Chapter 165
Chapter 165
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Enlightenment (4)
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I arrived on a griffin, but I departed on an airship.
“Isn’t it amazing? Huh? A ship is, like, flying through the sky?”
As I wandered the deck, Angelo poked me in the side.
“What’s more amazing, a city that flies or a ship that flies?”
A ship soaring through the sky was nothing to be amazed about compared to a floating city.
“That’s that, and this is this.”
Tch, you’re no fun.
The chatterbox grumbled with a dissatisfied look on his face.
“Anyway. That’s quite the dazzling display.”
Angelo’s gaze was fixed on my chest.
At the rows of epaulets pinned there.
He slyly reached out his hand.
*Smack.*
“Where do you think you’re putting that hand?”
“Stingy. You have so many, would it kill you to give me one?”
“No.”
“No one would even notice if you were missing a few.”
I completely ignored his complaints.
The epaulets they had given me were by no means trivial souvenirs.
They were something far more valuable.
“But you’re not going to wear those in the Cradle, are you?”
“Of course not.”
Good. Because that’s against the rules.
Even after that, Angelo kept talking to me.
Asking how I got so close to the soldiers.
What the battles outside the plains were like.
He seemed incredibly bored, constantly throwing questions my way.
“We got close fighting for our lives together, and outside the plains was pretty much the same as the fortress. Just fighting, and more fighting.”
He looked like he wouldn't shut up until his curiosity was satisfied, so I gave him a rough answer.
“But what on earth did Knight Rocarno give you?”
“His family’s sacred token.”
“...What?”
Angelo’s eyes widened.
And for good reason.
A family’s sacred token was not something to be casually given to an outsider.
A request made with the token, though it could be used only once, had to be granted.
It was a precious item not to be handed over lightly without considerable trust, as one never knew what kind of request would be made.
If you were to ask whether Rocarno Matiasi and I shared that level of trust, well, that was debatable.
“What the hell has this guy been doing outside the fortress?”
I just shrugged.
No matter how I thought about it, it didn't seem like he had given it much thought.
Perhaps he got swept up in the moment, grabbed whatever was in his pocket, and handed it over, and it just happened to be the sacred token.
Of course, whether he gave it by mistake or after careful consideration, I had no intention of returning the token that was now in my possession.
I planned to use it wisely, whenever that might be.
“I should’ve followed you.”
The regret on Angelo’s face as he said this was genuine.
I didn’t have a particular reply, so I just quietly gazed at the blue sky.
“But there’s something I’m curious about.”
“Ugh, come on!”
“Really, really the last thing.”
“Go away!”
I snapped, and Angelo shut his mouth.
The pest lingered around me for a while longer before finally disappearing.
Finally alone, I fumbled inside the inner pocket of my uniform.
The talkative kid didn't know, but the things I had received weren't limited to the soldiers’ epaulets and the Matiasi family’s sacred token.
My fingertips brushed against something round and flat.
* * *
After leaving the fortress, our party traveled across the plains for a while.
It was to board some kind of flying ship, an airship.
From my perspective, it made no sense to march for two days when we could have boarded the airship directly at the fortress and returned to the Cradle immediately.
But apparently, it was all because of the feudal lords.
No lord would welcome the existence of an airship that could infiltrate the heart of their castle at any time.
It was certainly a plausible explanation.
If I thought about a ship capable of deploying an entire knight order at any moment, flying in the distant, invisible sky above, I'd feel uneasy too.
The same logic applied to not revealing the Cradle’s existence to the world.
In any case, for that reason, we had to spend another day on the plains.
“Hm?”
That night, as we were setting up camp, I felt a strange sensation.
It felt as if someone was calling me.
I followed that strange feeling and left the campsite.
“Ah.”
There was a man in the darkness.
A knight of the Haime family, who hadn't shown his face throughout the triumphal return and farewell ceremonies after the war ended.
It was Rangfin.
It was rather unexpected for me.
I had thought he would seek me out at least once, so I was puzzled when he never did.
But it turned out there was a reason.
*Swoosh.*
As I approached Rangfin Haime, someone stepped out from the darkness and blocked my path.
Hair as black as the pitch-black darkness.
The person was, of course, Professor Navian.
“Was my warning not conveyed?”
Professor Navian’s voice was thick with displeasure.
I understood at once.
It wasn’t that Rangfin Haime hadn't looked for me.
It was that he couldn't.
No one could approach her cherished(?) me without the permission of the Empire's greatest knight.
Not even a high-ranking knight from one of the Empire's Eight Great Families.
“I came because I have something to say to that child.”
“...Came?”
“...I have come because I have something to say.”
Professor Navian replied coldly to Rangfin Haime's words.
“Calling him out this late at night suggests your words are not honorable. There is no need for me to listen.”
It was a blatant dismissal.
“Professor Navian.”
Unable to watch any longer, I stepped in.
Having spent some time together, I felt a bit uncomfortable seeing him being oppressed by Professor Navian.
“Make it brief. The longer you associate with him, the more his vulgar aura will rub off on you.”
