“So you’ve decided,” he said.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m going to Galia. Not as a servant…but as just another adventurer.”
“I see.”
As I left my room, the head servant arrived. She carried a document of some sort.
“Fate, take this,” she said. “It’s a letter of recommendation from Lady Roxy for work at the Hart family estate.”
Just as she had promised me earlier. But I didn’t need it anymore.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t accept it. I’m going to become an adventurer.”
I pointed at Greed, hanging from my belt.
“But…you’re not strong enough. You’ll never make it in that life. You can’t talk like that. Please, take this.”
When I stubbornly refused her request to take the letter, the head servant sighed in resignation. She took five gold pieces from her pocket, which she passed to me.
“I can’t force you to stay, so I guess this is it. Here, these are your wages as of today, along with your severance pay. Use them wisely.”
“I earned this much…? Thank you for everything. Including for looking after me while I was here. I’ll put this money to good use.”
The money was actually a huge help, because I didn’t have much. With this, I could pay my way to join a caravan instead of walking. I gave the head servant my final thanks and left my room.
Next, I went to the head gardener and told him of my decision. I knew he was training me to be his successor, and he was both angry and disappointed. “Stupid kids these days!” he muttered. As I left, though, he turned to me and said, “If you change your mind, you come on back. We’ll be waiting.” It was a kindness I wouldn’t forget.
Finally, I stood before Hart Manor. I bowed deeply to the structure itself to show my thanks and walked away. I stopped by the Merchant District to buy provisions, which I stuffed into my bag. For someone with an appetite like mine, food was essential.
After that, there was one last place I needed to go. If I didn’t, I knew that guy would end up putting another flower on the counter, thinking I was dead.
It was still early, so the bar was preparing for the lunch rush. Just as I thought I’d picked a bad time, the barkeep poked his head out from inside.
“What are you doing here so early? We still haven’t opened.”
“Well, actually, I came to say goodbye.”
The barkeep was speechless, and he disappeared back inside. After a time, he reappeared with a bottle of wine in hand.
“Here,” he said. “It’s a parting gift—a bottle of the cheap crap you always drank. It’s your favorite, right?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. I never drank it because I loved it. The barkeep knew that too, and the gift was his idea of a joke.
“You’re always welcome here, friend. And by the way,” he said, pushing the wine at me, “this is actually the high-quality stuff.”
“Thank you so much.”
I took the wine and found a little space to stuff it into my bag, which was so full it was nearly bursting now. I said a final farewell to the barkeep, and I left the bar, too.
Finally, I arrived at the Merchant District gate. From there, I would take a caravan headed south, toward Galia. But while I stood there, I felt something like nostalgia as I watched the endless back-and-forth of caravans, and adventurer parties heading out to hunt goblins. It felt like so long ago that I had come here with Greed to venture out on my first hunt.
I paid for passage on a caravan, and I glanced at the castle in the center of the kingdom. It was there that everything had started, first with gatekeeping and then with the bandit I slew. Now I was leaving to fight the monsters that roamed Galia. What would the old gatekeeper version of myself have thought, seeing me now? He’d probably think I was a lunatic.
“Excuse me, sir! The caravan will leave shortly!”
I hopped onto a wagon as it headed out and away from the Kingdom of Seifort. I had experienced great pain and suffering within the kingdom’s walls, but also memories to treasure. It was my home, and one day, I would be back.
But for now, it was farewell.
Side Story:
Of Roxy and Fate
U PON LEAVING FATE and the servants at Hart Manor, I proceeded to the kingdom’s Military District. By the time I knew about my expedition to Galia, the holy knights had already made the decision, and it was unanimous. I thought it likely the Vlericks were pulling the strings behind the scenes.
However, I did not bear any ill will toward the Vlerick family. My father, Mason Hart, had been unable to fulfill his duty, that of holding back the encroaching monsters at the kingdom’s borders. This decision was the outcome of his death in battle; it was only natural that his daughter be made to carry out his task.
A holy knight exists to fight for the people, and for the kingdom, and it is for that reason they are given such high status. At least, that was how it had been a long time ago. Now, the holy knights had lost their honor, and they put rank and status above all else. Now, the holy knights cared only about self-preservation, even when it came at the cost of the people they existed to protect.
Even the five esteemed families had succumbed to this poisonous agenda. Rumors had spread that the Vlericks desired to take charge of Seifort and had enlisted the help of two other families. That left only the Hart and Barbatos families to stand against them. However, the Barbatos family head, Lord Aaron—the holy knight known as the Blade of Light—had gone into hiding for reasons unknown. All that remained of the Barbatos family now was their name and our shared pursuit of an ideal world.
I had never met Lord Aaron myself, but I remembered the tales of his greatness my father told to me. Were the Barbatos family head to return, perhaps it would bring a new wind into the kingdom, one that would blow away the ugly air that the holy knights now possessed.
However, it was best not to hope for that which could not come true.
