The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

I can’t believe it. His Majesty is wise and sagacious, and surely he must know the meaning of bowing. Even so, he still bowed to me like an ordinary person— No. Don’t get full of yourself. I can’t possibly be that valuable. This simply shows how magnanimous the Sorcerer King is; he even treats a commoner politely. —Ah! He mustn’t!

“Please do not do that! Your Majesty! Please raise your head!”

Yes. That was what she should have said before anything else.

The Sorcerer King looked up, and Neia sighed quietly. Frankly speaking, if anyone else had seen what had happened just now, something terrible would have happened.

“Your Majesty—”

Neia took a knee within the cramped confines of the carriage’s floor.

“Your servant is of humble origins, but I swear that until Your Majesty’s work is complete, I will loyally and faithfully serve you.”

Since a king had given her his respect, it was only natural that she return it.

Neia ignored the voice in her head which said that he was not the king of the Holy Kingdom, and bowed.

“No, no. Raise your head… Come now, could you take a seat and continue your previous topic? We haven’t reached our destination yet, have we?”

“No, not yet.”

She sat back onto the cushion, and looked outside.

“Yesterday, we passed safely through the ruins of the wall by the grace of Your Majesty’s power. We have chosen a route that will make us harder to discover, so it may take a little more time, but I believe we will arrive at our base tomorrow, or the day after.”

Although, said base was just a cave.

“Is that so? Even then, we still have some time, do we not? Tell me about the topic from just now. Also, I have not yet heard why you have your sights set on becoming a paladin. Given your talent for the bow, surely there must have been some other path you could have taken. Why aim to be a paladin? For the sake of justice? Or perhaps to be the pride of your nation?”

“No—” When she narrowed her eyes, what came to mind was her personal experiences. “—My mother was a paladin.”

She was a paladin who was skilled with the sword, completely unlike Neia.

“I see, so you heard something from your mother, or you admired her, hm.”

“Ah, no. My mother often said I shouldn’t aim to be a paladin. And my mother couldn’t do the work of being a mother, and while she could do the laundry and sew, she was completely inept at cooking and that sort of thing. She did everything sloppily, the roast meat was always undercooked, that sort of thing was common.”

Therefore, it was only natural that her father had been the one who cooked in their household. When she was young, she even thought that it was true for all families.

“...Is that so? Well, she still didn’t stop her daughter from becoming a paladin, so I guess she was still a good mother.”

“Ah, no. When I told my mother I wanted to be a squire, she went and took out her sword and said, ‘I’ll let you if you can defeat me!’ and so on. The only reason why I was allowed to become one was because my dad desperately blocked for me. If I had fought her normally I could never have beaten her.”

That was the first time she had understood the meaning of killing intent.

“...Ahhhh, mm, good, how shall I say this… it was a good family… mm.”

“Yes. While the neighbors often looked strangely at us, I thought it was a good family.”

“...Really, how nice… th-then, why, why become a paladin? Did you not think to follow your father’s path— Hm. Was your father a househusband?”

“No, my father was also a soldier who served his country. However, I never really thought of following in my father’s footsteps… why was that. Maybe it’s because dad gave me these eyes, so I sort of ended up resenting him for it…”

Neia pressed her index fingers to the corners of her eyes and tugged them around in circles.

When she was young, her friends often said, Why are you staring at me? Are you angry with me? and the like, and she had often complained to her father for it. After that, Neia had been beaten by her mother, who had overheard her saying so.

Thinking of them was quite nostalgic, Neia thought.

“But perhaps after becoming a squire, I became more open-minded. At some point, I started to think that this was a gift from my father. Well, I could do without the fierce glare, though.”

“How are your parents now?”

“My father fought Jaldabaoth’s army at the wall and died. I lost contact with my mom, and I don’t know what happened with her, but I think she must have died during the defense of the city. After all, she was the sort who would have struggled to the bitter end.”

“It seems I have inquired about a painful topic.”