A Knight Does Not Forgive the Golden Sun (1)

It hardly needed saying, but the Royal Academy was absurd in scale and splendor alike.

A colosseum vast enough to host a War Game the day before was impressive on its own. Rummage through the Academy, though, and you found still more enormous facilities—a grand gallery, a swimming pool, a riding ground, and the like. Looking at them, one could hardly call the place a mere institution for raising young students. The words that came unbidden were domain, or academic city.

And in that city there stood a banquet hall, unusually open to the air, built in a style that called a Greek temple to mind. It saw no ordinary use, so the students who passed it had taken the building for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a mere ornament and thought nothing of it.

"Good heavens..."

"Th-this is really that dreary building?"

"The Academy truly is nothing but surprises."

Today was another matter entirely. The splendor was so startling it overwhelmed them. As one student had said, it had been a dreary building, yet in this moment it had been transformed into something beautiful and radiant.

A flower garden.

Blossoms filled every side of the building, and vines clung here and there as the flowers opened in full bloom. So many kinds, and in a season when they had no business blooming together—seeing them like this, one could only think it a special display of the Academy's power. No. Of Pendragon's.

"You can tell it was thrown together in a hurry."

"Even so, it isn't vulgar. The splendor is properly measured."

"We may not overawe them from the start, but we can show them our strength."

Nobles accustomed to parties were not fooled by mere glitter. They analyzed what lay behind it. The gathering had been forced into being, yet it was the first time dignitaries of state-guest rank would appear on an official stage, and a party could serve, at times, as a kind of show of force—a way to display a kingdom's power before foreign envoys.

We can manage a thing like this as if it were nothing.

So the display declared. It might look childish, but it would be no exaggeration to say this childish method had walked alongside human history itself.

To the innocent students who knew nothing of that underside, however...

"I-I've never seen so many flowers in my life!"

"They're beautiful..."

Their eyes were simply delighted, and the sight would become a memory they could not forget. In a way, ignorance was its own happiness. Nobles steeped in power could not watch the scene with that same purity. They wore bitter smiles at their own lot, and envied the students all the same, as if dreaming of a younger day before they had fallen into what they now were.

Except.

"This is pretty good. The drinks aren't bad either. Hey—are we actually allowed to eat this stuff?"

"Yes. With finger food, the attendants hand it to you themselves. Most people don't eat any, of course."

"I'm full."

"...Haha."

There was a knight who, grown man though he was—formally knighted, even—paid the party's underside no mind at all and simply enjoyed himself.

Lee Han.

He worked diligently through the finger food and non-alcoholic champagne the attendants offered. He had no interest in flowers to begin with, and the political language of nobles was nothing but a headache once you got tangled in it. So wasn't it better not to wander around for no reason, and to eat as hard as he could if he wanted anything to show for the night?

"Better than sticking my nose in and pretending I know what's going on."

"I agree!"

Levi agreed fiercely with that plain, honest opinion. It wasn't that she was some sunflower with eyes only for her master. She, too, wanted nothing to do with nobles.

And no wonder.

"That's the one adopted into Tristan..."

"A fine beauty. Hmm. Shall we sound them out about a match with our son?"

"Give it up. Adopted or not, she is Tristan. Prod the wrong nerve and it is your house that suffers."

"Even so, one never knows, does one? Think of the profit if we became in-laws with Tristan. It is well worth the attempt."

"...There is truly no reasoning with you. Heh heh."

She had not the slightest desire to mix with people like that.

Besides the students, a fair number of nobles invited from outside were present, so the hall was considerably crowded. With so many conversations overlapping, it was normal not to catch what others were saying. An ordinary person would not have heard them. Levi, however, was more than capable of eavesdropping on several at once. She was Lee Han's outstanding disciple, after all.

Gyeong really does have no end of uses.

Her starting point had come later than other people's, but effort does not betray you. She was still lacking in many ways, yet when it came to Gyeong she wielded it with considerable skill, and even the whispers around her came through in detail. Which meant she also heard, all too easily, the talk of those appraising her, or looking at her with lewd intent.

Listening, Levi did not so much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grow angry as let a bitter smile carry what she felt.

I knew this was the sort of place it was, but they're vile beyond belief.

Noble society. Lee Han was always tossing out his hatred of nobles as if it were a joke, but those remarks were also a sign of the distrust he held toward them. And Levi found that distrust entirely understandable.

