Andy Warmaiden, the Iron-Blooded Knight
Andy Warmaiden, the Iron-Blooded Knight
The restaurant was quieter than usual.
"What's today's gukbap?"
Ivan, who — unlike a proper romance fantasy protagonist — practically lived with gukbap in his mouth.
"This is the latest development! Please, have a taste! I've been working on improving the carbonation retention."
Riman, showing up every other day toting his latest research results.
"Gahaha! Dragged myself through the mud yesterday, I need a hangover cure. Sir Lucas, that bean sprout soup from last time — any chance I could get a bowl?"
Blackbeard, coming by pleading for haejangguk after drinking far too much beer the night before. (According to Riman's testimony, half a glass of beer knocked him flat.)
All the regulars who'd carved out their own conspicuous presence here had gone up to the capital, leaving the place a little still.
Back in the day, this was just how things were.
And yet, it felt strangely empty.
"Master, I'm hungry."
Bldi, who'd just finished putting away the prepped ingredients in the refrigerator, pattered over to my side.
Grrrrrowl.
Her stomach sounded the alarm.
"Want me to make you some blood sundae?"
She shook her head back and forth.
"Then seonji soup?"
"N-no, not today. I think I'm fine today. Everyone else is still training so hard, it doesn't feel right for me to be the only one eating in the restaurant."
Even as she shook her head, her eyes had already drifted toward the Coco tethered in the back yard.
Coco?
"O-oh, today, just the Coco's blood will be plenty."
Ever since we'd figured out that Coco whose blood Bldi personally drew and drank were far more tender and produced a richer, more appetizing flavor, the Coco farm had been supplying us with a few live birds at a time.
— I'll draw it for you! I-it's good because I, I get to drink fresh blood, and you, Master, get delicious ingredients!
Andrea had told me how difficult it is for a vampire to stop drinking mid-feed, so I didn't want to push her if I could help it.
— I-I want to be helpful to you, Master, even a little. B-but I'm not s-social like Andrea, and I can't cook like the knight in black, so.......
Bldi herself had practically thrown herself at the task, insisting over and over. In the end, I'd given in and let her handle drawing Coco blood as she wished.
The bled Coco always went into the lunch we all ate together. The yield was too small to sell to customers. Bldi swore she could handle more, but I refused.
"Don't overdo it. You'll get fat."
"D-do you think I'm Andrea? I-I'll have you know my constitution doesn't gain weight."
Face flushing crimson, Bldi headed for the back yard. I followed behind. A bled Coco had to be dressed quickly to keep its freshness, so whenever she went out to feed, I'd stand beside her and clean the birds that had just died.
— I-it's embarrassing.......
At first, Bldi had said she was too embarrassed to let anyone see her eating.
Sssssip.
Cococock!!!
Now she fed with practiced ease. Another Coco met its end in Bldi's hands.
"H-here."
A smear of red blood clung to the corner of Bldi's mouth as she handed me the freshly drained Coco.
"Thanks."
I took the bird, pulled a handkerchief from my pocket, and wiped the Coco's blood from her lips.
"H-hyik!"
"You were so hungry you were eating in a rush, weren't you?"
"Th-that's not it. It's embarrassing, so don't stare so much."
Her bowed head hid most of her expression, but I could see the tips of her ears burning bright red. Still mortified about talking to people, it seemed. It wouldn't get better overnight. That was only natural.
If your communication skills had atrophied from centuries of solitude, they weren't about to sprout back up in a single morning.
"S-so, so....... U-uh....... I-I'll w-wash this h-handkerchief and b-bring it back t-tomorrow. N-no, the day after tomorrow! B-because I don't think I can get it completely clean in just one day."
Clutching the handkerchief, Bldi stammered her way through it, refusing to meet my eyes. Just managing to volunteer her intentions this actively was an enormous step forward.
"Take your time."
Smiling, I stroked her head.
She was endearing. Impossibly so for someone who was, in the legends, a vampire who'd sided with the Demon Race.
"N-nngh....... Wh-when you pet me like that......."
Bldi squirmed, not knowing what to do with herself. She looked like a wary cat whose fur bristled every time its owner touched her.
That was when it happened.
"Who goes there?"
A commotion outside.
I could hear Heimer and Hamilton's voices, and layered over them, Andrea's, sharp with anger.
