At first I thought he would just find any decent place to chat, but it turns out he asked me to ride a horse-carriage that has been waiting for us. I"m curious on where he would bring us to, but I think there won"t be many places he could visited.
On second thought, this is the first time I stay close to him.
In comparison to Imperial Knights Squad, I rarely met any knights from Special Task Squad. Thats probably due to only a few members of Special Task Squad were n.o.bles. The n.o.bles in Special Task Squad were not even made up to half of the entire squad, so they were rarely seen in any Imperial"s private events. I had done several errands to deliver things to the Special Task Squad in my early days as a knight, but at the time, Captain Jullius had not joined yet. I secretly observed the man before me that might be my rival.
Jet-black hair, pale grey eyes, age estimated to be under 30, and as someone who were taken in by the Emperor himself from who knows where, his origins is mystery. However, his ability is no doubt the best of the best among the Imperial Knights. He had never even once lost in the ranking match between Imperial Knights that was being held every 3 years. There were some rumors about him such as an illegitimate son of the Emperor that was kept as secret, a descendant of other race that came from different continent, and the most ridiculous one was saying actually, he"s not ordinary human. Besides he didn"t even look similar with the Emperor.
“Are we heading to the palace?”
“That"s right.”
Hmm… seems like we were heading to the Special Task Squad"s headquarters inside the palace. I might not know the reason, but it doesn"t mean I couldn"t guess. The palace, huh? Hmm… I paid a brief visit there before going to exterminate the Demon King.
“Is the Crown Prince doing well?”
I"m sure the curse had gone for good, but it"s possible there would be any side effects left behind. Captain Jullius stayed silent for a while before answering, “Physically he"s well.”
“That means psychologically, there"s a problem?”
“Seems like His Highness was blaming himself.”
Blaming himself?ah, perhaps…
“Because of what had happened to Sir Roel?”
Because I died to save him?
Captain Jullius nodded his head in affirmation.
Uhh…
“I think His Highness shouldn"t blame himself. I"m sure Sir Roel would never wish His Highness to feel that way. Nonetheless, when someone became a knight, he must be ready to face any inevitable dangers anywhere and anyti–“
“Miss! Don"t speak nonsense!” He coldly cut my words in harsh tone.
I shut my mouth and stared at him. When I saw how he tried to conceal his anger that could be seen on his face, an irritating feeling emerged from inside my heart. The person who died is me and I myself have already said it"s not a problem at all! So what?! Not only those brats, but also this brat, why did all of them fuss over someone who"s already died?! You don"t have to grieve too much and let the dead leave for afterlife peacefully, alright?!
When we were engulfed in silence, the horse-carriage pa.s.sed by the palace"s main gate and shortly after came to stop. I lifted my dress a bit and went down from the carriage. The headquarter of Special Task Squad came into my sight. It was a three-story building that was built with st.u.r.dy grey stones.
“This way.”
Captain Jullius kept his words short and continued leading the way. It has been a long time since the last time I visited this place. I followed him climbing up the stairs and as I made a step pa.s.sing through the main entrance…
What…?!
I felt an immersed killing intent towards me. And in the next moment, a sword flung straight directly aiming my nape. It"s already too late for me to avoid it by going forward or sideways, so all I could do is immediately lowered my body on my knees. In next second, the sword blade pa.s.sed by above my head. Fck! I quickly scanned the surroundings area to find the attacker rather than cursing inside my heart.
As soon as I noticed a thin-built man hiding behind the entrance door, I quickly stood up and dashed to where the man was hiding. I used one of my hands as support against the floor and stretched out one of my legs then swiftly lay a kick towards the hiding man.
Bugh!
d.a.m.n! I hit him, but it"s not even strong enough! I managed to kick his shank bone, but it only startled him, it"s not strong enough to make him fell. If only I was in my original body, at least his bones would be broken. Fck it! I quickly turned around my body and gathered my holy power to increase my strenght before throwing a punch to him. Unfortunately, this time that d.a.m.n brat successfully dodged my fist and he quickly jumped backwards in retreat.
“Captain!”
The familiar call made my moves came to a halt. Captain? Certainly he didn"t call for me, that means he called Captain Jullius? That d.a.m.n brat is a member of Special Task Squad?
“Seems like she"s not the one. She uses holy power. But–“
The brat continued talking in cheeky manner.
“Her ability is extrordinary.”
Immediately, I straightened my body and tidied up some wrinkles on my dress and then glared at that brat. To detect if someone possessed holy power could only be done by some high-leveled priests. Actually it didn"t mean that there"s no exception, but… could that brat be considered as a rare exception? Or…an expert tracker? It"s not difficult to guess whether someone has holy power, when a weak girl suddenly released an unsual enormous strenght. Well, I"m more inclined towards the last reasoning though.
“She used holy power.”
Captain Jullius muttered softly while sizing me up.
