The room of a direct descendant of Puhairden, the Castle of Winter.
In that place, no different from an icebox, Yulie was looking at her sword.
“…….”
With a face almost lost in a daze, she turned the blade, the flat, and the hilt this way and that as she examined it.
Good metal, tempered so that mana would permeate it well. A keen edge honed sharp over the long years. A grip that had changed according to the way its owner wielded it.
The grain of the sword reflecting the electric light was worthy of admiration.
“This is my sword…….”
Yulie gripped the sword with her own hand.
“!”
For an instant, goosebumps rose all along her back, and her hair stood on end. It clung so perfectly to her hand that she could not tell whether the sword had taken hold of her, or she had taken hold of the sword.
More certain than anything else, it was proof of the ten years that had passed.
“……Hmm.”
Yulie shivered from a pointless chill—no, she shivered because it was actually cold. At any rate.
Yulie sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the family meeting minutes. Yusefin’s words rewound in her ears.
—Deculein was your former fiancé. The one you broke off the engagement with because of the curse.
It was such an overwhelming shock that it was difficult to understand everything. In the first place, they had been in a relationship with no point of contact whatsoever.
“Deculein.”
Deculein. Yulie knew of him. A wizard of the Mage Tower and a famous figure at the university.
According to noble society gossip, he was an extremely bad person. From his academy days, he had led bullying, cartels, instigated violence, and so on…….
“…….”
However, the Deculein Yulie had seen then was a man who firmly possessed what was his. A man who lived solely for himself.
That was why, for Yulie, who had nothing that was “hers,” he was unbearably enviable, and sometimes, if she happened to pass him on the street, her eyes would be drawn to him.
“But how did it come to…….”
Yulie looked at a particular page in the family meeting minutes.
[Yulie was unable to escape Marik due to Deculein’s unreasonable compulsion to undertake a mission, and was caught in the explosion of vengeful spirits within Marik. Her heart was drenched in demonic energy and curses, but she miraculously returned alive.
However, Yukline and Deculein instead demanded compensation for damages…….]
The paragraph that described the reason she had been cursed.
Tak—
She closed it at once. Then she murmured softly.
“……We are not people who could ever be engaged.”
Ten years, a span in which even mountains and rivers are said to change.
Accepting the weight of it in such a short time was, as expected, difficult.
“Phew.”
Yulie rose from the chair and looked around the room.
There was only a bed and a chair for furniture, and beyond that, knight manuals. This scenery alone was exactly the same as it had been ten years ago, but one thing was different.
The famed sword gripped in her hand.
Looking at it, she quietly recited.
“……The Empire.”
She had a goal. One far more certain and far more honest than that of the Yulie ten years later, who had been battered by reality as she lived.
A guardian knight of the Empire.
And also, one other thing that had appeared relatively recently.
“Puhairden.”
Her family, which had entered an ice age—the hot-blooded young Yulie wanted to protect it.
* * *
Two days later.
Yulie arrived in the capital.
“The capital is…… this much.”
Indeed, the capital of the Empire had changed tremendously over ten years. It was such a dazzling, otherworldly place that her eyes had no time to dry as she took in the scenery.
Walking along and looking around, blinking like some country bumpkin, she soon reached the knight order affiliated with the Imperial University.
“Stop. From here onward, outsiders are forbidden entry.”
Unlike the Mage Tower, which was partially open even to ordinary university students, the knight order was completely cut off.
Yulie approached the knight at the entrance and presented her letter of recommendation.
“I am a cadet who will be entering today.”
“…….”
Without a word, the knight skimmed over the recommendation letter and Yulie.
“Identification.”
“Yes.”
When she held out her identification, he read it together with the recommendation letter, then nodded.
“……You came from Puhairden?”
“Yes. I am from a branch family.”
“Hm. It’s been a while since we’ve had a parachute like this. Fine. Go in. Tell the dormitory supervisor, and they’ll give you an empty room.”
The instant he learned she was a cadet and from a branch family, he switched straight to speaking down to her.
Yulie nodded.
“Yes.”
With a duffel bag over her shoulder, she walked on familiarly.
She knew the internal structure of the affiliated knight order well.
[Dormitory]
She soon arrived at the dormitory, and unpacked in Room 303, which the supervisor had assigned her.
“It’s been a while since we had a parachute. The other cadets are on external training and won’t be back until tomorrow, so rest up.”
The supervisor, who had been glancing at her from in front of the dormitory door, said that.
“Yes.”
