Tents and Rabbits
After returning to my room with Karina in tow, I immediately told Lily, “Lily! You’ll need to pack for one more. Karina’s coming with us.”
“How about the thoughtless young master just drops dead?”
Huh? Why am I suddenly getting roasted? Wait, but hearing that somehow makes my skin tingle a little… Damn it, what the hell am I thinking right now.
It’s not like I’m Cedric. I can’t lose my mind just because someone poked at my tastes. “I-it’s fine, Miss Lily. I can pack my own luggage…”
“Be quiet and wait!”
“Y-yes!!”
Lily seemed especially prickly today. Was it that time of the month? If I actually said that out loud, she might look at me with genuine contempt. A maid’s genuine contempt… might actually be worth seeing?
“Why are you so prickly? Lily, maybe today is that…”
“If you finish that sentence, from now on I’ll treat the young master as non-human.”
“Yep…”
I think I caught a glimpse of that contemptuous expression, so I’ll settle for that.
I pretended not to hear Karina as she looked around the room and muttered, “So this is what Young Master Edrick’s room looks like,” and “There seem to be an awful lot of maid-related items. Is it just my imagination?”
Lily finished packing even Karina’s belongings and thumped the bundle down in front of us.
“I’ve packed Miss Karina’s luggage as well, thoughtless young master.”
“Look, I may not look it, but I’ve never been called thoughtless anywhere I go—”
“Then shall we depart?”
Hmm. It really did seem like that time of the month, so the quick-witted me would just have to match her mood.
Karina, daughter of Karl, Knight Commander of the Heiden Grand Duchy.
Despite appearances, she was the sole woman in the otherwise all-male Northern Knight Order. Unlike her father Karl—the most rugged warrior among the northern knights—she was a twenty-year-old female knight whose flowing golden hair was positively captivating.
She herself remained unaware of it, but quite a few knights in the order secretly admired her.
“How did someone like her come from under Commander Karl?”
“Ahh… she’s the only light shining among those sweaty bastards.”
“Don’t you think even her sweat smells different from ours?”
“You crazy son of a bitch!!”
“Commander Karl! Come take this idiot away!”
The reason she never noticed her own popularity was obvious. It was all because of her father, who glared at every other knight with eyes that promised, I’ll follow any bastard who lays a hand on my daughter all the way to hell and beat the shit out of him.
On top of that, Karina had inherited her father’s talent for the sword. From birth she had devoted herself solely to swordsmanship without once losing focus. That was how, at the tender age of twenty, she had earned a place in the Empire’s most elite order—the Northern Knights.
And yet…
“Huff… huff… Young Master Edrick…!! P-please, just a little slower…”
“What? You fell behind again? Lily, we’d better slow down.”
“I wonder whose fault it is that someone decided to bring extra luggage without thinking.”
What the hell? What was with these two and their stamina?
No, I went through the knight order’s hellish training too. This doesn’t make sense??
I could give a hundred concessions for Edrick. The young master had inherited the Heiden bloodline—one of the strongest swordsmen in the North. But what about that maid?
Her name was Lily, right? How can a maid have better stamina than me, an actual knight?
As Karina panted after them, a scene from a past conversation with her father Karl suddenly floated into her mind.
—That’s really something. Truly something.
—What is, Father?
—Young Master Edrick brought a kid back from the orphanage, and that kid is sparring with him.
—What?? Sparring with Young Master Edrick? A child from an orphanage, sparring with the second son of the great Heiden family?
Hearing Karl’s next words, the fourteen-year-old Karina at the time had felt a fierce surge of competitive spirit.
—Perhaps the first female knight in our order might appear after all. A child that age, sparring with Young Master Edrick.
—The child was a girl?
—She was. Seemed two or three years younger than our daughter.
Karina, who had secretly vowed to become the North’s first female knight, had thrown herself even harder into training from that day onward. Yet when she turned nineteen and truly became the first female knight in the North, there was no word anywhere of that girl.
Could that maid named Lily be…?
“Hey, Karina. The sun’s going to set soon anyway, so let’s camp here for tonight.”
“Young master. Stop playing around and pitch your own tent.”
“Weren’t you coming along to handle things like this for me?”
“So the young master is a useless man who can only pitch a tent in the morning, I see.”
“Oh my, this girl really has no filter!”
What did a tent have to do with morning? Pure confusion rose in Karina’s mind—she had never even held a man’s hand before—but she decided to focus on setting up camp first.
“Lily. What about dinner?”
“Before asking that, shouldn’t you go catch some rabbits to eat? Rabbit-like young master.”
“Where the hell did you learn to talk like that?? Is there a book that teaches you these things??”
“I simply meant you run fast like a rabbit. What exactly were you imagining, young master who looks at maids with lewd eyes?”
Right. Why was Young Master Edrick getting embarrassed over being told he ran fast like a rabbit? And for some reason, he seemed almost pleased whenever that maid insulted him.
Who on earth taught Lily such ‘proper’ knowledge? Edrick muttered as he walked over to Karina.
“Karina. Lily says she’ll finish the rest of the camping preparations, so come with me to gather dinner.”
“Yes, yes! Let’s go, Young Master Edrick. As fast as a rabbit!”
“No—why are all the women in the North like this??”
Was there some other meaning to “fast like a rabbit” that she didn’t know? She’d have to ask her father later, Karina thought as she followed after Edrick.
They searched the area around the campsite for about thirty minutes, but…
“Not a single rabbit. Not even a squirrel.”
“Indeed.”
