Chapter 56: A Knight’s Devotion
At the announcement of dusk, Jyn and Seldi traded three blows.
The first was Seldi’s greeting. Per Her Highness’s order, she sprinkled on some MP for added visual and sound effects. Her sword glowed yellow with electric energies that struggled to lash out, and when it met Jyn’s, it rang like a tuning fork throughout the plaza, greatly impressing the onlookers.
The second was Jyn’s reply. After Seldi’s sword slid past hers, she sprinkled far more MP into her own blade. The form it took, however, surprised Seldi. Jyn would have normally gone with fierce, fiery effects, but instead, she bore witness to a flash of a great pillar of marble coming from Jyn’s sword, and the arc which the sword drew sealed the space between them with the shape of a heart of steel.
Seldi narrowly avoided the slash, pulling her head back. Jyn was surprised and concerned. They were moving at “demonstration” speed, so Seldi should have been able to see it coming from a mile away.
It was clear to Seldi that her squad leader wasn’t the same person anymore—and it wasn’t unnatural, as if this was Jyn’s natural evolution as a person.
For the third blow, Seldi’s counterattack should spell both her defeat and her dignity as a Knight. From a mere three meters, she lowered her stance to prepare for a thrust, and drove her sword straight onwards, imbuing the tip with that much more MP to draw an illusionary tracer line that may have well extended to infinity.
Jyn disappeared from her line of attack, and it was done. Only when she relaxed her stance did she notice that the whole top half of her sword had been broken.
“Oh,” Jyn muttered. “Oh no.”
To the onlookers, they saw a prospective new member of the Princess Knight’s royal guard kneeling in front of Her Highness, and a pleased Arpeggio showering compliments upon her new retainer, but in reality…
“Please, Your Highness, I beg of you,” Jyn said with a bowed head, “don’t fine me for destruction of royal property!”
“Knight, I’m telling you, you are not liable.” Arpeggio sighed. This Knight was just…far too qualified for her Occupation. “Stand. Let us have tea.”
“I-I can’t possibly—”
“Black tea for you.”
“Very well, Your Highness.”
***
There was a west-facing balcony for guests in Harmony’s castle. Sunset had long passed, Lilia had long gone to inform Kalender of their whereabouts, and Maids were already making their rounds, donating MP to innumerable brass magic candles.
First thing’s first, though, Arpeggio went to greet Shal-yen in his “private” study—“privacy” being a foreign concept around royalty. She barged through the double doors, announcing herself with a “M’Lord, Your Most Favourite Highness has returned!” trailing off to a muffled scream as the doors closed.
The doors opened again, and Arpeggio beckoned Minimine inside.
While the Princess Knight was torturing the poor guy—within ethical and legal limits—Jyn and Seldi waited outside. Seldi couldn’t help but shoot a few inquisitive looks Jyn’s way, but Jyn summarily deferred it all away with a look that said “later.”
A Maid happened to pass by, and stared at Jyn for an uncomfortable second.
“May I help you?” Jyn asked.
“I’m sorry,” the Maid bowed, “were you two the ones who demonstrated in the plaza just a while ago? I must say, I admire your swordplay and showmanship.”
“You saw?”
“Oh, yes, it was my shift on the wall just a while ago.”
Jyn and Seldi raised eyebrows at this.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” the Maid waved them off. “Many of us here take two jobs for double the pay.”
Jyn and Seldi nodded in understanding.
“I actually work full-time as a guard, and part-time as a maid,” the Maid continued.
“Excuse me, but, your Occupation is a Maid, isn’t it?” Seldi asked. “Shouldn’t you be a Maid full-time?”
The Maid smiled, bowed, and turned around. “I clean up the trash either way, don’t I?”
She left with that. Just like that.
“Now I wonder what kind of person the Lord is to hire such dangerous people,” Jyn muttered. Seldi nodded.
Arpeggio reemerged, barging out of the room with sniffles coming from further inside. Minimine was snickering beside her—looks like someone had found a playmate on the same wavelength.
“I have permission to use the balcony. Let’s go, you two.” She paused, noting how both Knights had glazed-over expressions. She also noted the back of the Maid disappearing around the next corner. She put two and two together. “Ah, don’t mind them.” She snickered. “Shal-yen’s taste is quite…special.”
They went up three tall flights of stairs and a small maze of hallways before they reached the balcony. Ambient candles glowed around a small table, and a Maid bowed to greet Arpeggio. “Welcome, My Goddess and Your Highness. Rose and black tea, as requested.”
