Chapter 141: The Nameless Holy Knight
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 141: The Nameless Holy Knight
Cecilia whispered in a voice brimming with excitement.
"Could it be… did you two finally spend your first night together?"
"W-what are you talking about!"
I had fully intended to send Loik back to his own room the moment he woke up at dawn. However, I had been so exhausted that I ended up sleeping until the sun was high in the sky.
When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself tucked into his broad chest, using his arm as a pillow.
— "Did you sleep well?"
Loik, who had been playfully pinching my cheek, gave me a languid smile.
— "L-Loik! What are you doing here?"
— "I was watching you sleep, Annette."
He nonchalantly brushed a stray hair from my forehead.
— "Did you know your nose twitches when you sleep? It’s incredibly cute."
— "No, that’s not the point…!"
Startled by his low, intimate voice, I bolted upright.
— "If you’re awake, you should have gone back to your room! What if someone saw you?"
Loik’s eyes drooped as if he were dejected.
— "We’re a married couple. What does it matter?"
I was glaring at him as he leaned on his elbow, showing no intention of getting up, when it happened.
— "Your Highness, it’s morning!"
With impeccable timing, the door swung wide open.
Standing in the doorway, Cecilia’s eyes went wide as she saw me sitting on the bed and Loik lying there with his back to the door.
— "M-my apologies!"
Even after the maid hurriedly slammed the door and fled, Loik lingered for a long time before I finally managed to push him out of the room.
Later, when Cecilia returned with a dress, her face was bright with joy.
"There’s really no reason to be embarrassed, you know?"
"I told you, it’s not like that!"
"You two have been married for so long, it’s only natural that—!"
It was just as I took off my nightgown and turned around. Cecilia, who had been chattering away, suddenly froze, her eyes nearly popping out of her head.
"…Your Highness."
"…I-I’ll go get a dress that covers all the way up to your neck."
Her face turned beet-red to the tips of her ears as she stumbled back out of the room.
"What’s wrong with her?"
Puzzled, I looked down and immediately covered my chest with my hands.
The area just below my collarbone was covered in mottled red marks. I thought they had just been light kisses, but I never imagined they would leave such traces.
Maybe it would have been better to just say we spent the night together.
Mortified, I stood there covering my chest for a long time until Cecilia returned with a new dress.
*
By the time I had finished preparing to return to the castle, Perel approached me with news.
"Your Highness, it seems we’ll have to delay our departure by about an hour."
"Did something happen?"
"Traces of a dragon were discovered near the mountains. The Captain and a few knights have gone to investigate."
Since he said it wouldn't take long, I decided to take a walk around the area with Cecilia.
The temple was larger than I had expected. Even though I thought Miel had shown me most of it, there were still quite a few places I hadn't seen.
We eventually reached a small chapel at the very edge of the temple grounds. Beyond it lay a graveyard enclosed by gray stone walls.
Stepping inside, I saw a grave in the center with a fairly large headstone.
"This must be Priest Venemus’s grave."
It seemed the faithful still tended to it, as small bouquets of flowers and handmade bracelets were laid at the base of the stone.
As I looked around, I noticed a small, simple grave tucked away in a corner. The headstone was completely blank.
It felt strange that a grave within a temple would be nameless.
Just then, Miel, who was making his rounds, spotted us and approached.
"Whose grave is this?"
"Ah… I don’t know the details myself."
"You don’t? It doesn't look that old."
"It’s likely been about twenty years. I heard it belongs to a Holy Knight."
"A Holy Knight?"
Miel added that sometimes, when a Holy Knight dies while performing a mission, their death is kept anonymous if the mission was classified.
Still, if someone died serving the temple, they should at least have a proper headstone.
"What about their family? Are they notified of the death?"
At my question, Miel gave a somewhat sorrowful smile.
"Holy Knights have no families. Even if they did, they must sever all ties the moment they join the order."
Looking at the grave left me with a strange sense of heaviness.
What kind of grand conviction did you hold to accept such a lonely death? Was it a death valuable enough to justify ending a life that no one would remember?
