“Are your injuries healed?”
Gawain asked.
I was stretching in front of him.
Having finished a strenuous warm-up, I was already sweating.
“Thanks to you, I recovered on the spot.”
“It was a bolt that flew from behind.”
“Yes. I had to protect you, so I couldn’t avoid it.”
“Excellent.”
I was injured in order to protect my master.
As a guard knight, it was an honor beyond compare.
‘Though I’m not sure about the honor…’
Because of me, Eliya wasn’t hurt.
And that wasn’t too bad, either.
I picked up my sword and shield after stretching.
Gawain was armed with just a sword.
A simple sword, easy to wield in any grip.
It’s the weapon he primarily uses.
Both were not ordinary equipment.
They were specially made training gear reinforced with iron cores.
They were slightly heavier than real swords used in battle.
The same went for his shield.
It might be called a wooden sword, but it was basically an iron club.
It’d leave bruises if it connected.
An ordinary person would probably break something getting hit with it.
Gawain approached with his sword drawn.
Before we began, he said his usual words.
“Do not hesitate.”
*
Gawain’s sword could be likened to a line.
A very simple line at that.
His movements are controlled.
Clean and stripped of unnecessary parts.
It’s almost obsessive.
A thorough upgrade from Dillon.
Just transitioning between movements results in concurrent offense and defense.
Thus, our exchanges are very straightforward.
Straightforward but not predictable.
If you draw lines endlessly, they become surfaces.
In that manner, Gawain continues to connect and vary traditional movements while consuming space.
Bang!
When my shield blocked his sword, it sounded like cannon fire.
Both of us had reinforced our bodies with magic.
The ground trembles.
An ordinary person standing nearby might get caught up in the shockwave.
I moved forward with my shield still pressing against his blocked sword.
To give the enemy no chance to recover.
With a big stride forward,
I jabbed my sword under his shield.
An attack from an angle using obstructed vision.
But then.
Thump! Something blocked my knee.
My advancing body faltered, and my sword didn’t reach the intended distance.
I struck the empty air.
Having retreated, Gawain reformed his stance and charged at me half a beat faster.
Just his momentum seemed enough to force me backward.
If I blocked, it would go just as he planned.
I had to surprise him.
Something unanticipated.
Instead of blocking, I pushed forward.
I gripped my sword with both hands and swung.
My shield nestled under my left elbow.
As the trajectory of my sword swung, my shield cleverly deflected Gawain’s blade.
At the same time, my sword reached Gawain’s side.
Thwack! A dull sound.
Gawain staggered from the blow.
I advanced a step and swung my shield at him.
Gawain hurriedly raised his sword to block.
I swiftly moved to his side, hooked my sword behind his knee, and knocked him down.
Thud!
Gawain fell.
I pointed my sword at him.
The tip of my sword stopped right in front of his neck.
As I strained my weary body, sweat dripped to the ground.
Gawain, who had fallen, was also drenched in sweat.
He smiled, seemingly pleased.
“Excellent.”
*
Sometimes I do manage to beat Gawain like this.
Although I know he’s pulling his punches to some extent.
As proof of that, after a few more matches, I lost every single one.
Today’s record: 1 win, 4 losses.
“That’s enough for today.”
Gawain said, catching his breath.
I responded while still sprawled out on the floor.
“Thank you for your hard work…”
“You said you could use sword energy now, right?”
“Yes, well… I can if I want to.”
“Hmm… You mentioned that you hurt your back while protecting the lady last time. Have you ever tried transferring that energy through your body?”
What he referred to as sword energy is essentially releasing enough magical power to coat the weapon.
Similarly, that magic can be applied to the body.
Like a thin armor.
I’d momentarily forgotten that there was such a method of application.
‘Things have been that busy…’
I responded as I got up.
“I haven’t tried yet, but it can’t be that easy, right?”
It’s different than coating a weapon with magic.
Typically, magic is released mostly toward the hands.
And the magic emitted through the hands is easier to handle.
That’s why wizards extend their hands when aiming.
Similarly, it’s easy to imbue magic into objects held in the hand, like swords or shields.
On the other hand, evenly distributing magic across the entire body is quite challenging.
“First, try it out. I’ve heard you’re getting excellent armor from the lady, but you should not depend solely on equipment.”
