Chapter 10: 10

Keeper of Secret

After staring at Sheila for a while, Claushezade eventually took a long breath.

“…. Anyway, Felix-sama has given me an order. I have a duty to protect you. First, let’s settle your living arrangements.”

“What do you mean by ‘living arrangements’? As long as I have a place to sleep and food to eat, I think I can manage.”

When Sheila answered with a straight face, Claushezade held his head grimly. It was her own fault for making the knight of her dreams make this gesture within ten minutes of meeting him. Sheila turned her eyes away from the awkwardness.

“What are you going to do about the bath and the toilet?”

“Well…. I’d just have to endure the toilet, and the bathroom is a private room, so I thought I could just try not to look around. I think I can manage that much.”

“It’s a stupid plan that can’t even be called a plan. It seems that you don’t yet have the talent to be a commander in charge of making a plan.”

Miffed, Sheila quickly rebutted.

“It’s true, but even if I become a knight, I don’t want to rise in the ranks. I am fine with being an officer.”

“I’m not talking about your ambitions. What if the commander becomes incapable of giving command during an operation? Would you expect someone else to do something about it?”

“!!”

During the course of a mission, all possibilities must be considered. The commander may be absent, become incapacitated from combat, or even lose his life. If the remaining superiors have to immediately formulate a plan of action, the useless will only slow them down.

Sheila turned her head down in frustration as if he had just pointed out that she wasn’t prepared enough to be a knight by just talking about her dream of becoming one.

“… I’m sorry. If there is such a class, I will study it seriously. But if I have to take command in the field, I will entrust the operation to someone who is superior to me, even if they’re subordinate to me. In return, I will assume full responsibility.”

After a pause, Claushezade smiled with satisfaction.

“Hmm. Not a bad answer.”

Sheila’s face almost lit up, but tightened her attention to the words that followed.

“Never judge for yourself whether what you are about to learn will be useful or not. Whatever knowledge you have will eventually come in handy somewhere. It is outrageous to be selective.”

“Yes!”

Because of the fact that she was transferred to a six-year school from the fourth grade, she only had three years to study. Since she was already behind other students, she certainly didn’t have time to be picky. She’d changed her mind and decided that from now on she’s going to be proactive in learning anything, even etiquette.

“Now, here’s the plan. Most people will assume that I’m being hard on you because I’ve called you out by name in a public place in a big way. If I call you out repeatedly, it will be as a form of punishment. It’s more convenient that way.”

“Yes.”

“First, about the baths, I’ll work it out by recommending you to be the bathhouse cleaner. If there is a pretext to clean it, you won’t feel uncomfortable going in alone at the end of the day.”

“Yes.”

Was that so that people around her would mistake it for a punishment on their own? She didn’t think that the call at the opening ceremony, which wasn’t possible in the first place, was so thoughtful.

“The restrooms are a little farther away, but you can use the one at the end of this floor. This floor is reserved for the teachers of the special knight course, but at the moment there are no other teachers on this floor except me. I don’t use it, so you can feel free to use it.”

“Oh, I can’t let Claushezade-sensei worry about that. I don’t have any particular qualms about going to the restroom with the boys….”

“Just do as I told.”

“Yes! I’ll use it!”

Feeling a strange pressure, Sheila immediately changed her opinion.

Claushezade rubbed his brow with a fed-up look.

“I thought Felix-sama was being terribly overprotective, but this is certainly….”

He muttered bitterly. Sheila was secretly impressed that although he was expressionless, he was surprisingly not emotionless. It was complicated, though, because it was she who was the one causing the trouble.

Claushezade regained his composure and returned to the subject.

“Dormitory rooms are usually shared, but I was able to secure a single room with a few problems.”

It was hard to pay attention to her needs until she went to bed. Sheila once again thanked Claushezade for his concern.

“Thank you, that’s very helpful. But what do you mean by problems?”

“It’s too small and there are no adjoining rooms. The children of aristocrats usually have attendants with their own rooms, so they are put off by the inconvenience of not having a second room.”

“Well, if it’s that much, I don’t have any problems at all. I don’t have any servants, and everywhere I’ve gone it’s been too spacious for me to feel comfortable, so on the contrary I’m very happy.”

Sheila smiled and assured him, and Claushezade nodded.

“Hmm. That’s about all the problems for now. If you have any concerns, please contact me immediately.”

“Yes.”

“I will also put you on the special course to keep you by my side as much as possible.”

Clauschezade put his hand on his chin and looked thoughtful.

Come to think of it, Cody also said that starting at age 15, classes were divided into special and general courses. Since Claushezade was taking the special course, it wouldn’t be convenient for Sheila to be in the general course.

“How do I get into the special course?”

