Kyle snapped his head toward me.
I quickly crossed my arms to cover my face.
“Please don’t hit me!”
Kyle, who had been about to smack me, stopped with an expression that said he was speechless.
I lowered my arms, which had perfectly shielded my face, and cautiously glanced at him.
I knew it would come to this.
“I know I said something out of line... so I’ll start with an apology.”
“You’re insane.”
Kyle didn’t throw his punch, but he didn’t lower his fist either.
Frowning, he spat out his words.
“You pity me?”
“Would I dare pity you? I’m sometimes jealous of you, actually.”
That, too, was the kind of line that could earn me a punch.
I braced myself to block the blow sure to come.
But Kyle didn’t swing. Instead, he lowered his fist and fell silent.
He must still have been thinking about the story of my past I told him over dinner the night I handed the garnet to Kysis.
His expression was complicated, unreadable.
I gave a faint, apologetic smile.
“Sorry. But really, I have nowhere to spend the money.”
“Spend it on yourself. Buy food, clothes, weapons—something.”
“Meals are provided in the Order, I barely ever wear civilian clothes, and I have no intention of replacing my weapon.”
“Then no one to spend it on?”
“You two?”
I replied easily, and Kyle blinked, his brow slightly raised.
He was a man whose dark hair, long enough to reach his waist, suited him whether tied up or loose. Whenever he bound it in one, a few strands always slipped free and fluttered.
Watching that black hair sway in the wind, I rubbed my neck.
“The only people I’ve grown attached to are you and Rei.”
Life was simple.
Carry out missions. Train in the spare hours.
I rarely left the training grounds.
Kysis’s skill had given me, for the first time in a long while, something like a purpose again—born of inferiority, but still a purpose.
Since that day, I’d focused solely on improving, free of idle thoughts.
“But Rei’s rich. He doesn’t need my money.”
“He hates his family, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah. But it’s not like his family cast him out.”
The Count actually loved Rei.
I’d heard that he bragged everywhere like a fool that his brilliant third son had joined the Order and was serving voluntarily in the western division.
But Rei had lost all attachment to the Count’s family.
More precisely, he’d cut that attachment after a certain point—after his beloved sister was forced into marriage and died young.
It had been death from her husband’s violence.
They’d known he was violent and pushed the marriage through anyway, for money—political marriage, they called it. Rei believed the entire Count’s family had joined hands to sell his sister off.
Still, the Count and Countess continued to love Rei.
“My salary probably wouldn’t even cover their snack expenses.”
Kyle stared at me for a long while as I smiled awkwardly.
Only when I began to wonder if I’d really gone too far did he speak.
“Let’s go.”
Kyle brushed past me.
“To my people.”
I smiled faintly and followed him.
***
Kyle smiled easily among his tribesmen.
He’d always had a refreshing smile, though he also had a temper. Yet in front of his people, he became endlessly gentle.
I stood watching as he spent time with them, arms full of the supplies and food and clothing he’d bought for them.
They were kind to me.
Partly because I’d brought aid, but also because I was known as someone Kyle liked.
Lucky man.
I thought as I sat on a rock eating stew.
Lucky to have people worth protecting.
When the bowl was empty, I sat there blankly, feeling the cool breeze.
The outskirts of the capital, heavy with the scent of poverty.
Children who had to worry about their next meal ran to Kyle with bright smiles.
It seemed that seeing him made them forget their hardship for a while—forget the endless plains they’d lost, the freedom to run across them, the pride of their people.
It must be because of them that he’d sheathed the sword he once held to his own throat.
They must be the reason he gave up revenge.
“Hilde.”
After I’d been sitting there for a while, Kyle approached.
I lifted my head and met his eyes.
“Huh, what? Time to leave?”
“Have you found what you lost?”
The unexpected question made me blink.
The comrade standing before me was wearing that blank, unfathomable expression again, waiting for my reply.
I gave a small laugh.
“I told you. You two are what I found.”
“Don’t get all sentimental.”
“That’s cold.”
I answered with a laugh, but Kyle’s face didn’t soften.
After a moment of silence, he motioned for me to get up.
Without a word, I followed.
Kyle led me somewhere deserted. If I hadn’t been close to his level in skill, I might’ve been scared—this was the kind of alley where someone could die and not be found for a while.
He stopped at a dead end.
The place was so dark that his golden eyes glowed all the brighter.
“Have you heard anything about what the garnets are used for?”
“Huh? No?”
Why bring that up now?
I looked at him questioningly, and he narrowed his eyes, as if checking whether anyone else was nearby.
“They say the imperial family is desperately gathering them.”
“Really? Are they worth money?”
“No. Supposedly they’re connected to the World Tree.”
I still couldn’t follow.
With his hand resting on the hilt of the sword he never let go of—except when eating or bathing—Kyle fell silent.
It was a moonless night.
“Apparently garnets are useful in studying the curse of the Sacred Tree.”
“Oh, yeah? That’s the only reason?”
“Those people are obsessed with researching that curse.”
“Because it has military value?”
“That too, but they also believe the rumor circulating in secret.”
What rumor?
I knew nothing about it.
Whenever the topic of the World Tree’s offspring came up, I’d been too busy suppressing the instinctive revulsion it brought.
Thankfully, Kyle didn’t drag it out.
“They say the World Tree’s blessing is eternal life.”
I blinked several times.
“You’ve never heard that? Seems it’s not just a baseless rumor.”
“So that’s why those things went mad when they saw me back then?”
