An Unwanted Reward
Ah, I don't need that.
“What the hell is this…?”
Captain of the Imperial Guard Darkhan couldn’t close his mouth, his face frozen in pure shock. He’d stepped outside after hearing a commotion during his shift, only to be greeted by a sight he could scarcely believe.
The imperial knights were roaring at the training grounds like gamblers crowding around a betting pit.
Crazy! Is that idiot Armand seriously sparring with the princess right now?
Down below, the princess and Armand were indeed clashing swords—and quite seriously at that. Even from their stances alone, Darkhan could tell. After all, he was a Sword Master himself.
“…Ahahaha!”
The princess swung her blade with a bright, ringing laugh, clearly having the time of her life. She was attacking her own bodyguard. Her form was sloppy, but the raw power behind each strike was monstrous. Armand’s knees were actually buckling. At a glance, he looked completely on the defensive.
It wasn’t that Armand was holding back on purpose. He simply had no opening to attack. Just blocking the princess’s strikes seemed to take everything he had.
“…Kgh!”
The man whose skill was the talk of the entire Imperial Knight Order was struggling against a princess who hadn’t even grasped the fundamentals of swordsmanship. This was no ordinary spar.
Has she really recovered?
Darkhan had been guarding the emperor during dinner just a short while ago. The princess had been there too.
“Thanks to Armand, I feel completely better now.”
“So I’d like to go outside for the first time in ages.”
“Of course I’ll be moving with Armand, so you don’t have to worry.”
From beginning to end, the princess had spoken only of Armand, like a pure maiden lost in her first love. She had bragged about him nonstop, heaping praise on him with open pride.
The emperor had simply been moved. It had been a long time since he’d seen her so lively. With a benevolent smile, he had granted her permission to go out.
Then why is she sparring like she wants to kill him…? Has the curse been lifted, but the madness remains?
The picture was clear at a glance. The princess must have suggested the spar first. Armand wouldn’t have been able to refuse.
Poor guy. Wrong master, two days of suffering in a row.
Darkhan clicked his tongue inwardly and shook his head. The princess in his memories had never been a madwoman. She had simply been a frail girl tormented by a curse-like illness.
Violetta was the child the emperor had brought back at the very end of the war against the demon race. She wasn’t some random war orphan he’d picked up off the street. She was unmistakably his biological daughter, born from a woman who was not the empress. That was also why she had been excluded from the line of succession.
Who her mother was, however, remained a state secret. Even Darkhan, captain of the imperial guard, did not know. Only the emperor did.
In any case, the moment Violetta entered the palace she had been afflicted by an unknown disease. It was a curse in all but name. Not even the emperor could do anything about it. All they could do was pray to the gods and hope for improvement.
The symptoms would strike without warning and torment the princess for days on end. The main one was a paralyzing pain that felt as if her heart were being torn out. She could do nothing but endure the agony helplessly.
That wasn’t all. Anyone who met the cursed princess’s gaze went mad. For some reason members of the imperial family were exceptions, but—.
Because of these symptoms, the princess had always been alone. No one except the emperor could stay by her side. Even though she carried dragon blood, the environment was enough to drive anyone insane. It was a truly vicious curse that tormented both body and mind.
Unfortunately, those weren’t even the final symptoms.
Hm? What’s that?
While watching the spar and recalling the past, Darkhan’s thoughts were shattered. A massive black shadow had suddenly fallen over the training ground.
That was right. The princess had drawn the monster in. This too was a symptom of the curse-like illness. It was why she had spent nearly twenty years practically locked inside the palace.
She hasn’t fully recovered yet?!
Darkhan looked up at the sky in horror.
“A-a monster inside the palace…?!”
The imperial knights stood frozen, staring blankly upward. The sudden assault had given them no time to react.
But there was one exception.
That pure white aura is definitely—
A streak of pure white energy shot forward. It was a sword strike unleashed by Armand. The sharply condensed aura collided with the pitch-black monster.
