Chapter 8

When you talk about knights, an indispensable part of the job is the bond between brothers-in-arms who share the same ideals.

Comrades who have endured together, survived together, grown together, and constantly shared life-threatening situations.

While a bond with a horse may be deep, the bond with a fellow soldier is certainly no less significant. You can’t exchange words with a horse, but there are things that only words can convey. If there is such a thing as a knight’s vow, it undoubtedly becomes an unfading memory in one’s life.

Being an idiot, I’d long imagined doing something like that—wondering what I’d actually pledge if I ever made a vow—but based on the usual pattern of my life, it seemed destined to be an unrequited dream.

However, much to my surprise, this dream was the one thing that actually came true.

Specifically, the vow I made with my two best friends on the day of our knightly appointment: “to carry the future of the knighthood on our shoulders.”

Recalling it is a bit embarrassing, so I won’t go into the details, but it was a situation that ranks as the peak of “brilliance” in my life.

And yet, it is the way of the world that the stronger the light that shines, the deeper the shadow behind it becomes.

Having abandoned my aspirations to the point that not a trace of that former brilliance remains, I’ve completely given up on desires and ambitions like promotions or looking cool. Rather than trying my hardest as a knight, it’s more like I’m just trying to hang on. I have my hands full just dealing with the cases right in front of me; I have no time to think about the future.

Perhaps because of that, there are frequent moments when the sight of my former classmates—whom I run into occasionally—is so dazzling that I can’t look them in the eye.

Dammit, how much more of a glorious stage do those guys need to stand on before they’re satisfied? I forgive them, though.

Anyway, speaking as someone with friends like that, a type like Chronicler Yagara, who does nothing but make snide remarks, is actually quite easy to handle.

“Ah, Varna-kun! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Since last year’s Imperial Matches? Goodness, though, the air around here is quite pungent. There’s a drift of that commoner-specific scent—sweaty, dusty, impoverished, and moldy—so I was thinking of changing locations… Oh, wait, it’s coming from you. My apologies. Perhaps it’s just because it’s been a while since I smelled it, but it felt even worse than usual. No offense intended.”

“What’s this, Orcus? Your nose is surprisingly dull. You’re always wearing perfume so sickly sweet it makes people choke when you get close, so I thought you’d be more sensitive to odors. Is your nose paralyzed from the perfume? You’ll struggle in actual combat if you can’t smell anything. It’s one of the tools for detecting enemies… Ah, sorry. Come to think of it, you’ve never actually been in a real battle where you put your pride and life on the line. That was a slip of the tongue. I’m truly sorry.”

“Don’t give it a thought! Isn’t it actually a good thing not to experience real combat? Our Kingdom hasn’t fallen so low that we must repeat such barbaric acts as targeting someone’s life day and night like savages! …Ah, no, I didn’t mean to imply that you lot, who repeat real combat with orcs day and night, are savages or anything like that. It’s just a general observation, a general observation.”

“I understand. If anything, I’m relieved you seem to have such an understanding of us. After all, if something that doesn’t even speak our language were to attack the defenseless populace, we have an obligation to use our pride and strength to teach them the error of their ways. If everyone just feigned ignorance and indulged in idle slumber instead of fighting properly when an enemy appeared, it would affect the people’s trust in the Kingdom… Ah, ah, sorry. This doesn’t mean that Orcus and the rest of the ‘Holy Boot Knights’ are just playing at training with mock sword-fights at headquarters without doing any proper drills. And I don’t believe the rumors that more than half the members are weaklings who start wheezing during exercises, either. Of course not; we are fellow knights who share the same ideals, after all.”

“Indeed! Though there is an insurmountable difference between us as noble and commoner, our ideals are one and the same! Hahahaha…!”

“True. My thoughts reach you without me even having to explain. Hahahaha…”

On the surface, we were smiling. That said, I usually have a poker face anyway, so it didn’t take much effort to keep my expression fixed. However, the artificial smile on the face of Orcus—my contemporary and the snide jerk who constantly pesters me—seemed so fake that if you pulled on the edges, it felt like it would peel off to reveal another identical face underneath.

