Point of View: Canopus
What Qualities Are Required of a Personal Knight?
POPULARITY POLL: 12TH - CANOPUS BLAZEJ
“SERAFINA! My sweet little princess seems to be doing well today!”
The door had barely opened a crack before those words rang out. No matter how good one’s visual acuity might be, it would be impossible to confirm the princess’s condition in the brief moment that the door has been opened. However, I immediately scolded myself for thinking as much; this wasn’t a situation where accuracy was crucial.
Perhaps he wasn’t speaking of his observations but more of his wishes. I concurred there was no need to take his statement literally as I bowed my head to our visitor—the king.
✦ ✦ ✦
I, Canopus Blazej, was specially selected as the personal knight of the young second princess, Serafina. This was a wonderful event that changed my life, and I was incredibly honored to have been chosen. Therefore, I fully committed myself to serving the princess with complete dedication and worked tirelessly day and night in pursuit of that goal. However, I’d recently realized that prowess with a sword was not the only quality required of a personal knight.
Because Princess Serafina was royalty, practically everyone who came to see her was an individual of high rank. But as it turned out, they weren’t visiting her because she was a princess but rather because she was so cute and adorable.
And of course, the king himself was at the very top of that list.
“Serafina, we received gifts from a distant country! Look at all these rare and exotic items!” the king cooed as he entered the room, his arms full of cloth, wood products, and jewelry that he began to haphazardly arrange on the table.
Princess Serafina hurried over next to the king and gazed at each item in turn with intense curiosity. She grabbed a long, brown, string-like object from the pile of goods and asked the king, “Oh my! Father, what’s this? It’s long and brown and feels rough.”
The king chuckled gleefully in response, his face bursting with pride. “Ha ha ha! You’re a brave one, Serafina. That’s a snakeskin you’ve got! It’s said that keeping it in your wallet will lead to financial prosperity!”
…That was incorrect. The two of them were actually holding a thick cord woven from the bark of a special type of tree. If I had to wager a guess, it was probably used to tie the box together and had somehow gotten mixed in with the gifts. But before I could clear up the misunderstanding, Princess Serafina gazed at the king with an admiring look.
“You’re so wise, Father! Would it be okay for me to have a little piece? I’d like to put it in my wallet.”
“Serafina, you can have anything that your little heart desires! I doubt we’ll ever get our hands on such a massive snakeskin again, so I’ll give it to you as a special gift. You can keep the entire thing from head to tail! Ha ha ha! You’re very lucky to have a father like me who’s able to obtain such a fine specimen!!”
Given the king’s jovial demeanor, I decided it would be best to keep my mouth shut.
The king then went on to provide inaccurate descriptions of various items, yet Princess Serafina hung on his every word, her eyes shining with rapt attention.
Princess Serafina might be mortified if she remembers this false information, and if the king repeats the same explanation in public, well, he might end up embarrassing himself as well. These thoughts and more flitted through my mind as I watched the scene unfold, but in the end, I watched the whole thing from start to finish in silence.
That day, I learned that the ability to turn a blind eye to the king’s mistakes was one of the qualities required of a personal knight.
As was often the case, the knights took the initiative to greet the princess even on days they weren’t assigned to her guard detail. While they might have used business as a pretense, it was clear that their true intention was to find any opportunity to engage in conversation with her.
“Princess Serafina! I’m about to conduct a preliminary check on that medicinal herb shop you plan to stop by tomorrow!” Scheat cheerfully said to the princess.
“A preliminary check? You even do stuff like that?” The princess’s eyes were wide as saucers at this news.
Seeing this, Scheat proudly rapped his chest. “Of course! We always visit all the places you wish to go in advance so that we’ll be able to deal with any problems that might pop up! Naturally, we observe the flow of traffic within the store and make sure to identify any escape routes and potential hazards in advance.”
“If there’s anywhere you’d like to visit besides the herb shop, please let us know,” Miaplacidus chimed in. “We’ll thoroughly review any potential risks ahead of time. Since you’re making the trip into town, why not explore while you’re there?”
Princess Serafina’s eyes opened even further in wonder. “Really? I can go anywhere I want? Anywhere?”
Her face lit up as the knight’s gave her an indulgent nod.
“Like, really, really?! In that case, where should I go? Um, um… Give me a moment, okay?”
Princess Serafina scrunched up her face in apparent concentration as the knights gazed at her with doting smiles. Their expressions were so overflowing with warmth that it left no doubt about the knights’ deep fondness for the young princess.
Is it really appropriate for proud members of the Royal Red Shield to display such shameless affection in public? I wondered. They must have been unaware of their facial expressions; if they realized how they looked later, they would probably be mortified.
With that in mind, I averted my eyes from the knights and didn’t look back at them again.
That day, I learned that the ability to look away from the beaming faces of my colleagues was one of the qualities required of a personal knight.
As I said previously, Princess Serafina entertained many visitors of high status, but none called on her more frequently than Vice-Commander Sirius. Whether there was a purpose for it or not, the vice-commander paid the princess several visits a day.
When he stopped by just prior to the afternoon, Vice-Commander Sirius had a boyish twinkle in his eye. “Serafina! A new foal was just born today! Do you want to come and see it with me?” Judging from his beaming smile, he appeared proud that one of his cherished mares had given birth.
Seemingly captivated by his jubilant expression, Princess Serafina responded with a matching grin.
“What color is it? I hope it’s silver, because that’s the color of horse I want to ride on!” Her exclamation was met with a wary look from the vice-commander.
“…You want me to be your horse?” he asked, and then after a very long pause he added, “If you’re adamant about it, I’ll do my utmost to accommodate.”
“You? My horse?” Princess Serafina cocked her head like she couldn’t quite comprehend what he was saying.
Vice-Commander Sirius crossed his arms and looked at her thoughtfully. “I meant the children’s game. The one where an adult gets down on all fours and the child rides on their back.”
“Huuuh?”
As it became clear she still didn’t understand, the vice-commander sighed in resignation.
“…Do you want to give it a try?” he asked as he knelt down on the carpet.
Chills ran up and down my spine as I looked on. This was Sirius Ulysses, Vice-Commander of our nation’s pride, the Náv Horned Beast Knights, the very model for the best-selling An Elegant Day in the Life of the Handsome Chief Duke. And here he was, assuming a pose that should never be revealed to others.
We all had a tacit understanding that no additional knights were necessary when Princess Serafina was with the vice-commander. Being well aware of that, I moved as stealthily as possible and silently crept out the door. It went without saying that I never looked back at Vice-Commander Sirius, not even once. Due to this, I remained unaware of the vice-commander’s subsequent poses and whatever events followed.
That day, I learned that the ability to preemptively gauge Vice-Commander Sirius’s actions and quickly make myself scarce if necessary was one of the qualities required of a personal knight.
I, Canopus Blazej, am exceedingly proud and grateful to have been specially selected as the personal knight of the young second princess, Serafina. I committed myself fully to serving the princess with complete dedication and worked tirelessly day and night in pursuit of that goal. However, as the days went by, I was coming to fully realize that prowess with a sword was not the only quality required of a personal knight.
To put it broadly, what was required of a personal knight was to do everything in his power to ignore the eccentricities of those who visit the princess.
The moral of Canopus’s deep (yet very shallow) story is: There are some things you just don’t know about being a personal knight until you actually become one.