The Spectator
In the clearing behind the docks, Finn’s wooden sword rose with a shaky wobble.
“Lower your stance. The tip of the sword at eye level.”
“L-like this?”
“Your arm is stiff. You do not hold the sword with your arm and brace it with your shoulder. Imagine gripping it with the soles of your feet.”
Two weeks had passed since the subjugation. With Dorte’s merchant guild opening a branch in Valk, Finn’s sword lessons had officially begun. Once every five days, at dawn, for one hour.
“Mister, why a wooden sword? I want to use a real blade.”
“You must swing the wooden sword a thousand times before you swing a real one once.”
“A thousand times?! Then how many for that whoosh thing?”
“…Don’t count that.”
The lesson fee had been decided by Finn himself: one bag of roasted chestnuts. Every five days he brought the warmest ones from the stall without fail.
Kael had refused twice before accepting. Each refusal made the boy’s face crumble in a way that felt strangely familiar.
“That’s all for today. Open your palms.”
Two blisters had formed on Finn’s hands. Kael took a small jar of ointment from his pocket and applied it. It was the same salve Commander Oswald had used on him during his apprentice days.
Teaching was an odd thing. It meant passing on not only what you had learned, but also what you had received.
“Mister. When I grow up, can I become a swordsman like you?”
“No.”
“…That’s mean.”
“Do not become like me. Become a swordsman like yourself.”
Finn wore the expression of someone who did not fully understand, yet liked the words anyway.
The road back to the headquarters had changed in those two weeks. A line of enlistment applicants now stretched in front of the tavern. It had appeared every day since the Fang Village incident.
A subjugation with zero casualties, a direct contract with the lord, and rumors of the Grey Swordsman. In just two weeks the Grey Fangs had become the most difficult mercenary company to join in the entire south.
“Hey, 1st Squad Leader! Give the new recruits a test, will you!”
“Testing is the commander’s responsibility.”
“He pushed it onto you. Says swinging an axe is too much trouble!”
Passing members chuckled among themselves. Kael swallowed what might have been a sigh and scanned the line. Every applicant straightened at once. The Grey Swordsman is watching—that single rumor had been enough to correct their posture. Another scene born in these two weeks.
On his way out of the clearing Kael counted the stares.
One. The man behind the fish stall. He had spoken with the owner for two weeks straight yet bought nothing.
Two. The second-floor window of the inn across the street. The curtain was always parted by exactly two fingers’ width.
Three. A new addition today. A tile repairman on the roof across the clearing. Yet the sound of tools had never once been heard.
Resident observers from the Imperial Intelligence Department. They had appeared one by one over the past two weeks. Now there were three. No tailing. No contact. Only observation. Only recording.
Kael pretended not to notice. The moment he acknowledged them, their hand would change. It was better to let them watch and show only what he chose to reveal.
An Aura User level mercenary squad leader. Nothing beyond that had ever been displayed, neither in the clearing nor on any request.
The problem was that they dug through paper, not steel. Apprentice records, remittance histories, ten years past. Paper could not be disguised.
“Oi! Squad Leader! Request just came in!”
Hugo waved from the end of the alley and came running. Then he pointed at Kael’s chest.
“…You’re still carrying that thing.”
“What thing.”
“That letter. In your pocket. I saw it when I was gathering the laundry. It’s been in the exact same spot for two weeks. You don’t throw it away, you don’t write a reply, you just keep it against your chest. What is that?”
“It is being kept.”
“Keeping is what drawers are for. Carrying it in your pocket isn’t keeping, it’s—”
“Important documents are carried on the person. It is bundled with the approved copy of my resignation. A document with legal force.”
“Legal force…”
Hugo looked at the sky, looked at Kael, and gave up.
“Fine. Legal force. You live like that forever.”
Kael offered no reply.
“…So. What is the request?”
“Oh, right! Three-day round-trip escort. The pay is crazy. Two gold coins just as advance!”
“The client?”
“That’s the funny part. Says they’re a merchant, but doesn’t look like one. Commander told me to send you personally.”
The client sat in a corner of the headquarters tavern. A hooded travel cloak—the most common attire in Valk. Yet Kael read the true value of that ordinary outfit in three steps. The coat buttons were southern pearl shells. The boot heels showed no wear. A single lock of hair slipping from beneath the hood was pure gold.
And there was no escort.
Only two kinds of people dressed like that would sit alone in a back-alley dockside tavern: the insane, or those who required no protection.
“So you’re the Grey Swordsman?”
A woman’s voice emerged from under the hood, carrying laughter.
“The rumors are everywhere. Felled a troll with one stroke, folded an axe-wielding ghost in a single exchange, saved forty-three people without killing a single one. How much is true?”
“I was told this is an escort request.”
“Oh my. Business before answers. There’s one more rumor added. What an uninteresting man.”
The woman rested her chin on her hand beneath the hood.
“The request is genuine. One person to the hot-spring resort at the end of the eastern road. Three days round trip. They say grey-eyed wolves or something have appeared on the mountain paths lately. So I need a skilled escort.”
“I did not catch the client’s full name.”
“Sera.”
“Sera what?”
“Just Sera. People in Valk don’t use surnames, do they? They say you’re not Kael-something but simply Kael.”
The tail of her words curved like a fishhook. Kael did not bite. He returned to business.
“Escort regulations. First, we will not deviate from the designated route. Second, you will follow my instructions immediately. Third—”
“Third, the client does not lie to the escort?”