Yulie answered as she sat on the bed.
Thud—!
The supervisor closed the door.
“…….”
And then, silence.
Quietly, alone.
“Hmmm…….”
A wooden single room. In the past, it had been a double, but now it had become a single.
Well, perhaps a single room was more comfortable.
As she thought this and that, the words suddenly slipped out of her mouth.
“Let’s study.”
She still had a long way to go before accepting the ten years that had passed.
Not just the family meeting minutes, but how the Empire had changed over ten years, and how the political situation was developing.
To learn that…….
“The library.”
* * *
Tick…….
Tock…….
The clock ticked quietly in the Imperial University’s library.
Sylvia was studying now.
Not magic, but “education.”
After all, teaching idiots was truly difficul—
Creeeak—
The sound of a chair being dragged.
A woman sat down not far from her.
At first, she thought nothing of it.
Thump— tap— thud— thump— thud— thududududu——
But the sound of books piling up in stacks grated on her nerves.
A trait of children who were bad at studying. They piled up books they could never finish reading first and only then looked at them.
Sylvia pressed her fingers to her temple and glared in that direction.
At that moment, her eyes widened.
“……You.”
The word slipped from her mouth without her realizing.
“……?”
The woman who had just opened a book looked back at her and tilted her head.
Yulie.
……No.
Looking closely, it was not Yulie.
She was much younger.
“…….”
“Do you perhaps know me?”
When Sylvia said nothing, the woman who resembled Yulie asked first.
“……I mistook you.”
“Ah~ I see……. But are you a professor?”
Sylvia nodded.
“A magic professor.”
Instructor or professor, there was not much difference.
“Oh. A magic professor…… Amazing. I am a knight cadet.”
“A university student?”
“Yes. If you are a magic professor, may I ask you just one thing?”
Why was she so sociable?
Well, come to think of it, Sylvia had been the one to speak first.
Sylvia answered primly.
“What are you curious about?”
“Does learning magic perhaps help with swordsmanship as well?”
“It does.”
An immediate answer.
Sylvia raised her index finger and gathered mana above it. A blue current formed the shape of a sword.
“Mana resonance. The acts by which knights form sword aura, sword force, and force aura, or unleash sword strikes, are all related to this ‘mana resonance,’ and resonance is most deeply connected to magic.”
“Mm…….”
The cadet also raised her index finger.
She seemed to be trying to gather mana like Sylvia, but there was no way it would go well. As if a mere knight could imitate a wizard.
Whooo…….
However, the cadet’s mana manifested a little differently. In an instant, a chill brushed past like wind, and the mana froze blue.
A skill that made Sylvia’s mind tingle for a moment.
It was “talent.”
Real talent—the kind she had not seen in a very long time, the kind she could be certain of and intuit the moment she saw it.
“…….”
Sylvia’s expression stiffened slightly. She asked the cadet.
“Where are you from?”
“I am from a branch family of Puhairden.”
“…….”
From Puhairden, like “that knight.”
Something felt suspicious, but Sylvia looked at the knight without saying anything.
“Yes?”
To the white-haired cadet tilting her head, she offered a single sentence.
“You. Have you no thought of attending my class?”
For someone who would become a professor, after all, she could not simply sit by and watch “real talent” rot away like this in the library…….
* * *
Early dawn, the knight order affiliated with the Imperial University.
Today, as Captain of the Imperial Guard, I visited that place.
“Haha. To think the Captain of the Guard would come at this early hour…….”
“I always go to work at dawn.”
“Ah…… as expected.”
The captain of the university’s affiliated knight order was a man named Bellarin. Having yielded the seat of honor to me, he was pouring coffee into a teacup.
“……You said a Revelation was discovered in this university knight order as well?”
Bellarin’s shoulders flinched. I closely observed his reaction, then took a sip of coffee.
“Yes…… that is correct.”
He nodded with quite a solemn face.
“I am cautious about making such a report to the Captain of the Guard, but…… portions of the Revelation were discovered in the cadets’ dormitory.”
The Altar’s Revelation.
It had spread rather deeply within this Empire as well. There were probably quite a few imperial citizens who believed in the Altar, knowingly or unknowingly, even if only a little.
“If there is a dog of the Altar proselytizing here…… we are not a judicial institution, you see. Haha.”
The way he kept watching my face as he spoke made it obvious that he was pretending to seek advice while hoping for credit.
A knight commander trying to sell out his own cadets to accumulate merit.
“I will send an adventurer. Her name is Lia, so treat her appropriately.”
