The Romantic Knight! (3)
He was a man of healthy physique and a strikingly handsome face.
His name was Dillon.
Once rumored to be a promising talent among knights, he had long admired Athena’s indomitable will and overwhelming strength. The moment he advanced to the Expert rank, he enlisted in the Dawn Knights under her command.
Since entering her service, Dillon had weathered all manner of incidents—but never anything like this.
Did I mishear her…?
“Is there anyone who would spar with me…?”
In the middle of the knights’ training, a woman suddenly stepped forward. She was the young lady their lord had brought home—the one everyone had been whispering about.
At her appearance, the entire order froze for a moment. It was probably because of her looks.
Skin so pale it bordered on porcelain. Blood-red eyes that were both eerie and breathtakingly beautiful. She was a woman whose loveliness felt almost dangerous—something you might never escape if you let yourself fall in.
If he hadn’t already had a beloved wife of his own, he might well have stood there staring at her for quite some time.
Still… a spar?
A young lady who looked this delicate?
While everyone stood dumbfounded by her absurd request, the captain approached her.
“So you’re the young lady everyone’s been talking about. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Braum, commander of the Dawn Knights.”
The captain offered a courteous greeting.
“I’m Hera.”
When she extended her hand, the captain bent at the waist and lightly kissed the back of it.
She jerked her hand back with a start, her expression faintly scrunched—as if the gesture hadn’t pleased her at all.
What did the captain do wrong?
A flicker of embarrassment crossed his face, but he quickly smoothed it over with a smile.
“Haha. Is there something you need from our order?”
At his words, the young lady’s eyes lit up as she made her request.
“I’d like to spar with one of the knights.”
“A… spar, you say?”
“Yes! Even just for a little while—please, I’m asking you…”
The captain’s eyes wavered. Dillon would have been just as flustered in his place.
Never mind her slender frame—she was someone their lord cherished dearly. Not a person they could casually lay hands on.
“Hrm… Young lady. A spar is no game. You could get hurt.”
The captain did his best to dissuade her, but she only turned around and provoked them instead.
“I’m stronger than I look. I might even win, you know?”
Her bold claim made the captain’s brow furrow. The smile on his face began to crack.
“Haha… You seem rather confident, young lady.”
“So just do it already. The spar. You’re not scared, are you…?”
Crack—
Something in the captain’s head seemed to snap at her insulting words. He hesitated for a moment, then—
“…Dawn Knights, all of you, listen up.”
““Yes, sir!!””
He called the order to attention. Every knight stopped sparring and focused on his words.
“The young lady wishes to spar. Is there anyone who would like to volunteer?”
At that, the atmosphere went quiet.
When no one stepped forward, the captain looked at her and said,
“It seems everyone’s afraid of hurting you, young lady. Haha.”
“…Are you all scared? Of a woman like me?”
Even her rude behavior—bordering on open contempt for the order—drew no one out. To harm a lady simply because one’s pride was wounded would be a betrayal of knighthood itself. Knights who prized honor preferred to dismiss her words as the thoughtless chatter of a sheltered young lady and let it pass.
Dillon, however, was different.
“Captain. If you’ll permit it, I’ll do it.”
The captain’s eyes widened at his words.
“Dillon. You?”
“Yes. Is she not someone our lord herself brought here? I would like to test myself against her.”
How foolish it was to judge by appearances alone. One needed only to think of their lord to know that. Overwhelming power hidden behind a beautiful face. He had a feeling this woman might be the same.
She looked too frail to lift so much as a rock, yet she stood forward with such confidence for a reason—there had to be one.
A high-level mana user, perhaps.
If so, all the better. He always welcomed a fight against the strong. Every such experience became nourishment that would help him grow.
“Hmm… Very well. Understood.”
The captain clapped him lightly on the shoulder.
“She’s someone our lord holds dear. Keep it measured.”
With that quiet warning, he stepped aside.
And so the spar with the young lady was arranged. She looked up at him with a face full of gratitude.
“Thank you… I’ve really been wanting to try this.”
“Haha. Not at all. This may not count as much of a favor in return, but may I ask you one thing?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“Do you know how to handle mana, by any chance?”
She considered his question for a moment.
“No. I’m an Inherent Ability user.”
The words landed like a bomb. The surroundings erupted into murmurs.
“An… Inherent Ability user?!”
“…So that’s why our lord brought her home.”
“Damn it. Dillon, you lucky bastard.”
His comrades were right. Under ordinary circumstances he would have dismissed it as nonsense—but she was the first person their lord, called the strongest human in the Empire, had ever brought into the mansion. That alone made it persuasive.
An Inherent Ability user. He had never even imagined it. He’d assumed she was simply someone who could use a bit of mana. Instead, she was the Empire’s third Inherent Ability user after the Saintess and the Crown Prince—and the one lucky enough to face her was him.
To think the day would come when I’d spar with an Inherent Ability user.
His heart began to pound. Just how far would his sword reach against a blessing bestowed by the gods?
“Thank you for answering, young lady. Shall we begin at once, then?”
Now that he knew she was no easy opponent, there was no need to hold back the way the captain had suggested. He bowed in courtesy, then raised his wooden practice sword and leveled it at her.
“Good. I can’t wait any longer either.”
With that, she closed the distance one step at a time until she stood right in front of him. A flush colored her cheeks, as though she were holding something down. Her slightly disheveled look, her ragged breathing—it was all far too captivating.
Dillon stared blankly for a moment, then jerked his head away hard.
Get a grip. I already have her.
He closed his eyes, centered himself with a brief meditation, and looked at her again with a calmer heart. Her small lips were moving, as if she wanted to say something. In the strange tension hanging between them, she finally spoke.
