The Weight of a King's Sword
Jeanne’s party cut through the forest near the capital on their way down to the southern provinces.
The immediate goal was to kill Herace, who was marching up with reinforcements, but that was not all.
They planned to reach La Rochelle—the region that had suffered the least from the enemy—and secure supplies of provisions. After that, they would travel across the kingdom, gathering surviving soldiers and militiamen wherever they could.
The enemy had set up camp nearby, so there was risk involved, but detouring around the forest would take far too long.
As far as Jeanne remembered, the Rotinzel reinforcements had already arrived, and Herace had decided to advance on the capital. They had to hurry.
“Yahoo!”
The moment they entered the forest, Heini’s movements grew light and nimble.
Jeanne’s group numbered nine in total. In addition to the five knights she had called upon, Fabian, Divine, and Heini had joined them.
It was only natural for Fabian to stay at Jeanne’s side as her guard knight, but some of the knights were unhappy about Heini and Divine tagging along. Nael and Ines in particular.
Yet once they stepped into the woods, everyone acknowledged how useful Heini was. She was truly the best guide one could ask for in a forest. Moreover, as a hunter, she was far better than any knight at procuring food.
Whenever they had a spare moment during the march, Heini trained with Fabian. Ethan and Ines often watched the lessons with great interest.
Heini’s swordsmanship improved at a startling pace. It had not been long since she first picked up a blade, yet she already seemed close to the level of a low-ranking knight.
Fabian appeared to enjoy teaching her; he spent more time by Heini’s side than he did beside Jeanne.
The sky began to darken. Though sunset was still some time away, the dense forest brought nightfall much sooner.
“We’ll camp here for the night.”
When they reached a suitable clearing, Jeanne called the party to a halt.
Even before she gave the order, the knights began preparing the campsite on their own. Left with nothing to do, Heini turned to Jeanne.
“Then I’ll go scout around.”
“While you’re at it, could you also check the Great King’s tomb?”
“Mm, got it. I know where it is.”
Pinpointing an exact location in the forest was difficult, but Heini was more than capable. The tomb was only a few hours’ distance away.
With a cheerful leap, Heini vanished between the trees.
“This reminds me of knight training days,” Ines said as she helped build the campfire.
Dane, who had just dropped an armful of dry branches nearby, chuckled in response.
“Hahaha, right? Back then we were so bad at starting fires that we’d shiver through the night.”
Knight training usually involved grouping three squires together, giving them a forest map and a bit of food, then sending them off to complete simple missions.
The tasks varied—hunting dangerous beasts that threatened the people, retrieving treasures hidden by the training hall, or reaching a specific destination. Through these ordeals, knights developed adaptability, the ability to handle various situations, and the skill to survive in extreme environments.
Dane and Ines had been on the same team back then. Though there were three members, the third was a noble’s son who only wanted a plausible title. In reality, the two of them had carried a useless burden and completed the missions alone. Those memories came flooding back vividly.
The rest—Chastan, Nael, Ethan, Divine, and the others—settled around the campfire.
“Eek!”
Chastan, who had been staring blankly at the rising flames, yelped when a spark flew toward him.
Nael shook his head at the sight.
“Good grief. I just don’t get it.”
How could such a timid, innocent boy turn into a savage beast the moment battle began? It was utterly incomprehensible.
As soon as she sat down, Jeanne drew Joyeuse from its sheath.
She was famous in the palace as a sword enthusiast.
Not only did she collect renowned blades, but her care for them surpassed that of most blacksmiths.
Her sword, Joyeuse, was a masterpiece that required no special maintenance. It had clashed several times with Nicholas’s aura-infused blade without a single chip. Yet Jeanne still polished and tended to it as a form of mental discipline.
Ethan quietly moved to sit beside her.
“It really is an incredible sword, no matter how many times I see it.”
Jeanne looked up.
She and Ethan shared a common passion for fine blades. She offered the sword to him.
“Would you like to examine it?”
“How could I possibly dare…”
“It’s fine. It’s not as if you’ll run off with it.”
Even with her permission, Ethan hesitated to take Joyeuse.
Part of it was because the Great King’s sword was too precious, but more than that, he understood the profound weight of a knight entrusting his blade to another.
“I said it’s all right.”
Jeanne smiled gently and offered it again.
The current Ethan probably didn’t realize it yet.
The members of the 2nd Knight Order were still in the process of getting to know their new commander. It was natural for there to be some distance between them.
But to Jeanne, they were comrades who had shared life and death on the battlefield. Especially Ethan—he had served her with absolute loyalty. Among all the knights, he was one of the most trustworthy.
Someone she could entrust her back to in the most critical moments.
“Then… if you insist.”
Ethan swallowed hard and carefully grasped Joyeuse’s hilt.
The grip fit perfectly in his hand, on an entirely different level from ordinary swords.
Its weight was neither too light nor too heavy, and the balance was flawless.
It wasn’t a blade that unleashed powerful magic, but in terms of pure functionality as a sword, it was the finest.
Ethan inspected every inch of the weapon and gave it a few light swings. He could not stop marveling at its superb performance.
“It truly is a magnificent sword. It suits you perfectly, Commander.”
Ethan returned the blade with those words.