For some reason, my heart went out to the occupant of that grave. I closed my eyes for a moment and prayed for the peace of the nameless Holy Knight.
*
In the middle of a forest where trees had been violently snapped, Loik and his knights examined the dragon's traces.
"It’s faint, but looking at the mana infused into the leaves and branches, it’s definitely a dragon," Enolius said.
Demich scowled at the words. "Damn it! That means if we had come just yesterday, we could have run into it!"
He irritably hacked away at a branch, muttering that they should have brought the entire knight division.
"Isn't it strange? A dragon that hasn't shown itself for over a decade is suddenly leaving traces like this…"
"Could it be a trap?"
"The surrounding area is too clean for that."
Tiern shook his head, arguing there was no reason to leave traces unless they were trying to lure and ambush the knights. It was then that Loik spoke.
"Quiet."
"Someone is nearby."
The knights drew their swords in unison. As they stood on high alert, the sound of hoofbeats echoed from a distance.
"It’s a group of knights," Loik noted, and the tension in his men eased slightly.
The approaching group consisted of about five or six riders. They dismounted, and the knight in the lead approached Loik with a respectful bow.
"Greetings to His Grace, the Grand Duke of Blenheim. I am Volter, a senior knight of the Selvanis Knights."
They weren't familiar faces. It seemed the other party had deduced Loik’s identity from the knights' crest and his black hair.
"What brings the Selvanis Knights all the way here?"
The Selvanis family was a comital house in the Kingdom of Arsen. While the land Loik stood on was close to Arsen’s border, it was strictly Blenheim territory.
"I believe this is part of the Grand Duchy."
Volter hesitated slightly before speaking. "We received reports that dragon traces might have been found… Since it’s close to our territory, it concerns the safety of Selvanis as well. We took the liberty of coming out to investigate."
"It seems some time has passed. There aren't many traces left."
Volter hesitated again before opening his mouth. "Actually… we discovered dragon traces not too long ago as well."
"Where?" Loik’s voice sharpened.
"Quite a distance from here. It was near the border of Arsen."
"Was there anything unusual?"
"It wasn't much different from here, but…" Volter looked around before continuing. "There were signs that the dragon had vomited blood."
A dragon vomiting blood?
Even Loik furrowed his brows at the unheard-of news.
"Perhaps… the dragon is growing weak," Enolius said from behind, his expression grave.
"…Is that even possible?" Loik asked in a low voice.
"It’s only a theory, but…" Enolius crossed his arms and rested his chin on his hand. "If failing to hide its presence isn't intentional, it means it can no longer control its power well enough to erase its tracks."
"A dragon weakening? Is such a thing possible? And you are…?"
"A mage," Enolius muttered quickly, sounding annoyed by Volter's question.
"If we look at it that way, it explains why the dragon hasn't shown itself until now," Tiern murmured. "It was strange from the start that it was using black mages. Dragons are a race that prefers to handle things directly."
"Isn't this a good sign for us?"
"Maybe if we just wait…!"
The knights, filled with hope, began to speak in excited tones. Loik cut them off firmly.
"It is merely a theory. We will investigate this matter further. Sir Volter, you may report this to your order, but ensure it does not spread to the public."
Though they didn't interact much, the two knight divisions shared the commonality of guarding borders where the threat of monsters loomed. Knowing that even the smallest rumor could disadvantage them in the war, Volter nodded silently.
Just as they were about to exchange final courtesies and part ways, a knight standing in the back stepped forward.
"Knight Zoren greets the Grand Duke."
"Do you have something to say to me?"
Zoren hesitated for a moment before stepping closer to Loik. "My mother serves as a lady-in-waiting to the Countess of Selvanis."
Loik and his knights blinked, not understanding the relevance. Zoren quickly added another sentence.
"The Countess of Selvanis is the sister of the late Marchioness Frais."
Loik let out a soft exclamation.
The 'late Marchioness' was Annette’s biological mother. That meant the Countess of Selvanis was Annette’s aunt.