“Only the best students can enter the special course. However, no matter how good you are with a sword, if you can’t use magic, there is no chance at all. Most of the course is made up of aristocrats with magical powers.”

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It was difficult to confront those who could use magic, without magic. It was a natural conclusion. In addition, she was asking to be put on the special course.

“…. Umm. Then, it’s hopeless for me to enter…”

“You have a special skill, don’t you?”

She had guessed that Claushezade was speaking on the premise of using the spirit arts, so she was able to quickly refute him.

“But Felix told me that I shouldn’t use it unless it’s an emergency.”

“Now is that very time. The point is to use it in such a way that it won’t be discovered.”

“Isn’t that kind of thing called perversion…?”

Sheila didn’t fail to notice that and grinned. Claushezade continued to talk with a blank expression on his face.

“However, it is also inconvenient if you use the spirit arts too conveniently in your daily life. It’s troublesome, but it’s better if no one notices your ability. That’s why I prepared this.”

What he pulled out of his pocket was a bracelet with a series of round stones. The conversation took an unexpected turn, and Sheila accepted it with a puzzled look on her face.

“What is this?”

“It’s a magical tool to suppress the activation of magic. It’s effective for magic, but it shouldn’t be a problem for spirit arts. Only I can deactivate it, so make sure you come back here to remove it before the test.”

“So it’s a done deal that I’m going to use the spirit arts in the proficiency test…?”

She tried to remove the bracelet that was firmly stuck on her wrist, but it wouldn’t come off her skin as if each stone had stuck into it.

Claushezade nodded with satisfaction.

“Your goal is to perform well on the proficiency test. At the same time, you need to learn about manners. I will teach you that. However, be prepared for the fact that I will not be lenient.”

Sheila was full of motivation, although she had many things to think about, such as which spirit techniques would keep her from being discovered during the match, and what spells to cast when exercising them.

“I’ll do my best since I’ll be taught directly by Claushezade-sensei!”

Claushezade’s seemed to relax, if only slightly, as she said this with a smile.

Thus, the knight of her dreams also became a collaborator in her school life.

◇　◆　◇

After greeting the dorm supervisor and going through the dormitory entrance procedures, Sheila entered the dormitory.

Unlike the main building and the staff building, the dormitory was built of wood, so the warmth of the wood was comforting. It was more familiar to Sheila than the stone building.

On the first floor of the dormitory, at the end of the hall, was a common room. There, Cody and Zechs, who were worried about Sheila, were waiting for her. In Zechs’ case, he was more curious than concerned.

“Are you okay? Did you get punished badly?”

“Hey, Sheila. That scary-looking teacher is new, right? What was it like talking to him?”

“Zechs, this is not the time for such questions.”

“You’re really serious. It’s just a little joke, you know?”

Conversations were exchanged in rapid succession in front of her eyes, and she could sense the scale of their relationship. Zechs, who knew the importance of information, was born and raised in a merchant family.

“Um, I was assigned to clean the bathrooms. Even though he looked expressionless and scary, Claushezade-sensei is a very good and solid teacher.”

When they heard that she was to be in charge of cleaning the bathrooms, they both looked at each other sympathetically. It seemed that they thought it was a punishment, just as Claushezade had intended.

Zechs patted Sheila on the shoulder.

“Well, I’m just glad it was only that bad. It means that Leidyrune-senpai wasn’t mad at you, right?”

“I’m also going to have some etiquette lessons because I didn’t know how to deal with aristocrats.”

It was Cody who responded to Sheila’s words.

“Heh, I’m a little jealous of that. I can’t believe you’re getting direct instruction from Claushezade-sama.”

His cheeks were slightly upturned. His eyes, shining with longing, were like those of a small child. Apparently, Cody had known about Claushezade for a long time.

“Is he famous?”

“Of course! He’s nothing short of amazing!”

Cody answered excitedly. He was so energetic that they were a little taken aback.

“He was the youngest person ever to be assigned to the Kingsguard at the age of 13! It was during the political upheaval, but it was unheard of for a student who hadn’t yet come of age to be selected for the Knights of the Kingsguard!”

Even as a student, his abilities were unmatched by those around him, and he has been remembered favorably by His Majesty. With the shortage of trustworthy knights due to the political upheaval, it was only natural that Claushezade was chosen.

“What’s even more impressive is that he was able to silence those who opposed him with his abilities, even though there must have been a lot of backlash because of the circumstances! He was so active on the battlefield that he is said to have lost count of the number of medals he has received!”

“T-that’s amazing.”

She couldn’t really say that Cody’s talkative.

Sheila continued to listen to the endless heroic story of Claushezade, based on the fact that she didn’t know what kind of knowledge would be useful.

Zechs escaped at some point.

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