The Knighthood Ceremony 1
“Are you really all right now? Your wounds are healed, right? You’re not hiding some other injury from me, are you? If you are, I’m telling the young lady to have the knight tied up, so be honest.”
“I said I’m fine now.”
Honestly, I still wasn’t fully healed, but I really did feel much better than before.
Ropena had cried buckets the first time she saw me in that state. She wasn’t crying now, but she still looked like she was about to, and that bothered me more than I liked to admit.
She kept sneaking worried glances at me. The cuts and scrapes from before had mostly healed, but the wound near my neck still hadn’t closed completely, and every time Ropena looked at it, her face darkened.
“I’m really fine.”
“...I know you’re fine. But there’s a difference between you saying it and the person watching you saying it.”
Maybe I really was blessed. Two people worrying about me like this. If things had been ordinary, I would’ve been overflowing with happiness.
Of course, I had too much else to worry about now to bask in it.
When I just smiled at Ropena and looked at her straight on, she let out a long sigh and pouted.
“Honestly. If someone bothers to worry about you, the least you can do is take better care of yourself. I don’t know why you keep coming back injured all the time.”
“I don’t get why you’re the one getting angry.”
“It’s the eve of your knighthood ceremony, okay? What are you going to do if you show up covered in injuries? It’ll make the young lady look bad. Well, I’m glad your face didn’t get hurt, at least.”
“It can’t be helped. Why don’t you try fighting a troll sometime? Let’s see if you can get through it without getting hurt.”
“W-what kind of nonsense is that?”
All I did was give a small shrug at the indignant Ropena.
I’d done my best, and I’d still gotten hurt. What else was I supposed to do?
Still, it was a relief that it had only come down to scars.
Even now, when I thought about that troll, I still doubted whether I could honestly call the fight winnable.
“It’s snowing.”
When I murmured it softly after looking toward the window, Ropena followed my gaze and looked outside too.
I’d heard this year was supposed to be a light snow year, and yet the snow was still settling quickly, blanketing the world in white.
The patches of brown earth that had shown through were covered over again, and as the clouds dropped more snow, even the moon was swallowed up, leaving the world dim.
But it would melt soon enough. This winter was almost over.
When all that snow had gone, when the knighthood ceremony was over and I became Irene’s official guard knight at last—
It would probably be spring.
Ropena had quietly turned to stare out the window too, her eyes reflecting the childlike wonder of the falling snow.
With a faint smile, I watched the flakes drift down from the sky.
#
“...Haa.”
My warm breath escaped into the cold air and faded into white as it drifted outside the window.
The garden was buried beneath a thick layer of snow, left untouched so that the surface lay smooth and even, broken here and there by tiny footprints.
And if I followed those footprints, the one they led to was, as expected, the youngest child in the mansion.
“Ropena.”
“Eek, I got caught.”
She was only turning sixteen soon, and yet she was still doing this. Should I be glad she hadn’t lost that childlike streak, or pity the fact that she still hadn’t matured?
She must have known she’d be scolded if she got caught.
Watching her in the corner of the yard, blowing on her reddened hands as she made a snowman, I couldn’t help letting out a snort of laughter.
Leaning one arm against the window ledge, I kept staring at her, and she waved her hands around in the air, looking over her shoulder.
Her voice was low as she covered her lips with her fingers, probably worried that someone else would hear her. If that was the case, she shouldn’t have been doing this in the first place.
“What?”
“N-no. If you keep staring at me like that, everyone’s attention will come this way. Go away. I’m coming in soon anyway.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Are you interested in the snowman or something? If you want to make one, then come down here already. If you stay up there, the gardener will come complain again.”
To be honest, I was only enjoying watching Ropena do something like this.
When I narrowed my eyes and chuckled, she scowled and marched over toward me with quick steps.
“Close the window.”
“Can’t you see I’m looking at the scenery? Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“You’ve been looking at only me this whole time. What, are you into little girls or something?”
“...Honestly, you never run out of things to say.”
Smack—!
“Ah!”
After I lightly tapped Ropena on the forehead, her head jerked back and she toppled into the snow with a soft thud.
Was that too hard? But she’d earned it.
Talking about liking little girls—that was the kind of person I hated most in the world. How could I ever be that sort of monster?
Ropena was just Ropena. If I had to put it into words, it was more like looking at a doll in a room.
She was cute. That was all.
...And she reminded me a little of my younger sister.
Whenever I looked at Ropena, it was always my sister I thought of.
