Knighting Ceremony (5)
Human body heat was enough to make the heart flutter just by touching it.
In winter, the season that made warmth feel more precious than ever, how could anything compare to the warmth of another person?
I could almost feel the heat spreading across my face. The wind filling my lungs was bitterly cold, yet the breath I let out burned hotter than anything else.
My harsh exhale spilled out in a white cloud and scattered into the air. The grounds around us were packed with people, but for the moment I couldn’t think about anything except the hand I was holding.
We’d called it an escort for appearances’ sake, but far more of our bodies were touching than would be normal for one. Every time Irene’s fidgeting fingers brushed against my palm, I frowned.
To be honest, it was hard to bear. And yet I never let go.
Each time our fingers seemed about to slip apart, she moved them as if we’d made a promise, and the sight of it made me laugh under my breath. I glanced at Irene and gave a small, crooked smile.
The tips of her ears were bright red, and yet she still wore that expressionless face; somehow, that only made her look cuter.
Then I heard the blare of a trumpet. Countless people had gathered to celebrate my knighting ceremony, and between the round tables spread across the vast garden, nobles in splendid attire filled every open space.
Even the five great families were here, along with the Crown Prince, but I had no desire to run into any of them. So, as though we’d both decided it at the same time, we took the long way around.
The garden was sparse with people. The soil, stirring to life at the tail end of winter, seemed to show hints of green beneath the snow. As we stepped across the white ground untouched by a single footprint, memories from the past rose up, and a laugh escaped me before I knew it.
“Now that I think about it, didn’t we have tea here before?”
Wasn’t that around the time Irene’s attitude began to change? Before that, I’d gone so far as to train with Sir Chris just to avoid running into her.
Now I was used to the fact that there was no longer any chill in her gaze. The face that had once been void of emotion now showed feeling, and the lips that had always been held perfectly level were slowly curving into a line of their own.
“...Yes.”
It felt like only yesterday that Ropena had caught us talking about Irene and caused a scene. Looking back like this, all of it had simply become memory in the end.
Memory. The word made my chest ache in a strange, unexpected way. I’d spent such a long time in this place that I’d built up memories here; at first, I’d felt as though the road ahead were blocked, but now I’d grown used to it, found my footing here, and that realization made me oddly proud.
“Honestly, at first I thought I’d be kicked out pretty quickly. Back then, my lady was... a little different from how she is now.”
At that, Irene frowned. It seemed to be a memory she didn’t want to revisit, and she shook her head before shooting me a glare.
“You already apologized for all of that, didn’t you? There’s no need to drag it up again just to embarrass me.”
“I’m not trying to embarrass you. I’m just saying that’s how it was.”
I’d come to this medieval world knowing nothing, only aware that the person I was guarding was Irene and that future events were waiting ahead of me. When I thought back on how I’d worried whether I’d have to become a mercenary if I was dismissed as a guard knight, I could only feel how absurd that fantasy had been.
Snow crunched beneath my feet. With every step, memories of everything I’d experienced here brushed past my mind one by one—when I first opened my eyes in my room, when I realized my own name was Evan Fried, when I first met Irene and saw that what lived in her eyes was disgust and irritation.
I still remembered vividly the sight of stars drifting across the sky when we headed to Crystal Palace, and the conversation we had on the balcony there. I’d once thought summer would always be warm, but even that season had turned into a winter of falling snow.
Irene had changed slowly too. I hadn’t noticed it at the time; I’d only thought there was something a little strange about her. But by the time I faced her again, she was practically a different person from the one I remembered.
The shadows that had always hung over her face were gone, and now she could even smile. The thought brought back a foolish little memory, and I let out another quiet laugh.
When Irene looked at me wordlessly, I shrugged and said in a teasing voice, “Do you remember? You know, on my birthday.”
“...My birthday?”
“I opened the door and walked in, and you were looking at the mirror, smiling—ah, all right, I get it.”
At the instant her gaze turned icy, I waved my hands in surrender, and Irene frowned before letting out a sigh. But the truth was, I still couldn’t understand it.
Could she really have been practicing in front of a mirror after I told her to smile? Still, more than that, the sulking Irene who wouldn’t even look at me was the more immediate problem. It was almost funny, the way she’d turned her head away entirely and refused to meet my eyes while still keeping hold of my hand.
But I didn’t want to keep seeing her sulk. The stage was coming up soon; we couldn’t part ways awkwardly now.
“My lady.”
