The New Lord of Lichtenauer
It was the day Lichtenauer welcomed its new lord.
Those who had gone before were laid gently to rest in every heart. This gathering had come to bless a new beginning—and to stand behind it.
Adel stood still and watched it all unfold.
Sien moved forward through a sea of blessings, and the sight of her was a thing no one could look away from. No painting in the world could have matched it.
Sunlight caught in her silver hair until it seemed embroidered with light itself. Even the faint stiffness of nerves could not dim a beauty that made looking away feel like a kind of theft. Every step she took was a thing of grace. If a god had ever given beauty a body and carved it into the world, it would have looked like this.
Even Adel, who had lived a life as far from beautiful women as a man could get, found his lips parting of their own accord.
"Kneel."
The priest stationed in the territory spoke, and Sien sank slowly to her knees before him. A hush of awe ran through the crowd at the sight of her.
"Can you take responsibility for this land and your people through every storm and hardship?"
"Yes. Upon the Lichtenauer blood that runs in my veins, and upon that glorious name, I dare swear it here. I will protect this land and these people to the very end."
"I ask you once more. Can you truly do so?"
Sien answered in a voice clearer than before.
"Though I stand in the highest place, I shall care for those in the lowest. Though I am called the strongest, I shall protect the weakest. Though I am the most noble, I shall love even the most humble. As the lord of Lichtenauer, I swear it here and now."
The solemn declaration moved more than the retainers and the knights. Even the people of the territory looked on with faces full of feeling.
Satisfied, the priest stepped back—then knelt with grave courtesy before her.
"I earnestly pray that you will lead this noble place, and these precious people, well."
He bowed his head still lower, and proclaimed it to them all.
"O new lord of Lichtenauer, great house of the sword!"
"Long live the lord of Lichtenauer!"
"Infinite glory to Lichtenauer!"
"Eternal prosperity upon this land!"
Not a single voice rang hollow. They simply wanted to bless the woman who had become their new lord, and to stand with her. That, more than anything, was proof of what Lichtenauer meant to them.
Adel felt a quiet relief settle in his chest. His judgment of people, at least, had not been wrong.
Not that there was nothing still nagging at him.
"There you are, Adel."
Once the inauguration was over, Sien began a circuit of the territory. Brender came up beside Adel, who had been following the procession from behind.
"Starting tomorrow, you'll officially join Her Ladyship's escort."
"...Will that be all right? I heard there was some discussion about it."
Adel had caught wind of it too. The retainers had opposed his appointment as an escort knight—not over his ability, his station, or his identity, but on the principle that a knighthood could not simply be handed over from the start. He would have to begin as an attendant and earn a proper investiture.
And so the decision had been this: not as a knight, but as an attendant, he would carry out escort duty. After that, he would sit the knight's examination and be made a knight in due course.
"I'm sorry. They're a rather exacting lot."
Brender had every reason to worry. When he had first spoken to Adel, he had mentioned only the escort knight post—not a word about starting as an attendant. Who would be pleased to be told, out of nowhere, to begin as a servant? Adel had never even wanted the position in the first place. From Adel's point of view, he could simply say he was done with it and walk away.
If he said he was offended, I wouldn't have a word to offer him.
It wasn't that the retainers were small-minded. If anything, they had said the right thing for the sake of the other knights. But that was one matter, and Adel's position was another.
"I'm all right. It doesn't bother me at all."
It was not empty courtesy. Adel meant it. He even thought the retainers had raised a fair point—that this was how it ought to be.
He did not know the particulars of knighthood. Knights had always stood on the opposite side of the world from people like him. But they were a group all the same, and the most important thing in any group was the discipline that held it together. When something arose that broke that discipline, the group did not last. Even if it did not collapse, the talk would never stop.
"I'm a little relieved to hear you say that, but..."
Where in the world would you find an attendant who could carve through third-grade demonic beasts? To drop a young man like that among the other attendants and put him through training—that would be an ordeal for his fellow trainees and for the knight assigned to teach him alike. There was no way around it.
"Commander Brender. May I ask you something?"
"Of course. Go ahead, Adel."
"...I only just noticed it. It struck me as odd."
Something odd? Brender tipped his head.
"The people of the territory. The way some of them look at Lady Sien is... different."
"What do you mean by that? I'm not sure I follow."
"I mean there are a few who look at her as if they're uncomfortable."
Brender opened his mouth to ask what on earth that was supposed to mean—then caught himself, and a quiet sound of recognition escaped him.
