CHAPTER 6
GOOD LOSER
1
Intense battles were unfolding all around the Pleiades Watchtower.
Emilia was challenging the oblivious Holy Dragon, Ram was gnashing her teeth at Lye Batenkaitos’s maliciousness on the lower floors, and Subaru and two little girls were doing everything they could to save their comrade out in the sands.
The clash of swordsmen on the second floor, Electra, was just one furious struggle among many. However, there was no changing the fact that it was utterly one-sided.
“Oraoraoraora! C’mon! I’m down one chopstick, fighting one-handed, and you still can’t touch me? Are you jokin’? Huh? Are ya?!”
“Grgh…”
Roaring heartily, the man with long red hair kicked with immense force.
Intercepting it with the hilt of the sword in his hand, the elegant knight leaped back a great distance. He couldn’t completely nullify the impact, only disperse it. And before he could steady himself, the next blow was already coming.
Time and time again, this scene repeated itself on the second floor that had become a raging battlefield.
When he saw the knight leap away yet again, the swordsman muttered in exasperation.
“Pinnin’ your hopes on an explosion? Think your sword’ll change if your mood changes? If so, when exactly are you gonna make it happen? Or…”
Reid’s lips twisted as he shook his head. He glared with open disdain at the knight who was facing one of the greatest swordsman of all time.
“…Are you plannin’ to lose, relyin’ on the only trick you know? You gonna be satisfied with that?”
“—You are quite indulgent in your comments.”
The knight on the other end of Reid’s continuous barrage of insults—Julius—softened his expression.
“You have said similar things to me time and time again. A boring fighting style, polite sword techniques, lacking in freedom…I happen to have some familiarity with those complaints.”
“Hah, figures. Anyone’d feel the same, watchin’ you, even if they aren’t my level. There ain’t nothing to your sword but desperation.”
“…‘Desperation,’ you say.”
Reid’s comments were not derived from any sort of sublime aesthetic.
Most likely, he was just saying whatever he felt in the moment. That he grasped Julius’s true nature nonetheless was because those blue eyes, even with one intentionally covered, saw through everything.
To him, Julius’s ideals might look like a shallow facade hiding his true character.
“ ”
A quick glance behind him confirmed the presence of the woman watching over their fight.
She was, to Julius, a duplicate of the woman who was the most precious being in the world to him. However, she was a woman who had been occupied by another person. Though it was beyond their control, they had persisted in such a hollow lord and retainer bond ever since the battle in the Water Gate City nigh two months ago.
“Thinking back on it, you and I should have spoken more frankly.”
“Julius…?”
“Had we done so, we might have become good friends. Since we both care for and admire the same woman.”
Julius corrected his collar that had gotten ruffled in the fighting.
Even if he had abandoned the pretense of being nameless, he would never cease to be a knight. Reid scoffed in annoyance yet again when he saw how adamant Julius was.
“You know, I was hopin’ that you would change when that other babe and the broad behind you showed up. Maybe you’d finally come at me ready to win, no matter what it took or how it looked. That’s what I wanted to see. You don’t understand yourself, do you?”
“ ”
“You act all nice and proper, like a knight, but that ain’t the real you. Deep down, you’re a stick swinger just like me. All this stuck-up, formal shit just gets in the way.”
Pointing his chopstick at Julius, Reid wore a bitter look on his face.
In response, Julius closed his eyes. After a moment’s silence, he finally murmured, “I see. I feel like I finally understand.”
“Ahh? Understand what?”
“Why you are so relentless with me.”
As annoyed as he was, Reid never stopped talking to Julius. His methods were violent, and he most likely had no conscious intent to do so, but it seemed he was trying to teach Julius. A progenitor guiding those who followed in their footsteps.
Julius finally understood why Reid went to such lengths to lead him about by the nose.
“You saw in me what also exists inside you.”
The reason he had sneeringly berated Julius’s boring fighting style and polite swordsmanship was because he believed there was a slumbering lion underneath.
Julius personally believed it was a gross overestimation, but…
“Spare me complex crap like that, you scrawny beansprout. I just do what I want, how I want. And my instincts are tellin’ me that you’d be more interesting without that mask.”
