“You’re as lovely as ever, Edel,” I said. “I was thinking of getting you flowers, but I figured you’d appreciate a treat for the kids even more. Will you accept these sweets?”
“My,” Edel exclaimed, her eyes opening wide for a moment as she accepted my gift. “Thank you, Sir Albert. I’ll give these to the children later.”
“Your gratitude makes it all worthwhile. Would you allow me the honor of sitting next to you tonight—”
“Albert? You’re sitting next to me. You’re not gonna say no, are you?” Cuphea asked with a grin on her face. I knew that face all too well. It meant she was really enjoying herself.
“Of course not. You can sit on my left, and Edel can sit on my right.”
“Linaria’s sitting to your right.”
“Yay! I’m next to Al!” Linaria cheered. Cuphea pulled me over with more strength than you’d expect just from looking at her. Linum called out to the princess, and Astrantia sat down next to her. Edel watched it all unfold while wearing a gentle smile.
Edel was one of my precious few adult female acquaintances in this city, so I wanted to get close to her if at all possible. Myra was basically a niece to me, and all the other women I knew were either outside my strike zone or not close enough with me.
Once everyone was seated, we offered up a prayer of thanks for the food and began to eat. Given it was an orphanage full of children, things got quite rambunctious. The food being more luxurious than normal probably didn’t help either. There was stew that was chock-full of ingredients, an entire roast chicken, and even softer bread than usual.
“Ugh... A man’s happiness is getting intimate with a bunch of women,” I groaned as I ate.
“Everyone has their own idea of happiness, so I won’t deny you yours, but I think there are plenty of other things to be happy about in the world,” said Cuphea, a bitter look on her face.
“Are there? Like what?”
“Well... Your family’s smiles? Stuff like that.” Cuphea blushed slightly at what she’d just said.
“You’re a good girl.” I’d figured something like that would be the first thing to come to her mind.
“Food makes me happy. Being hungry makes me sad,” said Linaria, overhearing our conversation.
“Yeah, I get that. Being hungry’s the worst. Just moving can become a pain and dark thoughts creep into your head.” I had lived in the slums for a while until my adoptive father, Dan, took me in. Despite it being over three hundred years ago, I could still vividly remember the futility of enduring hunger in the back alleys and the misery of shivering in the cold. That was how intense the memories were. Certainly some people would have called it happiness to leave that life behind.
Linaria’s spoon suddenly stopped. “Al, say ‘ah.’” She picked up a spoonful of stew and held it out to me.
“Sure, whatever.” I knew what she was trying to do, but I played along anyway. Sure enough, I bit down on a vegetable. It was probably one she didn’t like.
“Is it good?”
“You should be grateful for anything you have to eat.”
“But it’s bitter...”
I sighed. “Here, this one’s for you.” I scooped up some meat from my own stew and shoved it into Linaria’s mouth.
“Mmm!” Her face lit up with happiness. Even when it came to little girls, it was better to see them with smiles on their faces.
“You don’t have to eat them all, but don’t ignore the bitter stuff.”
“Okay.” It was nice how obedient she was. At the other table, there were children fighting over the amount of stuff in their stew and stealing meat from each other. Edel and her mother, the old lady, were stuck chiding them.
“H-Hey, Albert.” I turned to Cuphea and saw her stab her chicken with a fork and pause as she held it out to me. Her face was bright red, her lips were quivering with embarrassment, and her hand was shaking. It seemed seeing Linaria feed me had given her the idea to try it herself, but her shame had won over at the last second.
I leaned over to take it from her, and she trembled in response. “It’s good.”
“I-I-Is it? I-I’m glad!” Her face was so red it looked like it was about to catch fire.
“Now it’s my turn.”
“F-Forget it, I can’t take it!”
“C’mon, Cuphea, say ‘ah.’”
“Ugh... Ah.” I cut up a piece of chicken the same way and fed her.
“How is it?”
