Epilogue
BURNED STRAIGHT THROUGH by the golden spear, the Guide was nearly
bursting with a desire for revenge
"I cannot allow him to get away with this. Liam is the first of my victims
to make such a fool of me."
The Guide had never tasted humiliation like this before. Having been
cornered, his determination to show Liam hell was now greater than ever.
However, there was one problem with that plan. To be perfectly honest,
plunging Liam into hell was beyond his abilities right now. Revered as a wise
ruler, he had attracted many positive feelings to himself, which were intolerable
to the Guide. He was adored and revered by his populace. In his current
situation, the Guide could not easily get his revenge on Liam.
Still, he couldn't just give up. What could he do, then?
"Well, I'm not the only one who wants revenge against Liam. I'll go find
those who share my interest and plant some seeds of vengeance. One of them
should sprout eventually."
With one hand clutching his chest, the pained Guide searched for those
with a strong enough will to seek revenge against Liam. He eventually homed in
on the strong emanations coming from two particular individuals.
"That's the way!"
The Guide manifested a door and stepped through it, instantly arriving at
the location of one of the people he'd detected.
The person he'd found was Yasushi, who presently stood in an alley at his
wits' end.
"You again?!" the Guide cried when he saw the man.
Yasushi had been Liam's instructor in the sword style known as the Way
of the Flash and was thus inadvertently the very reason Liam had become so
powerful. Yasushi had contrived the bogus sword style to con Liam into giving
him a position at House Banfield, but somehow, Liam had gone on himself to
turn what he learned into something real and formidable.
"I'll just kill you right now," the Guide continued to rage at the man. "The
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only reason I'm in this mess is because of what you went and did, you know!"
The Guide had a certain distaste for Yasushi, whose actions had made
Liam so strong. He almost killed the swindler on the spot until he heard what
Yasushi was saying and stopped himself.
"What the hell is the Way of the Flash anyway? That bastard Liam has
spread my name all over the place now! I'm not letting him get away with this!"
After the primary school's mobile knight tournament, Liam's sword style
had become a hot topic. Liam had declared himself a student of the Way of the
Flash, so curious people had looked into what it was. Who in the world could
Liam have learned his amazing martial arts skills from? As a result, all sorts of
people sought out Yasushi now. Some wanted to learn the Way of the Flash
from him, while others wanted to defeat him in a duel to bolster their own
reputation. Worst of all were the pirates who held a grudge against Yasushi for
making Liam so strong. Since they couldn't beat Liam himself, they hunted
Yasushi instead. The man's life was now in constant danger, and it was all
because of Liam.
The Guide took all this in. It was clear that Yasushi deeply resented Liam.
"Dammit! If I come clean and admit the Way of the Flash is a load of
crap, Liam will be furious and want to kill me! But if I don't clear up this
misunderstanding, pirates are gonna keep coming after me. What the hell am I
supposed to do?!"
As the Guide watched him struggle with his dilemma, Yasushi came to a
decision.
"If I don't deal with Liam before he deals with me, he'll come for me
himself sooner or later. I'll have to train some new pupils... One won't be
enough. What if I had two? If I train them the same way Liam trained, they
should come out the same and be able to beat him."
The Guide applauded Yasushi for his plan, though of course, Yasushi
couldn't see this or hear his clapping.
"I always knew you had it in you, Yasushi."
Yasushi decided to train two new pupils, and when they were ready, he'd
send them after Liam. If that didn't turn out to be feasible, at least his new pupils
would be able to protect him from the others who threatened his life.
"It should work, as long as I can find some brats with more talent than
Liam started out with... I still have the money I got from him too. Whatever it
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takes, I'll make them tough enough to go after Liam."
The Guide was in complete agreement with Yasushi's plan.
"Fantastic. I like how you think, Yasushi. Here, have a present from me."
The Guide snapped his fingers and black smoke wafted through the area.
"Here are the talented kids you need. Train them up nice and strong now,
Yasushi."
A short distance away, Yasushi heard quarreling voices, and he peered
nervously in that direction.
