“You can still affiliate yourself with us. You can belong to the capital’s guild but still be free to act on your own. You’ll still be an apothecary even if you’re studying with the knights. Of course, we’ll only pay you your wage when you work. You’ll have to keep track of your hours.”
“Is it really okay to be so self-serving?”
“What’s the problem? You can think for yourself. It benefits us to let you do as you please too.”
Sara decided to gratefully take him up on his offer.
“If you’re going into the dungeon or leaving or changing your affiliation, just let us know.”
“Okay.”
“And you have to go with me if you’re doing plant surveys in the dungeon,” Noel insisted.
With that, Sara left the Apothecary’s Guild.
“Is it really okay for things to be so convenient for me?”
“Isn’t it? I mean, I dunno.”
Sara was only talking to herself, but Allen, who was waiting for her outside, ended up hearing her and responding.
“You don’t know, but you think it’s okay?”
“Convenient’s good, isn’t it?”
Amused for no particular reason, Sara laughed as they went back toward the townhouse, but Allen invited her to stop at a food stand on the way.
“I never thought things would work out like this when we came to the capital. I was just thinking you’d work at the Apothecary’s Guild, and Kuntz and I would go into the dungeon and we’d all talk to Ann at night in the townhouse.”
“Yeah. I was actually planning on going into the dungeon too, since I thought I’d do a survey of all the plants down there.”
“The two of us didn’t even have the same idea about things.”
“Well, everything was so sudden.”
They chatted all the way home, and when they arrived, Ann scolded them, saying she’d wanted to grab a bite to eat too. Did that make them failures as guardians?
For the next few months, Sara diligently commuted to the knight barracks every morning. As far back as her time in Rosa—up until going to Gardenia, really—Sara had always seen the knights as an unpleasant, untrustworthy organization. It was the knights’ violent kidnapping of Nelly with a paralytic that had led to her and Sara being separated, which had been a painful time for Sara back then, after all.
But Sara was an adult now, and the knights also seemed to be slowly changing. The biggest catalyst for their change was probably Chris’s dragon repellent, since now they could deal with the migrating dragons mostly on their own. Until then, they’d had to rely on strong individuals like Nelly, Bradley, or Haruto, and they felt no qualms about using such people in whatever way was convenient to them.
But Sara was taking classes with kids younger than her, the generation that had experienced the danger of the continental tortoise almost colliding with the capital. To them, Allen was a hero of the people, and they knew all about Sara and Haruto’s contribution to the crisis as well. After all, the walls and watchtowers they’d constructed still stood tall to the south of the capital.
“That slide is so much fun!”
The trainee knights told them that similar slides had been created in a few other places. Sara and Haruto had to glance away in shame at that. Slides being their greatest contribution to society felt a bit pathetic.
Before noble prejudice set in, or the idea that it was only natural that the Invited serve the country, the children interacted with Sara and the other Invited with simple curiosity and admiration. The same went for Allen and Kuntz, who weren’t Invited themselves but were close to them. For that reason, they were quick to adopt unusual magic like Sara’s barrier and Kuntz’s shield.
That meant the older knights couldn’t just stay in their usual rut. Since the new recruits had no qualms about new magic, they were mastering Kuntz’s shield magic quickly and outdoing the older knights more and more. That motivated the older knights to train more, so the standard of strength for the whole order was gradually improving.
“Come on, let’s go to lunch.”
After their morning lectures came lunch in the dining hall.
The trainee knights were of various ages, from those who were twelve like Ann to those who were fifteen or so. They were all younger than Sara, but they were all taller than her. Even the shortest boy was around Ann’s height. These kids casually invited Ann and Sara to lunch on this first day and they all headed excitedly to the dining hall. As the older sister of the group, Sara was a bit despondent to realize how well she fit in with them.
The knights’ dining hall had two meal options. Sara asked for smaller portions while Ann got a regular-sized meal and they sat with the trainee knights in the corner of the hall.
“Huh? Weren’t there more people here a second ago?”
One of the young knights with them answered Sara’s question. “Some people have lunch at home. Even if the food here is so good.”
Sara had chosen the chicken, with a side of potatoes, brown bread, and a thin soup.
“I’m happy just getting to eat this much meat, but there are people who say it’s awful and they can’t even eat it.”
Unfortunately, there weren’t many commoners who became knights, so most of the trainees were young nobles. Among them were those who were grateful for what they were served and those who couldn’t stand to eat it. Sara thought back nostalgically on school lunches back in her old world.
“We have lessons in manners in our etiquette classes, so you get to eat a full-course meal on those days.”
Sara learned a lot on her first day. She was a bit surprised when Allen and Kuntz burst in and ordered lunch like it was completely natural, but thanks to that, she was dragged along to afternoon training as well.
“Err, I thought I’d be leaving after the morning stuff. I mean, I’m not supposed to teach, right?”
“Come to think of it, you’re not,” Haruto said, remembering the request Liam had made of them. “It’d help to have you there when we explain your barrier, though. It worked out that way at the Hunter’s Guild, right?”
“I guess so...”
She hadn’t been asked to participate in the afternoon training, but she was comfortable enough with the knights now that she didn’t mind sitting in.
“Now, we’ve asked some temporary instructors to join us today.”
A considerable number of knights were lined up on the field, which Sara remembered visiting the year before.
“First there’s the Invited, Haruto Gallagher. I’m sure many of you remember his work during the migrating dragon hunts, though it was several years ago now. He’ll be serving as an instructor for a short time.”
Haruto stepped forward when Liam introduced him, and it felt like a warm, nostalgic breeze swept over the gathered knights.
“Then we have the Hunters Allen and Kuntz. Many of you should know them as well, since you trained with them last year.”
When Allen and Kuntz stepped forward, the younger knights seemed to get more excited.
“And finally, one of the Invited and an apothecary, Ichinok Rasarasa. She is under the guardianship of Count Wolverié.”
“That again?” Sara couldn’t help muttering. Maybe because it had taken a while for her guardian to be officially decided, people tended to use this strange pronunciation of her Japanese name instead when they spoke of her in official contexts. Everyone ignored Sara’s comment, of course.
“Let me introduce another Invited, Ann Greif, as well. Starting today, she’ll be a trainee knight.”
Ann was holding her head as high as she could. Sara did the same, since Liam had told her this was not the sort of situation where one bowed their head.
“Our lesson today will be on shield magic, which Kuntz demonstrated last year. Some of you are already able to use it, but your precision still needs some work. For that reason, we’ll cover the spell from the basics again, starting with how it was conceived of.”
Some of the knights did not look very happy, honestly, particularly those who specialized in physical strengthening.
“Very well, Kuntz. Please begin.”
“Me?!”
“Just do what you did in the guild.”
Sara looked over at Liam in shock. She’d thought he’d only been watching on the last day, but he somehow knew how they’d started their lessons as well.
“I was watching every day. Is that a problem?”
“No. Not a problem.”
It just amused her that he really had been coming every day, just as Haruto had surmised.
Sara had thought the older knights would be opposed to learning magic from someone so young, and a commoner at that. Having Haruto helped with that. Actually, Sara’s barrier might have helped more than anything. Her barrier was used only to protect her and other people; it wasn’t something she used against other people. Some of the knights knew her from when she’d protected herself from their paralytics or defended Camellia from the bog frogs or helped with the green grass locusts. But almost no one here, including Liam, had seen it up close, nor did they know how it worked.