Vivian's Escort (4)
A hasty change of clothes had transformed Vivian completely.
Gone were the radiant silk dresses she usually wore, the elegant jewelry that adorned her. Such finery would only have been a burden on a grueling expedition — and would have ruined easily besides. She had cast off every last trappings of nobility and put on gear that might have belonged to some squire somewhere.
The leather vest covering her upper body was thick and rough, nothing like her usual garments. Patches of cloth sewn on here and there and crooked stitching marks showed plainly. It didn't fit properly either — the shoulders sat a little high, and one edge had faded from long use. Small leather pads had been added to the arms for protection, already cracked and split with age. The gloves covering her hands were worn through at the fingertips and filthy with grime.
Her lower half was no different. In place of the girlish dress, she wore close-fitting trousers like a boy's, a crude leather belt around her waist, and an assortment of gear.
Wearing all of it, Vivian's face held a distinctly mortified expression. The corners of her mouth trembled faintly, and color rose in her cheeks — she looked thoroughly ashamed.
"..."
Looking at her like that, I found it strangely hard to hold back a laugh. It wasn't that she looked ridiculous. If anything, I was only surprised at how well it suited her — better than I'd expected.
Seeing my expression, Vivian clenched her fists.
"...Don't laugh."
She warned me coldly, but the more she did, the harder it became to keep a straight face. Watching me break into bigger and bigger laughter, Vivian seemed to lose her temper and started to tear the gear off.
I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and answered at last.
"Enough. Let's go. Everyone's waiting."
I turned first and started walking. Vivian hesitated, then fell in behind me.
We were in the Disciplinary Unit's barracks. There was no better place to find equipment that would fit her. Gear suited to a boy soldier's build was right here, after all. And the men of the Disciplinary Unit who had witnessed Vivian's peculiar entrance into the barracks were waiting for her to come back out.
When Vivian stepped outside, the first to greet her was, of course, Burgor. He looked her up and down, then muttered as if he couldn't believe it.
"Lady Vivian, what on earth..."
"..."
Vivian fidgeted, then glanced back at me. Fresh anger burned in her eyes. I looked away, pretending not to notice. I'd set the stage; from here on, the choice was hers.
At last Vivian hesitated, then looked up at Burgor.
"...The whole army is marching out," she said. "I can't just sit and watch from the castle. I'm coming with you."
The boy soldiers reacted with admiration, surprise, emotion, and wonder all at once. And the most astonished among them seemed to be Burgor. He searched for words for a long while before he managed to speak.
"B-but, Lady Vivian... the journey will surely be harsh, and for a young lady's body to endure—"
"...Don't treat me like a girl. I am the lord of Loktana."
With the stage already set, Vivian asserted herself, saying things she may not have fully meant. Then she recited what I had prepared her for, making it clear she had steeled herself for what lay ahead.
"I know. We may have to walk for long stretches. We may sleep in filthy places. The food may not suit me. I may have to see cruel things. It may be dangerous. Even so — I'm coming."
"..."
"...Ah. Because Father always did."
Watching her invoke her father, I thought that not every word of it might be a lie. Perhaps she, too, felt a certain sense of responsibility in sending the whole army into battle. She wouldn't have mentioned her father otherwise.
At the mention of Duke Rondore, Burgor's expression slowly hardened with resolve.
"Understood." He straightened his posture. "I will do everything in my power to make this a safe journey."
Vivian nodded.
Before long, Burgor's adjutant Coleman led Vivian's horse over. She stroked the animal for a while, then mounted with Coleman's help. I smiled at her and turned away, meaning to take my own place.
"Kailo."
But Vivian stopped me before I could leave. Still wearing the lingering shame and a faint irritation, she said,
"Where do you think you're going? You're supposed to lead my horse."
"..."
At her words, a few of the Disciplinary Unit soldiers snickered. It wasn't hostility toward me so much as the pleasure of watching a friend get hazed — the kind of closeness that had already formed between us. One look at Ballon, Willas, and Martin laughing the hardest made that clear enough. Being put on the spot in front of them was a little humiliating, but in the end I took the reins.
When we reached the courtyard where the full army stood ready, the knight commanders stared in surprise at Vivian dressed like a man. If not for the red hair spilling down her back, they might not have believed it was her at all.
"Lady Vivian, what is the meaning of—"
Toros, commander of the Second Knight Order, muttered much as Burgor had. Vivian looked to Burgor, and Burgor explained in her place.
"Having given the order for the whole army to march, Lady Vivian feels a responsibility of her own and has chosen to come with us. Just as His Grace the Duke once did."
