146. drape (1)

Hung, Hung.

The sound of a wooden sword cutting the wind seemed to have improved dramatically compared to just a few months ago. Now, looking at the tip of the knife that draws a rather sharp line, Maxim spat out a small exclamation. The first prince himself lamented that he did not have much talent for martial arts, but it did not seem so to Maxim.

“You are wonderful, Your Highness. The shape of the sword is straight without being disturbed.”

Louis smiled broadly as he put his sword on the floor. Sweat was dripping down his forehead. It was unbelievable that he was a practitioner in the middle of winter. If he had been a knight candidate at the academy, he would have received a fairly high evaluation from the instructor. Maxim gave a small smile.

“Thank you. You’re so full of compliments today, I wonder if you’re lying. I just can’t get used to it.”

“How dare I tell a lie to Your Highness. I think it will be all right to move on to the next inspection.”

“is it? Then, moving on to the next inspection right now… .”

As Louis raised his expression and picked up the sword he had put on the floor, the attendant who had been watching their training cautiously stepped forward.

“Your Highness, I am concerned that the wind will be cold and that the jade body that sweated might be damaged.”

When the attendant asked what it would be like to do something like this today, Lewis raised his eyebrows in dissatisfaction, then nodded. Recently, I increased my swordsmanship training time, so I guess I need to adjust it a bit.

The attendant quickly handed over the towel to the first prince who expressed his willingness to accept, and at the same time took the wooden sword. Louis exhaled hot steam from his mouth and wiped his sweaty face with a towel. Louise, who had buried her face in a towel for a while, raised her head and looked at Maxim.

“So, why haven’t you returned yet?”

“By returning, are you talking about returning to the 1st escort?”

“yes. These days, it seems like you’re mostly staying with the 2nd Guards. I heard that he is sometimes in charge of guiding my knights.”

As he said, the order to bring Maxim back to the 1st escort did not come for quite some time even after Maxim became the winner of the martial arts competition. It was just an order to continue collaborating with the adventurer’s guild as soon as time permits. Still, no one knew the king’s intention of keeping Maxim in the 2nd Guards.

“… Does His Majesty just want to keep you under my command, or if not, what other intentions do you have?”

Lewis put on a worried look. Maxim raised his voice as if to comfort Louis.

“I don’t know His Majesty’s intentions, but as long as I’m assigned to the 2nd escort, I’m Your Highness’ person now. I guess you don’t have to worry too much about it.”

“Yes, I guess.”

Louis laughed weakly. As the attendant feared, a cold wind was blowing, but the first prince did not seem to have any intention of returning to the palace right away. Lewis looked up at the sky. The shadows were not coming. She crouched down from the beginning, hiding behind that light.

“Do you remember the question you asked me the other day, when you first came to this first prince’s palace to teach me swordsmanship?”

Maxim nodded.

“Are you referring to when I asked Your Highness what the sword was?”

“yes. You remember it well, too.”

Lewis kept a bitter smile and crossed his arms. The towel slung over his shoulder was fluttering in the wind.

“It is a black longing for me.”

Lewis said so. It was a firm voice, like a knight on the battlefield proclaiming.

“What I didn’t have. I pretended not to want it, but in the end I look at it. It’s something you can’t have without wanting to have it. That must be very similar to my temperament.”

Meanwhile, Prince 1’s eyes looked at Maxim.

“Maybe that’s why I want it even more. I think I’m aware of my reality, but… Some unrealistic wish that lurks in the corner of this heart, I can’t erase it.”

Lewis’ words sounded both lamentable and self-deprecating.

“Your Highness, a person can only be called a person because he dreams and lives by following his dreams. Why are you looking at me pessimistically because that dream is not realistic?”

The bitterness in Lewis’ smile faded a little.

“You deserve to push me like this, Maxim. You seem to be getting closer to the sword you sought after all.”

Maxim’s eyebrows curled. Prince 1, as if he was more than happy with Maxim’s reaction, let out a laugh.

“Didn’t you say that it is not a sword for chasing someone, but a sword for walking side by side with someone?”

“Yes, Your Highness. It’s gone too far, but I think we’re getting closer in the end. However, isn’t one person’s dream always fulfilled with a sword?”

“What my sword pursues seems so lowly compared to yours, so it’s a little funny.”

It could be said that it was almost everything in the black Maxim. Therefore, the black that Maxim pursues reveals Maxim’s greed and reveals Maxim’s dream. A knight was such a being from ancient times. Those who reveal everything about themselves as swords.

