My issues continue and I might again have to skip Friday’s chapter. I’ll post a new chapter and unlock the next if I am able to, but you’ve been warned. Again.
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We had no honeymoon because of the taboo against celebrations before the one hundredth day after a parent’s death. Instead, my husband and I worked as Viceroy and Acting Duchess, while Mireia fulfilled her promise to get everyone introduced to me.
She did it by enlisting her fellow Servants in the effort, as it seems that she herself has spent little time with me. But with each person I met, I learned more about the whirlwind life I had lived.
My fifteenth year of life had already been eventful due to traveling with the Hero’s Party, but it seems to have gone from ‘eventful’ to ‘outlandish’ during my missing time.
On my fifteenth birthday, Uncle Owen knighted me in a private ceremony, attended only by Mother and a few select others. I came to understand why on the following day, when he introduced me to the Hero’s Party.
As a nonmortal and the daughter of Duke Egon, distrusted by everyone around me, it was unlikely to go well if I spent the normal three or four years working diligently as a graduate squire and candidate for knighthood. The king instead tossed me into the wild as a knight errant, a King’s Hand who bore the title but not a stable position, to let me show my worth.
With my mother determined for me to be a proper fairy knight if I were going to be a knight, that normal path could never happen anyhow, no matter how much I wished for it. So I became resolved to loyally do my job, shepherding the somewhat questionable summoned hero, for my king and my mother. It was a rare chance to prove myself, and I would not fail.
Our early missions were the most frustrating experience I ever had. My role was to ensure that the hero and his companions didn’t die. Otherwise, I had to hold back. The king sent Mr. Kowa and his mortal team on those missions to grow strong, so I couldn’t nursemaid them.
Before we went to Eridus, in the Dragonsbacks, Uncle Owen even summoned me privately, ostensibly to give him my report, but primarily to remind me that I was not the Hero in the Hero’s Party. Ryuu was his official Champion, and had to grow into the role. The king’s hand was behind him to extract him from legal troubles and save his neck in an emergency.
I didn’t understand why he was so adamant about that until after we were in Eridus for a month. It was the first time the party spent more than a couple days in the field, and I indeed found myself wanting to just handle things myself. It was frustrating to hold back, but I could see they really were getting stronger, so I was able to continue and Uncle Owen’s words stayed in my ear.
Then Sister Catharine convinced us with her prophetic dreams to travel north, and life became a blur. We journeyed by land and sea to Bray, then slogged through the frozen north to Thuriben, destroying one demon nest after another, until we learned about a dragon terrorizing the villages on the Hamagaaran border…
That’s where my memories before waking up in Narses end. I had only been a knight for six months at that point, and I had done so much that it felt like years. Yet, despite that, I seemed to have done far more in the three months I couldn’t remember?
By the third morning after I woke up with missing memories, I had come to know everyone around me, more or less, but that doesn’t mean I had become used to them. Especially, I would need more time to adjust to chummy fairy cousins and aggressive cat-kin adventurers! Lady Ceria had no concept of boundaries at all! How was a woman like that even an aristocrat?!
My final briefing on the third morning was from my military liaison, Colonel Morgas.
The gray-haired colonel finished her presentation, then glanced at the maid and noted, “Although your attendant has a sufficient security clearance for everything up to this point, I respectfully request for you to dismiss her for a moment and bring Sir Hedrit in to replace her. There is a higher matter that we must discuss.”
Pendor house knights only get a ‘mister’ from Ostish speakers, as would any noble house knight. Even I find myself saying ‘Mr. Hedrit’ when I shouldn’t. But the knights of our duchy are ‘Sir’ and ‘Lady’ to Pendorians just as much as royal knights are.
Mystified, I nodded to the maid, who bowed and left the room, to be replaced immediately by the Pendorian house knight who had been standing outside.
With the door closed, I noted, “I’m reasonably certain that the maids who are allowed to work in my office hold Pendor’s highest clearance, though?”
“This concerns secrets of the Kingdom, My Lady, and is classified Highest Royal Secret by the Viceroy,” she answered as the man in question took up a sentry stance beside the door. “Sir Hedrit is the only one here with sufficient clearance.”
Why would he have such a thing?
Morgas smiled at the question that was apparently easy to read on my face, then told the house knight, “I feel like I’m not the one who should tell her why.”
He dropped into a 90 degree bow and declared, “My Lady! My other title is Commander Hedrit of the Special Boat Service! I am on detached duty in order to serve you as a house knight!”
“Special… Boat Service?” I asked, mystified. The words seemed to ring a bell, but I was sure I had never heard the term before. Even so, I somehow wanted there to be a Special Air Service as well. Then, as he continued facing the floor, I added, “Please raise your head, Sir Hedrit.”
“The Special Forces are very new organizations, My Lady,” Morgas explained as he rose. “We organized the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service during the latest conflict in Lang Doria. They are excellent examples of the innovations that your mother allowed to prosper during her reign.”
Hearing her use the term that I had just imagined was jolting.
Perhaps I had heard of them while on duty with the Royal Army?
I didn’t feel confident about that.
“Hedrit received his clearance in order for his SBS team to work directly with the Royal Knights combat teams. We brought him in to work at Her Grace’s side after she became Royal Concubine. Obviously, he is remaining here due to your marriage.”
