Ch.268Leonor

Leonore Wittelsbach.

Imperial Princess, Knight of the Rose.

…Daughter of a witch.

Her world had always been filled with two kinds of seasons.

Autumn at midday and winter after sunset. A life like a dream, both splendid and gloomy.

Whenever she adorned herself with pride and tried to move toward the bright light, it was a life where a deeper shadow grabbed her ankle like a nightmare.

When did it begin?

As she narrowly evaded her brother’s attack, Leonore was immersed in memories like an old picture frame.

—-

In childhood, everything was perfect.

“This gift is a new dress, Leonore. I hope you like it.”

Her father, who always adored her and gave her presents.

“You are my jewel, Leonore. A very… precious treasure.”

Her mother, who stroked her head and smiled warmly.

“Leonore, Lady Josephine is looking for you. Did you skip history lessons again today?”

“But it’s not fun!”

“Well, that woman’s classes are boring… Still, learning will help you later.”

Ernst, her older brother, who always seemed busy but would stop what he was doing to listen to her stories when she came to him.

“Sister Leonore! I learned horseback riding today! I’ll give you a ride later!”

“Sister! Can I eat this cookie?”

Matthias and Josef, her two younger brothers who clung to her and whined.

Yes. It was like a dream.

“…Don’t talk to me.”

Even Leopold’s eerie glare, always directed at her family, didn’t bother her.

It was certainly perfect.

Until she hid under her mother’s bed, even borrowing a magician’s potion to conceal her presence, to surprise her mother.

—-

For some reason, there was no one around that day.

In the late evening when the guard knights protecting the palace and the busy maids had all disappeared.

Not realizing what caused such an unusual silence, Leonore hid under the empty room’s bed.

Holding a flower crown she had made as a gift for her mother.

And then… her mother, Isabella, entered the room.

Unlike usual, with a sticky voice, bringing someone into the bedchamber where only royalty should enter.

Men entering one after another with lewd smiles.

Sweet and fishy smells. Wet and sticky moisture. The violently shaking bed. Moans full of ecstasy.

What was happening was clear.

Leonore had no choice but to endure until everything ended, closing her eyes and covering her ears, suppressing even her breath.

The flower crown she held had long been crushed. Mangled petals fell to the lightless floor.

It was a nightmare that completely shook her world.

And after the men finished and left the room, Isabella got up and muttered,

Words about “it being time to harvest one.”

…What that meant became clear not long after.

A few days later.

Her youngest brother, Josef, “disappeared.”

—-

Who should she tell about this?

In shock and confusion, the only name that came to mind was her brother, Ernst.

She couldn’t bring herself to tell her father.

Leonore knew well what the empress’s infidelity would mean.

Harsh punishment would be dealt not only to the guilty party but to all her children.

To her brother, her remaining sibling, and herself. She didn’t want such an outcome.

And…

“…Thank goodness you weren’t discovered. Never do such a dangerous thing again. If you had been caught, who knows what would have happened to you…”

Ernst already knew.

“…Don’t tell anyone, and don’t show that you know. That woman has eyes and ears everywhere.”

He warned her with a dark and gloomy expression she had never seen before.

After that day, this became a secret between just the two of them.

—-

The innocent, childish princess disappeared.

The girl who learned about the filth behind the beautiful packaging surrounding her could no longer look at the world with clear eyes.

As time passed, as her vision broadened and her thoughts deepened, she realized.

That all the warmth she had felt was false.

Her father who gave her all sorts of dresses when she was young.

His gaze contained hidden lust that he tried to conceal.

Her brother Ernst who always seemed busy.

She learned that what he had been doing was struggling for his and his siblings’ survival.

Matthias left for the Holy State.

He had always been close to priests, but after his brother’s death, he became completely immersed in that world.

Perhaps it was fortunate that he left without learning the ugly truth.

…Though he couldn’t escape in the end.

And,

Her mother who called her a “treasure.”

That wasn’t love. Rather, it was closer to the care one gives a valuable craft.

The word “harvest” endlessly circled in Leonore’s mind.

