A Knight's Dignity, Sacrificed for a Rabbit Plushie
It would be far more advantageous to be seen as a slightly ridiculous but kind person while living in this mansion than to be treated as someone to be wary of. I gazed at the sun setting outside the window and finally lay down on the fluffy bed I had longed for so much. A cloud-like softness that couldn't compare to the hard bunk beds at the Northern Wall enveloped my entire body. The moment the tension released, an overwhelming wave of fatigue hit me, and I fell into a deep sleep without any chance to resist.
How long had I slept? It was the first time since my days at the wall that I had a peaceful sleep without nightmares.
“......Mm.”
The room was bathed in the red glow of the sunset. It seemed dinner time was approaching. I stretched and was slowly trying to sit up when—
Knock knock.
A very small, cautious knock echoed through the room.
“Who is it?”
I answered in a voice still thick with sleep as I got down from the bed. I assumed it was a maid coming to call me for dinner. After all, only they would come all the way up to this vast fifth-floor private area.
But then—
“......S-Sir Bale.......”
A voice smaller than an ant’s whisper reached me. It sounded hesitant, unfamiliar with the name. And it wasn’t mature at all. It carried the high-pitched tone unique to a child, trembling with nervousness.
I froze, my hand tightening on the doorknob.
‘No way… Veronica?’
The timid little girl who had hidden behind her father Gareth the Grand Duke’s cloak, screamed at the sight of my scarred face, and fled. The villainess who hated showing even a single tear in front of others and would lock herself in her bedroom. That same Veronica had come alone to my bedroom door at this hour of the evening and knocked.
‘Who put her up to this?’
I suppressed the rising question and slowly turned the doorknob.
Creeeak.
As I carefully opened the door, a small, adorable crown of hair appeared in my lowered field of vision.
“.......”
I poked my head through the slightly open gap and looked down. Purple-tinged hair that resembled her mother’s. A small frame that hadn’t yet fully matured. A girl clutching a large, fluffy white rabbit plushie that was nearly the size of her upper body. Veronica von Arteta filled my view in a single glance.
The extremely shy young lady who had peeked at me from behind the Grand Duke’s cloak earlier and bolted away like lightning was now standing before my door with her head bowed low, as if some strange wind had blown her here.
I stood there holding the doorknob, staring blankly at the top of her head for a moment.
‘She really is tiny. Ten? Maybe eleven years old…’
The title of the greatest villainess in the original novel—who would trample the young ladies of high society and make even the imperial family tremble—didn’t match at all with the little girl in front of me, fidgeting with her toes while hiding behind her plushie. Instead, the fact that she had overcome her severe shyness to walk all the way to the fifth floor by herself was both surprising and strangely cute.
“M-My lady. What brings you to my room?”
I tried to lower my voice as much as possible and speak gently. I was being extra careful, afraid my rough, gravelly tone from cursing at the foreign tribes on the wall might slip out.
At my question, Veronica’s small shoulders flinched. Still keeping her head down, the girl tightly gripped the fluffy fur of the rabbit plushie she was holding. Like a knight heading into battle gripping his sword hilt to steel his resolve.
“W-Well…….”
Her tiny voice echoed down the hallway. Then, Veronica took a deep breath and suddenly lifted her head.
But—
“Hng-!”
The moment her large eyes looked up at me, a suppressed scream burst from the girl’s lips. I had tried my best to make a soft expression, but my face wasn’t exactly accommodating. My skin, roughened by a year of the Northern Wall’s biting cold winds. The large and small scars left by the foreign tribes’ weapons. And on top of that, a man whose build was too large to fit in Veronica’s vision was looking down at her from above. To a child, the composition itself must have looked like a monster.
The terrified Veronica instinctively covered her face with the rabbit plushie and stumbled backward.
“W-Wait!”
But she must have been too flustered—her feet tangled, and her body lurched dangerously. Just as the small figure was about to fall backward—
Swish!
My body reacted before my head could. The reflexes honed over a year on a battlefield where life and death hung in the balance proved useful at times like this. I reached out and caught the back of Veronica’s head with my large palm just in time.
Her head was so small it fit in one hand.