"I don't know what Imperial Princess Knight Order you're from, but I told you, we're not open yet!"
The Princess Knight Order?
"Bldi, stay here a moment."
"Huh? Wh-what......."
I hurried toward the restaurant's front entrance.
And there.
Click.
"...It has been a while. Sir Lucas."
I came face-to-face with my former workplace superior, standing inside my establishment.
Andy Warmaiden, the Iron-Blooded Knight.
The empire's greatest swordswoman — the one who, in the novel, had fought Ivan to the death right up until the very end — had just walked into my restaurant.
She was a striking knight with close-cropped brown hair.
"You're here sooner than I expected."
"Yes. I had a rather difficult journey, thanks to whomever wrote 'rural backwater' on their discharge report."
"Is that so?"
"Do you remember what I said to you when you left the Princess Knight Order, Sir Lucas?"
"You said you'd come visit my hometown."
"Yes. I believe I also said I would come to eat your cooking?"
Of all people, at this moment, it had to be the one person I least wanted to see.
***
In After I Saved the Male Lead From the Tyrant, He Started Obsessing?, the romance fantasy novel I'd devoured with such delight, Andy Warmaiden was the knight who served the tyrant Diana with absolute, unwavering loyalty.
That didn't make her a good knight.
But whatever Diana commanded, she did.
Kill? Killed. Kidnap? Kidnapped. Annihilate the enemy? Annihilated. She carried out every single one of Diana's orders, and in doing so, earned the Imperial Knight Order under her command the honored title of the Invincible Knight Order.
In the novel, she was the one who killed Lancelot, and she was the one who blocked Ivan's path in the final battle. Defeating her ultimately cost Ivan his chance to stop the tyrant, but her presence alone sustained the tension all the way to the novel's closing chapters.
I still remembered the shock of seeing her in person for the first time.
The novel described her with stark white hair cropped short, but back then, her hair was still brown — so brown that I'd initially thought she couldn't possibly be Andy.
The Andy in the novel had white hair and deep dark circles under her eyes. The woman I met had short hair, flawless skin, and not a single shadow beneath her gaze.
Her appearance was nothing like the novel described, but her personality was an exact match.
She never exchanged more than twenty words of private conversation. Her expression almost never shifted. She was identical in temperament to the woman in the pages — the one whose mind held nothing but devotion to her emperor.
Andy Warmaiden, who worried about the emperor even as Ivan's blade was cutting her down.
Her fanaticism toward Diana, her martial skill, her sparse speech — all of it matched the novel perfectly. It'd been a struggle to adjust at first, because I never had the slightest clue what she was thinking. Judging by the nickname the other knights gave her, I wasn't alone in that.
The Iron-Blooded Knight.
"...Her Highness the Crown Princess wishes for your return, Sir Lucas."
And she was still the same now.
Sparse words. Unchanging expression. Without so much as a flicker of surprise at the sight of me, she delivered Princess Diana's — no, the Crown Princess's — message.
"Her Highness regrets that she was unable to provide you with sufficient support in the past. She states that she will guarantee adequate personnel and material resources going forward, and grants you the authority to draw upon the Capital Guard at any time should you wish it."
"And that's why the vice-commander herself came all this way?"
"Yes. I entrusted Her Highness's escort to the other knights."
Andy was the person Diana trusted and relied on most — perhaps the only person Diana genuinely trusted. Even more than Commander Luke of the Princess Knight Order.
Which meant the princess was serious about bringing me back. If Crown Princess Diana was pledging direct support, I'd no longer have to cook for over five hundred people all by myself, like in the old days.
"I'm sorry, but I won't be returning."
"Your reason?"
Instead of answering, I looked at the restaurant. Built from the ground up with my own two hands. The customers who sought it out. The staff who worked here alongside me.
Going to the capital would mean leaving far too much behind.
Yes, cooking at the Crown Princess's side would earn me far greater recognition. But I didn't want to lose everything I'd built here in exchange.
Of course, the possibility that Crown Princess Diana might still become a tyrant was also part of the equation nagging at me.
But just as the saintess's fate changed because of me, there has to be a way for Diana to avoid that path, too.
A mere cook wasn't going to tip that balance by showing up. Saint Amelia periodically infusing her with holy power at her side, or Camilla and Andy supporting her — those would do far more good.
