100 – The Martial Duel
The Royal Citadel (王姓)
The citadel where kings reside.
And the current Emperor of the Empire,
Ziegfried Pravel, dwells within it.
Those permitted to tread within the Royal Citadel are
Members of the Imperial Bloodline, or nobles of high rank.
For the common man, it is a place never witnessed
Even once in a lifetime, the Royal Citadel, and
Due to this, its interior is depicted in myriad ways by the common folk.
Some claim it holds vast chambers and exquisite furnishings,
Befitting its grand exterior,
While others say it is merely gilded on the surface,
Its interior ultimately unremarkable, but
Among those who voice such opinions, not a single soul
Has ever set foot inside, a place where even dukes
Cannot enter without prior notification.
“This way, young lord.”
“….”
I am within the Royal Citadel, now.
*
Beautifully sculpted stone pillars and
A high, dome-shaped ceiling.
The stone ornaments, scattered throughout,
Boast an intricacy as if they were alive,
As if sketching with pure gold,
a single, exquisite gold line adorns the pristine white wall.
But that’s not all.
That garden, overflowing with vibrant freshness.
Flowers and grasses, each possessing its own unique hue and fragrance, sway in the breeze,
dancing a beautiful ballet.
As if boasting of their own majesty,
trees towering high into the sky completely fill the landscape.
If someone were to ask which was the most beautiful
building in the entire Empire,
surely every architect would say, without a moment’s hesitation,
the Emperor’s palace.
“…!”
“…Magnificent.”
Moreover, the splendor wasn’t merely skin-deep.
The moment one stepped inside,
a long, wide corridor immediately caught the eye.
A red carpet stretched endlessly along the floor,
and on the walls flanking it hung countless paintings.
Even for me, with little interest in art,
their value was immediately apparent.
Even the frames holding those paintings
gleamed with golden borders.
“Greetings.”
“…?”
For a fleeting moment, my gaze had been
stolen by the spectacle unfolding around me,
when a voice spoke from behind.
Not the deep, sonorous tone of the middle-aged knights I’d grown accustomed to,
but the voice of a boy, similar to my own, which felt completely out of sync with
the atmosphere of this majestic building.
Both Ella’s and my gazes simultaneously
turned in the direction of the voice, and
“To finally meet the person I’ve only heard rumors about,
I am truly delighted.”
“…?”
There stood a boy.
Crimson hair, long and flowing,
pulled back and tied.
A boy, clad in what appeared to be a snow-white uniform.
His features were quite pleasing, handsome even, and yet
he was a stranger to my memory.
We had never met, I didn’t know his name;
a complete and utter stranger.
“…Forgive me, but may I ask who you are?”
“Ah, my apologies.
I haven’t introduced myself yet.”
He scratched the back of his head, seeming a touch awkward,
then narrowed his eyes
and offered a full, dazzling smile.
“I am Rhoden, a disciple of Lord Ruindel, and treading
the path of a knight.”
A succinct and brief introduction,
and yet, a rather shocking one.
For in that fleeting moment,
he had managed to capture my attention.
“L…Lord Ruindel’s disciple…?”
“Yes. My skills are, alas, embarrassingly lacking
compared to his renown…
But I am diligently honing them, receiving his tutelage.”
“….”
Ruindel, the Golden Knight.
The commander of the Imperial Knights, directly under the Crown,
and known as the Empire’s Guardian.
Perhaps due to his particularly steadfast and taciturn nature,
it was said that he had but a handful of acquaintances within the Empire.
And yet, he had a disciple?
“….”
“Haha, if you stare so intently…
I grow a little self-conscious.”
“…My apologies.”
Perhaps sensing my gaze,
he subtly shifted his weight.
With each movement, the sword at his hip
clinked softly against its sheath.
“…In any case, might I hear it now?”
“What is it you speak of?”
“The reason you greeted me first…
Didn’t you have some business with me?”
A clink.
The sword shifts once more.
Without the slightest change in his expression,
Loden continues the conversation calmly.
“Not particularly.
I was merely given an order.”
“…What…?”
“If one not of the Empire’s blood bears the Empire’s crest, and enters the royal castle, they are to be properly guided.”
“…?”
“I am simply carrying out the words
of my teacher, with utmost fidelity.”
Saying so, he left the words that I should please follow him,
and slowly passed us, walking on.
Ella and I, in turn, started walking down the long corridor after him.
Step, step. Thud, thud.
Only two sounds echoed in the long corridor,
and how long had we walked like that?
The soft, fur carpet that had been there just a moment before, vanished,
and a hard, golden floor began to
replace it.
