Previously
Cecilia manages to calm a jealous Leoport by inviting him to secretly watch the recruitment trials for her new squad of squires. Disguised in a magical hood to hide her identity, she convinces her junior guards, Scott and Eugene, to sneak them into a hidden vantage point behind the Narcissus Palace training grounds.
“Right. Ah… well, it’s a bit tricky regardless.”
“I’ve learned how to enhance my vision too, but I can’t reach that far yet.”
True. Leoport had watched Scarlett and Willow clash earlier after bolstering his sight with Holy Power.
At his words, the knights took notice and bent down slightly to meet our eye level.
“Pardon us for a moment. Close your eyes.”
Scott draped an arm around Leoport while Eugene pulled me by the shoulders, each using their free hand to gently cover our eyes.
I felt a soft, weighty warmth pressing over my closed lids.
“You may open your eyes now.”
I blinked a few times.
‘What is this?’
The moment I opened my eyes and looked around—
“Whoa, incredible!”
The distant grounds snapped close, as though binoculars had been set right before my eyes.
Not only could I see the six iron bars clearly, but even the expressions of the two knights stationed beside them came into plain view.
“This is far sharper than what I learned! Do they teach this when you join the Holy Knights?”
Leoport’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Until now, his longing to join the Holy Knights had felt somewhat vague, more like lingering indoctrination than genuine passion….
Yet now that he had tasted a whole new tier of Holy Power, genuine fervor seemed to burst forth right before my eyes.
“You learn it during training to infuse holy energy into your blade.”
“What you’re seeing now is shaped by our Holy Power. If you channel a little of your own, you can adjust the focus and sustain it longer.”
Hearing that, Leoport’s eyes widened even further with wonder.
Where did that boy who hated training his Holy Power run off to? He looked utterly enthralled by the knights’ tone and their crisp uniforms.
‘Still… you need Holy Power to control it.’
My lack of Holy Power was an imperial secret unknown even to my personal guard.
I fiddled with Rebecca’s necklace around my neck.
‘Good thing I have this.’
My third sister… I was always thankful to her, but today more than ever.
Drawing on the Holy Power stored inside Rebecca’s necklace, I began scanning the applicants for Cain.
Focusing was tricky at first… but I adjusted quickly and found him without trouble.
‘Participant Number 29, Cain from Roseberry Territory! That’s him!’
Every candidate wore their number clearly across their chest, with their name penned along the side.
‘Even with a spyglass, I never would’ve seen in such crisp detail… Holy Power truly is incredible.’
I was genuinely envious. Out of everyone, I was the only one without a drop of it.
Still, there was no need to do everything with my own two hands. Soon enough, I would have retainers of my own.
Relieved, I watched Cain step toward the bar-hang test.
‘Is he Willow Gibbels’s age? They look about the same height.’
With brown hair brushing the nape of his neck and a compact frame honed by early physical training, Cain appeared plenty sturdy.
He certainly did not look like someone who would fail today’s fitness test.
‘They say he’s diligent and earnest, and that’s more than enough! If he went on to join the Imperial Knights, his swordsmanship must be solid too.’
Cain lined up before the iron bars alongside five other applicants.
“One, two, three, go!”
At Lancel’s signal, all six lifted themselves up and hung from the bars at once. Cain pulled himself up with relative ease. But then….
“That brown-haired boy has good muscle tone, but his endurance is awful.”
“It’s only been a minute and his face is already flushed red.”
In other words… he was suffering. Good grief….
“Is it… the longer you hang on, the higher the score?”
Though the answer was obvious, I asked innocently to learn the exact criteria.
Eugene smiled and answered,
“You must hold on for a minute to pass, with points awarded for every thirty seconds thereafter. Full marks start at five minutes.”
“Whoa….”
I recalled my numbers from my past life, where I could hardly hang on for even a few seconds… and with Cecilia’s delicate body now, it was utterly out of the question.
For these kids, who were essentially elite student athletes, surely it wouldn’t be so daunting.
Anxious, I turned my gaze back to Cain. His face was flushing darker by the second, clearly enduring every moment with sheer grit.
‘Hang in there, Cain!’
I balled my fists without realizing it.
Just then, I saw Cain cut his eyes to the right, as though watching a rival.
“The girl beside him is pacing herself nicely.”
“You mean the one with the grey ponytail?”
Scott and Eugene began discussing the girl next to Cain.
She looked roughly his age, yet despite how much time had passed, her expression remained remarkably serene.
Or rather….
‘Is she… just indifferent?’
Her face was so devoid of tension that it made me wonder what her true personality was like.
It stood in stark contrast to Cain, who grit his teeth as he glared in her direction.
As time ticked by, the boy to Cain’s left dropped, then the girl to the right of the ponytail gave out, leaving only the two of them.
Just as Cain’s face shifted from crimson to a bruised shade of purple—
“Halt!”
The moment Lancel’s voice rang out, Cain dropped from the bar, slumping to the ground while gasping for breath.
“Oh, two of them got full marks.”
Meanwhile, the girl with the grey ponytail calmly returned to line, dabbing away her sweat as though nothing had happened.
And her brilliance didn’t stop there.
“Fifty repetitions within one minute to pass. Afterward, with no time limit, your back must not touch the ground for more than three seconds until exhaustion. Three hundred reps is a full score.”
Once those who failed the hanging test were cleared out, the sit-up test began.
As though his earlier struggle had never happened, Cain pumped out sit-ups like a machine. But as he neared two hundred reps, his momentum began to falter.
