Chapter 12 - Job Hunting (2)

A year was certainly a long time.

It was enough time for Alon to go from heir to House Pallatio to formally undergoing his succession ceremony and becoming count. It was also enough time for him to grow steadily accustomed to the duties a count had to perform.

But a year was absolutely not enough time for an ordinary person who knew nothing about swords to become a Master Knight.

“Evan.”

“Yes?”

“Master Knight... means Swordmaster, doesn't it?”

“It... does.”

Swordmaster.

To Alon, who had read countless fantasy novels, the title carried very little prestige.

Still, he knew that Swordmasters in this world were held to a different standard from those in other mass-produced fantasies, where anyone who could produce an aura blade qualified.

Everything Alon knew about Swordmasters in Psychedelia ran through his mind.

In this world, producing an aura blade was merely the baseline. The title referred to monsters who had unlocked a unique ability called Derivation and could leap over a fortress wall with a single push off the ground.

In other words, it was more accurate to call this world's Swordmasters superhumans than swordsmen who coated their blades in sword energy.

“Then you're saying Deus has become one of those Swordmasters?”

“... Well, strictly speaking, he's more on the verge of becoming one. He has indeed become a Master Knight, but according to the information I obtained from the Information Guild, he hasn't developed a Derivation yet.”

“... Then he isn't a Master Knight, is he?”

“It's probably because of the northern barbarians.”

“Oh.”

At Evan's words, Alon immediately understood why Deus had become a Master Knight.

“The war?”

“Yes.”

Callivan had been waging war against the northern barbarians for over ten years, and the previous year, it had lost one of its five Master Knights in that war. Remembering this, Alon nodded.

“So they're easing people's fears while putting the enemy on notice that they're still going strong.”

“There are probably a few other intentions behind it, but I believe that's the gist.”

“Then Deus isn't actually strong enough to be a Master Knight yet?”

“No. He simply hasn't developed a Derivation. The Information Guild says he's already on the level of a Master Knight. Apparently, he defeated Piola, a Master Knight and the Fourth Sword, in a match.”

Alon gave a disbelieving chuckle at Evan's words, then murmured,

“... How old was the youngest Master Knight?”

“Thirty-two, as far as I know. Reinhardt, Callivan's current First Sword, held that record. Until now, that is.”

“He was the youngest?”

“Yes. Isn't he famous for it?”

Alon nodded.

In truth, Alon paid so little attention to such things that he hadn't really known Reinhardt was famous. He did, however, know that the man was absurdly powerful.

Whenever he played through the game's main story, Reinhardt appeared in the third main episode and briefly joined the protagonist as an ally.

'I'm sure it said he was incredibly talented and had been wielding a sword since he was five.'

Recalling the typical narration used to hype Reinhardt up when he joined the party, Alon let out another disbelieving chuckle.

That meant even Reinhardt, whose ridiculous strength Alon had experienced firsthand, had taken more than twenty years to become a Master Knight despite his talent.

“... A Master Knight in just one year... Does that even make sense?”

“It's utterly absurd. Even talented people take five years to grasp mana, ten years to cloak themselves in it, and decades to develop a Derivation. Deus has cleared the first two stages in a single year.”

Watching Evan smack his lips with a hint of envy after saying that, Alon unconsciously rubbed his chin.

'I knew he had talent, but I never imagined it was to this extent... Well, it's a good thing.'

From Alon's perspective, Deus's extraordinary success was something to celebrate, not lament.

The more successful he became, the more Alon might get to share in the benefits later.

'I will... get a share of the benefits, won't I?'

Alon lowered his gaze toward a letter sitting to one side of his office.

It had come from Yutia, who was in the Holy Kingdom of Rosario.

'... Or maybe I won't...?'

The reason for that thought, and the odd look on his face, was that Yutia had been the only one writing to him over the past year.

'They do seem to be keeping in touch with one another, at least.'

It was a reasonable inference. Yutia, who had become a nun in the Holy Kingdom, wrote not only about herself but also about the Five Great Sins who had grown up with her at the orphanage.

'... Well, we've never even met, so I suppose it can't be helped. Still, I prepared a personal gift for each of them. Isn't it a bit much not to offer even a word of thanks...?'

Alon sulked inwardly, though it didn't show on his face, then gave a small shake of his head.

Considering his original objective, he ought to be grateful simply that the Five Great Sins hadn't wiped out the kingdom.

And so,

'As long as they're living well, that's enough.'

Alon thought this with a slightly bitter expression...

####

In the central district of Kirdam, Callivan's capital, stood a grand mansion at the southern end of an area reserved for the nation's high-ranking nobles.

It housed members of Eclipse, a knightly order currently renowned throughout Callivan, as well as its commander, Deus Makalian—the youngest man in the country ever to receive the title of Master Knight.

“Whew...”

