This Seals the Punishment Cell
At this rate, the punishment cell was a sure thing.
“Just who the hell are you?”
He had become a Holy Knight younger than anyone else in the history of the Order.
People called Chris “the Goddess’s blessing made flesh.”
If Daywin had never joined the Holy Knights, that title would have remained Chris’s until the day the world ended.
Barely fifteen years old. At fifteen he was already a full knight, and the world had always been far too easy for him.
So the holy power Daywin radiated felt to Chris like an answer key he simply could not accept.
Facing a true genius for the first time felt exactly like that.
“I never heard anything about another Holy Knight coming with us.”
Chris’s eyes went wide as he glared at Daywin.
Daywin wore the refined clothes of a noble. More importantly, the Order’s emblem was nowhere on his attire.
“Then that makes you a heretic.”
Raised in the Order since infancy, Chris believed holy power was order itself. That someone outside the Order could give off an aura this superior was an impossible anomaly.
Yet the presence rolling off the man before him was vast enough to be unpleasant—and at the same time sacred.
For a split second he almost mistook him for the Knight Commander himself.
“Identify yourself.”
As Chris drew up his holy power, the air around them sank under the pressure. An ordinary person would have struggled even to breathe.
Daywin stood there without so much as blinking.
Ah… right.
Daywin recalled something Chris had said in the previous life.
—When I was young… I was an idiot who didn’t know a thing.
—Everyone around me kept calling me a genius this and a prodigy that, so I thought I was somebody special. I pulled all kinds of reckless stunts.
—Though even then I was still mild compared to the Commander, of course.
Even that strict, serious Chris had a dark past.
The “when I was young” Chris spoke of was right now.
In other words, he was deep in that edgy teenage phase.
“If you refuse to answer, I will treat you as a heretic.”
Daywin let out a short, deflating laugh.
The same Chris who had once trailed after him like a puppy in the previous life was now blocking his path, throwing around accusations of heresy.
“How amusing.”
“Who I am is none of your concern. But tell me, young Holy Knight—isn’t standing in my way like this a clear act of rudeness?”
Chris’s face twisted.
“Whether it is rude or not is for me to decide. Identify yourself.”
“Well, if you’re that curious, I’ll give you two things. My name is Daywin Hasgard. I’m currently staying in the marquisate as a sponsor of the Academy.”
“Daywin?”
Just as Chris’s expression shifted into confusion—
—When I think of myself back then, I’m truly ashamed… Someone should have beaten some sense into me…
“And I have a feeling I’m exactly the person your insolent teenage self needs right now.”
Daywin took a step closer.
He leaked a hint of killing intent, just enough to put a little fear into the boy. Chris couldn’t even wait that long before his hand went back to his sword hilt.
He thrashed against the fear trying to swallow him whole.
And in the end—
Shiiing!
The hair-raising ring of steel filled the middle of the street.
Chris had finally broken a taboo.
A knight of the Order—away from home, no less—had drawn his sword on a civilian who was neither monster nor heretic.
Poor kid…
Punishment cell was locked in for certain…
A heavy sigh slipped out of Daywin on its own.
While he fretted over the boy’s future, Chris’s ash-gray eyes lit up with blue light.
Rumble—
The atmosphere around his body began to vibrate.
It was nothing like ordinary holy power. This was far sharper, colder, more aggressive.
Above Chris’s head, a blue halo bloomed so vivid it almost hurt to look at.
A color completely different from the golden holy power that was the symbol of Holy Knights.
It was the unique magic that proved why, even at his age, he had been called a genius.
Crackle!
Chris adjusted his grip on the sword, and a high-voltage crackle filled the street as if electricity itself were leaping free.
The blue halo.
It thrummed and flared with a piercing light, as though ultra-hot plasma had been compressed into a ring.
A cold radiance that stood in stark contrast to Daywin’s own golden light.
“Oh.”
A short note of admiration escaped him before he could stop it.
