The Worst of the Worst
The news had already begun to spread through the kingdom like wildfire. If you grabbed one of the passing royal guards and asked, “What kind of place is the Raven Knight Order?” they would all answer in perfect unison.
“It’s the dumping ground where the biggest idiots from the Third Legion are sent to rot.”
A knight gets drunk, causes a scene, gets kicked out—and ends up transferred here. The order with the highest number of personnel on standby, the one saddled with such dishonorable nicknames as “Miracle of Infinite Inertia.” That was the Raven Knight Order.
It had been two years since Maxim Apparte was appointed as the new Vice Commander of that very order. Everyone who mattered already knew the gossip: the previous Vice Commander had gotten wasted, picked a fight, and landed himself in prison.
Maxim Apparte.
In truth, he had never been anything special from the start. He had no renowned master, no powerful family backing him. The Apparte barony had never been a martial house to begin with, so there was nothing they could offer him. It would have been nice if they had at least tossed him one of those treasured heirloom swords that noble families usually kept, but the Apparte barony didn’t even have that.
“What a filthy world.”
That was Maxim’s favorite phrase. Technically, his family belonged to a prestigious bloodline, even if only a distant branch. They couldn’t help him, but he had hoped they wouldn’t drag him down either. Unfortunately, a mutant who leaned toward scholarly pursuits was never warmly welcomed among the scions of great martial houses. That fact played a major role in Maxim’s eventual demotion to the Raven Knight Order.
“I should’ve just listened to Father and gone into law. Or sucked up to some court noble.”
Until he came of age, he had only attended a single social gathering. The memory of that forced event was anything but pleasant. After that day, Maxim threw himself even harder into sword training. His efforts were rewarded with admission to the academy, but life after graduation was far from smooth.
The world was not kind.
Maxim became a small sailboat tossed into a winter sea, battered mercilessly by the waves. And that thoroughly wrecked little boat eventually drifted into a forsaken harbor called the Raven Knight Order, where it seemed the story would finally come to an end.
“Vice Commander.”
The weather’s nice today. Where should I eat lunch?
“Vice Commander.”
Should I go to the usual place again… or try somewhere new for once?
“Maxim Apparte, Vice Commander.”
“I’m listening.”
Maxim rolled his languid eyes. As expected, the person stubbornly calling his name was Christine. Among the thirty members of the Raven Knight Order, she was the only one who would search for him with such persistence.
“Have you heard anything about the new Commander who’s arriving?”
“No. Strangely enough, the current Commander hasn’t said a word. Then again, I guess that’s not surprising. He’s never done any real work in his life.” Damn old bastard. Now that he’s retiring, he’s dumping everything on me.
“…I suppose that’s true.”
“Ugh! Fuck!”
Maxim’s tightly clenched fist trembled in the air. His hand eventually dropped limply onto the desk that had narrowly escaped destruction.
“Still, he’ll probably hand things over today. He only has a month left, so at the very least it should happen within the week…”
Maxim spoke in a hollow voice, having barely calmed himself. There wasn’t a single ounce of expectation in his tone. Christine watched his ever-changing expressions with the amusement of someone watching a house fire from across the river and burst into laughter.
“Christine, you’re being loud.”
“Yes, sorry.”
Even in a place full of nothing but idiots, there were always a few relatively sane people. Christine was one of them. Though his words came out curt, Maxim always felt grateful toward her.
“Anyway, it looks like this place will finally get cleaned up soon.”
“Cleaned up?”
“The only reason the Raven Knight Order has been able to survive this long is because of its accomplishments back in the Empire days. But the newly crowned king seems intent on sweeping away the relics of the old era one by one.”
Idiots aren’t born idiots. The Raven Knight Order was actually one of the oldest knight orders on the continent. Before the Empire split into three kingdoms, it had been the Empire’s sharpest blade. Once the Empire fractured, the fate of the order was obvious. It became an empty shell, a hollow tin can.
“…Do you really think this order will disappear?”
Christine rubbed her arms as she looked around the office. It was an old, worn-out room. The poorly maintained space carried the stale smell of ancient dust. They cleaned it regularly, yet the musty odor unique to this place refused to leave.
“Honestly, the fact that it’s lasted this long is the real miracle.”
“That means we’ll be cleaned up too, Vice Commander.”
Maxim shrugged.
“Useful ones like you will probably get picked up by someone. As for the ones who are useless whether they’re here or not, they’ll likely be forced into retirement, just like you said.”
Maxim gathered the processed documents and stacked them neatly. All of it was work the Commander should have been doing. He glared at the pile of papers with eyes full of resentment and irritation before standing up.
“Let’s go eat lunch. Thanks for helping me double-check the ledgers.”
“It was nothing. I got to skip training, so I should be thanking you.”
Christine replied playfully. A breath that could have been either a yawn or a sigh escaped Maxim’s lips.
“Whoever the new Commander ends up being, I feel sorry for them already.”
“Maybe they’ll be in the same boat as the current Commander?”
“If that happens, I’m quitting knighthood and going back home. I’m dead serious.”
Maxim shook his head violently. His light brown hair, parted roughly down the middle, flopped back and forth with the motion. His expression screamed pure exhaustion. By now, there was almost no trace of romance left in this poor young man when it came to knighthood or martial arts.
“Should I quit with you, then?”
“You can’t quit even if you wanted to, can you?”
Christine was a mage. Maxim had no idea why a mage of her caliber had been sent to the Raven Knight Order. Had she earned someone’s hatred?
“It’s because if you leave, Vice Commander, I’m the only one they’d stick in that seat.”