I also resolutely returned his gaze. So what if I used holy power? What are you going to do? There were many people who possessed holy power didn"t become a clergy. Moreover, a clergy couldn"t marry. That"s why, there"re many cases about n.o.bles that have to carry on the bloodline, continued to live as normal citizen even though they had holy power. However, they couldn"t use the holy power properly because they didn"t get any training from the church and the only benefit they got from having holy power was they had healthier body compared to a normal person.
Arghh! Anyway that"s not important right now! With hasty steps, I walked to Captain Jullius who was still pondering over it.
“Please lend me your sword!”
“…, what?”
“Seems like there"s a misunderstanding on your side. Now that the misunderstanding has been settled, someone needs to repay his debt.”
I extended my hand in demand to Captain Jullius while glaring at the yellow-haired brat who was standing quite far from us. He had aimed at other"s neck before, so now let me use his neck as my target. Someone said if you got slapped, you need to return it with a punch. But I"m fine with ‘give as good as ones gets".
“I don"t have any weapon and it"s impossible to beat that b.a.s.t.a.r.d with bare hands, so lend me your sword. Isn"t he your subordinate?”
It"s within reason as the leader is bound to take responsibilities of the subordinate"s mistakes. That"s why, quickly hand it over! Give me your sword! I wiggled my extended hand in demand of his sword while looking up at his face. Captain Jullius hesitated for a moment before reaching out his hands to his waist.
Seeing what Captain Jullius" was going to do, made the yellow-haired brat freaked out and exclaimed, “C-Captain! That"s Calitus! Captain doesn"t intend to lend Calitus to that woman, right?!”
Ah…I just realized. I looked down and saw the sword in Captain"s hand. Even though the sword"s scabbard looks common, but the sword is Calitus, one of the Imperial"s treasured sword, same goes with the holy sword, Altaire. I have heard before that the leader of Special Task Squad, Captain Jullius, owned it. That"s great! I"m sure I could beat that d.a.m.n yellow-haired brat.
“You"re right. He indeed has done something impudent to Miss.”
“Captain!”
No matter how that brat pleading to the Captain, it"s all remained in vain. Captain Jullius handed over his sword to me. Yeah!
“d.a.m.ned brat! Prepare to die!”
I swiftly turned my body around and unsheathed the sword. Clang! The sounds of the unsheathed sword could be heard clearly and made anyone who heard it got gooseb.u.mps. This sword isn"t too heavy nor too light. It"s just felt right when I held it as if I had used it in my whole life even though this is my first time to hold this sword. Previously, I never understood why people always made a fuss over a good weapon, but now I understand the reason when my body became weak. By using this sword, not only a normal knight, I could even defeat a high-tier knight easily.
“Captain! You"re too much! My sword couldn"t withstand your sword!”
That yellow-haired brat started to run away with dejected face when he saw me holding the sword. d.a.m.n brat!
“Hey, you! Stop right there!”
How could a grown up man like him running away without trying to resist even for a bit? After I threw the scabbard to Captain Jullius, I took the sword in my right hand, while I used the other hand to lift the corner of my dress, and then I started chasing that d.a.m.n brat. But the brat was really agile. Moreover, he quickly disappeared when I searched my way because this was his territory. d.a.m.n it!
“…, he"s really fast.”
Without me realized, I"ve reached another side of the building when I was chasing the yellow-haired guy. As I looked around, this place seems to be a training ground. I was thinking to return without any results to Captain Jullius" place. But…when I saw the sword in my hand, my mind seems to grow some weird ideas.
Should I take it away and run?
I stared at the sword"s dazzling thin blade and I didn"t realize my mouth started to drool. In the past, I might be uninterested in weapons, but now I really want this sword! Calitus is a treasured sword that was famous for its extrordinary ability to cut anything and it could even cut enemy"s sword. What I really need right now is the strenght to face enemies. There"re other things that I was lacking as well compared to my old self but physical strenght is my main concern right now. If I was not strong enough, I would definitely be cornered as soon as my weapon clashed with the enemy"s weapon. Eventually, I had to avoid or block enemy"s weapon, but I don"t need to worry about my physical strenght and I could directly cut off enemy"s weapon with Calitus.
The more I considered it, this sword looked better than ever.
Actually, the holy sword Altaire is the most powerful sword against demons, but it"s different matter when used against normal human. The holy sword has drawback compared to the other three treasured sword. For us the Holy Knights, the holy sword is the most suitable sword because most of the time we deal with demons or monsters.
They must had brought Altaire back safely, right?
As a matter of fact, I did destroyed the holy sword, but it could be restored to its original form. They just had to collect all the fragments and placed them on the altars then in few days, it would be restored perfectly. Now that the funeral is done, the church must be busy to prepare an inauguration for the new leader of the Holy Knight Squad after the holy sword had been restored. Based on my prediction, the top three strong candidates were…
“Huh?”
Right then, could be heard someone was exclaiming in surprised. When I lifted my head, I saw a young man in his teens staring at me, or to be precise, he was staring intently at the sword in my hands.