Ch.25Winter (3)

As I walked along the path, I encountered a woman standing in a corner of the garden.

Her white hair, reflecting the pale moonlight, hung down to her waist

as she stared with empty eyes at a barren tree.

Her blue eyes, glowing alone in the pitch darkness, soon rippled toward me.

“Evan.”

A gentle voice echoed. Whenever her voice reached me—resonant like a bell, leaving lingering echoes—my heart trembled for some reason.

Why did I react so sensitively? But I quickly brushed aside these thoughts and opened my mouth.

“Were you waiting for me?”

I noticed the cloak she was wearing. The weather was chilly—would she be warm enough dressed like that?

As I slightly furrowed my brow looking at her clothes, Irene approached me and spoke.

“I haven’t been out long. You don’t need to look at me that way.”

What expression was I making?

As I touched my face with my hand, Irene soon took her eyes off me and began walking.

She gazed at the bright lights rising in the distant town. I too began to follow her.

#

The winter in this duchy, where snow had not yet fallen, bore a desolation and coldness unlike anything else.

Cleaners who couldn’t bear to come out in the cold,

trash scattered across the gray and brick-colored streets, staining them black.

Everyone wore thick clothes hiding their faces,

and unlike the previous season, colorless people wandered the streets like corpses.

Opening your mouth meant letting in piercing cold;

when you blinked, the sensation of freezing membranes made you hesitate to step outside.

Snow might have made it better, but with those white petals not yet falling, all that could be seen on these streets were dead leaves.

It’s cold.

That was the thought that came to mind as I walked beside Irene.

In summer and autumn, I would often let my gaze wander to take in the scenery.

But the landscape created by this winter was nothing but bitter coldness.

The Empire’s winters were exceptionally cold, and the Yuris Duchy was no exception.

Especially this Yuris, guardian of the Empire’s northern border.

Though we had just entered winter, I would occasionally laugh when seeing icicles hanging from buildings.

Just how much colder could it possibly get as time passed?

Rubbing my reddened nose, I turned my head toward Irene.

Irene seemed quite accustomed to this cold, simply walking forward steadily while holding her cloak.

Perhaps it was because she had lived here all along. Her face remained pale without any hint of redness.

“By the way, what did you come out to buy?”

I was curious about why she had come out.

Today’s weather was colder than usual, so there was no particular reason to venture outside.

Could she have something urgent to purchase? When I asked, Irene looked at me briefly before slowly speaking.

“…Just something I need to buy. Is there nothing you need, Evan?”

“Well…”

Honestly, I’d been living quite comfortably lately.

My position as Irene’s knight was quite an attractive one, to the point where I couldn’t understand how I had lived before.

Of course, this was possible because I had grown close to her.

In fact, apart from not having internet or smartphones, my life was incomparably more luxurious than before, so I didn’t particularly want for anything.

But if I had to choose something…

“I do need a few swords.”

“Swords?”

With the intensity of training increasing lately, swords were breaking frequently.

I couldn’t primarily use the ceremonial sword the Duke had given me.

Though I used many wooden swords from the mansion, not having my own sword was quite inconvenient.

Hearing my words, Irene stared at me for a moment before giving a small nod.

“…Swords, I see.”

Was she really going to buy me swords?

Since she had never bought me anything before, I wasn’t sure if she was serious.

Still, it had been quite a while since we’d gone out together like this, so my steps felt light.

The last time we came out was summer, but the atmosphere had been as bleak as winter.

Thinking how the air had softened incomparably since then, I couldn’t help but smile.

The scenery that had seemed so cold earlier now looked rather cozy.

I wondered what would happen during this outing.

Looking at Irene, who had already walked ahead, I began to follow her once more.

#

“Who are you looking for so intently?”

“…Ah, Mr. Chris!”

I couldn’t help but smile at Ropena’s voice calling me “Mr. Chris.”

While Evan always addressed me as “Sir,” why did she call me by my name?

Well, it felt more friendly, so I didn’t mind.

As I patted Ropena’s head, I remembered that she had been looking around for someone.

Who could she be searching for? Certainly not me.

Tilting my head in confusion, Ropena seemed to understand and began chattering with her small mouth.

“I was looking for Sir Knight. I have something I want to give him.”

“A birthday present perhaps?”

At that, Ropena’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with both hands, making a gasping sound.

Really, her emotions were so transparent on her face.

So unlike her mistress. Finding her quite adorable, I laughed heartily, which made Ropena frantically speak while tapping her small chest.

“H-how did you know? It was supposed to be a secret!”

“I happened to find out. You don’t think I’d know the birthday of the man I’m training?”

Of course, the birthday boy himself didn’t seem to think too highly of his birthday.

But he probably wouldn’t refuse a gift from Ropena.

That fellow seemed to care for Ropena in his own way.

“He’s gone out with the young lady now, so he’ll probably return well after nightfall. You should go to bed early.”

