Watching the Show (1)

The knights eventually left without anything to show for it. Opils exited with the documents I'd handed him cradled protectively against his chest, and the two sides never once stopped sniping at each other, right up until they finally parted ways.

The next morning, Lily came into my room and drew back the curtains. Morning sunlight poured down over my face.

"My lord, have you heard the news?"

"What news?"

I lowered the book I was reading. My unruly white hair fluttered like a feather before my eyes.

"Well, the Treasury raided the Raven Shade Trading Company at dawn."

"...At dawn?"

"Yes, at dawn. It was so early that Lord Chris reportedly couldn't respond at all."

Astonishing. I'd expected Chris to get fleeced, but I hadn't predicted a dawn raid.

Once the Treasury bureaucrats saw me taking Lucian under my protection, Chris must have resolved to make absolutely sure no one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could pull the same trick on him.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠"The lower district is in an uproar right now. One person claims they saw mercenaries being hauled away in ropes, and another says they watched merchants climbing the castle walls clutching their ledgers."

Sounds like all hell broke loose. So this is what it feels like to sleep through the whole thing.

Mabel's goal had only ever been to rattle me, so this raid on Chris had to be purely the Treasury's own initiative.

By now, even Mabel must be having second thoughts, no? She orders a tax audit of her little brother, and the bureaucrats actually draw their blades.

"How did Chris take it?"

"No notable reaction yet."

As if there wouldn't be a reaction. Knowing Chris as I do, he's probably breathing fire this very moment. Something enormous is going to blow up before long.

"And... there's another letter for you."

Lily held out a letter sealed with wax. On the front, in a hand I knew well, was written To my son. I broke the seal and read.

The Feast of Saint Rochand was twenty-one days away. Even when Father was off on campaign, he always made a point of setting aside time for this occasion.

Still, was now really the right time to come home? One wrong move, and he'd be walking in on his two sons grabbing each other by the hair.

Incidentally, it seems Father took a real interest after I bragged a little about my knight order in my letters. These boys still have a long way to go before they're presentable.

......Well then. I'd just have to drill them hard for the days that remained. Nothing embarrassing in front of Father.

**

I headed straight to the knight order's headquarters after finishing my meal.

Thalia sat in the vice-commander's office, signing documents with her violet hair spilled across the desk. Seeing her with her hair down felt strangely unfamiliar.

"You've come."

Thalia rose from her seat and offered me a chair.

"I wanted to check on the training."

"There has been progress."

She picked up a thin report from the desk.

"Allow me to report the current state first. Of our seventy-six members, seventy are lower-rank, five are intermediate, and one is Master-rank."

"One more intermediate, then."

"That is thanks to the training system you devised, Lord Iden."

The sole Master-rank member was the ogre Srudal. Having two Master-level fighters, including Vice-Commander Thalia, was genuinely impressive — but the fact that lower-rank Awoken made up the vast majority meant the order's overall level still hadn't climbed out of mercenary-band territory.

"Guess who the newest intermediate is."

I let a beat pass, then said the name that came to mind.

"Shaka."

"Correct."

Thalia smiled. For her, that was a rare expression.

"An exceptionally talented member. The speed at which she absorbs instruction reminds me of myself as a child."

I tried picturing a young Thalia swaggering around proclaiming herself the strongest, but the image refused to form.

"The members' morale is very high. Everyone is working hard to develop skills worthy of being called your knights, Lord Iden... However."

And here came the difficult part, apparently.

"Many members are disheartened that the order's name and emblem have still not been decided. There is a great difference between being called merely 'a knight' and being able to declare your allegiance."

Come to think of it, Mabel's knights did look rather dashing yesterday in their matching tunics with the flower crest.

We'd need to create a symbol of our own too, but nothing in particular came to mind at the moment.

If I had to name an image, though...

"Have you ever heard of snowflakes?"

"Do flowers bloom in snow?"

