Interlude:
Surveillance of the Second Princess’s Garden
THE MEMBERS OF THE Royal Red Shield couldn’t help but be confused as they stood posted in the garden of the second princess. They’d been told completely out of the blue to guard Serafina’s garden, but they hadn’t been provided with any instructions regarding the important task.
“Did you hear the news? I’ve been told that, for whatever reason, we’re going to be guarding the princess’s garden twenty-four hours a day on shifts from now on.”
“I sure did. During the daytime is one thing, but what are you supposed to protect in a pitch-black garden in the middle of the night? I understand the need to guard Princess Serafina, but other knights have already been posted around the premises. Are we really just supposed to be surveilling this garden?”
“Well, Captain Deneb has been asking us to kick things up a notch lately. All he mentioned was something along the lines of ‘Guard the second princess’s garden. No one except relevant parties should be allowed in or out.’ No details aside from that. Maybe he wants us to think it over ourselves?”
Mirach glared at the grumbling knights before saying, “This is but one aspect of training. You don’t always have all the information available when you’re protecting someone. This is probably a drill in sifting through limited information, organizing it, and carrying out the mission without making any mistakes.”
“That must be it!” The knights chorused in agreement, prompting a confident smile to flicker across Scheat’s face.
“All right, then! How about we scope out her garden? Captain Deneb said that nothing was allowed in or out. Obviously, suspicious parties would never be let inside, but what about the latter part? My guess is that something precious is being kept within.”
“I think Scheat’s on to something. The princess must’ve brought a lot of trees and saplings with her from the villa she was living at in the Forest of Lent, right? That forest is off limits to everyone but the royal family. The plants there must have some sort of value, so they can’t be allowed to get out,” Miaplacidus chimed in, agreeing with Scheat’s sentiment.
All the knights guarding the garden started to feel that both of their statements probably held water, which led to a unanimous decision to search the garden.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Now that I’ve taken a closer look, it really seems like just this one corner is overgrown. It doesn’t really feel like a castle garden at all.”
As they explored the second princess’s garden, the knights shared their impressions with each other.
“Right? You’d expect a princess her age to prefer large and painstakingly cultivated flowers, but there’s nothing here but trees and grass.”
“I’ve heard that preferences are formed at a young age. The princess grew up surrounded by trees and grass, so maybe that’s just what she likes. She’s always plucking something or another, isn’t she?”
In reality, Serafina was harvesting rare and valuable medicinal herbs that were incredibly hard to find, but the knights didn’t know that and instead assumed she was picking weeds.
“Just looking around here, it doesn’t seem like there are any valuable plants—not that I’d be able to tell if there were.”
“Oh! You too? I just realized I wouldn’t be able to tell either.”
The knights were walking around the garden seemingly without a care in the world, when one of them posed a different kind of question.
“Huh? What’s that hole over there?”
“Hm? What do you mean?” The other knights clamored as they gathered around the hole dug on one side of the garden, eyeing it with curiosity.
“When did this get here?” one asked. “Could this be Princess Serafina’s secret hideout? Perhaps this is where she hides things she doesn’t want Vice-Commander Sirius to see.”
“Hidden secrets, huh? I have to admit, I’m a little curious. I bet she’s stashed away all the tests she’s done poorly on in there. All right, I’m going to take a quick look.”
Miaplacidus hunched his large body down, squeezing his upper half into the hole…but immediately his body jerked, and he quickly pulled back, still in the same hunched over position.
“Uh, that was quick,” Scheat quipped in a cheerful tone, but Miaplacidus’s response was anything but calm.
“Th-th-there’s a black monster…with red eyes!!!”
Scheat and the other knights squinted in confusion, unable to make sense of his words.
“Huh? What are you talking about? Black monsters don’t just spring up anywhere. In fact, there have only been two that are confirmed to exist! It probably just looked black because the hole was so dark.”
“Firstly, if what you’re saying is true, that means there’s a monster in the princess’s garden! That’s…no wait, what if there really is a monster in there and that’s what we’re not supposed to let out?”
“Impossible! There’s no way she’s keeping a monster as a pet in her garden!”
Serafina was known for doing some outlandish things, but no one could have ever imagined her doing something as unconventional as keeping a monster in the gardens of the royal castle. The knights were trying to reassure themselves that the worst-case scenario wasn’t possible as they gazed at the hole from a distance.
