Chapter 50: We Met Again
50
“….”
“…….”
Heinkel’s office was utterly silent, without even a handful of sound.
The only thing that could be heard there was the Duke Leinrant turning over documents.
It had taken a full two days to return from the Wall to the main house.
I desperately wanted to go straight back to my room and throw myself onto the bed.
But this was Leinrant, famed throughout the land.
A knightly family far removed from the word “rest.”
“A Necromancer religious group—this is not something we can overlook.”
“Indeed. Send official notices to the surrounding territories and instruct them to strengthen surveillance. If it’s an organization of this scale, there will surely be tendrils reaching even into the North.”
“I will carry out your orders.”
Burkman, having received Heinkel’s instructions, immediately left the study.
‘At least things move quickly. That’s a relief.’
The Akimond Order.
Vermin that sold my name and stirred up chaos across the continent.
I could not tolerate them running rampant in the North, my homeland, so I felt a quiet sense of relief.
“I sent you to the Wall so you could hide yourself, yet you accomplished something great even there.”
“I merely did what had to be done.”
“No. If it weren’t for you, no one else could have done it.”
I couldn’t deny Heinkel’s words.
If I hadn’t discovered those infiltrating through the underground tunnels, the Wall would have collapsed.
“With this much, there’s no need to spend time testing you further.”
As he said that, Heinkel placed something atop the desk in the study.
“This is…?”
What lay there was a silver badge engraved with the crest of Leinrant.
“It is the family’s certification that you possess sufficient qualities as a knight. It is also a requirement to apply for the Imperial Knight Examination.”
The Imperial Knight Examination.
Among all knight examinations conducted by various nations, it was the one with the greatest authority.
‘So he intends to grant me an officially recognized knighthood across the continent. Which means….’
From now on, proper dispatch missions would be waiting for me.
I would finally be able to do real work.
“Apply within the near future. There will be much for you to do.”
“I understand.”
After I answered, Heinkel continued flipping through the report I had submitted for a while longer.
“And as for the knight order you’ll belong to after the examination….”
“……?”
He stopped there, and a brief silence followed.
No, the problem wasn’t the silence.
What mattered were these blatant gazes directed at me!
“Father. And Delain.”
“C, cough!”
“W-what is it?”
I called out to the two of them, who had been pretending to look over documents or out the window while sneaking glances at me dozens of times.
Startled, Heinkel and Delain hurriedly looked away.
“I was curious for a while now—do I have something on my face?”
“Hm? W-what are you talking about?”
“N-nothing….”
“Then why have you been staring at me like that this whole time?”
If there was something bothering them, they should just say it already.
This was seriously frustrating.
When I spoke directly, Heinkel extended a finger and pointed at me.
More precisely, at the cloak draped over my shoulders.
“…Where did you get that cloak?”
“The cloak?”
I asked back and lifted the cloak that the Big Raven Knights had given me.
“They gave it to me? Said it’d be cold on the way.”
I said it casually, but upon hearing that, Heinkel and Delain wore extremely serious expressions.
“They gave it to you? Those infamous ravens, to you?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t beat up one of their knights and take it, did you?”
“No, what do you take me for, a thug? I told you, they just gave it to me.”
When I answered without understanding what was going on, Heinkel and Delain looked at each other as if they understood even less.
“Wait a moment, don’t tell me…?”
As if something had just occurred to him, Heinkel changed the question.
“Do you know what that cloak signifies to the Big Raven Knights?”
“Signifies…?”
I repeated the question and relayed exactly what I had heard from Korax.
“I was told it’s just cold-weather gear.”
“Kh—!”
At that, Delain, who was beside him, coughed as if he had choked.
“…They said it was cold-weather gear, and the ravens handed you that cloak?”
When I nodded, he finally seemed to understand, letting out a deep sigh.
“Delain.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Contact the Wall. Immediately, and quickly.”
Unlike the sighing Heinkel, Delain had been grinning nonstop ever since hearing my story, as if something delighted him greatly.
“Don’t start eyeing him already when he hasn’t even had his investiture yet!”
At those words, which were halfway to a scolding, the chuckling Delain left the study.
“Captain Korax. No matter how great what you did for the Wall was, to make the first move like this…!”
Watching Heinkel mutter like that, my expression only grew more confused.
…No, seriously, what is it?
“What do you mean ‘what’? The ravens have their eye on you.”
“Eye…?”
Even while greeting Arin and Dunkel after meeting them again, and even while unpacking and lying on my bed, my curiosity wasn’t resolved.
I finally heard the answer during dinner.
It came from Delain, who had come to my room saying we should eat together.
“The feathered cloak is something only official knights of the Big Raven Knights receive.”
“That cloak?”
“Yeah. When you left, Captain Korax personally draped the cloak over you, right?”
Only then did the reactions the ravens had shown come flooding back to me.
“Then that means…?”
“It's the investiture ceremony of the Wall knights. The captain personally drapes the cloak over them, and the knights watching raise their swords and serve as witnesses.”
“And I took that cloak….”
“…and walked all the way back to the main house with it draped over my shoulders.”
Clutching my throbbing head, I forced my brain to work somehow.