She glanced at me for a moment before stepping aside.
It would have been nice if she had stepped a bit further away, now that she'd given permission.
But she seemed to have no intention of doing so.
Her gaze was telling me this.
Stay where my eyes can reach you.
It’s not like I’m a sniffling child let loose by the water.
It felt like her overprotectiveness was getting worse.
I let out a sigh and approached Rangfin Haime.
“Knight.”
Rangfin Haime looked at me quietly.
The emotion in his eyes was truly complex and subtle.
Of the fragments of inexpressible emotion, the only one I could discern was regret.
“Let me say this in advance: if you have come to make the same offer as before, I will have no choice but to refuse again.”
He had already asked me to leave the Cradle and become his squire several times.
Today must be for the same reason.
“I have sought you out today to give you a warning, so you must not take my words lightly.”
Rangfin Haime, who had been staring at me, opened his mouth.
“Leave the Cradle.”
As expected, he advised me to leave the Cradle.
But the reason was different from what I had thought.
I naturally assumed he would ask me to become his squire.
“I have already given you my answer…”
“This is not about you becoming my squire. On the contrary, you must refuse my offer with all your might. That is the right thing to do.”
Instead, he seemed pleased that I had refused his offer.
“I simply need you to leave the Cradle.”
I frowned.
At first glance, it sounded like he was telling me to leave the Cradle early because he didn't want to meet me as an enemy.
Considering the relationship between the Cradle and the Haime family, it was true that there was a high probability of us meeting as enemies in the future.
But his face seemed a bit too anxious for that to be the reason.
The thought occurred to me that he might know of the disaster that was to befall the Cradle.
Of course, I had already prevented that disaster.
Since it was tricky to answer, I remained silent, and he sighed.
“Even if we meet as enemies, I will spare you once.”
At his next words, my eyes widened.
I couldn't understand it.
It was an excessive favor, even considering we had shared life-and-death situations for a while.
To be honest, I didn't trust him.
His background, the information about him displayed in my identification eye—it was all unsettling.
So I had just used him.
I had considered it a fleeting connection, someone to humor just enough to get what I wanted.
But it seemed I was the only one who thought that way.
“Take this.”
Rangfin Haime took something from his pocket and tossed it to me.
It was a tarnished silver coin.
It wasn't a coin commonly used in the Empire.
The emblem was one I had never seen before.
The other side was clean.
As if someone had deliberately erased it.
“If, and I mean if, I fail to recognize you, show me that coin. Then I will sheathe my sword. Probably.”
When Rangfin Haime said this, his expression soured, as if he had recalled something he didn't even want to think about.
I couldn't understand his attitude at all, from beginning to end.
“Enough. I have already said too much.”
So I asked, but he quickly retreated.
“I hope we do not have to see each other again.”
Leaving behind words that could hardly be called a farewell, Rangfin Haime vanished.
* * *
*Whoosh.*
The sound of a fierce wind snapped me out of my thoughts.
Someone was standing beside me.
It was Professor Navian.
“Professor.”
I had a question for her.
The Professor Navian I knew was a person uninterested in others.
I was curious why she disliked Rangfin Haime so much.
“Because I do not like him.”
“What is it about him that you don’t like?”
“Everything. Especially that aura.”
But as always, Professor Navian’s answer was vague.
“That insidious nature of coveting something that already has an owner is also an intolerable trait.”
“...?”
For some reason, I felt that the phrase ‘something that already has an owner’ was not unrelated to me, but it was probably just my imagination.
“Hmm.”
I quietly organized my thoughts.
Perhaps the things I saw through the Starseeker’s identification eye had been caught by her extraordinary senses.
With her senses that could perceive the existence of the Great Celestial Gate and even capture conversations with the stars, it was entirely possible.
“I know a place where such people gather.”
My thoughts were correct.
“The Twin Stars.”
Professor Navian had already figured out which family Rangfin Haime was from.
“He recognized me as well.”
Despite her identity being exposed, she remained composed.
Either she believed Rangfin Haime wouldn't dare speak carelessly, or she didn't care if her identity was revealed.
It seemed to be the latter.
Watching her, who seemed to have not a single worry in the world, I began to feel relaxed myself.
Her tranquility seemed to be contagious.
Thanks to her, my anxious heart grew calm again.
My complicated thoughts felt a little lighter, too.
It wasn't bad.
“Child.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“Will you not inherit my Heart Sword?”
If only she hadn't made an offer so far beyond my station, it would have been even better.
“You are the only one.”
How could someone like me possibly inherit such a sublime art that even high-ranking knights struggled with?
Fine. Let's say, for the sake of argument, I had the ability to inherit the Heart Sword. That would still be a problem.
I'd be lucky not to Ascend again.
* * *
Not long after arriving at the Cradle, I went to see the Vice Director.
“Even if you don't press me, the rewards will be given out soon.”
At the Vice Director’s perpetually weary words, I shook my head.
“Cadet, Yan.”
Then I stated my business.
“I wish to voluntarily withdraw.”