“Your Highness, your sword is by no means lowly. A knight is a being who originally has to represent all of himself with a single sword and realize his dreams. There is absolutely no need to be frustrated if Your Highness’ sword cannot comply with it.”

Louis closed his eyes. Maxim quietly watched Louis, who revealed his complicated feelings on his face.

“Yes, you are right. It’s just that I’ve been feeling a little frustrated lately.”

Lewis opened his eyes and sighed. While standing and talking quietly with Maxim, the sweat must have cooled down, and his face, which had been flushed with heat, had turned pale.

“I don’t know if I felt impatience without realizing it as I watched you achieve success one by one. Maybe that’s why you wanted to keep clinging to the sword. Just thinking of it as a place to escape.”

Lewis glanced down at the ground. At the place where his wooden sword had been lodged, there was a scar dug into the winter ground. If Louis was left alone, it was obvious that he would fall into a deep depression. Before Maxim could say anything, Louis spoke up as if he had made up his mind first.

“I’m going to take a break from swordsmanship lessons for the time being, Maxim. Right now I don’t have the right to focus on swordsmanship training. The sword seems too much for me to hold right now.”

Maxim looked at Louise’s face and nodded. It would be much better to take a break for a while and gather your mind than to be frustrated by holding the sword forcibly like this. Maxim was relieved that Louis didn’t say that he would work harder on the sword.

“If Your Highness wishes so, how can I oppose it? Putting down the sword for a while and catching your breath are also virtues that a sword practitioner should have.”

“I’m sorry. It’s not like I don’t know that you always do your best to help me.”

Maxim shook his head.

“no. Please God, if there is anything I can do to help, please allow me to help.”

Louis wrapped the towel around his shoulder back into his hand. It seemed that he was thinking of going back to the palace of the first prince.

“yes. If you talk to me like this from time to time, it will be of great help.”

Maxim asked to go back to the palace and looked at Louis, who turned around first. What was so heavy was that Louis’ shoulders, which were straightened out but dark shadows, seemed to be being weighed down by someone.

If someone’s mind was carelessly touched, it could deepen irreversibly. How to overcome with only one’s own strength. Maxim sighed. Today was the day the adventurer’s guild reported the results of the murder case.

“… You have to get over it.”

Maxim muttered a little to his back and retrieved his wooden sword.

—

The adventurer’s guild of the royal capital, it was one day shortly after the new year was bright. As winter deepened, snow piled up on the streets together. The citizens of the capital swept and swept the streets, but there were still far more snow-covered and whitewashed sections of the streets than blackened sidewalk blocks.

Unlike last time, Maxim opened the front door and appeared proudly. The adventurers of the royal capital chattered as they watched the light brown haired knight appearing through the main gate.

“You are welcome, Sir Maxim.”

The branch manager of the Wangdo Guild welcomed Maxim. Facing Maxim’s relatively gentle impression in Arsene Bern’s overbearing appearance, it seemed more comfortable to have a conversation.

“Yes, how have you been?”

“I was busy. I wonder if this is the busiest time since the regulation began.”

The branch manager sighed and let out a laugh.

“Did you come to hear about the progress of the search today?”

“Yes. Finally, since it’s time for Sir Adeline to return, why don’t we hear the situation directly from her?”

At the recommendation of the branch manager, Maxim nodded. Just in time, the front door of the guild headquarters opened wide and adventurers were entering. At the front, there was a female adventurer with an ax on her shoulder, with a somewhat rough impression, and after that, there were several adventurers with an impression that would make you swallow dry saliva just by meeting their face. Such people were following a woman standing next to the lead female adventurer like an escort.

“I’m back, branch manager. today… ”

Adeline brushed the head of the county office and spoke to the branch manager, then tilted her head when she faced a strange man talking to the branch manager. Then, with a quick step, he left his comrades behind and came close to Maxim, closing his eyes.

“Ah, Sir Adeline, you… .”

Before the branch manager could explain, Adeline tilted her face with a puzzled expression.

“Arsene… ?”

At the name he hadn’t heard in a while, Maxim smiled and nodded, and Adeline’s expression subtly changed beyond words.

This is the first time we’ve seen each other since I regained my sight. The branch manager noticed the situation and pointed to an empty table in the headquarters.

