Chapter 1

Overture

Strictly speaking, the Ajenka Military Academy was hardly a school. There were no classes or lectures. Nor was there any training. Of course, there were no instructors or teachers either. All that was provided to the Military Cadets was room and board, and the status of being a Military Cadet.

“But that status means a great deal. A Squire candidate for the Azure Knights. It’s no wonder so many applicants flock here.”

A new clerk, looking out the window from the academy’s administration office, muttered to himself. A senior clerk, sitting at his desk and examining the mountain of application documents, frowned.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“It’s just that, I’m newly proud to be affiliated with the Azure Knights, even if only as a clerk.”

“How corny.”

The city of Ajenka, where the Ajenka Military Academy was located, was ruled by the Azure Knights. Ajenka did not belong to any nation. This was because the Azure Knights were a knight order that transcended national boundaries.

“How many of them will become Azure Knights?”

“Maybe none at all.”

“Surely not.”

“You can’t become a formal Azure Knight unless you’re a Master, and becoming a Master isn’t easy, is it?”

“……Weren’t all knights Masters?”

“Look at this guy. Saying scary things. You’re from Ajenka, right? Have you lived only in Ajenka all your life?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Hey, it’s the Azure Knights who are weird for having all their members as Masters. Is there a reason why Azure is called the strongest?”

“So, other knight orders accept knights even if they aren’t Masters?”

“In the first place, there aren’t many Masters in other countries. But here, well, even the regular knights are Masters who infuse Mana into their swords and spread it around, and above them, there are even the Giosa Owners…….”

“Oh, what’s that?”

The new clerk interrupted his senior with a bewildered tone. She frowned, having been in the middle of an explanation.

“Hey, you brat, were you even listening to me?”

“S, Senior, look at that.”

The new clerk gestured frantically. A commotion was heard from outside. The senior clerk, who had been about to get angry, eventually approached the window because of the noise.

“What is it? ……What is that?”

She gaped as she looked outside, and the new clerk, who was stuck to her side, asked.

“Senior, how many years have you worked here?”

“Seven…….”

“……Have you ever seen an applicant like that in all that time?”

“Would I?”

“Probably not…….”

“I’ve seen all kinds of applicants, but this is a first.”

All eyes were on one woman.

It wasn’t because she was a woman. Although there were more men, there were many women among the applicants, and there were female knights in the Azure Knights as well.

Was it because she was pretty?

She was pretty. She looked to be just twenty years old. Her face was younger than that, but her figure was mature.

Her skin was milky white, her hair, half up and half down, was a pale pink, and her large eyes, which contributed to her youthful appearance, were a violet color like ripe grapes. Her plump, small lips were as red as flower petals. She was a delicate and slender woman, as if touching her would leave pollen on your fingers.

However, even that appearance was not the cause of the commotion. With thousands of people gathered, there were quite a few beauties more noticeable than her.

The reason she was attracting attention was her attire.

White lace gloves. A dress complete with petticoats. High-heeled women’s shoes. Earrings. Necklace. Brooch. Light makeup. Ribbons, ruffles, frills, jewels.

It was an outfit more suited to a tea party for noble ladies than a training ground for aspiring knights.

“She must be crazy…….”

The new clerk’s muttered words represented the feelings of everyone who looked at her. The senior also echoed in a dazed voice.

“I know, I don’t know which family’s young lady she is, but she’s not just immature, she’s lost all sense of reality.”

“Does she even know that this is a place to test swordsmanship?”

“It would be better if she didn’t know. To come to the Ajenka Military Cadet selection test, where geniuses from all over the continent are challenging with all their might, in that state, knowing full well what it is…….”

“Has she ever even held a sword?”

“The most likely scenario is that she’s a young lady who ran away from home after reading too many romance novels, so what sword? Wanna bet? I’ll put 1 silver on her dropping the sword while trying to draw it.”

“No way, that’s not a fair bet! I was going to bet on that too!”

“You can bet on her dropping it while swinging it.”

“What’s she going to swing with those arms! She can’t even lift it!”

A sword was a rather heavy weapon. Unless it was a lightly made rapier, it was not easy for an untrained woman to swing it, let alone lift it with one hand.

“What’s going on?”

A cool baritone voice came from behind them as they were chattering. The senior, recognizing the voice, quickly turned around and saluted.

“Greetings to the Captain of the Royal Guard!”

“Wha, Captain of the Royal Guard?”

In Ajenka, there was only one person who could be called ‘Captain of the Royal Guard.’ The Captain of the Azure Knights.

Since Azure was a thorough meritocracy, being the Captain of the Azure Knights was similar to being the best knight.

The new clerk, who had only recently joined as an administrative assistant and had never met the Captain of the Royal Guard, looked at the man with a shocked expression.

He looked as delicate as a glass flower. Long silver hair loosely tied and draped over one shoulder, bright blue eyes. A face that looked more like a poet than a knight.

But unlike his appearance, his body beneath the uniform was thoroughly trained.

And then there was the atmosphere. No matter how beautiful, a sword was a sword. The sharp, cold feeling unique to an object made for cutting and stabbing could also be felt from him. It might be a trace of a life lived always close to the sword.

This man was Yurien de Harden Kirie, the youngest Master and the youngest Captain of the Azure Knights in history, and the owner of the Holy Sword Rangiosa. A man who was sure to become the protagonist of epics sung by bards in later generations.

The new clerk swallowed involuntarily.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

“I heard the sound of betting.”

“That’s…….”

As the new clerk sweated profusely without answering properly, the senior closed her eyes tightly and explained.