In an elegantly old-fashioned office, Deus gave a quiet sigh and gazed leisurely through the window overlooking the mansion's garden. The decor was not so much a reflection of his taste as something already in place when he began using the room.

“Brother!”

He soon spotted a girl waving at him from the garden with a radiant smile, and a small smile rose to his lips before he knew it.

The girl, whose eyes were the same deep purple as his, waved for a while before resuming her stroll. Watching her, Deus found himself remembering a year ago.

The day he had reunited with family he thought dead.

... The day he had received the Great Moon's gift.

“...”

A year ago, Deus Makalian had been an active member of the Blue Moon, but unlike Yutia, he hadn't shown blind, unquestioning faith in the Great Moon.

Of course, he knew that the Great Moon had saved his life. Even so, at the time, that had not been enough to make him pledge his loyalty to another person.

There had been only two reasons Deus Makalian served the Great Moon.

One was to receive training in his abilities from Yutia.

The other was the Great Moon's promise to let him take revenge on the Black Sheep.

Ever since losing the family who had meant as much to him as his own life, all he had left was rage so fierce he couldn't sleep, and a clinging, festering hatred.

That was why, when he first received this assignment, he hadn't welcomed it at all.

He could readily understand that his work in the Blue Moon had been intended to help them confront the black things. This assignment, by contrast, had seemed utterly out of the blue.

Yet when he arrived in Callivan and reached the small inn in the south where the Great Moon's letter said his “gift” awaited, his eyes could only widen in shock.

There, working at the inn, was his younger sister, alive and perfectly well—the sister he had been certain the Black Sheep had murdered.

“... Ahem.”

Deus cleared his throat for no reason, despite being alone.

Even now, it embarrassed him terribly to remember how he had embraced his sister and burst into tears the instant he saw her at the inn, as though he had been waiting for that moment all along.

After that initial bout of tears, Deus had heard everything that had happened from his younger sister, Silli.

She told him how the Black Sheep had dragged her into a dark space, where she had waited her turn for a long time, and how, just as she was about to be killed, a brilliant light had brought her back outside.

How a man named Evan had rescued her when she was caught by a slave trader and nearly sold.

And how, afterward, Count Pallatio had given her precious medicine to treat her and continued to support and protect her until Deus arrived.

Hearing this, Deus had wondered how on earth the Great Moon knew any of it.

Since joining the Blue Moon, he had never once spoken of his family. Even Yutia had only recognized from the traces left on him that he had been a victim of the Black Sheep; she hadn't known what had happened to him.

Before long, however, he stopped dwelling on that question.

Instead, he recalled Yutia's words.

The words she repeated so often whenever they were together.

[“He knows everything.”]

[“You'll understand, too. Why I follow him.”]

Recalling those words, which he had dismissed at first but now felt he understood, he thanked the Great Moon.

To someone who had done nothing but brood on his hatred in pursuit of revenge against the Black Sheep, his sister's survival...

... And the knowledge that the Great Moon had secretly protected her, even putting his own name behind that protection, were both the greatest gift imaginable and a kindness more precious than anything else.

'No matter what happens.'

Deus resolved to repay that kindness.

Afterward, he became a knight in Callivan as the Great Moon had commanded.

Absurdly enough, becoming a knight was easy.

Quite apart from the abilities he already possessed, he had an astonishing talent for the sword that surprised even him.

[“He knows everything.”]

At that point, Deus realized that Yutia's words were not merely blind faith born of fanaticism. Around the time he became a knight, he also realized why the Great Moon had sent him here to become one.

'My mission is to build a personal guard.'

Whether it was because of the fighting against the barbarians, he didn't know, but in Callivan, anyone could establish a knightly order with the king's approval.

Moreover, becoming a Master Knight allowed one to establish an order exceeding the usual limit on its membership.

Not an order cobbled together from back-alley thugs, either, but one composed of talented swordsmen who had come to Callivan to become knights.

“Commander, it's time.”

“Very well.”

At the words of the knight bowing to him, whose eyes were filled with respect, Deus rose from his seat and set off.

His destination was the training grounds.

The knights stood in formation, clad in the black iron armor that was also the emblem of the Eclipse Order. Soon, they would have to set out on an expedition to fight the barbarians.

Deus stood on the reviewing platform and surveyed them.

He knew they would not all return here smiling.

But to him, that was not much of a problem.

The order—the personal guard that would serve the Great Moon—had to become far stronger than it was now.

He knew all too well that the Great Moon did not want an order that would fall to mere northern barbarians.

And so, unlike other commanders who offered encouragement and instilled courage, Deus drew his sword.

“Prove yourselves beneath the moon.”

With that quiet recitation of Eclipse's motto, he set out on the expedition to fight the barbarians.

To build the finest knightly order, one worthy of the Great Moon.