Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: A Gift (1)
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The Imperial Inspector didn’t answer.
To be precise, he couldn’t.
He might have been stunned speechless by the fact that two mere fingers had stopped his sword, or perhaps his body had frozen solid under the Black Knight’s oppressive aura.
Or maybe it was both.
His shifty eyes darted about nervously.
The color drained from his face as he looked back and forth between the sword and the Black Knight.
Pale as a sheet, he opened and closed his mouth several times.
“Gah.”
But the only thing that escaped his thin lips was a whimper, like that of a frightened puppy.
“Why do you only whine like a mutt instead of answering my question?”
At the humiliating words, Boen clapped a hand over his mouth.
Lian, who had been rushing over, froze mid-stride.
Even I flinched.
It was an insult so degrading that, had I been the one on the receiving end, I would have wanted to bite my tongue off and die.
Perhaps that was the situation the Black Knight had been hoping for.
Cause and effect. You reap what you sow.
If the man who tried to cut out another's tongue were to bite his own in half, it would make for quite a cautionary tale.
But unfortunately, no cautionary tale for the ages was born that day.
Instead of biting his tongue, the Imperial Inspector just kept whimpering.
His eyes trembled as if in an earthquake.
*Shudder.*
Soon, the trembling spread from his eyes to his jaw, and then throughout his entire body.
“I’ll ask again. What were you going to do with that child's tongue?”
The Black Knight pressed the Imperial Inspector once more.
What a sight—demanding an answer from a man she'd pinned with her aura, rendering him unable to speak.
Unable to just watch any longer, I stepped forward and spoke.
“Don't you think you should withdraw your aura if you want him to answer?”
At my words, the Black Knight calmed her aura.
The wind that had been swirling around her subsided as if it had never been.
The Imperial Inspector, who had been half out of his mind, snapped back to his senses with a jolt.
It was a hasty judgment.
The idea that his soul had returned, that he had come to his senses—it was all my misunderstanding.
“Who are you to dare interfere in the affairs of the Imperial Court!”
Otherwise, there's no way he would have talked back to the Empire's greatest knight like that.
“Oh dear...”
A sigh escaped me before I could stop it.
“So you underestimate me.”
The Black Knight's tone was the same as always.
A way of speaking that was not just languid but almost listless.
“That must be why you ignore my words.”
And so, the carpet knight, who had long since put down his sword, failed to read the killing intent hidden within that listlessness.
How foolish.
“Pro-Professor! You can't!”
Had I not stepped in at the right moment, I guarantee the Imperial Inspector's head would have been separated from his neck right then and there.
“...?”
The Black Knight tilted her head.
“If you kill him here, the aftermath will be difficult to handle.”
“Aftermath? For me?”
“...I meant that you'll get caught up in troublesome affairs.”
“Then I should cut him down.”
“...There are better ways than beheading him.”
“...?”
I cautiously approached the Black Knight and reached out.
“A moment, your ear.”
She bent at the waist, tucking her ebony hair behind her ear.
*Whisper, whisper.*
“Oh?”
As I whispered in her ear, she nodded.
Fortunately, it seemed my persuasion had worked.
“I'm sorry to have troubled you.”
“On the contrary, this is better.”
Nodding, the Black Knight took a step back.
“H-How dare you! Trying to harm me, one who stands here under a solemn imperial decree!”
The Imperial Inspector, belatedly realizing he'd had one foot in the grave, shrieked as if having a fit.
“State your name! I will make you pay the price for looking down on the solemn authority of the Imperial Court!”
I clicked my tongue.
It seemed the Imperial Inspector before me had chosen the wrong career path.
For a carpet knight, he was slow to grasp the situation and utterly lacking in tact.
I had just pulled him back from the brink of death, and now he was sprinting right toward it.
“Perhaps cutting him down is better after all.”
I wrapped my arms around the Black Knight's waist, who looked ready to lop off the clueless man's head at any moment.
“Professooor!”
I desperately held her back.
Thanks to my efforts, the Imperial Inspector was able to keep his neck.
But all I had intended to save was his life, and nothing more.
“...Huh?”
The Imperial Inspector, who had been screaming his head off without grasping the situation, suddenly went blank.
*Shiver, shiver, shiver.*
Soon, the man who had been standing with his legs defiantly apart began to tremble.
