The Knight's Oath Ceremony: A Sudden Heat of Embarrassment
Veil tossed the half-unbuttoned armor aside and rested his massive, crude weapon—standing tall between his legs—heavily on the young lady's shoulder.
“Heh.”
Rebecca lifted the hood just a little and forced a refined, elegant smile onto her face.
“What a coincidence, Lord Veil, Lady Karin. I was just looking for some medicine and thought I’d get a bit of fresh air on the way. I only came out for a light remedy...”
Karin and I pretended not to notice her awkward act and answered honestly.
“Ah, we were shopping for Veronica’s birthday present when we saw a lost child and decided to help her.”
At my words, Rebecca’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh? For Veronica’s present? How thoughtful of you two. It must have been difficult to choose something she’d like.”
“Yes, so after Karin and I discussed it at length...”
I glanced at Karin with a proud grin and declared the idea we had settled on after an intense running competition.
“We decided to give her a sturdy, magnificent greatsword she can swing around from the very beginning! I thought of it first, but I thought it would mean more coming from my master, Lady Karin.”
The moment I finished speaking, Karin puffed out her chest with satisfaction and nodded.
We both expected her to praise us for coming up with such a perfect gift for Veronica’s heart.
Yet...
“...”
Rebecca listened to our plan with a troubled expression and scratched her cheek.
“Um... I’m really grateful for your hearts, but...”
“Huh? Does the young lady dislike swords?”
Karin asked in a panic.
Rebecca gave a bitter smile and shook her head.
“No, Veronica will probably love swords the most. But... you two must never give her a sword.”
“...What? Why?!”
Karin and I shouted in unison.
We had racked our brains so hard that we even did a running competition to decide on the perfect gift!
Rebecca sighed at our gloomy faces and said.
“The truth is... Her Majesty has already arranged a grand gift for Veronica’s tenth birthday. On her way back from the capital...”
“Hah...”
“Before the war, His Majesty ordered the artisans to adjust the sword’s weight and balance to fit her tiny body. It will be a magnificent ceremony befitting the next heir of the Grand Duchy.”
The capital sword...?
His Majesty is even going to personally customize it for her?!
We exchanged glances.
Our extra and lowly knight incomes paled in comparison to the Grand Duke’s extravagant display.
Even if we bought the most expensive sword at the market and gave it, we would look like nothing more than fruit-peeling knives next to the real one.
“Ah...”
“Ugh...”
Both of us common-born knights stood frozen in place and slumped our shoulders in defeat.
Seeing us with our spirits crushed, Rebecca burst out laughing and approached with a warm smile.
“Don’t look so disappointed. As your mother, I’ll secretly tell you what gift our Veronica will like far better than a sword.”
“Really?”
My eyes lit up.
Karin perked up her ears and leaned closer.
Rebecca spoke in the relaxed tone of a mother who truly knows her child.
“Veronica is still young and shy, so it takes her time to open her heart to someone. And this birthday is the first party you two have celebrated with her at the castle.”
She looked between us.
“So instead of a material gift... how about you two give her an eternal promise?”
“A promise...?”
Karin asked blankly.
“Yes. On the day of the birthday party, in front of many nobles and Her Majesty, you two will hold a special Knight’s Oath Ceremony for Veronica, the young lady.”
At Rebecca’s suggestion, both our hearts began to race.
A glowing symbol of the heart that makes a person trust the one holding the sword more than any jewel...
Veronica will never forget the two of you for the rest of her life.
The Oath of Loyalty.
The vow to become her sword forever.
It was the most romantic and beautiful form of gift in this romance fantasy world that revered chivalry.
“...”
Karin’s eyes sparkled intensely.
A common-born knight who had wandered far and wide, dreaming of a lord she could truly trust.
For Karin, a promise of loyalty to Veronica would create a second birthday.
“Your Grace... I am truly grateful.”
Karin bowed deeply and expressed her thanks.
I smiled brightly and nodded.
The footsteps of the three of us returning to the castle became lighter.
***
After a day wandering the market, our schedule was filled with one more thing.
