35. Eight Knights and a Lonely Princess

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/38/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Inside the royal castle, in a stone room ordinarily used for the soldiers’ briefings, the knighthood that was the kingdom’s pride stood assembled in full.
It was rare for them, usually scattered across the land, to gather in one place like this.
Was war about to break out at last, or had the other side already made the first move?
Convinced that an emergency of one kind or another must be underway, they had rushed back to the royal capital—and yet—

“Haaah? You don’t even know the reason!?”

Ashera Foshanza spat it out without bothering to hide her irritation.
She had blood-red hair tied back, eyes of the same blood-red, and from the legend that any battlefield she entered became a sea of blood, she was called the Crimson Battle Fiend.
Whether the rumors were true or not, the strength with which she swung an enormous axe as tall as she was was certainly beyond the human.

“Don’t screw with me. I ain’t got time to waste. Bring out the king. The king!”
“Do calm yourself, Ashera. Lily is at a loss, is she not?”

Lalilalai Avota rebuked Ashera in a gentle voice.
Unlike Ashera, from whom roughness seeped even from her appearance, Lalilalai’s silver hair, ample figure, and mild expression suggested a tranquil person.
Her generosity was such that she was called the Madonna of the Kingdom, and the soldiers adored her in more than one sense.

“Well, well, Lalilalai, still as big-hearted as ever. That’s our Madonna of the Kingdom for you—the sex-mother herself.”
“Madonna is far too grand a title. I merely wrap as many people as I can in love, so that they may be happy.”
“That’s a roundabout way of saying you’ll spread your legs for anyone, you whore.”
“Oh my, I do not sell my body. I am always happy to do it free of charge, you know?”
“That makes it even worse!”

Ashera glared; Lalilalai’s smile did not falter.
Whenever the two of them met, it was always like this.
Watching them, Lily, captain of the knighthood, clutched her head and heaved a long sigh.
I ought to stop them here—so she thought, and yet her voice would not come.
Even if someone like Lily spoke up, these two would not stop.
While she dithered over it, another member opened her mouth first.

“Gahahaha! Ashera’s still as savage as ever! Don’t waste it in here—come keep me company later!”
“Tch… Don’t stick your oar in, David.”
“You ought to be thanking him for stopping you. You two will never see eye to eye, and an endless quarrel would be a nuisance.”
“You stay out of it too, Madis. I get it, all right?”

The two men belonging to the knighthood—David, distinguished by a huge frame some two meters tall, and Madis, who wore a white coat and glasses and looked every bit the intellectual—each cut in.
Told off by the familiar David and the cool-headed Madis, even Ashera, wild horse that she was, had no choice but to fall silent.
Watching the exchange, Narkil, who had been looking on from the side, gave a wry smile.

“Ashera, you’re the same as ever. You ought to become more womanly, like me.”
“You’ve got womanliness all wrong, you damn queen!”
“How narrow-minded. Beauty has nothing to do with gender. Man, woman, or queen—my beauty will go on shining dazzlingly!”

Swaying a body as slender as a woman’s, Narkil declared it at the top of his voice.
His makeup was heavy, his hair a flashy pink; his appearance was far from ordinary “beauty,” but his inexhaustible pursuit of it was genuine.
Moreover, from the conviction that “strength, too, is a part of beauty,” he never neglected his training.
In combat with a metal whip, he did not yield even to David, whose physique was overwhelmingly superior; he was, without question, a formidable fighter.

“… You’ve got some nerve, saying that when you’ve got a complex about women.”

Indeed, as Ashera had pointed out, even as he claimed that beauty had nothing to do with gender, he harbored a warped complex toward women, which made him a considerable headache for the kingdom.

“So anyway, what’s the king doing, Captain?”
“The king is…”

At last the conversation had been tossed to Lily.
Her expression dark, she faltered.
To begin with, it was not she who had gathered the knighthood here.
She was the captain, yes, but she had not been granted that kind of authority.
It was all the king’s responsibility, who had announced it as if on a sudden whim.
And yet—as the team’s leader, she could not be permitted to shift the blame like that.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to say you summoned us for ‘no particular reason’?”
“That would trouble even me. I hurried here the moment I heard it was a royal order to return.”
“The truth is… the king has not shown himself for some time. He seems to be eating normally, so it does not appear that he has fallen ill, but…”

A bang.
Hearing that, Ashera kicked a table leg in irritation.
Lily’s body jerked.