“Alright, let’s give it a go.”
I did as instructed.
Like when I used sword energy, I projected magic outward.
The first change occurred at my hands.
The ivory-colored magic enveloped my fingertips.
‘It’s just like Epona’s extraction.’
It was the same when I used sword energy.
A broken sword blade.
The spot filled with ivory-colored light.
The light covering my hands didn’t spread into my body.
Gawain looked at me and said,
“There’s a quick way, albeit a bit of a fluke. Want to try?”
“Better than not trying, right?”
“Alright.”
And then, I found myself in a rather peculiar situation.
“…Gawain?”
My hands were bound.
The ropes restraining me were tied to the ceiling, raising my arms.
And my eyes were covered.
I could hear Gawain’s voice in front of me.
“I’m going to hit you with this wooden sword.”
“…What?”
“And you have to block.”
“Like this? Are you suggesting I lift my legs to block?”
“No. Use magic to defend. If you cannot control the magic coming from your hands, the ropes will break. So, defend your body with magic while ensuring the ropes do not snap.”
“What the… are you… ack—!”
The iron-cored wooden sword struck my abdomen.
And it wasn’t a gentle tap.
He swung it as powerfully as during a spar.
Gawain warned me.
“I’m starting now.”
From then on, my entire body was battered by the wooden sword.
I had no opportunity to do anything.
I had to prevent the ropes from breaking.
I couldn’t twist away or block with my legs.
Only magic could defend me.
‘How easy do you think that will be?!’
I was struck, avoiding bones or vital organs, repeatedly hit purely on my muscles.
I could hear the sound of Gawain shifting positions.
And the sound of slicing air.
Combining those, I could roughly predict where the next hit would come from.
‘And I need to channel magic there…!’
Of course, it didn’t work.
“Ugh!”
It was a clean hit.
‘Focus, focus…’
I kept thinking while I was getting beat.
One by one, I pondered what I should do.
I needed to deduce why this method is a shortcut.
It couldn’t just be straightforward rote-learning.
I had to think and embody it.
Even if I’m not talented in that, this felt different.
I’m confident when it comes to exploring and understanding matters related to the body.
‘Why this method? Why bind my hands?’
I needed to control the magic so that it wouldn’t burst forth and break the ropes.
In other words, it meant I had to disperse the magic efficiently.
Not explosively releasing it.
‘Then, the magic that spreads from my hands should wrap around my body…’
It was a vague feeling of understanding.
Then suddenly, the air shifted.
Based purely on the sounds I judged his location and aimed point.
‘…That’s the vital area?!’
Using such extreme measures?
There was no survival instinct kicking in.
But instinctively, I felt a threat.
The sound of slow wind was closing in.
The wooden sword sliced the air.
Aiming for my vulnerable side.
‘I have to block!’
I desperately shouted inwardly.
Thud! A heavy impact sound reverberated.
However.
‘…Huh? That didn’t hurt?’
I felt no pain.
Thud, the wooden sword dropped to the ground.
Then Gawain spoke.
“You did well.”
“…W-what? Did I succeed?”
“Yeah. You know it.”
“I can’t be sure since I can’t see. I heard a clear hit, but there’s no pain.”
“Wait. I’ll free you so you can check…”
Just then.
Clank!
Someone opened the training hall door.
Gawain halted in his tracks, looking back in surprise, and inhaling sharply.
‘Who’s that?’
“Eliya, my lady.”
“…O-oh, my lady?”
I couldn’t see ahead.
My hands were tied, so I couldn’t even show proper respect.
And for some reason, Eliya entered and stayed quiet for quite a while.
*
Eliya came looking for Judas.
She had no special motive.
Just curious about what was going on.
It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.
Sometimes she would watch Judas train from the sidelines.
Not for long, though.
And today, when she found Judas…
“……”
He was tied up, blindfolded.
He looked like he just had an intense workout, drenched in sweat, breathing heavily.
There was a slightly painful grimace visible from behind the blindfold.
Eliya couldn’t move at the sight.
The warmth she felt was a new sensation that stirred within her.
At the same time, it was shocking.
It was a barbaric scene void of any aesthetic beauty, yet something hard to describe spoke of aesthetic value came from him.
