The knight, Aldhelm, was the captain of the royal knights of the Kingdom of Grausella, and one of its only two Masters.
It was said that in the radiant ages of the distant past, this small kingdom had once had seven Masters and five Archmages at the same time, but to Aldhelm, that was little more than an old tale.
Aldhelm had been knighted at the mere age of fourteen, and had reached the realm of Master at only eighteen, drawing the expectations of the entire kingdom upon himself.
Naturally, the captain of the knights at the time, whose strength had greatly waned with age, chose Aldhelm as his successor.
And from that day on, he began receiving education and training within the royal castle as the acting future captain of the knights. His residence, too, was prepared in a tower inside the castle.
So if he came to have dealings with Eibel, who was then the kingdom’s princess, it was only natural, in its own way.
At first, it was merely that Eibel, exhausted from her education as heir, fled and hid in the tower given to Aldhelm.
Aldhelm thought that if even he found things this difficult, then how hard must it be for a girl younger than himself, princess or not? So he turned a blind eye and hid her.
Had he been some ordinary knightly nobody, he would not have escaped the severest punishment, but Aldhelm was, so to speak, a distant collateral branch of the royal family, and the matter passed without any issue.
After that, Eibel began secretly coming and going from Aldhelm’s tower on a regular basis.
For the first few times after that initial incident, she had likely truly run away because she did not want to study.
But as a month passed, and then a year passed, and time continued to go by.
Before either of them had even realized it, their hearts had grown so close that they could no longer be pulled apart.
At first, he had merely allowed her to hide for a little while, but their deviations grew larger and larger until they became irreversible.
Going out in disguise to play in the streets below the castle without anyone knowing. Or, a little more boldly, falling asleep in the same bed.
And those days continued even until not long after the princess had held her grand coming-of-age ceremony.
“Aldhelm, you’re a little late today.”
“……Princess, this is not Your Highness’s room.”
“What does it matter? Let it slide a little. There’s nowhere in this stifling castle as comfortable as this place.”
Aldhelm sighed as he looked at Eibel, who was lying on his bed as if it were her own, reading a book.
“Please leave for today. Surely Your Highness is well aware of what rumors have been circulating among the maids in the castle of late.”
“What rumors?”
Aldhelm read the meaning in Eibel’s expression—“I know everything, but say it with your own mouth”—and felt his head begin to throb.
“The false rumors that Your Highness and I are…… in a relationship too embarrassing to speak of.”
They had done many things that could have caused problems in various ways, but Aldhelm swore to the Lord God that he had never once laid a hand on the princess’s body.
It would be a lie to say he had never imagined it, but it was a dream he could never reach, and must never reach.
“False rumors…… I wonder.”
“……Pardon?”
Before Aldhelm could understand what those words meant, Eibel rose from the bed and naturally embraced him, looping her arms around his neck.
“Starting tomorrow…… they may not be false rumors anymore.”
“Y-Your jest goes too far……”
“Does it seem like a jest?”
Aldhelm quietly swallowed so that no sound would escape. His reason was ringing alarm bells, warning him that this was honey laced with poison.
Sweet when drunk, but certain to end in ruin, one way or another.
“……What do you say?”
But at the sight of the princess, who seemed fearless yet whose voice was gradually beginning to tremble.
“I……”
Aldhelm willingly drank that honey.
◇
As Aldhelm had expected, all of this ended in ruin.
Yet that ruin came in a form utterly different from what Aldhelm had imagined.
The three kingdoms that had often clashed with Grausella in the north and west formed an alliance and attacked the Kingdom of Grausella.
On their side, there was one Master who was now elderly and unable to bring out his full strength, and one Master who had only just turned twenty-three and was not yet fully matured. There were no Archmages at all.
On the enemy’s side, there were two Archmages and seven Masters. It was a disparity in strength that could never be overturned.
In the first battle, Aldhelm’s master was killed, and overnight Aldhelm became both the captain of the royal knights and the sole Master.
But it was by no means a situation in which he could laugh.
If he repelled a Master on one front, an Archmage would appear on the opposite side and unleash massive spells; if he dealt with that side, a Master would spring out on the other. It was a hopeless situation.
