The Female Knight Who Devours Food In The Corner Of A Wedding Hall Is Too Cute

“Haaah… I really don’t want to go to work today…”

Those were the first words out of my mouth one morning after waking up.

The weather outside was perfect. I felt completely fine physically too.

Normally, I would have headed off to work in high spirits.

But today, there was just one thing missing from my everyday routine.

“Karen-san actually took the day off today…”

That’s right. Karen-san, who almost never took time off, had taken the entire day off.

Oh, it wasn’t because of some serious injury or illness, or a death in the family, or anything like that. It was just paid leave.

I had casually tried asking Karen-san why, but for some reason she gave me a serpentine glare and hissed, “None of your business!” So the reason was unknown—

Or so I’d like to say, but I actually knew.

From the conversation between Karen-san and her friend Madeleine-san at the tavern, I had already researched beforehand that she had to attend a wedding.

“Ugh… A workplace without Karen-san… This is unbearably depressing.”

Even as I thought that, my body diligently and efficiently prepared itself for work, and I was already about to open the front door.

I hadn’t even been working as a knight for very long, but apparently the mentality of an overworked corporate slave had already taken root in me.

“Even if I tried taking paid leave, if I said, ‘The Captain’s off today, so I’m taking the day off too,’ I’d definitely get punched…”

I shook my head from side to side to drive away those improper thoughts, and just as I was about to head cheerfully off to work—

“—Kyan!”

“Hm? Kyan?”

Something struck the door when I flung it open, followed by a girl’s voice.

For some reason, the doors of the knights’ barracks opened outward, so apparently I had knocked someone over.

“S-Sorry! I didn’t think anyone would be outside… Wait, huh?”

I immediately stepped outside to apologize, but the girl sitting on the ground after falling backward had a face that seemed vaguely familiar.

“Honestly! To think you’d treat me, the second-highest graduate of our academy, like this! You haven’t changed at all, Haru!”

“Ah—yeah, sorry…?”

From the way she spoke, she was… one of my classmates? I think? From what I remembered, she had graduated from knight school with the second-highest grades after me… and since she was here at the knights’ barracks, she had probably been assigned to the knight order just like I had, and her name was—uh, her name…?

“It’s Mulberry! You were like this back at knight school too! I spoke to you quite often, so why do you always have such ridiculously vague memories of me!?”

Apparently my face had been screaming, “Wait, what was this person’s name again?” because she introduced herself.

Right, right. Her name was Mulberry. She came from a noble family with considerable status in this country, and during our student days, she had always regarded me as her rival.

However, the gap between our grades had been so enormous that I hadn’t really thought much of her.

Besides, the only woman occupying my thoughts right now was Karen-san. There was information about other women in there too, of course, but just like Mulberry, it was merely rolling around in some forgotten corner of my brain.

“Anyway, Mulberry, what do you want? I have to go to work now.”

Since that was the kind of relationship we had, I couldn’t exactly stop and pay attention to her every little thing. There was still more than an hour before the officially designated reporting time, but according to the Black Hawk’s common sense that “a working adult should arrive more than two hours early,” I was already practically late. So I needed to hurry.

“Huh? Really? My division has the day off today, so I thought you might too.”

“Of course not. I’m in the Black Hawk, remember? We basically don’t get days off.”

It was true that today was officially a public holiday. But missions kept appearing endlessly regardless of whether it was a weekday or holiday.

The young noblewoman tilting her head in an exaggeratedly cute manner in front of me didn’t seem to understand that very well.

“So? What business does someone assigned to such an absurdly cushy division have with me? Surely you didn’t come here for no reason.”

“Y-Yes, of course not. Actually, Haru, since we were classmates, I came because I have a small favor to ask of you…”

Mulberry hid a certain letter she had been holding behind her back. It seemed far too elaborately decorated for an ordinary administrative notice.