I called to her softly, but Irene kept walking without saying a word. Seeing the corners of her mouth still drawn into a straight line made my mood sink for no reason, and so I tugged on the hand I was holding and pulled her toward me.
When she came close enough that there was barely room for a pebble between us—close, but not so close that we were quite embracing—Irene’s eyes widened.
“Evan, what on earth are you—”
“Didn’t I tell you?”
With my free hand, I lifted a finger to the corner of her mouth and gently pulled it upward. The absurd expression that resulted, with only one side of her lips lifted awkwardly, made laughter spill out of me again.
Looking into her wavering blue eyes, then at the blush spreading across her cheeks, I smiled faintly and said, “My lady, smiling suits you.”
“......W-What? I never said anything like that.”
“Then I’m saying it now. You look far better when you smile.”
It was meant to ease her sulk, but it was true as well. Wouldn’t a small smile suit her far better than that level, expressionless mouth?
Irene met my eyes for a moment, then narrowed them and looked away, carefully peeling my finger from the corner of her lips. “Fine... so move this hand.”
“Feeling better now?”
“I wasn’t sulking in the first place. I’m not Ropena, you know. Did you really think I’d get upset over something like that?”
“You weren’t answering when I called you.”
I shrugged, and after giving me a brief glare, Irene let out another sigh and slowly stepped away from my side to put distance between us. She glanced down at the hand that had just brushed my chest, then lifted her head and spoke at last.
“...Since I’m feeling better now, let’s go.”
“If that’s what you want.”
We walked on for quite a while after that. The awkward air that had first wrapped around Irene and me was already long gone. The cold wind still brushed our faces and scattered, but the warmth of having someone beside me soon made me forget the chill.
Still, I never thought this moment would last forever, so when I looked toward the stage in the distance, I slowly opened my mouth.
Only Irene would go up onto that stage. Unlike me, she would have to start from the other side, walking in from where all the gathered people stood.
Perhaps she remembered that too, because she let go of my hand and gave me a sidelong glance. Was she reluctant? I couldn’t really tell from that emotionless face, so I smiled bitterly.
Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, then closed again, and she turned away. If only she’d said something, anything—but all I could do was watch her leave without a word.
I stood there, staring blankly after Irene as she walked away. I still felt a little reluctant, but she seemed entirely unaffected. Of course, I couldn’t just ask that outright.
So I touched the empty hand at my side for a moment, then turned around and began to walk slowly away.
It had seemed like a fairly short road when we came together, but walking it alone made it feel impossibly long. I walked across the snowy path, retracing the little footprints Irene had left behind and stamping my own larger ones over them.
The wind was cold.
Knighting ceremony.
It was the knighting ceremony of the youngest knight in the Empire, and countless nobles had gathered to witness the knighting of the knight blessed with the greatest talent, the hero who had slain a black mage.
The five great families—Medib, Kilrog, Hatan, and Roman—were all here, along with many other renowned figures. But naturally, the most eye-catching sight was the dragon banner symbolizing the imperial family, and beneath that banner the Crown Prince’s eyes flickered with interest.
“At last, he’s here.”
The sound of a trumpet, louder than ever, drew everyone’s attention. As the protagonist of the knighting ceremony, Evan Fried, made his entrance, the lined-up knights began striking their spears against the ground in rhythm.
Thud—thud—
My heart pounded. So many people. The hot gaze they sent me. The expectations and pressure pouring down on me. Attention from the five great families and the imperial family was never something light.
Still, I drew myself up straight and began walking forward with the practiced steps I’d rehearsed. If I stumbled here, wouldn’t that mean Yuris itself stumbled as well?
It was a little overwhelming, but for this moment I poured all my focus into my bearing. My sword hung at my waist, and I ran my fingers over it—the sword marked with the thorn-shield emblem, the symbol of Yuris.
I slowly controlled my breathing. I still remembered the day I first opened my eyes as Evan Fried, but from here on out, everything was only beginning.
The name Jeol-myeol, and the black mage. There were still four years left before the original heroine appeared. If I was going to try anything, if I was going to change the future, I had to do something within those four years.
Today I would become a knight of Yuris, and Irene’s guard knight at that. The beginning of that preparation would start now.
From far away, I felt one person’s gaze fixed on me. Even among all these people, that presence was unmistakable.
So I smiled. A faint smile, one so subtle only a single person could notice it, one meant for the person standing far away.
Irene.
When the red carpet ended and I reached the steps before the stage, Garot Yuris, the head of Yuris, slowly walked forward.