All that was left was for me to do my utmost. To do anything less, to fall to weakness, would make me less than the Roxy Hart that Fate wanted me to be. There was no way he could have remembered the moment we met five years ago, on the night I had accompanied my father all the way from our estate to the kingdom.
At the time, I had not yet wanted to become a holy knight.
***
I yawned. I was tired, and I was not yet used to parties. My father regarded me, and though his face was troubled, he spoke to me with kindness.
“What’s wrong, Roxy?”
“No, it’s nothing, father.”
I tried to play it off, but my father saw through me. I felt another yawn coming but held it down. I had to remember my manners. The surrounding holy knights would not otherwise acknowledge me as the next leader of the family.
We had come to the kingdom when I turned twelve. Now, here, I was making the rounds of the holy knight families, greeting them as the successor to the Hart family. I was introduced ad nauseum, and I engaged in meaningless conversation with more than twenty people. For the most part, I maintained a stiff smile while my father did the majority of the talking.
At this point, I had rarely left the family estate. It was my first time in a place with so many holy knights, and I felt something different about them. Something different from the Hart family. They surveyed me as though I were an object to be valued. They were weighing what role I would play in the future.
There was not a single person to talk to with whom I could relax, and speaking to Rafale and Hado of the Vlerick family was the absolute worst. It seemed to me that the future of the kingdom was a bleak one if a house like theirs was one of the five esteemed families.
When the social niceties were over, I was exhausted. My mother had gone to so much trouble to prepare the white dress I wore, and yet…I wished it could have been for something different.
My father must have noticed, for he leaned over and spoke to me. “Roxy, I think you’ve done all you need to this evening. Why don’t you hea
d back to the manor a little early?”
“I… Yes. I think I’ll do that, father. Excuse me…”
My answer was curt, and I escaped the room, lively as it was with holy knights. A great weight fell from my shoulders the moment I passed through the door. I was still unaccustomed to such gatherings. To think these events would be my life for the foreseeable future…
I informed a castle servant that I was leaving, and they brought me to a room to change. In that spacious chamber, I donned the clothes I had arrived in. They were not particularly good clothes. Even if you were being kind, you might say they were only a little nicer than what the townspeople usually wore. But it was for that reason that I loved them. They had been lovingly prepared for me by the villagers of the Hart family estate for my journey to the kingdom.
I felt at ease shucking my elaborate white dress and donning this simpler fare. It was like returning to the estate where I was born, and to the sweet scent of grapes.
“Well,” I said to myself, “time to head home.”
As I left the room, I shook my head at the guards who approached, whose job it was to protect me on my way back to the manor. Even as a young girl, I still possessed the skills of a holy knight. Despite my low level, I was strong enough to take on any roaming evildoers. Besides, I wanted to walk home on my own to clear my head.
I exited the castle and looked up at the sky.
“My, my, it’s that time already…”
The moon had climbed high into the night. I had been at that party for more than four hours, stuck in that boring hall, wandering around as I introduced myself.
I left by the main gate, enjoying the cool, brisk air as I headed to the Holy Knight District. It was then that I noticed a boy walking along a side street by the gate, staring up at the moon. He was about my age, but what was he doing? Where were his parents? Feeling concerned, I called out.
“Excuse me, it’s dangerous to walk around here at this time of night. You’d best hurry home, or your family will worry.”
But the boy merely shook his head with a wry chuckle. “I only just arrived in the kingdom today. I don’t have a home to go back to, and my family are… Well, they’re gone…”
I was speechless in the face of such a tragic truth. An orphan. Perhaps he was whiling the night away, staring at the moon with nowhere else to go. Yet here I was, poking my nose into matters that weren’t my business. My face went red with embarrassment. I was glad to see the clouds cover the moon, the streets falling into mild darkness. I had been the one who spoke first, yet here I was, stuck not knowing what to say next.
“No need to worry about me,” the boy said. “But you should probably get home soon. I thought with this place being so full of holy knights, it would be safe, but it doesn’t seem so. Just a moment ago, some weird guy chased me away. I didn’t even do anything! By the time I stopped to catch my breath, I was here in front of the castle.”
The boy scratched his head sheepishly. It was mortifying for me to hear that the kingdom was full of holy knights and still unsafe. Yet the boy was worried about me . Given my dress, he likely assumed I was just another townsperson. He would never in a million years have guessed that I possessed holy skills and would one day be a holy knight myself.
Even then, I felt a little annoyed. “I might look like this,” I said, “but I’m pretty strong, you know!”
“Oh, is that so?”
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“No, no, I believe you just fine.”
“I can tell by the tone of your voice that you think I’m lying!”
The boy shook his head of scruffy hair and began to leave, as if there was nothing else left to say. His attitude and the way he held himself were cold, and yet in his tone, I sensed…something. It was the first time I’d met someone like this, and I was intrigued.
I called out for him to stop, and when I did, his stomach grumbled. I had never heard such a sound before. It was so unexpected it made me laugh.