Something pulsating with the wildness of life that couldn’t be expressed through human artifice.
Suddenly, the impudent evaluations of Judas from the world floated through her mind.
The one who wanted to collar him.
Or the one who hoped someone would collar him.
How dare they think that of someone…
“…My lady? Are you alright?”
Gawain asked.
I need to release Judas, but Eliya’s unexpected arrival left me at a standstill.
Only then did Eliya collect her thoughts.
“I just came to see what you were doing. You’re training diligently.”
She skillfully donned a mask.
She left the training hall as if nothing had happened.
Judas’s figure swayed like melting sugar at the edge of her senses.
She tried hard to ignore that feeling.
*
After learning the routing, I went to find a physician.
Not Mei, Eliya’s personal physician, but one who primarily treated soldiers.
Also, the same physician who’d been at the training center.
Since the training center closed down, he had moved here.
Medical staff is hard to come by, so they couldn’t be dismissed.
“Why on earth do you train so brutishly and barbarically…?”
He complained while applying a healing herb paste to my bruised areas.
It felt good and refreshing.
“Anyhow, knights are out of their minds. Ugh… I just can’t understand.”
“But if there weren’t fools like me getting hurt, how would the physician survive?”
“I knew five years ago that you were completely insane. Is that even a rational thing to say?”
“Well, it’s true… Ow!”
He slapped my back.
“Quit talking nonsense and just take care of your body!”
“How can I take care of it when that’s my job…?”
“Shut it!”
“Ow, stop hitting me!”
Seriously, what a cranky old man.
…Not that I’m in a position to comment on others’ tempers.
After the treatment, I went to see Eliya.
However, she was holed up in the magical laboratory and didn’t show her face at all.
All I got was an order to come back later.
This was the first time such a thing happened.
Even in busy times, she usually shows her face and speaks to me.
‘She must be very busy.’
She seems to be swamped with various researches after coming back from the magic tower.
It seems she’s also handling issues related to my equipment.
‘If something urgent comes up, she’ll surely summon me.’
She always makes sure to keep the necklace with her.
Whether she’s sleeping or bathing.
The fortunate thing is that she didn’t summon me or come while I was washing.
‘But I can’t just leave it out of my worries…’
Eliya told me to come back later, so in the meantime, I decided to check on my comrades.
A large training ground was situated on one side of the mansion premises.
I could see several figures training.
I spotted familiar faces among them.
Three of them sitting side by side: Richard, Esmo, and Daike.
They looked like they had finished training and were resting.
Richard was the first to spot me and waved.
“Hey, you must be the busy knight getting thrashed by Gawain.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Esmo and Daike also smiled and waved at me.
I naturally sat beside them.
“Are you three done training?”
“Yeah. I’m too worn out to do any more today.”
Among the people training in the yard, nine stood out the most.
The 13th Room. Or the remaining members who had now turned into the royal guard.
They were in a sparring match, weapon against weapon.
“I wish I could get training from Gawain, even just once.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“Would he do it?”
“Probably not.”
“Are you teasing me?”
“A bit.”
Richard put me in a headlock.
We were laughing and joking around with such trivial chatter.
Then, quite suddenly.
“The founding day is just around the corner.”
Nils mentioned casually as he walked by.
Founding Day.
The day the Helios Empire was established.
A day commemorating the end of the era when people lived without a state or united order.
“Do you think the lady will participate?”
And, it also happened to be a day when all sorts of nobles gather.
It would be nothing in comparison to Eliya’s coming-of-age ceremony, as it would draw a massive crowd.
After all, Eliya’s birthday is simply her birthday, while this is a national festival.
“The stuck-up guard knight wouldn’t know anything, would he?”
“…I haven’t heard anything specific, so I don’t know.”
The founding ceremony is held annually.
Eliya has never participated thus far.
I have no clue why.
I’ve never asked.
But maybe she’s avoided it since others from the Bevel family also attend.
Eliya tends to skip most events unless she must.
Rather, she tends to do something else.
I have no clue what she is so busy with.
Now I do.
‘The Royal Palace, Bevel, and Molsin Church….’
I’ve heard these three powers are colluding to kill Eliya.
The conversations from that day in the garden.
Not a single detail has faded from my memory.