Two children were there, beating up a man who had attacked them. The
gangly kids held thick, bloodstained sticks, and the large man had collapsed to
the ground. Sensing Yasushi, the children turned their feral eyes on him.
"Eep!"
The children approached him, apparently with the intent of attacking him
next.
Though he knew Yasushi couldn't hear him, the Guide coaxed him
anyway. "I found the strongest kids in these parts for you, Yasushi. Make use of
their raw potential and make the Way of the Flash real again!"
Yasushi was ready to flee, but he had an idea and hastily took some food
out from his pocket, tossing it to the two kids. It was just a cheap pastry he'd
been saving to eat later.
Looking at him warily, the kids tore off the pastry's packaging and bit into
it like hungry beasts. Watching them as they scarfed it down, Yasushi thought
that they might just be the kids he was looking for.
"If these two are trained aggressively, they could surpass Liam, couldn't
they? They're just kids, but look how they beat up that big guy! They're
obviously quite strong."
When the two kids had finished eating, Yasushi called over to them.
"How would you two like to learn a sword style called the Way of the
Flash?"
Satisfied with how the scene had played out, the Guide then headed for the
location of the other seeker of vengeance.
"Now, then, who's next?"
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***
In an army re-education facility, Eulisia was undergoing retraining.
"Oh," the Guide said to himself, "I've seen this woman with Liam..."
Despite his recognizing her, Eulisia looked nothing like she had before.
Her gaze was hard and her beautiful long hair had been cut short. For whatever
reason, she seemed to be undergoing harsh retraining to enter a special unit. As
the Guide observed her, the mud-stained Eulisia was thrown around by her hand-
to-hand combat instructor, but every time, she got back up again.
What had brought her to this? The Guide did a little investigating and
found that Eulisia harbored a strong grudge against Liam, deep in her heart. The
Guide was impressed with her obsession.
"Does she really have such a strong reason to hate Liam as much as she
does?"
The Guide listened further to the voice of her thoughts, and Eulisia's
hatred was pleasant to his ears. This is good hatred, he thought. It was like
listening to one's favorite music.
I'll never forgive him. I'll never forgive him. I'll never forgive him—
there's no way I'm ever forgiving Liam.
Already, the woman's negative energy was lending the Guide some
strength. In her heart, Eulisia repeated her thoughts of hatred for Liam over and
over.
"Wonderful! I had no idea such promising allies were out here. Have a
present from me, then. I shall support you in your quest for vengeance."
In order for her to plunge the blade of revenge into Liam, the Guide
needed Eulisia to endure this ordeal and grow stronger. So far, she had lost every
match against her fighting instructor, doing little more than roll around on the
ground. But now, with a little boost from the Guide, she started to succeed more
often.
The instructor commended Eulisia in his tough manner, but it sounded
more like a reprimand. "Well, and here I thought all you could do was suck up to
people, but I guess you've grown a bit, maggot!"
"Thank you, sir!"
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On the inside, Eulisia vowed, I will have my revenge on Liam.
The Guide listened to her inner voice and nodded with pleasure.
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"Your pure desire for revenge is perfect. I will be cheering you on from
the sidelines. I eagerly await the day you enact your vengeance on Liam."
The Guide did a little investigating of Eulisia and discovered that she was
undergoing arduous retraining in various areas, and not just physically. She was
studying in a number of specialized fields in order to get ahead in the military
and would also be making extensive use of education capsules. However, more
training meant more time in which she would be bound to the military. At this
rate, she would be serving in a position there for hundreds of years to come.
Yet Eulisia ignored all that and continued to train herself with
determination. Her old self, the Eulisia who had planned to use her position as a
salesperson for the Third Weapons Factory to meet a noble man to marry, was
nowhere to be found. She was now nothing more than a vessel filled with
vengeance.
Satisfied, the Guide left her.
"Keep sharpening that blade of vengeance until it reaches Liam one day."
***
Having taken in the two orphans, Yasushi watched them sleep in a cheap
hotel bed while he thought about how to protect himself. His situation had
become desperate.
"What do I do if they can't assassinate him?"
These two kids surely did have some degree of raw talent, but Liam was
just so strong. In fact, he had achieved the impossible by turning Yasushi's
simple sleight of hand trick into an actual move, and in doing so had created the
Way of the Flash.
