Chapter 19
Clang, clang, clang—the swords clashed in a steady rhythm.
After working up a pleasant sweat first thing in the morning, I smiled at Fabian.
"As expected, Fabian. Your sword strokes are so straight and precise. You're really easy to spar with! No wonder you gave the representative speech at the induction ceremony."
"...Thank you. Then, may I say something about you, too?"
Fabian smiled warmly and looked at me.
Oh? Was he going to return the compliment after I praised him?
I waited expectantly...
"Why is your sword so light, Fia? The treasured sword you used in your mock battle with the Commander-in-Chief became so famous that everyone seems to think you aren't very strong. But you used wooden swords in the first round of the entrance exam, right? You knocked the examiner's sword away when he was relying on brute force. That was your own strength, wasn't it? ...I've been watching you for about a week now, and your sword is always light. You don't seem to be holding back, either. What's going on?"
Whoa! I never expected such a sharp question!
As a proper member of society, I thought compliments were supposed to be returned!!
"...Ah, well, I'm actually not a morning person. I think the problem is that sword training is in the morning..."
"Fia, this isn't a matter of being bad at mornings."
...Yeah, I figured.
"...Then maybe I'm the type who can draw more strength than usual when I'm pushed into a corner?"
There are people like that sometimes, I thought, and Fabian gave a troubled little wave of his hand.
"Fia... I'm sorry to say this, but your excuses are about on the level of a three-year-old."
No, Fabian. You've never dealt with a three-year-old, have you?
A three-year-old can't speak this fluently, at least! I'm way ahead of them!
Besides, Physical Enhancement isn't something you can maintain for long. It's not impossible, but the next day I'm so sore I can barely move...
"Pfft, Fia..."
I was wondering what to say next when Fabian burst out laughing.
"What's with that face? Lately, I've found myself enjoying your troubled expressions, so I guess I was teasing you a little. Sorry. ...Come on, we have cultural studies next, so we should get going. We're doing chess today, right?"
Fabian really was a gentleman.
Even when something bothered him, he didn't press me too hard and let it go.
...He may be a rookie, but he's already a knight of such high character!
I put the wooden sword back where it belonged and smiled back at Fabian.
"Thanks, Fabian. Let's meet in the recreation room after we change."
◇◇◇
―――It had been a week since I was assigned to the First Knight Order.
The First Knight Order's role was to guard the royal family, and its two protectees were the king and his younger brother, the Commander-in-Chief.
Dozens of knights guarded them in three shifts, but they had more than enough people.
So, for the first few months, newly assigned knights were generally kept off the security shifts and put through training unique to the First Knight Order.
In other words, etiquette! Dancing! Learning the continent's common language! Music! Poetry!
It was the sort of thing that made me wonder, "What do knights need this for?!"
Yes, I was a princess in my previous life. But after three hundred years...
I either don't remember the things I wasn't interested in, or even if I do, knowledge from three hundred years ago isn't very useful.
...In other words, I have to learn it all over again. Ahem.
Well, I suppose guarding royalty is a special job that requires all sorts of skills.
But I don't think it was just my imagination that the other newly assigned knights, like me, trained eagerly during regular sessions such as horseback riding and swordsmanship, while showing absolutely no enthusiasm during cultural studies.
Incidentally, there were only twenty new assignments this time, including Fabian and me, but what stood out was that ten of them were women.
Considering the proportion of women in the Knights, that was clearly far too many. It felt deliberate.
"...The king can't love women, right? Does that mean he dislikes them? Are they trying to cure him of that?"
Maybe even someone you hate becomes familiar if they're around all the time. Was that the idea?
"Or maybe the Commander-in-Chief is surrounded by men all the time, and wanted a change of pace?"
The male knights' love for the Commander-in-Chief was passionate and intense. It was only natural he'd want a little change of pace.
Mulling that over, I changed quickly and headed to the recreation room.
...I stopped in front of the door, sensing an ominous atmosphere.