“ ”
“That’s why I’m tryin’ to peel it off. You get it, too, right? Stay like that and you’ll never reach me. Stay like that and you won’t be able to look cool for the broad behind you.”
Julius smiled bitterly at seeing Reid jerk his chin, gesturing toward Echidna.
Reid’s eyes really were remarkable. He saw things so clearly.
He understood well that Julius Juukulius was a simple man who cared a great deal how others saw him.
“All the more reason I cannot bend my very being.”
“Say what?” Reid scowled.
“You are undoubtedly correct. Much of what you say rings true… It is a forgotten history in this world where everyone has forgotten me, but I am not the legitimate child of the Juukulius house,” Julius began, loud enough to reach Echidna, who was stoutheartedly facing forward.
This was the history of the Julius Juukulius forgotten by all save Natsuki Subaru.
“I was born to a mother who was a commoner and a father who abandoned his noble birth to be with her. So I am, in origin, a commoner. When my mother and father passed away, my uncle became my adoptive father and took me in. It was he who introduced me to the culture and education of nobility… Thus, my way of life is a manufactured one.”
“A botched sham, more like it.”
“It may very well be. At heart, I may simply be the same child running through the fields in commoner’s clothes and laughing with friends, a rustic child who knows nothing of grander ideals.”
Clueless as to what proper decorum was and without any lofty ideals to maintain, just living his days to the fullest. That was the kind of future he could have expected. But then that future disappeared, carried away in the same flash flood that took his parents away from him.
“Which is why I pretend myself a knight. I occupy myself with these pretensions, sealing away what some would call my true self.”
“You…”
“Ignorant and unknowing, I encountered an ideal. I dreamed of becoming a knight. I wanted to become a gallant and upstanding figure. That aspiration is what brought me here.”
There was a renewed strength in Julius’s yellow gaze as he adjusted his cape.
Reid had been annoyed, but now his expression showed suspicion. It was surprising that he stayed quiet even though he was being contradicted. The most outrageous, inconsiderate man was engrossed by Julius’s words.
Julius continued in a loud voice.
“I am an artless man. The superficial is often my first concern. I have come this far, believing that if I hold a splendid blade, wear impressive clothes, and speak with courtesy, I can become the man I want to be. And so I will continue holding on to that stubborn pride and pageantry.”
He knew there were people who despised such pretension. Natsuki Subaru was a perfect example. But Julius saw things differently.
“Good posture, upholding appearances, striving to embody the kind of person you wish to be seen as—those are a measure of one’s determination to endure. That is the facade I have dedicated myself to and will never betray.”
“ ”
“There are those who dismiss the value of appearances. However, I believe there as just as many who are dazzled by them. The same way I am so enthralled with knighthood.”
He couldn’t remember who first sowed the seeds of his admiration for knights. But in time, Julius became known as the Finest of Knights. The reason for that wasn’t his polished swordsmanship, nor his refined spirit magic. Nor was it the fundamental strength that underpinned both of those. It was because those around Julius Juukulius believed that the way he lived and the way of a knight were one and the same. Because his pomp and circumstance was so dazzling that it was the finest example they had of what a knight should aspire to be.
With that, Julius’s expression softened as he turned toward Echidna. He shook his head as he regarded the woman who was borrowing the form of his beloved master, the woman who regretted from the bottom of her heart that she couldn’t remember Julius.
He wanted to let her know that she shouldn’t feel guilty for it.
“There is no need to fear, regret, or bemoan what is forgotten. Because the place where you can find me will always be the chivalrous code that everyone knows, and the ideal who all aspire to follow.”
And he could say the same thing to they who had remained here for him.
“Sorry for everything, my sprouts. Clinging to our lost bond, unable to let go, I have troubled you all this time. I shall free you from that yoke now.”
Drawn by his voice, six vivid, glimmering lights came into view—six spirits, one of each attribute, Julius Juukulius’s six quasi-spirits.
The beings who he couldn’t bring himself to let go, who had been by Julius Juukulius’s side before he ever became a knight. They, too, had forgotten Julius when his name was stolen by Gluttony’s authority. However, the bond of spirit and contractor remained, and drawn by Julius’s innate blessing of spirit attraction, they had remained near and yet distant.
