Investiture Ceremony (3)
“...Haa.”
The moment I opened my eyes, I knew at once what time it was: dawn, before the sun had fully risen, the faintest gray of morning just beginning to seep in.
The world beyond the window was still pitch-black, but my eyelids felt no heavier for it.
My body felt light, my eyes were wide awake, and I had a feeling there was no way I’d fall asleep again.
I closed my eyes, trying to drift back off, but thoughts surged through my mind and snapped them open again.
Habit really was a frightening thing. Hadn’t I once slept well past noon without a care in the world?
But now I was waking before sunrise on my own, and the realization that I could no longer live as I once had drew a sigh from me.
Still, it had been a year since I started living like this, so I’d grown used to it in a way.
Even so, stepping out alone into the pre-dawn stillness, when there wasn’t a soul around, felt terribly lonely.
Thud.
I stripped off my clothes and tossed them aside. The cold winter wind cut into my skin, and only then did it really feel as if I’d come outside.
Why bother taking my clothes off? I was only removing my top, after all.
It was just that I felt a little freer this way.
Besides, with mana wrapped around my body, I wasn’t all that cold anyway. And if I trained in clothes while swinging a sword, they’d just be soaked through in no time, which meant changing them over and over was a nuisance.
When I took off my shirt, my body came into view, covered in scars.
Every time I looked at those scars—etched across my skin as if cut there by a blade—I couldn’t help wondering what kind of life Evan had lived.
There were burn marks here and there, and countless long, jagged scars besides.
At a glance, it was obvious he hadn’t simply lived the life of a noble’s son.
It doesn’t hurt.
It was just unsightly, that was all. There was no point dwelling on it any further.
It didn’t hurt, and maybe I’d simply undergone brutal training when I was young.
As I thought that, what started to irritate me instead was the Count Fried family I belonged to.
If word reached your family that their son had fought a black mage, shouldn’t they at least send some kind of message?
At the very least, if an investiture ceremony was being held, shouldn’t they have contacted me somehow?
Yet not only had they failed to contact me, I hadn’t received so much as a single letter since becoming Evan.
That old letter I’d seen back then had stuck in my mind, but... unless the family had been wiped out, they should still have been able to keep in touch.
And I couldn’t send a letter first, either, because I knew practically nothing about them.
Shiiing—
Shaking off my thoughts, I drew the sword I’d brought with me.
Once I poured mana into it, a blue blade extended from the hilt. Last time, when I fought the troll, I thought the blade had been white, but for some reason, no matter how many times I drew it after that, I never saw the white blade again.
Did seeing that blade again require some special condition?
Stilling the remnants of mana thrumming through my heart, I stepped lightly forward and swung the sword.
Without mana, the sword felt heavy in my hands, but that very heaviness sent a thrill through me instead.
Now this was training. I’d never been particularly diligent by nature, but that didn’t mean I didn’t understand the strange satisfaction that came from the results of effort.
And this body...
It’s beyond what I imagined.
If I willed it, it would accomplish more than that will itself asked for.
I swung my sword. Not merely swinging it, but unleashing power that could tear apart everything before me.
I drew mana upward. Beyond what other Experts could do, beyond simply strengthening the body, I could call forth power that exceeded human limits.
Mana burning like fire—I still hadn’t forgotten how stunned Sir Chris had looked when he saw me manipulating it.
He’d asked me how on earth I was handling mana to make it do that.
In any case, one thing was certain from everything I’d seen: Evan Fried’s body was extraordinary.
No—more than that, it was downright alien compared to an ordinary human body.
“For example, the mana you possess. Or your bloodline.”
Janzir’s words came back to me. My bloodline—what was that supposed to mean?
I hadn’t exactly neglected to look into the Count Fried family.
But all I’d managed to find out was that they were a once-famous count family out in the frontier.
If I went there myself, I might learn something, but I wasn’t in a position to do that right now.
What bothered me most was that for all of it, I could only speculate for now.
I couldn’t uncover a single thing directly.
With the investiture ceremony coming to an end, and perhaps only after I’d completely dealt with Jeol-myeol would I finally have the breathing room to investigate anything at all. So what was there to look into now?
So I took up my sword again. It was a little heavy, but when I pulled out the sandbags I’d prepared in advance, a satisfied smile finally touched my lips.
I probably wouldn’t stop swinging my sword until the sun rose.
Training like this might look like self-abuse to other people.
Even if I could command mana, the sandbags strapped to my body were pretty damn heavy.
Each one probably weighed around twenty kilograms, and I had five on each ankle and wrist, so in this state, with no mana drawn up, every single swing of the sword demanded my full concentration.
But that was fine.