It was probably an invitation to some sort of party. In fact, Mulberry wasn’t wearing knight-issued armor either; she was currently dressed in a party gown.

“—Hm?”

Something suddenly bothered me.

“Hey, Mulberry. Can I ask you something? That thing you hid behind your back… is it some kind of… invitation?”

“Yes. It’s an invitation to the wedding of a senior from my division. I was just about to attend, but… kya!? W-What is it, Haru? You suddenly have such an intense expression on your face.”

I remembered it. That invitation Mulberry was holding.

It was exactly the same wedding invitation that Karen-san and her friend Madeleine-san had been holding…!

“Hey, Mulberry. Could you tell me a little more about that?”

The wedding was being held at a church near the castle where we worked.

The venue was already packed with people, and conversations among formally dressed guests of all ages could be heard everywhere.

“Mulberry, just to make sure one more time… are you really okay with me being your partner?”

“Of course. Not to brag, but back in school I thought about nothing but my grades, so I have absolutely no friends or connections I could ask for something like this!”

“That really isn’t something to brag about…”

Even I had one or two friends… Come to think of it, back when we were students, she had confronted me every single day. She had focused so entirely on beating me academically that everything else had fallen by the wayside… I suppose. It obviously wasn’t my fault, but I did feel slightly bad about it.

So, as a small way of making up for that, I agreed to Mulberry’s request—to accompany her as her partner to the wedding she was attending.

Of course, my real objective was Karen-san, who was probably somewhere inside this venue.

Oh, and because of that, I took paid leave too. It was sudden, but I had to attend a wedding, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Now then, Haru, please hurry up and escort me… Wait, where are you suddenly going!? I’m right here!”

“Ah, sorry. I have something to do, so I’ll be going.”

Well then… thanks to, uh… Mul-something-san, I had legally infiltrated the wedding.

So let’s immediately begin searching for Karen-san. I could hear someone calling my name from behind, but never mind, never mind.

“Hmm… Let’s see, Karen-san, Karen-san…”

At that point, I activated my further-refined “Enhanced Eavesdropping Skill.”

Before, it had only worked when I could visually confirm the person I wanted to listen to, but now I could pick out one specific sound from countless noises and hear even the faintest mutter without missing a word.

And all of it had been for the sake of enjoying every last bit of Karen-san’s cuteness.

This time, however, there was no need to use the skill.

“(Munch)… Damn it… Look at that guy grinning like he’s so happy—(munch munch)—Is he showing off? Is this a declaration of war—(munch munch)—against me, an almost-thirty woman who’s still reduced to saying pathetic things like, ‘My job is my lover☆’?”

She was in the corner of the buffet-style reception hall.

Karen-san stood there glaring resentfully at the bride and groom being blessed in the center of the chapel. Since it was a formal occasion, she was at least wearing a feminine dress—but the sight of her gnawing away at huge chunks of roast beef held in both hands was bizarre enough to stand out immediately.

Karen-san sulking like that was certainly cute too, but even so, she was probably drawing a little too much of the wrong kind of attention.

And sure enough, she was all alone.

“Hey, look at that woman…”

“Oh, you’re right. Isn’t she the first female knight captain or something?”

Karen-san was famous in these circles, so naturally this was what happened when she stood out like that.

However, the things people said weren’t necessarily positive…

“…”

Apparently Karen-san finally noticed that too.

Maybe she had picked up some of the surrounding whispers mocking her—things like, “That’s the thirty-year-old woman who missed her chance to marry,” or, “I wouldn’t want to end up like that”—because I heard Karen-san mutter,

(“Ugh… They really are making fun of me from a distance… I expected it, but… Nghhh, I want to go home already. Work would be so much better than this…”)

She was acting as though nothing was wrong so no one around her would notice, but I alone had perfectly caught Karen-san’s true feelings.

“—Ah! There you are, Haru! Honestly, abandoning a lady the moment we entered the venue is a bit much, even if we’re only pretending to be partners… Wait, Haru? What’s wrong? Why do you look so frightening? You’re ruining that handsome face of yours.”