My one and only little sister. Especially when I flicked her on the forehead, her reaction was uncannily similar.
Her reddened forehead clutched in her hand, eyes shimmering like she might cry at any second—just like that.
“Why have you been acting like this toward me since our last snowball fight?”
—Why have you been acting like this toward me since our last snowball fight?
It was so eerily similar that I couldn’t quite bring myself to be angry with her.
Sir Chris sometimes told me Ropena was too cheeky with me and that I ought to put her in her place, but the way she snapped at me and flung snow around only made her seem adorable.
“Sorry.”
“It’s too late for sorry. Do you not see my forehead swelling up here? No matter how much of a knight you are—”
“Want some melted chocolate? I was thinking of asking the head cook for some later.”
“Please do.”
I stared at Ropena, dumbfounded, and then laughed out loud before I could stop myself.
It wasn’t as if she had no shame—how could she go from yelling at me one second to changing her attitude like that the next?
“It’s cold, so come inside already. If you get caught, I’ll... well, I’ll say I did it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Want me to pull you in through the window? I’ll catch you.”
“...Hm, thanks.”
Her pout was gone now. Ropena smiled sweetly and took my hand, climbing inside at last.
After I carefully brushed the snow from her hair, she suddenly sneezed and sniffled at me.
“Sometimes I think you’re especially nice to me, knight. You’re not like that with Sister Lise or anyone else.”
Especially nice, huh. Maybe that was true.
I really did soften whenever it came to Ropena, so it wasn’t strange that she saw it that way.
Quietly, I stroked the top of her head, which stood so much lower than mine. Ropena kept her mouth shut and looked up at me.
“You just remind me of my little sister.”
That was all. If there was a reason I was gentle with Ropena, that was it.
She was someone I could never see again if I returned home, so I wanted to be good to her while she was right here in front of me.
I didn’t want to regret it. That was all.
When I pulled my hand away from Ropena’s head, she stared at me for a moment before looking away.
Her pouting lips had already slipped back into their usual shape, and the damp strands of hair that had gotten wet in the snow swayed lightly.
“Come on. I want chocolate.”
“...Right.”
I smiled bitterly. Getting too caught up in the feelings of the past was dangerous.
Even when I’d lived alone, I’d tried not to think about my sister too much, but whenever I looked at Ropena, those thoughts kept rising up again.
I rubbed my eyes and looked at her again. Ropena’s hair was brown.
A bright brown, so light it almost looked orange if you glanced at it the wrong way. It wasn’t the same as my sister’s.
So I shouldn’t keep thinking about it. It was time to let the past go.
After kneading my eyes for a moment with my fingertips, I let out a weary breath and started walking again.
Watching Ropena skip along with light little steps made the corners of my mouth lift again, and I moved up beside her with a small shrug.
She seemed excited about something, because her shoulders twitched each time she walked, and my own mood felt a little lighter just from seeing it.
“Do you like chocolate that much?”
“Of course. It’s precious, you know. I’m the young lady’s personal maid, but it’s not like I can eat it often.”
“...I’ll bring you some now and then.”
“Reeeally?”
She sounded genuinely surprised now that her words had started to stretch out like that.
What was so great about chocolate, anyway?
Ropena’s birthday was coming up soon, so I’d have to think about what to get her.
If she was this happy over something as simple as chocolate, I wondered what kind of face she’d make at a proper gift.
Her eyes, the same warm brown as her hair, sparkled.
Her tiny hands gathered against her chest clenched tightly, and I gave a small laugh before nodding.
“Yeah. Why would I lie?”
Her little mouth fell open with a soft “heh,” and Ropena, who looked overjoyed to anyone who saw her, stamped her feet in place before holding out a hand and giving me a light poke.
“I didn’t know this before, but knight, you’ve got a really good personality.”
“You only just figured that out?”
That stung a little. I narrowed my eyes playfully, and Ropena hurriedly threw her arms around mine and laughed brightly.
I barely managed to keep from smiling too widely.
My sister hadn’t done things like this very often. Ropena really was different from her.
That alone eased something in my chest, and this time I was able to smile without restraint.
Only then did she realize I’d been teasing her. Ropena slipped off my arm and poked it with a finger, her mouth opening in protest.
“Don’t do that. You startled me.”
“...I wasn’t joking.”
“Ah, seriously.”
We were laughing like that when I lifted my head at the sound of footsteps approaching from afar. Those footsteps were familiar.
