Legends of the Steel Knight
Nonedon’s current position as chairman was the bribe I had given him. We had made him chairman out of necessity, of course, but in the end it was he who accepted the offer and sat in that seat with his sights set on greater things. That meant he had an unspoken obligation to help us, and I knew it all too well. Before departing for the North, I had slipped him a single request.
“Put Lady Karalin and me in the same class.”
In the original game, classes were divided once the story had progressed far enough for Eclipse to interact freely with high-affinity characters. Being placed in the same class meant we would be forced to spend every school activity together. The moment I realized class assignments were coming, I had only one thought in mind. I had been dropped into this world for the sole purpose of protecting Lady Karalin. How could I allow even a moment’s separation simply because we were in different classes?
“Class 4, Yohan. Below him, Karalin.”
Out of the roughly five hundred students in Sigmund’s 65th cohort, only about twenty-five were assigned to each class. Once that announcement was made, I no longer cared what happened to anyone else. After all, the only time I had been physically close to Lady Karalin during field training was at the very end. Without this arrangement, I would have been constantly anxious about being separated.
Just as I was about to turn away, satisfied, a small hand tugged firmly at my sleeve.
“Um, Yoh…!”
The fabric stretched with the pull. When I looked back, the small woman I had rescued from the crowd was clutching my academy uniform collar as though she feared I would leave without noticing her.
‘Wait. This girl… I know that face.’
Pink hair fluttered in the breeze. The central church’s priestess robes came into view, and at that exact moment I recognized the ring I had once placed painkillers inside.
“Lord Yohan. Do you… remember me?”
She asked hesitantly, eyes searching my face. She clearly knew I disliked being approached by strangers, so speaking to me at all must have taken considerable courage. But she was no stranger to me. There was no need for her to be so nervous.
“You’ve been well, Priestess?”
“…………!”
“Your name was Mika, wasn’t it?”
Even though I usually avoided casual speech with people I didn’t know, I had spoken informally to her back in that cave during the talent show. Switching back to formal language now would have been awkward, so I simply kept the same tone.
“It’s been a while. I heard Hilken helped you when you collapsed in the street recently. I couldn’t greet you properly at the time. Thank you. She’s a surly one, but she’s still my junior.”
In the game she had been nothing more than an insignificant extra—one of the ordinary people who would have died in the original route during the half-kite incident. Even if Eclipse saved her in later playthroughs, she only received a single thank-you before disappearing from the story. I didn’t know much about her, but—
“Umm……”
If I had remembered that, I might have understood why she was fidgeting so badly in front of me. Instead, she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.
“…………I……”
“Hm?”
“I’m in Class 4.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“We’re in the same class.”
“Right. I’m Class 4 too. Good.”
“………”
I hadn’t paid attention to anyone else, but it seemed Mika had ended up in the same class as me. Fate certainly had a strange sense of humor. The person I had saved was now my classmate. That meant we would probably be talking quite a bit from now on.
“Looks like we’ll be seeing each other often, Mika. Next time, speak casually. We’re classmates.”
“Ah, ah! Yes—!”
Since I had no desire to linger in the crowded area, I gave her a quick wave and slipped away. We could talk properly later. Right now I had a more pressing duty: Lady Karalin had been demanding the northern black tea she brought back this morning.
***
The trip to the North had been filled with incidents, but as a third-party commoner, Eclipse couldn’t remain constantly at Yohan’s and Lady Karalin’s sides. ‘Everything that happened was their business. I couldn’t help, and I didn’t really understand it anyway…’
She could have simply wandered aimlessly to pass the time, yet the moment she saw the magnificent royal castle, vitality returned to her eyes and awe overwhelmed her. Unable to contain her curiosity about the man treated as a “precious existence” even in this grand castle, she slipped out under the pretext of “gathering and collecting” and wandered the area, hoping to hear stories about Yohan.
What she heard was this:
“Excuse me, ma’am. Sorry to bother you. Do you know anything about the Lord of Steel?”
“Oh my, young lady. You must be from outside. Your accent has a bit of a regional flavor…”
“……Ah, a-aah—! That’s right. Th-this is… the imperial accent? Something like that.”
She felt embarrassed that her western accent had slipped out without thought, but the chatty woman continued.
“Well now. There are many stories about that knight, but the most famous one is what happened at the Steel Plateau. He only became truly well-known after that incident.”
“What happened there?”
“That place wasn’t originally called the Steel Plateau. It used to be known as the Aral Plateau. During the New Year’s ritual, one of the far-northern lords who opposed the Vitagarte family tried to kidnap Lady Karalin and start a rebellion. He brought two hundred fully armed heavy infantry with him.”
“H-huh—!”
“They actually succeeded in capturing the lady and her attendant while they were camping outdoors. Everyone assumed the attendant would die, so a rescue force was dispatched to crush the lord. But when they arrived, they found the Aral Plateau—only a short distance from the kidnapping site—covered in iron dust and pools of blood. That was the attendant’s doing.”
“Y-Yohan did that—!”
“Yes. The moment his bindings came loose, he went berserk and slaughtered them all. After that, he was treated as a hero, and the plateau was renamed so no one would forget.”
Eclipse had thought he was merely a chivalrous wanderer, but apparently not. As someone who admired heroes, she wondered why he had never told her such wonderful stories, yet she quickly closed her mouth upon realizing he simply wasn’t the type to talk about himself. The woman, however, showed no sign of stopping.
“And that wasn’t even the end of it. When the Cardanok Fortress was surrounded, he was trapped inside, drew his sword alone, and returned after ripping the head off the giant snowman blocking the retreat route, saving everyone within. Even if we don’t know whether he killed it or not, he also pulled the spear embedded in the head of the Great Snow Dragon, the ruler of the snow mountains, and the creature hasn’t been seen since—”
“Eh……”
“Another time, when the winter spirit known as the Lord of Annihilation caused three layers of snow to fall across the North, he declared, ‘I’ll take care of it,’ led a mobile unit, and brought the spirit’s body before His Majesty the King. Thanks to that, we haven’t had that much snow recently, have we?”
“Th-that’s just… isn’t he a human weapon?”
“Why are you so surprised? Every northerner thinks the same. No matter the situation, once he decides to drop someone, they’re dead and he comes back alive.”
“H-he really wasn’t human.”
That was already more than enough. The woman looked ready to keep recounting his exploits until sunset, and given his actual track record, Eclipse cut the conversation short and ended her investigation.
Therefore, when Eclipse returned to the academy…
The sword she had received from such an incredible person—Solaris—looked all the more magnificent. Who in this world could possibly understand how splendid it was?
“Heehee, heeheehee—!”
Whoosh—
Whoosh—!
No matter how she gripped it, the sword fit perfectly in her hand. No matter how she swung it, the movement felt natural. It was a sensation no different from a drug. Whenever Eclipse had a spare moment these days, she would take Solaris outside and practice forms in the air, striking dramatic poses.
“First form, Dawn Rest. Second form, Eclipse— Third form, Life Light…! Hyah hyah! Die! I am the terrifying knight wielding the sword Lord Yohan gave me.”
She was completely absorbed by the blade, intoxicated in a way that wasn’t quite intoxication.
“……I’ve been watching you for a while now. What are you doing?”
“Eeeeeeek────?!”
The moment a voice spoke from behind her, her eyes rolled back in shock.