I'd pass word along through Riman. Camilla would handle it from there.
"I'm already satisfied with this life. Comfortably so — enough that I feel no need to return to the capital."
"...If I cannot bring you back from here, Sir Lucas, then Her Highness will come in person."
"That's fine. My answer will be the same then, too."
I wasn't going back to the capital.
If I ever did return, it would only be once this place could run smoothly and properly without me. That time hadn't come yet. Not even if Diana herself personally called for me.
"......."
Andy closed her mouth.
"Were your memories of the Imperial Household truly that poor?"
"I believe this is only the second time you've asked me a personal question, Vice-Commander."
"...What was the first?"
"When I resigned from the knights. You said you'd come find my restaurant."
"Ah."
Silence settled between us for a beat.
"They weren't bad."
"Then why......."
Won't you come back?
"I still have too much work left here. The Imperial kitchens run perfectly well without me, but this place won't. I built it. I raised it. So I mean to see it through to the end. Her Highness is someone who will one day be emperor of this empire — she'll understand exactly what I mean by that."
"Responsibility, then......."
"Yes."
"Her Highness also needs you, Sir Lucas."
"Her Highness has many people around her, does she not? Vice-Commander Andy, Commander Luke, and beyond them, the Princess Knight Order, the people of the Church....... I believe she has enough. Even without me."
"Understood. I've fully received your position, Sir Lucas. As for Her Highness......."
Andy paused, let out a faint sigh, and spoke.
"I will convey it. Though she will undoubtedly come here herself. Her Highness was...... extremely insistent."
"If she comes, I'll serve her a meal. That's what a restaurant owner does."
I don't turn away a guest who shows up. Even if that guest is a criminal.
"I understand your position, Sir Lucas."
"I'm surprised. I half expected you to draw your sword and threaten me right here."
"My orders were to convey Her Highness's will to you and bring you back. There was no compulsion attached to that command."
"Is that so?"
It made me wonder, for a moment, if Diana might be in a more stable state than I'd thought.
"Well then......."
I stopped Andy as she moved to stand.
"You're planning to leave on an empty stomach?"
"......?"
"You've come all the way out to the countryside. You should at least eat something before you go."
"I cannot leave Her Highness's side unattended for so long."
"If word gets around that a restaurant owner sent a guest away without feeding them a single thing, I'm the one who gets cursed out. So please, have something before you leave."
I rose from my seat and headed for the kitchen, where the refrigerator waited.
And then.
"Grrrrr......."
I spotted Bldi, brow furrowed in what was presumably her best attempt at a menacing glare, staring daggers at Andy. If only she hadn't been peeking just her face through the pass-through connecting the kitchen and the dining room, it might actually have been intimidating.
"Bldi."
"Sh-should I attack?"
She had a frying pan in her hand. A vampire's weapon of choice: the frying pan.
"No. Go grab the carbonated water from the fridge."
"N-not an enemy?"
"Right. I told you, she's a guest."
"But......."
Bldi looked like she wanted to protest, but in the end, she scurried over to the refrigerator and brought back a glass bottle of carbonated water.
"Here."
"Thanks."
I filled a clear glass to the brim with ice, drizzled in some lemon syrup and a touch of sugar syrup I'd prepared earlier. Then—
Ssssssssss!
I cracked open the carbonated water she'd just brought me and poured it into the glass.
Glug-glug-glug-glug.
The clear glass filled with sparkling water, bubbles fizzing and bursting. I floated a dried lemon slice on top and set a metal muddler inside so she could stir the lemon and syrups together.
"What is this?"
"Lemonade. A simple drink to start before your meal."
"...It's bubbling. Is this some new variety of beer? If it is, I can't drink it."
"It's not beer."
"Do I simply drink it as is?"
"Mix the syrup thoroughly with the muddler first, then drink."
"I can't hold my liquor. This isn't alcohol, is it?"
"It isn't."
Only then did she start stirring the ade with the muddler.
Clink-clatter. Clink-clatter.
The sound of ice swirling together rang crisp and bright through the restaurant.
After a sidelong glance at me, Andy brought the glass to her lips.
"!!!!"
Her eyes flew wide open as she stared at me in obvious startlement.
That was a first.
I'd never seen the Iron-Blooded Knight Andy wear an expression like that.