Believing that he could repair the bond he had with them if he recovered his name, he had not attempted to let them go.
It was an act of utter foolishness. With everything around him so horribly changed, he had not wanted to lose what little remained.
However…
“You did well to stay with me so long, my sprouts. I indulged myself in your affection, and in lingering attachment I refused to let you slip away out of a forlorn hope that I might return to those bygone days as if nothing had happened. Today, I shall relinquish that weak, pathetic, and cowardly self.”
As if in confusion, the quasi-spirits swayed while spinning around him.
Julius gently extended his arm to them. Seeing his hand outstretched like a perch, they obliged him by gathering there. Julius smiled at the faint lights resting upon his arm.
“I was afraid of change. However, there are things that cannot be gained without the resolve to lose something first. Such as the seed of love sprouting into full bloom. Perhaps even a future where I might see just what sort of flowers you sprouts might become after spending so much time at my side.”
“ ”
They didn’t respond.
However, it seemed as if they anticipated what would happen next, and Julius did not want to keep them any longer…
“My sprouts! I shall free you. Forgive me for clinging so long to a broken bond.”
With his words, the quasi-spirits flew away from his arm. It seemed as if they had all been struck by something. In truth, something did pierce Julius and the quasi-spirits—a pain that almost felt like a jolt of lightning.
The bond that had linked their souls had been severed. Only a spirit mage could understand the pain that came with losing that connection shared with a being that had been bound to their soul. Julius had never experienced it before, but this was the same pain that had once left Emilia curled up and crying.
With this final act, Julius had carved a hole in their souls as he bade farewell to the six spirits. Feeling a terrible ache tearing at his chest, Julius experienced the detachment of souls. It was pain fundamentally different from when he had been forgotten by his sprouts due to Gluttony’s authority.
It wasn’t just Julius this time. The spirits should have felt the same pain. There was a chance they cursed the wound in their souls and regretted making a pact with a human.
However…
“Even so, I would call upon you once again.”
“ ”
“I love you. If you can accept the love of someone as pretentious as myself, then let us be bound once more. Let us forge a new pact!!!”
Julius raised his arm to the ceiling with a shout.
Hearing his call, the spirits that had scattered flickered quietly for a brief moment.
Their hesitation and indecision lasted an instant.
“ ”
A soft light enveloped Julius Juukulius’s entire body. A gentle warmth soothed the wound in his soul left by their severed pact.
There was joy. Anger. Sadness. Love. Regret. This swell of emotions encompassed the more than ten years they had spent together. Clearing the slate, they spun a new future together.
He didn’t know if that was the correct choice. But he wanted to believe it was.
He might make many more mistakes. He wouldn’t be able to always pick the correct path, and he would err. But when that happened, he would mold himself.
Even if he faltered, he wouldn’t be alone. Not anymore. So long as he continued forward, there was an ideal for him that had been built up by his wonderful predecessors. When it seemed his legs might fail him, he would be sustained by the warmth of his sprouts who continued to watch over him.
And when he looked back, he saw his lady, the woman he had vowed to serve with the ideals upon which he had forged himself.
What could the future hold that Julius Juukulius need fear?
“That’s right. My beautiful blossoms.”
Six sprouts—or rather, six maidens in full bloom answered.
There was a light…
“I shall continue along this path even as we hurt each other gently and deeply.”
The pain of the severed pact was soothed by a new bond.
As the six lights shone with a stronger glow than ever before, Julius Juukulius looked forward. Standing there was the man who represented the pinnacle of all those who lived by the sword.
However, he was not the object of Julius Juukulius’s envy.
He felt little compunction about cutting down his idol with a streak of rainbow light.
“I have kept you waiting, Sword Saint Reid Astrea. It is an honor to make your acquaintance.”
Swinging his knight’s sword, Julius grabbed the edge of his cloak and performed an elegant bow. Raising his face, transforming himself completely into one of the most admired symbols in this world, he introduced himself.
“I am the Finest of Knights, Julius Juukulius. I am the sword of the Kingdom that shall cut you down.”
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