“That’s true.”
Maxim chuckled and acknowledged the point.
“Still, I’d like to work under a normal Commander at least once.”
“You shouldn’t get your hopes up. You’ll only be disappointed again.”
At that moment, Maxim could still laugh. Carrying a mix of pity and anxiety toward the incoming Commander, he and Christine left the office. Completely unaware of the storm the new Commander would bring with her.
Sluggish. Sluggish.
Those two words perfectly described the scene at the Raven Knight Order’s training grounds. Knights gripping swords, spears, and shields swung their limbs with vacant, soulless expressions. Any energy they might have had for swinging those weapons had clearly been drained the night before in taverns and brothels.
If a knight from another order had seen this, they would have flown into a rage or at least sneered in open contempt. But to Maxim, their Vice Commander, this was simply part of everyday life.
It wasn’t as if Maxim had always turned a blind eye. Two years of time—and the fact that the knights’ attitudes had not changed one bit during that time—had simply worn him down until he grew numb.
“Vice Commander.”
A voice completely lacking in spirit came from behind him. It belonged to a regular knight who looked thoroughly annoyed at having to speak.
“What is it?”
“The Commander is looking for you.”
Having delivered the message, the knight shuffled off toward his equally sluggish comrades. Maxim suppressed the urge to smack the back of the man’s head.
Why the hell is the Commander calling for me now?
Shouldn’t he be the one supervising the knights’ training over there? A vein throbbed visibly on Maxim’s temple. The regular knights’ laziness didn’t directly harm him, but the Commander’s laziness translated into a serious increase in his workload.
Getting angry will only hurt me in the end.
Maxim calmed himself. If the next Commander was going to be the same kind of person, he could just throw in his resignation. He only had to endure one more week. Just one week.
With calmer steps, Maxim arrived at the Commander’s office. He could sense the Commander’s presence beyond the door—the feeble aura of an old knight who had lost all his former prowess, and whose lost prowess had never been impressive to begin with.
Knock. Knock.
Maxim slowly rapped on the office door. The response came as slowly as an old man waking from sleep.
“Come in.”
When he opened the door, the Commander looked at him with bleary eyes. He really did look like he had just woken up. Maxim dragged a nearby chair over without ceremony and sat down. He didn’t miss the way the Commander’s eyebrows twitched for a brief moment.
Pathetic.
He didn’t yet have the courage to say those words out loud. Maxim sank deep into the chair and faced the Commander. As if admitting defeat, the old man spoke first.
“As you know, I’ll be retiring soon.”
“Yes.”
Maxim answered indifferently. Beneath his tone lay a clear layer of apathy.
“My successor as the next Commander has been decided.”
You’re only telling me now? How generous. Maxim swallowed the words that rose in his throat. If he said them, there was no telling what kind of petty revenge the old man might take.
“When will they arrive?”
“Today. Before evening, I believe.”
“Haha.”
He had held it in twice, but the third piece of information finally forced a hollow laugh out of him. Whether Maxim laughed or not, the Commander continued.
“I’ll leave the handover to you. You’ve prepared everything, right? I trust that you have, since it’s you.”
Should I just smash this damn old bastard’s face in?
Maxim seriously began to consider it. The man had zero interest in whether the handover was prepared or who the next Commander was. Even if nothing had been prepared, it wasn’t as if the Commander would care. His head was probably already filled with thoughts of the fishing trips he would take after retirement.
“Here. This is the personal information on the new Commander. Take a look.”
Maxim accepted the paper the Commander carelessly handed over. Of course, he had no intention of reading it. There was no reason to read something he didn’t think was worth reading.
“The new Commander this time is a young woman. Quite unusual.”
But the Commander’s unnecessary final remark ended up piquing Maxim’s curiosity. He flipped the paper over and began to read. He wondered if this might be a sign of the order’s reorganization. If the person had a decent record and was promising, it could mean reform. If not, it was just another demotion.
And from the very first line of the personal information, Maxim froze solid.
“What, does hearing it’s a young woman suddenly make you interested?”
No matter what the old man sneered, none of it reached Maxim’s ears. His eyes remained nailed to the paper, refusing to move.
“…Commander. Is the person coming really this person?”
At Maxim’s stiffened voice, the Commander frowned and asked back.
“Are you saying I gave you the wrong document?”
“Is the name of the person arriving really Theodora Benning?”
The Commander found Maxim’s unusual reaction strange for a moment, but soon dismissed his suspicion and answered.
“Correct. Theodora Benning.”
Maxim shot up from his seat. The Commander spoke to Maxim’s turned back as if tossing the matter aside.
“Prepare well. You heard that she’s coming today, right?”
Maxim didn’t answer. He simply opened the door and left the office. The Commander stared blankly at the closed door for a while before leaning back in his chair and drifting off to sleep again.
Meanwhile, Maxim’s mind had gone completely blank—transparent, even. He stormed into the Vice Commander’s office like a gale and sat down at his desk. Then he stared endlessly at the slightly crumpled paper the Commander had given him, repeatedly confirming whether he was truly reading it correctly.
Theodora Benning.
Yes. No, maybe he had misread it. It could be Theodor instead of Theodora. Maybe it was Benix instead of Benning.
Theodora Benning.
But no matter how many times he read it, those three words refused to change. Finally accepting the reality before him, Maxim let out a sigh so heavy it seemed the ground might collapse beneath him.
Of all people… of all the damn people in the world…!
His ex-girlfriend was being appointed as the Commander of the knight order where he served as Vice Commander!