‘That would be tough.’
Especially lately, she seems busier than ever, so she’s likely not attending this time either.
“What a pity.”
Daike said.
“I wanted to visit the royal capital at least once.”
Founding Day takes place in the empire’s capital.
However, there are so many people that the venue is usually at the outskirts of the city.
“I also wanted to see a place called Judeca.”
And the royal capital has that massive circular arena.
Judeca.
The place where Judas lived before my possession.
To commemorate the day they purged the monsters and created the nation, the founding festival features gladiators battling in Judeca as a major event.
None of my companions asked me about Judeca in detail.
I was a slave there at a young age.
Surely, there would not be any good memories.
I can hardly remember anyway.
“Well, who knows when I’ll get the chance?”
One thing came to mind.
Unlike my childhood, I am now quite close to the time I know of the future.
And I know what’s going to happen at this year’s Founding Day.
‘The monsters that were released from Judeca wreaked havoc in the capital.’
Many civilians died as a result.
The Royal Knights were dispatched to barely subdue the monsters, which further solidified the Royal Palace’s standing.
Everyone realized that the greatest power to protect them was the empire itself.
After all the monsters were dealt with, the backing power was revealed.
They were the proponents of war conspiracy theories.
People who claimed that the empire purposefully prolongs wars for tax revenues.
I heard they unleashed the monsters in Judeca.
There’s some basis for that claim.
The empire doesn’t particularly seem invested in ending wars.
‘But the emergence of the monsters back then felt suspicious somehow…’
At that time I was engrossed in studying Eliya, so I didn’t dig deeper into it.
‘Do those conspiracy theorists really have the power to manage monsters in the first place?’
Someone fell while training in the yard.
It was Lindell.
“Ouch, that must hurt.”
Daike commented from the side.
Lindell was getting back up and rearranging his stance.
The posture that showed my long-term teachings in judo.
The basics were coming through in his stance.
‘…He looks a bit off; he must be tired.’
“Oh, teacher. What is it this time that doesn’t sit well with you?”
Richard teased, noticing my expression.
I shrugged and stood up.
“I’ll have to go train with them directly.”
*
Evening time.
Eliya, who ate first across from me, spoke.
“I’m going to attend the Founding Day.”
The awkward meals had now become a norm.
The only comfort was that she doesn’t ask to be fed like before anymore.
For about three years, she’s been eating on her own quite well.
Though, naturally, she still often requests to be fed.
Today was just one of those rare days she handled it herself.
‘But today, she isn’t making eye contact.’
“When are you planning to leave?”
As it’s a festival, people from various strata will attend.
Of course, the common folk will be there too.
However, it’s common for nobles to arrive earlier.
“I plan to arrive a day early.”
“Is there anything I should be aware of?”
Since various nobles will gather together,
The Emperor will obviously be there, and Balak will come as well.
The children of the Bevel family will undoubtedly be present too.
They are clear adversaries against Eliya.
There might be something specific I need to keep in mind.
Eliya chuckled lightly at my question.
“Not yet.”
Not yet.
That phrase implied there would be something later, didn’t it?
Though she said there’s nothing to worry about now, I couldn’t pry further.
After all, she is technically above me, my master.
I simply nodded in response.
*
That night.
Eliya couldn’t fall asleep.
It was a different kind of experience than before.
It wasn’t due to nightmares.
Since spending time with Judas, such occurrences had gradually decreased.
Recently, there were times when she could even sleep alone without nightmares.
Her insomnia had improved quite a bit.
Though still, nothing beats sleeping wrapped around Judas.
Nevertheless, it was a peculiar mood, distinct from not being able to sleep due to nightmares or unpleasant memories.
The image of Judas she had seen during the day kept resurfacing.
The harder she tried not to think of it, the more it enveloped her consciousness like a thick cover.
He had been tied up, his upper body muscles exposed…
Eliya bolted upright.
Without hesitation, she used teleportation.
The destination was next door.
The room where Judas stayed.
The space shifted.
Familiar surroundings: Judas’s bedroom.
And there he was, sprawled and sleeping.
His slightly raised shirt showed a glimpse of skin.
Moonlight softly illuminated the contours of his muscles.
‘……’
Eliya quietly watched him from that spot.
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