“Whew……”
Thankfully, I had prevented a catastrophe. I let out a sigh of relief and checked on Veronica’s condition. The girl’s hair wrapped in my large palm was incredibly soft. But before I could even register that softness, large tears began to well up in Veronica’s eyes, threatening to spill at any moment.
A monster-like man had suddenly lunged forward and grabbed her head. From a child’s perspective, it must have been terrifying enough to make her faint.
“Ah! I-I’m sorry, my lady! How dare I lay my hands on your precious person…! Are you hurt anywhere?”
I panicked and quickly pulled my hand away. Then I bowed my head in a fluster, pouring out apologies.
Veronica held back her tears and sniffled. She lightly touched the spot on her head I had touched, then half-hid her face behind the rabbit plushie and stared at me with wary eyes.
‘This is a disaster. The first button is completely messed up…’
I racked my brain for how to salvage this situation. At that moment, my flustered gaze happened to drift toward the far end of the hallway, near the corner.
“......Huh?”
It was only for a split second, but I definitely saw them. Two heads peeking out from behind the hallway corner wall, secretly watching us. One with black hair befitting the Northern Grand Duke from the romance fantasy novel. The other the same purple shade as Veronica’s. It was Grand Duke Gareth and his wife Rebecca.
The moment our eyes met, the couple flinched in surprise and quickly ducked their heads back behind the wall. They must have been in such a hurry that I even heard a dull thud as something hit the wall, followed by the Grand Duke’s suppressed groan.
‘Ah… I see how it is now.’
I barely managed to hold back a dumbfounded laugh. Since dinner time was approaching, it seemed the Grand Duke and his wife had sent Veronica on an errand to call me in hopes of making us get closer. And then they had been secretly watching from hiding to see if their shy daughter could overcome her fear.
‘Your intentions were good, Your Grace. But you greatly overestimated the state of my face.’
This terrifying face covered in the scars of war was clearly too much for a shy young lady. At this rate, Veronica was going to burst into tears and develop a trauma from our very first meeting that could never be overcome. I decided to take special measures.
Swish.
I slowly bent one knee and sat down on the floor so as not to startle Veronica. I lowered my tall frame as much as possible to meet her eye level. Then I raised my large, thick hands and covered the lower half of my face and cheeks. Completely hiding the most scarred parts of my chin and cheeks, I peeked out only my eyes and looked at Veronica.
“Is this… a little better now, my lady?”
My muffled voice leaked out between my fingers. I tried my best to smile with my eyes and speak in the gentlest tone possible. A large man crouching down and covering his own face was quite ridiculous, but dignity had to be sacrificed according to the situation.
My action caused Veronica’s sniffling to gradually subside. The girl, with only her eyes visible above the plushie, began to observe me intently. Whether it was because the scarred lower half of my face had disappeared, or because the ridiculous sight of the large man had broken down her wariness, the fear in her eyes slowly began to fade.
A moment later, Veronica slowly held out the large white rabbit plushie she was hugging. The faint scent of baby powder wafted from the plushie now right in front of my nose.
“This……”
“Yes?”
“Use this……”
Veronica’s small lips moved. When I stupidly asked again, not understanding what she meant by offering the plushie, she glanced at the back of my hand and added in a tiny voice,
“Sir Knight… your hands have a lot of scars too… and too many wrinkles… so even if you cover with your hands, it’s still scary. So use this to cover instead.”
“......Cough.”
I could accept that the scars were scary. But wrinkles?! Wrinkles?!
‘I’m still in my early twenties! Sure, a year at the wall aged my skin a bit, but wrinkles?!’
Was this the early sign of the villainess’s true nature? The pure, honest impression from a child who didn’t know how to lie hurt far more than being stabbed by the dagger that had wounded the Grand Duke. Because there was no malice behind it, the damage was doubled.
I trembled speechlessly for a moment before finally letting out a hollow laugh.
“Haha… Hahaha! Ah, yes. I’ve been through a lot, so my hands are quite rough. They must look very scary to you, my lady.”
Resigned, I lowered the hands covering my face and accepted the rabbit plushie Veronica offered. Then, as per her request, I completely covered my entire face with the plushie’s soft belly.
“Is this better?”