“…There is no such rule, but I will add it.”
The woman laughed aloud beneath her hood.
Departure was set for dawn the following day. The party consisted of Kael and Hugo. From the driver’s seat Hugo spent the entire journey whispering his analysis of the client.
“Hey, that woman is definitely nobility. And not just any nobility. Did you see her hands? Not a single blister. But why would a noble travel to a hot spring with only two escorts? It’s strange. Unless… Wait, she’s not here for you, is she?”
“Why would she come for me?”
“Your name’s been racing down every road lately. The Grey Swordsman. A monster no one knows the origin of. Who knows—maybe some young lady has fallen for—”
“Hugo.”
“What?”
“Watch the carriage. The wheel is riding a stone.”
On the first night, during camp, the client came out and sat before the campfire of her own accord. A noble willingly approaching a camping fire was already outside the norm.
“Escort. I have a question.”
“I am on watch.”
“Answer while you watch. You’re from the north, aren’t you? What is the north like? This is my first time outside the capital.”
“It is cold.”
“That’s all?”
“There is much snow.”
“Wow. A poet.”
The woman giggled, then poked the embers with a stick and added, almost to herself, “If you live your whole life in a cold, snowy place… do you end up like you?”
“…What do you mean?”
“You seem like a person who never melts. Half of that is a compliment.”
Beside them Hugo tried to jump in with an enchanted expression, but Kael’s glance sent him straight back to the driver’s seat.
Later Hugo summarized the night in his own way: She’s no ordinary woman. She’s scary. But strangely… she’s different from someone. Kael did not ask who that someone was. The answer would only lengthen the night.
The escort proceeded smoothly. The next day two grey-eyed wolves appeared. Kael dispatched them without even stopping the carriage. The client watched the entire scene from the window. No screams. No commotion.
Merely watching. Her eyes matched the word exactly.
They reached the hot-spring resort at sunset. The client did not enter the baths. Instead she ordered tea at the open-air pavilion and summoned Kael.
“Escort. Drink some tea.”
“I am on duty.”
“If an escort on duty does not sit across from the client, an assassin would naturally target the client from that very seat first, wouldn’t they?”
The logic was strangely convincing, so Kael sat.
Only then did the woman remove her hood. Golden hair spilled forth. A shade of gold that had never been weathered beneath harsh sunlight. Her eyes were purple, and those purple eyes appraised Kael from head to toe as though evaluating an object.
In the empire there was only one bloodline that possessed purple eyes.
“Now you recognize me?”
“…Your Highness the Princess.”
Seraphina. The second princess. Two older brothers and one older sister above her. The farthest from the throne, therefore the freest.
Kael rose to offer proper courtesy. Seraphina stopped him with a single finger.
“Sit. The moment you observe etiquette this amusing request becomes official duty. And official duty is what I hate most in the world.”
“…You have violated the third escort rule.”
“I didn’t lie. I am Sera. I simply omitted the phina.”
“Ah, before that, let us confirm one interesting rumor. The northern grand duke’s daughter broke her engagement? Then, after claiming she was recuperating, she traveled to the south? And the former exclusive escort of that grand duke’s daughter threw away his resignation letter and came south?”
The princess’s purple eyes slowly traveled across Kael’s face.
“Oh my.”
“…What is it?”
“Your eyebrow moved just now. It didn’t move even when we spoke of the troll.”
“…”
Kael gave no answer. The princess did not press further. She simply smiled as though filing that single millimeter of movement away for later.
She took a sip of tea, then brought up the main subject. The playfulness remained, yet her eyes had become those of a merchant.
“I’ll speak plainly. I came after hearing the story of Fang Village. I even obtained a drawing of the troll’s severed neck and examined it. That was not the cut of an Aura User’s blade. And the two wolves yesterday—I saw everything from the carriage. Not only did I not see you draw your sword; no one did.”
“…”
“You are free to hide. There must be reasons. But do you understand you are in danger? My brother has attached three resident observers to you. Did you know?”
“If you mean the fish-stall customer who never buys fish, the parted curtain, and the silent tile worker.”
Seraphina’s eyes widened for the first time. Then she threw her head back and laughed heartily.
“You counted them all! Good. I like you.”
The princess set down her teacup and extended her hand.
“Kael. Become my knight.”
“…”
“Direct escort knight to the princess. A commoner? Irrelevant. I can appoint you with my own authority. The salary will be five times that of the grand duke’s household. And most important of all—even my brother the crown prince cannot recklessly touch anyone belonging to a princess. What you need right now is not a sword, but a shield, is it not?”
The offered hand was a hand of transaction. Curiosity filled the purple eyes, yet beyond that lay nothing else. The eyes of a collector regarding a new display piece.
Kael read it clearly. Such eyes could be read. And what could be read was never difficult to handle.
“Does Your Highness collect swords?”
“Swords? No. I collect interesting things. The imperial palace is a horribly dull place, so I must import amusement from outside. You are this year’s most interesting candidate for import.”
“Does the imported article also possess the right of refusal?”
“It does. That is what makes it more interesting. Taking by force is slavery, not collecting, wouldn’t you agree?”
The words were light, yet their weight was anything but. The crown prince’s sister. A danger of a different kind than her brother. Where the elder tightened with documents, the younger pried open with curiosity.
“The answer?”
The princess smiled and wiggled her fingers.
“Take your time. After all, this is my first rejection. That alone should be quite entertaining.”