“Don’t you fuck with me. I ain’t got time for this either! If he won’t come out, fine by me. I’ll drag that useless shut-in out even if I have to tear his head off in his room!”

Ashera’s face twisted with rage as she made to leave.
Narkil teased her.

“My, how dangerous. If you say things like that about the king, Saints won’t keep quiet. Will you?”
“The king is God’s deputy. To insult him is beyond the pale, Ashera!”
“See? He’s angry.”

Led by those words, the spear of Ashera’s anger was neatly redirected toward Saints.
Ashera was not very bright; that was why Narkil and the others could steer her so easily.

“Like I give a damn! Saints, how about we settle here and now which of us is right? Hah!?”
“If that is what it takes to defend God’s dignity, I shall be your opponent!”

Ashera set her hands on the hilts of two swords; Saints raised his fists.
At this rate, they really looked as if they would fight.
Ordinary buildings were not sturdy enough to withstand combat between knights. If they were not stopped, not only the room but the castle itself would be wrecked.
Cowled by the killing intent the two of them gave off, Lily still wrung her voice out with a fierce sense of duty.

“… Both of you, wait.”

Sharp gazes turned on Lily all at once.
It was frightening enough to freeze her spine, but she clenched her fists and somehow endured it.

“Does the captain have some brilliant plan, then?”
“The entire knighthood was summoned. Including the fact that he will not leave his room, there must be a reason. I will uncover it, and I will hear what he has to say.”
“So in the end you’ve got nothing… Sheesh.”
“Don’t get so worked up, Ashera. Leave the king to the captain. The rest of us can enjoy a rare holiday.”
“Madis, you’d be happy enough researching your shady drugs in your room. I ain’t that idle!”
“Now, now. Then you need only find work that can be done here.”
“If you’ve got time, come train with me, Ashera. Let’s have a bout for the first time in a while!”
“… Ahh, hell. Fine. I’m going to the training grounds, David! I’ll take you on, stress relief and all!”

No one had declared a dismissal, but the members filed out of the room on their own.
Before long the six were gone, and those remaining were—Lily, and the small, expressionless girl standing neatly at her side.
Her name was Kishiri Varazz.
She was the newest member of the knighthood, with the unusual history of having been scouted by Lily on the battlefield.
Her presence was thin, her combat ability unknown.
That she had been brought in by the figurehead captain, Lily, also meant the other members were not especially fond of her.
As they left the room, the only one who waved in greeting was Lalilalai.
Kishiri herself did not seem much concerned; throughout the meeting just now she had stood there without changing her expression.

“Sorry, Kishiri. You went to the trouble of coming back, and it turned out like this.”
“I don’t mind. But Lily, what should I do now?”
“… I can’t say anything until the king comes out of his room. You should take a holiday as well, Kishiri.”
“Holiday. I don’t understand.”
“Well, if you truly have nothing to do, you may come to my room. I can at least keep you company.”
“Understood. I’ll go to Lily’s room. Until then I’ll rest in my own.”
“Yes. Do that.”

Kishiri waved to Lily as Lalilalai had done, and quietly left the room.
Rooms for every member of the knighthood were prepared in the castle.
They were seldom used, but they ought always to be kept clean, so they would serve well enough for a holiday.

“Still, Ashera’s dissatisfaction is fair enough.”

Lily murmured it to herself.
There was a limit to the work that could be done in the castle. Knights who defined their role as fighting—Ashera, David, Kishiri, and the like—could do precious little.
Every last member of the knighthood was a person who could not be handled by ordinary means.
If they were left to accumulate frustration like this, there was no telling what would happen.
She had to get the reason out of the king quickly—why he had summoned the entire knighthood.

“Fuu…”

The present, and the future.
The mere thought of them drew a sigh from her unbidden.
Lily was the captain of the knighthood, and the weakest person in it.
That said, her skill with a sword was far beyond that of an ordinary soldier, but she was not inhuman in the way the other members were.
Then why had she been able to become captain?