Because they are so different outside and in.

Those with sordid designs on her would, the moment they stood before her, put on dignity and kindness and try to grow close, while what they hid would be nothing but sinister. Some would envy her for rising in status all at once. Others would covet the power she held. Or they might approach ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠simply because they judged her worth befriending. Levi was sick to death of all of it. Her life had already been ruined as thoroughly as a life can be ruined, and by nobles. In truth, the one who hated them most might not be Lee Han at all. It might be her.

Even so, the reason she could smile, and not lose her temper at people like that—

"Want me to go straighten them out right now?"

"...I'm all right, Master."

"No. I'm not all right. Don't worry. I've got their faces. Later I'll sneak them a one-hour course of Tendon-Splitting Bone-Dislocation and come back."

"I-I really am fine..."

Yes. Because there was someone who grew genuinely angry in her place, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Levi could say she was all right. And so she could smile.

"—Forget it. I'll step out for a bit."

"W-wait, Master!"

There were times, of course, when his anger ran so far ahead of her that it left her flustered. Levi could only find it ironic that embarrassment and joy occupied her heart at once.

There had been a bit of a scuffle, but the banquet hall was not entirely uncomfortable, nor entirely unpleasant.

"Whoa? I've never seen you in uniform before, Instructor!"

"You look wonderful, Instructor!"

"Please, couldn't you go around dressed like that from now on?"

There were familiar faces, and a chance to see his disciples in a different light.

"...Why do you all come charging the second you see me?"

The chicks. The girls approached him, making a great show of how thoroughly they had dressed up. Ordinarily they were frail, drooping things, but they were noble young ladies all the same, weren't they? Done up to the fullest in dresses and makeup, they were pretty—a freshness that put the flowers ringing the hall to shame. Youth really was a tyrant.

"Your fathers are going to cry buckets later."

"Why?"

"Imagine your pretty daughters marrying some sun-blackened lout. You'd cry."

"Ohoho, listen to you!"

It might come as a surprise, but Lee Han and the chicks did not get along badly. If anything, he had made them exercise so their bodies would grow strong and looked after them in all sorts of ways, so unlike the male students the girls bore him no grudge. Rather, without quite meaning to—

"Instructor, dance with me later, too."

"Me too!"

—there were even girls who had taken a liking to him. Unlike the pure fondness Levi held, theirs might be a little light and a little calculating. Even so, gratitude was still the right answer. And he was not fool enough to miss it. He produced a line that would brush the moment aside.

"Sorry. I'm not here alone tonight, so go get permission from my partner first."

"Wow, that's mean..."

"That was cruel."

The partner excuse. Lee Han was using Levi as a shield, and the cheap tactic worked better than he had expected. He saw her every day and thought nothing of it, but to anyone else Levi was a beautiful woman, beautiful enough to draw a genuine sigh. There was a reason Karin had called her, only the day before, by that embarrassing nickname—the Academy's First Love.

Her smile stirred the wish to protect her, and yet a gentleness showed through it. She was lovely. So long as she stood beside him, even the young ladies could not simply make off with Lee Han. And Levi, who usually looked like a docile baby bear, was wearing a smile edged with pressure, which made them even less eager to draw near.

"Eep..."

A few of the young ladies shuddered. The men who fancied Levi, on the other hand, were only being kept at a distance because of Lee Han for the moment, and they ground their teeth.

Rotten bastard!

All he's got is brute strength!

...I wanted to dance with Lady Levi.

Damn it!

Resentment stacked itself upon Lee Han without his knowing. As for him, oblivious—

"...Why's my back stinging like this today?"

The jealousy prickling toward him was nothing but unfamiliar. But before he could hunt down the cause—

People plastered in every manner of florid praise made their entrance, and the eyes of Lee Han and everyone else were drawn to a single place. Two men could be seen coming in, one after the other.

The first wore the dress of an unfamiliar foreign land, yet not a shred of his dignity was disturbed—a handsome man, evidently the sultan. Behind him walked a man of somewhat cynical cast, golden hair streaming as he came. And what Lee Han felt, looking at the pair of them, was—

A tanned pretty boy and a blond thug?

Gazing at the two men, who seemed split neatly down the middle between gold and tan, Lee Han tilted his head.

Well.

Faces like that, they'll act like it, won't they? The sort of bastards who'd mess around.

It was an unkind assessment if ever there was one. It was also Lee Han's plain and honest impression.