Chapter 8

Part 1

They are those who have pledged absolute loyalty to Ariel Anemoi Asura.

Leading them:

The『King's Greatsword』Sándor von Grandeur.

The『King's Hound』Ghyslaine Dedorudia.

In charge of defence are the Three Knights of the Right-Wing:

The『King's Rampart』Sylvester Ifrit.

There are those whose birth and descent are clear,

From commoners and lower ranked nobles to high ranking officials, there was even a half Immortal among them.

Part 2

But his body was strong and he never got sick.

His father was a soldier who protected the village and spent most of his days away.

She was a sweet girl just like her mother.

He was hit by his friends and he was stung by a bee, but the stupefied boy continued to cry.

And that day, the boy stopped crying.

The next day the boy began faithfully practising to realise his father's command.

The whole day, holding a hatchet he found in the corner of the house, he stood at the entrance.

"The hell you doing?" he said.

"If you want you can leave your sister to us."

He had them teach him how to take care of her, but he would not entrust his sister to anyone else.

One day.

In the middle of the night, something had snuck into the barn and laid waste to the livestock.

From the footprints' size it was judged to be a wolf.

A single house had been attacked.

After waking up, without knowing what happened, the family simply chased after the blood trail.

It wasn't a wolf that was hiding in the village, but a magic beast.

Its head and hind legs were that of a wolf's.

It was only about the size of a large dog.

And that head gave it intelligence.

The wolf chased after them but looked in the wrong place.

The boy's father who had finished his patrol saw a trail of blood coming from his own house.

The corpse of the beast with its head smashed open.

And between the corpse and his daughter was his son, standing imposingly, clutching his hatchet.

He could see that the beast was dead.

But that was all.

The magic beast was small but it did resemble a wolf.

And in spite of that, the boy had beaten it to death with his blunt hatchet.

He had protected his sister.

Part 3

When he was ten, he protected the entrance to his village.

Right before the teleport incident, a wild stampede of magic beasts occurred .

Some were even engulfed and completely destroyed.

Doga's village was among those attacked.

It's said that he defeated nearly a hundred beasts during the battle,

Doga simply stood bewildered next to his father's body.

Seeing Doga hesitate for the sake of protecting his sister, they said this:

"Listen boy, we've been separated from our families and move all over the kingdom protecting villages.

As long as the country is at peace, our families can live in safety.

In the end, what caused Doga to move was money.

He was in charge of protecting a small gate cutting off the slums from lower class residences.

Besides the fact that passage was prohibited at night, it wasn't a particularly important gate.

He and his sister had been allocated a single room.

He would commute from there to his post each day and man it from dawn till dusk and sometimes even all night.

Doga was a simple man, but he had a strange charm to him.

But due to his honest personality and his resolute attitude towards his sister, his co-workers began to relax somewhat and in about a year's time began to recognise Doga as a comrade.

Two years later.

The girl clung to Doga and asked him to save her.

Doga was bewildered and had no idea what to do.

Doga immediately grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her back,

Sensing that the woman was trying to run away, they gave chase.

He had gotten the axe as a farewell gift from the village blacksmith.

All of them died.

"This is bad," he thought.

And he, who had been dozing off, would also be punished.

While thinking that, with his face ghastly white, he went to confirm the bodies.

The knights stationed at the slums were lacking manpower and couldn't do very much to them.

But Doga had annihilated them all.

Doga was promoted.

To guarding the gate that connects the lower and middle class districts.

Through rain and wind he continued to protect it.

Hans had saved the simple Doga.

Or maybe, Hans had been aiming for Doga's sister.

Because, although Hans was always sleepy, he wasn't a bad guy.

Now that his sister was married, he thought about how he had completed his father's order to the very end.

Through rain and wind he continued to protect it.

One day, massive news spread like a wave all throughout the capital.

For several days, festivals continued throughout the city.

Their guard post was moved from the middle class district to somewhere else.

And in turn, their wages increased.

Due to some twist of fate, Doga was stationed at the back door of the palace.

Hans wasn't with him.

Doga was with several other soldiers.

He said:

"Could you let me through here? I'd like an audience with Her Majesty Ariel."

Of course the guards refused him.

"You may not pass without permission! Show us your permit!"

"You may not pass without a permit! Leave!"

His pole moved like magic and the other guards were defeated in an instant.

Only Doga remained.

But at the same time, Doga's axe didn't hit the man even once.

Right, For your sake I'll give up on this gate.

As an apology, would you be willing to become my disciple?

Hearing that the man was going to give up on the gate caused Doga to hesitate for an instant

Doga picked up his axe and stood to protect the gate.

Part 4

Thanks to the healing magician that came with the reinforcements, there wasn't a single wound left on him.

It was the first time in his life that he had collapsed from exhaustion.

After sleeping for two straight days, he awoke.

And Sándor with a happy look on his face.

"Morning! Now my disciple, let us be off!"

Sándor used his tremendous strength to lift Doga to his feet and after Doga had put his armour on, he began to drag him out to who knows where.

I don't have any idea what's going on either but I think it's a pretty prestigious offer.

"Ok. Brother, good luck."

Although Hans had seemed to understand the basic gist of it, Doga was still confused.

After they reached the gate, Sándor took out a rather gaudy permit and they passed through.

And before long they were in the inner palace.

"Yes Your Majesty!"

The woman was extremely beautiful and above all sublime.

"I am Ariel Anemoi Asura. What would your name be?"

Doga didn't know that name.

And of course, he hadn't seen her before either.

But once he realised, Doga fell to his knees.

"Why did you become a soldier?"