Would she someday disappear like Josef? Or would it be something worse?

Isabella’s activities, which she investigated as she grew older, were beyond imagination.

Orgies involving all sorts of nobles and knights, even slaves and young boys and girls.

Not only that, but she corrupted noble ladies and used them like prostitutes.

Her bedchamber was truly a den of evil.

Leonore had nightmares every day. Dreams of the day she learned her mother’s truth.

Even after she was no longer a young girl and had grown to a sufficient age, the nightmares remained. Though one thing had changed.

Now, instead of hiding under the bed, she dreamed of being discovered and forcibly placed on the bed.

Hands groping her with lewd smiles.

And then beginning…

When she woke up screaming, her body was always drenched in cold sweat.

—-

Was it chance or fate that her eyes fell upon the sword decorating Ernst’s room, as she lived each day with the feeling of livestock in a slaughterhouse?

As Leonore stared at the sword with hollow eyes, Josef’s words, which she had once dismissed, came back to her.

…He had said he wanted to become a great knight like their ancestor and defeat monsters that harm people.

At the time, monster appearances were rare, and since Josef was born into royalty, she thought he would never face monsters and just laughed it off.

But now that voice came back to her so clearly.

Knight.

One who destroys evil.

Leonore unconsciously reached for the sword on the wall.

To her, Isabella was no longer her warm mother but a monster who would drag her to hell.

The weight of the longsword she held for the first time was too heavy, but the hilt fit perfectly in her hand.

As if her hand was exactly where it belonged.

The blade she drew was beautiful.

A clear, transparent light like a mirror crafted from silver.

The metallic gleam reflecting sunlight seemed to brighten even her increasingly dark world.

“…Do you want it?”

When Ernst asked Leonore, who had been staring at the blade as if entranced, she nodded without hesitation.

Ernst sighed softly and gave her the sword as a gift.

That night, sleeping while embracing the sword, she didn’t have nightmares.

More precisely, even if she had the same dream, it was no longer a nightmare.

In her right hand as she was pulled onto the bed was a sword.

The swinging blade shone like the sun and cut down the men in her nightmare.

Waking up wrapped in refreshment and relief, she resolved to become a knight.

Yes. If this nightmare was destined to come someday, there was only one way to overcome it.

She needed to become stronger.

And so she became a knight.

—-

The life of a knight wasn’t so bright.

For someone who had never done rough work, sword training was unbearably painful, and the sensation of cutting flesh with a sword was more disturbing than she had thought.

The villains she faced were too hideous, and the monsters seen up close were disgusting and terrifying.

She couldn’t complain to anyone. It was she herself who had insisted on choosing the path of knighthood against everyone’s opposition.

Only Ernst, who knew the real reason she became a knight, was her pillar of support.

Whenever Leonore vented her hardships to him, Ernst listened and encouraged her.

Unlike before, his manner of speaking had become extremely blunt… but Leonore knew well that deep affection was still contained within.

Other knights kept their distance from her behind her back.

Saying she was just a woman playing at being a knight using her royal status while they risked their lives.

Of course, Leonore didn’t care much about this.

Considering how she became a knight, such talk was perhaps natural.

…Though it did hurt a little.

That’s why she worked endlessly to become even a little stronger. Shedding blood and sweat like rain.

Still, the pace of her growth was too slow. She doubted whether she could overcome Isabella’s malice with such skill when it eventually came.

A woman whom even her brother Ernst, who had reached mastery, couldn’t handle.

But there were rewards.

She saved many suffering people.

She rescued women who would have become miserable prostitutes in Isabella’s clutches and took them under her wing.

Though a small achievement for her, it meant a great deal to those who were saved.

At some point, training was no longer difficult.

Even pain was welcome. It was proof that she had taken one more step forward. She lived as a knight for years like this.

Then Matthias died.

…And now Ernst too.

—-

– Clang!

Sparks fly as swords clash roughly.

The notched longsword screams as it grinds against true silver.

Her sword had long been broken. The one she now wielded was given to her by Nigel.

As expected of a master’s weapon, it held up better than her previous sword due to its true silver content, but even it was approaching its limit.

