༺ Engagement Ceremony (5) ༻
Lunia had been walking the way of the sword for the whole 28-year period of her life. She had been called a prodigy of swords ever since a young age and not only was she the target of everyone’s expectations as the only successor candidate, but she also answered their expectations with hard work.
One day, the house was in an uproar.
『Are you… telling me to raise an illegitimate child?』
『What else can we do about it? It is still an offspring of Arden.』
Illegitimate child.
Although she was only 10 years old back then, Lunia still understood what that meant.
『This is your sister.』
She was then introduced to a baby who had yet to even hit their first birthday. The baby covered in an old and ragged piece of cloth was rejected and pushed away by everyone else. In the end, the young baby ended up in her hands.
– Baaa!
Even so, the baby had a bright smile on her face, oblivious to everything happening around her.
Looking at the little thing in her hands, Lunia found her so adorable that she unconsciously showed her off to her parents.
『Look. Father. Mother. She just touched my cheeks.』
『……』
Her words were met with a long and arduous silence, as well as a discontent gaze. Lunia belatedly realized something.
The baby was an illegitimate child made due to the family head’s affair. Her mother died during delivery and in the Arden Family, she couldn’t be welcomed by anyone as an existence that could mess with the succession process.
After thinking of all that, Lunia realized that this baby in her arms wouldn’t be welcomed by anyone no matter where she was.
She would be condemned at the village of her mother for being a child that devoured her mother; the father who provided the seed refused to look at the proof of his dishonesty; and the only victim of this incident – Lunia’s mother – was disappointed and silent.
Seeing the poor and crying baby that couldn’t even swallow baby food yet, even the servants treated her with contempt and didn’t acknowledge her, talking amongst themselves about how dirty the nature of her birth was.
Lunia understood there, that she was the only one who cherished this little baby.
『Mama… Hug!』
『Sistaa. I’m biggaa! Look look. I’m over one meter!』
『Sister! I’m going to become an awesome knight just like you!』
『S, Sister…! I… will be going to the Academy tomorrow.』
She watched over everything that the child went through; she watched over the feeble girl who couldn’t even take what was rightfully hers without her help.
『A, as an instructor of a newly founded Arden-style dojo… I request the Captain of the 1st Sword Squad, Lunia Arden, for a practice duel.』
In less than half a year after being sent off to the Academy, the child went through a change.
Korin Lork.
He was a Knight with excellent talents and hard work, and was the one who had changed the girl.
With just a glance, Lunia noticed that he was the one who changed her sister and that Alicia was interested in him.
‘Doesn’t even know how to be proactive. Still just as dull and slow as always.’
She had been the one watching over her growth for 17 years. She knew exactly what kind of personality Alicia had.
That was why she started to think that… maybe snatching the boy away from her would make that dim-witted girl wake up. And watching that happen wouldn’t be a boring experience either.
『What do you think about marrying me?』
Because of the consistent and annoying pressure for a political marriage, Lunia went for it and saw the face her sister was making, which had been a sight to behold. The fact that she was making such a face without even noticing her own emotions felt even more absurd.
It was just a fake engagement though. After some time, the engagement would be renounced and Korin Lork would be free again. It was just a contract that they forged with both sides having conditions they were after, and Lunia was simply trying to stimulate her sister in the process but…
『Each and every one of these calluses prove your hard work and experience. What’s the reason you should be embarrassed by them?』
『If someone says something about them, that just means they are narrow-minded as heck. This is a beautiful charm that only you have.』
As she continued spending more and more time with him, she noticed that there was something about this boy that touched her heart.
An innately nice person who volitionally chose to walk the laborious path.
That conviction of his and his manliness made her heart throb, to the point that she even wanted to turn this fake engagement into a real one.
However, she knew that would be a cowardly thing to do.
Their engagement had to stay fake, because she, the strongest Knight of the East under the name of Sword Master, was always proud of her words and actions.
『What are you doing here?』
『S, Sister…』
Gazing down at her younger sister who had chased after them on their date, what she saw was a fighting spirit blazing in her eyes.
『Hah…』
It seemed that she was finally ready to stand on the starting line.
Lunia thought to herself that taking him away just like this would be a shame. Stealing him away in a more straightforward and frontal manner would probably be even better.
『Do you like him?』
『S, sorry? W, who? Who likes who?』
『Always make sure to enunciate your words properly. You are already almost 20 years old.』
『S, sorry…』
『Hmph.』
While facing Alicia who had her head lowered to the ground, Lunia opened her mouth and muttered what seemed like a monologue.
『The core purpose of this engagement is to escape from a political marriage – a means to buy time. In other words, as long as something can buy time, it does not have to be in the form of an engagement.』
『S, Sister?』
『Right. If someone were to suddenly appear during the engagement and run away with my partner in hand… I probably wouldn’t feel like meeting anyone for the time being due to that shock.』
『……』
A fight had to be fair. Lunia’s mindset was that a proud victory of a fair fight would taste the sweetest out of every fruit in the world.
