Chapter 15 (1/2)

University has begun again. I did these chapters during transit.

– Estelion

After Heath made off for the apprentice knight dormitories, Crow and York conversed by themselves.

The other members each had jobs, training, or resting to get back to.

“That silly kid left with a grin on his face, yanno. Looks like your words made him pretty happy.”

“I only spoke the truth.”

From his tone, Crow seemed quite close to York as well.

Crow was never a round-about man to begin with, but just now with York he sounded like he was speaking to an old friend.

York had shown no sign of embarra.s.sment, and stated that he simply spoke the truth, but Crow turned a cheeky smirk at him.

“But if he knew who you actually were, I bet he’d be shocked huh, Your Majesty Roy.”

His casual tone spoke of their closeness, and they were in fact childhood friends.

“I’m sure I told you to call me York while I have this mask on. I have no intentions of telling Heath until he graduates as a full knight. It is technically a state secret, and telling him would simply pressure him.”

The 18th was a division that answered directly to the King.

But of course, having the King himself act as captain was clearly a problem. Thus, under mask and alias, he operated as captain of an unofficial division.

It was a secret that only captains or above knew, but Roy had strong charisma, winning the ardent respect of knights even as ‘York’.

That it was cla.s.sified information was one of the reasons he didn’t tell Heath, but it was also because he was worried about Heath becoming too motivated, or conversely too afraid.

Heath entered the division because he was needed, but he was currently still in training. Letting Heath concentrate on his training was Roy’s way of being considerate.

“Changing the subject, was that Princess Fii white or black?” asked Crow, a little more seriously than usual.

“Who knows,” answered Roy. “I’ve left that woman to Kain. Both her investigation and her treatment. I told him only to contact me if she’s black.”

“Oi, oi. Is that alright?”

“I am busy. I have work as a King, and there are plenty of other things I need to investigate regarding Princess Fiiru’s case. Even thinking about a shameless woman like that is a waste of time. If she’s black, then we show no mercy. If she’s white, I still don’t care. Taking advantage of her younger sister’s marriage, and then intruding on my nation… It’s obvious that nothing good will come of us meeting.”

Sadly, that was how most of the country saw her.

An insolent woman who took advantage of her sister’s marriage of love. A despicable woman who plotted to steal the King’s favour from her sister.

Of course, n.o.body knew how angry Fii felt about this. Nor did they know how cornered she had felt, or even the fact she had almost given up on everything.