A hush spread through the previously noisy crowd. Silence. And when everything around us had been painted over with stillness, the duke opened his mouth.
“Evan Fried.”
“...Yes.”
“Second son of the Count of Fried, bearer of the light of Evangelium, and knight who bled before the thorns of Yuris.”
With every word he spoke, a shiver ran through me. What I was doing now was a kind of oath, a vow to swear loyalty to Yuris before the knighting ceremony itself.
The moment this oath was complete, I would become a knight of Yuris.
Thud—
As the knights once again slammed their spears into the ground, the duke continued his declaration.
“Until now your blood has been ordinary, but from this day forward let it become as firm and valiant as steel, and above all else cold and sharp as Iron Blood. Can you swear this upon your sword?”
“I swear it.”
With one knee bent and my head bowed, I stretched out my hand and pressed it to my heart. My heartbeat, my rising mana. When a white conflagration finally erupted from my body, the duke thrust the sword in his hand toward the sky and cried out.
“Behold! Iron Blood continues. Today, once more, Iron Blood has begun to flow through another knight. Rejoice! Another shield that will offer its heart to Evangelium has been added today, and the shield of the Empire shall remain steadfast forevermore.”
Thud—
The emblem embroidered on the chest of my uniform began to shine pure white.
The oath before the knighting ceremony, and now that oath had been completed. At this very moment, a magical formation etched itself onto my body, branding me with its mark.
The thorn-ringed shield—when the pain of my chest burning away finally faded, I could tell naturally that the emblem had been carved into my flesh.
As the light from the insignia on my uniform dimmed, familiar footsteps began to sound from far away. I raised my knee from the ground.
Now clearly visible, Irene stared at the emblem of Yuris and slowly walked toward me. Just for a fleeting moment, I caught the smile she wore.
It was such a slight smile, a brief answer to the smile I’d shown while climbing the stage, but I smiled back all the same.
Clack.
I stepped up the stairs and climbed them slowly. Every gaze in the crowd was fixed on me alone. The mana I had drawn up, and the brilliant flames that blossomed from it, pulled everyone’s attention in.
But my own eyes were set on only one person. Thinking of Irene Yuris, I kept walking.
And when I reached the top of the stairs, I met a pair of blue eyes looking back at me.
They were like winter—always cold, sometimes so sharp they seemed to see straight through a person’s heart. And yet there was something warm hidden within them too. Those eyes curved beautifully when she smiled, and when she was sad, they twisted and spilled tears.
Sometimes winter brought snow and bone-deep cold, but in the end, wasn’t there a warmth that could only be felt in winter itself?
Looking into those winter-like eyes, I knelt.
Tap. The sword Irene held touched my shoulder.
The sword on my shoulder represented the responsibility I would have to bear from this day forward.
It touched my head.
The sword on my head represented everything I would need to keep in mind as I protected her from now on.
It touched my chest.
Because it meant the vows ahead, and a heart that would not break.
I straightened the knee I’d been kneeling on and rose before Irene. Once more I drew up my mana. The white flames blooming over my body wrapped around the area, soon flooding the stage in a sheet of white light.
“I swear it.”
That from this day forward, I was a knight of Yuris.
That Iron Blood flowed through me, and that I had become one of the shields protecting Evangelium.
But there was something even more important than that, and so I quietly—softly enough that only Irene could hear—whispered,
“That I will protect you forever.”
I swear it. The words fell away, and at the same instant fireworks burst overhead.
White petals, so out of place in winter, fluttered down like snow. I stared at them dazedly for a moment before turning my gaze back to Irene.
She looked white. Even after seeing the petals falling like snow, her white hair drew my eye first. Even with those petals decorating the world so brilliantly around her, Irene was still the first thing I saw.
...Becoming aware of it was far harder than I’d expected.
I realized that the feeling I held for the woman who had long ago entered my vision was no longer just pity. Compassion, pity, and affection. Could I keep hiding it forever? No—more than that, was it even a feeling that could continue at all?
But I had no intention of revealing it just yet. Not until this winter passed and spring came again. And not until that spring had passed many times over, until she had finally broken free of tragedy completely. Perhaps then, I might be able to tell her.
I clenched my empty hand, remembering the warmth from earlier, and smiled again. For now, this was enough. At the very least, I was satisfied simply to be here with her.
I wished the sparkle in those blue eyes would never scatter, and that the faint smile she wore would never fade. Then I looked up at the sky again.
Spring was coming.
And when it did, I would be at her side.
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