"...Wait a moment, Adel. Do you know anything about Her Ladyship's mother?"
"How would I? This is my first time here."
"..."
"Does it have something to do with that?"
Brender found himself at a loss for words. That there was a man who did not know the former lady of Lichtenauer—the mother of the present lord. Most nobles knew. Most of the Empire's people knew.
"You truly don't know?"
Brender asked again. Adel shook his head, meaning it.
"...Adel."
"Yes, Commander."
"Her Ladyship's mother is not human."
"...Pardon?"
"She is a Demon who fled to this world before the Great War."
The Rifts had not appeared one day without warning. The omens of catastrophe had shown themselves long before, in place after place. One of those omens was the Demons who began to cross the border.
The sudden arrival of such beings threw the continent into an uproar. A race with great horns upon their heads and eyes of vivid red—the people of the continent regarded these strangers with deep suspicion. The Imperial Court moved quickly as well, investigating them with care. What they found was that the Demons harbored no sinister designs. They had come simply to survive.
The Demons had originally lived in the Demon World. There, two races had stood opposed: Demon and Demonic Beast. Then, one day, the demonic beasts had begun to swell in number beyond all control. War broke out between the two races, but the gap had already grown too wide. The Demons, defeated, crossed the border in search of refuge—and the world they arrived in was the one that held the Empire.
The problem was that the demonic beasts followed the Demons' trail across as well.
Having acquired a taste for Demon blood and flesh, the beasts no longer came hunting a rival. They came hunting prey. That was the first appearance of the Rifts.
What followed was the Great War, a struggle of life and death. The surviving Demons fought with everything they had to defend the refuge they had found. They allied with humans. They even bowed their heads to do it. Because of that, this world was spared the fate that had befallen the Demon World. The Demons, too, were recognized for their service in the war. They had fought without thought for themselves.
Officially, at least.
"A great many people still hate the Demons. Hate isn't even the word—they all but curse them. They believe this war started because of them."
Even if the Demons had never come first, the demonic beasts, starved of prey, would have invaded this world sooner or later. This time, they had merely followed in the Demons' wake. But there were those who could not know that—and those who, even knowing, chose to look away. People of that sort wanted somewhere to pour their rage, and they poured it on the Demons.
"The previous lord grew close to the Demon who would become his lady before the Great War. Sentiment toward the Demons was not so poor then. They married with every blessing, and they had a son and a daughter. That daughter is Lady Sien."
"..."
"Then the Great War broke out, and the people's hearts turned. No matter how hard the Demons fought, the charge that they had drawn the demonic beasts here would not die. Not even when Her Ladyship's mother died of wounds she took fighting those same beasts."
Brender's voice had gone bitter. He fell silent for a moment, his eyes on Sien, who was waving to the people of the territory as she went.
"Demons are a matriarchal people. Perhaps that's why the Demon blood is said to leave a stronger mark on daughters than on sons."
Adel found himself thinking of Sien's crimson eyes. Now that he considered it, he had never seen a human with eyes like that.
"That's why they look at Her Ladyship the way they do."
"...I see."
"It's an open secret. That's also why Her Ladyship tries so hard. But Adel—you truly didn't know any of this?"
Adel nodded. He had spent his days cutting down demonic beasts, one after another, and nothing else had mattered. He had never even been interested. What he knew of the Demons went no further than where they had come from. He had no real grasp of how the world judged them, or of the feeling in the streets. His enemy had been the demonic beasts, not the Demons. If anything, the Demons had been comrades.
"Discrimination against Demons is milder in the central regions, where the Imperial Court sits. That's why the previous lord sent the present one there. Out here, though... it's still what it is."
"And you, Commander Brender?"
At Adel's question, Brender looked at him.
"What do you think of Lady Sien?"
"Human or Demon, it makes no difference to me. She is a direct descendant of Lichtenauer. She is my liege. I will serve her until the day my life runs out. That is my duty."
There was not a flicker of hesitation in it. The will behind the words was iron. Adel nodded.
Perhaps that's why.
Why Sien was so consumed by her duty. Why she threw herself forward without a thought for herself. He understood it, if only a little. It was not simply for her own sake, as someone of mixed human and Demon blood. It was for her father, who had married a Demon—and for her mother, the Demon accused of drawing the beasts here. She was fighting to protect their honor.
Adel watched Sien walking far ahead, and the Emperor's words came back to him.