The Knight King and the Third Prince (1)
“Your Majesty?”
Edwin reflexively hid the wooden sword behind his back.
The thought of having his skills exposed in front of the man known as the Knight King left him mortified.
“W-what brings you all the way out here…”
“I was simply passing by and happened to catch sight of Your Highness. I only meant to offer a greeting.”
Kaiden approached the young prince with leisurely steps.
He gazed down at the top of Edwin’s head as the boy shuffled his feet, the tips of his ears flushed crimson.
After standing in silence for a moment, Kaiden finally spoke again.
“…Who taught you swordsmanship?”
“Pardon?”
Edwin’s eyes widened into perfect circles.
He had never imagined that the King of Adamant would take any interest in him.
Though the question of who had taught him the sword was admittedly a rather trivial one.
“Ah, well…”
He wanted to answer well, no matter what.
In that instant, a whirlwind of thoughts raced through Edwin’s small head.
‘The fact that I’m learning swordsmanship from someone is still a secret. What if I say something and it leaks out? What if I end up causing trouble for Sir Philip or the other knights?’
At that moment, as if he had read the young prince’s mind, Kaiden smoothly changed the subject.
“Well, does it really matter who taught you?”
He offered Edwin a gentle smile.
“For a swordsman, what matters is how well you can wield the blade.”
Kaiden looked down at Edwin quietly.
The sweat-dampened bright golden hair, the wide rabbit-like eyes, and the slightly upturned gaze were so strikingly similar to his sister that it was almost uncanny. It was as if his already deceased sister had appeared before him again, simply younger.
‘Even parents and children are ultimately separate beings. How can someone resemble another this much?’
Was this why people were so desperate to leave behind children?
So that a being infinitely close to themselves could continue living in the world even after they were gone?
“What a rather amusing reason.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
Kaiden shook his head as if it were unimportant and changed the topic once more.
“Your Highness, Edwin.”
At the sound of his name, Edwin’s entire body tensed.
His rigid posture somehow resembled that of a new recruit, and it was almost enough to make Kaiden laugh.
“Let me ask you something else. When did you begin practicing swordsmanship?”
Finally, a question he could answer.
Edwin’s face brightened as he opened his mouth.
“Ah, it’s only been a little over a month now.”
“…Pardon?”
Only a month of practice? That display just now?
Kaiden recalled the sword form he had just witnessed from the prince.
‘He still doesn’t know how to put his full strength into it, but that vertical slash was remarkably clean.’
It didn’t feel like the swordsmanship of a complete beginner who had only held a blade for a month.
“So I’m still quite clumsy. It was embarrassing to show you, Your Majesty, yet here we are.”
Edwin scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.
Kaiden watched him for a moment, seemingly deep in thought, before drawing his own sword.
Schwing.
The blue sheen visible only on blades forged from Adamant at its utmost limit captured the eye.
Edwin stared at Kaiden with startled eyes.
“Y-Your Majesty?”
Surely he wasn’t planning to swing that sword?
A faint anxiety made Edwin’s gaze tremble slightly.
But contrary to his worries, Kaiden simply planted the drawn blade into the ground and held up the empty scabbard in one hand.
“Ever since arriving in the empire, I haven’t been able to spar with my subordinates. My body has grown rather dull, I’m afraid.”
Kaiden smiled, the corners of his mouth stretching wide.
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, would Your Highness Edwin do me the honor of being my sparring partner?”
A sparring match all of a sudden?
Edwin’s pupils quivered.
‘Me, sparring with the Knight King?’
And not just any opponent—the Knight King, Kaiden Ram, who had emerged victorious from countless wars.
To receive a sparring proposal from him was nothing short of an honor.
‘But…’
At the same time, worry flooded in.
What Edwin had learned over the past month was only the most basic imperial swordsmanship taught to the Third Legion’s knights. It was the absolute foundation, without a single applied technique.
‘Can I even face this man with that?’
But there was no more time to hesitate.
Kaiden had already raised the scabbard and pointed it at the prince’s slender neck.
“If you’d rather not, you may refuse right now.”
Separate from the fear and terror, this was an opportunity.
Edwin recalled something Rachel had once told him.
‘To become strong, there are stages you must go through. One of them is facing the fear inside you head-on.’
No matter how frightening or terrifying something was, you had to be able to look at it directly before you could either confront it or avoid it. That was her belief.
‘People fear the unknown most of all. Which means that if you can grasp the true nature of your fear, there is no fear in this world you cannot overcome.’
The true nature of fear.
Suddenly, Edwin thought of the girl he admired most.
The girl who had boldly declared that since she was afraid of snakes, she would keep one close and observe it.
‘Even Brigitte faced the fear inside her.’
Edwin looked straight up at Kaiden, who stood like an insurmountable wall.