“There’s an unusual applicant, so we were just joking around!”

“Unusual?”

As Yurien raised his eyebrows slightly, the clerks quickly stepped aside and pointed to the window.

“Over there……. You’ll know as soon as you see her.”

Yurien approached the window and narrowed his eyes as he looked outside. He quickly found the woman with pink hair among the applicants.

He recognized her at once.

It was a woman he knew.

There was no way he wouldn’t know. He would have recognized her even if she was wearing rags.

His eyes widened and then wavered. His hand, gripping the window frame, unconsciously tightened. Countless memories flooded his mind, making him feel nauseous.

However, he did not reveal his inner turmoil. None of the clerks next to him noticed that he was shaken.

The senior clerk sighed.

“I never thought I’d see an applicant in a dress at the Ajenka Military Cadet selection test.”

“……Applicant?”

Yurien reacted as if he had heard something strange.

“Yes. I don’t know what she thinks the academy is……. She seems to be an immature young lady.”

The senior thought it was natural for the Captain of the Royal Guard to be surprised. An applicant wearing shoes and a dress was absurd. Because of that prejudice, she did not realize that Yurien’s question had a subtle nuance.

On the other hand, the new clerk noticed. Somehow, his tone was strange. The Captain of the Royal Guard’s words did not mean ‘how dare’ she be an applicant, but rather that she ‘couldn’t possibly’ be just an applicant.

Did he mishear? While he was tilting his head, Yurien quickly returned to a calm expression.

“Do you think she will fail?”

“Yes? Well……. Isn’t she?”

In the meantime, it seemed to be the woman in the dress’s turn to take the preliminary test. The woman took out a plain longsword that did not match her attire at all and walked forward.

The preliminary test was a simple test of cutting a log with a sword.

The log was harder than expected, and cutting it in one go with a sword, not an axe, was impossible without skill and strength.

A skilled knight could instantly guess the opponent’s level to some extent by looking at the stance of cutting the log, the cut surface, and the speed.

Outside the window, the woman standing in front of the log was drawing her sword. Yurien could not take his eyes off her as she drew her sword. He whispered to himself as if talking to himself.

“If it were me, I would bet on her passing the test at the top.”

The woman swung her sword. The flowing sleeves fluttered. Neither her feet in shoes nor her slender arms wavered at all.

The log was cleanly split in half. It was a clean movement even to the clerks who didn’t know much.

Silence filled the training ground. Only after the sword was sheathed with a swish did the examiner come to his senses. He mechanically checked the cut surface of the log and then stammered.

“E, Ekinesia Roaz, preliminary round passed!”

Yurien turned away without watching any further. There was no need to see more. She would easily pass the remaining tests.

He ordered the clerks.

“Bring me the application.”

“Yes, yes?”

The clerk, who had been dazed by the unexpected event, was startled. Yurien gestured with his chin.

“That applicant’s application, I mean.”

“A, a, I understand. Please wait a moment.”

The two clerks rummaged through the pile of documents in a hurry. After a while, a document was handed to Yurien. He quickly scanned it on the spot.

-Ekinesia Roaz, female, 20 years old, from the Kirie Empire, eldest daughter of the Roaz Count.

Echinacea was the name of a pink flower. Perhaps she received this name because of her unusual hair color.

It was a fitting name. Easy to remember once you heard it.

“Ekinesia…….”

Yurien quietly savored the name. It was the first time he had heard it. It was also a name he had wanted to know so much. He knew her, but he didn’t know her name.

In the ‘future’ he knew, she was not a Military Cadet. But this time, she would become a Military Cadet.

“Things have changed.”

“Yes?”

“Nothing. Then, do your best.”

Yurien returned the application to the clerks and left the administration office.

* * *

At the same time, Ekinesia ignored the pouring gazes and left the preliminary test site.

She glanced down at her right palm. There was a black mark on her palm, hidden by her ornate gloves, that should not be seen.

[You’re thinking of abandoning me again, aren’t you? You heartless owner.]

Even though there was no one around, a complaining voice was heard in her head. It was the voice of the thing dwelling in the mark on her right palm, directly conveying to her soul. Eki smirked.

“Of course, why else would I have come all this way? I came to abandon you.”

[Hey, you learned how to turn back time thanks to me!]

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have needed such a thing.”

[Come on, get over it. It’s all in the past now, isn’t it? Let’s not dwell on the erased past, okay?]

“Shut up, you damn Demon Sword.”

Eki snapped in a harsh tone that did not match her slender voice. She ignored the Demon Sword’s muttering in her head and headed to the first test site.

The test site was not far away. People who had passed the preliminary round were already gathered there.

Ekinesia stopped at the entrance. She clenched her right hand, as if wanting to hide the mark, and took a deep breath.

It starts now. She intended to become a formal knight of the Azure Knights. To be noticeable, but not suspicious.

She would inevitably set a record for being appointed as a knight in the shortest amount of time, but still, so as not to appear abnormal. Just like a ‘normal’ genius. She had to achieve her goal while maintaining that state.

Especially, she should never get involved with that noble Captain of the Royal Guard. Regardless of whether she wanted to meet him or not. This new life was hard-won, and she couldn’t ruin it by indulging in sentimentality.

‘Even if Yurien remembers, it’s because I look so different.’

Eki looked down at her fancy attire. There was a reason for wearing a dress and dressing up.

Ekinesia Roaz was living a second life.

She had turned back time to 15 years ago at the age of thirty-five. She directly erased the past she wanted to erase.

The second twenty years she started like that was not an easily given piece of luck. It was a miracle she had won herself.