“It’s so loud!” I exclaimed.
“Don’t laugh, I can’t help it. Everyone gets hungry sometimes.”
The boy told me he didn’t have any money, so he couldn’t afford food. This gave me an idea—a way to stop him from leaving.
“If you accompany me, I’ll feed you. How does that sound?”
“What? Really?”
The simple offer brought him to my side with such excitement that the very color of his eyes seemed to change. To think he’d been trying to avoid me. I supposed boys of his age were simple at heart.
But where to get that food…? I didn’t know any places where local townspeople ate. I thought for a time, then I asked the boy to wait as I headed back toward the castle. I explained the situation to the guard at the gate, and asked if he wouldn’t mind requesting some light snacks for me from the servants inside. The guard looked a little troubled by my request, but he knew I was the daughter of the Hart family, so he dashed into the castle. It made me worry that perhaps I was no different from the other holy knights, using my position and rank to make people do my bidding.
I was so lost in these depressing thoughts that I didn’t notice when the guard returned with a servant, who carried a basket.
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
“No,” I said. “You were quite quick.”
“As you know, all the holy knights are attending a party tonight, so…I prepared a selection of the food we intended to serve. It’s sandwiches.”
The servant opened the basket to reveal fresh vegetables and hard-boiled egg between soft slices of bread. “Are they to your liking, miss?”
“They look delicious. Thank you so much!”
“It was nothing, miss! Please excuse me, I must be getting back.”
With an astonished look on her face, the servant bowed deeply and ran back into the castle. I had only given her a simple thanks, but it seemed my reaction was unusual. Had it really become so rare for holy knights to express gratitude…?
It wasn’t time to think about such things. Basket in hand, I hurried back to where the boy waited. I wasn’t sure he would still be there, but he was. I walked up to him and his scruffy hair and showed him my prize.
“Here you go. Please help yourself,” I said.
When the boy saw the sandwiches, his expression lit up. “Are you sure? I can eat all of these?”
“Of course you can. Every last one.”
I passed a sandwich to the boy, and nervously, gingerly, he brought it to his lips. Then he practically inhaled it. Just as his rumbling stomach had hinted, he was ravenous.
Watching him eat so enthusiastically made me realize I was actually quite hungry myself. I’d been so busy at the party talking with the holy knights that I hadn’t been able to eat. It seemed that by talking to this boy, I was falling back into my human rhythms.
The boy devoured sandwich after sandwich. I was flabbergasted until he spoke.
“So do you work at the castle as, like, a maid or something?”
“Ah… Yes, that’s correct. I’m a maid.”
In answer to his question, I lied. I knew he would shy away if he knew I was the child of a holy knight, let alone one of the five esteemed families. So with apologies in my heart, I became a castle maid.
“We were so busy with preparations for tonight’s party for the holy knights,” I said. “These sandwiches are leftovers.”
“Ah, so that’s it. Holy knights get to eat delicious stuff like this all the time? Wow. Those guys get all the luck.”
“I’m sorry…” The words seeped from me as barely more than a whisper.
The boy tilted his head. “What are you apologizing for?”
“Yes… What am I apologizing for?”
The boy laughed. “You’re weird.”
“I am a bit, aren’t I?”
“You definitely are. A castle maid has no reason to apologize to me!”
For a time, we sat there talking and laughing, and before I knew it t
he cloudy feelings I’d carried with me the entire evening had all but vanished. It was so strange…I felt so at ease talking with this boy. Hoping to understand why, I studied his face, hidden by the shadows of night.
“Hey,” he said. “Don’t stare at me like that.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
The boy looked away, embarrassed. Something about that struck me as cute. I wanted to look more, but I knew he would leave if I did. I needed to change the subject.
“What do you think of the holy knights?” I asked. “I mean, what are they like from your point of view?”
“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know. Just tell me, okay?”
The boy rubbed the back of his head. “All right, all right. I mean, you did give me these sandwiches, after all. But why’re you asking me a question like that?”
“Because I work at the castle. I want to know what people from outside the castle think about the holy knights. I’m just curious.”
“Oh, okay.”
The boy told me then, in two simple words, exactly what he thought. And though they were just two words, they froze me to the core.
“They’re terrifying.”
Of course, it was obvious. There was a titanic divide between the stats of regular citizens and the holy knights with their powerful skills. Were an ordinary person to incur the wrath of a holy knight, their life could be erased in a blink. Moreover, the rank of holy knights entitled them to do so.
Worst of all, the holy knights were egotistical. Their way of thinking, their way of life, extended only as far as their own position. This worsened the peoples’ fear and uncertainty. This boy, immature as he was, understood as much through every mote of his being.
I felt guilt and remorse to be one of those who frightened him so…those who possessed holy skills. Even my father and his strength couldn’t fix what the kingdom’s holy knights had become. Perhaps they would never change.
Berserk of Gluttony (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Page 18