Apparently even Mulberry could easily tell how I was feeling.

Whenever it involved Karen-san, I simply couldn’t treat it as someone else’s problem.

“—Oh? Could that woman over there possibly be Captain Karen?”

“Mulberry, you know the Captain too?”

“Yes, well. She’s famous, after all. This is my first time seeing her in person, but she’s very beautiful.”

“You think so too? What a coincidence. So do I.”

Exactly. Just as Mulberry said, Karen-san was incredibly beautiful. She looked dignified and cool in her usual armor, but Karen-san dressed properly as a mature woman like this was even more beautiful.

She wasn’t someone who deserved to be looked down on merely because she didn’t have a partner.

“I’d like to speak with Captain Karen. Haru, would you introduce me?”

“Huh—?”

The moment she looked at my face, Mulberry winked at me.

She was probably being considerate in her own way.

“…All right, Mulberry. I’ll go ask the Captain right now.”

Mulberry gave me a light push on the back, and I hurried toward Karen-san, who was shrinking into herself in the corner of the venue.

“Captaaaain!”

“Bfoaah!? H-H-H-Haru!?”

Karen-san reacted exactly as expected when I appeared. Since she had been completely focused on eating, my sudden arrival made her spit out the food in her mouth.

“Captain Karen, that’s terrible manners. Here, let me wipe your mouth.”

“S-Stop… I can do that much myself.”

Karen-san resisted as I tried to wipe her mouth with my handkerchief. But with both hands occupied, there was nothing she could do, and in the end she simply had to let me handle it. Cute.

“There, all done. Captain, you really shouldn’t do that. A knight captain shouldn’t be standing alone in a corner stuffing herself with food.”

“H-Hmph. I normally don’t have time to leisurely eat this much during work… It’s part of replenishing my nutrients. More importantly, Haru, why are you at a wedding? What happened to work?”

“One of my classmates asked me to attend with her. Um—”

“A pleasure to meet you. My name is Mulberry, and I serve in the First Squad of the Royal Capital Guard. It is an honor to meet you, Captain Karen.”

Mulberry, who had followed behind me, immediately inserted herself into the conversation.

The way she made her entrance so naturally that Karen-san no longer even needed to ask me why I was here was probably the result of her experience as a noble.

She had also graduated second in our class, so something like this was probably effortless for her.

“The First Squad… the ‘White Cross,’ huh? Is your captain doing well?”

“Yes. She is in excellent health. Please do come visit us sometime. We would be delighted to welcome you.”

The gloomy atmosphere suddenly blossomed into lively conversation.

Mulberry had a different kind of charm from Karen-san, so when the two of them stood together, the atmosphere became noticeably more glamorous.

Before I knew it, the whispers that had been leaking through the crowd had stopped as well.

“—Hm? Well, well? I came over thinking I should look after my poor, lonely best friend… but apparently there was no need to worry.”

At that moment, Madeleine-san slipped through the crowd and approached us while waving.

“What an unpleasant way to put it… This is Mulberry-san from the ‘White Cross.’ And this cheeky little brat over here is Haru, one of my subordinates.”

“Nice to meet you, Madeleine-san. I’m Haru from the Black Hawk. I look forward to knowing you.”

“Oh, so you’re the famous Haru-kun. Nice to meet you. I’m Madeleine. Karen and I were classmates, and I currently work at the Magic Research Institute.”

When I held out my hand for a handshake, Madeleine-san gently took it and pulled me closer.

(“—Take care of my best friend, okay? She can be a little difficult, but she’s a very good person at heart. Though knowing how attentive you are, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”)

Madeleine-san had probably seen through all the things I had been doing around Karen-san up until now. As expected of a mage. My little disguises hadn’t fooled her.

Don’t worry. I understand, Madeleine-san.

I will never do anything that makes Karen-san sad.