“Brother…”

Pushed back while deflecting the force, Leonore looked with sorrowful eyes at her blood relative who had been her support.

The man who was no longer even human in form.

===========

“I am the staff that walks ahead, the torch that crosses the night. May His light come upon me to illuminate the darkness!”

Brilliant holy light blazes like flames.

Light emitted by burning life. It was the final flame of life released by a paladin who had exhausted his strength.

Bels rose again and charged toward Ernst.

A pure white arm sprouted from his empty shoulder, and a dazzlingly flashing blade cut through the flesh tainted by evil.

“Kiiiiiii!”

The worms filling Ernst’s body writhed and screamed as Elpinel’s light burned them.

Centipede-like creatures sprang from the cut surface, baring their teeth and attacking fiercely.

Bels was literally fighting while burning away his own lifespan.

“Haaaaa!”

Nigel kicked the spear and shot it forward. Despite her body being stained red with wounds, her movements were becoming even more dazzling.

It was an acrobatic struggle, flying through the entire waterway using daggers embedded in walls, ceilings, and pillars as supports.

She caught the rebounding spear with the inside of her knee, pulled out a dagger stuck in the ceiling, and struck down the head of a centipede flying toward her.

A fighting style that never stayed in the same place for a moment, throwing her entire body as if overworking it.

Her spilled blood stained everything around her red.

Looking at that sight… Leonore gritted her teeth.

Yes. That was what a knight truly was.

Not someone who wielded a sword for themselves like her, but noble ones who fought without sparing their lives for others.

She could understand. The reason why she couldn’t reach the realm that seemed so close no matter how hard she tried.

What she lacked.

‘Playing at being a knight… that wasn’t wrong.’

The realization that finally came was tinged with bitterness.

Yes. Fighting only for herself, she couldn’t stake her life on the sword she wielded.

The final step, like stepping over a cliff. Because she hesitated before that one step, she couldn’t move forward.

And now, for the first time.

She held a sword not for herself, but solely for someone else.

Looking at the monster screaming shrilly with worms writhing from wounds all over its body.

Though the body was so twisted that it was hard to find its original form… she could clearly see.

The figure of the man suffering inside.

‘Yes… Come to think of it, I’ve always just relied on my brother… I should have helped him at least once.’

The burden Ernst carried was heavy.

On the shoulders of a man with no one to rely on rested the future of the empire, his own life, and even the fate of his remaining sister.

Even Leonore couldn’t fully understand his heart, the burden he carried.

In the end, the prince who tried to bear all that weight with his own strength collapsed without defeating his enemy.

So.

‘So. I’ll help you now, brother.’

Leonore took a step forward.

To liberate the one who had been her hope, her past, her memories, and her support.

Tears flowed down her cheeks.

The sword she held was so heavy.

But, why? Strangely, her body felt light.

“Errrrnst!”

Shouting words of farewell, Leonore rushed toward her only family as if embracing him.

“Kiiiii!”

Blade-like centipede teeth stretched out, aiming for Leonore’s legs.

“Haaaa!”

The shot spear pierced through its body and pinned it to the floor.

Nigel, having used all her strength, fell to her knees.

Five steps forward.

Mantis-like forelegs swung toward Leonore’s body.

“Not a chance!”

A pure white shield blocked the mantis’s blade.

The brilliant holy light scattered like a mirage, and Bels, out of strength, collapsed helplessly.

And then.

“Kiiiii!”

A true silver longsword thrust toward her chest.

Facing an attack that even Nigel and Bels had no way to block, Leonore simply ran.

As if she didn’t care if that sword pierced her heart.

“…no, re…!”

A soft murmur from the monster’s mouth.

Was the voice that clearly reached Leonore’s ears an illusion or real?

The true silver longsword aiming for her chest suddenly twisted to the side.

The blue blade only tore her clothing as it passed.

“Bro…ther…!”

Leonore gritted her teeth and raised her sword-

Her accumulated karma.

The proof of her fiercely lived life seeped into the blade.

The final step she had finally reached.

A master’s strike severed the monster’s neck.