In the end, Grausella’s main force was miserably shattered after only two pitched battles, and the king, too, came to die before Aldhelm’s eyes.
“Aldhelm……”
“Your Majesty, please speak……”
“In truth, I knew everything that happened between you and Eibel.”
“……!!”
Aldhelm was so shocked by those words that he nearly stopped breathing, but he could not show such a reaction before the dying king, and barely managed to harden his expression.
“It is all right. If anything, I am glad it was you……”
“Y-Your Majesty. I……”
“If you feel that way, then, cough! Listen to my request……”
“Yes, please speak, Your Majesty……”
“My daughter, Eibel. Though she was my heir, I could not treat her with tenderness…… But if it is you, I can entrust her to you. Please, take that child far away……”
At that moment, from far in the distance, a magical bombardment from the enemy mage corps flew toward Aldhelm.
―――Kwaaaaang!!
“Urgh, Your Majesty, Your Majesty!!”
Aldhelm himself blocked the attack with barely a wound, but his king, despite once having been a powerful mage, passed away without being able to resist even once.
Amid the rising cloud of dust, Aldhelm was forced to retreat without even being able to recover his lord’s body.
◇
With the burning capital at their backs, Aldhelm and several knights succeeded in taking Eibel and escaping the castle.
It was only a matter of time before pursuers caught up from behind, but for the moment, they had to flee.
By the time Aldhelm had reached the castle, the other princes and princesses had already vanished without a trace, and only Eibel, the kingdom’s heir, remained in the castle, handling its affairs.
Eibel stubbornly insisted that she would never leave the castle, but once the attack began and the capital’s northern gate was finally breached, there were no longer any options.
Southward, and further southward.
Even after crossing several mountains, hills, and rivers, the pursuers chasing them showed no sign of stopping.
A detached force of several hundred, including two Masters and one Archmage, was pressing its blade right beneath their chins.
In just ten days, all the knights who had escaped with them were lost, leaving only Aldhelm and Eibel.
And when they reached a certain hill, Aldhelm realized that they could flee no farther.
There might still be about a day left. But it was only a single day.
In order to let the princess escape, he had to do it.
Thinking that this would likely be their final farewell, Aldhelm knelt before Eibel and bowed his head.
“……Your Highness.”
“A-Aldhelm? What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly being so formal……”
“Please, I beg that you leave me here and go.”
“……What? What are you saying!”
Aldhelm raised his head and took the princess’s hand as he spoke.
“The enemies have now come close before us. At this rate, it is only a matter of time before we are caught. So…… I will do it.”
“That’s absurd! We’ve made it this far just fine…… Just a little, just a little farther……”
“Princess.”
Aldhelm, too, desperately wanted to remain with Eibel a little longer like this, but they could delay no more.
Aldhelm rose to his feet and took Eibel into his arms.
Then Eibel, too, gently, yet with trembling hands, wrapped her arms around Aldhelm.
For a while, the two of them held each other tightly without a word, quietly sharing each other’s final warmth.
“Aldhelm, promise me.”
“Yes, anything.”
“Let’s meet again, right here. Right here.”
“……Princess.”
Aldhelm knew that it was a promise that could never be fulfilled.
Almost certainly, he would face an overwhelming number of enemies here and meet his death.
But for the princess he loved, he would do so gladly.
“Yes. Someday, without fail, we will meet again in this place.”
……
The promise was not fulfilled.
Aldhelm annihilated the enemy’s detached force and fought on equal footing against the two Masters.
The fierce will to let no one pass beyond this point granted him a strength that could not be explained.
The battle continued for four full days, and the one who emerged victorious was Aldhelm.
The sword he swung last became a single streak of light, cutting the two Masters in two with one blow, and passing beyond them to leave a sword scar even upon the sky.
A single line was drawn across the clouds adorning the blue sky, splitting them in two.
Long ago, they said, beside the emperor who had unified this continent, there had been a swordsman who could cut the heavens.
Seen in this way, perhaps that had not been merely a legend.
After that thought briefly passed through his mind, Aldhelm collapsed backward. There was no strength left in his body anymore.
Blood was flowing from his entire body, and an immense agony he had not felt until now began to constrict him.
