The Princess Knight is Too Strong

“Your Majesty,”

“I’ve heard.”

The head butler cautiously opened his mouth, but Karl dismissed it with a brief remark.

“I hear Evangeline has shown signs of madness again.”

“……Yes.”

The head butler, who had been delaying his answer while sweating profusely, eventually had no choice but to reply with trembling words.

“…I see.”

Karl did not get angry. This was no one’s fault, and the intense emotions arising in his heart were something he should endure alone without pouring them out on anyone, as was proper.

The head butler also knew this, which is why he gave his trembling answer, albeit late, but there was something else he had to do.

As a servant of the royal family, and as the head butler of the Failon royal family.

“…If I may be so bold, Your Majesty.”

Karl’s shoulders twitched. It was an extremely brief moment, but enough to stop the head butler’s words.

However, he gathered his courage and opened his mouth again.

“…Can we really send the Princess to Polaris in that state?”

“If you knew it was presumptuous, perhaps you shouldn’t have said it?”

Karl’s intimidating words pressed against the head butler’s Adam’s apple.

“…”

The head butler reflexively closed his mouth.

“…Forget it. I spoke unnecessarily.”

“Please don’t say that.”

The edge disappeared from Karl’s voice. As the head butler slowly exhaled a silent sigh of relief, Karl’s words reached his ears.

“I know too. If we send Eva to Polaris like this…”

“…”

“…That something bad will happen, in one form or another, is the one thing that is self-evident.”

-Tok, tok.

Karl lightly tapped the table with his finger.

It was a characteristic habit that usually emerged when he was deep in thought.

“…Indeed, we cannot send Eva to Polaris alone.”

-Tok.

Karl’s finger, which had been tapping the table, suddenly stopped.

“How old is Lord Cornwall’s daughter this year?”

“…A bodyguard for Princess Evangeline?”

“That’s right.”

At the head butler’s words, Delphina Cornwall, the eldest daughter of the Cornwall earldom, asked with a perplexed expression.

She had rushed over after receiving a message from the palace marked only with the four characters for “top secret,” but after hearing the head butler’s explanation, her first doubt had arisen.

“But isn’t Princess Evangeline the second strongest knight in our kingdom?”

“That’s also true.”

“Is it appropriate for a novice like me to be her bodyguard? Wouldn’t I just get in the way…?”

“It’s absolutely necessary.”

The head butler said this as he stood up.

-Charuck.

After closing all the curtains in the room with disciplined movements, the head butler slowly opened his mouth in the now much darker room.

“…What I’m about to tell you is information treated as the utmost secret even within the palace.”

“…Top secret?”

Gulp. Delphina unconsciously swallowed.

“It’s entirely your freedom to decline the offer even after hearing everything, but in that case, you must completely forget everything you hear in this place.”

The head butler’s monocle with a thin gold rim flashed like a hawk’s eye.

“Absolutely no information must leak outside. Do you understand?”

“……Yes.”

Delphina nodded slowly, trembling.

“Good.”

The head butler nodded and took out something small and egg-shaped from inside his garment.

“What is that…?”

“A magical barrier generator. It creates a translucent barrier inside this room, blocking all eavesdropping or remote surveillance from outside.”

“…”

Sweat dripped from Delphina’s forehead.

This was too serious, even for something serious. Had she agreed too hastily? Should she say she wanted to reconsider? Would she have to live in anxiety and under surveillance for the rest of her life? Such thoughts tormented her.

And the story that came from the head butler’s mouth was shocking.

“…The Princess is suffering from a mental illness.”

“……………Pardon?”

Delphina blinked.

“The nature of the illness is an unexplainable madness. She brings in dozens of air fresheners claiming to smell blood in a clean room with no odor, or she’s unable to sleep properly, having nightmares several times a day, and in severe cases, she even screams.”

“…”

Delphina was too shocked to continue speaking. While she helplessly moved her lips, the head butler continued in a calm voice.

“Recently, according to a maid who witnessed it, she smashed a perfectly fine wardrobe citing ridiculous reasons… but I dare say that too is probably a manifestation of her madness.”

“…What.”

Delphina finally managed to open her mouth.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“I’ve heard that your father is a clergyman.”

“Yes, he serves a small indigenous deity…”

“By any chance, can you perform sacred magic that forcibly calms the mind or puts someone to sleep?”

“Ah, yes.”

Delphina said, her shoulders twitching as she tried to stand up.

“If you wish, I could bring my father right now…”

“No.”

The head butler quickly shook his head. Then, looking directly into Delphina’s eyes, he said quietly.

“You yourself must know how to use it.”

