Previously
Cecilia convinces Grace to support her plan for a new intelligence network disguised as a personal guard unit, citing the need to monitor the Noble Faction and Rosivius. The entire imperial family becomes excessively involved in vetting the candidates, leading to a rigorous multi-stage selection process that includes Cain.
“Still… I’m training to become a knight too…”
“Leo, if you ever truly intend to serve me as a knight, let’s discuss that after you’ve received a proper commission.”
Not that that was really what he meant. Perhaps he just hadn’t come to terms with the fact that our starting lines were entirely different, even if we both aimed to be knights.
“This whole initiative started because my knights need attendants, and I can hardly make the young lord of House Ornbach an attendant to my escort. The primary purpose is to raise their eventual successors.”
I offered an answer that was about eighty percent true, then gave a careless shrug.
My calm demeanor seemed to soothe him slightly; the pout on his lips smoothed out a fraction.
‘His sulking face is undeniably cute… but why is he clinging to me like this, even if we are friends?’
It might not even be any special affection; the idea of the “sound of the bell” had simply been drummed into his head. The real problem, likely, was that I was his only friend.
It was true I only had one friend as well, but ever since my past life, I was used to playing by myself at home.
‘Once he enters the Academy, makes plenty of friends, and eventually meets Emily, won’t this moment become utterly embarrassing in hindsight?’
Clinging so desperately to his only companion, I mean.
Though his head understood my explanation, his heart clearly hadn't accepted it, and Leoport remained gloomy.
‘Why not use this sullen mood to my advantage instead?’
Smiling inwardly at the idea that had suddenly struck me, I asked him in an easy, reassuring voice,
“Leo, do you want to go see the applicants with me? If you check them over yourself, as my friend, to see if there’s anyone trustworthy among them, wouldn’t that put your mind at ease…?”
As I put a distinct emphasis on the words “my friend,” his stiff expression began to thaw.
‘…What good is being a scholastic genius when your heart is still that of a child his age?’
I beamed at him, channeling every drop of Cecilia’s childish charm as if no other thought had crossed my mind.
“Well, Leo?”
“A-All right.”
Of course, going on an outing with Leoport didn’t mean we could slip away from supervision.
Even though the escort knights were serving as evaluators, two of them were always assigned to guard me on rotation.
Still, I could use Leoport as the perfect excuse to go observe the selection trials.
“Wow, that’s incredible. Can I try it on?”
“Ah, no. This was custom-made for me. If someone else wears it, electric current will run through them.”
Fearing Leoport might snatch it up to test it, I leaned quickly out of his reach. Not that he was the sort of child to do that anyway.
“Electric current…?”
“I mean static electricity. It’ll prick your scalp, and your hair will stick up in tangles and won’t come unstuck.”
My enchanted bonnet had been crafted with a heavy focus on magic, given my complete lack of divine power.
I’d heard that anyone possessing substantial divine power, like Leoport, might suffer unpleasant side effects if they put it on.
“Since only people with very little divine power can use it, Theodore said he made it to give to a wealthy commoner he met through his work.”
Leoport tilted his head a little, but seemed to grasp the gist of it.
As long as he was persuaded, that was plenty. Relieved, I tied the bonnet strings.
On a crowded day like this, wearing the enchanted hood was the best way to blend into the crowd unnoticed.
“Your Highness is very good at tying ribbons, too.”
“Yes, I asked Patty to teach me how.”
Another spoonful of praise from Leoport today. It made sense; nobles who never dressed themselves found such simple tasks exotic.
“Oh my, Your Highness!”
“Are you heading out dressed like that?”
The moment I stepped out of the bedroom into the parlor with Leoport, wearing the hood, Mary and Batisha hurried over in surprise.
“Yes. Leoport is curious about who will be joining my escort unit.”
“Oh my, truly?”
“Yes, indeed! It would be wonderful for the young lord to take a look.”
It wasn't difficult to guess what was crossing their minds from the broad grins spreading across their faces.
‘They think Leoport is jealous because they teased him earlier.’
Well, thanks to them, I could leave Freesia Palace without any fuss, so I suppose I could forgive their earlier antics.
Narcissus Palace, where the Holy Knights and the Imperial Knights had their headquarters, hummed with activity that could be heard from afar. Behind it, a steady stream of people was flowing toward the training grounds.
While the applicants had arrived at the palace alongside the attendants, their acquaintances and guardians had come separately today just to watch.
“Did the evaluations start last night?”
“Yes. They said they wanted to test how well they could adjust to communal living.”
“If someone talks in their sleep or kicks their bunkmate, do they get disqualified?”
“Hmm, I don’t know. That’s hardly something one can control… Maybe they’re just checking for severe lack of social etiquette.”
“And how do they measure that?”
“Well… failing to keep time, lacking teamwork, or making a nuisance of themselves to those around them…?”
I answered vaguely, recalling the kinds of behaviors that drew hate on reality survival shows in my previous life.
“Will I have to go through an evaluation like this when I apply to the Holy Knights later…?”
“No way. You’ll be commissioned directly on your swordsmanship alone.”
I gave a shrug, thinking of the future I already knew.
The issue was that despite being relatively weak in wielding divine power due to childhood illness, his swordsmanship was so exceptional that he was appointed without having to go through the trainee phase.
Because of that, suspicions of special privilege would arise, creating friction in his career as a knight… though now that he was diligently training his divine power, perhaps that wouldn't happen.
‘To think people would cry favoritism over something like that, even though he’s the heir of a ducal house… Class boundaries are far harsher here than in my previous life, yet there are strange pockets of rigid fairness where you least expect them.’