It was a perfectly planned strike that would have been impossible without prior prediction. Thanks to it, the princess was unharmed. She simply stood there in a daze. Even she looked considerably shaken.
To anyone watching, it looked as if Armand had saved the princess from the monster.
Crazy… To think I suspected a talent like him of being an assassin…!
The astonishing sight had forced Darkhan to reconsider everything.
But to Violetta, it sounded completely different. The monster was speaking to her clearly. The voice was not hostile at all. It carried an emotion closer to fierce joy. It was like a dog running to its owner after a long time apart.
This voice could only be perceived by dragonkin—by Violetta alone.
…I thought I was finally okay. Why?!
Chaos flooded Violetta’s face. The madness born from her curse’s horrific trauma receded for a brief moment.
The monster’s voice, once it had wormed its way in, continued to churn through her mind. They always rang not in her ears but directly inside her head with incomprehensible words. Each time, her skull and heart felt like they would shatter from the pain.
Yet this time the agony did not last long.
A brilliant flash of light enveloped the princess—.
“Aaaaaah…?”
The monster’s massive body was promptly sliced in two and collapsed powerlessly. It left no corpse behind. Its pitch-black form slowly turned to dust and scattered on the wind. It took almost no time for the entire body to vanish.
The moment the dark mass grew faint—.
“…Armand!”
Beyond it, a blond knight came into Violetta’s view.
“……”
Armand’s expression was grim.
Damn it. Failed again?
He had cut down the monster instead of the princess. There was no greater irony. A monster had popped out of nowhere and taken the hit for her. His luck was abysmal. He couldn’t even control his face.
“…Armand! I’m unharmed, so you don’t have to make that face.”
Violetta’s misunderstanding only added fuel to the fire. To her eyes, he looked like a devoted bodyguard worried sick about her safety.
She suddenly threw herself into his arms.
Her body trembled as if she were terrified.
“You protected me again…?”
Violetta looked up at him from within his embrace, her face serious. The madness had completely vanished from those quartz-purple eyes.
So she can make an expression like this too?
Armand was at a loss. Once again, he had ended up protecting his assassination target.
“Thank you. I mean it.”
“Ah, are you feeling all right?”
He had genuinely tried to kill her—.
Hiding his true feelings, Armand asked after her well-being. He had missed his chance to assassinate her, so there was nothing else he could do.
“Thanks to you. But how did you notice in time? Even I didn’t sense it coming…”
“Didn’t I tell you last time? I’m the child of a priest. I felt an ominous energy from the sky.”
Armand licked his lips, recycling the lie he had thrown out before.
“I see… As expected, I really like you.”
She hugged him even tighter.
He had only tried to kill her, yet somehow his favorability had risen again. This is insane.
“You flatter me. I only did what any bodyguard should.”
Paying careful attention to his speech bubbles, Armand displayed masterful social maneuvering. He was so flustered that only dry laughter kept slipping from his lips.
It was then that—
“Armand! Are you all right?!”
“Captain Darkhan…?”
The captain of the imperial guard, who had been watching the entire situation, came running with his brown beard streaming behind him.
“I’m sorry for suspecting you yesterday!”
“Pardon?”
“You truly are a model for the imperial guard… No, for all knights!”
“…Ah.”
Armand stared at Darkhan, who had suddenly begun to praise him to the skies, and muttered inwardly.
Today really is a double shitstorm.
The emperor’s audience chamber.
“Once again, I am in your debt.”
The emperor smiled down at Armand from his throne. Only the emperor, Armand, and the scribe recording the proceedings were present. The princess had returned to her room to calm herself. The trauma had resurfaced.
Though dragon blood flowed through her veins, Violetta was still a mentally fragile woman.
“It was only natural for a bodyguard to do.”
“Even carrying out that natural duty is no easy task. Thank you truly for protecting my daughter.”
The emperor rose and stepped forward. He patted the shoulder of the kneeling Armand and expressed his gratitude repeatedly.