“But birthday presents should be given when the clock strikes twelve. You taught me that, Mr. Chris.”

“Did I teach you that too?”

Pretending not to know, I scratched my chin and frowned, which suddenly made Ropena angry.

I wonder who she takes after with such a bad temper.

“Aaack-!”

“I remember. Of course I remember. I told you that on your birthday.”

“…You should have remembered that sooner.”

“Hehe. Well, I suppose so.”

“But I’m not sure if he’ll like the present I prepared. I tried my best, but he never tells me what he likes.”

Indeed, Evan wasn’t one to easily talk about himself.

Looking at Ropena who had sat down beside me, my eyes narrowed as thoughts of Evan came to mind.

Evan Fried, a child who suddenly appeared at the Duke’s mansion with an unexpected request to be trained as a knight due to his exceptional talent for swordsmanship.

He didn’t come with anyone from the Fried Count’s family,

just carrying a single sword and a letter. How surprised I was when I saw that young child with empty green eyes reflecting nothing but void,

rarely smiling. His talent was truly enough to astonish the world.

One year.

That’s how long it took Evan to awaken mana, something most people struggle to grasp in a lifetime.

Even I, considered a prodigy, took five years,

yet I could only be astonished when he suddenly began emanating white mana throughout his body.

And then three more years—that’s how long it took for that child to master all forms of swordsmanship.

By the time he turned 15, the child who had come alone to the Duke’s mansion had reached the Expert level.

Even the Crown Prince, called a once-in-a-millennium talent, reached Expert at 17,

and even he, who had held a sword from a very young age, took that long.

What should one call someone who reached Expert in just 7 years?

The only concerning point was that his expression never changed.

How long had it been since I’d seen him smile?

Probably since childhood, he had never smiled or cried in front of me,

sometimes making me wonder if he wasn’t a person at all but a doll made somewhere.

Always swinging his sword with a gloomy expression, sometimes when shadows fell on his pale face, I would worry if he might die.

Now, it was simply amazing that such expressions could no longer be found.

Perhaps he began to change when he became the young lady’s knight.

I vividly remembered scolding him when I opened the door and found him sitting blankly.

On that day he became a knight, he spoke differently than usual, which was so strange.

Now, I was accustomed to his brighter demeanor.

Both the young lady and Evan had changed for the better, which made me happy, but would such changes continue?

Would they someday return to their former desolate and gloomy selves, as if these changes had been just a dream?

When such thoughts arose, I would think that I needed to live a little longer.

After all, it was my role to support those two from the side.

As my thoughts scattered and I raised my head, I saw Ropena grinning while looking at the box in her arms.

At 15, she would be the same age as the young lady and Evan. Why was she so childlike?

“So, what present did you prepare?”

“Why should I tell you that?”

“This kid.”

Would he be happy to receive a gift? He used to look so bitter even at a simple congratulatory remark.

I wondered if he had been like that before, but until last year, he had been under another knight’s charge, not mine, so I couldn’t know.

What could have happened on his birthday to make him look so dark?

But with nothing to know right now, I could only smile at Ropena, who was hugging the box tightly in her arms.

“Should I prepare something too?”

“Wait, you knew but didn’t prepare anything?”

“…Well, that’s possible too.”

Saying that, I looked out the window. The moon, pale as always, illuminating the surroundings.

Below that darkness, the young lady and Evan were probably there.

Would the young lady be able to choose a good gift?

Though I supported her intention to care for her knight,

given her personality, I thought there was a high chance she might fail.

I didn’t know how Evan had persuaded the young lady, but even the investiture ceremony had been moved up, so I hoped they would grow closer this time.

“…Hmm?”

Suddenly, I felt that the darkness visible outside the window was unusually disturbing.

It was a night no different from any other, with stars and moon no different from before.

Why did my chest tighten when looking at that darkness? I had certainly felt this sensation before.

Darkness that made me feel like I was crawling into a swamp, breathless, with an illusion of being engulfed by darkness.

The moment I recognized the word flashing through my mind, my hand gripping the sofa began to tremble.

The emotion rising at this moment was both confusion and rage.

How on earth had those people come back to Yuris?

A roar-like shout burst from my widely opened mouth.

“Summon the knights-!”

My whole body tensed with a sensation I hadn’t felt in 30 years.

Ropena looked at me strangely for my sudden outburst, but that wasn’t important right now.

“Mr. Chris? Why suddenly-“

“…Black mages have appeared.”

Ropena’s face turned pale upon hearing the words “black mages.”

And for good reason—the term “black mage” was not something to be mentioned lightly as a joke.

What it meant that black mages had appeared again…

The Great War 30 years ago, the plague they spread, the corpses they revived—those who had destroyed the Empire’s golden age had appeared in this land again.

The darkness visible outside the window was different from what I had seen just moments ago. Now it was so thick that even the moonlight looked dim.

My face, thinking of the two most important people in this duchy who might be down there, would be more downcast than ever before.

More than ever before.