A Different Kind of Journey
After arriving in Lichtenauer, Adel was received with the utmost hospitality. He had first come to the aid of knights in distress, then saved everyone—Sien included—in their moment of crisis. His overwhelming martial prowess defied all explanation, but there was no denying the immense contribution he had made in annihilating the demonic beasts. Not a single soul questioned the treatment he received.
Three days had already passed since their arrival in the north. In that time, Adel had paid a visit to the home of the man who had originally invited him. By coincidence, the man's hometown was not far from Lichtenauer, so after sharing a meal, Adel had returned.
What am I supposed to do now?
It had been a journey with no purpose from the start. Before stepping down, he had received a great many gifts from the Emperor—enough, the Emperor had said, to live in comfort. He could even reside in the Imperial Capital if he wished. Adel had politely declined everything. And it was not him alone; every last member of Ulfhedinn had done the same.
Though the work had begun in vengeance and hatred, they had not been driven by those primal emotions to the very end. They had simply fought with everything they had—for the comrades they had already sent off, and for the brothers-in-arms still at their side. They had never wanted anything. Never once thought of compensation. This had merely been—yes. Their everyday life. That was all.
A knock sounded at the door.
"Adel. May I come in?"
At the voice beyond the door, Adel opened it at once. Standing there was Brender, Knight Commander of the Lichtenauer family.
"Do you have a moment?"
Of course he did. He had nothing to occupy him in the first place. Adel nodded and followed him out.
"Have you been resting well?"
Adel was being received as an official guest, and so Brender treated him with due courtesy.
"Yes. I've rested well these past few days, Commander."
"I'm glad to hear it."
Surely he had not come all this way merely to ask that. Not a Knight Commander.
"There will be a succession ceremony in two days."
"Lady Sien will become the family head, then?"
"Yes. We cannot leave a position of such importance vacant."
Lichtenauer was both a pillar of the north and the heart of its martial strength—a key defensive region, standing guard against demonic beasts that could appear at any moment. For that reason, the family could never be without a head. An empty seat was no different from an army without a commander. The one who held it would bear responsibility not merely for Lichtenauer, but for the entire northern region.
"I should offer my congratulations, then."
"...I'm not sure it's something to congratulate. It's a position of tremendous burden."
Brender muttered the words almost to himself, then waved a hand as if to say, please forget I said that.
"Is that what you came to tell me?"
"More precisely, I came because of something that follows from it."
"Something that follows from it?"
"The heads of Lichtenauer have, for generations, each kept a personal guard knight."
"A guard knight."
At Adel's echo, Brender nodded.
"I wanted to ask if you might consider it."
A guard knight was no mere bodyguard. The role involved a measure of secretarial work as well, and meant remaining at the family head's side at all times. Naturally, it fell to the most loyal—and the strongest.
Or else, to keep close someone who needed a closer look.
The thought of watching over the very man who had saved them all sat poorly with him. But they needed to confirm his origins if everyone was to rest easy. The world was in chaos; trust and faith mattered more than ever.
There had been no shortage of talk among the retainers. He was their benefactor, yes—but didn't it all strain belief? A warrior capable of slaying Grade 3 demonic beasts ought to have been known. Yet of this young man named Adel, nothing was known at all.
And so the proposal of making him a guard knight had emerged. On the surface, they would not openly doubt him. Quietly, they could observe whether anything was amiss. Of course, there were any number of other reasons besides.
"Lady Sien was away from the family for a long time, owing to circumstances. It's fair to say she has no knight close enough to keep at her side. But during our journey, I noticed she seemed at ease with you."
"Is that all? That's a rather thin reason."
"I know. That's only the surface of it, of course. There's another reason I have no choice but to speak of."
It was not something one ought to say to an outsider. But if that outsider were to become one of Lichtenauer's own, Brender saw no reason he couldn't.
"The truth is, Lichtenauer is in desperate need of even a single extra pair of hands. The recent battle inflicted devastating losses on our knights. More than half of them lost their lives."
The worst of calamities—the family head and the heir both dead. More than fifty knights had fallen in a single day. Lichtenauer had numbered just shy of a hundred knights in total. The loss was nothing short of a catastrophe.
This was an age when even a single seasoned soldier was precious. Knights who could wield Chakra were all the more so. Having lost more than half of them, Lichtenauer itself could well begin to falter.
"...You want me to replenish your fighting strength."
"To be frank, yes."
"I'm not a knight, Commander."
"But you could become one. Your ability is more than sufficient already."
It was a proposal most people would have taken as a compliment. Adel, however, still looked unconvinced. He and a knight were fundamentally opposite things. They both fought, yes—but all he knew was how to kill. He did not know how to stand firm and protect, the way knights did.