Though he coveted it greatly, he knew how to restrain himself. Besides, desiring one’s superior’s weapon was simply unthinkable.
“Thank you for saying it suits me. I’m still not sure whether I’m worthy of this sword, but I am trying to become someone who won’t feel ashamed before the Great King’s blade.”
“You will surely become that person.”
Ethan sincerely wished that Jeanne—the one he was meant to serve—would grow into exactly that kind of leader.
By the time night had fully fallen and the moon climbed to its highest point, Heini returned from her scouting mission.
She plucked leaves from her hair and plopped down right in front of the campfire.
“First of all, there are no enemy troops in the area. Honestly, why would they bother coming into the forest?”
“What about the Great King’s tomb?”
“The outer buildings had already collapsed. There weren’t any soldiers guarding it either.”
“That means they’ve already finished looting it.”
Jeanne let out a low groan and frowned.
Just as she had feared, what she had seen before was the tomb’s final, untouched state. It was fortunate she had managed to retrieve Joyeuse, but at the same time, guilt over failing to protect the Great King’s resting place washed over her.
The knights expressed their anger in various ways after hearing Heini’s report. But the one who grew most furious was someone else entirely.
“What? Are you kidding me?”
All eyes turned to Divine, who was shouting in agitation. Ignoring them, he stomped his feet and raged on.
“Do you have any idea of the historical, cultural, and artistic value of that tomb? And they treat it like this? Aaaargh, you barbarians!”
Their goal had been spoils of war, so they had probably only taken the most valuable treasures among the countless burial goods. If they had at least salvaged any artworks, that might have been something.
But the academic materials and artifacts that could have revealed the daily life of that era were now forever buried within the collapsed tomb.
“Can we… excavate it? We can, right? We have to. But if it collapsed that badly, the murals must be completely destroyed! Argh, those bastards—!”
Nael burst into laughter watching Divine, who had no strength of his own, flailing about as if ready to punch someone. Yet Divine’s fury was utterly sincere.
“This is the first time I’ve seen Divine get this worked up.”
“Same here.”
Fabian and Jeanne exchanged glances, sharing a moment of mutual understanding.
And so the night grew deeper.
“Ughhhhhh. I am so sick of riding horses!”
Heini dismounted with a face that looked ready to vomit. She was good at almost any physical task, but horseback riding was clearly not one of them.
“You’ll get used to it if you keep riding,” Fabian said, offering what he clearly thought was comfort.
“I have to keep doing this? No way, I hate it.”
Heini only looked more horrified.
It was perfectly normal for someone who had never ridden before to react this way after days of nonstop riding.
They moved swiftly, rarely stopping in towns except for the occasional change of exhausted horses.
“By the way, this village…”
Ines murmured as she dismounted.
It was a small village not even marked on the map along their route to the destination. They could have simply passed by, but the reason they stopped was what lay in front of the village.
Dane pinched his nose.
“The Rotinzel army must have come through.”
A massive pile of rotting corpses was stacked before the village entrance. They had been left so long that maggots writhed across the bodies and a horrific stench filled the air.
“Ugh.”
Chastan squeezed his eyes shut, looking as if something was about to come up. Ines and Nael beside him showed open disbelief.
“I wonder if he even remembers the scenes of carnage he himself created.”
“Exactly. The people he killed looked far worse than this.”
Nael shook his head. When mercilessly slaughtering enemies, Chastan was a monster—yet here he was, unable to stomach the sight of already-dead bodies. It was truly strange.
A young man missing one leg hobbled forward on a crutch to face the knights.
“What brings you here?”
The young man did not seem particularly welcoming toward Jeanne and her knights. People who had suffered terrible acts at the hands of soldiers often feared armed forces themselves. Even if they were allies, it was common for such people to feel fear and keep their distance.
All the healthy adults had been taken away. Only the elderly, children, and injured remained in the village.
Too weak to even properly bury the dead, they had been forced to leave the bodies like this.
“We should help them, right? Commander.”
Heini, who wasn’t even a knight, called Jeanne “Commander.”
The actual knights rarely listened to her, yet Heini used the title without hesitation. Jeanne let out a small sigh.
She understood exactly what Heini was feeling. The girl was probably overlapping this village with the one she herself had once lived in.
“All right. It’s summer—if we leave the corpses like this, disease will spread. Let’s bury them before we move on.”
The midsummer heat was accelerating decay. If left alone, even the surviving villagers would all die from plague.
Divine reminded Jeanne of their original schedule.
“The deadline Your Highness mentioned is very tight.”
“But if we don’t help them, who will help us?”
“As I said before, sometimes to achieve great things, we must let go of small ones.”
By now, the young man from earlier had been joined by other villagers who had come out one by one. They stole glances at the knights.
Their eyes held fear, but also a desperate hope for help.
“If we had never stopped here, that would be one thing. But now that we’ve seen this, how can we pretend not to notice and just walk away? The people’s trust in us would hit rock bottom.”
Jeanne could not turn away from those eyes.
“After all, the reason we fight the enemy is for the sake of the people.”
If they left now, it would weigh on her mind. After a moment of hesitation, Divine finally yielded to her decision.
“Understood. We’ll handle this quickly and then depart.”
If she truly wished to become king one day, moments like this would become the foundation of her strength.
Jeanne gave a firm nod.