Adults and Children (1)
“So you’re telling me Duke Crown is the son born from the previous duke’s first wife’s affair with a commoner?”
It was a sentence that refused to settle in my mind.
I mulled it over for a long moment before speaking again.
“…Then Jerome shares not a single drop of blood with the previous duke?”
“Not exactly. The previous duke and his first wife were cousins.”
What kind of twisted family tree was that?
When I frowned, Sage let out a hearty laugh as if he had expected exactly that reaction.
“The more distinguished the house, the fiercer their obsession with pure blood.”
Sage shrugged and added, “That’s why there was quite the uproar when the previous duke took him in as an adopted son.”
“Was there any particular reason to adopt Jerome? Surely there were other boys in the family.”
“There weren’t, I suspect. The Crown family has always been strangely short on heirs.”
Even so, naming a bastard born of adultery as successor… It was hardly the behavior of a noble.
And the previous duke already had a daughter of his own blood, didn’t he?
The current empress, Melanie Crown.
There was no law in the empire forbidding a woman from becoming the family heir.
Plenty of nobles passed their titles to their daughters.
Besides, it was common for imperial family members to simultaneously head noble houses.
“I don’t understand.”
“It may have been that the family lacked any outstanding knights at the time. After all, House Crown is a knightly family.”
Sage continued with a nonchalant expression. “Jerome was a well-known mercenary across the empire back then.”
So that was his past.
No wonder his fighting style had seemed unusually brutal for a knight.
Was that why he showed a child no mercy?
But I wasn’t interested in his unfortunate origins.
“Never mind that. Don’t you know any weaknesses? The more fatal, the better.”
My relentless questioning finally made Sage snap.
“Look, no matter how wise I am, how am I supposed to know something the head of an assassination guild doesn’t?”
He had a point.
I clicked my tongue.
Then Sage suddenly let out a startled sound, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Ah, I remember one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Twelve years ago, I was invited to a banquet at the ducal residence.”
Sage nodded, then narrowed his eyes and added, “If my memory serves, that banquet was held to celebrate the birth of Jerome’s daughter.”
The flourishing of one’s bloodline was the duty of those born to high station.
It was common enough for noble houses to throw banquets when a child was born.
Of course, few families held a month-long festival to celebrate the birth of a daughter rather than a son.
“What’s with that face?”
“…What do you mean?”
“It’s dripping with disillusionment. Did I say something wrong?”
“Ah, it’s not because of you.”
It was simply revolting that a man capable of cherishing and doting on his own daughter could so casually slice off the arm of a child whose only title was “assassin.”
Quite revolting. Deeply so.
Jerome’s daughter.
I stared up at the ceiling.
A daughter who resembled that monster. It was difficult to imagine.
That child is pitiful too. Of all people, why did she have to be born Jerome’s daughter?
If she took after him, she would never be called a beauty.
I found myself praying that the girl’s mother was beautiful, for the child’s sake.
“But why are you suddenly asking about the duke’s weaknesses?”
“…Because landing one blow isn’t enough to satisfy me.”
At my answer, Sage’s eyes suddenly sparkled and he thrust his face close to mine.
“What? You already had it out with him? How? Who won?”
I pushed his face away and rose from my seat.
“I’ll be going now.”
“Are you off to land another blow? Maybe by approaching his daughter?”
Sage watched me with eager, shining eyes.
“No.”
But this time, I couldn’t live up to his expectations.
“No matter what, I can’t use a child.”
I picked up the robe hanging beside the door.
“I am, after all, an adult.”
“Hmph.”
Sage looked thoroughly disappointed.
He rested his chin on the table and gave a small, dry laugh.
“An assassin with strange scruples. You really are still an odd one.”
“It’s because I’m an assassin that I must have scruples.”
If you killed and used people indiscriminately, you weren’t an assassin.
You were nothing more than a murderer with no code whatsoever.
“Assassins have professional ethics, you know.”
“…Are you joking?”
I ignored Sage’s serious stare and stepped out of the cabin.
For some reason the sunlight felt especially blinding today.
I wonder if his training is going well.
The moment I saw the young leaves glowing golden in the sun, the image of a certain child rose in my mind.
Edwin, rolling across the ground with fierce determination. Thinking of the boy made a chuckle slip out.