After silently following Edrick for a while, Karina finally voiced the question that had been bothering her.
“Young Master Edrick. But why have you suddenly decided to hunt the Ice Emperor Bird?”
“There’s no reason not to. Because of that chicken-headed bastard, everyone in the Grand Duchy is living in hardship.”
“That’s true, but…”
It really was exactly as Edrick said. Though the records were hundreds of years old, before the monster known as the Ice Emperor Bird appeared, the North had not suffered from a climate where spring and summer practically vanished.
The winters had been brutally cold, but spring and summer had still existed. It had been land where people could farm normally. After the Ice Emperor Bird took up residence, the already short springs and summers grew even shorter.
Of course, it wasn’t that successive Grand Dukes had simply ignored it out of ignorance.
“Among all the records of past subjugation attempts, not a single one succeeded, correct?”
“Those are just old records.”
“I heard every past expedition was personally led by the Grand Duke of that generation. Without His Highness Cedric, how do you plan to—”
“Why the hell is that slacker’s name coming up?”
“It’s the truth! The strongest swordsman in the North right now is, without question, the Grand Duke Cedr—”
Huh?
Karina couldn’t finish her sentence. A sudden thought had struck her.
Now that I think about it… is Young Master Edrick’s martial prowess truly inferior to Cedric’s?
Until just a few months ago, no one in the Heiden Grand Duchy would have doubted Cedric’s strength. Even now, that remained true. It was obvious that Cedric was steadily walking the path of the Sword Master, following in the footsteps of his father, Sword Master Bernhardt von Heiden.
But if someone asked who the strongest swordsman in the North was right now?
That… I cannot say for certain.
Edrick, the bastard son of the Heiden family, had displayed extraordinary talent since childhood. However, because Cedric—the legitimate heir—possessed flawless martial skill and perfect bloodline in everyone’s eyes, no knight had ever claimed that Edrick’s skills surpassed his brother’s. The five-year age gap had only made Cedric seem perpetually ahead.
There had been one incident that completely overturned the knights’ perception.
The martial display Young Master Edrick showed that day was…
Something none of them would ever forget, even if they lived a hundred years. It had happened during the Frost Giant subjugation—the battle in which the previous family head, Bernhardt von Heiden, had fallen.
—Karl and I will lead the vanguard and advance. Cedric, you command the rear guard and follow.
The reason the family head always stood at the forefront during Frost Giant subjugations was simple: the Frost Shroud the creatures emitted. That near-absolute-zero cold zone could only be torn apart by a Sword Master’s sword qi. Without the family head carving a path from the front, the regular knights could not even begin to fight.
It was a tactic proven over decades, so on that day as well, Bernhardt had stood at the very front, unleashing sword qi to open the way.
But then—
—Guuuuuuuuuuuu!!!
—W-what is this…!!
The Frost Shroud that should have been shredded long ago suddenly blocked Bernhardt’s sword qi at a certain point. At the same moment, Frost Giants lying in ambush on both sides burst through the gap between Bernhardt and the knights.
—G-Grand Duke!!
—Father!!!
Because the vanguard Sword Master always advanced roughly fifty paces ahead of the others, Bernhardt was instantly surrounded on all sides by the Frost Giants.
—Hold formation!! Trust the family head and clear the enemies in front of us first!!
Karina’s father Karl quickly assessed the situation and desperately fought off the Frost Giants blocking their path. However—
—Family Head!!!!!
After barely defeating the creatures in front of them, they saw Bernhardt. He was spitting blood from his mouth while enduring the combined assault of multiple Frost Giants. Several layers of Frost Shroud had been erected around him, preventing the knights from approaching.
This is disastrous!!
Even among knights, only a handful could wield sword qi. And the number who could generate qi strong enough to tear a Frost Giant’s Frost Shroud was even smaller. If Bernhardt fell here, the entire vanguard would be annihilated before Cedric’s rear guard could arrive. Even Cedric himself might not be able to overcome this crisis.
Just as the word “despair” rose in every knight’s mind, that very moment—
—Father!!! Damn it!! Uwaaaaaaaaaah!!!
Kugugugugugugung!!!
From the sword of Edrick, who had burst forward right behind Karl, sword qi as fierce as Bernhardt’s own poured out mercilessly. The Frost Shroud that collided with it cracked with a hideous tearing sound before vanishing completely, leaving a clean cross-section.
—Follow Sir Edrick!! We must save the family head!!
The instant the Frost Shroud was torn, Edrick charged madly into the horde of Frost Giants. Dozens blocked his path, but the sword qi that erupted from him once again slaughtered them without mercy.
—Get out of my way, you fucking bastards!! Father!!!
After dozens of minutes of desperate fighting, Edrick had cut down most of the Frost Giants in his path and finally reached Bernhardt. But it was already too late. Bernhardt had suffered fatal wounds that could not be undone; he was moments from death.
Edrick collapsing to the ground and Cedric’s arrival from the rear guard happened almost simultaneously.
—What happened!!
—Sir Cedric… sob… the family head…
Bernhardt left a short final message for his two sons and drew his last breath.
Afterward, the new Grand Duke’s enthronement and a mountain of other duties had left them no time to reflect on that day’s events. But one truth was crystal clear.
If not for Sir Edrick that day, every knight in the vanguard would have been wiped out.
Karina had been there as part of the vanguard, so she knew it better than anyone. There was solid basis for Edrick’s confidence.
As Karina continued searching for dinner with this new understanding, a piercing scream tore through the forest.
“S-Save me!!!!!!”