A Day in the Life of a Guard Knight (2)
The Agnes family ruled over the entire Northern Continent.
In other words, within the Ruthenia Empire, nearly all the land that lay in the north belonged to the Agnes family.
As a result, the Agnes Territory was vast beyond measure. Cold and barren as the land was, the ground fit for habitation remained limited — and yet the journey from the manor to the defensive wall still took a full half-day by carriage.
"Ugh…"
At last free of the carriage, Orion let out a groan of pure suffering. It was a wealthy noble's carriage, so the ride had been relatively comfortable — but sitting still for half a day without moving was never going to be pleasant. From Orion's point of view, the fact that Heily had maintained a perfect, unmoving posture the entire time was nothing short of astonishing.
"Haha. I wonder when I'll ever get used to this."
While Orion, who had stepped down first, stretched out his stiff body, Heily remained inside the carriage a moment longer, surveying their surroundings through the window.
…Where is this?
It was only natural that the farther one traveled toward the outskirts, the fewer people and buildings one would find. She had been told he was a foreigner of unclear origins. She already knew that the territory's people tended to shun outsiders, so she had expected something of the sort — that he might be living in hiding somewhere on the fringes.
But this was far too much.
Right in front of the wall. And not at the eastern, western, or southern gates, where roads led south — but at the northern gate, where magical beasts swarmed in droves. It was a place the territory's people would not set foot even by accident.
Heily felt a sharp, instinctive certainty that something was wrong.
"Ah, Secretary. Please, come on down."
As if only just remembering, Orion approached the carriage and offered his hand to Heily, who was still seated inside. She hesitated for a brief moment at the gesture.
As the secretary who assisted Karen, head of the Agnes family, Heily possessed no small measure of combat skill and self-defense technique. She could easily drive off the likes of thugs, robbers, and bandits who disturbed the social order. But she had stood at Karen's side and watched Orion's duel against Albert, the former knight commander. That was an opponent against whom even the knight commander had failed to land a single meaningful blow. What could she possibly do?
If he ever meant her harm, resistance would be pointless — she wouldn't even be able to lift a finger.
The thought sent a ripple of fear through her. For all her usual dryness, it was not that Heily lacked emotion. She was simply clumsy at expressing it. Even now, nothing showed on her face, but inside her a storm was churning.
"Ah."
Seeing her simply stare at his outstretched hand, Orion made a sheepish sound, wiped his palm on his coat, and offered it again.
"…Thank you."
Reluctantly, Heily took his hand. What was done was done. For now, she had no choice but to trust in the judgment of Karen, who had hired him.
"Are you cold?"
"…Why do you ask?"
"No reason. Your hand is trembling, so…"
Only at his words did Heily realize her own hand was shaking. She could hardly admit it was from fear, so she quickly withdrew it.
"…It's nothing. More importantly, the journey was long and we've lost time. Let us be on our way at once."
"Ah, right. Let's do that."
Heily turned and stood with her back to the wall. Objectively speaking, it was a perfectly natural thing to do. Orion, however, thought otherwise.
"Hm? Secretary, it's this way."
With perfect nonchalance, he tilted his head and pointed toward the gate in the wall. Heily's lips parted.
"W-what do you mean?"
"Hm? The boss didn't tell you?"
Then came the bombshell.
"The house I used to live in is outside that wall over there."
Crack—!
Heily froze solid where she stood. She could not quite believe she had heard him correctly. Noticing her reaction, Orion scratched his head.
"Aigo, so you really didn't hear."
What to do about this. Orion considered for a moment, then factored in her safety.
"Then just wait in the carriage for a bit. Can't be helped, I guess. The boss won't give you a hard time over it."
He turned and started toward the gate.
"I'll be right back."
In that instant, Heily's hand caught the hem of his coat.
"…It's all right. Let us go together."
Even in a situation this appalling, Heily could not bring herself to ignore Karen's request.
"Damn, it's freezing."
"Haaah. That bastard Albert."
"Beer after we get off today? You in?"
The thug trio had been assigned to the northern wall's gate as punishment for the earlier ruckus. It wasn't much of a penalty, and it was a fair one, so they held no real grudge — though the former knight commander's name still tumbled out of their mouths every time they opened them.
"Hey, though. Other than the cold, this place isn't half bad, right?"
"True enough. Feels like all we do is shoot the breeze all day."
"Speaking of which, does anyone even come through here? Besides the guild folks who all rush out in a pack in the morning, I doubt we'll see a soul."
They were loafing about and chatting as usual. Little did they know that words have a way of becoming reality.
"Huh? You guys work here?"