I began to feel that the surrounding
lights had grown a level brighter.
“Ah, the attendant may wait here in front.”
“Ah… Yes, I understand.”
Continuing to walk, I finally began to
see the end of the corridor.
At that end, Loden’s words, requesting my company alone,
began to ring in my ears,
and though Ella seemed somewhat deflated,
she could not refuse the order.
Because, after all, I could vaguely begin
to guess who was waiting ahead.
“Then, shall we go?”
“….”
Leaving her behind like that,
I plunged into the radiant shimmer ahead.
Brilliant light spilled forth,
cascading from a magnificent chandelier.
“…I see.”
Beneath it, waiting for us, was
a knight in dazzling golden armor.
“Hmm…? Ah, they’ve arrived.”
“….”
And, the most noble bloodline in the empire.
*
“Hmm…when do you think they’ll arrive?”
“Loden went to fetch them,
they should be here shortly.”
“Ah, Loden? If it’s that boy, he’s so affable,
there’s little to worry about.”
The main hall of the royal castle.
Two voices echoed within.
Both deep and low, imbued with gravitas,
yet the atmospheres they carried were worlds apart.
“Let’s see, the reward we promised that child,
is it being properly handled?”
“Yes, everything is proceeding as you instructed.”
“Yes, still, going all the way to the Great Forest for the empire,
enduring all that hardship… we must give them *something*, mustn’t we?”
“…They’re here.”
“Hmm…? Ah, they’ve arrived.”
Both gazes converged on a single point,
and from that point, two figures emerged.
One, a boy with reddish hair in a white uniform,
known to them both.
The other, a boy dark and somber,
as if consumed by shadow.
“You’ve arrived?”
“….”
“Yes, I’ve brought him. Your Majesty.”
For some reason, the dark-haired boy was a little stiff.
The Emperor, upon seeing the boy, immediately thought of…
The word was *diminutive.*
To the point where it was doubtful this boy was truly the one the Great Forest had spoken of.
The boy’s arms were thinner than the forearms of the knights they usually saw,
and his frame was smaller than even the larger children of his age, let alone other knights.
His hands were far too small to wield a hand-and-a-half sword, longsword, greatsword, or any other weapon,
and his hollow eyes lacked vitality,
as if gazing into a darkness too profound.
“Hmm… You are Jennison, then?”
“…I behold the sun of the Empire.”
His black eyes, perhaps taken aback by the sight of him, flickered.
They seemed darker still, contrasted against the bright light of the ceiling.
“Firstly, I must extend my gratitude to you.”
“…?”
“Had you not resolved that matter,
we would have been in a most awkward position.”
The words held genuine intent.
Their relationship with the Great Forest stretched back far,
and to see it fractured now would be deeply problematic.
The various goods imported from the Great Forest,
the trade routes that traversed it…
Moreover, this could have been used as pretext for war with the Great Forest,
so in a way, he had prevented that as well, hadn’t he?
And just recently, thanks to this child, he had witnessed a rare
change in the Duke’s expression.
“…For such a trifle, Your Majesty honors me—”
“A trifle, you say?”
But the boy’s reaction was strange.
*Merely* such a thing?
Was this matter truly to be dismissed as *merely* such a thing?
The documents he himself had reviewed not long ago.
Information about the “Order” found within those documents.
A power that could contend with one nearly alone and fight against many, even the Pope
And laid waste to the order in a single day.
Those capable of possessing organizable strength.
Even if it was just a small fraction, a mere student
challenged that cult, and was that really ‘mere’?
Besides, there was other information that recently came to him.
Elves heavily armed with bows and magic,
reduced to mere lumps of flesh, and even the princess of the elves,
who drew out the power of the spirits to their limit,
was overwhelmed by that monster with the boyish appearance.
Even the commander of the 8th Knight Division, dispatched to the Great Forest,
could barely withstand him,
but then someone suddenly appeared, fought desperately against that monster,
vanished with the monster mid-battle,
and returned some time later, clutching the boy’s head,
covered in blood.
A mere academy student,
an offspring once called the disgrace of the Duke’s family.
What on earth happened to this child?
And what is the true extent of his abilities?
Is his skill truly worth bringing him into
my faction, even if it means employing decisive measures?
Curiosity bloomed, suddenly.
“..You know, as the one expressing gratitude,
I know I shouldn’t be doing this… but I have a request.”
“..As you command, Your Majesty.”
“Would you… perhaps be willing to engage in
a spar with that boy?”
A boy standing with eyes widened by the Emperor’s simple gesture.
His reddish hair,
shining under the chandeliers.
All eyes, save for the Emperor’s, turned toward him.