“I hear you skipped training again today.”

During the pleasant, joyful dinner time.

Adelaide, who was staring seriously at the mountain of mashed potatoes piled in one corner of her plate as if it were her life’s nemesis—because eating only excessively luxurious food wasn’t good—flinched at her father’s words.

“N-no, Father. I didn’t skip it.”

“Avoiding eye contact when making excuses is as good as admitting you’re not being honest. You must have something on your conscience to act like that.”

“Um, umm.”

Adelaide had nothing to say.

While she had filled the set training time, the truth was that she had indeed cut corners here and there.

It was possible because the knight in charge had been accommodating, but in fact, the knight also had something to say.

Although it was common for training in prestigious families to start from a young age, she was only thirteen.

How could they be harsh on a girl who looked even younger than her actual age due to the Lion Duke’s bloodline’s characteristic slow aging?

Adelaide rolled her eyes around.

Her mother gave a bitter smile as if to say she couldn’t help with this, and her older brother, seemingly anticipating that it would be difficult to refuse the plea of his cute younger sister with a significant age gap, had already averted his eyes and was looking at distant mountains.

Finally, Adelaide bowed her head deeply.

“I’m sorry.”

She expected to hear scolding words, but what her father said was unexpected.

“Perhaps, do you dislike holding a sword?”

Adelaide glanced around slyly, wondering how to answer, but realizing that her father’s mood didn’t seem particularly angry, she answered honestly, “It’s not that I dislike it, but doing only that continuously is a bit… difficult…”

Objectively speaking, the amount of training the Lord of Friedel had assigned to his daughter wasn’t particularly harsh.

But for a young girl full of curiosity about various things, consistently repeating one set task was quite difficult in itself.

The Lord of Friedel was silent for a moment, as if lost in thought.

Towards him, Adelaide’s older brother and mother spoke up.

“Father. Adel is still young, so isn’t it unnecessary to be so urgent already?”

“That’s right, dear. It’s not like she absolutely has to walk the path of a knight.”

“…I see.”

The Lord of Friedel nodded solemnly, then said to Adelaide, “Alright. From now on, I won’t force you to participate in training. Do it if you want to, and if not, you don’t have to.”

Adelaide blinked in surprise.

“R-really?”

“Even if you inherit the Lennart name, you don’t necessarily have to follow the main family’s ways. If you were an only child, we might have no choice due to the heir issue, but now it seems there’s an enthusiastic older brother willing to take on your share as well.”

“Ugh, somehow I feel like I’ve dug my own grave…” Adelaide’s older brother said while sticking out his tongue, but soon showed a playful smile.

Her mother also smiled with her eyes, saying it was good to have a reliable older brother, and even the usually strict and solemn Lord of Friedel had a faint smile on his lips.

Amidst the warm atmosphere with everyone smiling, Adelaide’s face bloomed like a flower.

‘What should I do with my free time now?’

She fell into happy contemplation.

She wanted to learn cooking or embroidery from her mother, and it seemed fun to bake cookies for her older brother who had taken her side or the knights of the domain.

What to do to please her father was quite a challenge, but she thought she could ponder it slowly since there was plenty of time, anyway.

That was right.

There was plenty of time.

There should have been plenty.

Huh?

Adelaide realized something strange.

Somehow, she felt like her field of vision was higher than usual.

When she unconsciously raised both hands to look at them, there were familiar but larger backs of hands and fingers.

Eh?

In a mirror that had appeared somehow, she saw her reflection.

Instead of the familiar puffy and pure dress, she saw herself wearing armor like an adventurer.

Something was wrong.

Adelaide reflexively called out to her mother who was sitting next to her.

“M-Mother! Mother?”

Her mother didn’t answer.

The lady of Friedel, who had been sitting at the dining table with a gentle smile, was now lying in bed with a haggard face, fallen into a long sleep.

Adelaide turned her head to look where her older brother was, and the next moment, she stepped back in shock.

“Eek…!”

Her older brother was still sitting at the dining table, but his neck was twisted at an impossible, grotesque angle.

Blood and brain matter mixed and flowed from his slightly crushed head, and a horse was licking that blood with its tongue.

Filled with one last hope—and simultaneously anticipating despair.

Adelaide looked in the direction where her father was.

The sword he always carried, as if never to lose his mindset as a knight, was nowhere to be seen.

He had no body.

His severed head was impaled on a long pole, exposed, and below it was a sign with the following inscription.

[August von Lennart. Executed here for the crime of harming innocent civilians as the leader of a bandit group.]

***

“—No!!”

Thud!

Adelaide, who had risen from the bed with a scream, breathed heavily.

Her whole body was drenched in sweat, and that horrific scene she had seen at the end flickered under her eyelids.

Adelaide, blinking with a bewildered face, soon realized it was a dream and clutched her chest in relief.

So, this is, ouch.

In the middle of trying to organize her thoughts in a daze, Adelaide slightly frowned at the pain she felt on her forehead.

When she gently brought her hand to the painful area, she caught a towel that had been placed on her head.

It was a clean towel with a slight dampness remaining.

As if someone had dropped it while nursing her, wiping her sweat.

The pain felt on her forehead.

The towel with traces of use.

The sensation of having hit something when she got up, which she had carelessly overlooked just now.

Adelaide felt cold sweat running down her back, for a different reason this time, from the conclusion she instinctively reached.