In all his life, although he listened to plenty of other people, he had never said very much.

"B-but, Hans is already protecting my sister, so Hans and my sister are together and um,"

The soldier next to Ariel had added "His sister is married to a soldier named Hans".

"Hmm?"

"What do you mean?"

He hadn't thought about it like that before.

Hans addressed Doga as a brother.

If he was to protect his sister, he would obviously protect his brother.

"R-right! I have to keep protecting them!"

"Wha!? Why?"

He remembered his father's death.

"Protect me."

"I work for the sake of the country to improve it. To protect me, is to protect this country. And to protect the country is to protect those two."

Doga didn't understand.

He had no clue.

But the way Ariel said it had left him with no doubt.

The knight who had recommended him to the imperial capital.

"Listen boy, we've been separated from our families and move all over the kingdom protecting villages.

As long as the country is at peace, our families can live in safety.

Because he didn't get it, he moved for money.

Because Doga is protecting something in a completely different place, Hans and his sister can live in peace.

"Doga. Would you swear loyalty to me and protect not only I, but the kingdom as well?"

"Then Doga, I now appoint you a knight."

That day, Doga became one of the Seven Knights of Asura.

Part 5

At times he would head out on Ariel's orders.

And once a month on his day off, he would go visit his sister and Hans to eat with them.

When Doga wasn't around, someone else was protecting the king's door in his stead.

He was appointed a knight and presented with a shiny set of golden armour.

After he had decided to protect it, he couldn't leave it to someone with half hearted resolve.

For an entire month, he left the door to no one other than Sándor.

He would check anyone approaching the King's chambers.

The『King's Greatshield』, Isolte Cruel.

Sándor, for the sake of finding members to join the Golden Knight Order, was to search the kingdom.

After an entire month of standing without break, Doga collapsed.

Although Sándor had only recently started teaching him, Doga was quite skilled.

But it goes without saying, it was Isolte's overwhelming victory.

It was to the extent that if they had been using real swords, Isolte could have killed him in an instant if she wished.

As Doga took that hit over and over, he had to admit:

This woman was a graceful and lovely flower.

Doga had fallen in love with Isolte.

Part 6

In front of the simple looking Doga were a number of dishes on the table.

And sitting across from Hans was their daughter.

"...Wh-why?"

Having perceived unrest in Doga's heart, Hans pointed to the food.

"Eat it all up alright."

Looking at it, it was obvious to see that he hadn't eaten much.

Normally, Doga would be wolfing down his food in silence, swallowing enough to make his cheeks bulge with a happy look on his face.

He loved wine that was normally reserved for special occasions, so much so that he would even drink it here.

To those who knew Doga, something was definitely off.

"If you aren't feeling well, why don't you go see the castle's healers? You're already a knight, if you ask, surely they'd do that much for you? Well at least you don't look too bad."

He himself didn't realise something was off.

"If you're tired, why not get a little more rest? I know that working as a guard for her majesty is a prestigious job and all. But if you were working too hard and collapsed, it wouldn't be a joke... Well, I can't really imagine you collapsing though."

But he was definitely odd.

Normally, he would chew and swallow so fast, you'd want to tell him to slow down.

Each time he reached to put something in his mouth, a feeling of rejection welled up from his stomach.

It wasn't all that nice.

"..."

Hans began to press the silent Doga for answers.

"Mr. brother-in-law, no, Doga. Ever since we were stationed together in the slums, I've always been grateful to you. If you can't even let me help you... How can I keep living with myself? How could I show my face to saint Millis?"

"Lately, has there been something at the castle? Anything? Tell us."

Doga raised his head and saw Hans's serious look.

While walking through the town in his armour, a young soldier had called out to him "You're my idol!" and it made him happy.

When Sándor was teaching him a new technique and complimented him, it made him happy.

When he arrived at the training ground on Sándor's orders and Ghyslaine and Isolte were there, it made him happy.

When he was guarding a party, Isolte appeared in a dress and looked really pretty. Seeing her in a dress made him happy.

When he saw some nobles' sons talkin' smack about Isolte behind her back, it didn't make him very happy.

When Isolte--

"That's enough, I get it. I understand everything."

Hans interrupted Doga's story.

"..."

Doga's face began to redden.

"Yessir."

Having it said to him so bluntly, Doga head fell even further.

It really seemed like his brother-in-law had fallen in love.

And at the same time, Hans began to remember his first love.

There was an age gap of 5 years, but that didn't change the fact that they were childhood friends. She had looked after him since they were little.

He had liked her since age 5.

When he grew up, he would apply to be a soldier and after his income stabilised, he would propose. Or that was the plan.

Hans knew him and by Hans's judgement, he was already an old man.

At first he didn't believe it.

He thought she was against it and would eventually return to him.

If he had married her, he wouldn't have married Doga's sister.

Doga's sister was both like and unlike him. She was a sweet and confident woman with a small figure.

She was a healthy child.

Because of that experience, the moment he realised he was in love with Doga's sister, he took action.

It may have looked frivolous at first.

And he was that much more serious in his gatekeeping job.

And because of that, he had triumphed over his rivals and managed to obtain what he had today.

For that reason, Hans said:

"Go propose to Isolte right now."

Hearing that, Doga looked up, confused.

"No, you don't need to propose, being friends is fine. If you can tell her you like her, that's enough."

"If you sit here and do nothing, you're going to regret it."

"Don't think about trying to keep the status quo.

You're what we garrison members aspire to be.

Doga had no idea how his lineage matched up to Isolte.

The impeccable beauty, Isolte, didn't match him.

He would confess to Isolte.