“Not at all. If she had been completely cured yesterday, this would not have happened.”
Even so, Armand bowed his head even lower. Being praised after an assassination attempt felt anything but good—especially from the father of his target. The discomfort had gone beyond burden and become outright guilt.
If only that monster hadn’t interfered—
At the very least he could have observed how the princess reacted to a blade that was not the holy sword. That golden opportunity had vanished like foam in an instant.
Armand ground his teeth quietly, head still bowed. He felt both regret and fury. It had been such a perfect chance.
And yet the curse had not been fully lifted. He had never even imagined it would attract monsters.
“Heh heh, a young knight who insists on shouldering responsibility to the end. The very model of a true knight.”
“You flatter me.”
This is getting burdensome. At this rate I’ll earn yet another title.
Armand shook his head inwardly as he bowed.
Scratch, scratch—.
Unaware that the scribe’s hand was recording on a page of history the words His Majesty declared that Sir Armand is the very model of a true knight.
“Do you know why I summoned you again?”
“I am not certain, but—”
“I have a personal favor to ask of you.”
The emperor gestured to the scribe to stop recording and withdraw.
“A personal favor, Your Majesty?”
“Yes. It may be an extension of what we discussed yesterday, but… could you completely cure Violetta’s symptoms?”
“Pardon?”
“I know it is no easy task. But if it is you—the one who has already freed Violetta from the pain of the curse—I believe it is possible.”
“Your Majesty, I am a knight, not a physician.”
“That does not matter. This is not an imperial command. It is a request from a father for his daughter. I hope you understand my desire not to let Violetta fall back into that pit of suffering.”
The emperor lowered himself until their eyes were level.
“Your Majesty?!”
“This is for your ears alone, but… our—hm! Rather, Violetta carries the blood of dragonkin.”
“…Pardon?”
Confirming the scribe had left, the emperor revealed the shocking truth. Of course, Armand already knew it perfectly well. He was merely acting surprised, as if hearing it for the first time.
“I understand it is hard to believe. But it is the truth. That said, she is not a pure dragonkin.”
“What do you mean?”
“It is difficult to explain in detail, but the child carries far more human blood than dragon blood. Even so, the dragon blood is potent enough to drive people mad in even small quantities.”
“……”
This was new information even to Armand. He had assumed she was 100% pure dragonkin, yet she was actually closer to human?
“And that manifestation occurs with very low probability—yet it appeared in Violetta. The monsters are also drawn by that scent.”
“I still don’t quite understand…”
Armand wore a dazed expression, but inside he was turning the implications over and over.
More human blood than dragon? And the probability of symptoms appearing is low? How does he know so much? Wasn’t this supposed to be an illness with unknown causes?
Instinct told him the emperor was still hiding information.
“Violetta is my one and only daughter. So please—will you devote yourself to completely removing her symptoms?”
The emperor’s voice was earnest. It made sense; Armand was the only one who had ever weakened the princess’s curse, even if the condition remained unstable.
“You are the only one who can pierce Violetta’s heart with a blade.”
“However, Your Majesty, surely another member of the imperial family or even Your Majesty himself could—”
“As her father, I cannot bring myself to do such a thing. Besides, you carry the blood of a priest.”
“……”
Armand fell silent for a moment. On the surface it was an incredibly burdensome request. But for Armand, who sought the princess’s life, it was an opportunity. It meant even the emperor would approve of the “surgical” use of a blade.
And even without this request, the princess would surely ask the same thing herself before long—just as she had today. Please stab my heart with that sword.
There’s no reason to refuse.
Just as Armand was steeling his resolve, the emperor continued.
“Of course, I would not ask such a thing without offering any reward.”
“…A reward, sire?”
“Indeed. If you succeed in completely breaking Violetta’s curse—”
The emperor spoke with a confident smile, certain that even he could think of no better reward.
“—I shall allow you to marry my daughter.”
Ah, I really don’t need that—.
For an instant, Armand’s face crumpled.