“Thanks, Keris,” Minimine replied.
Arpeggio was more than just surprised. They know each other? she thought. As soon as the Maid left, Arpeggio dropped to a knee—for Lyrica existed for the sake of tradition, and royalty showed the same reverence to those divine, above and below, as a Knight would to their Lord.
“Goddess Minimine, I am humbled to be in your presence. I—”
Minimine put a little hand on her shoulder, and all of Arpeggio’s thoughts and feelings froze. Minimine spoke directly into her mind.
“I am glad that Lyrica remains loyal to the service of those above and below, but in my presence, you need honor me only once.”
“Then, how shall I act?” Arpeggio thought in reply.
Minimine transmitted the memories and impressions of how her own followers acted. Arpeggio teared up for a moment towards the end. Most importantly…
“I-I can’t act so familiarly!” she blurted out with such expressive gestures. Jyn already had a guess why.
“No good?” Minimine pouted.
“I-I will do my best.”
Arpeggio stood and hurried to pull a seat for the Goddess—who slapped her hand very lightly with a look of ‘I’m all grown up. I can do it myself. Hmph.’
Minimine sat down. Arpeggio sulked as she sat down after. The two Knights, meanwhile, remained standing.
“How lonely is it to have four seats and only two people,” Arpeggio remarked, quietly sipping at her tea while dramatically looking out into the looming night. Jyn and Seldi eyed each other. Seldi was the first to act, slowly pulling out the ridiculously luxurious chair that was probably made of wood imported from a thousand miles away. Arpeggio didn’t comment on it, so Seldi continued to sit down. Jyn pulled out the other chair and followed, in turn.
As soon as they were all seated, Arpeggio waited for the right timing for Jyn to be sipping her tea, before she leaned in closer like a typical gossiping noble and asked, “Lady Jyn, say, how did you meet him?” She was still conscious of the fact that Minimine was right there, but the Goddess was shooting insistent looks her way: I don’t exist. Keep talking.
At Arpeggio’s question, Jyn choked, sending the Princess Knight snickering. On the other hand, Seldi didn’t know how to react to this side of Her Highness. As the newbie of the Black Guard, she was still learning the ropes of Delinquent Princess Management, and that wasn’t going too well.
“Y-your Highness, a-are you—” Jyn stammered.
“I am genuinely curious, yes,” Arpeggio preempted her, whose eyes swam around before they landed on Seldi.
The two Knights conversed with their eyes.
—She’s Your Highness! Deal with her!
—She’s Your Highness too!
Jyn sighed. Her Highness was insistent, her friend was pushing it all on her, and the Goddess Right There was enjoying it.
If they wanted a story, so be it.
She began to recount her very first meeting with Kalender, and how she was prepared to die, and then, how she wasn’t prepared to live. The memories flashed by her so quickly, and her words were much the same.
“It was my duty…
“Then I was scared…
“Then I was resigned.”
She met eyes with Seldi when she said that.
“Then we were tested…
“I offered up myself.”
Arpeggio gasped. Seldi frowned.
“But he was mad—mad that I would offer myself.”
Seldi looked up with hope.
“And we spent the night, quiet and uneventful.”
Jyn bathed in moonlight. Arpeggio’s eyes dilated. This beauty was sanctuary.
“We spoke of my family…
“My time in the army…
“Isn’t love something simpler, he said, or was I just imagining it?”
“He was different. So, so different…
“Unlike anything I’ve ever seen…
“I feel as if I have stepped outside for the first time…
“He is, perhaps, my finest friend. I would give up much for him.”
It took her a second to register what she had said. She knew it all, deep in her heart, but to hear it as words, and to hear the words from herself, something clicked—as if finally, she’d found the truth.
Because the truth…was that she would devote herself to him.
Arpeggio and Seldi, overwhelmed by the wall of unconstrained emotion, blindingly pure and untouched by deceit, sipped their tea as they stared into the gentle night.
“Jyn,” Seldi said, “you slept in the same bed and nothing happened?”
***
Occupation: Knight of the Champion
***
Minimine smiled and gave her a thumbs up. Jyn wondered why.
Typo: those divin -> those divine
🍪➡️
+1 🍪 !
Thanks for the chapter.
🍪
Buffers are good. (Two per week?
You have my respect.)
Thank you for the chapter!
