Chapter 65
After parting with Commander-in-Chief Savis, I joined Fabian for regular training.
It had been a while since my last training session, but I couldn't focus because I kept wondering what Commander-in-Chief Savis had summoned me to discuss.
And yet my poetry teacher praised me, saying, "You've finally learned to write sensible poems."
Fabian even told me, "Your poems turn out better when you're half spaced out, Fia."
There were a lot of things I couldn't quite accept.
During chess training, Commander Desmond, who hadn't shown his face in a long while, appeared.
Today really is a day for running into all sorts of people. What's going on?
As he played chess, Commander Desmond kept glancing at me, but his usual witty banter was off.
He mumbled incomprehensibly for a while, then finally seemed to steel himself and asked me about Zabiria.
"Fia, um... I hear you have a familiar."
"Yes, I do, but..."
As I answered, I suddenly remembered practicing how to act mysterious.
The whole thing had started as a plan Commander Cyril had given me because he was worried about me being assigned to the Fourth Monster Knight Order.
Since things created by imagination can surpass reality, the idea was that if I kept up an air of mystery and made people imagine my familiar as stronger than it really was, then the Fourth Monster Knight Order—which determined the hierarchy among its knights based on familiar strength—wouldn't treat me roughly.
However, it was difficult to put this into practice, and when I tried it on Vice Commander Gidion of the Fourth Monster Knight Order, the exact opposite happened.
In other words, I somehow made him think the strongest monster, the Black Dragon, was the weakest...
Thinking that wouldn't do, I practiced acting mysterious with the Commander-in-Chief and Commander Cyril.
And the results of that practice were...
I glanced at Commander Desmond and realized this was the moment to put those results to the test.
"Well, how should I put this? My familiar is a monster unlike any other... It's kind of black, kind of dragon-like, kind of king-like..."
That's right. If I wanted him to imagine something stronger than it really was, I just had to make him imagine not the Black Dragon, but the Black Dragon King Zabiria was trying to become. I couldn't tell the difference, though.
"F-Fia! Stop!! I wasn't asking what kind of familiar you have! I mean, please, just be quiet! Any more and my life will be in danger!"
"Huh?"
"I know! I know full well that your familiar is the strongest, most fearsome monster!"
Commander Desmond shouted as he thrust out his open hands as if to ward me off, and he looked genuinely afraid of my familiar.
C-could this mean my practice at acting mysterious is paying off?!
"I did it...!! I've perfected the mysterious act!"
I stood up and braced both hands on the chess table, trembling with emotion.
Meanwhile, Commander Desmond was shaking as hard as he possibly could.
"A-All right, I'm going back. B-But, Fia, at least confirm this for me. I-I haven't forced you to reveal your familiar's identity, have I? I haven't put any pressure on you at all, right?"
I thought he was speaking to me, but Commander Desmond was staring at the space above his head as he spoke.
Though I wondered what he was doing, I answered in the affirmative for now.
"Yes, that's right."
Commander Desmond let out a huge sigh of relief, then started talking toward the sky again.
"You heard her! I haven't put any pressure on Fia at all!"
Faced with Commander Desmond's obviously strange behavior, I tilted my head.
...Oh no. I thought it was just Commander Quentin, but now Commander Desmond has started acting strangely, too.
These distinguished and capable knight commanders were one after another starting to act bizarrely. What was going on?
I was worried about this strange behavior spreading from one knight commander to another, but... since it was another order's commander, I decided to pretend I hadn't noticed, figuring it probably wouldn't affect me much.
...It'd be far too presumptuous for an ordinary knight like me to worry about a knight commander, right? Right.
◇◇◇
Late in the afternoon, Commander-in-Chief Savis had some free time, so I went to his office with Commander Cyril.
The Commander-in-Chief's office was in its own separate building, but the Black Shield Wing was situated so that it was surrounded by the buildings of the various knight orders.
Since the First Knight Order's building was next door, I often saw the Black Shield Wing's outer walls and always wondered, "That building is obviously so much more luxurious than the others. What does it look like inside?"
Excitedly, I went in through the entrance, but when I looked up, I yelped and jumped backward.
Seeing me frozen in shock, Commander Cyril smiled as if he understood. "Ah."
"This is your first time seeing this portrait, isn't it, Fia? It's the legendary Great Saint."
...I-I know.
I'd seen that face more times than I cared to in my previous life.
Past the entrance of the Black Shield Wing, you found yourself in a vast, three-story atrium.
The space was vast in both height and width, enough to overwhelm any visitor, but the most astonishing thing was the enormous portrait displayed directly ahead.
It depicted a girl wearing a black dress, her red hair flowing down to her knees, with a single deep-red rose wrapped around her wrist.
...Wow, that's my battle outfit.
In my previous life, I always wore a black dress when I went into battle, and I wrapped a single rose around my wrist.
The painting captured that perfectly, but... the girl in it looked so stern that I found it incredibly embarrassing.
Without realizing it, I took one step, then another, backward, until my back hit the entrance door.
Commander Cyril gazed at me curiously, then tilted his head.
"What's wrong, Fia? Is the portrait of the Great Saint so imposing that you're overwhelmed?"
"Um, well, I mean, this is the private building of the Commander-in-Chief, who's at the top of all the knight orders, right? So I thought that, while the Great Saint is certainly important, perhaps they should display portraits of famous knights instead."
Stammering, I voiced the first question that had occurred to me.
Commander Cyril murmured, "Ah..." and looked up at the portrait.
"Your opinion is perfectly reasonable, but this portrait has been hanging in this building for the past three hundred years."
"S-since three hundred years ago... Well, yes, it is difficult to find the right time to replace a portrait once it's been hung."
In my previous life, I sealed the Demon King, but I died young, so I hadn't spent long serving as the Great Saint.
So the Great Saints who appeared after my death and lived longer than I did probably had more achievements over their lifetimes.
If they really wanted to display a portrait of a Great Saint, I thought they could replace it with a portrait of one of them...
As if he had read my thoughts, Commander Cyril continued.
"Rather than it being difficult to decide when to replace it, it's more accurate to say it can't be replaced. The first Commander-in-Chief of the Black Dragon Knight Order ordered that this portrait remain here for all eternity."
"........................"
There was no Black Dragon Knight Order when I was alive, so of course I couldn't have known its first Commander-in-Chief.
Why had the first Commander-in-Chief been so fixated on the Great Saint from three hundred years ago...?
"C-could it be... was he a fan of mine?"
The past always gets glorified.
If a peerless bard got hold of a story about someone losing her life in exchange for sealing the Demon King, wouldn't it turn into a truly beautiful tale?
"Ah, no, wait. Come to think of it, history had been rewritten..."
...That's right.
It was said that the Great Saint had married the Hero who had sealed the Demon King alongside her.
And the Great Saint's descendants were supposed to have founded the royal family.
...Wait, but how could that be?
The Nav royal family had existed long before I was born in my previous life, and it was still the royal family now, so it hadn't been interrupted.
Had there been some need for something new, like the birth of a new royal family, in the Great Saint's era?
And so, had they revamped the national flag and the knight orders to make the new royal family stand out?
"Hmmmm..."
When I groaned without thinking, having completely lost track of things, Commander Cyril spoke to me in a concerned voice.
"Fia, are you all right? Your thoughts have been slipping out loud for a while now."
"Huh? Ah, s-sorry. I'm fine."
I hurriedly tried to cover it up and smiled.
"...If you start feeling unwell, please tell me."
Commander Cyril continued in a slightly concerned tone, but when I told him I was fine, we headed for the Commander-in-Chief's office together.