Chapter 7
“Yes… huh?”
I answered dejectedly, then looked up and asked,
“What are you going to do?”
“I mean a formal investiture as a magic knight.”
Lord Ludwig answered calmly.
“Well, it’s not that surprising. Didn’t Lord Logis tell you that you can’t become an instructor at this academy unless you’re formally invested as a magic knight?”
“Uh, yes….”
“That fellow. To think he’d gloss over something so important without explaining it.”
“He knows perfectly well, too.” Lord Ludwig muttered, sneaking a glance at me.
“B-but still. To suddenly do that to a wandering swordsman of uncertain origins like me….”
“Ho ho ho.”
Out of nowhere, Lord Ludwig let out a hearty laugh.
“A wandering swordsman of uncertain origins?”
-Tap.
After setting his teacup down to one side of the table, Lord Ludwig rested his interlaced fingers on the tabletop and spoke quietly.
“Too much humility can be poisonous too, Miss Haru.”
“…But.”
“Have you ever heard of the Four Heroes?”
Lord Ludwig tilted his teacup to take a sip, then began speaking in an even tone.
“Well, even if you haven’t, it wouldn’t be all that strange. Countless knights distinguished themselves and fell during the Seven Years’ War, and there was also much debate over whom to honor as heroes.”
Lord Ludwig let out a small sigh, his expression somehow looking a little troubled, then continued.
“But after three years of exchanging opinions and piecing together the survivors’ testimonies… only very recently did they finally decide to honor as ‘heroes’ the four knights who rendered the greatest service on the war’s four broad fronts.”
Well, Lord Ludwig had said I might not know, but I knew exactly who the Four Heroes were.
That was only natural. It was something that had appeared in the original story—more specifically, a crucial plot thread given considerable importance.
Lord Ludwig opened his mouth.
“The hero of the Southern Front, the Lion Knight, Lord Valliere.”
I knew him. The embodiment of valor who led the Lion Knights under House Valliere, personally taking to the vanguard despite being sixty and leading countless battles to victory.
“The hero of the Northern Front, Grand Strategist Ivanov.”
I knew him too. The greatest military strategist of the century, who sought advice from the natives living in the north, lured the enemy into a narrow gorge, then deliberately triggered an avalanche and annihilated an army of beastfolk numbering in the millions all at once.
“The hero of the Western Front, White Flame Knight Rex.”
There was no way I didn’t know this one. The protagonist of this novel and the strongest knight of the era. When the allied forces on the Western Front had suffered devastating losses and faced the prospect of a breakthrough, he sallied forth alone and held back a million-strong army of beastfolk by himself for three days and nights, until the reinforcements joined the front… He had also achieved the greatest feat of any individual during the war.
“And as the hero of the Eastern Front… an unknown wandering swordsman was being considered.”
‘…Huh?’
At that point, I faltered.
Because it differed from what I knew of the original story.
‘An unknown wandering swordsman?’
I had no memory of any hero by that name.
The man introduced in the original story as the hero of the Eastern Front was ‘Poison Toad’ Logis.
A cunning commander and a man comparable to Grand Strategist Ivanov, who had made full use of the East’s rugged terrain and skillfully employed guerrilla tactics to hold back the beastfolk forces.
Even after the Seven Years’ War ended, he had repeatedly traveled back and forth to the royal capital while leaving his knights in the East. So I had naturally assumed that was the reason.
“He is the only one among the four heroes whose name remains unknown.”
The beastfolk’s nightmare, the furry executioner.
The nameless warrior who had slain Valgarta the War God, the Great Beast King Raguska’s closest aide and strongest vassal.
‘Valgarta the War God?’
I felt as though I had heard that name somewhere before. An uneasy feeling swept over me.
“Logis said he was a four-armed, mutated male lion beastkin whose entire body was covered in black fur.”
“…!”
The moment I heard that description from his mouth, I unconsciously gritted my teeth.
“Miss Haru?”
Lord Ludwig’s flustered voice echoed in my ears.
That’s right. I knew. There was no way I could forget. I had vowed again and again to remember it for the rest of my life.
The enemy who had taken my master from me.
Even if I had killed him with these hands, how could I possibly forget?
“…Yes, I know him.”
I answered while drawing ragged breaths.
“Because I cut off his head with my own hands.”
It had already been five years. Even so, the nightmare of that day was always as vivid to me as if it had happened only yesterday.
I slowly took a deep breath. Calming emotions that had begun to roil was far more difficult than I had expected.
“…I’m sorry for showing you such an ugly side of me.”
“It’s all right.”
Lord Ludwig answered with an understanding smile.
“Anyone who has experienced the demon known as war tends to suffer one hardship or another. When I was young, there were times when I, too, found it difficult to remain in my right mind after seeing blood.”
“…You too, Principal?”
“If anyone can remain in their right mind after going through that hell, they ought to be called superhuman.”
Like Lord Rex, for instance. Lord Ludwig added it as if muttering.
‘…So he really is the protagonist.’
Just as I was about to sink into gloom, Lord Ludwig’s voice once again brought me back to my senses.
“Valgarta the War God was the Great Beast King Raguska’s closest aide, and the only beastkin warrior said to be his equal.”
“The Great Beast King Raguska….”