Every night after all my duties, I entered Karin’s room.
“No, you have to bend your knee more! How many times do I have to tell you that the recipient of the sword must show maximum respect to their lord by lowering their gaze?!”
“No, Lady Karin! If I bend any lower my thigh will cramp up! My legs have been rolling around since dawn for a whole week—I can’t even feel them anymore!”
Sweating profusely, I dropped to one knee on the floor and complained bitterly.
In front of me stood Karin, spear in hand, arms crossed, correcting my posture with hawk-like eyes.
Hellish morning sword training that started at five in the morning.
Rebecca’s brain-cell-destroying calligraphy lessons that continued throughout the morning.
In the afternoon, training partner to the young lady and human punching bag.
Even without the late-night sessions, my life as a busybody was already too tight for a single day.
Yet the schedule never ended even at night.
After accepting Rebecca’s advice to hold the Knight’s Oath Ceremony on Veronica’s birthday, I had been summoned to Karin’s room every night to learn the formal etiquette and procedures of the ceremony.
Is there really no life more grueling than a high-school entrance exam?
I grumbled, but I couldn’t voice it.
She had begged me to teach her, so I had no grounds to complain now.
“Ah... I understand. Let’s try again.”
I rubbed my stiff thigh and tried to regain my posture.
Then, suddenly remembering the commotion from that morning, a strange laugh escaped me.
“...What? Why are you laughing during training, Lord Veil?”
Karin furrowed her brows at my slip.
I couldn’t hold back my laughter and waved my hand.
“Ah, sorry. I just remembered what happened this morning. Didn’t you see, Lady Karin?”
Five in the morning, same as usual.
I was covered in dust on the training ground getting beaten by Karin.
Loud commotion came from the direction of the castle entrance.
Veronica, clutching her bunny plush in her nightgown, ran out toward the training ground.
“Me too! I want to learn swordsmanship from Master too! I won’t go to bed until I do!”
“Ah, young lady! You can’t! You need to sleep a lot so you grow tall! Come back to your room quickly!”
The clumsy young lady who hadn’t fully woken and was throwing a tantrum, and the dignified Head Butler Shepherd who was sweating as he carried the princess princess-style all the way back upstairs to the fifth floor.
“I can never forget that expression on Shepherd’s face when he was carrying Veronica princess-style while sweating. How fiercely the young lady was struggling.”
I chuckled at the memory, and a faint smile spread across Karin’s frozen lips.
“Veronica especially wanted to see you more.”
Karin cleared her throat and shrugged proudly.
“Hey, that’s just your imagination.”
I grinned back and countered.
“You’re the one who’s overconfident. Veronica doesn’t want to lose to me. A few days ago she was praised for me hitting your shoulder, right? That’s why she’s been coming to morning training to feel left out.”
“Hmph. I don’t know where that baseless confidence of yours is coming from.”
We bantered back and forth without giving an inch and burst into laughter.
After that day when we both emptied our money purses competing to give coins to the lost child in the market...
Our relationship had become far less stiff and formal than before.
Instead of sharp, watchful glances, a relaxed atmosphere of easygoing comrades had settled in where we could tease each other freely.
“Anyway, that’s enough chatting. Let’s practice again...”
I tried to settle the mood and kneel once more.
Then, in the middle of our happy atmosphere, Karin’s smile suddenly vanished and she spoke in a heavy voice.
“...I’m sorry, Veil.”
“...Huh?”
At the sudden apology I froze, startled.
“What? Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? Are you trying to add some weird endurance training for tomorrow’s dawn session while pretending to apologize? I’m really going to run away.”
Karin glared at me with an aggrieved look.
“What do you think I am?! That’s not it.”
Karin lowered her spear and fidgeted, scratching her cheek as she continued.
“It’s not that... On the day we went to the market, I was planning to buy you a gift too, besides Veronica’s.”
“...A gift for me?”
I doubted my ears.
“I didn’t know your birthday, so I was going to buy something... But I heard recently that you can read from Rebecca. So I wanted to give you a little apology gift for following my rough training so quietly... and a going-out celebration gift...”