‘No… hang on! At least get full marks!’
I wrung my hands with nervous energy, rooting for him with the cutthroat competitive spirit of my past life.
Unlike the hanging trial, everyone did their sit-ups together, and over twenty candidates remained even after several dropouts.
Beep—
If a back stayed flat against the ground for more than three seconds, the sensor strapped to it let out a tone.
As the beeps multiplied, participants began dropping out one by one.
‘Even if you quit now, you won’t fail, but you need to be in the top ten! Think of your father back in Roseberry!’
Watching Cain slow down more and more, I chanted words inside that could never reach him. Just then, he raised his torso and glanced to the side.
It was the grey-ponytail girl who had hung to his right.
She was doing sit-ups with utter calm, showing no sign of exhaustion, looking as fresh as if she had just begun.
“That grey ponytail is clever.”
“She took smart advantage of there being no time limit. Three seconds is actually plenty of rest. Rushing only burns your stamina.”
“The key is finding your rhythm.”
Unlike those who collapsed early after bolting out of the gate, she seemed to settle into an easy, consistent cadence once the required fifty reps in the first minute were done.
Her methodical tempo was infuriating enough that a girl who dropped nearby shook her fist and glared at her in frustration.
As for Cain, he dragged his torso up with agonizing effort, looking on the verge of collapse, matching his rhythm to the sway of her ponytail ahead of him.
In the end, Cain finished among the final three survivors, right beside her.
‘Did he use her as a pacer, or was it just pure rivalry?’
Either way, it was a relief that he pulled off a strong result because of it.
“With that performance, she’s practically guaranteed a spot in the Sixth Squad too, isn’t she?”
During the subsequent long-distance run, Cain jogged along while keeping a sideways glance on that girl—Eileen of Viscount Galia’s territory, Participant Number 28.
Most applicants, thoroughly drained by the prior tests, barely finished the minimum five laps before collapsing onto the dirt.
Yet Eileen, just as in the bar test, wore that same detached expression, running at a steady clip without any burst of speed, just like she had paced the sit-ups.
Cain, who started with the lead pack only to run out of steam, gradually drifted back until he drew alongside her, falling into her pace.
“Lucky kid. They don’t seem to know each other, but having a rival at the exact same level right beside you is a blessing in disguise.”
And of course, his greatest stroke of luck was catching my eye, hehe.
In the end, Cain cleared the fitness test with flying colors, thanks to that pacer—Eileen, toward whom I was already developing a soft spot.
Thanks to her, Cain had made it through the trial unscathed.
‘Though that detached demeanor of hers is a bit concerning….’
Eileen clearly stood out among the thirty or so applicants left on the field. She had cleared that brutal testing with top marks without breaking a sweat, and above all….
“That girl looks completely unmotivated.”
“Right. To the point where it makes everyone else look trivial….”
So I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
I nodded vigorously in silent agreement with Scott and Eugene’s assessment behind me.
In the final trial, which tested the fundamentals of swordsmanship, all candidates demonstrated the foundational forms of the imperial style, and even to my untrained eye, her movements looked… soulless.
“There’s nothing wrong with her form.”
“Yeah, the angles, the hand placement, everything is textbook, but….”
As if to say the spirit was missing?
Scott and Eugene were already growing strict toward this trainee who was clearly on track for the highest marks.
“Her conditioning is superb, and the way she uses her body shows genuine intellect.”
“Yes, but she seems to lack drive. It’s as if self-preservation comes before anything else.”
“She’ll absorb whatever we teach her quickly enough….”
“What good is being skilled alone, though? Given her age, she’ll likely be the oldest among her peers, which is a worry.”
“True. That brown-haired boy next to her looks much better suited for leadership.”
Beside her, Cain executed each form with a crisp precision that clearly pleased the senior knights.
I felt like a proud parent watching a school recital, even though today was the first time I had ever laid eyes on him.
‘Right, shall we make our move to ensure Cain gets full marks on his character evaluation?’
In truth, watching the fitness test was merely a prelude; my real objective lay elsewhere.
Though my hood hid Cecilia’s features, I turned toward Leoport and spoke as gently as I could.
“Leo.”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
He had been mimicking the sword drills along with the applicants, but he turned toward me at once.
“When you join the Holy Knights later, this is where you’ll train, isn’t it?”
“…I suppose that’s true.”
“And if my knights transfer to the First Squad, they might very well become your superiors.”
“Oh…!”
Leoport snapped to attention, as though suddenly conscious of Scott and Eugene behind him.
As for the two knights, they paid no heed to our chatter, entirely absorbed in evaluating the applicants.
“Besides, those who pass today will graduate ahead of you, becoming your seniors.”
“That’s… true, isn’t it?”
His earlier pout vanished completely, replaced by an eager expression.
“Don’t you want to get closer and see for yourself what kind of people your future seniors will be?”
“I do! And if there’s anyone strange among them, I’ll tell the Second Princess immediately!”
Heh, Leoport truly was a wonderful friend.
I smiled and turned to my guards.
“Eugene, Scott. Since we’ve come all this way, I’d like to greet my sisters before we head back.”
The candidates who cleared the fitness trials were scheduled for personal interviews before my sisters and the Sixth Squad’s commander, Lancel.
And the window while they waited for their interviews was precisely the chance I had been waiting for.
Yet the moment we set foot inside Narcissus Palace—
“Scott, Eugene! What on earth are you two doing here right now?”
We were caught red-handed by the knights of the Sixth Squad.