“Then…”
“Could you slap my cheek? Just once?”
…What?
.
.
.
Tap—
“That’s not enough! Harder!!”
“I—I can’t!!”
This was a problem. Out of nowhere she was asking him to slap her face. At first he thought she was joking, but she was completely serious.
Strike a lady’s cheek? How could he possibly do such a thing?
Yet under her stubborn insistence, he had no choice but to lightly touch her cheek with his hand—
“Why is a man this timid!!!! I told you to hit harder!”
—and even that was nowhere near enough. The young lady only grew angry in return. She kept demanding he hit her. Could it be that she… had that kind of preference?
“How am I supposed to slap a lady’s face…!”
“Just hit me already! Like this—smack, smack!”
As she spoke, she slapped his shoulder with her open palm. She wanted him to hit her that hard? It would definitely leave a handprint. There was absolutely no way he could do it.
“…If you’re this spineless, can you even call yourself a knight? Just go cut off your manhood.”
Twitch—
What… what was that just now…
His hand nearly flew at her of its own accord. Something deep inside him had been prodded. That a knight couldn’t even brush off a provocation like this filled him with deep shame.
“You think women like a man who lives like a coward?”
“…”
“You’ve never even had a girlfriend, have you, mister? Figures. You’re not manly enough for it.”
“…Hah.”
Never had a girlfriend? He wanted to shout it right then and there. He had a woman he loved more than anyone else in the world.
He looked at her. The goddess-like figure from before was gone without a trace. All that remained was an irritating woman standing in front of him.
“If you can’t hit me, just call someone else. I can’t fight someone this scared either.”
“…You asked for this, young lady.”
He couldn’t take any more. Hadn’t he already endured enough humiliation? He wanted to give this woman—who was trampling a man’s pride underfoot—a bitter taste of her own medicine.
But she only offered him her pale cheek as if it were nothing.
“Yes! Hurry up and hit me. Right here.”
He no longer cared. He raised his hand high—
Smack—
“Hic!”
—and struck her cheek hard. Her head snapped sideways with the force of his hand.
“A-Are you all right?”
A red handprint bloomed on her cheek, and tears had begun to well faintly in her eyes. But her mouth—
“Then I’ll counter right away.”
—was smiling, as if she were delighted.
“…!”
In an instant her foot shot toward his solar plexus. He raised his arms on pure instinct.
“Guh!”
A dull impact slammed through his body. For a moment he felt a strange weightlessness, as if he were floating in the air. When he finally brought his arms down, he realized the distance between them had grown considerably.
I flew that far?
An ordinary person was one thing—but he was an Expert. Not a low-tier one, either; he had reached the mid-tier. He kept mana wrapped around his body at all times, so he could shrug off ordinary attacks whenever he needed to.
And yet her kick had punched straight through that defense and sent him flying.
“So this… is what an Inherent Ability is.”
She kicked a wooden practice sword up from the ground and sent it sailing toward him.
“Pick it up. Beating you one-sidedly wouldn’t be any fun.”
Her taunt drew a hollow laugh from him. But he wasn’t angry. If anything, he felt exhilarated.
In the order, they always sparred with the same people. Familiarity had long since turned to boredom. But standing before him now was a new kind of powerhouse—someone he had never fought before.
He forced down the trembling in his chest, gripped the wooden sword that had landed in his hand, and fixed his eyes on her.
“This won’t be easy for you, young lady.”
Then he kicked off the ground and charged.
“Kh!”
How many exchanges had passed? Her attacks were even stronger than he’d expected—so the strategy he chose was not defense, but evasion. Yet she possessed not only power, but speed as well. Lose track of her for even a moment, and he’d find himself on the ground before he knew it.
Left…!
He twisted his body to the right just as her fist punched into the space where he’d been. Without hesitation he swung his sword at her side, only for her foot to block it with ease. To buy himself a breath, he kicked off the ground and opened the distance again.
While he gasped for air, her face was filled with nothing but pure enjoyment.
“Hoo… Heh. You’ve got a rougher side than I expected, young lady.”
“Hahh… I don’t even know why I’m like this. I can’t calm down.”
She clearly had a warrior’s temperament. But he was no different—the heat of fierce combat had his blood singing too.
Time to settle this.
His stamina was already at its limit. If this dragged on any longer, he’d simply run out of strength and lose. He wrung every last drop of mana from his body and poured it into his sword.
One strike. He would decide everything with this final blow.
“Here I come again.”
The moment the words left her mouth, she planted her foot—and vanished from his sight.
But he reacted at once. He dodged the fist cutting through the air toward his back, then snapped a kick at her right leg. When she lifted her leg to avoid it, he planted the kicking foot on the ground and settled into a stance that could generate real power. Then he gripped the sword tight with both hands.
“You won’t be able to block this…!”
He swung the wooden sword at her upper body with everything he had.
“…!”
Her eyes flew wide in a flash of surprise as his blade closed in on her.
It’s going to land…!
He thought so, and a smile touched his lips. But he was wrong.
In that split second, he saw it. Her eyes flared for an instant—
BOOOOM!!
An impact like a bomb going off slammed into his body, far beyond anything he could withstand. For the briefest moment, he may even have lost consciousness.
When he came to, something felt hollow about his upper body. He looked down and found a gaping hole punched clean through his chest.
“Khahk…”
Blood surged from his mouth as his mind began to fade. Through his dimming vision he saw the captain and his comrades rushing toward him—and her as well, staring at him with trembling eyes.
“…Cough.”
In that fleeting instant, he had clearly seen it. When she unleashed her final attack—for just a moment—her eyes had held the same radiant golden light as hers.