To think I could smile simply by remembering someone other than Ian.
It really was a strange thing.
Beneath the shade of a tree near the training grounds, Edwin stood beside Jerome.
Every knight who passed cast sidelong glances at the pair.
It was only natural. The combination was far too mismatched.
The most insignificant prince of the imperial family standing with the empire’s most renowned duke.
W-what should I do?
Yet Edwin had no attention to spare for their stares.
His hero was standing right next to him.
He couldn’t even bring himself to meet the duke’s eyes and simply stared straight ahead.
“Yesterday was the first day of training, correct?”
“Yes.”
In terms of rank, the duke stood equal to the prince.
Edwin answered Jerome’s question with the crisp discipline of a soldier at attention.
Only then did he manage to truly look at Jerome for the first time.
Like the prince, Jerome gazed straight forward, yet the impression was entirely different.
He possessed something Edwin lacked.
Presence.
Simply standing there, it radiated from him, and for the young prince it was almost too heavy to bear.
Edwin’s spirit quickly flagged and his head drooped toward the ground.
“I heard you endured the first day remarkably well. Had you received training before?”
“No, never…”
“I see. Then that is impressive indeed. You have talent.”
At the duke’s words, Edwin’s head snapped up.
“R-really?”
“For those boys, it’s their daily routine, so enduring it is only natural. But it was your first time, Your Highness.”
It felt different from Rachel’s praise.
Complimented by the very idol he had respected above all others.
Edwin bit his lip, not wanting to appear overly excited.
He didn’t wish to leave a frivolous impression.
“Which brings me to this.”
Jerome turned to face the prince.
“I would like to offer Your Highness a small lesson, if you will permit it.”
“…A lesson?”
Edwin was stunned.
The empire’s greatest knight offering to teach him.
He ought to have been bursting with joy.
Yet Edwin could not rejoice so simply.
Because it made no sense.
“Um… why me…?”
“Because I see talent in Your Highness.”
Jerome wore the most trustworthy smile in the world.
“I am not the sort of man who can stand by and watch talent go to waste.”
Talent.
Edwin’s heart began to race.
“Do I truly have talent?”
To the prince’s question, Jerome replied with one of his own.
“What do you believe is required to become a knight, Your Highness?”
“…Pride and honor, perhaps?”
Edwin recalled the virtues of chivalry he had read in books.
Jerome let out a soft laugh, as though he found the answer endearing.
“Not wrong, but those are things one can only uphold after becoming a knight.”
Jerome clenched one hand into a fist.
“What is needed to become a knight is ‘perseverance.’”
He turned his gaze back toward the training ground, where knights ran with pained expressions.
“Innate talent matters, of course. But it is effort that makes talent bloom, and perseverance that sustains effort.”
He looked at Edwin once more.
“And Your Highness possesses outstanding perseverance.”
“Ah…”
Edwin let out a small sound of wonder.
“Furthermore, if Your Highness has that perseverance, I have the ability to shape you into the empire’s greatest knight.”
Jerome placed a hand on Edwin’s shoulder.
“After all, Your Highness does not intend to remain shut away in the palace forever, correct?”
At that moment, the prince’s small shoulders trembled faintly.
“I understand that after your coming-of-age ceremony, you are to depart for the Holy Kingdom. Is that right?”
“…I believe so.”
“If Your Highness does not wish it, I could petition His Majesty myself.”
Jerome smiled gently.
“No matter how powerful an emperor he may be, he could hardly send my disciple off to the Holy Kingdom against my will. Haha.”
Edwin stared at the hand resting on his shoulder.
A large, rough hand—the very one he had once hoped would reach out to him.
I will help Your Highness so that you may ‘choose’ anything you wish.
Yet unlike the small, warm touch he had imagined, this one felt terribly uncomfortable in this moment.
“What do you say, Your Highness?”
Jerome pressed for an answer.
His face remained perfectly at ease, as though he already knew what the prince would say.
“Well…”
But Jerome’s prediction shattered on the spot.
“I am truly grateful for the offer, but I believe I need more time to consider becoming Your Grace’s disciple.”
The instant Edwin cautiously moved away from that hand, Jerome’s expression twisted, ever so slightly.