As I pondered this, Leoport looked at me with narrowed eyes.
“Your face looks different under that hood, but your expression is just the same.”
“And what expression would that be?”
“The one where I can never win against you.”
Leoport let out another sigh, his lips jutting into a pout.
Where on earth had this child learned to sigh like an old man?
Never suspecting for a moment that he had learned it from me, I took his hand and towed him toward the training grounds.
In the training grounds, the physical fitness test was underway in earnest. The entrance and the garden surrounding the grounds were packed with spectators, making it impossible for someone of my short stature to see inside.
‘If they were all adults, I could at least peek through their legs…’
Since I was wearing the hood, I had completely abandoned the dignity of “Her Imperial Highness the Princess” and let the childish thought pass unchallenged.
The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of friends of the applicants, and our eye level was entirely blocked.
“I can’t see a thing… What if we went inside?”
“Will they let us in when we don’t know anyone?”
“If you take off the hood…”
“Then the applicants might be startled, wouldn’t they? I don’t want to cause a scene…”
While Leoport and I hesitated behind the wall of people, wondering what to do—
“Number 53, fail!”
“Number 9, stepped off the track. Fail!”
Shouts announcing disqualifications bellowed from inside the training grounds.
‘That’s Lancel’s voice. Since he’s the squad commander, he must be supervising the test.’
I’d heard that the first stage, the physical test, was being handled by the Sixth Squad, while my elder sisters were overseeing the interviews.
Thud, thud, thud, patter—
From the crunch of gravel and sand, it sounded as though they were running sprints as part of the trial.
“What should we do… We came all this way and we can’t even see…”
As I wondered, I glanced back over my shoulder and noticed our two escort knights for the day, Scott and Eugene, wearing subtle expressions of excitement.
Being the youngest members of the Sixth Squad, they hadn’t been assigned to the evaluation panel and had been put on guard duty for me instead…
‘The trainees who enter as attendants will be their juniors… Wouldn’t they want to see them too?’
Their gazes, fixed toward the grounds over the heads of the crowd, looked thoroughly lost in reminiscence.
I tapped Leoport, who was trying to wriggle through the throng, and flicked my gaze toward the pair.
‘Let’s win them over.’
‘All right!’
Clearing my throat slightly, I addressed the two knights with shining eyes.
“You know…”
“Y-Yes?”
Scott nearly blurted out “Your Highness,” but shut his mouth just in time.
“Is there any way we could see from closer up? We can hardly go crawling between people’s legs…”
The moment the phrase “between people’s legs” left my lips, both knights looked utterly horrified.
Small wonder; this very training ground was a place they had lived in for nearly fifteen years since their trainee days.
They hesitated for a second, clearly weighing whether it was right to go against the orders of their seniors, who had barred me from entering the evaluation site.
“You two are proper knights of the Sixth Squad, aren’t you? I think it’d be wonderful if you could watch, even like this…”
Feigning thoughtful consideration on their behalf, I gently prodded at their sense of youthful rebellion.
It really was unfair that they had been excluded from evaluating simply because they were the youngest.
They exchanged a quick look, then led us around toward the back of the training grounds.
“If we head over by the rear storage shed, you can watch without disturbing anyone.”
“And there won't be any danger, really.”
Ha, easy… far too easy.
‘Besides, it’s high time I stopped letting Leoport see me being overly sheltered.’
I followed behind them with a satisfied smile.
Scott and Eugene led us to a side door tucked behind the grounds.
“Is this the door the knights use to sneak away from duty?”
“In cases like that, we usually use the crawlspace—”
“No, nothing of the sort ever happens, Your Highness!”
The moment Scott opened his mouth without thinking, Eugene, the unit’s sole female knight, promptly stomped on his foot and answered over him.
Well, I already had my answer.
‘Even elite knights slack off sometimes, then.’
Passing through the door, we skirted the storehouse until we came upon a long garden running parallel to the training grounds.
If we crouched behind the shrubbery, no one would ever notice us.
Leoport and I bent down low, peering through the bushes at the field. The applicants stood lined up in neat rows, panting heavily with flushed faces.
Gaps showed here and there in the ranks, marked by those who had already been eliminated in the sprint.
“People have been dropped already in the dash.”
“Tsk, tsk. If this were the official entrance exam, they would have had to submit fitness records and been weeded out at the document review stage.”
Beside me came Scott and Eugene’s biting commentary… It seemed senior figures were the same everywhere.
It was hardly surprising that unqualified applicants were mixed in; some families had undoubtedly pushed their sons in through connections, hoping to gain a foothold in my personal guard.
“So, what tests are left?”
I asked, looking up at them.
“Sprints are done. What remains is the bar hang, sit-ups, the distance run, and some swordsmanship basics.”
“No sparring?”
“No, since we are only selecting trainees.”
‘I see.’
I nodded and turned my gaze back to the training grounds.
Beside me, Leoport was murmuring the names of the tests he had just heard, repeating them under his breath. It was likely quite different from the exam he would eventually take, but the mere mention of the Holy Knights seemed to pique his interest.
“Oh, look over there, Your Highness.”
Scott leaned down and pointed toward the right side of the grounds.
“See those iron bars? Looks like they’re doing the bar hang over there.”
“Ah… you’re right.”
Several horizontal bars were set up, and nearby stood Brandon and Andy, the two senior-most escort knights, helping up those who couldn’t reach the bar… or so it looked from this distance.
‘Where did I put my spyglass?’
As I rummaged through the pocket of my dress with a frown—
“Can you really see that far clearly?”
Leoport asked innocently.