****

“— Okay, Lucius, how about this?!”

Right after a whistling sound of the wind, the knight cadet, Sven, shouted.

Riese, who was dressed in men’s attire, clapped with her eyes shining. The wooden sword that Sven held in his grip drew a very impressive sword line.

“Amazing, Sven amazing!　Now that was a very beautiful kata!”

It was exciting to see someone’s improvement as a bystander.

Sven immediately broke into a happy smile at Rishe’s compliment, and then he quickly straightened up his stance.

“Uhm, this is natural with me… Hehehe.”

He swung his sword over and over again, tracing the feeling he had earlier. Repetition drill was one of the basics, so being proactive was beneficial.

Rishe lowered her wooden sword and estimated the time at the height of the sun.

“It’s about time, let’s take a short break and then we can clean up the training ground.”

“Hm, I’m not gonna let you beat me at cleaning. Let me just go and have a glass of water.”

“Okay, be back soon.”

Rishe saw Sven off as he headed towards the well and spun around.

“Hey Fritz, the match from earlier…”

“Whoa!”’

“Huh?”

As soon as she called out to him, Fritz, who was swinging his sword behind her, dropped his wooden sword. She seemed to have startled him.

“I’m sorry! I was concentrating.”

“Err, it’s nothing! No, you were focusing.”

Fritz’s fingers, which hurriedly tried to pick up his wooden sword, brushed against Rishe’s fingers, which tried to reach out at the same time. He only hit her once, just for a moment.

And yet, Fritz yowled and backed away.

“Wa~!!”“!”

What was the matter with him?

“– Oh, could it be static electricity? Funny, that shouldn’t happen during the humid season.”

“No, Lu! Why are your fingers so thin and delicate…!”

“F-fingers?”

She cringed at his words. She remembered that in her life as a knight, someone determined that she was a woman by her skeleton, so she hurriedly faked a smile.

“I guess it’s normal to be like this. Fritz and the others have been training, so maybe your hands are stronger than others.”

“R-right… That’s normal, normal…”

When she saw Fritz mumbling to himself, she was still worried. He said he didn’t get enough sleep yesterday, so she was sure wasn’t feeling well.

“Fritz, are you okay?”

“Uh, I’m fine! More importantly, are you alright?”

She blinked at his question.

“Yeah. I’m fine, my muscle pains have abated.”

“That’s great. But you don’t look so good today. You never looked depressed during training, no matter how hard it is. I’m worried because you looked a little down and seemed to be sighing earlier too.”

“!”

Rishe was surprised to know that he’d been watching her silently.

First of all, Fritz possessed the best qualities of a knight. He’s very observant of his surroundings, and it’s not an easy feat to be able to pay so much attention to others while training himself.

This kind of knight was also suitable to be a commanding officer. While feeling that Fritz was reliable, she apologized for worrying him.

“I’m sorry. Actually, I’ve been thinking about a lot of things.”

“I see. I won’t force you to share it, but if there’s anything I can do for you, just ask. Okay? It’s refreshing just talking to someone else.”

“Thank you, Fritz.”

“Haha, great!”

Fritz gave her a toothy grin.

“Just sit and rest a bit longer. Would you like me to get you some water?”

“No, I’m fine. But you should go get some water.”

“Hm, all right, I’m off then.”

After waving to Fritz on his way to the well, Rishe slowly sat down on the bench.

But, I can’t possibly talk to him about that…

She couldn’t talk about wanting to change the future of the war in a few years’ time, nor could she mention the issue at hand regarding friendly relations with the Koyor Kingdom.

Suppose Riese said, “What do you think it would take to get the two countries to form an alliance on equal footing?” It was a wonder what Fritz’s reaction would be if she discussed such things with him.

After eavesdropping on the conversation on the balcony last night, Rishe hasn’t got a chance to talk to Arnold.

To be precise, they had had a bland conversation. However, with the eyes of the guests of the evening party and the guard knights, she was unable to ask him anything intricate.

But even if they’d been alone together, she wouldn’t have mentioned his discussion with Kyle.

— I wonder if the events last night had ever happened in my previous lives.

She tossed and turned last night.

Holding her knees and pressing her forehead against them, Rishe contemplated.

Prince Kyle came to this country in the name of celebrating His Highness and my wedding. This is probably the first time that has ever happened.

Even if an exchange similar to last night’s conversation had happened in the past, Garkhain and Koyor had never formed an alliance. In other words, everything must have gone down the drain.

Once again, she felt that she couldn’t let this time pass.

Of course she wanted to prevent Koyor’s tragedy, but Rishe had other agendas in mind as well.

As he pondered in circles, a familiar presence approached her.

“– Alcott! You’re early.”

“Rovine-sama!”

Kata – a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements made to be practiced alone, and also within groups and in unison when training.