“He was the principal culprit behind the Seven Years’ War.”
Lord Ludwig continued.
“He was also a conqueror-king who achieved the unprecedented feat of uniting the nine beastfolk tribes scattered across the continent and bringing them under his rule.”
Beastfolk. Beings that resemble humans. Sapient creatures combining human and animal, covered not in smooth skin but in fur and thick hides.
And the things I had cut down countless times over the course of seven years.
Even those aberrations that could never be mistaken for humans must originally have been beastfolk.
“And Valgarta was the only beastkin warrior considered comparable to that conqueror-king. The beastkin whose head you cut off was a figure of that magnitude.”
“…I had no idea he was that formidable.”
“Lord Logis isn’t a fool. There’s no way he failed to realize that if he could report to his superiors that he had succeeded in defeating Valgarta, being hailed a hero would be within reach.”
Although he himself had not defeated him, I had, as a temporary guest of the order under his command, so it was undeniable that he deserved some credit as well.
“But Lord Logis held back. He prevented your identity from becoming known.”
Even at the cost of diminishing the credit due him, he prevented my name from becoming widely known. He merely reported that he had succeeded in repelling them with major assistance from an unknown, nameless wandering swordsman.
“Why?”
“What follows heroes is not only admiration and glory.”
Lord Ludwig answered matter-of-factly.
“Temptation. Jealousy. Slander. Incitement. Those are the sticky labels that cling to heroes. They are far harder to endure than you might imagine. Exceptional ability alone can rarely resolve them.”
“…Even Rex?”
At his words, I unconsciously muttered under my breath.
Fortunately, he seemed not to hear me and continued slowly.
“To be coldly honest, he probably didn’t make that decision purely for Miss Haru’s sake. If anything, it was quintessentially Logis: an outstanding maneuver. Hide the hero’s identity, stand beside the hero as a comrade, cut away the labels, and enjoy the halo for himself.”
“…That sounds like him.”
“He couldn’t possibly have failed to understand that too much glory would instead become a dagger pointed at his own throat.”
Lord Ludwig did not exactly deny it. Perhaps not to that extent, but I had known Logis for quite a long time myself.
“Well, in any case. Is this enough reason to formally invest a ‘mere wandering swordsman of uncertain origins’?”
“Ah…!”
Only then did I remember why this subject had come up.
Formal knighting. Without it, I could not, in principle, become an academy instructor, and I had only received an abbreviated wartime appointment rather than a formal one.
“Then the knighting ceremony….”
“We’ll let you know later. The formal certificate of knighthood requires His Majesty’s royal seal, after all.”
We’ll have to submit a separate petition and arrange a date, so it will take at least a week. Lord Ludwig muttered that, then said to me,
“Well, shall we conclude the interview here?”
“Yes… Uh, yes?”
I stared blankly at Lord Ludwig as he said this so calmly, blinking in confusion.
“Um, Principal…?”
“Is there something you wanted to say?”
“We haven’t talked about the instructor position at all yet.”
Lord Ludwig asked me in return,
“Are you curious about what sort of work you’ll be doing?”
“No, curious… isn’t quite the word. Wasn’t this like an interview? To decide what I’d be doing?”
“An interview?”
Lord Ludwig tilted his head, then let out a low chuckle.
“I wondered why you were so tense. An interview? Of course not. The positions of the other instructors haven’t even been decided yet, let alone Miss Haru’s.”
Lord Ludwig said with a smile,
“Ordinarily, positions for the following year are decided around the time one week remains before the entrance ceremony. Which subjects to teach, which class to take charge of… I, as principal, consider everything and make the decision. Naturally, it isn’t because I want it that way; it’s a long-standing tradition of Magnus Academy.”
It was an old tradition that dumped every decision and all responsibility on a decrepit old man tucked away in a back room—wasn’t that elder abuse? Lord Ludwig muttered, perhaps jokingly, then chuckled.
“Even so, Principal, you don’t know much about me yet.”
“No, I don’t.”
Lord Ludwig readily agreed.
“And perhaps I never will.”
“What?”
“That is my personal conviction. Human beings can never truly understand one another.”
Lord Ludwig carefully set down his teacup, then clasped his hands and spoke quietly.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. It’s actually perfectly natural.”
The old man’s low voice stepped backward, one step at a time, as it reflected on the past.
“Even if you sleep and wake in the same bed as the wife you promised to spend your life with for decades on end, human relationships are such that she can seem new to you every day, year after year. A parent may be summoned to school without the slightest idea why upon hearing that the child they thought was nothing but kind and gentle got into a fight, and unless they reach the same age and have a child of their own, a person can go their entire life without ever understanding a parent’s heart.”
“….”
“That’s why I decided to create a letter of recommendation. Even now, look at you. Doesn’t Lord Logis know far more about Miss Haru than I do?”
Lord Ludwig’s gaze fixed squarely on me. Between his wrinkled eyelids, his clear, keen eyes, honed over decades, gleamed softly like moonlight in the dead of night.
“…That’s all I mean. Please take it as nothing more than an old man’s rambling.”
Letting out a low, hearty laugh, Lord Ludwig shook his head.
“Still, if Instructor Haru insists….”
He opened his eyes a little and asked me quietly.
“Shall I ask you just one more question?”