“I can’t tell...” she answered in a shrill voice. I just chuckled. It kinda made up for not being able to sit next to Edel. After finishing our meal, we headed back to the dorms to beat the curfew.
“That was a wonderful, lively dinner,” the princess said next to me as we walked down the road.
“Funny way of saying chaotic.”
The princess giggled. “You seemed to enjoy yourself.”
I glanced to my side and saw her looking up at me. “Did you wanna try it too?”
“I’ll refrain from answering that.” After more similarly frivolous yet comforting small talk, we eventually arrived at the academy.
“Hm?” There was a carriage stopped in front of the gate. That wasn’t too out of the ordinary, but I also saw a familiar face. “Palu?” She was the holy woman of Gold, one of the academy’s top twelve pairs, the Colors.
“Oh, Albert.” She seemed to have come to see somebody off. There were people who appeared to be servants loading luggage onto the carriage as Palu spoke to the girl who was presumably the owner of said luggage.
“Did you say Albert? Then the one next to him must be Lady Astrantia.” The girl had long, wavy, sky-blue hair with a tinge of white, adorned with a lace hair band that left an impactful impression. She had a melancholic air about her, perhaps due to the lack of inflection in her voice and the way the streetlights illuminated her pale skin and doll-like expression.
“My name is Nemophila. I was one of the members of White before you two.” Astrantia and I had been chosen as one of the academy’s top twelve pairs the other day. However, that was only because White’s previous holy knight had died in battle shortly before, leaving a hole for us to fill. Nemophila must have been the surviving holy woman. All the luggage probably meant she was dropping out of the academy. Still, something felt slightly off.
“Albert, look at the crest on her uniform.” The princess’s words made me immediately realize what was off. Trainees and official saints had different crests on their uniforms to show their status. The three diagonal bars from the upper right to lower left were the goddess’s crest, also used on student uniforms. When a student graduated from the academy, a crest with two intersecting swords was added. For holy women, the crest was located on the hem of the skirt, opposite the goddess’s crest, while for holy knights, it was located on the right shoulder. She should have still been a student, yet she had an additional crest—and it was no ordinary crest either. “Saints are given a new crest when they graduate from the academy. However, those selected to be one of the Twelve Saints are granted a unique crest.”
“It does look different from normal.” The crest on her skirt resembled several snowflakes.
“I found a new holy knight, and quite the talented one at that. Though we were a tad slower than you, we also defeated one of the Twelve Corpses.” She gave an almost emotionless smile, then looked at Palu. “Thank you for seeing me off, Palustris. I hope we meet again on the battlefield somewhere.”
“Are you really going to be okay?” Palu asked.
“I’m in perfect health. There’s no need to worry.”
She already seemed kinda weird, and now I’m hearing that she beat one of the Twelve Corpses? With a holy knight she only just met? I wasn’t one to talk, but if the Twelve Corpses were that easy to beat, they wouldn’t have been a thorn in humanity’s side for the past three centuries.
Just as I was about to speak up, someone slashed at me out of nowhere and I drew my sword. I caught the swing with my own, our swords sparking as they collided. Our eyes met across our intersecting blades. “Just so we’re on the same page, you’re picking a fight with me, right?”
He was a male holy knight with long, deep-blue hair. His pretty face and ponytail both pissed me off. “Quiet. Why is one of you here?” The man’s voice was filled with hatred.
“I could ask you the same thing.” Life really was full of surprises. Becoming an undead and living for three hundred years was already nonsensical, and then I had been picked up by a teenage girl, started attending an academy, and fought one of the Twelve Corpses on our very first training mission. Now this.
Curions could recognize other curions. That was why the moment we locked eyes, we knew the other was a curion. If it was true that they had killed one of the Twelve Corpses, then he was probably one of them too. I wanted to turn to the princess and ask her, but I didn’t have the leeway at the moment. No, maybe asking Nemophila would be the best bet. How was there another member of the Twelve Corpses who had regained his flesh and left his city’s barrier?