Adel's silence stretched on, and Brender grew restless. The other retainers worried over the young man's identity. What Brender worried about now was losing him.
He had seen it. Seen it with his own two eyes, clear as day—this youth who claimed he was no knight, slaughtering demonic beasts. If anything, the fact that he wasn't a knight only made Brender think harder. If a young man like this became a knight and stood as Lichtenauer's pillar, the tragedy of before would never happen again.
"Is this what Lady Sien wants?"
"She hasn't said so in any official setting. But she did mention it to me, in passing. She asked whether only a knight of the family could qualify as a guard."
The intent behind that question was obvious to anyone. She was already thinking of Adel as her guard.
Things kept unfolding in ways he hadn't expected. Adel scratched his head, at a loss for what to do.
"Commander Brender."
A clear, feminine voice came from behind them.
"Lady Sien."
"Go attend to your duties. I'll handle the rest."
"Ah... as you wish. Then I'll take my leave."
Brender bowed and withdrew. After dismissing her maids, Sien looked at Adel.
"You've heard the gist of it, I assume. About the guard knight."
"Yes, Lady Sien."
"...Would you consider trying it?"
Adel said nothing.
"You said you were traveling north. That journey is over now. But setting out for someplace new isn't the only kind of journey there is, is it? Living a new life, in a new place, with new people—couldn't that be a journey too?"
That came out all right, didn't it? I didn't say anything wrong?
She had spent an entire day crafting that reason. As Brender had said, Lichtenauer desperately needed even a single capable fighter. In that situation, a man like Adel was someone they absolutely could not afford to let go.
But that was not the whole of why she wanted to keep him.
You poor man.
He had said he'd fought as a child soldier for well over ten years. Half his life must have been a hell stained with blood, hatred, and rage. She wanted to show him, even a little, that there was more than fighting and killing. That there were so many other things.
It might be pointless. It might be overstepping. But if she could repay even a fraction of the debt she owed him—if he would only allow it—she wanted to do this for him.
Adel blinked at her words. She was right. His journey was over. He had come north, received a meal, even seen the snow. He had only looked at it, of course—never actually touched it.
A new place. New people...
It wasn't that he had never thought of such things. He simply knew himself too well, and so he had always stepped back. He had never approached because he didn't know how.
"If it's that kind of journey..."
Adel offered a quiet smile and nodded. The idea of another journey was appealing enough. But what tugged at him a little more was his curiosity about the woman standing before him.
She was like the Emperor, and yet not. She could not be called strong, and yet she was upright. She looked sad, but never asked anyone to notice. People like that usually met one of two ends: they overcame every hardship and shone with quiet dignity, or they fell at last and burned out, leaving only regret.
...I'd rather you were the former.
The image of Sien throwing herself in front of others was still vivid in his mind. She did not shine brilliantly now. But someday, he thought, she might gleam no less than the Emperor himself.
Adel had agreed far more readily than expected. Sien had returned in high spirits, only to find herself at a loss before a wall of opposition from her retainers.
"He cannot be a knight."
"Why not? Is this still about his identity...?"
"It is not, my lady. A knight is not made by grabbing just anyone and holding an investiture."
"That's right. No matter how exceptional the candidate, they must first serve as an attendant for at least a year, cultivate the necessary qualities, and sit for the examination. There has never been a single exception in this regard. Every knight of Lichtenauer has gone through that process."
Sien looked to Rascal and Brender, standing beside her—a silent question as to whether the retainers were being unreasonable. The two knights considered for a moment, then shook their heads.
It might look like blanket opposition, but the retainers had a point. Make an exception, they said, and you set a precedent. Even if it produced a favorable result today, it could come back as something far worse tomorrow—or sometime in the future.
"Adel has rendered great service, all of you."
"We acknowledge that. But that alone does not make him a knight."
"My lady. We retainers are not opposed to appointing a guard knight itself. Have him serve first as an attendant, sit for the knight's examination, and then appoint him as a formal guard knight. That way, no one looking on will find anything amiss."
Sien let out a quiet sound of distress. She had already spoken to Adel about becoming a knight. How would he take it if she now told him he had to spend a year as an attendant first?
It'll be fine... right?
Adel didn't seem the type to be particularly ambitious about such things. But the human heart was a fickle thing. Hear something, and you begin to expect it. Fail to receive what you expected, and you grow disappointed. Disappointment curdles into anger. She couldn't help but worry.
Will he be all right with it?
Brender was thinking along similar lines as Sien. The part that occupied him, however, was rather different.
For an attendant, he's an awfully extraordinary man.