Creak, creak.

Turning to the side with movements like a wooden puppet, Adelaide soon witnessed…

The figure of the black witch, collapsed unconscious beside the bed as if hit by some blunt object.

Her drowsiness completely vanished.

“M-Miss Witch? Miss Witch!?”

Adelaide, who had unintentionally committed an act of ingratitude, called out to Dorothea in panic.

Bam.

Perhaps realizing that a commotion had broken out in the room, the door opened and the Tin Knight entered.

His blue will-o’-wisp-like eyes moved between Adelaide’s bewildered face and Dorothea collapsed on the floor.

And he said.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that while a dark corruption event is a good means for quick enhancement, he doesn’t recommend it because the peak is low!]

“That’s not it!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if it was personal grudge then, and marvels at his pupil’s bold hand movements!]

“That’s not it either!”

The Tin Knight paused.

A light of deep understanding flashed in his eyes.

And, he nodded his head gravely.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ evaluates that achievements are important for heroes, and witch subjugation would be an excellent merit for the Lennart mask!]

Thud!

The towel thrown by Adelaide hit the Tin Knight’s head.

The grace of a teacher who could make her completely forget even traces of hasty nightmares was truly incomparable.

***

Adelaide trembled in fear, but fortunately, the event of an enraged Dorothea cursing Adelaide and turning her into a Golden Retriever did not occur.

“It’s fortunate that you at least took off the belt… I still feel like my head is ringing.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. More importantly, are you in a state of mind to listen to the situation explanation?”

At Dorothea’s question, Adelaide nodded.

After the battle with Hilda, the ruffian girl of the Lion Duke’s bloodline, Adelaide immediately fell into a state of exhaustion.

While the opponent’s formidability was partly to blame, the effect of the violet lightning she unleashed at the end was more significant.

While Sophia was protecting Adelaide, the White Knight, who flew in instead of the Tin Knight who was taking time to reassemble after being immediately disassembled, retrieved the two, and the current situation was the result of resting after that.

“That child… that Hilda?”

At Adelaide’s question, Dorothea’s face scrunched up.

“We tried tracking her belatedly, but we lost her. They’re the kind of people who attract attention just by walking down the street, so they’ve probably already left this city.”

“What could have been her purpose?”

“Well, we’ll need to visit the Lennart dojo once more to confirm that, at least.”

She said the reaction of the dojo people seeing Adelaide, who had lost the effect of the medicine and returned to her original golden hair and violet eyes, was quite worth seeing.

“What will you do? Do you want to go meet them right now? Or do you want to rest a bit more?”

At the naturally presented option of rest, Adelaide inwardly gave a bitter smile.

Dorothea must be quite anxious due to her teacher’s curse, but she didn’t show it at all.

Although she was still confused, perhaps due to having caused a commotion with the Tin Knight, her gloomy emotions had somewhat evaporated.

“Let’s go meet them right now. I have a lot I want to ask.”

***

Unlike the previous meeting where only Sophia, Adelaide, and Norman were present, this time the reception room was quite crowded as the entire Tin Knight’s party came together.

The dojo side showed slight reluctance, but Norman, the representative instructor, said it was fine and greeted them alone.

“First, I should give you this.”

Swish.

Norman held out a small fan-shaped metal fragment.

A token proving that she had passed the test of the Lennart dojo, Trudvangar branch.

The usual Adelaide would have been quite happy to receive the token, but not now.

After calmly receiving the token, Adelaide quietly composed herself.

Although her companions had come together, that was merely a supporting role. At least in this matter, she needed to take the lead.

“Mr. Norman. First, there’s something I want to confirm.”

“Please speak.”

“How much of this did you plan, Mr. Norman?”

The head of the Tower of Annihilation had said.

Without a clear apology for the invasion commotion, any exchange was impossible.

And conversely, this meant that the tower side had already made an “apology request” to Lennart, or the Empire side.

“It’s hard to believe that the representative instructor of the Lennart dojo, especially one in charge of this place that serves as a channel with the Empire, would assign a negotiation role with no chance of success without knowing anything. How much did you know, and how much did you think when you sent me there?”

“…I understand that this situation might seem quite malicious. So let me explain one by one in order. First, regarding the ‘local battle’ claimed by the tower side. The development I confirmed by inquiring with the main family is completely different.”

Calmly, as if he had been waiting, Norman continued his explanation, “It started with a plundering incident in the northeastern part of the Empire. Several villages and cities near the border area were said to have been burned. However, feeling suspicious about a mere bandit group directly breaking through an area guarded by regular troops, the military began an investigation and soon confirmed that the bandit group, while disguised as being from the lawless area in the eastern continent, actually had their base in the Magic State.

“The Empire side sent an envoy of protest to the Tower of Control side where the bandits’ base was located, but the Tower of Control ignored this, calling it a groundless accusation. They were inevitably proceeding with the subjugation of the bandit group within the range of not violating the border… but suddenly, a large-scale military force dispatched from the Magic State annihilated the subjugation force.

“The military, or more precisely, the main family closely associated with the military, raised a war faction calling for fighting against them, denouncing the Magic State’s outrageous act. It actually escalated to the brink of an attack force setting out. Fortunately, war did not break out,” Norman said, “—The Guardian Duke, Duke Lennart, ordered this incident to be handled quietly.”

***

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