"Even if I send the two of them after him, if he turns the tables on them,
then he'll come after me next."
In that event, he'd be lucky if Liam simply killed him. This was a noble he
was dealing with, so who knew what horrible torture might await him. When
Yasushi envisioned Liam taking his time to draw out his death, he trembled in
fear.
"I-I know! I'll come up with some other reason for them to fight him, and
I won't even tell them about my assassination plot. Let's see... When they're
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ready, I can tell them to go to my foremost student in the Way of the Flash and
challenge him with everything they've got."
For some reason, Liam naively still respected Yasushi. Knowing this,
Yasushi would use that trust against him.
"If I sent a letter to him along with the boys that frames their attack as a
test by the master, I wonder if that would look legitimate. Or would that not be
enough? Well, hmm... I guess I have some things to think over before I send my
assassins."
The first step was to train the feral children in the Way of the Flash.
Unfortunately, he knew exactly how to instruct them, and that was how he had
found himself in this mess. He did succeed once already with Liam, after all.
"The question is whether they'll achieve the same results if I train them
the same way I did Liam. In any case, I mustn't badmouth him in front of them,
or it might get out. Yeah, instead, I'll talk him up to them."
He saw the absurdity in sending two kids to kill someone he spoke highly
of, but in his desperation to protect himself he would embrace even the oddest
approach.
All this, just because of the made-up sword school, the Way of the Flash,
that Liam had spread word of. Now some people wanted to gain strength just as
Liam had, while others wanted to prove themselves by defeating his "teacher."
No, Yasushi may have made Liam strong, but he was weak, and at least he
could admit that to himself. With other strong people chasing him around as they
were, Yasushi's life had become a nightmare. He had no time to be picky about
his methods. He had to train these kids as fast as he could.
"Anyway, yes, I'll have them take a letter with them for Liam to see just
in case they fail. Just an innocent test of both of my new students and my top
student. He'd believe that, right? He trusts me. What I really hope for, though, is
that they'll take him out..."
Yasushi nodded, glancing again toward his unknowing assassins, looking
almost innocent in sleep.
"I'll raise them to feel indebted to me as much as I can, and get them to
take notice of Liam, I guess."
Yasushi was so lost that even he wasn't sure what he was doing now.
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***
At the military re-education facility, soldiers dropped out one after
another, unable to endure the harsh special forces training. Yet Eulisia stayed on,
all in the name of taking revenge against Liam.
She looked herself over in the bathroom mirror. She'd cut the beautiful
hair she'd been so proud of, and her muscles had grown considerably after all
her training. But she hadn't completely discarded her feminine appeal. The
reason for that was simple.
"During my next strengthening session in the education capsule, I've got
to become more beautiful. After all, this body of mine is yet another tool in my
revenge against Liam."
Liam had been so cold to her and had completely ignored her charms.
How, then, would she take her revenge against him? Eulisia had arrived at one
promising conclusion...
When Liam graduated from primary school, he would then go on to the
military academy, and once he graduated from that, he would begin a period of
military service. There, as a noble, the army would assign him an adjutant. The
only people chosen for this position were female officers who were the elite of
the elite. Both ability and looks were required in order to be chosen, and for a
notable person like Liam, they wouldn't pick just anyone to be his adjutant. This
was why Eulisia had enlisted in the special forces.
Once she overcame her severe training and entered active service, only
harsh missions awaited her. If she could get through those and earn some
impressive achievements, she was sure to be chosen as Liam's adjutant.
Finally, she would seduce Liam, and then it would be her turn to reject
him. It wasn't as if Liam had exactly "rejected" her, as they'd never been
together in the first place, but it was a matter of pride because he'd never given
her the chance.
Unbeknownst to him, the Guide's plans and Eulisia's were rather
different. Eulisia had no intention of killing Liam, after all. She simply wanted to
hurt and humiliate him by rejecting him.
"I will make him take notice of me. I'll have to thoroughly research Liam
first."