"Not real flowers. If you look closely at a snow crystal, it resembles a flower. I was thinking we might make that the order's emblem."

"If you have decided it so, Lord Iden, then we shall follow. Though I believe I should know the reasoning behind choosing a snowflake."

Because when I die, I become one, that's why.

"Its cold, clean nature reminds me of myself."

"Understood. I shall pass it along to the members."

"While we're at it, let's settle the name too. Snowflake emblem, so..."

I didn't deliberate long. Thinking harder about this sort of thing was no guarantee of a better result.

"Frost."

Born with severed meridians anyway — might as well internalize ice completely.

"I like it. I'll commission the artisans to narrow down design proposals."

"Oh, and Father will be returning to the holy city in twenty-one days. He seems eager to see the knight order, so we'll need some special training before then."

"Special training, you say."

Thalia nodded.

"As it happens, there is a wide open plot east of the holy city. It was originally where the Duke's Guard trained their cavalry, but with the Guard deployed to the front lines, we could set up a temporary camp there."

"Good. A little fresh air now and then does everyone good."

And so eighteen days of intensive training camp was decided. Whether a spot plainly visible from atop the outer wall deserved to be called a "training camp" was another question.

**

Once the decision was made, Thalia moved with remarkable speed. She summoned the members, procured equipment and supplies, moved everyone to the site, and had the camp and training facilities knocked together in no time.

"The scenery is lovely. Had I known, I would have pushed for a camp long ago."

Vitten was right — the view wasn't bad. The Guard's training grounds sat on open plains east of the holy city. All that met the eye was an endless expanse of farmland. The area hadn't even suffered in the famine, and ripe fruit hung in droves from bent stalks.

Thalia, however, clearly saw things differently.

"It just looks like fields to me. If you want a true vista, you must visit the north."

"What's in the north?"

I asked out of genuine curiosity.

"I recommend Wintergale Gorge or Silverfall Lake. At Wintergale, the aurora blanketing the canyon is magnificent; at Silverfall, the colony of glowing flora beneath the great silver waterfall is famous. They are the kind of places I feel one must see before dying."

"And the demons are there too, aren't they?"

Vitten interjected.

"Fighting demons is part of the scenery as well."

"Good grief... that endless hunger for glory."

Vitten shook his head.

By around four in the afternoon, the entire knight order had settled into the camp, to the point of throwing a barbecue party.

I arrived at the camp just as the meat was charring nicely. The members were in high spirits over their first proper outing in ages.

Srudal was liberally dusting a well-blackened cut of meat with his favorite spices and inhaling it wholesale, while Shaka danced to the cheers of the surrounding members.

"Lord Iden, have a taste."

Vitten offered me a piece of meat he'd grilled himself, his expression utterly solemn.

"How is it?"

"...It's delicious."

It was so delicious that I regretted bringing Srudal instead of Vitten to Fairchild territory.

"A secret technique from my adventuring days. Some call it my second Awoken Ability."

"I have no choice but to acknowledge it."

Great cook, great fighter — with all that talent, why did every single courtship end in rejection?

A burning question seized me, but I couldn't quite bring myself to ask the man directly.

"By the way, Vitten — how's that boy you've been looking after?"

"Who would that be?"

I pointed at the blue-haired boy sitting at the edge of the camp.

"Ah, you mean Laszlo."

"Yes."

"Well... honestly, I worried quite a bit at first. He was the only one selected through the non-Awoken recruitment, and he truly had no Awoken Ability at all, you see?"

"Did that become a problem? Nobody's bullying him for lacking an ability, I hope—"

Vitten waved his hand.

"Absolutely not. There isn't a lunatic alive who'd dare torment a member you personally chose, Lord Iden. Everyone goes out of their way to be kind to him. And watching him closely, the boy's all right. Good-natured, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and he throws himself into everything. The way that trembling little thing forces himself to be brave — after a while you just want to look after him."