Ropena must have realized someone was coming too, because she followed my gaze and then widened her eyes.
“Young lady?”
“...I wondered where you’d gone. So this is where you were.”
“Were you looking for me?”
“I have something to discuss.”
After giving a slight bow, Irene lifted one hand and spoke quietly.
She was wearing a blue dress instead of the black one she usually favored. Was she going out somewhere?
Perhaps she noticed me staring at her clothes, because she looked down at the dress for a moment before glancing back at me.
“...Do I look bad?”
“No. It suits you very well.”
“I’m glad.”
“It’s just a little different from what you usually wear, so I was looking. Hmm, it’s nice. It suits your eye color too. But you said you had something to discuss...”
When I said that the blue dress made me think of her eyes, Irene nodded in response.
It was certainly different seeing someone who always wore dark colors suddenly dressed in something brighter.
Would I get to see her in other colors sometime, I wondered.
But I shook the thought away at once. Hadn’t she said she had something to tell me?
When I asked, Irene slowly opened her mouth.
“It’s about the upcoming knighthood ceremony. There’s less than a week left, so there are things you need to know.”
“Understood. Ropena, go to the head cook and tell him I asked for it. He’ll give you the chocolate.”
“I’ll enjoy it.”
After Ropena whispered that and disappeared, Irene stared after her for a moment before sending me a sidelong look.
When I tilted my head, unsure why she was looking at me as if she wanted an answer, Irene frowned and spoke.
“Did you give Ropena something?”
“Ah, I said I’d give her some melted chocolate. She likes sweets.”
“...I see.”
Was she dissatisfied with that?
After looking toward the direction where Ropena had gone for a moment, Irene turned back and headed toward her office again.
Come to think of it, there would only be so much time left to spend with Ropena like this.
Once I was knighted, I’d officially become Irene’s guard knight, which meant that unlike now, as a trainee, I’d have to stay by her side at all times.
Of course, if I got leave, that was another matter, but how often did a guard knight ever get vacation?
In truth, this knighthood ceremony was rather unusual compared to the others that had taken place before.
Not only was I, a knight who hadn’t even gone through my coming-of-age rite, being formally appointed, but I was also becoming the guard knight of Irene, the Yuris family’s young mistress.
It was a little heavy. I’d prepared myself, but even if you prepare, that doesn’t mean other people’s stares stop feeling burdensome.
Every so often, when I passed knights in the duke’s estate, there was envy mixed into their looks.
Some of them said loud enough for me to hear that I’d gotten lucky, and others beside them laughed and agreed.
If I’d wanted to press the issue, I could have.
But I hadn’t bothered, because I knew it was better not to.
I’d had plenty of those looks before, so by now I was used to them.
No matter how hard you worked, in the end you were still overshadowed by luck or talent.
No matter how much you explained yourself, in their eyes it would still just look like something achieved through luck and talent.
Ignoring them was easiest.
“Come in.”
As I was thinking that and had been walking for a while, I finally reached Irene’s office, and she opened the door as she spoke.
Inside was the familiar sight of a room I’d seen many times before.
Books filled the neatly arranged shelves, and the teacup Irene favored sat on the large desk, filled with Darjeeling.
The scent of Darjeeling always calmed me.
What had once felt like such an awkward space had now become part of my life, and as I looked around the room, Irene gave me a nod.
“Sit down. There’s quite a bit to talk about.”
Was there more to discuss than just the knighthood ceremony?
When I sat in the chair, Irene watched me for a moment before lowering her head and turning her gaze to the table.
On the table were the usual teacup and a plate of sugar cookies.
Staring at the cookies for a moment, Irene then looked at me and spoke.
“You seem to have gotten rather close to Ropena. You even bring her things she likes.”
“...Well, she just reminds me of my little sister. I can’t help wanting to look after her.”
“Your little sister.”
After murmuring it once, Irene took a sip of Darjeeling and looked at me again.
What dwelled in her blue eyes was unease, and I frowned back at her.
What was there to be nervous about all of a sudden?
I was only looking at her for a moment when Irene set down her cup and said something that made my eyes widen.
“It seems the Crown Prince will be coming to this knighthood ceremony.”
“...What?”
“It seems he’s coming to meet you, so it would be best to prepare yourself properly.”
A dry laugh slipped out of me. I’d thought there was someone I wouldn’t have to face for years yet.
The name of the Crown Prince, so suddenly thrown before me, felt thoroughly irritating.
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