The Fourth Event
In another world they called it a high five. Here, a promise was sealed by pressing palm to palm.
Sometimes, she had heard, people laced their fingers as well, and sometimes they turned those interlaced hands over and even kissed the backs of them. Nina had never sworn a vow that far.
Adrian studied her face, and only then let go of her hand.
Looking at his sleeve, worn so thin the cloth had gone gauzy, Nina thought that once she earned real money she would have clothes made for him. Though, honestly, Adrian probably knows more about clothes than I do.
Even in a place like this, even in a situation like this, he was always neatly turned out. His clothes might be old and the wrong length, but he knew how to wear them so they never looked dirty or shabby.
He smiled, just a little.
"Sleep well, Nina."
"Sleep well, Adrian."
She saw him to the door. Once it was shut, she flung herself onto the bed. And just like that, Event Number Three has passed...
Now Event Number Four began to worry her.
The annihilation of the Black Knights.
They were only just starting to look like a proper order. Wasn't this too cruel? The unfairness of it rankled, but sleep came crashing down first, and Nina sank straight into a deep one.
Come morning, the routine never changed. Training, breakfast, then patrol.
Her partner, Jin, looked down at her. A former mercenary, he was as hot-tempered as his red hair, though there was a soft heart under it, and his bearlike bulk stood out wherever he went.
"Sleep all right?"
"Sure did."
Nina answered lightly, then asked, "Jin, what would have to happen for all of us to be wiped out?"
"Listen to you, saying creepy things."
"It's just a hypothesis."
"Have a weird dream or something?"
Nina's expression turned peculiar. "You could call it that..."
Was she even allowed to think of memories from another world as a dream?
"You're run-down, that's why you're dreaming nonsense," Jin said. "Eat meat. Meat."
The day ended like any other, and Nina helped sort the paperwork. In the whole order, she and Jin were about the only ones who weren't illiterate, so the two of them often assisted Louis and Adrian.
Louis, the vice-captain, spoke. "It seems we are to be excluded from the Exchange Match again this year."
"Is the Imperial Guard taking it?"
"Yes."
Adrian let out a short laugh. "What's interesting is that anyone thinks of that as an insult to us. If anything, I'm grateful they didn't call."
"It is an honor granted to the order that represents a domain."
"Honor."
He tossed the word out and tapped the desk with his fingertips. "Hearing that makes me think we ought to choose an Elite of our own."
It sounded improvised. Everyone but Nina knew it was not.
"An Elite?" Nina tilted her head, and Adrian nodded.
"We gather the skilled ones and rank them separately. Without competition, people fall behind."
"In a situation like this, falling behind is the hard part."
To survive a fight with Bellac, you had to become fierce. At Nina's words, Adrian shook his head.
"It can't end at merely staying alive."
You had to look at what came after. You had to look at what came next. Adrian knew well that giving people a goal for that was a leader's work.
A few days later, a notice of Elite selection was posted in the Black Knights' barracks.
A company specially raised to face upper-grade Bellac.
Long coats will be issued to withstand the miasma.
The Black Knights' uniform was black from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, dyed and worked with a special plant that kept Bellac miasma from seeping in. Because of it, the order was somewhat free of that contamination. The plant was a specialty of the Purple Forest, so uniforms dyed with it were issued only to the Black Knights of the ducal house of Rubuaene. The Elite were one step beyond even that: a company given long coats that could turn aside a stronger miasma.
The selection trials ran over several days, and at the founding ceremony of the Elite company the members were called by name. In the end, fewer than ten had been chosen.
Jin's name and Nina's were among them.
A week later, when her long coat was issued, a laugh burst out of Nina.
"It's huge!"
"You'll grow into it."
Jin grinned as he said it. Nina folded up the dragging hem and belted it at her waist, and decided to simply ignore the sleeves. A coat that swallowed her all the way to her fingertips — wasn't that a bit much? But she knew the order's budget was too tight to have clothes made over and over for a girl who was still growing, so she only nodded.
"Then I'd better grow fast."
Ordinary weapons did little good against Bellac. What they needed was Rengshi steel, a special steel forged in the Rengshi Kingdom. The Black Knights' purse was always strained, so their swords held only about ten percent of it. What the Elite received was a little better, around fifteen percent, because the higher a Bellac's grade, the harder its hide and the greater its regeneration.
Right. There was supposed to be a mine somewhere in the Purple Forest. She knew it yielded bright iron, better even than Rengshi steel, but she had no idea where. All she knew was that Fiona had found it by chance. I can't just tear through the forest at random, either. Run into an upper-grade Bellac alone out there, and she would die. Truly. In the most literal sense. I'll look wherever my feet happen to take me.
And even if she found the mine, there would be no way to work the ore. Still, I should search. The moment we have a method or a route to process it, we'll be ready to move. She hoped it lay somewhere close. If fifteen percent is already this good, how much better would bright iron be?
Just then Kirill beckoned her over.
"Kirill, what is it?"
However rough the Black Knights were, they were courteous in front of Kirill. She was the only healer in the order, and you were polite to the person holding your lifeline. Kirill, by contrast, was always rough. Even so, she wore her white coat properly, and whether she drew her supplies from outside or not, the leaf in her pipe never ran short.
"You're going into the Purple Forest today, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Then look for a plant like this."
Kirill held out a sheet of paper. It was a delicately drawn botanical study.
"A plant like this? What will you use it for?"
"Herb research. I've cut open enough humans. Figured it was about time I studied something else."
She shook her head, sick to death of slicing. Nina nodded, feeling an odd chill crawl over her.
"Of course."
Looking at the drawing brought something back to her. The heroine, Fiona, had turned the ducal domain of Rubuaene into a prosperous land almost overnight by putting the plants she found there to use. Better to find them early and grow them early, wasn't it?
Though I have no idea when Young Master will become duke...
The thought sank her spirits. Would Adrian really end up killing his family? With his own hands? I don't want that. She would sooner do the killing herself than hear anyone call Adrian a monster who had slaughtered his own blood. What the duchess had done set her teeth on edge, and yet if Adrian were to cut down his half-brother and his own father with his own sword... I hate it for Adrian's sake, too.
But if he didn't, did that mean he could never become duke? Because the third young master was still alive?
Should I give up on cultivating them in earnest, then...? Better only to scout them in advance, and put them to use later if Adrian did become duke. Or a revolt? A coup? But there was no just cause for it.
Nina heaved sigh after sigh. Kirill frowned.
"What's a kid doing sighing?"
"Oh, it's the sort of thing you wouldn't know about, Kirill."
Kirill looked over Nina's clothes, which hung on her like someone else's folded down to fit, and snorted. The long coat made her look even younger.
"Right. How would I know what's going on in a fifteen-year-old brat?"
Nina pouted, sullen. Kirill went on without caring in the least.
"The talk around the duchy's been bad lately."
She blew out a stream of smoke. Nina edged away from it.
"What talk?"
"That there's a heap of debt. That creditors come and go. That we lose the Exchange Match year after year, and don't even enter the imperial tournament."
Nina stared straight at her. She had thought it before: Kirill was a strange one. Why was someone this capable working for the Black Knights? She seemed to have ties on the outside as well, and her skill would not have been outshone anywhere.
"Kirill, why are you even here?"
It blurted out, and Nina wondered if the question had been rude, but Kirill answered as if it were nothing.
"Because I can cut humans open as much as I like."
Struck speechless, Nina managed a vague "Mm" and turned her eyes to the drawing.
"I'll bring some back if I can."
"See that you do."
Tucking the study into her clothes, Nina thought, Why isn't a single person here in their right mind?
A lamentable state of affairs.