Lily lowered her head and sprawled on the ground, her forehooves clawing at the dirt as she inched backwards—completely lacking the imposing dignity a future knight’s mount ought to have.
The brown‑haired shepherd girl tried to haul the sheep up, but it was no use at all.
“Lady Knight, allow me to remind you, Her Majesty the Queen is allergic to wool.”
The white‑robed priestess spoke gently.
“You cannot bring a sheep inside.”
Seeing how reluctant Leif looked, she gestured to a maid standing beside the four‑wheeled carriage. The maid quickly minced over, bowed her head after calling, “Lady Natya Vida,” and bent down to stroke the sheep’s neck soothingly.
“I never expected you to actually know Lady Natya Vida, Leif.”
The gate official stood to the side, rubbing his hands together. His face was full of flattering smiles as he looked at the shepherd girl.
“If you’d said so earlier, there wouldn’t have been any unpleasantness.”
“To be honest, I don’t know this… mm… lady knight.”
The female official looked down at the gate official from above.
“But His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen are both known for how they honor talent, regardless of rank. How could you turn away someone who’s volunteering to serve the royal house at the city gates?”
“My deepest apologies, Lady Knight.”
Sweat was already beading on the tip of the gate official’s nose. He looked at the shepherd girl, who apparently had quite the backing.
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“There’s no need. Her Majesty the Queen’s guest, I will personally receive.”
Just before she led the would‑be knight through the gate, the lady official let a light remark drift into the gate official’s ear.
“I’ve heard you’ve been charging a hefty ‘toll’ to out‑of‑towners entering the city. His Majesty has already sent people to investigate. You’d best worry about your own affairs.”
The blood drained from the gate official’s face in an instant.
The guards along the way no longer had their hands on their swords, ready to draw. They respectfully stepped aside, saluted, and then watched as the lady official escorted her guest away. In each of their eyes there was respect—and deep, deep fear.
The lady official and the shepherd girl boarded the four‑wheeled carriage bound for the royal palace. As the carriage pulled away from the city gate, Leif still had no idea what task she was about to receive from the Queen.
Without the familiar sound of a sheep bell in her ears, Leif felt oddly out of sorts.
She turned around, resting her chin on the backrest of the carriage. At the gate, she saw Lily finally manage to stand up under the combined efforts and curious stares of the onlookers. But for some reason, just as Leif watched her with concern for a moment, Lily flopped down again.
Leif lifted her head and found the lady official watching her with a faint, unreadable smile.
The carriage turned a corner, and Lily vanished from sight.
A strong premonition hit Leif—that she might be about to lose Lily for good. People always get anxious about gains and losses when it comes to their most precious possessions, and Lily was pretty much the only possession Leif had. Until she had enough money to buy a cheap horse as a mount, Lily might well be her only companion on the long road ahead.
Leif struggled to suppress her urge to just tie Lily to herself with a rope and never let go. Poverty and hardship were practically written all over the shepherd girl’s face, yet that very fact often served to ignite her fighting spirit.
“Don’t worry. We’ve long since prepared a fine sheepfold and plenty of good fodder.”
The lady official watched the shepherd girl’s dark eyes shimmer.
“By the way, Lady Knight, I still don’t know—what kind of merits have you achieved in the past? Oh, I mean, the Queen’s matter won’t be easy to resolve, so it might require some experience…”
“Well… to be honest, I came to Gino City precisely to receive my knight’s ribbon.”
Leif answered, a little embarrassed.
No ribbon. In other words, no achievements worth recording. Which meant this girl calling herself a knight didn’t actually even have the qualification of an official knight. Added to that, she was very young, and she had all the look of someone fresh from the countryside who’d never seen the world—almost everyone’s first impression of Leif was the same.
“Oh.”
The lady official’s fine brows knit together, and her earlier enthusiasm faded a little. Her amber eyes looked at Leif with an apologetic expression that all but said: this counts as a knight? But etiquette kept her from voicing it.
Wanted posters for the demon dragon still covered the walls along the road. Natya Vida pointed to one of them.
“Then something like slaying a demon dragon—Lady Knight has never done that?”
“I actually did kill a demon dragon once!”
Leif declared with absolute conviction.
Then she remembered that what she’d done in the game no longer counted here. Her hand fell to the hilt of her sword, which almost seemed to hunger in her grip. She toned herself down, lowering her voice.