"Have him come over here for a minute."

"Of course."

Vitten called Laszlo over and brought him to my side.

"Lord Prince Iden."

Laszlo stammered and bowed his head.

"Sit down, Laszlo."

I indicated the seat across the picnic table.

"How could I possibly presume to sit before a lord prince—"

"Leaving the lord prince to eat alone would be the greater discourtesy, wouldn't it?"

Laszlo hesitated, then took the seat across from me.

Over the past few months, the boy's appearance had improved beyond recognition. His once skeletal frame had filled out to merely slender, and his brittle hair had taken on a healthy sheen.

Still, he had a long way to go before recovering his lost vitality. Teaching him Daoist arts would come after his body was fully restored. Even my master, after taking me in, had focused on nothing but feeding me well for a good long while.

"Settling in well with the order?"

"Yes. It was a little unfamiliar at first, but everyone treats me kindly, so I'm doing well."

Watching Laszlo eat his fill stirred a strange satisfaction in me. Vitten had been right. The boy was so skittish it only made you fuss over him more.

"Laszlo — that power you displayed during the entrance trial."

Laszlo looked up at me.

"Do you still feel that sensation?"

"Yes. If anything, it feels clearer than it did back then."

The way his blue eyes shimmered with vital energy made one thing certain: his Dao heart was no ordinary thing.

I had picked a good one. The boy was a born talent — the type who learns ten things from one, whose mere breathing adds to his cultivation.

Was this how my master had felt when he first found me? He must have been over the moon — scooping up a brilliant disciple like me at a bargain-basement price.

"Once the special training period ends, come see me separately. There's something I have to teach you—"

That was when it happened. A long horn blast sounded from somewhere far off. The tent supports shuddered, and a faint tremor ran through the ground beneath our feet.

"Cavalry. More than one or two, I'd say."

Vitten set down the meat tongs, brow furrowed. The members dropped their food and burst out of the tents like a swarm of locusts. A moment later, pitch-black banners shot up over the edge of the plain.

"Ravens!"

Someone shouted urgently. Hundreds of warhorses blackened the horizon. The Raven Knights rode black horses, in black harnesses.

"Why are the Ravens here?"

"Are they here to train too?"

The man at the head of the cavalry raised an enormous two-handed sword overhead. When he let out a thunderous roar, the order spread its wings and fanned out into a skirmish formation.

What unfolded next left Vitten and me speechless. The knights, shoulder to shoulder with their horses, began charging across the plain at full gallop. The crops that had covered the fields were trampled beneath hooves, pounded into mulch. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ "The fields..."

"Our precious bluemint..."

Laments rose among the members.

"They came here fully intending to wreck the fields."

Thalia said flatly.

"Who owned these fields again?"

"The Quercus Trading Company, most likely."

Quercus was the trading house that served as Mabel's financial lifeline, dealing chiefly in the production and distribution of crops grown on a massive scale at the surrounding farms.

I'd known Chris was capable of pulling stunts. He'd always sneered at Mabel, calling her a notch below himself.

But who could have guessed he'd conduct cavalry drills on top of Mabel's farmland?

I'd known for ages he was a lunatic, but the symptoms seemed to be getting worse with age.

The members were staring in disbelief at the Raven Knights trampling the crops when—

Pwooooooo—

A second horn sounded. This time from the field across the way.

From the far side of the plain the Raven Knights had overrun, a banner painted with a red flower appeared. Mabel's knight order — the Orchids.

A hundred-odd Orchid knights advanced slowly in single file. Across from them, the Raven Knights were likewise advancing in formation.

If this went on, a full-scale pitched battle between the two orders was inevitable. A hair-trigger tension began to hang over the entire field.

"And you're telling me this view isn't worth looking at, Thalia?"

Vitten asked, turning to her.

"...I suppose it's finally become passable."

Thalia fetched herself a chair, sat down, and answered with a bite of roasted corn.