“If your ass is bored, you should’ve gone to a brothel instead of joining the knight division.”
Noticing that his opponent was gradually tiring, Gareth erased his initial flustered expression and tried to harass me again. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t feel harassed at all.
‘Let’s try one more time at the end.’
A shallow wound appeared where his sword grazed past. Gareth, perhaps thinking he had completely seized victory, put strength into his back foot to swing his sword widely. And the moment that sword came toward my waist, I charged forward.
“What!”
A slight opening appeared at the unexpected movement. I burrowed into his body and once again brought my sword to his neck. This time, instead of immediately pulling back, I applied force to create a wound and drew blood.
“Wh-what.”
“Ugh.”
However, he hadn’t stopped the arm he was swinging, so the fist gripping the sword hit me squarely in the waist. While Gareth only had a shallow wound on his neck, I, who took a direct hit to the side, was sent flying far away.
After rolling on the ground about two times, I saw Gareth’s face contorted while bleeding from his neck.
“This bastard, I was going easy on you.”
This was enough that there should have been shouts to stop the sparring, but no one tried to stop it.
“I’m curious if you can stay in that position even with a broken arm. Or will you tattle to His Highness?”
Why on earth would he interfere in such a trivial matter? I had the mind to report to the 1st Knight Division Commander that there were swordsmen who knew no honor, but I didn’t know why he was bringing up His Highness.
“During sparring, ugh, intentionally inflicting wounds is prohibited.”
Even as I stood up my staggering body and recited the proper argument, he didn’t stop.
“In a sparring match, you have to see it through to the end! I only swung lightly, but isn’t it unavoidable that you got injured?”
He swung his sword without hesitation at someone who had lost the strength to resist.
‘The sword will bounce off, but I should still block it…’
Just before the sword could block me, a red cloak fluttered before my eyes. Someone had jumped down from the second floor. Before I could even grasp what had happened, Gareth’s sword flew into the air and was soon embedded in the training ground floor. The silence was quite long, as no one present in this place, including myself, had noticed that someone was watching from the second floor.
“If you like sparring that much, would you care to face me?”
A gentle voice echoed through the training ground. Only then did those who came to their senses kneel and bow their heads.
“W-we greet Your Highness.”
His Highness turned his back as if he couldn’t see the knights prostrating themselves in a fluster and looked at me. When I belatedly tried to kneel on one knee and greet him as well, he blocked me with his hand.
“This is the first I’m hearing that the 1st Knight Division’s sparring is this barbaric.”
His Highness spoke to those behind him while still blocking me. I learned for the first time that a person’s face could turn pale that quickly.
“We-we are deeply sorry. Th-the sparring became intense and it seems the young knight made a mistake.”
The one who had been jeering and enjoying just moments ago quickly shifted responsibility. Gareth couldn’t even say he was wronged at his superior’s words and kept lowering his body.
“The mistake should have ended with not stopping the sparring when the sword first entered the neck.”
Even my heart, which had been still, dropped downward.
‘Did he watch the sparring from the beginning?’
Because I was at a disadvantage, I didn’t have the mental capacity to hide my habits while sparring. So to His Highness’s eyes, this time too, my swordsmanship might have looked like it was imitating Tiel.
“Th-that is…”
Raindel, who had the highest rank among the gathered knights, opened and closed his mouth trying to make excuses.
“When you’ve fallen into a trap, keeping your mouth shut is also a method, Sir Raindel.”
That attempt ended before it could even begin with His Highness’s single word. His Highness was still staring intently at me.
“Your Highness.”
I barely managed to start speaking, but I had no words to follow. If I brought up the subject of swordsmanship here, it would be like revealing that I was feeling guilty.
‘The saying about staying still when you’ve fallen into a trap applies to me too.’
It would be strange to call out and then say nothing, but His Highness’s eyes were somehow sunken low.
“I’m sorry for showing you a sight that would displease you.”
I belatedly spoke vaguely. Even while doing so, I didn’t think it would have much effect.
“Aila Caesius.”
“Yes. Please command me.”
“Whose knight are you?”
“I am Your Highness’s guard knight.”
“Then whose orders should you follow?”
“Your Highness.”
I didn’t know the reason for this obvious exchange, but judging from the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like my breath would be cut off immediately like last time.
‘Can I get past this?’
I hadn’t used foresight much in this sparring, so there was a possibility that fewer of my habits from when I was Tienas had come out.
“If you know that, then don’t get hurt without my command.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m sensitive about my knights getting hurt without my permission. Don’t create wounds where I can’t see them again.”
Being a knight could essentially be considered a profession of getting hurt. Getting hurt during training, getting hurt while carrying out missions, getting hurt while fighting enemies—wounds naturally accumulated. The person who knew this better than anyone else was giving such an order, so I was at a loss for how to respond.
“I will endeavor to do so.”
“Isn’t it unconditional obedience to orders?”
His Highness, who noticed that I had euphemistically expressed that it might be difficult, urged me to make a definite promise.
‘He did say something similar before… But the atmosphere is different.’
I recalled when he summoned me before heading to the battlefield at the border for a while, right after he had just gotten a fiancée or when I was carrying out a separate mission. He had commanded, ‘No matter what happens, return alive without major injuries,’ and I had kept this. It was possible because foresight, excluding the imperial family’s authority, was the authority most helpful for survival.
‘It’s impossible to not get injured at all.’
Still, I couldn’t refuse the order. At the very least, I had to try not to get hurt in areas that His Highness’s eyes could reach.
“I will do so.”
“As you know, didn’t I just recently lose the knight I cherished most? I don’t want to experience something similar.”
I wondered if he had been giving this order to all knights since my death, and my heart felt uneasy.
‘To make work easier, someone had to be sacrificed even if it wasn’t me, and His Highness must have known that too.’
Was the fact that it was me such a big problem? Even though I had continuously observed that there was such a possibility, I still couldn’t believe it. This was a matter of emotion, not reason.
“Yes. I will certainly do so.”
His Highness briefly glanced at the knights prostrate on the ground, said something to one knight, and left. Just as I was pondering how to conclude and leave this place, Seran, a physician who seemed to have been brought by Sir Ken, stood before me.
“I will treat you.”
“It’s not a major wound.”
If it were a stab wound it would be different, but wounds like this from being hit would heal quickly in a few days. When I was hit it hurt as if I’d fractured something, but looking at it again, it was only at a level that would leave abrasions.
‘He’s His Highness’s personal physician, so asking him to treat just this kind of wound is a bit…’
However, the physician firmly shook his head.
“It was His Highness’s order. If you refuse treatment, I will be disobeying orders.”
“I understand.”
“Staying here might create illnesses that weren’t there. Let’s go to the treatment room.”
Leaving Sir Ken, who was having a conversation with the knights who caused this incident, I headed to the treatment room. After treating not only my side but also the small wounds cut by the sword, my body felt much lighter.
“It’s an ointment with healing stones ground into it, so it will all be healed by tomorrow. Still, just in case it might be insufficient, I’ll give you extra ointment, so apply it once more before sleeping.”
“Thank you.”
“If you want to continue being a knight, take care of your body. Tsk, to think they’d inflict wounds over mere sparring, how barbaric.”
Seran, who said that, waved his hand telling me to leave quickly. I headed to the knight quarters with a somewhat dazed feeling. I couldn’t distinguish well whether I had passed the crisis or whether it had grown larger instead.