Hmm, I wonder if he's here again today...
I cautiously opened the recreation room door, and was immediately greeted by a voice.
"You're late, Fia. I've already set up the pieces."
"Eek! Captain Desmond!"
My bad feeling had come true.
"Come on, sit down. You can be white."
The dark-blue-haired knight, who had settled himself at the far end of the room, beckoned me over.
This handsome knight, who seemed harmless and easygoing, was Desmond, captain of the Second Knight Order.
According to his own introduction, he was thirty-two, single, and lived in the Knights' dormitory.
He seemed like an approachable knight, but apparently, he and Captain Cyril of the First Knight Order were the Knights' twin pillars, known as the Kingdom's Dragon and Tiger.
"Um, Captain Desmond, I'm grateful that you play chess with me every time, but don't you have work to do?"
I was indirectly trying to tell him to go away, but he was a captain, after all. He could surely hear what I was really saying, yet he ignored it without a second thought and beckoned me to sit nearby.
"It's fine, it's fine. A captain doesn't have any day-to-day duties to speak of. I just have to deal with things when something happens. The most important thing is being reachable. Ah, actually, it'd be a problem if I weren't here. I told my subordinates I'd be in the recreation room for the next hour."
"...I see."
I figured there was no point arguing, so I gave up and sat across from the captain.
Besides, honestly, I enjoyed playing chess with him. He talked about all sorts of things while we played.
"All right, you start. So, have you gotten used to the Knights?"
"Yes, everyone's been kind to me. Though I'm still in training, so I hope I can start regular duties soon."
I moved the center pawn and answered earnestly, like a new knight should.
"Hahaha. The First Knight Order's training is unusual. You had poetry and things like that, right?"
"Yes, we had a lecture yesterday. Our assignment was to write a poem on the theme 'Admiration for a Lady,' and Fabian wrote such a lovely one. I'm worried he's going to become quite the womanizer someday."
"Ah, that guy's going to be popular. You're in the same cohort, right? What do you think of him?"
Captain Desmond asked, glancing at me.
"Haha, he's the heir to a marquisate, you know? Our statuses are way too mismatched."
"Yeah. Unless you have some kind of special ability, though."
"A special ability... You mean that thing where I close one eye and every man falls to his knees, then starts composing poems praising me?"
"...No such ability exists. Your imagination is something else."
Anyway, we'd chat leisurely like this while playing, and the games went back and forth, wins and losses.
Honestly, I didn't know why Captain Desmond played chess with me every time.
He'd said that, but captains of Knight Orders must be incredibly busy.
And yet, from the very first chess class, he'd sat in a chair in the recreation room as if it were the most natural thing in the world, then spoken to me like we'd known each other for years.
Since then, Captain Desmond had been my opponent every chess period.
Captains and deputy captains were so far above us in rank that ordinarily you could hardly even speak to them.
I wondered whether it might look like favoritism for the captain of a different order to pay me so much attention, and whether my colleagues might say something, so I asked Fabian about it. He gave me an exasperated look.
"After crossing swords with the Commander-in-Chief, you're worried about that now? If any knight's going to be envied by everyone, I think it'd be you. But the Knights are an impressively rigid hierarchy. No knight would interfere or object when a superior—the Commander-in-Chief, a captain, or a deputy captain—acts of their own volition."
Still, every group has its exceptions, and it wouldn't be surprising if some people did something strange out of envy. "So, Fia, your concern might not be unfounded. Be careful," Fabian concluded...
"Come to think of it, I hear you're going along with the Sixth Knight Order on their monster-suppression mission starting tomorrow. Be careful."
Captain Desmond said as if he'd just remembered, and I thanked him.
"Thank you. I will."
After that, we played a few more games while chatting about this and that, and finished the day with four wins and one loss.
Captain Desmond seemed like a moody player, with strong days and weak days.
For the record, today was one of his weak days. Maybe he let me win as a good-luck gesture before tomorrow's monster hunt?