The Red Knight Seeks No Reward

Chapter 7

As Kaillou had promptly summoned a priest to treat Judith, her wound was tended to immediately.

“You were quite lucky,” the palace doctor told her. “If that wound had severed a nerve, it would’ve been disastrous.”

Judith glanced at the bandages around her neck.

“How does your neck feel when you move it?” he asked.

“Well, it feels strained, but I can manage.”

The palace doctor had argued sternly that the wound should have been stitched up. The gash was half the length of a finger where the sword had grazed her. The surface of her skin had been mended quickly as the priest poured holy power onto the wound, but it wasn’t completely healed, so she felt strong discomfort and pain when she attempted to move her neck.

“You’ll need to get proper rest for at least a week. I’m sure Captain Kaillou will arrange your affairs for you, but you must not train or exercise during that time. The wound may tear.”

“I will take note of that. Thank you.”

The doctor handed her a mirror and left the room, saying he would go retrieve the captain.

Judith looked at herself in the mirror, her face grim. Pathetic. The fact that she had dropped her sword because of a lapse in concentration was beyond embarrassing. If her past self from her black knight days could have seen it, she would’ve clicked her tongue and said she deserved no less than death.

In that sense, the bandaged woman Judith saw in the mirror looked like a stranger. It was certainly her own face, but with blood soaking the collar of her uniform and half her hair neatly sliced off, she looked unfamiliar to herself. The sight was unsettling.

“Half my hair is gone…” Kaillou’s sword had not only grazed her neck but had also sliced off a chunk of hair. The asymmetry looked ridiculous. What a waste. There goes my chance to make some quick cash. She regretted not selling her hair earlier, even though she wouldn’t have gotten the highest price, but it was too late to feel bad now.

The next moment, Kaillou opened the door and walked in. He was wearing an expression that was difficult to describe. If she wasn’t mistaken, he looked even sterner than before. It wouldn’t be reasonable for him to be smiling and laughing when he was involved in an accident like this, but Judith found him more somber than necessary.

“How is your wound?” he asked.

“Thank you for the quick attention. It feels all right.”

Judith squirmed and tried to move, but Kaillou quickly stopped her. “Don’t bow your head. It might open up again.”

“Just that much doesn’t hurt,” she insisted.

“I never believe the words of a patient.” The captain looked around, pulled out a chair, and sat down three or four paces from the bed. After a pause, he continued, “I’m sorry. It was an accident, but it could’ve been irreversible.”

“Please don’t apologize, sir.” She couldn’t remember the last time she had received an apology. She was silent for a moment, then noticed Kaillou’s uniform was also streaked with blood. “I know you pushed me, thinking I could follow your strikes.”

“Well… that’s true,” Kaillou agreed in a small voice.

“It’s all right. I know it wasn’t intentional like with Sir Paeon Grand. My own inexperience caused this accident, so please don’t be sorry. On the contrary, I should be grateful for the quick treatment.”

Kaillou was taken aback by her nonchalant and candid attitude. Of course, it would be unheard of for a new recruit to openly show resentment toward a captain, but there was no need for her to be quite so agreeable. She could have easily leveraged the situation and guilt-tripped him instead.

“I am to blame for losing control of my sword. Please pay it no mind.”

The captain was a bit puzzled that Judith should declare herself at fault before they could even discuss what had happened. But he decided to let it go since he didn’t feel comfortable harping over that detail. He looked at her bandaged neck with a sigh. “I’ll make sure you can rest for two weeks. Please forward your medical bills to the House of Count Lewalmeigh.”

“Yes, sir.” Judith nodded obediently.

The conversation had ended, but Kaillou remained in his seat, continuing to casually observe her.

Judith found his stare both disturbing and intriguing. This is new, she thought. She hadn’t had much interaction with Kaillou Lewalmeigh in her previous life as a black knight. She had only met him once, in the province of Berques, and that encounter was clearly so insignificant to him that he hadn’t even remembered her name. It was strange how different things were now.

Kaillou broke the silence between them. “Would you say that incompetence was the reason you lost control of your sword?”

“Yes, sir.”

His face creased. “But why do I feel like that wasn’t the case?”

Judith’s previous interest in the situation quickly transformed into discomfort as the captain studied her with the careful eyes of a beast stalking its prey.

“When you were up against Paeon, you looked like you were going for a stroll in the park,” he continued.

“I admit that I was not giving it my all when I faced him.”

“Why not?”

Judith answered while rubbing her bandaged wound. “No good comes out of being noticed.”

“Even in the presence of an imperial prince?”

That response made her come up short. Oh, right. The prince. Judith realized that she had completely forgotten about the fourth imperial prince Ethan.

The greatest position an imperial knight could hope to achieve was to become part of the imperial guard. If one ingratiated themselves with a member of the imperial family, they approached the very core of absolute power.

Indeed, that was why a cloud of knights was perpetually gathered around the first and second imperial princes, who were currently vying for the position of crown prince. Even the third imperial prince, who would have been considered a strong candidate for emperor if he had been healthy, had his share of knights surrounding him. Although the third prince would later fall from power and become distanced from the throne, this was six years in the past, before any of that happened. There were still many knights who supported him. Just being a prince was enough to invoke respect with one’s mere presence.

