Side Story 118: The Painting (1)

I was, in fact, once at the very bottom of the Knight Order.

Though that is not to say I accomplished anything of note; I merely spent many years assigned as a guard at a small fortress.

It was around the time I began to feel my physical strength waning and started considering retirement. Among the job openings reserved for retired soldiers, one caught my interest.

After discussing it with my wife, we took the bold step of moving to an unfamiliar land. The position was caretaker of a royal villa atop a mountain.

Managing a villa was a first for me, but nearly all my senior colleagues had backgrounds similar to mine, so I found the work easy to handle and applied myself diligently.

The turning point came in the autumn of my fifth year. It seemed this work suited me, and just as I was being entrusted with greater responsibility, I was approached about a need for staff at another estate managed by King-sama.

The deciding factor was that it was near my wife's hometown. We decided once again to move to a new land.

The following year, my wife ascended to heaven during an epidemic. Whether that was ironic, or whether she was happy to see her hometown's scenery one last time, I do not know.

After losing my wife, I threw myself entirely into work, as if to fill the emptiness in my heart. Before I knew it, I had been entrusted with a position akin to head of estate management.

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