Glass Flower (2)

The Winter Castle. There, Julie was looking at her sword in a cold room.

"…"

With a blank look, she examined the length of the blade and the hilt over and over. The fine metal was hardened to absorb mana, and the handle was smoothed from where her hand had gripped at it over the years.

"This is my sword…"

Julie held the sword.

"!"

A chill ran down her spine, and her hair stood on end. It felt so natural she wasn't sure if she was holding the sword or the sword was holding her.

"…Hmm."

Julie shivered. Then, she sat on the bed and looked over the family meeting minutes.

—Deculein was your ex-fiancé. He broke the marriage because of the curse.

It was hard to understand everything. It was a relationship in which they had no contact with each other in the first place.

"Deculein."

Julie knew him. He was famous in the university. According to the gossip of the aristocratic world, he was a very bad guy.

"…"

However, at that time, the Deculein that Julie saw was a person who had his own thing. He lived only for himself. That's why Julie couldn't help but envy Deculein.

"But how…"

Julie looked at a specific page of the meetings.

[Julie could not escape from Marik due to Deculein's excessive mission pressure and was caught up in the explosion caused by the vengeful spirit inside. Her heart was covered with dark energy and cursed, but she miraculously survived. However, Yukline and Deculein proved rather demanding in seeking compensation for the damages…]

This described why she was cursed.

"…We couldn't get engaged, right?"

Ten years could change even rivers and mountains. Accepting that weight so quickly was still difficult.

"Phew."

Julie looked around the room. The only furniture was a bed, a chair, and a knight's textbook. This scenery was the same as ten years ago with one difference.

The famous sword she held.

"…Empire."

She had a purpose. She was much more certain and more honest than Julie from ten years later when she was hit by reality. The guardian knight of the Empire. And…

"Freyden."

Julie wanted to protect her family.

* * *

Two days later.

Julie arrived at the island.

"The island… like this."

Indeed, the capital of the Empire changed tremendously in ten years. It was a place so bright that her eyes felt dry. As she walked, blinking like a village peasant, she arrived at the Knights Order affiliated with the Imperial University.

"Stop. Outsiders are not allowed from here on."

Unlike the Magic Tower, which was partially open to general college students, the Knights were completely cut off. Julie approached the knight and showed her a letter of recommendation.

"I am a new cadet."

"…"

The knight read the letter.

"ID."

"Yes."

When she presented her ID, he read it together with the recommendation letter and nodded.

"…Are you from Freyden?"

"Yes. A collateral line."

"Hmm. It's been a long time since we had a nepotism case. Fine. Get in. Talk to the dormitory manager, and he will give you an empty room."

As soon as he found out that she was a cadet and from a collateral line, he immediately started to speak informally.

Julie nodded.

"Yes."

Julie entered. She knew the internal structure of the knights building well.

[Dormitory]

She arrived at the dormitory quickly and unpacked in room 303.

"It's been a while since we had a nepotism case. The other cadets will arrive tomorrow for outside training, so please rest."

The superintendent explained in front of the dormitory door.

"Yes."

Julie sat on the bed as she answered.

Slam-!

The superintendent closed the door.

"…"

Silence.

"Hmm…"

A single room. She used to stay in a double room, but now it was a single. Would a single room be more comfortable, after all?

"Let's study."

She was still a long way from accepting this ten-year difference. The family meeting minutes, how the Empire had changed over the past ten years, and this situation. To learn it all…

"Library."

* * *

Tick…

Tock…

Sylvia was studying. It was not about magic but education. It was really hard to teach stupid kids-

Creak-

A woman pulled out a seat not far from her. At first, Sylvia didn't pay her much mind.

Thud- thud- thud-thud-too, doo-doo–

But the sound of books being stacked was bothering her. It was the characteristic of people who didn't study. They just stacked books they couldn't read.

Sylvia rubbed her temple and looked up. Her eyes widened.

"…You."

"…?"

The woman, who had just opened the top book, looked at her and tilted her head. Julie?

…No. Looking closely, it wasn't Julie. This one was much younger.

"…"

"Do you know me?"

When Sylvia didn't answer, the woman who resembled Julie asked.

"…I mistook you…"

"Oh~. I see… by the way, are you a professor?"

Sylvia nodded.

"I'm a magic professor."

There was no difference between an instructor and a professor.

"Oh. Magic professor… that's amazing. I am a knight cadet."

"College student?"

"Yes. If you're a magic professor, would it be okay if I ask a question?"

Why was she so friendly? If you think about it, Sylvia was the first to speak.

"What are you curious about?"

"Would learning magic also help with swordsmanship?"

"Yes."

An immediate answer. Sylvia lifted her index finger and gathered mana over it. The blue air current took the form of a sword.

"Mana coordination. The actions of knights are all related to this mana coordination power, and coordination most closely related to magic."

"Hmm…"

The cadet lifted her index finger in mimicry. She was trying to gather mana like herself, but it didn't work. How dare a knight follow a wizard?

