“I really miss Listinger. I don’t know where she is now, or if she’s all right.”
The young queen’s face clouded with worry.
“She’s the daughter of the late chancellor, three years older than me. She entered the palace when we were children to look after me. We ate together, slept together, and grew up side by side. That day, when I received news from my father, I immediately set out to return home, but I was delayed a little on the road, so I sent Listinger ahead to watch over him in my place.”
The novice knight stood by with her weapon strapped across her back. She wore the same clothes she had once used to herd sheep in Ede Village, but her posture was straight as a blade, like a sword that could be drawn at any moment.
“Her Majesty’s former lady-in-waiting was Lady Listinger. After I took her place, I’m afraid the queen has never felt quite at ease.”
The lady-in-waiting spread strawberry jam over white bread, cut it into neat little pieces, placed them on a plate, and respectfully slid the plate in front of the queen. Then she handed another piece of bread to Leif.
“Miss Knight, you don’t know. In her dreams, the queen often calls out Lady Listinger’s name.”
“Natiaveda!”
A flush rose over the queen’s face, as if some secret had just been exposed.
The lady-in-waiting poured a small cup of hyacinth dew for the queen, then lowered her gaze and fell silent.
“Ah…”
Something seemed to come to mind. The queen’s green eyes grew faintly moist. She lifted the cup and took a small sip; her pale, slender fingers trembled slightly as she set it down.
“When I returned to the capital, I was greeted with news of my father’s death. And at the same time, I was told that Listinger had vanished. After that, I was constantly occupied—presiding over royal ceremonies, choosing a husband, getting married… A year and five months have already passed… but Listinger still hasn’t come back…”
The Prophet’s Branch could answer only one question. Between learning her father’s dying wish and asking after her companion’s whereabouts, the young queen had been forced to choose the former—both because she was a princess of the Kingdom of Aeseya, and because she was a dutiful daughter. But Sophie’s feelings for Listinger were in no way shallower than those she had for the late king.
“I can only hope that the Prophet’s Branch will somehow tell me where Listinger is as well.”
The blonde queen folded her hands, long lashes drooping.
“But if it does… that would mean Listinger has met the same fate as my father.”
“I only hope she is safe and happy, and that my ominous premonition doesn’t come true. I can feel it—she must still be somewhere, thinking of me, just as I miss her.”
Her damp green eyes turned to Leif. In that gaze was the sense that she had placed all her remaining hope on this girl.
“Miss Knight,” the queen said softly, “I’m truly troubling you. Could you help me find her? If not… I fear my heartache will never heal.”
“It would be my honor to serve Your Majesty.”
Leif saluted with her knife in hand.
Seeing the novice knight leave with such quiet confidence, the queen let out a faint, relieved smile and said to her lady-in-waiting,
“Natiaveda, I trust your judgment.”
Natiaveda watched Leif’s receding back, something dark and unreadable in her amber eyes.
Only Leif knew that although she appeared to have a firm grasp of the whole situation, her “plan” was in fact no plan at all. She was clinging to one simple belief: she had cleared this stage easily before, so the clues would naturally appear, and sooner or later the truth would surface.
As someone who lived by the blade, all she needed to do was get ready for the next round of fighting and killing. As for the plot and all that… in the past, she would have just skipped it outright.
Yet for some reason, the queen’s frail smile, and the lady-in-waiting’s mysterious power, still lingered in Leif’s mind. She had a feeling that her current attitude—like someone watching a play through a screen—probably wouldn’t last very long.
—
After a fierce battle, Leif finally relaxed only when she had taken her leave of the queen and returned to the quarters Natiaveda had arranged for her. Every muscle felt like it had been ground under a millstone, and her joints were swollen and sore.
“Lil… Lily’s in trouble…”
The maid whom Natiaveda had entrusted with looking after the sheep looked thoroughly guilty when she saw Leif.
“Please, my lady, come with me and take a look first.”
Leif followed the maid to the sheepfold.
It was called a sheepfold, but in truth the place was a converted guest room. The floor was covered with a luxurious carpet patterned with white hyacinths. The tables, chairs, and bed that should have been there had all been moved out. Two baskets overflowing with premium hay and feed sat on the floor; it was the same treatment given to the royal stables. On top of that, there were several sacks of fresh red carrots, turnips, and other crisp vegetables and fruits.
“I was going to arrange a pen outside, but Lily chose this room herself. I asked Lady Natiaveda for instructions, and she said to arrange things according to the sheep’s wishes.”
The maid had already thought this sheep was special; Natiaveda’s reply had made it seem even more so. Which only made its disappearance now feel all the more unforgivable.
Truly inexcusable.
The brown-haired, black-eyed shepherd girl picked up a turnip from the corner of the room. Fresh tooth marks still showed on its surface. She frowned in puzzlement.