‘I only stopped by the Holy Shield Knights’ barracks to show my face to ‘him,’ but I’ve already run into someone troublesome…’

Around noon the day before the Imperial Matches—having arrived at the Royal Capital earlier than expected due to certain circumstances—encountering Orcus first thing was a bad omen.

He was a man with the spirit of a monk, as if he had stepped into the ascetic practice of constantly making snide remarks at me simply because he couldn’t stand the fact that I, a commoner, had produced grades that surpassed most nobles—only to have those remarks thrown right back at him. Just to clarify… I mean “spirit of a monk” in the most sarcastic way possible.

“By the way, are you participating in the Imperial Matches again this year? How envious. You seem to be blessed with a talent for the sword and the stamina of a beast.”

“Yeah, thanks to that, I’ve been sat in the third seat as the ‘center’ this year instead of the vanguard. It feels like overvaluation, which makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I have to do what needs to be done.”

“Do be careful. It’s proof you’ve been recognized as having the strength of the third-rank in your order at such a young age. If by some miracle you were the cause of a loss, you’d be a laughingstock, wouldn’t you? I have absolutely no intention of doing such a thing, but if it actually happened, I might just find myself laughing.”

“I appreciate the advice. I hope you’ll be able to participate in the matches soon, too. With your skill, you might be able to make it in another ten years or so.”

A vein pulsed momentarily near Orcus’s eye as he realized my words were laced with the insult: “You, in the Imperial Matches? You’re ten years too early. Wait, what are you even doing if a commoner has put a ten-year gap between us? Are you a comedian? It’s hilarious.” If he’s that thin-skinned, he shouldn’t talk to me, but I really don’t understand the way the privileged class thinks.

Our brains must be wired differently… and no, I’m not implying he’s stupid. Their underlying ideology is just so different from a commoner’s that something truly is different.

If his personality were halfway decent, Orcus would be a man of both beauty and brains. His beautifully maintained blond hair was braided into an unnecessarily elaborate shape, and even the tips of his bangs, which hung down annoyingly, were skillfully plaited—a unique sense of style that seemed to go over well with noble ladies.

And this “braid-boy” was a hardcore aristocrat who was obsessively fixated on lineage and status, just like other nobles. To put it simply, he was the type who mistook commoners for monkeys or something.

“…In any case, Orcus. Why are you in a place like this? Not to be rude, but unlike my group which is on the verge of being late, the ‘Holy Boot Knights’ should have entered the Royal Capital quite early. Knowing your Commander’s temperament, I assumed he’d have even the non-participating knights doing swordsmanship drills before such an important match…”

“N-No… well, that’s… The Commander was so deeply regretful about losing to you last year that he started a training regimen so intense the rest of us can’t keep up… Well, you can figure out the rest from the atmosphere. It’s your fault, too.”

Seeing Orcus’s face, which looked as if he’d just chewed on a bitter bug, I grasped the general situation.

The Commander of the ‘Holy Boot Knights’ was a legendary swordsman who had built an undefeated streak in the Imperial Matches until now. He was a living legend whom even the members of the ‘Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights’—with their advantage of abundant real-world combat experience—could never manage to defeat. The privileged class had been ecstatic over his alias, “The Sword God,” claiming he was the embodiment of the “Strong Noble.”

And standing right in front of Orcus was the “Beheader” who had knocked that man out in a single blow.

Imagine it. A man who possesses both the pride and the skill of being the strongest suddenly suffers a blunder where a rookie vanguard from a scrap-heap knight order defeats his four strongest subordinates and then takes him down with one hit in front of everyone… I can state with certainty: it is undoubtedly a stain on one’s life.

To wash away that humiliation, his only choice was to utterly crush me in the Imperial Matches and prove that the previous result had been a fluke. Naturally, he wouldn’t have time to bother with the other members.

In short, most of the knights like Orcus had been forced to flee the practice grounds.

“It looks like this year’s battle will be even tougher than last year’s.”

“That’s your fault too. Miracles don’t happen twice.”

“True. If it happens twice, it’s not a miracle anymore.”

“…! As a fellow knight from your year, let me give you some advice. Excessive conceit will—”

“—Lead to one’s ruin, right? Just like a certain knight commander. I won’t say who, though.”

The plastered-on smile on Orcus’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a blank expression like a Noh mask. With a perfectly natural motion, his hand touched the hilt of the sword at his waist.