“…I… I was just a little short. If it hadn’t tricked me with that innocent appearance, pretending to be a frail little girl, it would already be lying dead beneath my blade.”
“Oh?”
Natya Vida gave Leif a look of surprise.
“Yes…”
By now Leif had no way to back down. She knew the lady official had doubted her combat ability; things had only improved when she mentioned the demon dragon. She couldn’t very well follow that up by confessing how she’d been scared stiff by the dragon, slammed into the ground and rubbed around for a while, and in the end… passed out from being licked all over.
So Leif roughly described how she’d encountered the demon dragon, but carefully glossed over and embellished the latter half of the story.
“Right—after it turned into a girl, it begged me to spare its life. I really couldn’t refuse, because the knight’s code demands that I never raise my hand against a woman.”
Leif repeated poor Mister Macintosh’s words without batting an eye, and even imitated his tone as she fabricated the rest.
“When it comes to beautiful beings, I simply can’t bear to strike them down, even when I know in my heart they embody evil. Perhaps… that will be my downfall one day.”
Naturally, Leif also left out the part where she’d hacked at the sleeping dragon lady several times and nearly nicked her own blade. Saying that aloud would only be belittling her own strength.
The lady official choked and coughed once, turning her face aside, her shoulders trembling faintly.
“My apologies, Lady Knight, I’m just… too astonished.”
Natya Vida pressed a hand to her chest, got her emotions under control, and turned back around. Her face showed a fragile delicacy that tugged at the heart, the corners of her eyes slightly wet as though she’d almost been scared to tears.
“You’re truly brave. If that demon dragon appeared before me, I’d definitely faint dead away from fright.”
She leaned lightly against Leif’s shoulder, shivering as though she really were seeing a dragon. Leif patted her back in a comforting rhythm.
Before long, they arrived at the Queen’s bedchamber. Only then did the lady official hand the Queen’s decree to Leif. Leif unfolded it: the quest rank was A.
The royal palace of Aeseya, like every other corner of the capital, was filled to bursting with snow‑white hyacinths. Their blooming season lasted a full month and would only end after late spring; right now, they were at their most splendid. The hyacinths in the palace received better care than those outside—their petals were larger, fuller, and their fragrance even richer.
The lady official and the shepherd girl got down from the carriage together and entered the Queen’s bedchamber. Neither of them knew that, out in the back garden, one of the new King’s confidants saw this scene and immediately went to report it to his master.
Behind layer after layer of white gauze curtains, the Queen’s figure lay upon the canopied bed.
Leif could hear her coughing. She had to be very ill.
When the brown‑haired shepherd girl had walked to a spot a few feet from the bed and bowed together with the lady official, the Queen tried to sit up on the bed. In a somewhat childish voice, she said to Leif:
“Please rise. I’m truly sorry, dear magician. Cough…”
A maid helped the Queen up, slipping a robe over her shoulders as she leaned close to whisper in the Queen’s ear, loud enough that Leif could hear every word.
“The magician has already left. This time, it’s a knight…”
“Yes, she hasn’t received her knight’s ribbon yet, but insists on calling herself a knight…”
“Lady Natya Vida said that to earn her ribbon, she’s more willing to risk her life… Oh, and apparently she once almost killed a demon dragon…”
Leif had no idea when the lady official had told this maid all that, unless Natya Vida had foreseen her coming long ago and already had a clear grasp on her past experiences and the purpose of this visit.
Just as Leif realized she might well have stepped straight into someone’s carefully laid plan, a reed‑slender arm reached out from behind the curtains. The Queen drew one side of the bed curtain aside. Golden hair framed a palm‑sized face; in that pale visage were set a pair of emerald‑like eyes, and two unhealthy spots of color stained her cheeks.
Her looks made one’s heart soften at a glance—and Leif’s heart did soften.
Leif remembered that, while asking around about the Kingdom of Aeseya, she had heard a rumor: that after the old king’s death, the young princess had been drawn into a struggle for the throne. As there was no precedent for a girl inheriting the crown, the collateral heir who took the throne would drive her out of the palace. She would have no choice but to marry a foreign prince…
But Leif had never imagined the Queen would be this young. She looked thirteen, fourteen at most—actually younger than Leif. On the Deya Continent, girls came of age at fifteen. Even by that standard, the Queen was still very much a child.
The young Queen held out her arm. Natya Vida picked her up as easily as a chick and set her down on a high‑backed chair, carefully draping a cloak over her shoulders.