“I, I am against this engagement…!”
She deemed it okay to concede for now, while looking forward to the day she would steal him from her little sister, who had finally gotten to the starting line after realizing her feelings.
“A, Alicia? W, w, what are you?”
“C, come with me!”
“Huh? Huuhhh?”
Korin Lork was grabbed and dragged by her. He was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even think about resisting that pull.
“W, what are you doing? Chase after them right now!”
Sophia commanded the warriors of the household but that was when an enormous shadow was suddenly cast on top of them from the sky.
– Kwaang!
The identity of the shadow descending to the ground was the Hresvelgr, a large-type monster carrier from the South.
“Korin! Alicia…!”
The oldest daughter of the agricultural empire in the south; the girl with a unique water-colored hair and the probationary nun from the Grand Chapel of Zeon reached their arms out as if they had been waiting for it.
“Ehk? Ehh?? Huhh???”
Without even knowing why, Korin was made to get on the Hresvelgr, which was followed by Alicia.
“Let’s go…!”
The monster carrier flapped its massive wings and floated back into the sky. The unprecedented event of the engagement partner being kidnapped by the younger sister from another mother made Sophia, the guests and everyone present turn pale.
Lunia was the only one smiling while watching all that unfold.
“Huhahahaha…!”
“L, Lunia?”
“Goodness. Mother. Your daughter is feeling greatly shocked.”
“Oh no. B, but why were you lau…”
“Haa~. My shock is so great that I do not feel like seeing any men for a while.”
“Sorry? Wait. Wait, Lunia?”
She walked out of the hall with large strides, gathering the eyes of everyone inside.
Just like that, the small engagement ceremony of the renowned Arden household of the East ended up being annulled.
………
……
…
“Umm. So what is going on right now?”
Korin Lork dumbfoundedly raised a question. Hearing that, Alicia took out a letter from her pocket and handed it to him.
“Uhh… Mr. Korin. Sister wanted me to give you this letter.”
“…I see.”
『I shall pay an official visit later to take you in. My dear fiancé.』
“Oh damn…”
“W, what does it say?”
“…You don’t need to know.”
****
A lady raced through the night.
She was surrounded by an army of undead on all sides in the city filled with screams. By nature, the dead loathed and were envious of the living; thus, they pounced at the lively and fresh meat in front of their eyes.
They all pounced at once from the streets, alleyways, roofs… and even from the skies.
A silver figure drew lines on the night sky, followed by ink-black maggots.
– Kwack!
“That’s not good…!”
The undead bat, Abyss Shrieker, rapidly descended towards the ground from the clouds, which it had been using to hide itself. The large wings of the bat raged on the silver humanoid figure.
– Kwaaack…!
Her body fell down. The gravitational force added with the acceleration caused by the impact made her fragile body speed into the rough ground.
“Kugh…!”
On the third night, hordes of undead were forming legions in ranks, moving in alignment just to swallow one living person, creating an extremely surreal sight.
Alas, tens of thousands of undead managed to surround the spearman.
“Haa~. If only I found that guy earlier on.”
She muttered while looking at the large flying undead monster that attacked her from above, Abyss Shriker.
Because it was a winged monster without as many restraints, it was hard to find and track it down, which was why she had been hunting it at the end all the time. And this time around, it had been roaming around so freely that it took much longer than usual. She had to hurry up and defeat the Immortal King on top…
“Can’t be helped.”
The silver lady… Erin Danua grabbed onto her spear and lifted her mana. The Rune Letters engraved into the shaft of the spear brightened up and became visible again after being supplied with mana. At the same time…
– Kwaa!
– Kwaaang…!
– ??!!!
The undead were puzzled by the sudden storm of tempest and flames that started rising from everywhere around them.
“I hadn’t been doing nothing for 300 years.”
The only privilege Erin had as the only one who went through countless repetitions was that she could freely move around the city during the day while the undead could not.
The Rune Letters that she had carved all around the city during the past 300 years had been for times like this.
In an instant, thousands of undead were wiped out. It was a miraculous feat that would be difficult even for the greatest of mages but without sparing a glance at the burning corpses, Erin jumped from the scorching blazes and approached the flying bat.
“The end of your short life had been decided the moment you showed yourself.”
Her silver spear soared into the sky, piercing through the entire body of the Abyss Shrieker in the blink of an eye.
That was the secret art of Crumbling Mountain.
The killing javelin toss shot down the emperor of Nazrea’s skies.
“Huu~. Let me take a short rest.”
There was still quite some time left, so she decided to recover her stamina first before striking the Immortal King. She avoided the meddlesome undead and hid herself in the alleyways when the Grim Reaper appeared before her.