That is, until the beast emerged from its resting place.
In an instant, the knights all grabbed onto each other and screamed bewilderedly.
“Eeeeek!”
“I-I-It’s a black fenrir!!!”
There was no denying it—what had appeared before them was a black monster.
“Th-this is it?! This is what we have to prevent from leaving the garden?!”
“No way! This can’t be happening again! The princess has defied all common sense once more! Gah, when am I ever going to learn?”
The knights of the Royal Red Shield were a select group that had been gathered by Sirius himself. Unfortunately, this meant that they were observant enough to realize that the black fenrir was wearing a collar with a jade shell accessory attached to it. These were the same jade shells treasured by the princess, which meant that Serafina was not only keeping this brutal, dangerous monster but also caring for it.
“A knight’s duties are full of unexpected tasks—things you’d never expect! Still…protecting a black monster? That’s beyond anything I could have ever imagined!”
“Bastard! How dare you, a monster, go around deceiving the princess!!”
It’s worth repeating, but the knights of the Royal Red Shield were a select group that had been gathered by Sirius himself. He’d assembled some of the best swordsmen in the brigade, and at this point in time, every single one of them was stronger than the black fenrir. However, it was because of this strength that the knights could sense that the black fenrir had the potential to become even more powerful. In fact, they could predict that it was highly likely the monster would exceed their strength in less than year.
“Let me get this straight. We have to just sit idly by and watch over this thing until it’s strong enough to kill us?”
“No, that can’t be it. We’re not just sitting idly by; we have to actively make sure no one else hurts it. No one except ‘relevant parties’ are allowed to enter, right? That must be to make sure this black fenrir is kept from harm.”
“This can’t be happening! Are we really supposed to just count down until the day our lives are lost? Make sure this is engraved on my tombstone: Here lies a knight who faithfully performed his duty.”
“Sorry, no can do. My soul will be traveling into the sky right along with yours. I just hope there are no black monsters in the heavens…”
The knights were starting to abandon all hope when a sweet voice echoed out from behind them.
“Ludo!”
As soon as that word reached its ears, the black fenrir immediately relaxed its guard and bound in the voice’s direction—straight past the knights—until it reached Serafina.
She greeted it with a huge hug and grinned up at the knights, her arms still encircled around the monster.
“Tee hee hee! I see that you met my adorable friend.”
Just who exactly is this “adorable friend” supposed to be? You really think a black fenrir is cute?! These were the thoughts floating through the knights’ minds, but they managed to hold their tongues.
But as they saw how attached the black monster was to Serafina, their expressions shifted to complete despair.
“Her ‘adorable friend’…” the knights repeated.
They all exchanged glances, fully aware that “adorable friend” wasn’t the appropriate phrase to describe it. But Serafina was so focused on petting the black monster that she didn’t notice.
“P-Princess, a friend is someone you can do all sorts of things with as equals, right? Don’t you think calling a monster a friend is perhaps…questionable?” Scheat asked cautiously.
Miaplacidus quickly backed him up, “He’s right. Monsters and humans are inherently unequal. Rather than fixating on such a terrifying creature, why not find a proper friend instead?”
“I do have other friends,” Serafina countered innocently. “Seven, Oligor, and Sirius.”
At this, the knights fell silent for a moment.
“R-right! In other words, a child spirit who we understand nothing about, the First Spirit Lord, and our very own vice-commander. Strangely enough, when you put it like that, a black monster seems to fit right in,” Scheat groaned, his face slightly twitching. But then he closed his eyes and heaved a resigned sigh.
“All right, I have my orders! What I need to protect in this garden is not a ‘black monster’ but the princess’s ‘adorable friend.’”
Scheat’s conclusion seemed to be the correct answer because Serafina beamed with joy.
“Wow! You’re going to protect Ludo for me? Thanks! He’ll be big in no time and then I’m sure he’ll protect all of you, Scheat!”
“Protect me…? This black monst—I mean, your friend, Princess? No, I’m afraid I couldn’t accept that.”
Although Scheat was genuinely serious about turning her down, Serafina simply thought he was being modest.
“Now, now! There’s no need to hold back!” she said with a happy smile.
“R-right.”
As Scheat reluctantly accepted Serafina’s offer, the knights slowly pulled away from the two. They knew all too well that rejecting any command from their liege was unthinkable. Their faces were dark, as though they could already see the terrible future awaiting them.