Taking Adeline, who seemed still confused, Maxim sat down at an empty table. To Adeline, who stared at Maxim in silence, Maxim took a deep breath and began to explain what had happened so far.

“… In that way, after winning the final, I became the winner of the martial arts competition held this time, and I no longer have to work under the name Arsene Bern.”

“That’s how it happened.”

Adeline, who was listening to the story, raised her eyebrows.

“Summarizing, did you mean that you won the martial arts tournament as it was, enjoyed all the glory that a knight of the royal road could enjoy, and enjoyed the New Year’s ball after that?”

Hair flowing down in ultramarine blue. The hand resting on his chin pushed up his cheek, creating an expression of dissatisfaction. Maxim waved his hand in embarrassment at Adeline’s words that sounded like he was swearing.

“By putting it together like that, doesn’t it sound like I’ve been playing all this time? I suffered a lot too.”

“Who said you didn’t suffer? I was just saying it in a nutshell.”

“Don’t you think the summary is too malicious?”

“There was no particular malice. In summary, that’s how it turned out.”

Adeline, grumbling like that, was ‘looking’ into Maxim’s eyes. The eyes, once faded by torture and curses, have now regained their color and returned to a beautiful black color. The imprint of the curse was still engraved on her iris, but it remained only as a stigma, and did not hinder her from seeing again.

“I’ve been busy looking for traces of the person who murdered the knights. I’m sorry I couldn’t cheer for you at the finals.”

Adeline’s words were still thorny. Maxim answered mechanically, not knowing why he was in such a stumped situation.

“… I suffered a lot. Originally, we should have helped with the investigation on the spot.”

“Thank you for telling me even if it’s just empty words.”

Adeline said so. Adeline’s smiling face, unlike before, was quite human-like. Maybe it was because he wasn’t covering his eyes, but Maxim smiled uncontrollably. The effects of the curse were fading with Christine’s continued treatment. Of course, in the meantime, the fact that they were working in the adventurer’s guild and their tone was gradually changing, I didn’t bother to tell them.

“Has there been any progress in the investigation?”

Maxim asked, shaking the glass in front of him. Adeline stopped complaining to Maxim and sighed. They seemed to agree to change the subject. I wanted to chat a little more, but I didn’t meet for that.

“development… should I say?”

Adeline hesitated and opened her mouth. misery of the day. The sight was playing in Adeline’s mind. Fresh blood stained the scattered limbs and white eyes red. It was not an unfamiliar landscape to her, but the scene she revisited after waking up was much more horrifying than she thought.

“The culprit may have been found out.”

Adeline muttered, lost in thought. Maxim raised his eyebrows, and she sighed and continued her explanation.

“Actually, I already guessed the culprit from the time I reached the forest.”

violence. Rough debris as if it had been swept away by a natural disaster. The place where the sword passed does not allow anyone to survive. Adeline knew only one person who used a similar sword.

“… The culprit, you mean?”

Adeline nodded. Recalling the memory was not so reluctant, but it quickly disappeared.

“Do you remember where I belonged?”

can’t forget Maxim nodded. The ‘Puppets’ collected by Leon Benning. There were once forgotten knights who made a name for themselves, and there were also knights who had great talent but never saw the light of day. Those who forget their past memories and wield their swords solely for Leon Benning.

“It was the time when I was still the count’s ‘puppet’. In fact, ‘puppet’ has rarely been active in the same group. At best, it must have been about sending personnel to the east and seizing the vacant royal palace through force.”

Adeline spoke about her past in an unexpectedly calm manner.

“Maybe that’s why the ‘puppet’ didn’t have a head, but now that I think about it, I think that person could be the head of all the ‘puppet’.”

Even as Adeline spoke of him, her shoulders trembled as if she was reluctant.

“Bernardo Lennon.”

The name that came out of Adeline’s mouth, Maxim did not know. The puppets whose pasts were erased had no real names, only pseudonyms given by the Count.

“He was a man of great skill. To the point where I can’t fathom the end. The sword was as wild and fierce as a northern blizzard, and its aura was violent.”

Like the horrors left in this incident.

Maxim frowned. Adeline nodded as if she understood that expression.

“… What kind of person is he?”

Adeline seemed to think for a moment, then opened her mouth.

“To the Count, every ‘puppet’ was a tool. It may not be a tool that can be used once and thrown away, but we were never treated as people or knights by the Count.”

Adeline raised a finger.

“Except for one person, Bernardo Lennon.”