Extra 03: Captain Alberto Hawk—captain of the 3rd Knight Order, and 3rd son of the Margrave family of Slantania Kingdom. The Hawk family have been exemplary warriors for generations and they led the defence force in Slantania Kingdom. The Hawks also held the t.i.tle of Margrave, but compare to the average Margrave, the Hawks wielded more political power. Alberto’s grandmother, the previous Marquis Hawk, was older sister to the former king. Her eminent beauty led to her being called Ice Rose. From a young age, Alberto and his two siblings had many marriage proposals come their way because of their winsome appearance; and it became famous in their social circles that he had come to hate women because of how they flocked around the eldest son.
Alberto, the third son, was not as bad as the second, but he still disliked the idea of being followed around by a gaggle of young ladies. He wore stoic armour and declined all invitations from young ladies while he was studying at the Royal Academy.
It was, however, an open secret to everyone except himself that he attracted a certain kind of admirer, with his stolid demeanour and cold eyes. Therefore, it may have been only natural for him to become even closer with Johan, the director of the medicinal herbs research centre, who wasn’t concerned about Alberto or matters of the aristocracy.
Alberto enlisted in the Knight Order after graduating, and immediately moved into the barracks. He had done so because only males resided at the barracks. Compared to living in the royal capital, living in the barracks provided less chances for young ladies to impose on him. The barracks lacked servants, and many a person thought a big-shot aristocrat like Alberto would find it hard to live there. But the Hawk family was a militia family, and Alberto was taught how to take care of himself. Hence, a dearth of servants was no problem at all.
After he had enlisted and went on a monster subjugation, he used the ice magic that he had inherited from his grandmother freely and stood out. As a result, the people at the royal palace determined that there were no problems in his skills or pedigree, and soon, he was entrusted with a platoon. From then on, he was called Ice Knight because of his ice magic and emotionless face. His fans had given him that name but since it suited him so much, it disseminated far and wide.
Alberto often left a cold impression on others because of his heavenly appearance and emotionless face, but he worked diligently and didn’t give mind to the knights’ origins while a.s.signing ranks. The knights he worked with came to trust him deeply. Then, Johan became the director at the same time he became Captain of the 3rd Knight Order.
The Knight Order’s main job was to subjugate the demons around the Capital during times when the miasma thickened. Even Alberto couldn’t escape from this and he often went out on subjugation missions with his subordinates after he became a Captain. They went on many subjugation missions to the Ghosh Forest, located west of the capital. That day as well, should have been like any other day. Higher level demons appeared more often in the Ghosh Forest compared to the east and south forests, but it was never to the point that he had to use his magic. Although they weren’t completely unprepared, they were probably slacking off a bit. What appeared before their eyes could have been a calamity, ending the subjugation.
Out of the 100 knights that were there, only a select few, including Alberto, were able to react swiftly when the Salamander appeared in Ghosh Forest, even though it shouldn’t have. The temperature around them suddenly spiked with the approach of a flame. Thanks to the ice wall that Alberto had promptly put up, people in the surrounding area came out unscathed; but those who were a distance away from the wall were wounded by the flame that the Salamander had blown. The Salamander’s flames were scalding hot and could instantaneously eradicate nearby people.
The Salamander was normally a big, black lizard about 10 metres long, but when it engaged in combat, its body shone red and it generated a copious amount of heat. That heatwave caused people to back away from each other. So in theory, people had to slam it with long-distance magic attack in order to get rid of it. However, since it was near the end of the subjugation, the mages and knights had little MP left, and no means of recovering it. They struggled greatly while dealing with the Salamander. The Salamander’s flames didn’t hit just the Knights, but also the forest around it. The water Mages had to split up to prevent the fire from spreading, exacerbating the situation. Alberto braved through the heatwave and stabbed the Salamander, suffering severe burns and losing conscious shortly after.
The next time Alberto woke, he was in a room at the palace. He was in an unfamiliar room, but he judged that he wasn’t in any danger, and then tried to remember what had happened. He could only remember up to the part when he stabbed the Salamander, he couldn’t remember any more than that. He suddenly looked at his right hand, which should have been covered in burns, only to find that it had been cleanly healed. Clearly, someone had treated him. He got up off the bed and looked into the mirror. His face was supposed to be burnt, but it looked exactly like how it normally did. He thought back. Even if the potions he normally used were advanced potions, he didn’t think that they would heal his wounds this impeccably. He thought that a mage who could use holy magic had treated him.
At any rate, a highly skilled mage had been in charge of him. Alberto’s injuries were so severe that it would have made it difficult for him to continue enlisting as a Knight even if he was treated. His arm felt like it did before the subjugation even though he had only briefly checked it. It didn’t seem like there would be any problems if he continued working as a Knight. He was surprised when he had heard the next day from his close friend that it wasn’t magic that had healed him, but a potion.
The person who made such a highly effective potion was registered at the Medicinal Herb Research Inst.i.tute. Alberto told his close friend, who held a position at the research inst.i.tute that he would like to thank the person who had treated him and his friend agreed. Alberto had to take care of various things after the subjugation and they didn’t meet until a month later.
On that day when he was waiting at the Oval Office, he tried to ask Johan what sort of person had treated him, but Johan would only tell him that it was a researcher, and that Alberto would know what sort of person the researcher was upon meeting. When Johan was teasing him about how compa.s.sionate that person was to feed the potion to his unconscious friend, Alberto frowned when he thought it was a man who had done so. It was probably Johan’s usual distasteful teasing. When Alberto looked at Johan in shock, he heard his subordinate outside announce that the researcher had arrived.
He looked at Sei, who had just entered the room, and realised at a glance that she was the Saint candidate summoned by the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】because of her hair and eye colour. If someone mentioned a woman with a rare hair and eye colour living in Slantania Kingdom, and registered at the Medicinal Herb Research Inst.i.tute, Alberto would only be able to guess Sei. Looks like he was right.
Alberto had heard from others that the Saint candidate was a worn out and sickly person. According to the rumour spread by the maid who was taking care of her during her stay at the palace, Sei didn’t like to wear glamourous things. She liked to wear plain clothes and looked as if she was from a rural place. Johan also said that she was like the other researchers and didn’t care much about her appearance. The woman in front of him was indeed plain. However, she looked pretty and nearly nothing like the rumours at all.
Her pale skin which was said to look unhealthy, now looked healthy. Her eye bags were completely gone and there was no trace of it anywhere. Her lifestyle was much more relaxing here compared to the time when she lived in j.a.pan. She was also using the highly effective skin care products that she had made which proved to be effective. Her ivory-white skin and cherry coloured lips looked vibrant and her tied up waist length black-hair glistened. Her makeup wasn’t like that of an aristocrat woman and in an instant, Alberto was captivated by her natural beauty. However Alberto was most attracted to was the long-slated eyes that looked at him in strong determination.