As she underwent her training, Eulisia was constantly thinking about
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Liam. At any point, she could have given up this torture and pursued a happier
path, but her obsession had its hooks deep in her.
"How should I seduce him, I wonder? I need to find out exactly what he
likes."
As Eulisia smirked at herself in the mirror, a colleague of hers entered the
bathroom and yelped in surprise at the sight of her.
***
The Guide stood atop a towering building on the Capital Planet.
"I'm going to sow more and more seeds! I just have to believe that one
day, one of them will achieve my goal."
I'll leave you be for now, Liam.
"For now, I'll just continue to rebuild my power."
Even now, Liam's feelings of gratitude still burned the Guide's body, but
he would absorb all the negative emotions that could be found on the Capital
Planet, until such a time where one of his seeds bloomed, and someone took
their revenge on Liam for him..
***
The Guide had overlooked them, but there was another group of people
who desired revenge against Liam: the Berkeley Family.
In a dimly lit meeting room, the heads of the Family attended a gathering
by way of holographic projections. Each member represented was a child of the
big boss of the Berkeley Family.
"Well, so, our Derrick has kicked the bucket, eh?"
At the boss' words, the heads all expressed their misgivings about the
deceased.
"That little prick lost a planetary development device!"
"Useless bastard."
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"He cost us a chunk of our fighting force too. Incompetent to the bitter
end."
With one hand, the boss petted a cat-like creature that rested in his lap.
"Well, I'm not going to throw a fit about a precious son of mine being killed.
However..." A vein stood out on his forehead, and his tone became more
vicious. "There's an idiot out there who picked a fight with the Family."
Liam's face was projected at the center of their circle. When the heads of
the Family's branches saw him, they all got vicious looks on their faces too.
"So, the great Pirate Hunter Liam..."
"The kid prodigy who brought House Banfield back from ruin, yeah?"
"Let's just kill him."
The boss slammed his fist down on the table. The cat-like creature was
startled, but he petted it again to calm it back down.
"This kid's been a problem for a while now, hunting pirates and such. I've
wanted to take care of him for some time, but now that he's picked a fight with
us so openly that we can't just sit around anymore, can we?"
In the pirate underworld, there was a massive bounty on Liam, so a lot of
hungry bands had gone after him. They all had the tables turned on them. There
had been a time when pirates had flooded into Liam's domain as well, but each
and every one of them lost. Now, he was so feared that no matter how high the
bounty climbed, no pirate gangs tried to challenge him, aside from a few
reckless loose cannons. However, even those pirates were erased before they
even got close to him.
"This is war between us and Banfield. If you're aware of any nobles who
are waiting to see which way the wind blows, find a way to persuade them to
side with us."
The boss knew that increasing their allies would give them a better chance
of crushing Liam. That was proof of just how much of a threat the boy was to
him.
"Dad! You don't need to do that! I'll—!"
One of his sons spoke up, to claim he'd handle Liam personally. "Dad,
you don't need to do that! I'll—" However, the boss cut him off.
"You want the same fate as your brother, dumbass? We won't be dividing
our forces again, the way Derrick did!"
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The boss turned his attention back to the hologram of Liam that floated at
the center of the holographic gathering and smiled. "Don't think you'll get out
unscathed from a fight with the Berkeley Family, you snotty brat."
Unbeknownst to Liam, a great conflict was brewing.
***
Between classes at the primary school's First Campus, sunlight filtered in
through the window and I put my elbows on my desk and rested my chin in my
hands.
"Why do things never go the way I plan?"
No matter how I thought about it, things were just plain weird.
"Liam, more allowance! Whatever it takes, please give me more!" My
lackey, Wallace, clung to me in tears.
Kurt watched him, exasperated. "I see you haven't changed much,
Wallace."
Eila had her arms folded as she stared at Wallace in open contempt.
"You've used it all up with your fooling around, right? Why don't you just stop
wasting money?"
"Shut up!" It seemed Wallace had no intention of heeding their criticisms.
"I thought I'd be able to luxuriate a little at Liam's mansion during vacation, but
Serena was there, so it was hell! Can't I enjoy a bit of luxury here instead?"