It happened after the Black Knight quietly placed her hand on her sword's hilt and then removed it.
“W-Why is this suddenly happening...?”
Watching the Imperial Inspector tremble like an aspen leaf, I spoke with feigned concern.
“Oh dear. You don't look well. Someone should take the Imperial Inspector to the infirmary.”
I subtly turned my head and gestured to Lian with my eyes.
Lian, whose face had been tense from the preceding conversation, worried that there might be bloodshed, hurriedly supported the Inspector.
“I'll escort you.”
Completely dazed, he was dragged away by Lian like a puppet with its strings cut.
After watching his pathetic retreat, I turned to the Black Knight.
Her expression, as she stood there silently, was not much different from usual.
*Bow.*
“Thank you.”
I bowed my head deeply in gratitude.
“If.”
The Black Knight began to speak.
“If I hadn't arrived in time...”
To her unspoken question of what I would have done, I answered not with words but by pointing a finger toward a building.
All around were relics of the Old Empire, called "closed cams," things that didn't exist in the lower world.
I didn't know for sure, but someone was likely watching everything that happened here through those closed cams or whatever they were called.
Judging by the Deputy Director's attitude in his office, he wouldn't have just let the Imperial Inspector run rampant through the Cradle on his own.
Someone sent by the Deputy Director might have already been tailing him from a distance.
Whoever it was, they wouldn't have just stood by and let a Cradle cadet be murdered within its walls.
“Hmm.”
The Black Knight gazed at me intently.
She seemed displeased about something.
“...?”
I had no idea what part of what I'd said had offended her.
“I.”
As I was cautiously trying to read her mood, she spoke.
“Am your supervising professor.”
It was a random comment.
I stood there blankly for a moment before I understood what she meant.
“From now on, I'll ask you for help first, Professor.”
“That's how it should be.”
Only then did her somewhat displeased expression soften.
I'd wondered, but it turned out I was right.
It seemed the Black Knight didn't like me relying on anyone other than her.
I couldn't tell if I should call it favor, possessiveness, or obsession.
If there was one thing I was sure of…
“Because I am your supervising professor.”
It was the fact that the Empire's strongest knight was protecting me.
*Whoosh.*
After saying a few more words with a similar nuance, the Black Knight, Professor Navian, turned and vanished.
I suddenly became curious. What did she do in her daily life?
She didn't seem to hang out with the other professors.
In fact, I'd never even seen her exchange words with anyone but me.
“Don't tell me...?”
Lost in thought, I froze.
I let out a short laugh.
Even I thought it was ridiculous.
The Empire's greatest knight spending her days following around a lowly squire.
“As if.”
It was an absurd delusion.
I shook my head vigorously, clearing the thought of the Black Knight from my mind.
I looked in the direction the Imperial Inspector had disappeared.
He owed his life to me, but I had no intention of lording it over him later.
“He's in for a rough time.”
The Imperial Inspector's future was going to be far too arduous for me to take credit for saving him.
He wasn't cut by a sword, but he was cut by something far worse.
I knew better than anyone, having experienced it myself.
“Maybe I should visit him later...”
“What...?”
“It's nothing. Let's go.”
After a moment, Boen and I returned to the dormitory.
***
The Imperial Inspector, Jamal Rudiger, had thought it was an opportunity when he received the order to investigate the seditious incident at the Cradle.
His standing in the Imperial Court was not very good.
How had he, once so promising that he was appointed a professor at the Cradle, ended up in such a state?
It all started the moment he accepted the Empress's offer.
Of course, it was good at first.
When he'd first arrived at the palace after persuading the cadets he'd had his eye on during his time as a professor, he believed a future full of glory awaited him.
He even thought he might become the Empress's closest confidant.
It was a delusion.
There had never been a place for him by the Empress's side.
The Empress's aides, each nursing a serpent—no, ten serpents—in their hearts, were truly merciless.
He wasn't competent enough to push his way through such people and stand by the Empress's side.
He only realized this after arriving at the palace.
Jamal the cunning, Jamal the quick-witted.
The scornful assessments from his fellow knights were only valid among other knights.
Compared to the palace officials seasoned in all manner of schemes and intrigues, he was nothing but a naive country bumpkin.
He could see it clearly. The palace was no place for naive swordsmen.