Alright, let’s think.
So what this meant was that the Big Raven Knights had decided to bring me into their order, right?
Without saying a single word to me?
This was….
This was……!
“This is a hijacked appointment, you crazy bastards!?”
“Puahahahahaha-!”
Only then did it feel like the puzzle pieces that had been scattered all over my mind finally snapped back into place.
Unlike me, who jumped up from my seat and shouted, Delain laughed heartily as if this whole situation was amusing him to death.
“No, stop laughing and explain! Does that mean I have to go back to the Wall again?! No way!”
“Hahaha! Uahahahaha-!”
After laughing for quite a while longer, Delain wiped the tears pooling in his eyes and spoke.
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”
Even as he said that to reassure me, the corners of Delain’s mouth showed no sign of coming down.
“Still, it really is impressive. Klein.”
“What is?”
Delain spoke to me as I stuffed bread into my mouth with a sulky expression.
“You probably don’t know this, but you’re the first noble in imperial history to ever receive a cloak from the Big Raven Knights.”
“…Really?”
I asked back with a doubtful look, but Delain only nodded.
“Not even Father or I ever received that cloak.”
“So what, instead of treating me as a superior, they’re treating me like one of their friends?”
“That’s twice as difficult as ruling through inherited status.”
Even as I spoke curtly, I didn’t feel all that bad.
Because I knew that all that hellish suffering at the Wall hadn’t been for nothing.
“All it would’ve taken was a single ‘thank you,’ so why make such a huge fuss about it.”
Thinking about how they had all swarmed over just because I was leaving made me smile without realizing it.
Knights, honestly.
Every last one of them was a breed I couldn’t understand.
One week after returning from the Wall.
My greatest interest while standing in the training ground was the death knight facing me.
Kurrurrr….
The first death knight I had ever created—Hector.
The design itself didn’t seem to have any flaws, but the problem lay elsewhere.
“The soul is too weak.”
A death knight created by extracting the soul of Hector, Hellian’s son, and binding it through a subjugation contract.
Perhaps due to having been worked to the bone for so long, his mana capacity had been drastically reduced.
‘If it’s like this, even if I try to restore it, it’ll only get worse. I should just dismantle it and make a new one instead….’
I was deep in thought as I looked at the motionless death knight.
“Master Klein.”
Appearing from one side of the training ground was the head butler, Burkman.
Perhaps it was his first time seeing a death knight, as his gaze was fixed firmly on Hector standing there.
“Didn’t you say there was nothing scheduled today?”
As I dismantled Hector’s spiritual body and asked that, Delain, who had come along with Burkman, picked up the thread.
“Something suddenly came up. And it’s something very important.”
“Something important?”
When I asked that, Delain, who had been smiling slyly, walked over and poked my side lightly.
What is it with him lately? This is giving me goosebumps.
“More precisely, an important guest has come to visit.”
“……A guest?”
It was Burkman who answered my question after a long pause.
“Yes. It seems a guest has suddenly arrived at the main house, so we came to see you despite the discourtesy.”
I always thought this, but his etiquette was so precise it made me wonder if he was a machine.
If a book on noble etiquette turned into a person, wouldn’t it look like that?
Even as I thought that, I slowly chewed over his words.
A guest.
In other words, someone known to the family—like a friend or acquaintance from another noble house—had come to visit.
And that only deepened my confusion.
‘Wait a second, a guest came to see me? Not Delain?’
In what was the most bewildering situation of my life, I looked at Burkman and spoke.
“Is there even anyone who’d come to see me?”
“Young master.”
“You know it too. I don’t have any friends.”
Saying it out loud made me feel a bit gloomy, but it was only natural.
There were rampant rumors that I was possessed by Akimond’s wraith, and I was a young lord with no backing.
There was nothing to gain from building ties with me.
“So what kind of guest could—.”
“There is one.”
As he said that, Delain patted my shoulder and snickered.
Just as I frowned at his strange behavior—
“Lord Klein!”
A voice I didn’t recognize came from behind Burkman.
Perhaps it was unexpected, because Burkman looked back as if thinking for a moment.
But only briefly.
“Lady. I apologize for the discourtesy, but the young lord will also need time to prepare. It would be best if you waited in the reception room—.”
At Burkman’s continued admonition, the owner of the voice seemed to shrink back slightly.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I was just so happy to see you that I couldn’t help myself….”
A clear, beautiful voice I had never once heard within this household.
Judging by the voice, she seemed to be around my age, which only made me more confused.
Along with her trembling voice, a small figure slowly emerged from behind Burkman.
“Uh, uh…?”
Eyes black and transparent like obsidian.
Slightly wavy black hair cascading down to her waist.
Snow-white skin that contrasted sharply with it.
A girl with a serene face, as if carved from sculpture, stood there.
"Long time no see, Klein…!"
At her faintly blooming smile, an exclamation slipped from Delain’s mouth.
And when I saw her face, only then did I finally remember who she was.
Ciel la Ailasis.
One of the Empire’s three great dukes, and the master of the Imperial Mage Tower.
The daughter of the Duke of Ailasis, a prestigious family of magicians.
And the political marriage partner I had first met when I was seven years old.
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