Wallace seemed to get in trouble no matter what he did, but it was all his
fault, so Serena could hardly be blamed. I understood her reservations about
him. Wallace didn't cause me any particular trouble, but he didn't do me any
good either.
Taking on the burden of Wallace had been a miscalculation, but my
biggest issue right now was Rosetta. While our group of four sat chatting,
Rosetta walked up to us.
"Darling, where will you be eating lunch? The cafeteria?"
I'd thought she was a woman with a steel spirit, but it turned out she was
just easy. I was disappointed from the bottom of my heart that Rosetta had fallen
for me so easily. It wasn't like I could just get rid of her now. Hence, my current
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dilemma. I still wanted the position of duke, and I jumped through so many
hoops to line that up for myself. Plus, if I tossed Rosetta aside, I'd lose all the
trust noble society had placed in me. If Rosetta betrayed me, that would be a
different story and I'd be able to cut her loose in an instant, but unless that
happened, I was stuck.
"I'll buy some bread at the school store." I explained my plans to Rosetta,
and she nodded.
"Bread? Leave it to me. I'll go buy something nice."
Really? Who told you to do that? A noble lady like you, acting like a
gofer? You're supposed to have more class than that!
"You don't have to go... I'll get Wallace to do it. Wallace, go buy us
some bread."
Wallace brushed the blue hair he was always preening away from his eyes.
"No can do. Don't you know how crowded it is there during lunch? All the good
stuff gets bought up before I can get to it."
I was utterly disgusted by this former Imperial prince, who wasn't even
good for buying some lousy lunch.
Kurt looked at him coldly. "You really are useless, Wallace."
Eila shrugged. "Completely useless."
Wallace was unfazed by their words. "Heh, say what you will, but doesn't
anyone think it's a little strange for Liam to be telling a former Imperial prince
to go buy something for him?"
"Wallace, go buy some for us," I said to him one more time.
"Seriously, Liam, give me a break. The lunchtime struggle is too stressful
for me."
He's lying.
"Liar. Whenever I've gone into the school store, everyone lined up
politely. I haven't had any problems with line cutters or people pushing, or
anything."
This was a school of nobles, after all. Each and every one of them bought
their food with the best of good manners.
Kurt and Eila exchanged a look, then shook their heads in unison.
"That's because it was you, Liam," Kurt said.
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"It's because you're scary when you're mad, Liam," Eila said.
So the other students were only polite around me out of fear? Well, that
was actually amusing...but the problem right now was Rosetta, who was looking
rather troubled.
"Umm, so I don't need to go?"
I decided to give up on it, since it was causing her such consternation.
"We'll change plans and go to the cafeteria, then."
"The cafeteria? Leave it to me. I'll go save us some good seats."
Seriously, why do you want to be an errand girl so bad? That stuff is only
fun if I make you do it... not if you volunteer!
"You don't need to do anything. Just calm down."
"R-right. Okay."
When I saw Rosetta deflate, it made me feel as if I'd done something
wrong. I mean, tormenting her had been my big plan since I'd come up with the
idea of marrying her, but it was one thing to purposely do wrong and another
thing to do wrong unintentionally. This just wasn't the same.
Despite refusing my simple request a minute ago, Wallace said, "Liam, I
want a really special dessert with my lunch...the most expensive thing they've
got."
"I think you should just have water."
Why do I have a lackey who mooches off me? I wouldn't mind treating
him, but not if it feels like he's just taking advantage of me.
Eila clucked her tongue at Wallace's selfishness.
She really hates him, huh? I wonder if his personality just rubs her the
wrong way.
Eila said, "Why don't you just eat air, Wallace? I'll be having that
expensive dessert in the cafeteria, though."
"Aren't you being a little too mean? Can't you say something to her about
her attitude, Kurt?"
Abruptly dragged into the conversation, Kurt must have decided that he
had a few things to say to Wallace too.
"I do think Eila was a little harsh just now, but you should really learn to
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be better with your money, Wallace."
"You're standing against me too! Liam! My patron, Liam! These two are
saying unkind things to me! Are you just going to keep quiet about that?"