He had seen it plenty of times in the previous life, but he hadn’t realized it had already been this strong when Chris was this young.
A genius was a genius, no question.
If Laward had grown up in the Order the way Chris had, he might have gone even further…
Whoosh!
Chris swung. A crescent of blue sword aura tore free from the blade and rushed forward, gouging the ground as it flew.
He deliberately made the first strike miss.
And Daywin already knew Chris’s sword work never ended with a single move.
The moment the sword aura left the blade, the halo flared violently. Directly above Daywin’s head, the sky itself turned blue.
KRAKOOM—!
A blue beam as thick as a man’s torso slammed down vertically from the clear sky.
The sword aura and the falling ray of light crossed with perfect precision at Daywin’s feet.
A crossfire.
First the blade-sent sword aura, then one more from the heavens.
BOOM—!
The ground could not withstand the successive strikes. It exploded.
Blue sparks and dirt sprayed in every direction.
Two magical detonations. The air around the blast point burned, thick with the stench of scorched earth.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“W-what was that?!”
Passersby screamed and scattered in panic.
“Hmm.”
A threat not only to him but to a crowd of civilians…
This was no ordinary offense.
Was the boy planning to break the unprecedented six-month punishment-cell record Daywin himself had set in the Holy Knights?
The dizzying memory of those days rose in his mind as he lightly took hold of the sword at his waist.
“I haven’t even taken the price tag off yet…”
Clack.
He drew the blade still in its scabbard.
At the same moment.
The monastery near the Academy.
The place was in the middle of renovations. During the previous semester someone had smashed a perfectly good ceiling to pieces, so the priests and the villagers alike had rolled up their sleeves to help with the repairs.
Among them was a boy who quietly carried heavy marble materials on his shoulders without complaint.
Laward had carefully strapped on the sword Daywin had given him and was diligently helping with the labor.
As usual he was doing volunteer work that would never appear on any official record, when a face he had never seen before suddenly spoke to him.
“What a fine young man!”
A middle-aged stranger, covered head to toe in dirt and dust, hauling supplies like everyone else.
“The Goddess will be pleased!”
“Who the hell are you?”
Laward eyed the tall man warily.
Some guy who just walked up and started talking. He looked thick-headed, yet his manner was expansive and loud.
“You don’t even know me and you’re talking down—”
“L-Laward! Do you have any idea who this is…?! Mind your tongue!”
Strangely, the moment the words left Laward’s mouth, the priests from the chapel clamped their hands over it.
“Who is he, anyway? Just some laborer hauling—mph, mmmph.”
“W-we’re so sorry! This boy is a student at the Academy. He talks like that, but h-he’s a good person, truly!”
“He looks it. One glance and you can tell he’s working harder than anyone here. Hmm, and this isn’t exactly easy work, I can tell you!”
“Y-yes… Lord Blash… please be generous with him…”
“Of course! I heard the only monastery in these parts had collapsed, so I came to lend a hand. This isn’t an official visit, so don’t any of you brothers feel pressured!”
“Ahaha… r-right? Thank you so much for coming…”
“Student! What’s your name?”
Blash asked with characteristic impatience. Laward irritably shoved the priests’ hands away.
“None of your—”
Thud-thud-thud!
Laward’s continued rudeness. Once again the priests’ hands snapped to his mouth as if magnetized.
Then they dropped to their knees at once.
Laward was dragged down with them.
“C-Commander! Even when he acts like this, he really is a good person! Of all the children I’ve ever seen, Laward is the most upright!”
“Yes…! He has deep faith, never misses a service, and even now he’s training with the goal of becoming a Holy Knight… At the Academy he’s the top first-year…”
“I understand. I understand, so take your hands off. I need to have a word with this interesting student.”
Blash met Laward’s eyes and casually sat down on a long bench.
At the same time the priests, with anxious looks, carefully withdrew their hands from Laward’s mouth.