Whoosh…

However, the mana of the cadet was expressed slightly differently. In an instant, a chill swept past the table, and Sylvia's mana froze blue. This display of talent made her brain tingle for a moment.

It was a talent. A real talent of the kind Sylvia hadn't seen in a very long time.

"…"

Sylvia's expression hardened.

"Where are you from?"

"I'm from Freyden's collateral line."

"…"

Like that knight, she was from Freyden. Although something was suspicious, Sylvia stared at the knight without saying anything.

"Yes?"

The white-haired cadet tilted her head.

"Don't you want to take my class?"

Anyone who wanted to become a professor couldn't just sit around and watch a real talent rot in the library like this.

* * *

Early in the morning, with the Knights affiliated with Imperial University.

I visited them today as the commander of the Imperial Guard.

"Haha. The captain of the Imperial Guard is here at dawn…"

"I always go to work in the morning."

"Oh… as expected from you."

The head of the knights affiliated with the university was Bellarin. He had surrendered his position to me, and he was now pouring coffee into a teacup.

"…Was the book of Revelation found in this Knights University too?"

Bellarin's shoulders trembled. I watched his reaction carefully, then took a sip of my coffee.

"Yes… that's right."

He nodded with a solemn look.

"I'm cautious about reporting this to you, but… some copies of this book of Revelation have been found in the dormitories."

The Revelation of the Altar. It was spread quite deeply in the Empire. There were probably quite a few people in the Empire who believed in them now, either knowingly or unknowingly.

"If there is an informant doing missionary work in this place… well, we are not a law enforcement agency. Haha."

As he talked, he kept glancing furtively at me, pretending to be asking for advice.

"I will send an adventurer. Her name is Lia, so treat her appropriately."

"Yes."

I pulled the cadet roster from him with 「Psychokinesis」, then flipped through the names. There was nothing special about any of them.

"Also, I will keep an eye on the events of the Knights Order in the future."

"Oh?!"

"Since there is the joint training with the Magic Tower too."

Knights and Wizards, Wizards and Knights. Although they appeared to be opposites, the bond between the two professions was clear. The knights usually protected the wizards, leading the knights in battle. Therefore, now that war with the Altar wasn't far away, this joint training was quite important.

"No, I'll personally observe the joint training."

"…What?"

Bellarin asked.

"What. Are you uncomfortable in my presence?"

"Oh, no. It's not that."

Not only that, I planned to prepare a curriculum for knights using 「Understanding」. Even if the world were destroyed tomorrow, humans would be the ones planting an apple tree.

"Thank you for your hard work. I'll be going."

I stood. Bellarin bowed behind me and shouted.

"Yes. Goodbye!"

I stood at the entrance to the open training ground behind the main building. For a moment, I examined the earthy field. It was calm and quiet since all the cadets had left for training.

"Hmm?"

But there was a wooden sword stuck in the middle of the training ground.

"Is it jesabap?" (T/N: Steamed rice prepared for an ancestral rite.)

It was put up like a spoon in a jesabap. I grabbed it.

"…A sword."

A Sword. The little long stick that Julie loved and was the life of knights.

Whoooosh-

I swung it. At first, a simple horizontal move. However, as I continued, the sword gradually spread for a total of thirteen moves. The formula of twenty-one strokes for every move in one skill. Therefore, the formula of 273 strokes.

It was the swordsmanship that I devised by myself while thinking of Julie.

"…This is pathetic."

However, I stopped with the first skill.

Thud-!

I shook my head and stuck the sword back into the ground.

…

Meanwhile, Julie was studying history in the dormitory. She had finished her morning workout a while ago.

"…?"

However, today.

Right now.

She caught sight of an unusual situation.

"Chairman Deculein?"

The training ground beyond her window. In the far-off grounds, which would be seen as only a dot to the general public, Deculein was standing by her sword.

"…He looks the same from my memory."

He was no different. He wore a suit even after graduating.

"Ummm…?"

Whatever he was trying to do, Julie took her eyes off the history book for a moment and watched him. He looked at the wooden training sword she had planted in the ground, then grabbed the handle with a grin.

Julie blinked. She had put it there to go back and train after studying.

"…"

However, in the very next moment, her eyes widened.

Swiiish-

She could feel the sword swing from even this distance. It was difficult to describe them in words, so instead, her mouth fell open as her eyes followed Deculein.

One stroke moving in time with every breath. One skill that the movements completed organically. Like art, like a waterfall at the foot of a mountain, it unfolded without slowing…

"Oh!"

And then it randomly stopped.

Clank–

It was broken as Deculein came to a halt.

"Why…"

He shook his head as if he found it pathetic and thrust the wooden sword into the ground. Then, he left the training grounds.

"…"

On the other hand, Julie-

Slam—!

She ran out of the dormitory.

Boom, bang, bang-!

Deculein had already disappeared, but she ran blindly and drew the wooden sword stuck in the middle of the training ground. Grasping it, thinking of the move that Deculein had just shown.

"Did he do it like this…?"

Piece by piece, she began to recreate the memory.