Here's my lackey, demanding things of me again, instead of doing
anything to earn my help. This isn't right. This isn't how I thought lackeys were
supposed to be!
"Just shut up and make do with the daily special."
"So you forsake me, too?"
"Sure would be nice if I could."
"Huh? Why do you sound so disappointed in me? Are you abandoning
me? Are you?!"
Wallace grabbed onto me desperately and I shoved his head away. "Shut
up. Get off me."
Though I acted bothered by him, Eila was downright scary.
"Wallace, get your filthy hands off Liam this instant!"
"Eep!"
Eila started chasing Wallace around the classroom.
I had dreamed of what life at primary school would be like...and my
dreams were nothing like this.
***
On the Capital Planet, the prime minister had gathered a group of officials
before him. These were the Observers, who watched over House Claudia all
these years. A significant number of them had been doing their job for
generations, and the current members were all quite dissatisfied.
In front of the lot of them, the prime minister wore a smile.
"Thank you for your loyal service until now. So that you may continue
being of use to the Empire, I intend to find a new role for you."
Naturally, the Observers weren't happy to hear this.
"Prime Minister!" one of them protested. "We can't just change things
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after all this time. At least order us to observe House Banfield now!"
"That's right!" cried another. "The late emperor's orders still apply!"
"Please allow us to observe Count Banfield!"
Having done the same job for two thousand years, their group couldn't
accept being told to do anything else. The prime minister understood their
feelings, of course. However, these people were nothing but a problem for him
now.
"I see. Well, if that's how you feel, I suppose you'll just have to die then."
"Prime Minister?"
Onto a table before him, he threw printouts of the documents the
Observers had amassed over years and years, containing all of the dirt they had
on various nobles. The Observers' eyes snapped wide at the sight of the
documents.
The prime minister said, "I had no idea you were investigating even me."
The group specialized not only in tormenting people, but in spying on
them as well. There were surely uses for such people, but the prime minister
couldn't trust them now that he knew they'd poked into his own affairs.
"Th-this isn't what it looks like!"
"Save your excuses. If you lot disappear, I'll be able to sleep more
soundly at night. That's reason enough for me to want you gone."
The Observers looked prepared to resist by means of violence, but Tia had
been standing off to one side. She drew her rapier, a sword designed for
thrusting. In lightning-fast moves, she unerringly pierced the heart of each
Observer present before any of them could fight back or flee.
Watching the Observers fall one by one, the prime minister applauded Tia.
After the last crumpled to the floor, he said, "Incredible work. I'm sure I can
expect much from you in the military academy."
Tia wiped the blood from her blade and returned it to its sheath, looking
down at the sprawled Observers. "It was no trouble. I appreciate the opportunity
to clean up these rats who were antagonizing Lord Liam."
Having opposed Liam, the Observers had not been Imperial officials in
Tia's eyes, but simply enemies.
"So, will you be entering the military academy right away?" the prime
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minister asked.
"Yes, I plan to start school next year."
"And what of the count's plans?" the prime minister continued, as he
watched some of his subordinates enter the chamber to clean up the bodies of the
Observers. The sight caused him no distress at all, given what he'd learned about
them.
As a fourth-year primary school student, Liam's graduation was
approaching. In less than three years, he'd graduate from that school and would
have to move on to either a university or the military academy. The prime
minister was curious which he would choose first.
"Lord Liam plans to prioritize the military academy."
"Which means he'll be going to university after his military training. I
wonder if the conflict with the Berkeley Family will be over by then."
What the prime minister was essentially saying was "Will your fight with
the Berkeley Family be okay?"
Tia had no doubts about the outcome in that regard. "Lord Liam will be
victorious. In fact, it might be over with rather quickly. You never know."
The prime minister smiled at her confidence. "I hope that's true."
***
At the primary school's First Campus...
"Aren't stories of the Knights of the Round Table and the Twelve Knights
and stuff like that cool?"
These childish words came from Wallace.
Kurt looked at him with narrowed eyes. "There you go daydreaming
again. What's your big idea this time, Wallace?"
"I just mean, you know, assigning numbers to a team of chosen, talented
knights. I read about that stuff in books back at the palace. Don't you think it's
cool?"