At that, every knight nearby began to murmur. The reaction was uniformly positive. Just as it had been with the Disciplinary Unit earlier, there were those who were astonished and those who were moved.
"We'll fight even harder!"
Someone shouted. That opened the floodgates, and everyone threw in a word of their own.
"We're moved, Lady Vivian!"
"We'll give it our all!"
"Magnificent!"
The swelling atmosphere seemed to fluster Vivian a little. She kept glancing at me, as if asking what she was supposed to do. I didn't know either, so I simply pretended not to notice. Vivian then raised a hand slightly toward the knights cheering for her.
In the midst of it, Mordain, commander of the Third Knight Order, voiced a question.
"Lady Vivian — then what of Lord Robert, who will be arriving in the meantime...?"
Vivian was silent a moment, then answered with lofty composure.
"...He'll have to wait for me."
No one argued with that boldness. They only nodded slowly and accepted her decision.
Baelor shifted the subject.
"Lady Vivian, then — which knight order will you accompany on this expedition?"
"...I'll stay with the Disciplinary Unit here."
"That would be dangerous."
Even so, the boy soldiers of the Disciplinary Unit were criminals brought here as convicts. Baelor pointed this out, but Vivian only glared at him.
"...How kind. So now you're worried about me."
Baelor seemed to have accepted this side of her by now; he showed no particularly heated reaction.
"Even so, I'll remain with the Disciplinary Unit," Vivian said again. Then she looked around at the eyes fixed on her and called out,
"Everyone — return safely. March out as prepared."
A roaring response came back. Knights and squires shouted at the top of their lungs, answering her command. Baelor, Toros, and Mordain saluted and departed. The Disciplinary Unit, too, sorted out the disorder, formed ranks, and began to move.
Leaving the castle and stepping out onto the vast plains of Loktana, Vivian realized something.
She had been looking forward to this journey more than she'd thought.
It had been a sudden decision and an impulsive act, yet from the moment she left the castle walls behind, it was as if she had left all her sorrow there with them. All she felt was a quiet joy.
The fragrant scent of nature on the breeze. Soft wind combing through her hair. Plains that stretched without end, and the tall, beautiful mountains visible here and there. Wild animals darting about. Boy soldiers walking along, snickering as if they were having fun. Everything was something that set her heart racing. It felt almost like an adventure — she was even looking forward to the discomfort of a night's rough bed.
How long had it been since she'd felt this way?
"..."
Vivian looked at the one who had made all of this possible. Kailo was no longer paying her any mind, humming as he walked. She realized that without him, she would never have felt even this small joy — that she would have been trembling back in the castle.
A massive two-handed sword hung across Kailo's back, and somehow he looked stronger and more solid than usual.
"..."
A thought crossed her mind unbidden. What would it have felt like if he had been her personal knight? If they hadn't met as enemies — if he had been born and raised in Loktana and become her knight... how would she have thought of him then?
"..."
Vivian felt her heart beat strangely again near her chest. The witchcraft must have gone wrong somehow. She had cast it, and yet her heartbeat refused to stay steady.
"Not so bad once you're out here, is it?"
Kailo asked out of nowhere, oblivious to her thoughts. Vivian startled and flinched at the question. Kailo looked up at her oddly, but waited for an answer as if it didn't much concern him. Watching his shoulders rise in expectation, Vivian felt a stubborn streak rise in her. She didn't want to admit he had been right. She didn't want him to know she felt grateful.
"...All I've gotten because of you is humiliation."
So she answered curtly. Even at that unkind reply, Kailo only smiled, glanced back at her, looked over her outfit once, and started snickering. That only irritated Vivian further. No matter what anyone said, she was the one dressed like a man, thoroughly unladylike. Lady Rinne would have fainted on the spot if she'd seen her like this.
In the end, Vivian couldn't hold back her irritation. She slipped her foot from the stirrup and shoved Kailo's head with it. At that unexpected blow, a look of bewilderment crossed Kailo's face. The sight of it was so satisfying that this time it was Vivian who burst out laughing.
"Pfft..."
At the same time, the murmuring around her grew louder. Some of the boy soldiers whispered in surprise.
Wait — to Kailo...?
Whoa, what kind of guts...
Lady Vivian has more fire than I thought...
Apparently Kailo's reputation within the unit wasn't exactly low. Startled by that, Vivian gradually let her smile fade — only to find that Kailo had already stopped walking and was watching her laugh. Between the reactions around them and the strangeness of Kailo standing still, Vivian covered her mouth in a hurry and blurted out an excuse.
"...Y-you were being so annoying..."
"..."