—I suppose I pushed the provocation too far, I thought, rebuking my own loose tongue.

It seemed I had made him angry enough to peel away his mask of civility.

The air grew tense. A crafty noble would have retaliated through some other, nastier method, but it seemed this man was a bit too young for that kind of maneuvering. Then again, I wasn’t one to talk, having provoked my opponent into a “selling words, buying words” argument right before a major match.

“Draw. You have insulted us.”

Orcus glared at me, his voice cold and laced with bloodlust.

Two maids belonging to the barracks happened to be walking nearby; they were pushed back by the sheer force of his spirit and fell onto their backsides.

Even without the skill to back it up, the fury of the privileged class when truly enraged could sometimes surpass that of an orc.

—However, did he really think someone who graduated from that officers’ academy would be frightened by this level of bloodlust?

“You plan to draw your sword indoors? Besides, this is the ‘Holy Shield Knights’ barracks. Is it the etiquette of a knight to conduct a private duel—which is forbidden on principle anyway—in a space that isn’t even a dueling ground? That strays quite far from the chivalry I was taught.”

“…”

“So… you have no intention of backing down.”

“There is no need for the proud warriors of our order to go out of their way to deal with the likes of you tomorrow. I shall personally make you crawl.”

Orcus’s swordsmanship rank had been fifth in the academy.

Now that nearly two years had passed, his techniques—honed through the interpersonal combat training that the Holy Boot Knights were so proud of—were certainly not something to be taken lightly.

I had no intention of losing, but I wanted to avoid anything that would affect tomorrow’s performance.

However, contrary to my wishes, he had reached a point where he couldn’t back down. It wasn’t the kind of heat that could be cooled by a simple apology at this stage. This is why I never understand the right distance to keep with these people. If you let them keep making snide remarks, they get progressively more arrogant; if you hit back too hard, this happens.

‘If it comes to this… the moment Orcus draws, should I pin his sword down with ‘Ninth Form—Lingering Shadow’—?’

I’d make him drop his sword by the impact of a downward strike the moment he drew it. If it landed perfectly, the match would be decided in a single blow, but since my opponent was Orcus—who had likely been trained never to let go of his weapon even in death—it was hard to say if it would work for sure.

Still, there was no other way but to fight—or so I was thinking, at that exact moment.

“Aahhh! Did you go out of your way to come to the barracks!?”

A gentle, clear voice that utterly shattered the atmosphere of battle echoed through the hallway.

Orcus and I both snapped our heads toward the sound. Standing there was a single girl who looked entirely out of place for a fight. Her face, looking genuinely surprised, made every gesture seem as beautiful and soft as a flower. With long, orange hair that held the paleness of sunlight gathered in a modest headdress, she could have been mistaken for a princess if she weren’t wearing a knighthood medal and a sword.

In an instant, Orcus’s menacing attitude transformed completely.

“—Ah, my beautiful lady!! Even though it’s been two months, I’m delighted that you’re so surprised to see me! I just happened to find some free time between training sessions, so I came to visit! Oh, that’s right! Before coming here, I bought some flowers I thought would suit you perfectly. Won’t you accept them!?”

“You… wait…”

With him changing his attitude this much, I—who had been gearing up for a fight—was left completely behind.

It dawned on me: so that’s what this was about.

It was true that he’d been driven away from the training grounds, but he’d likely used that as an excuse. I thought it was strange for him to go all the way to another order’s barracks just because he couldn’t train; his real goal was to enjoy a tryst with this beautiful female knight.

‘Then quit messing with me and just go already!! Argh, in one sense this is perfect, but the timing is the absolute worst…!!’

Orcus pulled out a large bouquet from wherever he’d been hiding it. With a beaming smile, he spread his arms toward the female knight, entering a hugging stance.

The female knight ran toward Orcus with an expression so warm it would make anyone watching smile—only to pass right by him and dive into my chest. I caught her firmly, stepping back one pace to absorb the impact.

“Varna-kun, you’re so busy, yet you came all the way to the barracks! If you’d just sent word to the palace liaison, I would have come to greet you! Jeez, I’m happy you’re here, but aren’t you letting your guard down too much with the Imperial Matches coming up? You can’t do that! What if you get distracted and get hurt?”

