Volume 1 Chapter 81 The Chariot
November. It wasn't snowing, but the cold air pierced my skin on this cloudy day.
In the royal palace, the festival for the birth of the divine ancestor Theobart was taking place.
It was the biggest and most extravagant event held in the palace, and I was out with my subordinates from Leonsroar, assigned to security duty.
(Seriously, how pointless)
There's nothing more depressing than security and protection work.
I wouldn't care if the Bernard royal family or the Bernard people were eaten by monsters.
Ah, but I definitely want to kill King Zeere, the one who took my parents.
(But, I still can't do that)
The lively music from the band filled the grand hall, and I was fed up with the sight of dressed-up nobles chatting and dancing in the center of the hall. I told one of my subordinates that I was going to patrol the palace and stepped outside to get some fresh air.
(What am I doing)
When I closed my eyes, I remembered the people from Kirschtein Castle lying in pools of blood, and the sight of my mother and father falling to King Zeere's blade.
I've never forgotten the images burned into the back of my eyelids.
My mother was pregnant. She was about to give birth. I had heard it was a little sister.
As my mother begged for her life, the cold tip of a sword was pointed at her.
The merciless blade came down and took her life.
I can't remember much after that, but I must have escaped the castle in a daze.
Before I knew it, I was crouching in the forest. My clothes and hands were covered in blood, and flames were rising from the town.
And then──Kirschtein was ruled by the Bernard Kingdom.
No one in the town knows about me.
At that time, there were many orphans in the town who had lost their parents, so I lived as one of them.
I thought I couldn't die.
I had to live, to survive──and definitely, to take revenge on the Bernard people.
Justice is on my side.
To atone for the lives taken by their tyranny, I would have to take lives in return.
I survived like a piece of trash in a corner of the town and learned about violence. Once I learned about violence──everyone became afraid of me, and no one dared to harm me.
It was around that time that the Moon Soul Cult found me, a group formed by surviving soldiers from the palace and those close to the royal family, who were waiting for the right moment to rise up. Then──if possible, to strike at King Zeere, I changed my identity and name and infiltrated the Holy Knights.
"...You are."
As I escaped from the dazzling grand hall and stepped into the backyard, I saw a girl sitting on a bench.
She looked small and still like a child.
Dressed in a mint green dress, her black hair was tied up.
With her white skin and violet eyes, the girl, wearing just a shawl over her dress, looked very cold.
"Is that you, Lady Lydia? What are you doing here?"
I respectfully performed a knight's bow and knelt before her.
The girl──Lydia Rest looked at me with frightened eyes.
"It's cold, isn't it? Why don't you go back inside?"
"...I'm fine here."
I thought she was quite a quiet child.
She's the fiancée of Crown Prince Stefan Bernard from the despised Bernard royal family.
Her name is Lydia Rest, the eldest daughter of the Rest priest family.
The Rest family is said to have blood from the goddess Alexandria.
The Bernard royal family carries the blood of the divine ancestor Theobart, while the Rest family has the blood of the goddess Alexandria.
I tried to find out why the bloodlines are split even though they are married, but after becoming the captain of the Leonsroar knights and getting somewhat involved in the royal palace, I still didn't understand.
"You are His Highness Stefan's fiancée, right? His Highness is worried about you."
"...I am disliked."
Her violet eyes well up with tears.
I thought it would be troublesome if she cried, but she didn't spill any tears; instead, she tightly gripped her dress.
"It can't be helped. I am useless."
The Rest Head Priest has 2 daughters.
One is her, Lydia Rest. The other is Francois Rest.
I remember that today, Francois was close to His Highness Stefan again.
As his fiancée, she has no magical power.
The power of the goddess Alexandria resides in Francois, who is the child of a concubine, and she's jealous of her and feel sad about it.
"Even so, it's cold here. You might get sick."
"Even so, it's fine. I... have nothing left."
"...I see."
She is a quiet and timid girl.
I can't believe this girl is the one who is cruel to Francois.
It doesn't seem possible at all.
"I wish I could escape somewhere. Somewhere that isn't here. Then I could... maybe do something, even without magical power."
"...What can you do?"
Lydia spoke as if she were dreaming.
I asked back with a somewhat cruel feeling, wondering what a child raised without any hardships in the Rest family could possibly do.
"I can cook... I like cooking. I want to cook and feed hungry children. When you're hungry, it makes you feel sad."
"Cooking, huh?"
"Yes... I can cook. It won't help my father or Sir Stefan, though."
"...If you opened a restaurant, could I go eat there then?"
I wondered why I said such a thing.
I could never make such a promise.
When you're hungry, it makes you feel sad.
Maybe those words touched something deep inside me.
I remembered my childhood, when I had no money, no food, and I curled up in a dark alley to escape hunger.
"Yes... of course, Sir Knight."
Lydia rubbed the tears forming at the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand and smiled.
Then she stood up and said, "I should be going now. I don't want to miss the carriage that's coming to pick me up," and she returned to the palace.
Lydia's engagement was broken after winter, just before spring, during the graduation ceremony at the Royal Academy.
"...Mr. Lucian, please eat a lot."
Called by my name, I bring my consciousness back from the depths of my memory.
On the day when the old Kirschtein town was showered with candy, I was reborn as Lucian Kilkade.
That memory was a fake.
I was about to be deceived by Judal and commit an irreversible mistake.
If that had happened, Lydia would never have smiled at me again.
Thanks to the girl who smiled up at me, I was able to keep everything I thought I had to let go of.
"Oh, Lydia. Thank you."
"Mr. Lucian... um."
"What is it?"
"Well, um... welcome back."
"Oh, I'm back."
I sat down at an empty table with the knights who had come to help and others to eat the curry that was left over from the free meal I had prepared for the town's people.
Lydia was sitting in front of me, smiling happily.
The evening darkness was approaching the sky, and the light balls created by the Saintwise mages were fantastically illuminating the dim town.
──Oh, I love it.
I love Lydia.
If Stefan didn't want her, I was going to make her mine.
I thought that if I could make Lydia, who probably had the power of the goddess, mine, it would be beneficial to the people of Kirschtein.
But now, such things don't matter anymore.
I want to protect Lydia, who called me her friend, cried, got angry, and took risks for me.
Even if she doesn't become mine, I want to protect her for the rest of my life.
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