You Are My Sword
The room given to Nina was a large one, set immediately beside Adrian’s. A door connected the two, but it was always locked, and she had never had cause to use it.
She changed her clothes, sent the North Wind out to scout, and in that way found him.
“Your Grace.”
From the edge of his private training yard, Nina called to him under her breath.
Adrian, caught mid-swing, turned his head.
“Your Grace?”
“Ah… I have something to report today, as Knight Commander Nina La Del?”
“Then why does your voice go up at the end?”
“You’re right. Knight Commander Nina La Del, returned. I have a report, Your Grace.”
She crossed her arms into an X before her chest in salute and delivered it with proper courtesy. Adrian gave a small nod, then took up the swing again.
There was nothing wasted in the motion. Only now did it feel as though she were truly seeing the swordsmanship he possessed.
Even so, I’m still stronger, aren’t I?
Thinking that, Nina reported that she had finished gathering the useful plants, and that she had brought a herd of black unicorns back with her.
“Black unicorns?”
Adrian stopped mid-swing. The iron sword, weighted heavy for training, he set down as if throwing it aside.
“Yes. That’s why it took so long.”
She shrugged, as if it had been nothing worth mentioning. Adrian’s brow tightened, and then he sighed.
“Nina La Del.”
“Yes.”
He laughed, the laugh of a man who had no other choice.
“You’re the only one who always breaks my expectations.”
“Because I’m your Nina, Young Master.”
Nina clasped her hands and smiled, bright as anything, and Adrian crooked a finger. Come here. She trotted over.
“You worked hard. Shall I grant you some reward?”
He asked it with his upper body tipped slightly toward her. In the daylight his eyes looked a clear, bright pink.
Nina threw both arms wide and said, proud as a victor,
“Please hug me.”
Bent toward her as he was, he went still. Nina quietly lowered her arms, tucked her hands behind her back, and asked,
“Mm. Or should it be something else?”
“No. I’m soaked through with sweat.”
Nina didn’t mind, but if Adrian was bothered by it…
“Then later, after you’ve washed, hug me properly.”
At that he wore the face of a man who had no idea what he ought to say. He considered it a moment, then nodded.
“And besides that?”
“Mm. For now, I mean to send the report to Blue Stone Island.”
Adrian’s stance went faintly askew.
“Why there?”
“Kirill said she could use one more person on the medicine research. And that’s the only place where people like that gather, isn’t it? One of them might even be tempted enough to come.”
Adrian sank into thought. Nina waited for him to think it through, and while she waited she called up the novel’s male lead.
Blue Stone Island.
The name came from the claim that it had been made of blue stone, but in truth the other name was the more famous.
Sage’s Island.
Sages who drew light from their staves, who did things that broke the laws of nature, who read the heavens and divined what was to come. And above all, they were the people on this land who pursued research more than anyone else.
The male lead, Randel, was a sage as well—one of only seven Great Sages.
True to that research-mad lot, they scarcely spared a thought for the world outside. The rare times they did were when they had foreseen some great calamity descending upon it. And so word from the sages had come to mean bad news.
But research into plants like these is Randel’s own field.
In the original, hadn’t the heroine’s meeting with him begun when she sent plants to Blue Stone Island?
“Fine. Even if no one comes after reading the report, they’ll at least render an objective judgment.”
When Nina asked, “An objective judgment?” he smiled, gentle.
“I mean they won’t look at the plants we raised and start spouting nonsense. ‘Demon seed out of the Purple Forest.’ ‘Fruit of a fallen spirit.’ Nothing of that sort.”
“Oh—!”
She hadn’t even thought of that!
All she had thought was that if people could eat well and live well, surely that was enough.
But in the original there wasn’t a word of anything like—
Ah. The heroine was the Saintess.
If the Saintess was the one who had found the plants, who would dare call them the work of a fallen spirit?
Should I have gone to the Temple first? I never imagined a blind spot like this…
When she winced, Adrian asked,
“What is it?”
“Hearing you just now, it came to me. Wouldn’t it be better to speak to the Temple beforehand as well?”
“Not as things stand.”
Nina nodded.
“Well, if my Young Master says so…”
She picked up the iron sword he had cast aside and returned it to its place. Today’s training, it seemed, would end with that.
“Anything else?”
At the question—did she have more to say—Nina asked,
“When is the Exchange Match? We need to get that land back quickly.”
“In two weeks.”
“Ah. Before the sowing, then.”
That, at least, was a relief. Nina nodded.
“We’ll have to get the wheat in the ground fast.”
She said it as if victory at the Exchange Match were already assured, and Adrian laughed, light and brief.
He was tall, and he walked in long strides, with Nina following a step behind. He did not look back, and yet his pace eased a little.
Walk beside me.
That was what it meant. Nina smiled and hurried until she stood level with him.
“But Young Master. Young Master.”
He glanced at her: go on.
“I think I might be stronger than you?”
“And?”
“If the Temple ever comes charging in, I’ll just pick you up and run, so don’t worry.”
Adrian burst out laughing.
“When that day comes, I’ll be counting on you, Knight Commander.”
“Set your mind at ease.”
Nina added it with perfect confidence, then asked, sidelong,
“But, Young Master. When I say I’m stronger, that doesn’t make you angry or anything, does it?”
“I’ve thought this for a while. What if you considered the person you’re asking before you ask?”
“Oh, come on. Between you and me.”
Adrian reached out and let one of her twin tails spill between his fingers.
“Why would I be angry?”
“Mm. Just because? Pride?”
“Nina La Del.”
“Yes.”
“You are my knight commander, and you are my sword.”
“That’s right.”
“What does it matter if my sword is the strongest?”
“Well, yes.”
Nina nodded. Adrian savored the smooth slide of her hair and whispered,
“I already told you. You’re someone special to me.”
A superior fears the strength of those beneath him because he worries that one day they will turn it upward against him. That is why he wants the people under him to spend their power on one another.
Between Nina and him, no such premise was needed. And yet she had asked him that?
A little put out, he gave her hair a light tug.
She came along exactly as he drew her, willing. She did not so much as look displeased, or puzzled.
Sometimes, in moments like these, Adrian was afraid—afraid of the times when Nina behaved as though she would do everything he wanted. Then it was hard to keep the impulse in his chest pressed down. How far can I go? How much of this can you bear? The urge to push, and keep pushing. He could not tell where the impulse came from, or where it meant to carry him.
But she was far too precious for him to act on it.
Adrian let go of the hair in his hand.
“Let’s go in.”
“Yes.”
Nina grinned, bright and utterly innocent, with no idea at all of what was moving through his heart.