Karin sighed softly.
“That day, because I got caught up in the unnecessary competition for the child... I emptied my whole purse. In the end I couldn’t give you anything, so I’ve been feeling sorry for it all this time.”
For a moment the air in the room felt strangely electric.
I stared blankly at Karin.
Every morning the demon who beat me up was secretly worrying about what to give me as a gift, and she had been alone regretting it this whole time because she couldn’t buy it.
“Whoa...”
My face grew unbearably hot and I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.
“Between guys... I mean, knights... giving each other embarrassed gifts? Forget it. Where would commoners without money have the luxury to worry about that?”
“Guys...”
I waved it off with an indifferent gesture and knelt back down.
“Enough. Let’s finish practicing the Oath Ceremony.”
At my nonchalant reply, Karin let out a small laugh.
“Yeah, you’re right. Then let’s keep going. Get the posture right!”
Sharing the warmth of camaraderie, we returned to the proper Oath Ceremony posture.
“The most important thing in the Knight’s Oath Ceremony is the unwavering vow between lord and knight. The knight kneels and lowers his head to his lord. The lord accepts the knight’s loyalty by lifting the sword and resting it on the knight’s shoulder.”
Karin stood in front of me.
“I’ll take the lord’s role. Feel the weight and solemnity of the sword touching your shoulder.”
“Understood.”
I held my breath and lowered my head.
Karin slowly raised her spear and brought it down toward my right shoulder.
***
But...
Swish.
Just as Karin’s spear was about to touch Veil’s shoulder...
“Ah... my lord...”
The slender young lady, kneeling and panting, had the rough knight who had tossed aside his half-unbuttoned armor rest his crude, protruding weapon on her shoulder like a sword.
“......!!!”
The grotesque, gender-transcending, overly explicit description that had strangely swapped the roles of the man and woman.
I had just been reading that erotic novel hidden under the candlelight last night when the current scene where Karin was about to place the spear on my shoulder overlapped with the fallen knight’s oath scene in the story.
Clack!
“Hyaaaah!!”
Karin flung her spear away and leaped into the air like a person touched by fire.
“M-Master?!”
“T-Today’s practice is over!!”
Karin’s face flushed tomato-red in an instant.
She covered her burning cheeks with both hands, shook her head, and took hasty steps backward.
***
I stood up from the floor in confusion.
“Why did you suddenly do that? We were just about to start the real training!”
Normally, when I would collapse during training with my tongue out, she would grab my collar and pull me up without hesitation.
Now she was the one trying to avoid practice first?
A mischievous spark lit up inside me.
“Hey, when you pull out, you don’t pull out, but when you should, you do?! Let’s practice more! Master!”
I walked toward the retreating Karin with a grin.
“S-Stop! Don’t come any closer!!”
At my approach, Karin looked like she had seen a ghost and ran toward the bed.
“Am I some kind of monster? Placing a spear on the shoulder isn’t a big deal...”
As I grumbled and stepped closer, head lowered, I noticed Karin’s face up close.
Her neck was bright red, her forehead covered in cold sweat.
Her breathing was abnormally rapid and hot.
“Lady Karin, your face is extremely red. Your breathing is ragged too.”
At my concerned comment, Karin thought to herself.
Oh no, I got caught thinking something lewd!! I let my perverted imagination be exposed!!
But I hadn’t expected her to look genuinely ill.
Veronica was on the verge of tears and opened her mouth to deny.
“N-No! It’s just that the room is too hot...”
But before she could finish, I reached out without hesitation and pressed my palm to her forehead.
“Huh...”
The heat radiating from my palm was abnormally high.
“You really have a fever. This isn’t a joke.”
At my serious worry, Karin finally realized her condition.
“Ah...”
The dizziness from shaking her head earlier.
The feeling of her entire body burning like fire.
The moment she realized it was true high fever.
Plop.
“Ah—! Lady Karin!”
As Karin staggered with cold sweat pouring down, her body collapsed limply.