“…Me?”

‘The bodyguard duty I’d like to request of you, Lady Delphina, is to always accompany Princess Evangeline so that you can immediately put her to sleep if she shows signs of madness like before.’

“…”

‘The term is three months. Before leaving the kingdom to attend the entrance ceremony at Polaris Academy, Lady Delphina must succeed in mastering sacred magic powerful enough to completely subdue Princess Evangeline.’

‘Th-three months…?’

‘If you succeed, you will be able to attend Polaris as a special admission student while serving as Princess Evangeline’s bodyguard.’

‘Me, to Polaris… But can such things be arranged so easily?’

‘The kingdom will find a way. Negotiations with Polaris Academy have already been completed. Lady Delphina, you just need to focus all your efforts on mastering the sacred magic.’

“…Even after hearing all that.”

Delphina muttered, sitting with her back against a large tree, holding up a wild squirrel by its tail.

“To master the ‘Sacred Magic of Dream Pacification’ perfectly in just three months. That’s impossible.”

Delphina sighed deeply.

“I can’t tell Dad everything, and Mom is…”

Her voice trailing off, Delphina looked up at the sky.

The cloudless sky seemed especially blue today.

“Ah, this is frustrating.”

Delphina flung the squirrel in her hand toward the sky.

The squirrel, launched into the air, spun around a few times in midair, then landed neatly on all fours before scampering away.

“…Haah.”

‘You are our only hope, Lady Delphina Cornwall.’

The head butler’s final words echoed in Delphina’s mind.

Beyond her squinting eyelids, the faces of her mother and Evangeline flashed by.

Her mother, with a stern face, heading to the battlefield, and the Princess, standing beside her, looking at Delphina from a distance with a complicated expression.

Delphina, who had been staring at the sky with a subtle frown, suddenly made a “hmph” sound and sprang to her feet.

“Ah, whatever!”

Then, turning toward the small hut behind the tree, she shouted.

“Dad, teach me how to use sacred magic!!”

“…I was hoping you, at least, wouldn’t appear.”
Now I know. I know this is also a hallucination.
See it once, twice, three times, and you’ll understand whether you like it or not.
I wonder what’s wrong with my head, but that doesn’t matter.
“…Nasisa Cornwall.”
I turn my head slightly to look behind me.
A corpse with both arms severed was staring at me intently.
“What, are you going to push me?”
I muttered with a sneer.
Turning my head forward again, I deliberately removed her phantom from my sight.
Looking down below the rounded terrace window, I see a dense forest instead of the ground.
Below is a forest designated as private property of the royal palace.
Although some areas are opened to the public so that the kingdom’s people can freely enter when the number of predators and wild animals decreases, it is currently closed.
Suddenly, I wondered: if I fell from here, would I die?
“I might not die, surprisingly. I went through all that hell for 4 years, yet here I am, still alive and well.”
I murmured self-deprecatingly, then looked back again.
“Aren’t you curious, Nasisa?”
The corpse did not answer.
The area below her chin was hollowed out as if something had torn it away, but that didn’t seem to be why she wasn’t speaking.
I’ve clearly seen ghosts with dangling jaws speaking just fine.
“Or is it that you can’t push me because you have no arms?”
I chuckled and bowed my head.
Nasisa Cornwall.
Former holder of the 4th of the Kingdom’s Seven Swords, who died in the 3rd Rubile Defense Battle.
Her opponents were the Demon King’s Army 7th Corps Commander, Riphinoste of the Ten Blades, and the assault team leader of the Demon King’s Army 7th Corps, Ortega of the One Leg.
It was the first battle I participated in after completing rehabilitation with my combat prosthetic, so I remember it clearly.
Everything, from beginning to end.
Though anyone would feel the same, she has every right to hate me.
If I had been more accustomed to the combat prosthetic, she might not have died.
No, she definitely wouldn’t have died.
Nasisa’s right arm being torn off by Ortega’s teeth, her jaw flying off from Riphinoste’s saw blade.
The necessity for me to pierce both her and Riphinoste simultaneously with my own hand—none of that would have happened.
That must be true. It had to be.
“…So, could you please stop looking at me with those eyes?”
I pointlessly blurt out words that won’t have any effect.
“I’m reflecting on it, you know?”
That’s a lie.
I’m not reflecting enough.
I’m simply afraid of the ghost before me and saying anything just hoping it will disappear quickly.
So naturally, the ghost before my eyes doesn’t disappear.
Yes, let’s just get used to it.
So that at Polaris Academy, I won’t be swayed by such hallucinations.
Because I need to do well there.
Because I have to show everyone that I’m doing well.