Chapter 2: Deneb (1)
God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made six stars…
- Genesis 1:16
* * *
“First place in Group A, Luina Stello.”
At the sword instructor’s call, a blond girl rose to her feet. Her hair was so pale it seemed almost ready to melt in the sunlight. Cut short, it gave her a slightly boyish appearance, though her slight frame and delicate features made it clear she was a girl.
Witagium’s prospective students, who had been sitting rigid with tension, stared at her in disbelief. Hushed murmurs swept across the training ground.
“A girl made it to the finals?”
“And one that small?”
“What family is she from?”
“I’ve never heard the name Stello before.”
The whispers rippled outward, growing louder by the second. Even Arthur, the sword instructor, was unsettled beneath his stern expression. This was his seventeenth year teaching swordsmanship at Witagium, and Luina was the first girl ever to reach the finals.
Compared with archery, where the gender ratio was almost one-to-one, female students made up less than five percent of the swordsmanship program. Of course, there had occasionally been female students with exceptional swordsmanship skills. By the age of thirteen, however, the boys’ growing advantage in skeletal structure usually became difficult to overcome.
Arthur’s heart sank further when he thought of the name he had to call next.
“First place in Group B, Rowen H-Herden.”
Arthur had weathered his share of hardships over the years, yet even he stumbled over the name. As the second finalist was announced, sighs of regret rippled through the eighty students who had survived to the final stage of the swordsmanship entrance exam.
Rowen Heinrich Herden.
The boy who bore the very name of the empire. Even without considering the difference in physique, it was abundantly clear that this match would end in victory for the Group B winner. In fact, many students who had taken the test in Group B had failed to perform properly due to the pressure of facing the imperial prince of Herden.
However, most of them did not realize that even if they had fought with all their might, they would not have been able to defeat the prince. They simply resented what they saw as the self-indulgent whim of a pampered royal.
“Why does the imperial prince have to attend Witagium?”
“He’s making things uncomfortable for everyone.”
“Imagine how awkward the next eight years will be for the instructors.”
“If he doesn’t want to live in luxury, he could just graduate from some academy and take an easy post.”
“And why does he have to be our age?”
“Well, at least he’s good-looking.”
“What does that have to do with his being a soldier?”
Fully aware of the hostile atmosphere, the handsome blond boy stepped forward with an easy smile. After thirteen years in the imperial palace without a single dependable protector, Rowen had learned the art of courtly survival before he had learned to speak. That training allowed him to maintain a composed expression, though he was no more pleased with the situation than anyone else.
Were all the boys in Group A completely useless? Not one of them had managed to defeat a little girl. Surely they had not gone easy on her simply because she was of the opposite sex.
Rowen looked at the slender girl standing before him with a wooden sword more than half her height and suppressed a sigh. The match had already drawn far too much attention for him to indulge in chivalry.
His opponent looked far younger than the others, with gentle eyes that showed no trace of aggression and wrists so slender he felt he could snap them with his bare hands. If he crushed someone like her, people would call him merciless. If he somehow lost, he would never live it down.
Victory would gain him nothing; defeat would be humiliating.
“Damn it,” Rowen cursed under his breath. He should have let himself be eliminated midway through the exam, as originally planned, instead of reaching the final. If only Ferken hadn’t taken the match so lightly…
Rowen clicked his tongue at his own mistake. After much deliberation, he decided to make the match appear evenly fought for a time, then win by a narrow margin. No matter how he thought about it, that was the best outcome in the current situation.
“Let the match begin!”
Arthur raised the flag with a crisp motion and stepped back as Luina and Rowen lifted their wooden swords in unison. Her movements were swift and light, but seeing an opponent who looked completely harmless, Rowen could not help but sigh.
Up close, her delicate features were indeed very pretty. Guys must have gone easy on her, charmed by her face. The following warning he gave her was the least courtesy he could offer.
“Sorry, but I won’t be holding back, miss.”
Luina blinked her large eyes twice, momentarily bewildered by the unfamiliar form of address, then tilted her head. Go easy on me? As far as she could tell, no one in Group B could beat her… except the black-haired boy.
Before Rowen could read her expression, something sliced through the air. A wooden sword whistled past, barely grazing his bangs. Without his instinctive reflexes, the blow would have struck him squarely in the head. The smile that had been playing on Rowen’s face vanished.
He barely managed to step back and dodge the first attack, but the blows that followed came in a relentless barrage. Rowen’s grand plan to hold back while preserving his dignity shattered at once.
