“I heard you wanted to see Ras.”
“Yes, Your Highness. I heard that Sir Talion requested my companionship, so I came right over to make myself available.”
Ras nearly choked. Not a second after getting over her initial shock, the priestess let slip an unbelievably outrageous remark. Fiarca immediately glared daggers in Ras’s direction.
“What does she mean by that, Ras?”
“I’m afraid I haven’t the faintest idea. Do you think you could tell me more, Miss…Lisa, was it?”
Despite all his dealings with the opposite sex, Ras was quite sure he’d never seen this woman before. The priestess tipped her head in confusion.
“Am I mistaken? I was told by my brother that Sir Talion engaged the 2nd Division on my behalf…”
“Your brother?” asked Ras. “Apologies, my lady, but might I ask whom you mean?”
“He’s a bronze-rank cavalryman, Sir Talion. Lieutenant Custer Farrell of the 2nd Cavalry Division.”
“You mean…you’re Custer’s sister?”
“That’s right. Lisa Farrell, at your service.”
Lisa smiled sweetly. Ras, on the other hand, was sweating bullets. It was all coming back now. He’d told the lieutenant to introduce him to his sister should he win the test match, but he didn’t mean it; it was only meant to stir him up a little. Ras hadn’t even known the man had a sister, let alone that she was a priestess. And he certainly hadn’t expected the woman to just show up on his doorstep, good as gold.
Kanalayka stood similarly shocked, having just realized the mix-up herself. Suddenly, a loud voice cut through the awkward silence.
“Lisa!”
Before the guards could stop them, three men dressed in Central Command uniforms forced their way into the chamber. At the front of the group, Lieutenant Custer Farrell staggered up to Ras and fell to his knees.
“Please forgive me, Sir Talion!”
He pressed his forehead into the carpet, so that for all his impressive physique, the man looked very small indeed. Ras, Kanalayka, and even the two men with Custer all looked at him, aghast.
“Er…what’s this about?” Ras asked one of Custer’s friends.
“A-apologies, Sir Talion. It…er…it sounds like Lady Farrell heard tell of her brother’s wager, and before he could stop her…”
“Come on, Custer. Stand up, please…”
Ras nodded to the two cavalrymen, who tried to lift Custer to his feet but to no avail. It didn’t seem like the man wanted to lift his head.
“I will do whatever it takes to repay my disrespect, Sir Talion. I was a fool for not recognizing your greatness sooner, I know that now! But please, I beg you! Not my sister! Anything but her!”
“Yeah, I know. I forgive you. Just stand up already.”
Ras couldn’t care less what the cavalryman thought of him, so long as it didn’t affect him. On the contrary, all this fuss was beginning to get on his nerves.
It was then that Lisa spoke, in the strict yet gentle tone of an older sister.
“Please stand up, Custer. You’re bothering all these nice people.”
“But, Lisa…!”
“Remember, Custer, a man of the Farrell house never goes back on his word. As your big sister, it is my duty to pick you up whenever you fall.”
“But if you should pay the price for my mistake…!”
“Then that, too, is my duty, and I shall carry it out with pride. Even should the rumors about Sir Talion prove true, I will bear and raise his children with love and piety.”
“Lisa…”
With teary eyes, Custer looked up at his sister, who returned only an angelic smile. Ras heard Princess Fiarca behind him trying hard not to laugh. It seemed her keen mind had already pieced the entire thing together.
Meanwhile, Ras’s face was still frozen in a bewildered grimace. Surely the priestess didn’t believe all those absurd rumors about women becoming pregnant just by touching him?
“Excuse me, my lady,” he said. “That’s very admirable of you, but I’m afraid there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Has there?”
“Yes. You don’t need to offer yourself to me. And you, Custer; I’m not going to take your sister, so don’t worry.”
“You’re…you’re not…?”
The fear in Custer’s eyes vanished, replaced in an instant with childlike joy.
“Thank you greatly, Sir Talion! Now I can receive your tutelage with peace in my heart!”
“My tutelage? What do you mean by that?”
The sudden mention of mentorship threw Ras for a loop.
“You told me I wasn’t fit to be an aura knight, do you recall?”
“Right. That,” said Ras, wincing a little. It wasn’t something he really wanted to talk about in front of other people, as he could end up touching on some rather sensitive personal information. “To be precise, what I was saying is you’re not suited to auramancy swordsmanship. Your aura is too dense.”
“Too…dense, you say?”
“Compared to an aura knight, your body stores aura at a higher concentration than usual,” Ras explained. “That makes it slower to react and harder to control. Have you ever felt like that?”
Custer fell silent; somehow, he looked like a wet rat. In the test match, it was Custer who was trusted with delivering the final blow. That was because his offensive power was the greatest when compared to his peers. Perhaps he was aware on some level his mobility was lacking, and knew he wouldn’t be able to match Ras’s speed.
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Ras said. “Storing aura more densely means your total capacity is higher, which gives you access to more powerful techniques. If you learn some Over Arts, that should give you a major advantage in a fight.”
“Me? Learn some Over Arts?”
Custer’s face lit up, and he scrambled forward, clutching at the hem of Ras’s trousers.
“Please, Sir Talion, teach me! I beg of you! You told me yesterday that you knew a good teacher, did you not?!”
“Oh? Did you really say that, Ras?” asked Fiarca, a teasing smile on her lips. Ras slapped his temple and groaned. He regretted saying it now.
“Yeah,” he answered. “There’s a girl called Amalie who works at Fon’s brothel. She’s a great auramancer, even better than Fon. She’s a bit of an…odd one, though.”
“A prostitute? I would much rather have you, Sir Talion.”
“I’d really appreciate it if you could phrase that a little differently, Lieutenant Farrell…”
Ras curled his lips at Custer’s easily misinterpretable remark.
“Please call me Custer, Master Talion.”
“I told you, I don’t want to be your master.”
Fiarca chuckled cheerfully. “Why not, Ras? You’re both soldiers of the empire now. Help a fellow out.”
Even if she was half joking, the princess’s words were difficult to dismiss. For a moment, Ras pondered how to proceed, and Custer’s two friends—Artos Calio and Rik Kilka—spoke up.
“E-excuse me, Sir Talion! If you’re going to train Farrell, then train me, too! I fell in love with your combat style while watching you fight Major General Hunlahan!”
“Me too, sir! Why, that object-detection technique you used could be a great boon for Central Command! We’d never have to fear inclement weather or poor visibility ever again!”
The two of them fell to their knees and groveled alongside Custer. One of Ras’s eyes began to twitch.
“Isn’t it nice to have people look up to you, Ras?” said Kanalayka, blissfully ignorant of Ras’s despair. She seemed genuinely pleased that Ras’s opponents in the test match had learned to respect him. Lisa looked similarly content.
The priestess and soldiers departed—the three men seemingly under the impression that Ras was going to train them—while the man himself collapsed against the wall, exhausted. He peered out the palace window in a vain attempt to cast his mind anywhere but here.
“Well, I don’t think we need to worry whether people respect your position anymore, do we?” remarked Fiarca. Then, all of a sudden, she stood up. “Elmira, look after things around here, will you? Ras, you’re coming with me.”
Ras raised a dubious eyebrow.
“Really? Where to?”
“To the mausoleum,” Fiarca replied. “You’re allowed in there now.”
For a second, her usual cheeky smile was nowhere to be seen. Then a mischievous glint appeared in her eye, and a lonely voice escaped her lips.
“It’s underneath the palace, where my ancestors are buried,” she explained. “Aur is resting there with them.”