《You look like you are enjoying yourself.》
“Does it seem that way?”
Erin didn’t deny the words of the Grim Reaper.
Others might be curious about the reason but the Grim Reaper wasn’t.
5 months ago, a boy had appeared at Nazrea, making a bold claim that he would stop the 3-day repetition of Nazrea while taking one of the treasures from the Grim Reaper in return.
Korin Lork.
A disciple of the original ‘Erin Danua’.
That was the man who declared that he would save her, who had been left inside the town ever since the Lunar Eclipse 300 years ago.
The Grim Reaper gazed on at the same scenery it had been seeing for 300 years. What changed after that day though, was that Erin would always go to the same place and look down at the whole city after everything was over.
“And you know what? The thing that Korin said after that is more important…!”
Her excited voice made her sound slightly silly even.
《I have heard this several times already…》
There was a slight sense of irritation in the Grim Reaper’s voice, because Erin tended to repeat the same thing over and over again only when it concerned the boy.
Although it was a long friend of hers… the Grim Reaper couldn’t help but think that she didn’t seem as dignified as before.
“He said, ‘This time, I want to be the one saving you.’”
Did she have any idea? That she would give a wide smile with flushed cheeks whenever she was talking about her disciple?
She, who had been living for 300 years in a pit of darkness, now gave off so much light like a goddess of the Moon.
“Ahh~ I miss Korin so much.”
The Grim Reaper had known her for over a thousand years, but hadn’t ever seen the last queen of the fallen gods show such a foolish smile like a maiden in love.
《You will see him soon. The promised date is about to come very soon.》
“…Right.”
Even though she was chirping and singing about how she wanted to see him, she turned dejected whenever that topic was brought up.
Cleansing 1.2 million souls of Nazrea in half a year. It was an impossible feat for a mere human, and yet he had made a contract with the Grim Reaper on that with his soul on the line.
“Reaper… How about…”
《I have told you many times and it is still a no. Once made, you cannot cancel or edit the contents of a contract》
Despite knowing very well that it would be impossible to change the cost of the contract to her own soul, she continued trying to persuade the Grim Reaper again and again.
“He is… still a young child. Taking his reincarnation from him… is too brutal.”
《That was the choice made by that deceiver, Queen. You are one who encourages, teaches, trains, and presents wisdom and plans to heroes. Do not try to do any more than that. Ensure that you do not forget the reason why the spear of Goidel is not pointing at you.》
“Are you telling me… that that boy will be walking the path of a hero?”
《That is not even a question as he already is one. The world has prepared its hero already.》
“…I see. So the world will be in danger once again, huh.”
The appearance of a hero meant the coming of a disaster. The Grim Reaper and Erin, who had been living for a very long time, both knew about that concept better than anyone else.
“How pitiful…”
She had taught countless heroes and sent them off. She was the master of heroes; the Queen of the Kingdom of Shadows, who bestows wisdom and magic.
It was only because she was such a being that the Grim Reaper offered to create a clone of her to stay behind at Nazrea in the first place. After all, the Grim Reaper knew how important her role was as the Queen teaching the protectors of the world.
“Reaper… What will happen to me once Nazrea gets cleansed and I leave the restraints of this place?”
………
The reply she heard was a relatively short one. Hearing that concise response, a sorrowful expression appeared on her face.
“That’s… a bit of a shame.”
《This too cannot be avoided.》
“I know. I know but… I still do think it’s a shame.”
After some time, Erin lifted her body up from the bed of a random house that she had been resting on, and gave a long stretch.
“Looks like it’s about time to go.”
The night was about to end. All that was left was to defeat Gerolge the Immortal King and finish the last night as it was supposed to.
Erin started heading to the residential area where Gerolge was staying. She slowly climbed down the stairs and headed to the residence of the black mage but…
“That was slightly later than I thought. Have you had dinner?”
Korin Lork.
Erin was met by the young hero and his characteristic wild appearance.
“Huh?”
“That’s all? I was expecting you to be a bit more welcoming than that.”
Erin shook her head as she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Korin, who was standing on the roof of the house at the end of her vacant and disbelieving eyes, jumped down and leisurely walked towards her.
“I’ve already dealt with Gerolge.”
“Huh? Huhhh?”
Unlike her, who was extremely dumbstruck, Korin Lork gave a smile while caressing her cheeks. His natural gesture made her heart beat fast, amplifying the rate of her heartbeat.
“I told you; I’ll definitely save you this time.”
Seeing the smile on the boy’s face made her heart go on an unbelievable rampage. Whenever the thick calluses on his hands grazed past her skin, her skin throbbed as if they were being electrified.
She knew he was coming. Even though she knew he would be coming…
“I’m here to save you, Erin.”
For some reason, she was still getting chills down her spine.
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