At the very least, during the moment I trained, all stray thoughts disappeared and I could look at nothing but the sword.
With every step I took, the ground gave way under my weight.
And the deep snow piled all around me melted beneath the heat rising from my body, until a round patch of thawed ground spread clearly around where I stood.
So I began to swing my sword alone in the empty garden.
Before long, time had flown by, and I could see the sun rising far in the distance.
Under normal circumstances, I could have kept training, but it was about time to stop.
After all, today was the day of my investiture ceremony.
The sandbags dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
After calling a servant and telling him to clean up the place as best he could, I started walking back toward the manor.
An investiture ceremony—it only happened once in a lifetime, so I might as well be properly prepared for it.
#
“Ugh, you trained again?”
“I do it every day. What’s with the surprise?”
“It’s your investiture ceremony today. You should be minding your appearance, not coming back all sweaty!”
As I entered the manor and buttoned my shirt, Ropena came over to me, frowned, and gave me a pointed look.
What she had in one hand was probably the uniform I was supposed to wear today.
I only glanced at the silver uniform for a moment before shrugging one shoulder, and Ropena let out a sigh, puffing out her lips.
“Hurry up and wash off. Or use that mana of yours... whatever it is you do. Your investiture ceremony is in a few hours, so could you at least try looking a little impressive?”
“I don’t know. Is there really any need for that?”
It was a little funny, but there was no real reason to stand out too much.
Since I’d killed that troll, the letters coming to me had gone from frequent to daily, stacking up one after another. Just thinking about how much worse it might get after today gave me a headache.
Whether she knew that or not, Ropena gave a bitter smile and held out the uniform she’d been carrying.
“Anyway, the maids will be here in a bit. Put it on and come to me, and I’ll get you ready right away, so keep that in mind. And don’t forget to stop by the young lady’s room before the ceremony.”
“The young lady’s room? She called for me?”
“...Hmm. It’d be better if you learned to notice things like that for yourself. This uniform was the one the young lady prepared last time, you know. During the Hunting Festival.”
“Ah.”
Only then did I remember and part my lips slightly.
Come to think of it, hadn’t the uniform been among those flags? No wonder it looked familiar.
The uniform, with black as its base, was elegantly decorated with silver embroidery.
The Yuris crest and a single star on the chest symbolized my status as a knight, and also served as proof that I belonged to the Yuris family. Looking at those marks, I was struck all over again by the fact that I was truly one of the Yuris’s knights.
Then there was the other pile of clothes Ropena handed me: a black-gray cloak with a rough, coarse fur lining. Was I supposed to wear this over the uniform? Come to think of it, this was the North.
Seeing a cloak that resembled the image of a northern knight I’d always had in my head, I couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh.
Once I put on the uniform and the cloak, wouldn’t I look pretty good?
I should really wash up after training, of course, but when I realized there wasn’t much time left, I wrapped my body lightly in mana instead.
I’d used this trick before when I was too lazy to bathe, and it actually made me cleaner than washing could sometimes manage.
For a moment I looked at my skin, now fresh and dry with every trace of sweat gone, and then I stepped into my room, where Lise looked my way and gave a small wave.
“You’re finally here. Come on, hurry up—we need to get ready. Today is your day, after all.”
“...I can put it on by myself.”
“What nonsense. Do you remember how long it took when I let you dress yourself for the ball last time? Are you trying to turn the investiture ceremony into a disaster?”
“That’s not what I meant... all right.”
There was no helping it. When I remembered how I’d struggled just to put on a single outfit last time, I couldn’t exactly blame her reaction.
Still, taking my clothes off here, surrounded by women, felt awkward, so I gauged Lise’s mood as best I could and started undressing; at once, the maids nearby let out little gasps.
“My, my.”
I laughed bitterly. The sight of those maids with all their eyes sparkling wasn’t exactly welcome.
Of course, it wasn’t as if they were looking at me with any strange feelings, so all I did was smile wryly once and leave it at that.
Once I had the uniform Ropena gave me on properly, Lise grinned at me.
“It suits you. You really are something else, you know that? Who exactly did you inherit that from, looking that handsome? I’ve met the Count Fried before, to be honest, and he wasn’t exactly blessed with that kind of face.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I take after my mother.”
In truth, I didn’t even know who Evan’s mother was, but when I answered like that, Lise nodded and handed me the cloak.
The black-gray cloak with its rough, bristling fur—wasn’t it made from wolf fur? As I accepted it, I let out a small sound of surprise at how light it was.
At this weight, I could wear it around all day without any problem.
Once I draped it over my shoulders, it looked oddly good on me.
I’d even thought it might suit the gold of my hair and the green of my eyes.