"Those are just comic books you're talking about."
Wallace averted his eyes in embarrassment when Kurt pointed that out.
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Apparently, there were some comics with knights like that in them. In my
previous life, Nitta would have read stuff like that. In fact, I read some manga of
that type that he recommended to me back then. I guessed that, in the comics in
this world, there was a story about twelve elite knights who'd been designated
numbers, very similar to a legend from my own world. The king awarded those
knights special privileges to elevate them even further.
We were out behind the main school building at the moment, just us boys,
discussing stupid things like this.
"Wouldn't it be a pain trying to find twelve super-strong knights?" I
muttered.
Kurt replied, exasperated, "You shouldn't take anything Wallace says so
seriously. Most of his knowledge comes from comics, after all. Anyway, a
person could find twelve good people in no time."
"Really?" I said, surprised by such a statement.
"Well, yeah. I mean, just think about it. For instance, there are plenty of
knights back where I come from. It'd be easy to pick only twelve of them,
wouldn't it?"
"But they're supposed to be exceptionally strong, right? Are there that
many really strong knights?"
"Well, it depends on how you judge them, and where you look, but I think
there are plenty who could make the cut."
Now that I thought about it, there were a lot of knights out there to choose
from, weren't there? I was sure if I really looked into it, I could find particularly
strong individuals among them. Right now in House Banfield, Tia and Marie
would qualify.
"I guess I'll find me some and give them numbers, then."
Kurt was quick to discourage me. "Don't do that... We were just talking
hypothetically. Giving a small band of knights special treatment could only lead
to complications, like resentment from your other knights. Anyway, the Twelve
Knights from the comic book Wallace is talking about are the bad guys."
"Oh? Bad guys?"
I glanced at Wallace, and he looked away from me. It made me change my
opinion of him somewhat, if he advocated for a path of evil. I could respect that.
Kurt might have thought it was a bad idea, but I liked it. Those knights
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were like the evil army in a hero story, right? Like the big four. An evil lord
should have his own little evil knight force, right? I felt I hadn't been doing
enough evil lord things recently, but then again, it was difficult to be an evil lord
when you were going to primary school.
"The Round Table and the Twelve Knights, eh? Which model should I go
with, is the question," I muttered, and in hearing this Wallace raised his hand.
"Liam, someday I want to have my own Knights of the Round Table, so
don't pick that one! If we did the same thing, it'd be like you were copying me,
and that'd be embarrassing, right?"
Wallace was being self-centered again, not to mention just a little bit
unrealistic, if he thought he'd command his own team of super knights some
day. Wait though, he'd be embarrassed about us both having Knights of the
Round Table, but he wasn't embarrassed to be copying things from comic
books?
I decided to come up with more of a plan about my team of elite knights
later.
Kurt's shoulders slumped. "You've let him poison you, Liam."
Wallace didn't appreciate Kurt's comment. "That's awfully rude, don't
you think?"
As the three of us guys continued chatting, Rosetta and Eila spotted us and
waved.
There they go again, getting in the way of our precious guy time.
"Darling! There you are!"
"What are the two of you doing over here?"
The all-too-easy Rosetta, with a big smile on her face, and Eila, who was
making it a point to ignore Wallace, came jogging over.
The arrival of Rosetta was particularly problematic. Her smile lit up her
whole face, her ringlets bounced as she ran, and the motion made her breasts
bounce. It was all so cute, and in this vision, there was no sign at all of the
formerly defiant Rosetta. No, the once-proud Rosetta was running over to me
like a dog that wags its tail when it spots its master. Being so fond of dogs, that
comparison made her all the cuter to me. Yeah, this was a real problem.
"Why did this happen?" I moaned to myself.
"What's wrong, Darling? You're not feeling unwell, are you? Let's head
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to the nurse's office right away!"
"No, that's not it..."
Rosetta was seriously concerned about me. Of course, if I knew this
attitude of hers was just a ruse so I'd let my guard down, then I might be able to
enjoy the situation. Unfortunately, there was no indication she was anything less
than sincere.
Where, oh where did the steel-willed Rosetta disappear to?
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