Even after realizing that, he couldn't bring himself to leave the palace.
The favor of the powerful, which he had tasted however briefly, was too sweet.
It was a sense of satisfaction he had never experienced during his time as a knight.
He strove endlessly to feel that satisfaction once more.
But the results were never satisfactory, and he was eventually pushed into an insignificant post.
It was then that the Empress's order came down.
He, who was well-versed in the Cradle's affairs, was the perfect man for the job.
“I'm counting on you, Jamal.”
For the first time in a long while, the Empress had called him by his name.
He prostrated himself before the Empress and swore to dedicate his life to identifying the traitors.
But the Empress's true intention was not to root out traitors.
“I hear this year's class is so exceptional they're calling it the golden generation.”
Perhaps his years in the palace hadn't been a complete waste; he was barely able to grasp the Empress's intent.
“Among them, I'm told there's a child who rendered great service in the Crown Prince's safe return. Such a virtuous person. How is it that talented people keep gathering around him?”
The Empress's true intent was far more important than rooting out some traitors.
He headed straight for the Cradle and immediately got to work.
On the surface, his priority as an Imperial Inspector was to find the person who distributed the seditious documents.
But in reality, persuading the cadets came first.
The pretext was perfect.
To catch the anonymous distributor, the Cradle's cooperation was essential.
But the Cradle, seemingly unwilling to cooperate, gave the absurd excuse that centuries of internal data had been completely wiped out.
“This is going to take a while.”
He was inwardly pleased with this situation.
He intended to stay at the Cradle for a long time, find useful cadets, and win them over.
The first among them was, without a doubt, 'that child' the Empress herself had mentioned.
The squire who had shaken off a sorcerer's pursuit for days and played a major role in the Crown Prince's safe return.
The squire whose name had quietly spread throughout the court after he reported the existence of an unheard-of creature called a Chimera.
“What a load of nonsense.”
No matter how great he was, he was just a measly squire.
There was no way a mere squire, not even a knight, could have achieved such a feat.
He didn't believe the rumors.
But whether he believed them or not was unimportant.
What mattered was that the Empress believed them.
No, perhaps the Empress hadn't believed the rumors from the start either.
The truth of the rumors was not what was important.
Leaving no one by the Crown Prince's side.
That was the Empress's true intention.
If nothing else, he had to win over that measly squire, no matter what.
Feeling rushed, he took a bit of a gamble.
He hastily revealed his intention to recruit him and was rejected.
He grew impatient.
Even if he recruited ten cadets, it would be meaningless if he lost the rumored squire.
So, he forcibly tried to frame him for treason.
His plan was to brand him a traitor, take him into custody, and then take his time persuading him.
But.
“So, what will you do with this child's tongue?”
An uninvited guest intervened.
An aura that looked extraordinary at a single glance.
He was completely overwhelmed by the unidentified professor.
To the point where his body froze and he couldn't even move his lips.
When he came to his senses, the rumored squire and the unidentified professor were chattering about his life and death.
He felt humiliated and tried to punish them, even if it meant borrowing the authority of the Imperial Court.
At that moment.
A flash.
He saw a sword, like a phantom.
His body trembled like an aspen leaf.
He couldn't control his body against the encroaching chill.
“Gaaah!”
That night, he had a nightmare.
A dream where the unidentified professor he'd met that afternoon was hacking his body to pieces.
That was the beginning.
It started with nightmares, but soon, the nightmares became reality.
He became a complete wreck, tormented by hallucinations that appeared at all hours.
The Empress's orders were already gone from his mind.
He holed up in the lodging provided by the Cradle, curled into a ball, and did nothing but tremble.
*Knock, knock.*
“Are you in there?”
Just then, someone came to visit.
It was the rumored kid.
“Coming in!”
Before he could even answer, the kid's face popped into view.
“Geez. She could've gone a little easier on you. Turned you into a total wreck.”
The kid clicked his tongue once and spoke with feigned sympathy.
“I know from experience, it's truly awful. My case is a little different, but I have similar nightmares every night.”
Damn that Roman.
Then he randomly started badmouthing someone.
“Ah, right. Look at me. That's not why I'm here.”
The kid cutely tapped his own head.
“Do you want to be freed from the pain?”
He made a sudden offer.