It was a familiar voice. Certain it couldn't be, the three of them spun around with irritable scowls.
"Who the hell do you think you are, talking down to— Wait. Wh-what? Lord Orion, why are you here…?"
No — why on earth would you be coming out of there.
The three of them forgot the cold for a moment as cold sweat ran down their spines. There was no mistaking him. Even buried under thick clothes, those terrifying eyes had already been branded into their brains.
Orion's brow furrowed. Before his mood could sour any further, the three scrambled to butter him up.
"A-aigoo, if it isn't Lord Orion! What brings you all the way out here!?"
Their gazes then drifted, quite naturally, to the person at his side. She wore a hood large enough to hide half her face, but it was nowhere near enough to conceal that beauty. An angelic, transcendent beauty. And just like that, their fear evaporated, replaced by genuine curiosity.
"And who might this lovely lady be?"
The look on their faces all but said, You? With someone that pretty? Why?
Smack! Smack! Smack!
In an instant, the backs of their heads were thoroughly cuffed.
"Ow! Why'd you hit us all of a sudden!?"
Orion answered with his eyes alone.
"Eek—!!"
The thug trio immediately dropped their gazes. Already tired of dealing with them, Orion spoke with a look of pure exhaustion.
"Whatever. Just open the gate."
"…Why the gate?"
Orion glared at them again for talking back, but this time they refused to fold.
"W-we have the right to ask under regulations!"
"That's right! If we just let you through and you die or go missing, we're the ones who get fired on the spot!"
"Even for you, Lord Orion, rules are rules! Being strong doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want!!"
"Ugh…"
Orion had no choice but to back down. There may have been a personal grudge mixed into that last remark, but they weren't wrong.
"Haa. So what am I supposed to do, then? Write my name in a logbook or something?"
"Come on, who still writes things out by hand these days?"
They held out their hands, clearly expecting something.
"What, you want a bribe or something?"
"Excuse me!? What do you take us for!! Just show us your pass already. Or a guild card, if you've got one."
A guild card. He remembered trying — and failing — to get one made back then. And a pass…
Uh… I think I got one.
Hadn't the boss given him one yesterday? Where had he put it?
"Hang on."
Orion rummaged through his coat and clothes, searching for the pass. Then a memory flickered past.
"Ah."
He'd left it in his room. A little rectangular card-like thing, sitting neatly on the desk. If something like that existed, someone should have told him ahead of time. It wasn't a credit card — who carried that kind of thing around every day?
"You don't have it?"
"Argh. Come on, can't you just let me through? You guys don't actually think I'm going to die out there, do you?"
He had spent half a day in a carriage to get here. He was supposed to turn around and go back? His backside would give out long before anything else did.
"Well, yeah, but still. We can't."
"Ah, why not."
"Because those are the rules."
Their stance was unyielding. He would have loved to ignore them, but with her watching from behind, he couldn't exactly force his way through. Just as the look on their faces was shifting into the smug expression of men who held the upper hand—
"I understand the regulations. However, I will speak on this matter separately, so please permit our passage. Should any problem arise from it, I will take full responsibility."
Having watched the exchange from behind, Heily stepped forward and held out her own pass. Stunned by her words, they examined the pass with puzzled frowns.
"…Th-the Young Lady's secretary!!?!?!?!"
All three of them went wide-eyed as saucers, looking back and forth between the pass and her face. Grasping the situation in an instant, they bowed at a perfect ninety degrees.
"W-we're so sorry for not recognizing you!!!!"
"It's quite all right. More importantly — has our passage been approved?"
"Y-yes!! Of course. We'll open it right away!!!"
They scrambled to scan Heily's pass on what appeared to be a Magic Tool. With a heavy metallic groan, the massive steel gate slowly began to open.
"Shall we go?"
"Ah, yeah."
…I should've just done it this way from the start.
Making a fool of himself for nothing. Orion was thoroughly embarrassed.
Even on the same Northern Continent, the world inside the wall and the world outside it were entirely different. Within, the wall blocked a fair share of the snow-laden wind. Outside, you had to take that wind with nothing but your own body.
The moment they stepped through the steel gate, the landscape was white itself — a strange, otherworldly expanse of pure white snow as far as the eye could see.
"Those guys call themselves knights and they don't even know the secretary's face? Seriously."
"…They're new recruits who only just joined. That must be why."
She gave him a suitably polite answer, but Heily had no room left to care about his words. Save for a time when she was very young, she had never once crossed beyond the northern wall. Everything was new to her — and the first emotion to take root was none other than fear.
And then there was one thing more.
"Secretary?"
Heily's body had begun to tremble, little by little. This cold was harder to bear than she had expected.