Based on Lily’s usual gluttonous and lazy personality, if it had such a wonderful spot, even if you dragged it by the hooves, you’d never get it out the door.
“Miss Leif,” the maid said anxiously, face flushed, “I really haven’t mistreated Lily. Just a moment ago it was quietly eating right here, and I only stepped out for a little while and then… then it was gone.”
“Have you checked everywhere else?” Leif asked.
“I’ve already asked around.”
The maid pulled a miserable face as she followed Leif into the courtyard, pacing wherever Leif went.
“There aren’t many guards posted at this residence to begin with, and they happened to be changing shifts at the time. No one saw Lily run out. I’ve asked all the neighbors, too. No one knows where Lily went. I’ve already sent someone to prepare notices. As long as Lily hasn’t left the city, we should be able to find her soon.”
Just then, a sheep bleated in the distance.
The maid glanced at Leif, relief written all over her face.
A white sheep charged through the courtyard gate, hooves clattering, dashed straight into its little room, and adroitly bumped the door shut with a flick of its hoof—never once slowing down, and not noticing Leif at all along the way.
After Leif promised repeatedly that she would not report the matter and told the maid to go rest, she pushed the door open to check on her sheep.
Lily’s short, pompom tail was sticking up in the air as she hunched over, chomping on a fresh red carrot.
Seizing the chance, the shepherd girl quickly got Lily under control. She took a sharp pair of shears from her belt pouch and started snipping at the wool that had grown long over Lily’s body.
One of the pouches on her belt was already stuffed with wool. The poor shepherd girl had a humble little dream: once she’d gathered enough fleece, she’d spin a bit of yarn, and before winter came, she’d knit herself a sweater.
Lily wriggled in discomfort, carrot still in her mouth, large eyes glaring at Leif for a moment. Then she lowered her thick forehead and butted Leif in the stomach.
Suddenly, hoofbeats sounded outside the door.
Leif looked toward the half-open doorway in puzzlement, only to see royal guards pouring into the courtyard.
The same gate captain who had stopped Leif outside the city and refused to let her enter—a trusted confidant of the new king—rode in on horseback. When he spotted Leif, he snorted through his nose.
“Well, if it isn’t Her Majesty the Queen’s distinguished guest.”
Leif was in the middle of shearing her sheep. To keep the wool off her clothes, she had put on an apron that Granny Samanda had passed down to her, a garment with decades of history and patches everywhere. The sight only made the gate captain find her even more rustic and shabby.
The shearing was halfway done.
Leif was never one to leave a task half-finished. Besides, she was already known as the “Sheep Knight”; if she let Lily go out with wool hacked off on one side and long on the other, it would be anything but dignified. So she kept right on shearing, only moving her hands faster.
“Captain, I’m really tied up at the moment. If there’s something you need, please just say it…”
The gate captain looked at the guards around him, then at Leif, who didn’t seem to care at all and was even still shearing wool. Her attitude practically screamed that she had powerful backing and didn’t need to take him seriously in the slightest. He suddenly felt caught in an awkward spot, but he still said,
“His Majesty the King has ordered this insolent sheep to be put to death!”
“…I don’t understand, Captain,” Leif said, stunned. “This is just a simple, timid, innocent little sheep. How could it possibly have offended His Majesty to the point that he wants it punished?”
“That…” The gate captain hesitated.
Under the late king’s rule, when enforcing the law within the Kingdom of Aeseya, the crime had to be announced—even if the accused was a sheep. By rights, this was the moment when he should read out the woolly culprit’s charges.
But the problem was, he had no idea how to say it.
At first, he’d only thought to use this as an excuse to teach a lesson to this shepherd girl, whose behavior and manner were entirely unbefitting a lady. But if he really announced the charges and made the king the laughingstock of his subjects, then he’d have to bear His Majesty’s wrath later.
The gate captain cleared his throat uneasily and ordered the guards,
“Seize that sheep!”
But word of Leif’s feat in breaking through the Mul Forest had already spread. The cleaver strapped to her back might look a little ridiculous, but everyone knew it was no toy. The guards glanced at one another, none of them willing to be the first to step forward.
Leif quickly finished shearing the rest of Lily’s wool. Taking advantage of the moment, the now dramatically smaller sheep wriggled free of her grip. Before the shepherd girl could stop her, Lily gave the gate captain a sharp kick right on the backside with one hoof, then shook herself and went back to munching on her carrot.
“Ow—!”
The fat gate captain toppled straight to the ground. Humiliation flared into rage, and he bellowed at the guards,
“What are you standing around for? After a crime like this, again and again—!”
Leif, her arms full of freshly shorn wool, fell silent.
She could just about guess how Lily had “offended” His Majesty the King.
Just then, a woman with golden eyes appeared suddenly in the doorway.
“Captain,” Natiaveda said coolly, “what exactly do you think you’re doing?”