“Yes.”
With 「Psychokinesis」, I pulled the cadet roster toward me. I flipped through it with a rustle, scanning the names.
There were no particular anomalies.
“Also, from now on, I will often keep an eye on the knight order’s events.”
“Oh. The Captain of the Guard himself, you mean?!”
“There is the joint training with the Mage Tower immediately ahead.”
Knights and wizards, wizards and knights.
Though they appeared like mutual opposites, the bond between the two professions was clear. Not only in their elitist consciousness as “social leaders,” but also in their roles in times of emergency.
Knights usually protect wizards, and wizards guide the battle situation in favor of knights.
Therefore, now that the war with the Altar was not far off, this “joint training” was rather important.
“No, I will personally observe the joint training altogether.”
“……Pardon?”
Bellarin asked back with a blank face.
I said,
“Why. Are you uncomfortable if I am there?”
“Ah, no. That is not the case, but.”
Not only that, I also intended to use 「Comprehension」 to prepare a curriculum for the knights.
Even if the world were to end tomorrow, planting a single apple tree is what humans do.
“Then keep up the good work. I’ll be going.”
I rose from my seat. Bellarin bowed behind me and called out.
“Yes. Safe travels!”
I went outside just like that and stood in the empty training ground behind the main building.
For a while, I swept my gaze over that dirt-colored field.
Perhaps because every cadet had gone off to train, it was calm and quiet.
“Mm?”
However, in the middle of the training ground, a single wooden sword was stuck upright.
“Is it an offering meal?”
Like a spoon stuck into rice for ancestral rites.
I grasped it and lifted it.
“……A sword, is it.”
A sword.
This worthless long stick that Yulie loved, and that knights called their lives.
Whoooosh——
I swung this ridiculous wooden sword.
At first, it was a simple form. Nothing more than one horizontal slash and two vertical slashes.
However, as the forms continued, the sword slowly “spread.”
As though cold air rose from ice, as though a chill diffused outward.
Thirteen chapters of techniques in total.
Twenty-one strokes of form for each chapter.
Thus, “273 strokes” of form.
A sword art suited only to Yulie, one I had conceived alone while thinking of her.
“……Pathetic.”
However, that form ended with the first chapter.
Thuk─!
Shaking my head, I stabbed the wooden sword into the ground.
…….
Meanwhile, in the dormitory, Yulie was studying history.
For reference, her morning exercise had already ended long ago. The strengths Yulie prided herself on were diligence and sincerity.
“……?”
But today.
No, right now.
A situation peculiar enough to draw the eyes of that sincere girl occurred.
“Chairman Deculein?”
The training ground beyond the window.
In the far-off middle of it, which would look no larger than a dot to an ordinary person, Deculein was standing. His figure was perfectly visible to Yulie.
“……He is similar to my memory.”
There was nothing particularly different about him. Well, he had always worn a uniform at the academy, and even after graduating, he was always in a suit.
“Mm……?”
Wondering what he intended to do, Yulie took her eyes off the history book for a moment and watched him.
He looked at the practice wooden sword she had stuck into the ground, then gave a faint laugh and gripped the handle.
Yulie blinked.
She had left it there so that if she grew sleepy while studying, she could go back and train again.
“…….”
However, in the very next moment, her eyes widened.
Like someone who had witnessed some strange phenomenon.
Whoooosh——
The clean grain of the sword could be felt even from afar.
An air current that continued, cold and transparent enough to freeze…….
It was difficult to explain such things in words. She was far too poor with them.
Yulie’s mouth simply fell open. Likewise, her widened eyes followed Deculein’s form, one she had never seen in her life.
One stroke continuing with each breath, one form.
That form moved organically to complete one chapter of technique.
Like art, like a waterfall on some mountainside, it unfolded without obstruction…….
“Ah!”
At some moment, it cut off on its own.
Clang—it shattered.
Because Deculein had stopped the form.
“Why…….”
Though he had just displayed an extremely artistic form, he shook his head as if he found himself pathetic and drove the wooden sword into the ground.
Then he left the training ground.
“…….”
Yulie, on the other hand, silently replayed the scene just now, then—thud!
She kicked off from her seat and ran out of the dormitory.
Thud-thud-thud-thud——!
Deculein had already disappeared, but she ran blindly and pulled out her “wooden sword” from where it was embedded in the center of the training ground.
Gripping it tightly, she began to reproduce the form Deculein had just shown.
“Was it like this…….”
Thread by thread, tracing through her own memory.