“What?”
“Nothing. Talking to myself.”
No point digging into old things.
Kyle exhaled deeply and studied me as I rubbed my neck.
It took me a while to steady my breath before answering.
“I sometimes envy you, for having taken your revenge.”
At his quiet words, I raised my eyes.
His golden eyes shone even in the lightless dark—brighter than mine, giving him the look of a lion.
He was said to be the pride of his tribe.
“Now that revenge is over, start again. That crazy prince seems to have his eyes on you, so you probably can’t run anyway. Might as well climb higher while you can.”
I hate this.
He must’ve seen it on my face, because he gave his first refreshing smile of the night.
“I don’t like that madman either. But what he said about finding what you’ve lost—he’s not wrong.”
“Easier said than done... I don’t know if I can.”
“You can. You’re someone who cares.”
The black-haired knight spoke with certainty.
“As long as you don’t let go of reality, it’s enough.”
Rei had said something similar a few days ago.
We stood together in silence in that dark alley.
The capital was vast, hard to grow attached to. The emperor I briefly met when receiving my knighthood, the heavy, stifling air without freedom, the citizens who ignored the glaring poverty around them—none of it inspired warmth.
But maybe I should try.
Try to find some attachment.
Thinking that, I gripped my sword—the one forged from the ashes of the Sacred Tree.
The holy blade I’d taken from the burned hand of my master, from the pit filled with the dried corpses of priests.
***
Time flew.
Before I knew it, even the tasteless meals of the Order had become familiar.
So had the pain of the rock-hard saddle, the habit of avoiding Kysis when he popped up out of nowhere, and the Count’s carriage that occasionally came looking for me.
And I realized Kyle had been right.
Now, I had things I could lose.
“You insolent brat.”
The Grand Duke grumbled as he toyed with his beard, white as hawthorn blossoms.
“I keep telling you to stop by when you have time, but you never listen.”
“Aren’t you busy, Your Grace?”
I smiled wryly at the Duke, who was sipping tea with elegant ease.
The meeting had just ended.
My task today had been to guard the hallway outside the conference room where all the high nobles gathered. It was usually done by knights from the southern or eastern divisions—a cushy job, not dangerous but respectable. Today the Grand Duke had personally named me for the role.
Because I’d caught his attention years ago during a certain incident.
It was kind of him to keep giving me these easy assignments.
“It’s not exactly somewhere I can just stroll into on my own, is it?”
“Just drop my name and come in.”
I glanced at the cup that cost more than three months of my pay and just smiled.
The Duke leaned back lazily in his chair and waved his hand.
“Sit.”
“It wouldn’t look proper, Your Grace.”
“Who’s around to see?”
He frowned, clearly saying he wouldn’t repeat himself.
No one could win an argument against this man.
Especially not in situations like this. With a small sigh of resignation, I sat opposite him.
If ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) anyone saw this, my head would probably roll.
But the stubborn old man never accepted my protests.
The Emperor’s most trusted minister—his Grand Chancellor—tilted his chin at the lowly knight before him.
“Drink your tea and relax a bit.”
“Don’t you have work to do?”
Ignored again.
If I refused the tea, he’d scold me for being a disrespectful youngster, so I surrendered and drank.
The tea leaves alone cost about a month of my pay.
Please let no one see this.
As I prayed silently for the hundredth time and savored the aroma, the Duke suddenly spoke.
“Accept eternal life.”
I almost burned my throat on the hot tea.
Coughing and nearly dropping the cup, I grabbed my neck as he looked at me like I was hopeless.
Who says something like that over tea?
I wiped away the reflexive tears.
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve already heard from Sir Kysis, haven’t you? The imperial family succeeded in obtaining the World Tree’s blessing.”
“...Your Grace.”
“And he told you to accept it too, didn’t he?”
Duke Jacques smiled as he looked at my speechless face.
It was the kind of grin that made you imagine what a delinquent he must’ve been in his youth.
“You know that witch who never leaves Kysis’s side has already received eternal life, and that Sir Hekate will receive it tomorrow.”
“Did His Grace summon me to persuade me to do the same?”
“Persuade?”
He repeated the word like it was the strangest thing he’d ever heard.
“Why would I need to persuade you?”
...Aristocrats.
Their arrogance never failed to stun me.
I lowered my eyes and let out a long breath.
It wasn’t new. The Saint, the Marquis’s daughter, even the Archmage had all made similar offers laced with threats.
None of them understood my revulsion toward it.
Well, I barely understood it myself.
Even Rei and Kyle, who knew my past best, were trying to talk me into it.
Thinking of all the faces I’d met in the capital, I sighed.
“I heard Your Grace refused it.”
“I did. Until that damned Emperor made it an imperial decree.”
“Ah. So you had no choice.”
“Exactly. So you should experience it too.”
Old bastard.
“At least your body’s still young.”
He said that as he picked up one of the cigars neatly laid on the table.
He put one in his mouth and held the other out to me.
This smell would cling to me and get me caught later.
I opened my mouth to decline, but his eyes stopped me.
“Light it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“When you’re done, go to the Knight Commander and tell him you’re ready to receive eternal life.”
He took a slow drag of his cigar and exhaled.
“Say you’ll do it under Duke Jacques’s supervision...”
At that moment, a bell rang through the spacious room.
Both the Duke and I shot to our feet at once.
That clear chime could never be ignored—
a sound that seared through one’s nerves.
The signal of the Emperor’s arrival.
The message that the ruler of the Empire was coming.