“Pwah…”
Free to speak again, Laward exhaled and shot Blash a sidelong glance.
“…Commander?”
“That’s right, Laward… This is Commander Blash of the Holy Knights… To not even recognize him, good grief…”
The moment the priest answered for him, Laward’s eyes went wide with shock.
The pinnacle of the Order of Knights.
A living legend every aspiring Holy Knight looked up to.
And that Blash was now sitting right in front of Laward, laughing heartily as he brushed dirt from his clothes.
He had tossed his armor aside and was hauling rocks in shabby clothes, so Laward had taken him for nothing more than a day laborer.
“The brothers say your goal is to become a Holy Knight. If that’s the case, it seems you still have some manners to learn.”
“I… I’m sorry…”
When Laward bowed his head, the priests immediately rushed to his defense.
There was a place called District 7 in the marquisate, they explained—worse even than the red-light District 6. He had grown up there, so there was still much to correct in him.
The priests who had watched over Laward for nearly a year did not want him to leave a bad impression on Blash.
A boy who had committed many sins, and precisely because of that, the Goddess had granted him a second chance at life.
That was what the priests believed.
If Laward grew up right, he could become hope for the children of District 6, District 7, and even those beyond the marquisate’s borders.
“Hahaha! Now that makes me curious. I’d like to visit once!”
“It’s… not exactly a place worth boasting about.”
“Hmm. Is that so.”
Blash looked at Laward with intrigued eyes.
“Then you must have it as well.”
That intrigued gaze held a touch of nostalgia too.
“The experience of praying with everything you have—from the lowest place all the way to the highest.”
Faced with that thoroughly serious look, Laward was overwhelmed and lowered his head.
“…I have.”
“I thought so. Well then, you have more than enough qualification to aim for the Holy Knights!”
Thump!
Blash lightly struck the bench and laughed with satisfaction.
Meanwhile Laward remembered why Daywin had given him such an expensive sword.
It had been for this exact moment.
The Holy Knights would come looking.
He needed to leave a good impression on the Knight Commander.
That was what the entire first semester and summer break had been for.
“Commander, I sincerely apologize for my rudeness just now. I’m truly sorry.”
“Hmm? Forget it. It was a refreshing experience. Leave the walls behind and new things start happening, just like this!”
“And Commander, I made a promise.”
“A promise?”
Laward reached back and lightly gripped the sword hanging across his back.
“On the day I was saved by the Goddess, I promised I would become a Holy Knight no matter what. There is a teacher who saved me. He is the one who taught me the Goddess’s will and the path I must walk.”
“Hmm, whoever he is, he sounds like a good man! Excellent, Laward. Keep striving!”
“Thank you. But I didn’t say that to receive encouragement. The truth is, I heard the Order would visit the Academy to look for talent. And I believe the person you’re looking for is me.”
Laward spoke with unwavering eyes.
“Ohh… What confidence. Laward, was it?”
“Yes. That’s right. Laward. Just Laward.”
Blash made certain of the name, then slowly nodded.
“I see. Laward… Laward…”
He repeated it several times, as if determined to memorize it.
“Laward, my name is Blash. Just Blash. But I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
Then, in an awkward voice, he said:
“The person we’re looking for isn’t you.”
“Yes, I… Excuse me…?”
Laward’s eyes flew wide open.
It wasn’t simple surprise. The thought that he might fail to keep his promise to Daywin sent a wave of anxiety through him.
He had even accepted an expensive sword just so he could face the Holy Knights. He could not let Blash slip away like this.
“You’re right that we came looking for talent. But it isn’t you, Laward.”
“Then who—”
“He isn’t even a student to begin with. We’ve been sending letters nonstop ever since the Subjugation Festival, but whether the address changed or something else, we never got a single reply. We only heard he was a sponsor of the Academy, so we came charging over here on that alone.”
Blash shifted his sitting position and folded his arms.
“We came looking for a man named Daywin Hasgard.”