episode_0346

Two years before Yuri’s royal palace employment, her second life.

In the swordsmanship training grounds, as usual, the young Princess Nari was sparring with the trainee knights.

*Twang—Clang—*

She wields a wooden sword as tall as herself, moving nimbly. Her snow-white clothes and black hair flutter, her sword leaving afterimages in the air as she advances.

“One more! I have a feeling I can do this today!”

“Wow, Your Highness… but—”

“Hurry up!”

One of the trainee knights waiting outside the training grounds hesitantly walked in, looking quite unconvinced.

There were several reasons for his hesitation. The scene of two adult men pressing an attack on a single girl was undesirable, and more importantly, they hadn’t practiced any coordinated attacks.

Nari had noticed this already.

“Do as you’re told! I come first, knighthood comes first!”

“Yes…!”

Finally, the two trainee knights exchanged a brief glance and began attacking Nari, one from the front and one from the back.

She lowers her body and swiftly dodges a strike aimed at her upper body, darting in. Her partner prepares a counterattack nearby, so she stops her attack and retreats.

They coordinate an attack, aiming at her upper and lower body simultaneously. She bends backward, smoothly slipping between their swords. The knights’ swords didn’t even graze her hair or clothes.

“Don’t go easy on me just because I’m a girl! I’ll get really mad!”

She’s royalty before she’s a woman. Knowing the severe punishment they’d face for injuring royalty, would they really swing their swords with all their might?

They did try their best. At least, they didn’t go easy on her. It’s just that Nari was too fast. Before they could even retort, she vanished from their sight.

As their eyes met, a powerful blow landed on both their heads.

*Tap—!*

“Both of you are out! Quickly, next! I feel like I could take on ten more!”

“Ugh…”

“I told you to hurry… uh…?”

Nari, who had been unable to contain her excitement, finally noticed her surroundings. Having already knocked down over a dozen trainee knights three times over, there was no one left standing.

Her heated body began to cool down. Nari sat down nearby with a dejected expression and wiped her sweat.

“As I thought… to have a proper spar, I need to fight the Knight Commander.”

She tapped the dirt ground with her wooden sword, dissatisfied. The earth meekly yielded to her blows.

And watching all this was a girl. She gripped a wooden sword, her light green bobbed hair fluttering as she walked into the training grounds.

“If it’s not too much trouble… please allow me to be Your Highness’s sparring partner.”

“Huh? You were the one who…”

A faint smile touched the girl’s lips.

“My name is Aspi Lichtein. I wield this sword to become Your Highness’s knight.”

“Oh really?”

Nari briefly scanned Aspi, then offered a smile different from before.

“You seem pretty good.”

“It’s an honor.”

“Then… shall we begin?”

The fallen trainee knights quietly looked up, watching the two girls spar.

And they realized that even wooden swords could spark when they collided.

. . .

Aspi Lichtein.

As the daughter of a knightly family, her destiny was decided from birth.

A knight. A sword that slays the master’s enemies, a shield that protects the master until it shatters. Regardless of gender, the bloodline of the Lichtein family had to become knights.

Aspi was talented. She could easily emulate sword techniques after a single glance and she learned more than one thing each time she was taught. She was a prodigy.

This was the assessment she received:

“Not bad for her age.”

That was true. Aspi far surpassed her peers in skill. But that was all. When sparring with adult trainee knights, she always ended up in a stalemate. Her talent was just enough to overcome the difference in physique.

Aspi’s future was bleak. There was a vast gulf between her and the true geniuses, and she, who didn’t particularly wish to be a knight, lacked the strength and will to overcome that wall.

She realized around that time that this life was her second.

Aspi bitterly regretted breaking before protecting her master. It would have been less painful if she had at least used her last life to save the Princess. She thought she had ended her life pathetically after being a hindrance until the very end.

Why did she pick up the sword?

She had grown lax due to enjoying the Princess’s favor and forgot her duty. Aspi left all of that behind in the past, driven into a second life.