My voice came out muffled, buried in the plushie’s stuffing. Only then did Veronica let out a sigh of relief.
“Yes. Much better. Father… said dinner is ready and asked me to bring Sir Knight down. Let’s go quickly.”
Now that the scary uncle had been replaced by a white, cute rabbit plushie in her field of vision, Veronica finally got to the main point. That boldness of saying everything she needed to say and doing everything she needed to do—she really took after her bloodline.
“Thank you for delivering the message, my lady. Then I shall head down now.”
I started to stand up, politely trying to return the plushie. No matter how it was being used to cover my face, I couldn’t just walk off with the young lady’s cherished plushie.
But when I held it out, Veronica firmly shook her head and put her hands behind her back.
“No. I’m still scared. Keep covering your face with it until we sit down at the dinner table.”
“Pardon? But my lady, if I cover my whole face with this, I won’t be able to see where I’m going……”
My protest didn’t get to finish. Veronica silently approached, reached out her small white hand, and tightly grabbed one of my thick index fingers, leaving me speechless. My rough, callus-hardened finger and the soft, tiny hand of a child. The completely alien sensation made me freeze on the spot.
“I’ll guide you, so just follow me quietly.”
Without even looking up at me, Veronica began walking ahead while holding my finger. In a daze, I started walking down the hallway with one hand covering my face with the rabbit plushie and the other having my index finger held by the little lady.
‘What the hell kind of scene is this…’
A strong wave of self-awareness hit me. A man who had been cutting down foreign tribes at the wall was now walking with his face buried in a little girl’s plushie, being led by the hand. If anyone saw…
Tap tap tap tap!
Hurried footsteps could be heard. Just before we turned the corner of the fifth-floor hallway, I heard the extremely urgent footsteps of two adults coming from the staircase ahead. It sounded like they were frantically running down the stairs as if being chased.
‘…They’re running away.’
It was obvious without looking. The Grand Duke and his wife, who had been secretly watching their daughter’s errand, must have bolted for the dining hall first the moment we started moving, afraid their spying would be discovered.
‘They say couples grow alike, but these two really are an eccentric pair.’
To think the Northern Grand Duke and his wife were this sloppy. I clicked my tongue inwardly and barely held back the laughter leaking out from behind the rabbit plushie.
We passed through the fifth-floor private area, went down to the fourth floor, and continued descending. Every time we passed stairs or hallways, I could feel Veronica’s grip on my index finger tightening. The child seemed to feel a considerable sense of responsibility at the fact that she was leading an adult several times her size.
The problem started when we entered the public areas from the third floor onward. The mansion’s servants, who had been busily preparing for dinner, began to notice our strange procession one by one.
“Oh my, what is that……”
“It’s the young lady and Sir Bale.”
“But why is Sir Bale covering his face with a rabbit plushie…?”
The passing maids and attendants stopped in their tracks, glancing at us and beginning to whisper.
My face burned with embarrassment. Thankfully, the rabbit plushie was hiding my reddened face.
‘Ah, please… everyone stop staring and go back to what you were doing.’
I wanted to hurry my steps while crying inside, but I had to match Veronica’s short strides, so I couldn’t.
However, the servants’ whispers reaching my ears were a little different from what I had expected.
“Sir Bale looks incredibly scary on the outside, but he seems surprisingly gentle.”
“Right? Look at how our extremely shy young lady is holding his hand so tightly.”
“Did he cover his face with the plushie on purpose because he was worried the young lady would be scared? Oh my, how romantic. It’s like a knightly fairy tale.”
“To think such a warm heart was hidden beneath those scars… As expected of the hero who saved His Grace’s life.”
……Pardon?
Instead, they were arbitrarily packaging my ridiculous appearance as the warm and sweet sacrifice of a knight considerate of the young lady. They say rumors are scary, and in the blink of an eye, I had transformed into a kind and affectionate knight.
It was still embarrassing, but honestly, it didn’t feel bad. Rather, it was a relief. Being perceived as a slightly ridiculous but kind person would be far more advantageous for living in this mansion than becoming an object of wariness.
Amid the servants’ unexpected praise, I felt a strange mix of embarrassment and relief as I was led by Veronica’s hand and safely arrived at the splendid first-floor banquet hall.