For some reason, even though my own duty had been with a regular Army unit, not one of those RK combat teams I had also never heard of, I understood what they would have been doing and why they would have needed such high clearance. It bothered me somewhat that I had that information in my memory, because I had no idea when I had learned it.
“So… what is it that requires such high clearance, Colonel?”
“The Oto Expedition, My Lady,” she stated without a trace of humor in her eyes while saying such an insane thing.
I progressed from baffled to interested to horrifically anxious in the next fifteen minutes, as I learned the plan. I wanted to put a stop to it at once, but… it seemed I was only receiving a courtesy briefing. The people who could stop it didn’t work for me. It was a viceroyal operation, not a ducal operation.
And I couldn’t come out and say, we can’t risk letting mortal soldiers potentially go against something that killed Mother, because, to these two, Mother was ‘Sasara’ the mage from Relador, not ‘Deharè’ the legendary fairy.
Something that could kill Uncle Owen and a fairborn mage, even a famously powerful one, would be a whole different category than something that could kill Fairy Deharè.
The ‘Oto Expedition’ would depart the Kasar Pass to head into the wilds of the Oserian Highlands in the morning. I drummed my fingers on the desk as she finished, worrying deeply, then simply told Hedrit, “I need to speak to my husband.”
Hedrit glanced at the colonel, who reminded him, “My Lady is acting commander in chief, Sir Hedrit.”
In other words, Morgas was not in a position to countermand me.
He saluted. “Shall I send Miss Syl back in?”
I nodded. As they exchanged places, Morgas noted, “You agreed to this operation, previously. You insisted on certain changes, but the changes have been made.”
How do you respond to that? ‘I’ve changed my mind’? ‘I don’t know what that other me was thinking’? ‘Nobody informed me that I agreed to this’?
The last seemed like the closest to what I needed to say. “I need to ask him why I agreed, Colonel. It’s likely to be something that you can’t explain.”
Considering that my husband knew damned well that Sasara was actually Deharè, I would have confronted him.
Morgas nodded. “Very well, My Lady. May I take my leave now?”
“Yes, thank you.”
I found myself drumming my fingers again as I waited to hear when my husband would be able to come. Then I frowned down at my hand.
When did I start doing something like that? Who did I pick this habit up from?
I requested tea from the maid, then resolutely kept my hands folded on the desk, thinking carefully about it.
Really, I couldn’t remember having such a weird mannerism in the past. Had I somehow developed it during my missing three months?
I had much more important things to worry about. But it really bothered me. A boiling cauldron of frustration deep inside me wouldn’t allow me to continue putting up with it.
“Miss Syl,” I stated, “You are aware of my condition, correct?”
The maid who had just finished setting a teacup in front of me and pouring tea froze, uncertain. She caught herself and resumed her professional bearing. After returning the teapot to the caddy, she bowed, and spoke carefully.
“I apologize, My Lady. Are you talking about your pregnancy or your memory loss?”
A slight twinge of irritation bubbled up, which I properly fought down. She was absolutely right about my unclear question, after all.
“My apologies. It seems you are aware of both, but I meant my memory loss.”
“Of course, My Lady,” she stated primly.
“I’m curious how you and the other maids actually view me.”
Her head tipped slightly. “How we view you, My Lady?”
I mulled over the choices, then settled on the two most likely.
“Do you see me as a pathetic and helpless invalid, or as a monster who is only disabled for the moment?”
Her eyes grew huge. Vehemently, she declared, “We absolutely see neither, My Lady!”
It didn’t reassure me. “I’m the daughter of…”
I cut off as Miss Syl suddenly dropped into a bow, taking me by surprise.
“Miss Syl?!”
“Please permit me to speak frankly, My Lady!”
Remaining a little astonished at her odd action, I said, “I’m the one asking you, Miss Syl. Please raise your head and answer honestly. I will take no offense.”
She returned to her normal posture, pressed her lips together for a moment, then stated, “I and my coworkers were indeed frightened of you when you first arrived. No… Honestly, I was terrified. Without Lady Benedetta’s magic to calm me down, I couldn’t have taken my turns in your office.”
I nodded, then told her. “Thank you for your honest answer, Miss Syl.”
But she frowned and shook her head. “But that isn’t…”
“It’s okay.”
“No!” she blurted, then extended her wrist. “My Lady, please look at this!”
The bracelet on her wrist looked familiar. Especially, I had seen the mana colors in its enchantment on the wrists of my Servants.
I blinked up at her in surprise. “You’re one of my father’s victims? At your age?”
Her lips pressed together tightly, then she nodded. “I was twelve when he made me his blood slave, thirteen when he died.”
It was appallingly young, but my brow wrinkled in confusion as I asked, “You don’t seem twenty eight though?”
“I’m told the blood bond extends our youths, My Lady,” she said. “But that’s beside the point. I have a right to hate you more than anyone else, don’t I?”
“Yes,” I said, happy that she was finally willing to confirm it.
“I do not,” she stated clearly. “After all, you are also the daughter of the one who saved me from my nightmare. And you yourself risked your life to protect all of us!”
She dropped into another deep bow. “I’m not frightened anymore, My Lady! I serve you with pride, and I want very much to feed you!”
