Chapter 31

Former Crimson Knight and the Guard Captain of Ordo, Eric.

Eric, born to commoner parents, was dissatisfied with his life.

While his family struggled to survive day by day, the nobles lived in luxury, eating whatever they pleased, and wasting food without a second thought.

If Eric ever dared to do something like that, his father would beat him to death.

It wasn’t just about food. Everything—housing, clothing, leisure—was far more abundant for the nobles compared to the commoners.

It was unfair.

But Eric couldn’t voice such thoughts openly, as it wouldn’t be surprising if he lost his head for saying them. So, he kept his frustrations to himself and one day asked his father a question.

“Father, how can I gain honor and wealth?”

“Honor and wealth? Well, there’s no place better than the Crimson Knights for that! It’s where the strongest gather in Grasis Kingdom, so honor is guaranteed, and they must pay handsomely to keep such strong people, don’t you think?”

The phrase “don’t you think?” was more of a guess than certainty.

After all, Eric’s father was too busy making ends meet and had no real knowledge of the higher-ups.

He was merely passing on old stories that had been handed down by word of mouth, filled with speculation.

But Eric was enchanted by his father’s words and opened the gates of hell for himself.

“Are these really the strongest people in Grasis?”

Eric knew he had talent with the sword.

Although he started learning late, he caught up with his peers quickly, and within a few years, he had even defeated a former mercenary who had taught him.

Of course, it was possible because his mentor hadn’t learned proper swordsmanship, but it boosted Eric’s confidence to the skies nonetheless.

In fact, his talent was so impressive that he had little difficulty joining the Crimson Knights.

Once in the order, Eric looked around at his fellow knights.

They were either on par with him or slightly better, and he thought to himself:

“If this is all there is, the Captain must not be that special either.”

With that thought, he challenged the Captain—

— “…Pathetic.”

But before he could even fight the Captain, he was mercilessly defeated by a young girl.

Her pink eyes looked down on him coldly as he lay beaten on the ground.

From that day, after painfully engraving the defeat into his body, his nightmares began.

— “Eric, water.”

— “Eric, food.”

— “…You say you can’t fight? Well, that’s fine. Then fight me instead.”

— “I won’t hold back, so dodge if you can.”

“…Ugh!”

Eric, who had been dozing off in his office, suddenly jerked awake, as if he’d had a dream of falling off a cliff.

He wiped the cold sweat off his brow once he realized he was back in his familiar office, too shaken to even calm his pounding heart.

“Whew… it was just a dream…”

The dream about the first time meeting the commander—what a nightmare it was.

Thinking to himself that it couldn’t get worse, he took a gulp of cold water. The freezing liquid sent a chill down his body, slowly clearing the fog in his mind.

On the day he challenged the commander, the person who appeared before him wasn’t the commander, but a girl who introduced herself as the vice commander. He’d seen her around the order a few times before, so she wasn’t a complete stranger. However, every time he saw her, Eric had assumed she was some servant or errand girl helping with the knights’ work.

After all, no one had ever introduced her as the vice commander, and he couldn’t have imagined that such a young girl could hold such a high position. When he asked if she was merely a secretary or assistant to the commander, she flatly denied it. Eric couldn’t even begin to describe the bewilderment he felt at that moment.

Did this mean that this little girl—who could only be about ten years old—was stronger than him and the other knights? No matter how hard he tried, it just didn’t seem possible. He assumed the others were just humoring her because they found her cute.

Though he felt a little bad, Eric, with his ambitions of becoming the commander, had no choice but to shatter the girl’s illusion.

“Still, I’ll make sure not to hurt her too much,” he thought.

But at that time, Eric had no way of knowing that it wasn’t the girl’s illusion that would be shattered, but rather his own pride.

“If I had known, I would’ve never challenged her.”

Since losing to the vice commander, he’d been forced to work like a dog. After all, he had arrogantly challenged the commander. Although the grueling work had greatly improved his skills, Eric vowed that if he could go back, he would never make such a foolish choice again.