But once I put it on, I had to admit it suited me fairly well, probably thanks to my face more than anything else.
When I glanced at Lise, I found her staring at me with her mouth slightly open, and I gave a dry laugh.
“Lise.”
She looked as though she’d been bewitched by something.
When I called her name, she flinched a little and answered carefully a moment later.
“...You’ve grown up well. Yes, very well.”
“At this rate, I’m going to have a hard time handling all the letters coming in. What am I supposed to do?”
“To be honest, you’re way past the age when you should’ve been getting engaged, but...”
I could hear the maids around us murmuring clearly, so I shrugged one shoulder and looked at the mirror.
The first time I’d seen this face, it had seemed nothing more than kindly and mild, but now that time had passed a little, the sharpness of my eyes seemed to have deepened.
Maybe that was why the cloak draped over my shoulders suited me as well as it did.
“I should get going now.”
Now that I was dressed, I should stop by Irene as Ropena had said.
When I said that, Lise, who had been whispering with the maids, looked over at me.
“You’re going to see the young lady?”
“Of course. This outfit was prepared by her, after all.”
“...Hmm. All right, then. Have a good visit. Congratulations on becoming a knight in earnest this time.”
“Thank you.”
When I smiled faintly, Lise grinned back and gave me a small wave.
Even if she wasn’t as close to me as Ropena or Irene, Lise had still treated me kindly, hadn’t she?
If she hadn’t been there when I first became Irene’s escort, I probably would’ve had a hard time getting along with the other maids.
I could only hope she’d be able to stay safe too.
#
Once I stepped out of the room, the maids walking along the hallway turned their eyes toward me.
Some of them even blushed, while others stared at me without blinking, and it was all rather uncomfortable.
They could have given me a little less attention, honestly.
Fwooo—
I turned my head at the sudden blast of a horn, and before long I caught sight of the knights lined up outside in preparation for my investiture ceremony.
Sir Chris was standing there too, armored up after what felt like ages.
And among the flags fluttering in the wind, I could make out a familiar crest.
...The Imperial Family.
The dragon emblem symbolizing the Imperial Family of Evangelium, the empire’s capital and only sanctuary.
Only the Imperial Family could use it, and only with the Imperial Family’s permission could it be displayed, which made those flags the most impossible to miss.
So the Crown Prince had arrived, had he? The thought that he might already be here made my brows furrow on their own.
I had wanted to establish a good relationship with him before the original heroine appeared, but I supposed my negative feelings just weren’t so easy to shake.
Back when I’d only read the novel, I’d thought of him as nothing more than an obnoxious bastard.
But now that I was the knight guarding Irene, just thinking about his face made foul language want to leap out of my mouth.
Of course, if I faced him in person I’d have to kneel at once...
But whatever I said in a place where the king wasn’t standing couldn’t matter much, could it?
The hallway was quiet, probably because everyone was busy preparing for the investiture ceremony.
Sunlight streamed through the windows, etching their shapes cleanly across the corridor, yet no shadow of a person passed through that light, and my footsteps rang out alone in the silence.
Click— click—
There were no maids passing through the hall anymore, and none of the guards I’d often seen were in sight either.
As I continued toward the study where Irene was, I suddenly thought the commotion outside sounded unusual, so I looked out the window again—and realized there were crowds gathered beyond.
Especially where the most knights were lined up, and where banners thrust skyward were whipping violently in the wind.
The knights in brilliant armor were holding spears and marching in perfect step for one person alone.
“...The Crown Prince.”
Then there was the one figure walking alone among those lined-up knights.
He stood out even beneath the blazing sun, and how could I possibly mistake that black hair?
His red eyes flashed.
Proud, even arrogant, his stride was the kind that would have seemed outrageous on anyone else—but on the empire’s one and only prince, it fit perfectly.
The Emperor, and the Crown Prince standing there before me.
Kaisel Freia di Evangelium.
And when the Crown Prince came to the end of the knights’ formation, I could only be deeply shocked by the amount of mana he carried.
The purity and abundance of his mana—equal to my own, or perhaps even greater—was proof enough that he would one day reach Master.
If the future unfolded the way I knew it would, there would come a day when I’d face that Crown Prince with a sword in hand.
Could I win? I thought about it for a moment.
Then I felt mana reaching toward me, and I flinched before looking ahead.
Far away—so far that it should have been hard to sense his presence at all—I could still feel it clearly: a single gaze fixed on me.
Eyes red as if stained with blood. And when I realized those eyes were looking straight at me, I let out a laugh without thinking and met that gaze head-on.
I’d wondered whether he might have come to see Irene or the duke instead, but now I was certain.
The Crown Prince had come to see me.
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