It was because the battle had ended, and the tension had loosened.
Aldhelm felt his body slowly, yet surely, growing cold.
“Princess…… Eibel.”
A single name he had called countless times in his heart, yet had never once actually spoken aloud.
From the moment Aldhelm resolved himself for death, he had decided to make it his final words.
Worry came first—had she escaped safely, or not?—but at the very least, he decided to believe she had.
And as Aldhelm gazed up at the sky, just like that, he breathed his last.
◇
He should certainly have died like that, and yet Aldhelm felt that he was still alive.
No, if he said he was alive, something felt strange. When he looked at his hand, he could see the ground beyond it right through his palm.
Aldhelm was able to immediately understand what had happened.
They said that those who held strong lingering attachments to the present world would remain only as souls, possessing false bodies and living on forever.
When he looked around, the sight was different from before.
It was undoubtedly the very place where he had fallen, and yet his own corpse was nowhere to be seen, and no traces of the fierce battle remained.
All that entered Aldhelm’s eyes was a small, long gravestone made of rock, standing at the edge of the hill.
It had not been there when he and Eibel had exchanged their promise.
And hanging from that gravestone was a small pendant, the one Eibel had still been wearing when she fled.
No matter how much time had passed, there were rusted patches here and there, but it was unmistakably hers.
On the gravestone, in crooked but clear letters, was written, “Eibel Ehil Clanter.”
He did not know what had happened, but he immediately knew that this was Eibel’s grave.
Aldhelm stood before it and looked down at the gravestone. Perhaps this was his lingering attachment.
A longing that could never, for all eternity, be fulfilled.
But he could accept it willingly.
Because they had promised that someday, without fail, they would meet again in this place.
◇
Aldhelm looked up at the sky from where he stood.
It was a sky he had faced countless times before, but for some reason, Aldhelm felt that today, something was different.
His heart should have returned to the earth long ago, yet an inexplicable pounding was stirring within his chest.
Aldhelm slowly closed his eyes and sank into thought.
Surely it was because of the extraordinary intruder who had appeared of late.
Since becoming a body with only his soul remaining, Aldhelm had never once been defeated.
As the knight who guarded the princess, no matter how strong his opponent might be, he could not allow himself to lose to anyone.
Even those who had reached realms higher than his in life had all knelt before Aldhelm’s sword.
After he opened his eyes once more, countless mighty warriors fell to him one after another, and from a certain day onward, the footsteps of the fighters who sought him began to dwindle.
It was a strange thing, but for one such as him, who had to protect this promised land for all time, it was a welcome one.
So that, as time flowed on, everyone would forget this place, and the princess could sleep in peace and stillness.
But that, too, was a tale only up until recently.
Aldhelm recalled the last few battles, in which he had been brutally defeated without being able to do a thing.
Had there ever been another opponent who made him think he could never overcome them by his own power?
That was how overwhelming the girl was, and for the first time since becoming a ghost, Aldhelm felt helplessness.
Time and again, he had been driven to the brink of extinction, and when he was struck by that first blow in particular, it had made him feel the terror that he might truly be annihilated.
He was already dead, and extinction itself did not frighten him, but he could not bear the thought of the land where he had made his promise with the princess being defiled, and so he had simply endured with all his might.
And in the end, Aldhelm had succeeded in withstanding it. Even when his false body was destroyed, he remained whole.
Then, now that it had been proven that even that astonishing attack could not overcome him—
Why was he trembling with such an indescribable emotion? What was he afraid of?
No, that was not it.
Aldhelm realized that what he felt was not fear. And he felt bewildered.
What, exactly, was he—
What was he hoping for?
With little time left before sunset, the girl appeared again today as well.
As had been the case since the first day, it seemed she had not brought along the boy and girl who had been at her side.
But unlike before, her eyes were filled with certainty about something.
With every step she took closer, the beating in Aldhelm’s chest grew louder.
“Aldhelm.”
Hearing the sound that came from the girl’s lips, Aldhelm felt a shudder pierce through his entire body.
At the same time, a thought flashed through his mind—one he was certain must be what people called intuition.
That his end was drawing near.