“Ah… well, you see. I arrived a bit earlier than planned, so I thought I’d just show my face. It’s fine, I’ll start my training for the matches properly in the afternoon.”

“Good luck with tomorrow’s match! With Varna-kun, there’s no doubt you’ll win two years in a row! After all, you’re Varna-kun!”

“That’s not even a reason…”

Her innocent smile as she bragged about me as if it weren’t about someone else made me smile in return.

She was, ironically, the same reason I had come here as Orcus had.

Showered with selfless love by her family and beloved by those around her, she had earned the alias “The Unscathed Holy Shield” because members of the knighthood, regardless of rank, would guard her as if determined to protect her at all costs. She was one of my few classmates from my student days, and one of the most beautiful women in the country.

“When the Imperial Matches are over, you have to help me with my practice again! Everyone is so mean! Just because I’m physically weak, they try to lose on purpose when we train! It’s been like that since the academy! In the end, Varna-kun and one other person are the only ones who train with me seriously!!”

“It just means you’re that well-loved. Well, if I have the leeway, I’ll join you—Sedona.”

“Really!? It’s a promise!?”

At those words, my best friend Sedona, with whom I had once made a vow, let her face light up with joy.

…While completely and utterly ignoring Orcus, who was our fellow classmate.

Yes, she was “perfect in a sense” for settling the situation, but she had appeared at the “absolute worst timing” for Orcus.

Orcus, who had been frozen like a scarecrow with his arms up for a while, finally rebooted a bit late and offered the bouquet to Sedona. His movements were as awkward as a “Golem” currently under development at the Magic Research Institute.

“A-Ah, Sedona… this…”

“Oh! Orcus-kun, you were here! Sorry, I didn’t notice!!”

“….!!”

His heart gouged by a knife of words delivered with total lack of awareness after being ignored, Orcus’s eyes began to look like those of a dead fish. Sedona took the bouquet from his hand and passed the flowers to the maid, who had stood up after being released from Orcus’s bloodlust.

“Put these in the vase at the barracks entrance!”

“U-Understood, Lady Sedona… but, are you sure?”

“Hmm? About what?”

“No, well… regarding Lord Orcus’s… no, it’s nothing.”

“Really? Then thanks!”

…Let me explain in advance: a girl like Sedona was raised by her parents like a delicate flower, a “sheltered daughter” in the extreme who had received mountains of presents since she was a child. Perhaps as a result of receiving too many gifts, her ability to read the “marriage proposal” type of messages hidden in presents was remarkably low.

In other words, she was effectively ignoring not just Orcus’s presence, but his affection as well. Sedona’s spirit—completely oblivious while even the maid was clearly weirded out—was a terrifying thing.

‘T-This is bad. Don’t look at Orcus anymore. Don’t shed tears of pity, me!’

Orcus’s face was physically deforming into something like a fish at the fact that the flowers he’d given wouldn’t even make it into her room. He had been such a jerk until a moment ago, but isn’t this just too much? I could do nothing but look away from my unstoppable sympathy for Orcus.

Then, immediately after handing the flowers to the maid, both of Sedona’s hands wrapped around my right hand.

“…By the way, Varna-kun! Since you’re finally in the Royal Capital, why don’t we go eat lunch together at the stalls in the castle town? You know, when the three of us are together, we always end up at a restaurant… so it’s okay, right?”

“A-Ah, sure, of course.”

“Yesss! I haven’t gone around to the stalls since we were students!”

At the sight of Sedona inviting me to lunch looking a bit shy, Orcus’s face collapsed past a fish and into something like a zombie.

—Just to be clear, Sedona wasn’t trying to destroy Orcus’s heart. It was just that the “weight” her best friends held in her heart was a bit larger than most people’s.

Case in point, she was the same way with our other friend.

I couldn’t think of any words to say to the poor knight anymore. If I had to say something, it was that his timing for showing up was just too poor. If I hadn’t been here, at least she wouldn’t have been forced to prioritize, and she might have given him a bit more attention.

‘Orcus—don’t die, stay strong…!!’

As I was pulled along by the cheerful Sedona, I forgot all about the Imperial Matches and simply prayed for that with all my might.