It was true—this opponent made him far more nervous than the monster he had faced in Luxen Village.
Perhaps it was because of that massive frame that seemed capable of overwhelming him completely, and the brilliant golden eyes that glowed fiercely from the center of a face cast in shadow by the sunlight behind him.
‘In that case.’
Edwin’s eyes narrowed slightly.
‘If I spar with this man, maybe I’ll understand a little more?’
Besides, Sage had given him the assignment to find out how to attack the castle of the Adamant Kingdom. Perhaps a sparring match would give him some clues.
“Do you still need more time to think?”
“…No.”
Edwin finally adjusted his grip on the wooden sword he was holding.
A fierce determination burned in his blue eyes.
“Then I’ll be in your care.”
“Not at all.”
The moment Kaiden answered, he lowered his center of gravity slightly.
He smiled with his eyes, as if inviting the boy to come at him anytime.
“Whenever you’re ready, feel free to begin.”
Thud.
Edwin gritted his teeth as he felt the prickling texture of grass brushing against his cheek.
He had already lost count of how many times he had been slammed into the ground.
The pure white shirt he wore had long since been stained a dirty green from being ground into the grass.
‘Why…’
He struggled to push himself up and turned to look at the opponent standing behind him.
Kaiden was smiling without even breathing heavily.
A completely relaxed smile.
‘I couldn’t land a single hit.’
Edwin had sparred quite a bit himself.
Philip, who taught him, often emphasized that practical experience was more important than theory and would occasionally serve as his sparring partner.
‘When I sparred with Sir Philip, I could at least graze him once if I was lucky.’
Of course, Philip had been holding back, but even so, the knight had been unable to hide his surprise every time he received Edwin’s counterattacks.
‘This man really is different.’
Kaiden had no openings whatsoever.
And yet it didn’t seem like he was facing him with full sincerity either, which made the complete lack of gaps all the more mysterious.
“Oh dear, you’re not giving up already, are you?”
“N-no, of course not.”
“Then get up quickly.”
Kaiden let the scabbard in his hand hang loosely toward the ground as he continued.
“If you show your back like that on the battlefield, Your Highness’s head would already be rolling over there.”
Just imagining it was horrifying.
Edwin frowned and rose to his feet.
Both the arm holding the sword and the two legs supporting him on the ground trembled violently.
At the sight of him looking more fragile than a newborn fawn, Kaiden clicked his tongue.
‘He’s supposed to be a prince, yet there’s nothing but bones left on him. Are they starving the child or something?’
No, that couldn’t be it.
Kaiden shook his head as he thought of Rachel, the prince’s nanny.
With a nanny like her by his side, who would dare starve the prince?
‘His frail constitution must be inherited from Edith.’
The emperor looked small and weak but was actually a man of strong build.
So those limbs that looked like they might snap at any moment must have come from his mother, Edith.
‘He takes after her in the most unnecessary ways.’
He had hoped the resemblance would be limited to their faces.
Kaiden looked at Edwin, who had barely managed to stand, and spoke.
“If it’s too difficult, we can stop here…”
“No!”
The answer burst out without hesitation, causing Kaiden’s eyes to widen slightly.
Edwin was breathing raggedly, as if he might collapse again at any moment.
Yet the fighting spirit in the boy’s eyes remained unbroken.
“Hmm.”
It seemed that, unlike his mother, the child possessed both venom and tenacity.
Kaiden crooked one corner of his mouth upward.
“Your Highness.”
He lifted the scabbard toward Edwin, who was standing with great effort.
“If you can land even a single blow on me from now on, I will grant you any one request you make.”
“…Pardon?”
It was a sudden and completely unexpected offer.
When Edwin looked at him with wide eyes, Kaiden shrugged.
“Do you not like the terms?”
“N-no, that’s not it!”
At this point, he had nothing to lose.
Edwin gripped his sword even more tightly.
He couldn’t let this golden opportunity slip away so helplessly.
“Hup!”
Edwin immediately charged toward Kaiden.
It was the clean vertical slash he had attempted several times already.
But at the same time, it was an attack that had failed every single time before.
‘No improvement at all.’
Faced with an attack no different from the previous ones, disappointment flickered in Kaiden’s eyes.
With a bored expression, he deflected every one of Edwin’s strikes.
And it was exactly then.
“Haaap!”
In that brief moment when Kaiden felt a flicker of boredom—a gap, if one could call it that.
Edwin’s movement changed dramatically.
‘That’s right. What I learned wasn’t only imperial swordsmanship.’
The young prince pretended to charge straight forward, then suddenly dropped low before leaping upward.
“Haa!”
The tip of the sword that had been pointing straight ahead was now aimed downward.
A strike that cut from below to above, rather than from above to below.
Facing the young prince’s attack, Kaiden’s golden eyes trembled ever so slightly.