Because—she had been born to a distinguished house.
There had apparently been such an arrangement between the king and her father, and from childhood Lily had been raised to become the honorable captain of the knighthood someday.
It was a post that ought originally to have been held by a man, and her parents had seemed to hope for a boy, but the king had rather been pleased that Lily was a girl.
The advancement of women’s status was excellent material for making the people’s support of the king unshakable.
And so, from childhood, she had been put through harsh training so that she might become a person worthy of the captaincy.
Lily had had no private time, had received no parental affection from her parents, had had no friends and no smiles; she had offered everything, all of it, to becoming captain.
And even so—she remained merely an “excellent human,” and it was hard to call her worthy of the post.
She could hear her parents’ sighs of disappointment.
The people whispering behind her back.
She herself despised the Lily who had failed to answer expectations.
And the rank of “captain,” far too heavy a burden, was crushing her more surely every day.

“Lily, you have that painful look again.”

At the voice, Lily’s eyes flew open.
Its owner was—a girl looking up at her from under her brows, her soft, shining gold hair swaying.
Apparently she had slipped into the room while Lily was lost in thought.

“Your Highness… why are you here?”
“I heard loud voices, so I came to see if you were all right, Lily.”
“… Forgive me. I have shown you an embarrassing sight.”
“You must not apologize. I ordered you to be honest before me. If it hurts, you need only say so, and I shall comfort you.”
“Forgive me.”
“Muu…”

She was Sara Miliosol.
Daughter of the king who ruled this country—in other words, the princess.
She was the only one who looked at Lily, the figurehead captain, without colored glasses, and she adored her more than anyone.

“Is Father troubling you again, Lily?”
“Nothing of the kind. The king is only acting with something in mind.”
“… Father is not that fine a person.”
“You mustn’t, Your Highness. You should not say such things about your father.”

At Lily’s rebuke, Sara puffed out her cheeks.
A declaration of intent far too honest.
Seeing it, Lily could not help but smile.

“If he means to claim a father’s rights, then Father ought to treat me more like a daughter. Lately he will not even speak to me.”
“That is… because he is busy. Unlike an ordinary father, a king is a king.”

They left the room and, without having arranged it, naturally headed for Sara’s chambers, continuing to talk as they went.

“Then Father has no right to call himself a father. And Mother…”
“Your Highness…”
“My family is only you, Lily. That is quite enough.”

Lily could hardly fail to be glad, being told that much.
And yet—she could not simply rejoice.
She knew that most of what Sara said about the king came from an age-appropriate wish to be indulged by a parent.
She ought to sympathize, and she ought to petition the king directly: please treasure your time with your daughter more.
But that was only the will of the individual named Lily Clearlights.
She had a duty to put the captain’s will first; she had no memory of being taught by her parents to put herself first.
And so, like a model student, she told the princess again and again, until her mouth soured, “You must not say such things about the king.”

“Muu… Come to think of it, Lily, the mood among the soldiers guarding the king has been different for a little while now.”
“Ah. Because of that incident, the previous soldiers all died. They were replaced.”
“But… aren’t there an awful lot of women?”

That had been bothering Lily as well.

It was common knowledge that the present king, perhaps out of concern for popular support, had begun placing women in important posts.
It had started a little while ago, when crop yields began to fall and signs of famine appeared, as a way to ease the people’s discontent even a little.
In the end, production returned to what it had been, and famine never came—but the response had been better than expected, and the king had continued in that direction.
Perhaps as a result, female soldiers had been increasing of late.

Even so, among the newly arrived soldiers, the proportion of women was far too high.
Or rather—were they not all women?
And every one of them a beauty men would turn to look at in spite of themselves, all fair-skinned, all well-fleshed, all possessed of a uniformly bewitching charm.
Perhaps because of that, the atmosphere inside the castle had changed completely.

“It is strange, yes.”
“So you thought so too, Lily. What on earth is Father thinking?”

Lily could not answer Sara’s question.
She understood nothing, from start to finish.
Even if the post was a figurehead’s, being told nothing to this extent did make her wretched.
Even so, if she was to become someone who could hold her head up even a little as captain, she could not spend all her time hanging her head.
A king who would not leave his room.
A knighthood suddenly assembled.
And soldiers who were all women.
She would get every mystery out of the king, and she would resolve their discontent.
Lily resolved it fiercely.
… Without noticing the Demi-Vamps walking the castle openly as soldiers.