“Compared to back then, this is heaven.”

There was no vice commander to boss him around like a dog, no battles with monsters, dimensional creatures, or the imperial army. His current life was peaceful—he only had to patrol regularly to maintain order and occasionally deal with threats like criminals or monsters.

The Eric who once chased after honor and wealth was long gone.

“Another day done,” he yawned, stretching his sore body lazily.

Beeeeep!

“What’s that?”

The sudden blare of a call signal made him frown. Feeling annoyed at the disruption to his peaceful routine, Eric checked the source of the signal.

“The checkpoint?”

Was someone causing a disturbance again? Scratching his head, Eric picked up the call from the checkpoint.

“Yeah, it’s me. What’s going on?”

—”Uh, Captain…”

“Stop stuttering and speak properly.”

“Y-yes, sir! We’ve apprehended two suspicious individuals. One is an Apostle, and the other is a young girl. The item the girl had in her possession seemed quite unusual, so we detained them in a temporary prison… I think you should see it yourself.”

“What are you talking about? Did you take a bribe?”

“N-no, sir!”

“I was just joking. Don’t take it so seriously.”

‘This guy’s name was… yeah, Garrett.’

He’s diligent and serious on the job, meaning he’s inflexible, but I don’t think he’d ever take a bribe.

“Alright, alright… I’ll head there now. Just wait.”

“Yes, sir!”

After cutting off the connection with the checkpoint, Eric casually gathered his equipment and left his office. Upon arriving at the checkpoint, some of his subordinates, recognizing him, greeted him, but he brushed them off, uninterested in pleasantries. Garrett, who was already waiting outside, saluted as soon as he saw him.

“Sir!”

“Forget the formalities. I want to finish quickly and go home, so just tell me what happened.”

“This is what we found…”

“…What? A royal insignia?”

Why is this here?

Eric stared at the small badge engraved with the royal crest of the Grasis Kingdom, and a chill ran down his spine like he’d just been doused in cold water.

Something… something about this feels wrong. He couldn’t explain it, but the ominous feeling wouldn’t go away.

He could dismiss it as a gut reaction, but after years on the battlefield, Eric had learned to trust the instincts that had saved his life countless times.

“Wait, who gave this to you?”

“It was the young girl.”

“What did she look like?”

“Uh… she was so cute, she could’ve easily been mistaken for a nobleman’s daughter. She’s going to break hearts when she grows up, I’ll tell you that.”

“…Was her hair pink by any chance?”

“Uh, yes, that’s right.”

“And her eyes, were they pink too?”

“That’s correct, sir…”

Sensing something was off, Garrett started glancing around nervously.

“…Do you know her?”

Garrett, noticing the shift in Eric’s tone, now referred to the girl with more respect. Eric’s face had already gone pale.

“…Where did you say she is now?”

“She’s been locked in the temporary prison.”

At those words, Eric instinctively scanned the checkpoint.

Fortunately, the checkpoint remained intact, with no signs of damage.

“Garett.”

“Yes….”

“Don’t tell anyone what you saw today. And also….”

Eric, looking as though he had aged ten years in an instant, added:

“Please, try to be more flexible.”

Leaving those sincere words behind, Eric walked into the checkpoint. His figure resembled his younger self, the one who once willingly opened the gates to hell.

***

“Canaria, take this.”

“…What’s this?”

“If anyone bothers you or tries to make a move on you, show them this. It’ll sort things out neatly.”

“Hmm….”

Garid, you liar.

Neatly resolved, my foot—it’s only made things worse.

Unless I used it in a way Garid didn’t intend, and that’s what caused all this trouble….

I sighed, staring at the iron bars blocking my path.

‘…No.’

I should just admit it.

I acted foolishly.

I didn’t think through the consequences and used it to avoid a minor inconvenience, only to create a bigger mess.

