middle of something? Am I interrupting~?”

While lightly knocking on the already open door, the slave trader Nevan stood outside the room.

Despite the intense heat, her face was coated in makeup so thick it looked like a mask, and she wore a black cloak decorated with gaudy jewels that glittered without restraint.

“O-Oh! Nevan, I have been waiting for you!”

Lilia had seemed just slightly on the verge of opening her heart after Karen-san’s painful confession, but Nevan’s arrival distracted her.

“More importantly, are you sure, Princess? What about your discussion?”

“It matters not! Our agreement was only until you arrived in the first place! Now, all of you, leave at once. Go on, go!”

Her combative attitude from moments ago vanished entirely――and before the dumbfounded Karen-san and I could react, Lilia used her monstrous strength to shove us from behind and forcibly push us out of the room.

“W-Wait… We haven’t finished talking yet――”

As Nevan passed by us while entering the room in our place, my eyes suddenly caught sight of a certain insignia attached near her neck, where it should have been concealed beneath her cloak.

Whether I’d seen it during work or back in my school days――I couldn’t clearly remember where I’d encountered it. But I definitely knew that symbol――.

“What a shame, Sir Knight from the Royal Capital. From here on, it’s private time for Lilia-sama and me.”

“Um――that insignia, if I remember correctly――wah!?”

The instant I reflexively called out toward Nevan, Karen-san’s arm wrapped around my neck.

“What are you doing, Haru? We’re leaving.”

“Karen-san, but――”

Just as I tried to protest, Karen-san pressed herself extremely close to me and whispered quietly enough that only I could hear.

(…I’ll ask you later what you saw. For now, let’s get as far away from that slave trader as possible.)

(――Understood.)

Immediately understanding Karen-san’s intention, I let myself lean against her and deliberately allowed myself to be dragged away as we hurried out of the room.

“H-Hey, wait! What happened that made you suddenly back off like that? We finally had a chance to get the Princess out of here――”

Ena, who had followed after us, pressed Karen-san for an explanation.

But Karen-san immediately covered her mouth as well.

“Mmph! Mmmph!”

“Behave yourself. I’ll explain once we reach the harbor where the ship coming to pick me up is waiting. Besides, there may be things I need to ask you two about that slave trader as well.”

“――Did you figure something out?”

When Zena asked that from behind Ena, Karen-san smiled and replied with a single sentence.

“I took a fair amount of pain――quite a lot, actually――but, well, sometimes it’s worth getting into a fight like that.”

“”…??““

The three of us, myself included, tilted our heads together at Karen-san’s cryptic words――.

But we would soon learn both the meaning and the gravity of what she’d said.