But Kailo said nothing. He only cleared his throat awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. As he started walking again, she could have sworn his ears looked faintly red.
Excluding one Watch Unit, the two hundred boy soldiers of the Disciplinary Unit walked divided into four groups. At the very front, a Disciplinary Unit boy soldier named Yanes led the whole force. Next came the main body — the Watch Unit — then Kailo's group, and after that the remaining two. Vivian was, of course, with Kailo's group.
Standing precisely at the center of the Disciplinary Unit, she looked around. Thinking about it, she still couldn't quite grasp that she was these people's lord. That people like these were the ones holding up someone as inadequate as herself... a sense of pressure even began to settle over her. Only by taking part herself could she understand how many people her single command sent into battle. Even if it had been a rational, sensible choice, in the end someone always ended up suffering like this.
"...Haa."
As reality closed in, the excitement in her heart quieted. At Vivian's sigh, Kailo asked,
"Why the sigh this time?"
"..."
She almost didn't answer, then decided there was no real need to keep the thought locked inside.
"I can't believe I'm the one leading these people."
Kailo dismissed it as nothing and lost interest almost at once. So Vivian asked him,
"...What about you? What would it have been like for you?"
"Hm?"
"You're the eldest son of the Allen family. If things had gone the way they were supposed to... you would have inherited the house."
"...The way they were supposed to? I'm still going to inherit it."
Vivian frowned.
"Who said anyone's letting you go? You're staying right here."
"...You said you'd let me go if I won the bet."
"That's if you win. That future isn't coming."
The conditions for his victory were either that every person in the territory came to love him, or that she herself cried. Neither future was arriving.
Kailo let the argument drop as if it didn't matter either way, then returned to the earlier subject and answered.
"I don't know. If it were me... I think I'd just feel good about it. They're all under me, right?"
"..."
The answer was so thoroughly Kailo that Vivian let out a hollow laugh. Even that offhand remark somehow lightened her heart.
Just as Vivian's expression was growing steadily worse — her thighs burning — Burgor announced the end of the march up ahead.
Halt!
At his shout, audible even from a distance, every one of my unit comrades dropped where they stood.
"That was rough, seriously..."
"...So that's it for today."
I let out a breath of relief myself. The fatigue in my legs had been building up badly. I looked around. Trees rising here and there. Hills jumbled and jutting in every direction. A light evening glow and a clear sky. Nothing particularly dangerous nearby. Not a bad place to spend the night.
I turned to Vivian, who was struggling alone to get down from her horse, and held out my hand.
The horse was too tall for her to dismount by herself.
"..."
She blinked, staring at my hand in silence. I didn't bother explaining; I simply waited. Then, slowly, she took hold of it. Our hands locked firmly. It felt like the first time we'd been this close since the fire.
With my help, she came down from the horse.
"...Thank you."
She whispered, but I gave no response.
While that was happening, Burgor approached her and explained.
"Lady Vivian, please rest. We'll camp here tonight. Yanes's unit will go out on reconnaissance to check for dangers in the area. The rest will set up camp and prepare food. And tomorrow — we'll likely enter combat."
"Yes."
"If anything is uncomfortable, please be sure to tell us. I intend to go out on reconnaissance with Yanes myself. I'll leave Coleman here, so if anything dangerous arises, rely on him."
"Yes. I understand."
While they spoke, I led Vivian's horse toward a tree some distance away. The real problem started now. Could Vivian endure being among these foul-smelling lot? I could already picture them all acting like fools out of sheer awkwardness — and I could see her struggling through it.
I sighed and tied the reins to the tree. Then, as I started to turn—
"...You startled me."
"..."
I turned around to find Vivian standing right behind me. I'd assumed she would stay with Coleman after speaking with Burgor — but she had trailed after me the whole way.
"...Why are you here?"
At my question, Vivian made a troubled face. She pointed behind her and said,
"I-it's too awkward being among those people. What am I supposed to do..."
The boy soldiers, unable to contain their curiosity, were looking this way with glances that almost seemed fierce. One or two would have been one thing — but all fifty of them flicking their eyes toward Vivian made for quite a spectacle.
"..."
I let out a long breath through my nose, then launched into another lecture.
"They're all your people."
"B-but..."
"What, or is it that you're a noble and you can't stand being with commoners? I live with those commoners too, you know."
"Th-that's not it...!"
I stopped needling her and thought. Perhaps, with ages close enough, Vivian might even find people of her own here. At that thought, I steeled myself.
"...Come with me. I'll introduce you."
"What?"
I left the flustered Vivian behind and started walking. She stamped her feet in distress, then in the end trailed after me once again.