I’m realizing once again how impatient I am….

As I reflected on my past actions, I felt a sense of injustice and pouted.

But seriously….

‘Is throwing me in prison really necessary?’

I know they understand Granick, so couldn’t they at least hear me out?

Sure, flashing the royal crest might cause trouble, but I didn’t think they’d immediately throw me in jail like this….

It wasn’t like I went around flashing it for fun—I’d never even used it since receiving it. I never had to, since royalty and nobles who called for me knew who I was, so there was no need to show the crest.

‘I don’t want to cause a scene.’

But quietly sitting in prison? That’s even worse.

Ugh.

“As long as I don’t cause trouble for others, I suppose it’s fine.”

I tapped on the iron bars to check their durability and nodded in approval.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

Sure, there might be someone who would be troubled by my escape, but that wasn’t my concern. After all, the saying goes, “Health is the most important,” meaning as long as I didn’t get hurt, that was all that mattered.

Just as I was about to grab the bars and channel my mana, I heard hurried footsteps, and a man burst into the checkpoint, slamming the door open.

Tatadat!

Bang!

—”Commander! Wait for me!”

“…Commander?”

There aren’t many people who would call me that.

“Ugh!”

Stumbling slightly, the man who called me ‘Commander’ rushed towards me, nearly tripping over himself as he approached. S~eaʀᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Facing him through the bars, I finally recognized him.

“Hey there, Eric.”

—”It’s not ‘Hey there,’ it’s Eric! Why in the world is the Commander locked up here?!”

“Because they locked me up.”

I wouldn’t have come here of my own accord.

Muttering nonchalantly, Eric scratched his head and fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a key to unlock the prison door.

Creeeak.

“Is it really okay to open this?”

—”Well, it’s not like you’d stay put anyway, right?”

That’s true.

Stepping out of the cell, I found Eric plopping down into the authority chair.

—”Do you know how surprised I was when the person who disappeared right after the war suddenly showed up?”

“I don’t know.”

—”It’s not like I was asking you!”

Eric, looking worn out, slumped down onto the chair across from me. Even though it had only been a few years since I last saw him, he looked drastically aged.

As far as I knew, Eric shouldn’t be that old yet.

What a pity…

“It’s all because of you, Commander!” he exclaimed.

“…Me?”

—”Every day it’s ‘bring me water, get me food,’ sending me on errands; when I finally think I can rest, you call me in and beat me up…!”

Eric was complaining to me with tears in his eyes about how much he was piled up with.

I listened quietly to his complaints for a while and nodded.

“Yeah, I see.”

— “…Is that all?”

“What kind of reaction do you want?”

— “Sigh….”

Eric sighed as if to say, “What did I expect?”

But listening to him, I felt a bit wronged myself. If someone saw us, they might think I was just a terrible person to deal with.

“You agreed to run errands, didn’t you?”

When he chose to challenge me instead of Garid, he and I made one agreement. If Eric won, he would take over the captain’s position. But if I won, he would follow my orders without complaint.

Even knowing that we were weighing different things on the scales, why was he saying something different now?

— “Ugh, well, that’s true….”

“The reason I pinched your butt was that you were too scared to fight.”

— “….”

“The reason I called you on your day off was that you were getting too cocky.”

I noticed his shoulders were tense, as if he hadn’t recovered from the last encounter, so I put him in his place. After a few more rounds, he finally started to tone it down.

“If you hadn’t touched Garid in the first place, I would have just left you alone no matter what you did.”

Well, why would you poke at someone who’s already hurt?

Eric looked a bit guilty at that.

— “Oh, no, I didn’t know the captain was sick back then… If I had known, I wouldn’t have done that!”

“I could see you doing that, though.”

— “Hey! I’m not that reckless!”

“Hmm….”

— “I’m serious!”

When I gave him a suspicious look, Eric jumped up and shouted.

Well, let’s just leave it at that.