Alec let out a sigh and glanced at Shiori.
“You need me to jump in?” he whispered.
“No, let me handle things a little longer first,” she replied.
At the very least, she wanted to make her own feelings clear before anybody moved to help her. Alec offered a wry grin and nodded.
“While I find all of your attention flattering,” said Shiori, “I have decided to make everything I know public. It is my way of repaying the many people who have supported me. If I were to join the knight corps, this would become impossible. And it is my desire to see my skills shared in the way that I see fit.”
She explained that any skills she developed within the military would, given the nature of the organization, stay in the military. Depending on the circumstances, a life in the military might also mean having to live apart from Alec.
“While it is true that your research would be handled confidentially, it could conceivably be published publicly in a limited capacity depending on the circumstances. And if separation from your partner is a concern, we have no qualms welcoming him aboard also. Sir Alec Dia, we have heard about your many achievements. It would be an honor to have you among our ranks.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” replied Alec bluntly. “I don’t have anything against the way the knights do things, but it’s not for me. I want the freedom to live my own life.”
“However... No, it can’t be helped. Miss Shiori, will you at least consider our proposal?”
Svenden was not about to just give up. He told her that the knights had no trouble assembling people it could use for its fighting force, but it struggled in gathering people who wanted to play a support role. It desperately longed for a dedicated and specialized support expert like Shiori.
“My answer remains no,” said Shiori. “I am happy to offer counsel as necessary, but I simply cannot accept an offer to join the knight corps. I... I will not have my freedom taken from me again. In the past, I was turned away, abandoned, and essentially told that I was an annoyance by the knights; I will not allow that to happen a second time. The nature of the military means I cannot avoid sacrificing some of my freedoms. So...”
In the past, the knights had turned their back on Shiori. It had happened during the Akatsuki incident. The problems were clear as day to anyone who looked, but the knights had claimed that there was not enough evidence upon which to build a case. Rumors had gone around claiming that pressure had been put on the knight corps to say as much, and there was a good chance those rumors were true. The former guild master and string-puller in the Akatsuki incident was a noble, and many believed it was his family who had put pressure on the knight corps.
Whatever the case, the Adventurers’ Guild had moved quickly and thoroughly to see the case investigated, though the conclusions had never been made public. And while there had been external pressures at play, Shiori had no way of knowing that intent on the part of the knights had not been the real reason for her treatment. Still, and regardless of the particulars, Shiori had come out of the experience feeling as if the knight corps—an institution the people were supposed to be able to rely on—had turned their back on her. She had felt abandoned by them.
There were many problems in the world that could not be solved by the law alone, and while Shiori knew this, she still could not deny how she felt. She had grown friendly and close with individuals within the knight corps’ ranks, and she knew that the vast majority of them were good, decent people. But as long as it remained a state organization, there was always the chance that an emergency might result in her being once again abandoned.
It was not that Shiori hated the knights. But she remained suspicious of them, and she could not simply ignore or deny it; there was a whisper in the back of her mind that at some point she might once again find herself betrayed.
“I am sorry,” she said, “but I will not give up a place I think of as home to join the knight corps.”
Her voice trembled as she came to the end of her sentence, and Alec put an arm around her softly.
“I respect the knight corps,” he said, his voice quiet and deferential. “You are loyal to our home, and you fight for it. But you know as well as I do that its structure as an organization makes it harder for some to be a part of. All the more so when they’ve been betrayed or abandoned in the past. So I ask that you respect my partner’s decision.”
As a man with ties to the throne, he did not want the knights to think that he was negating their efforts. However, there was an anger in him at the way the men at the table refused to give up. This brought tension into the air, and with it a silence so heavy that one could have heard a pin drop.
One of the knights at the table, who didn’t know the deeper circumstances they were alluding to, turned to another, who whispered in his ear. His brow furrowed, and then he put a hand to his face. His body language grew suddenly awkward. It was Ronnegard, and he had just learned of Shiori’s past.
“For better or for worse, adventurers come with baggage,” said Zack, who until that moment had remained silent. “Many of us are pushed into the career by our pasts; pasts we hold close to the chest. Shiori is one of us in this way too, and I will not have you reopening old wounds. You called us here to slay a dragon. We didn’t gather so you could argue about one of us like she’s merchandise. We’re about to go into battle against a dragon we’ve never seen before, and you’re trying to steal one of our people? I won’t stand for it. If you’re going to insist on continuing this useless bickering, then our ‘cooperation’ ends here. We’ll handle this on our own.”