He could not predict the direction of Luina’s attacks, and she swung so quickly that the afterimages of one strike still blurred his vision when the next arrived.
Rowen rarely grew nervous, but cold sweat was already running down his back. His longer reach gave him an advantage. If he pushed forward with brute force, he might eventually land a blow. But where was he supposed to strike? What if he struck her badly and broke a bone?
The thoughts crowding his head immediately slowed his reactions. Only a few minutes had passed, yet Rowen was already struggling to keep up with Luina’s relentless attacks. She came at him with the ferocity of a maddened dog, and he barely had enough time to defend himself.
Rowen knew he was going to lose. Luina had already reached the same conclusion.
The watching instructors had gone ashen as well. Most students entering Witagium, which trained officers, were children of nobles, so everyone understood that one was expected to preserve a prince’s dignity in situations like this. However, Luina, being a commoner, had never been taught such considerations.
Yet, with so many eyes watching, they could not possibly deliver a biased ruling. That would tarnish the imperial military academy’s reputation, which reflected on the empire itself.
Arthur, having decided that the outcome was inevitable and he should end the match before the prince suffered further humiliation, was just about to lower the flag.
With a sharp crack, Rowen’s wooden sword spun from his hand, and Luina’s wooden sword stopped right beside Rowen’s neck.
A heavy silence descended over the training ground. No one dared to speak.
Rowen was the first to break the silence. He had spent all thirteen years of his life reading the moods of those around him. Brushing back his disheveled hair, Rowen smiled brightly and approached Luina, extending his right hand politely.
“That was truly amazing. Your name was…?”
“Luina Stello, Your Highness.”
The corners of Rowen’s mouth dipped slightly as he watched Luina bow instead of taking his hand. If he failed to set the tone between them now, he would spend the next eight years isolated from his classmates. He had not gone to such lengths to come here only to remain an outsider.
Keeping his pleasant expression firmly in place, Rowen ground his teeth, stepped closer, and took Luina’s hand anyway. Then he flashed her a dazzling smile. Silently, he thanked his mother for passing down the beauty that had once captivated the emperor himself.
Every detail of his smile—even the curve of his eyes—had been carefully calculated. It was Rowen’s greatest weapon, and it had never failed him before.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Luina. Since we will be classmates, please call me Rowen. And I would be grateful if you spoke to me without formalities.”
“That might be… a little difficult.”
But even Rowen’s most reliable weapon had no effect on Luina. What now? Rowen met Luina’s clear eyes for a moment, then quickly changed tactics. Charm will not work on her. In that case…
“Please. This is my first time at school, and my first time making friends my own age. To be honest, I’m terrified everyone will exclude me.”
Fortunately, the appeal to her sympathy seemed to work. After a brief hesitation, Luina gave a reluctant nod. Only then did Rowen let go of her hand and take a step back. He knew better than to press his advantage.
“All right, Rowen.”
“Thank you so much, Luina. And if it is not too much trouble, may I ask who taught you swordsmanship?”
Taught? Luina considered the question with complete seriousness. She had sparred a bit with retired soldiers in her village before the entrance exam, but if she had to name a teacher…
“I learned the basic movements from reading Livan Moriarty’s Swordsmanship Manual. After that, I practiced with the retired soldiers in my village.”
“What?” Too stunned to respond, Rowen fell silent. Luina offered him a brief farewell and turned to leave without hesitation. Once no one was looking, a faintly proud smile touched her face.
Witagium covered every student’s tuition and living expenses. On top of that, the top-ranked entrant in each program received a special scholarship until graduation.
It was not a fortune, but it was enough to treat the younger children at the orphanage to a special meal at least twice a month.
Luina had wanted it more than she cared to admit. She just never imagined she’d actually come in first.
Objectively, she thought she was the best in Group A, but there was one boy in Group B who wielded his wooden sword as effortlessly as if it were a pair of chopsticks. Even at a glance, his skill was on a completely different level.
Luina knew she was never going to beat him—not with her current skills. Recalling his overwhelming skill, Luina glanced around in sudden confusion.
But why hadn’t that boy made it to the finals? There was no way Rowen could have beaten him. Had he gone easy on Rowen because he was a prince?
Oh, no! Was I supposed to do that too? The realization hit her far too late, and she swallowed hard.
Luina’s instincts were sharper than anyone else’s. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for her social instincts. She knew that better than anyone. She let out a short sigh.
Luina was rarely intimidated by anything, but even she could not entirely suppress her unease about what lay ahead.