Her vision blurred. Even just being alive felt terribly shameless. It was on a day she was considering suicide.

“The weather is really nice today, isn’t it?”

It was a cruel twist of fate. Princess Nari had spoken to Aspi while strolling through the royal palace gardens.

“Yes, e-eh…”

Aspi stared blankly at Nari before hastily standing up and bowing her head.

“Y-Your Highness, Princess Narita…”

“Be at ease. I’m here to relax, too.”

The Princess she met again hadn’t changed in the slightest. The most beautiful flower blooming above all flowers, always willful, possessing the strength, heart, and beauty to justify it.

Aspi suddenly felt ashamed. If the master hadn’t changed, how could the master’s sword change first? She’d had the arrogant thought that her life was her own.

She hugged her knees and buried her face in them. She slowly squeezed out her deep sorrow and scattered it on the garden as fertilizer.

Then, she raised her head again.

“Aren’t you training?”

The Princess’s voice reached her. In her past life, she probably hadn’t understood her status and acted rudely. The scene still haunted her.

Aspi stood up and brushed off her skirt.

“I was only taking a short break.”

“Not taking a longer break?”

“No. No matter how much I train, it’s never enough.”

“Splendid.”

Tears she hadn’t fully shed welled up in Aspi’s eyes. Nari saw it plainly.

“Are you tired?”

“…Yes. I’m very tired. But I still have to do it.”

“May I ask why?”

Aspi turned around. She’d decided what she had to do.

“Because it’s my dream… and my happiness.”

This time, she would not be forgotten. She wouldn’t waste her life on seclusion training but would continue to guard her by her side, honing her body and mind.

Aspi became a knight faster than in her previous life.

. . .

“What do you think, Aspi?”

“What do you mean?”

“About this situation, the regression.”

“Well, nothing is certain yet.”

Deep inside the royal palace gardens, a secluded place where not many people passed through. Two women sat there.

Aspi, who hadn’t finished growing yet, was quite short, and Nicks, as if finding her cute, was hugging her like a doll. Nicks was a tall elf with long, large black hair.

She smiled serenely, stroking Aspi’s light green hair with her slender, long fingers, and Aspi brushed Nicks’ hand away with a restrained movement.

“It seems you’ve realized something uncertain?”

“Yes… well. It’s just a feeling…”

Nicks liked Aspi, who possessed the opposite personality. Of course, the thrill of corrupting her also played a significant role.

The composed Aspi often saw things differently than Nicks. Her unique perspective piqued Nicks’ curiosity.

“I’m incredibly lucky. Everything is going so smoothly. It’s as if the world revolves around me…”

“Isn’t that wishful thinking?”

“It might be. Isn’t that how regression works? Since you know the future, things tend to go better than in the past you remember.”

“But… you’re suggesting there’s something more, right?”

Aspi nodded, almost as if trying to avoid Nicks’ touch.

“Unfortunately… Your Highness doesn’t remember the past we know. I’ve checked several times. And yet… she makes the ‘best choices,’ just like we do, knowing the future.”

“Wasn’t that always the case?”

“She said that was all thanks to her status window. Now, as you know…”

“She can’t use magic yet.”

It was a story they both knew, even though they hadn’t seen it firsthand. Her meeting with Yuri, the twelve-year-old’s resurgence, awakening, and the manifestation of magic. They heard it all happened instantly.

Aspi forced a smile.

“It’s still just a hunch.”

“A hunch… right, a hunch. Aspi, there’s something I really wanted to ask you.”

“What is it?”

Nicks swallowed hard, her face serious. Looking around cautiously, as if afraid of being overheard, she finally spoke.

“Do you… love the ‘current Nari’?”

Aspi was silent for a moment after hearing that. She seemed to be thinking. However, it was thought about Nicks’ question, not about love toward Nari.

But Aspi thought there was a difference between the two. Was the primal instinct, the same as an animal’s, pointing at this Nari in this life?

Aspi shook her head.