Two Will Be Enough
The knight order of the Count of Rava was the Eagle Knights.
Should the count ever rise to a duke, they might climb with him and restyle themselves the Two-Headed Eagle Knights.
Their captain worked to settle the men.
“Quiet. This is no time for recklessness. The Duke of Rubuaene has changed, and they say the Black Knights distinguished themselves greatly in the infighting. The result may be different this time.”
At that stern voice, every man snapped to attention.
Even so, what were they to do with the rumors already circulating about the ducal house? Almost none of its victories, people said, had been won by meeting an enemy fair and head-on. Most had come from strategies that turned the lay of the land to their advantage. And the duke who was called a master of such stratagems would not even take the field himself.
Far better that the Count of Rava, with his lineage and tradition, become a duke than that a bastard sit in a duke’s place. Had the imperial house not quietly let its hopes lean that way? Besides, the Black Knights were scarcely a knight order at all. Were the rumors not everywhere that they were little better than a mercenary company?
Just then a soldier who had been keeping watch came running.
“I report! Two horses flying the black hawk banner are riding this way!”
“Two?”
The emblem of the Black Knights was a black hawk, the bird worked upon the blue banner a ducal house was permitted to fly.
But two?
“Their vanguard? Are the rest following behind?”
“They may be coming ahead to pay their respects.”
When the vice-captain offered that, the captain nodded.
“So it is.”
Unlike the exchange matches of the past, this one would set them against new faces.
Then another soldier came running.
“Captain, it’s— a black unicorn!”
Every knight turned toward him, eyes round.
“A black unicorn?”
“You mean it truly has a horn?”
“Y-yes, it really has a horn. And…”
The soldier fumbled, then got it out.
“The other party announced herself as captain of the Black Knights.”
Jin kept stealing glances at Nina. She sat the black unicorn at her ease, spine straight.
He thought back to their talk the day before.
“Two? Just the two of us?”
“We don’t need to scrape together ten. From what I saw, they don’t even have ten knights left.”
After the civil war, the order had taken requests from knights who wished to retire, and those sick of fighting their own kind had gone. Because of that, the Black Knights now numbered fewer than ten.
“We can’t leave the ducal house empty either. So the two of us will go, settle it, and come back.”
“Truly…”
Jin shut his mouth.
Will it really be all right?
The words would not leave him. He knew Nina was strong. He knew—but the order waiting on the other side was nothing to take lightly. They would send the ten finest they had, picked over and over again.
“All right.”
Jin nodded. If Nina said so, he would trust her.
She spoke with apology written all over her face.
“Jin, I’m sorry, but I don’t think your turn is even going to come.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he answered.
Now that they had actually arrived and declared themselves a party of two, though, his stomach turned over.
A signal came for them to enter the temporary encampment. Inside, tents of outright luxury stood in rigid order. Jin, who could not remember ever having used a tent that wasn’t full of holes, marveled at canvas thick and gleaming. He had never seen a knight order with this much money.
The soldiers’ curious eyes fixed on the black unicorn.
“F-from here, you must dismount.”
Nina sprang down, and Jin followed. A soldier caught the reins and stared at the beast as if spellbound.
“This way, if you please.”
The knight who had come out to receive them addressed Jin. The words were courteous. The tone, the gaze, and the face were not.
This bastard thinks I’m the captain, doesn’t he?
Leave it.
Jin and Nina traded the look and followed him.
Before the innermost and most lavish tent, the knight order stood drawn up in ranks, and at their head stood the captain of the Eagle Knights.
“Greetings. I am Terivolta, captain of the Eagle Knights.”
Anyone could hear that the courtesy was empty, but the two of them, ignorant of noble etiquette, took it in stride.
“Greetings. I am Nina La Del, captain of the Black Knights.”
She had only copied him, testing whether that was what manners sounded like.
A flare of anger moved through the Eagle Knights. Terivolta, however, was startled for an entirely different reason.
“You? You are the captain?”
“That’s right. I am the captain.”
Nina drew her shoulders back.
Her long silver hair was bound in twin tails, her eyes gold, her face neat and composed. The black uniform was fastened to her throat, and still, look as one might, she seemed nothing more than a young girl.
“Is this true?”
“His Grace the Duke of Rubuaene’s seal is on my unicorn’s saddle.”
After a brief stir, they understood that she truly was the captain.
“But why have only the two of you come? If you mean to postpone the exchange…”
“Ah. Two seemed as though they’d be enough.”
Silence turned once through the company at Nina’s words.
“What did you say?”
“I said two seemed as though they’d be enough.”
Nina said it with a bright grin. Jin set his shoulders and planted himself hard at her back. If those men lost their tempers and came at her, he was not to be parted from her for anything.
Sir Terivolta’s carefully groomed mustache shivered. Even so, he pressed on.
“This exchange is to be decided by ten men! Two are insufficient. The matter will have to pass as our victory.”
“If you will grant that two are enough, then should your side win, I will give you that black unicorn.”
Sir Terivolta flinched.
He had only just looked upon the black unicorn and been struck with admiration. Was there any rider who would not be spellbound at the sight of it? Was there anyone whose heart would not lean toward it?
The other knights seemed of the same mind. Fervent looks flew at him, as good as words.
Just take it, Captain!
It’s only two of them. We can win easily.
The little chit is only trusting the bulk of the man behind her.
It’s a black unicorn.
This was a hand they had no choice but to play. Withdraw now, and they would hear no end of it later from the Count of Rava.
“Very well. In exchange, we write the contract first.”
“Fine.”
Nina and Terivolta exchanged a contract drawn up on parchment.
Though it departs from an ordinary exchange, this shall be a contest of two against ten, and both parties accept the match.
Both parties shall submit unconditionally to the result.
Should Nina La Del lose, ownership of the black unicorn shall pass in perpetuity to House Rava.
All remaining terms shall be identical to those of a peacetime exchange.
They pressed their seal rings to it, and the match began.
The stands of the square arena were packed with farmers. Their clothes looked poorer than those of the people of Rubuaene Territory, and their faces were dark. An air like despair bore down on the field until Jin could hardly breathe. He tried to push it off. Nina was untroubled.
A blunt iron sword was given to each of them. A moment later the Eagle Knights filed in, one after another. Jin stared at their gleaming armor in open admiration.
“Isn’t that heavy?”
“It has to be. The only order for whom that wouldn’t be heavy is the knights of the Temple.”
“How are they supposed to face Bellac looking like that? Seems like they’d just get stepped on and die.”
“They probably don’t wear it against Bellac. That’s for fighting people.”
Nina finished the last of her stretch. Uneasy, Jin asked.
“Hit that with an iron sword like this, and will it even land?”
“Ah, Jin.”
Nina straightened and smiled.
“It will. It absolutely will.”
A moment later their ten and these two stood side by side, raised their swords, and traded a salute.
“Then we will begin the duels, starting with the first.”