“His Highness is the fourth in line, but nonetheless, he’s an imperial prince of the empire. Knights would normally want to be noticed by such a man.”

“That is true…”

Judith had risen to quite a high status in her past life. The second imperial prince had personally asked her to join his imperial guard. After that, she had no interest in becoming part of the fourth imperial prince’s entourage, since he had no interest in the throne.

With a deep sigh, Kaillou stopped questioning her. His tone made it obvious how unfortunate he considered her behavior. “Dame Judith, skills aren’t cultivated to be hidden.”

“I know, sir. It’s just that…” Judith chose her words carefully. “I want to live as a knight without involving myself in such matters.”

She had always chased after gold. Riches and luxury meant the world to her. But perhaps that was why she felt like she hadn’t lived a proper life. When she was in debt, she’d felt suffocated by the burden, but once she’d paid it all off, she still felt like she had too little. The next thing she knew, she’d been at Jeromell’s side. She only came to her senses after being slain, laying among the gold coins that had been scattered as payment for her death—the price paid to put a dog down. It might have sounded like an empty excuse, but that was her truth.

“Yes, I would like to live like a true knight.” When she said it out loud, it sounded strange even to her own ears. “I know it’s difficult to live without fawning over those in power or turning a blind eye to injustice for my own gain… But if it means I can distance myself from greed and the blind pursuit of money, vanity, and power…” She continued rubbing her stinging wound as she spoke calmly. “I would like to lead a different life.”

Judith barely kept her thoughts together by reminding herself of her resolve. Perhaps she was tired of chasing after money or just knew that only a tragic end awaited her down that path—but she was determined, even though she knew it would be difficult to choose another way. She didn’t care if it was happenstance or divine will that gave her this second chance, but she would not let it go to waste. She didn’t want to ruin her regained life for the sake of money or power.

As she looked in the hand mirror, she realized that her amber eyes shone brighter than gold with her resolve. She did look disheveled, but at least her eyes were as brilliant as the life she had regained. Her new life and her amber eyes that were once so close to going dim forever were now more important than anything else.

“What I mean to say… I’m going to live a good life without any of that.” Judith reiterated her resolution casually to lighten the mood.

“Some might say you’re an idealist… to put it mildly.”

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

Judith readied a retort, but his next comment took her aback. “It means you have what it takes to be a knight.”

When she looked up in surprise, she found Kaillou smiling. She was even more shocked at how gentle his smile was. Gone was his look of distress—he now looked at her like she was an adorable niece, too precious for the world. Despite that, his strikingly wild charm and polished appearance made him exceptionally attractive.

“You’re joining the Order of the Red Knights,” he declared.

Judith almost bit her tongue in astonishment.

“I don’t want that bastard Jeromell to snap you up, and it’s not as if I want to tell the entire empire that there is an unusually naive knight who is free for the taking. In all honesty, I have no choice but to take such a starry-eyed knight under my wing.”

Kaillou seemed so genuinely sincere that Judith couldn’t bring herself to ask if he was joking. Instead, she remained dumbfounded. This is… really new, she thought, staring blankly at him instead of responding.

But this wasn’t the reaction the captain had anticipated. He had just made a personal offer of recruitment. He expected her to be jumping up and down in disbelief, but she was just gawking at him like a newborn foal with no grasp of what was happening. What she said a moment later was just as unexpected.

“But…”

“What? Is there a problem?”

“No, not a problem, per se… But didn’t you say I fought like a sellsword?” she stammered. “I assumed you had a low opinion of me.”

“Is being a rogue knight or a sellsword a sin?”

Judith was left speechless again. Kaillou wasn’t mocking her, but sincerely asking if rogue swordsmanship was something that should be criticized.

“Dame Judith, the difference between a knight and a sellsword is razor-thin. People take up the sword for many reasons. Loyalty and fidelity can be bought in this empire. That’s the reality.”

Kaillou carefully observed as Judith’s face shifted into a more pained expression. He had survived many battles, each one a life-and-death situation where there were no means to hide one’s deepest feelings. He had seen burly men cry like babies after narrowly escaping death, and severely injured prisoners of war crawl from their barracks, desperate to survive.

In this world, there was no room for honor nor for the virtues of knighthood. The world was full of degenerates and sycophants, those who turned a blind eye to injustice, surrendered their free will, and sold themselves for money or to get drunk on meaningless power.

Being so familiar with the world, Kaillou recognized that Judith was desperately fighting back tears. Strangely, it tickled a part of his heart. He shouldn’t be smiling, but seeing her boldly declare that she would pursue virtue—a foolish endeavor to most—made him see her in a different light. The adept aether master he had fought was nowhere to be found. He saw only a knight who offered her service to the world. When have I ever come across such a knight? What a sparkling gem. What should I do with this naive fool? I don’t want to lose her.

“Why are you smiling, sir?” Judith asked, surprising the captain.

Was I smiling? He widened his eyes and then realized that his lips were indeed curved up softly.