Flowers of Worship

Chapter 10

***

“Ms. Hastred will do her best to keep her father alive.”

I meant she isn’t too young to get hit on, but she sighed unexpectedly. Like someone who knows the truth.

“Ms. Hastred?”

She smiled when he called her again because he doesn’t see her responding at all.

“It’s Silli. Just call me Silli. I’m just Cecilia Sarian because I haven’t been recognized by the Hastreds yet.”

Cecilia Sarian. The noble’s honorific “G” is excluded from my presence because I am a superior person. This natural consideration warmed my heart. I thought she was really thinking of me as a prince.

“And of course, I will also do my best to honor my father’s will as his child. It’s just that I don’t know how.”

“……?”

“Where is your father’s will?”

She asked the biggest question. She could see him inhaling deeply as if he is frustrated.

Where is my father’s will? What did that king want me to do?

As soon as I was born, I was almost always with my uncle, Grand Duke Raphnell. It should be for the sake of educating me, but my uncle gave me a lot of freedom and did not let me study even if I wanted to. I have been doing what I wanted to do rather than studying, but my uncle did not let my father and mother know that. My father and mother, and people around me thought I am well educated. My uncle only made me study so that I could do well on my father’s test twice a year. It is a way to teach basic things and figure out problems in advance and memorize answers.

Now I know it’s very wrong. I feel keenly that it is not helpful to me. No matter how young the country is, when I heard other people’s thoughts about the king who is my uncle, Grand Duke Raphnell I knew what my uncle had decided what to do with my education, and who kidnapped me while I was swimming in the middle of the night.

“The will of the deceased is often done at the discretion of the living.”

I shouldn’t have.

Silli murmured. She looked genuinely curious about what my father meant and what he wanted me to do. As I looked at her, the moonlight highlighted her nose. Her nose formed an elegant and dramatic line. Her profile further highlighted her age beyond measure.

A good person.

I suddenly remembered the word. Silli is a woman who is good enough to use the word good. A person who thinks about the true meaning of his dead father is and cares everything about me. Being a knight of both magic and faith, and a knight of the continent at a young age, she didn’t try to show off and even tried to take care of everyone. She is doing all that work as if she is only breathing. She always had a unique smile.

What kind of person do I really want to be?

I wanted to be a holy knight to protect myself. I wanted to protect myself even if I faced the threat of kidnapping again. I thought I could protect myself if I am as strong as her.

“You have to go back now. It’s cold when you are dressed like that.”

I looked at the ashes from the pipe on the ground and she held out her empty hand towards me as if she wanted to hold hands.

“I can walk.”

I said with my chin up straight.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Silli smiled and raised her hand.

Heuk

Ack, as soon as I jumped up, barely swallowing my breath, what I saw was the faint morning sunlight between the skyring curtains. ‘Oh, it’s my room.’ I thought so and laughed. This is my room? No, not my room, my mind thought, is this a prison, or a barn, or an abandoned stable?

I’m afraid this moment is a dream. I’m afraid I’m finally going crazy and dreaming things. What if I am just scratching the walls of that stable, while drooling and dreaming? What should I do?

“What should I do to protect myself!”

I shouted like that last night, but Silli didn’t answer. She just told me not to walk on the bloody road.

A bloody road

That means he’s on that path again. And she probably doesn’t like that kind of road very much. Why? Why did she describe the path of the knight as a bloody road? That road would be an honor.

When the magic class begins, the magic teacher asks the conditions for becoming a holy knight.

“A holy knight should have both the divine and magical powers in its body. Mana is present upon the birth of an individual, but divine power is given through birth from the family, or from their blood. If you don’t receive any divine power in your house, you have a very small chance of being a holy knight.”

“Is there a magician in Silli’s family?”

“There’s a lot. She’s one of the high personnel in the family after all.”

The wizard answered meekly, but he looked a little surprised when I called her Silli. He seemed to think it is very rude of me to call her Silli because he didn’t know who I am. He probably thought of me as a guest of Silli. So I asked on purpose.

“Cecilia told me to call her Silli, but it’s a little weird. Why isn’t she called Cecil, but Silli?”

Then the magic teacher’s face brightened. When she found out the name I called her for is allowed by Silli, he answered in a manner that seemed to have dropped a burden on his thoughts.

“Her grandmother’s pet name is Cecil.”

“Huh?”

“Her grandmother’s name is Cecilia.”

Oh, so that’s the reason why.

When I nodded, the magician lowered his voice, saying, “Maybe.”

“Maybe you’re thinking of “Illyde.”

Illyde is the name of the heir. And Ilyde’s pet name is ‘Ily’. I barely endured the fact that my face almost got distorted when I am told that I am similar to Silli, so I thought it might have been in her mind. That’s nonsense. Why can’t he just name her “Illyde” then? It’s a little uncomfortable to give your daughter a nickname from your mother, so he just gave her another nickname.

I tried to concentrate throughout the magic class, but as soon as the class was over, I had no choice but to memorize all the memorable family members in my head. As expected, there is no new heir. There’s no faith in the bloodline of my family. That meant, I couldn’t be a holy knight.

But I can be the head after all.

***

Silli didn’t look great when he said he wanted to learn swordsmanship, but as usual, she did as he wanted. He is able to learn the sword from a dame called Sophia as a teacher. She didn’t say a word when he said he wanted to be a holy knight, but Silli looked to have noticed his train of thoughts and deliberately assigned Sophia, her deputy and a holy knight, as his sword trainer.

Sophia is a knight with a slim figure, dark skin, eyes, and aggressive swordsmanship. After learning swordsmanship from her for a few weeks, he finally learned the basics of swordsmanship. Her words were rather harsh, but she looked like a commoner with the way she acted and then became a knight and barely became a baron. She told him that a teacher who knows who he is but is still struggling with her student is useless. He had a sword art class every single day and grinded his teeth.

Sometimes, Silli would participate in the swordsmanship class. What is surprising to him is that she implemented it in a very sincere manner, carrying very basic things. I am dumbfounded when she does the basic thing of wielding a sword with him. But Sophia grabbed him by the shoulder and made me look at Silli.

“Look exactly at Your Grace.”

Sophia said.

“That’s the correct posture. It’s different from your staggering posture. That’s how you should do it.”

Let’s talk like this.

I frowned at the tip of my nose and couldn’t take my eyes off Silli’s appearance. Her white shirt, black leather pants, and a wooden sword a little bigger than I had were as beautiful and neat as a picture.

Sophia is my teacher, but I learned swordsmanship by looking at Silli. I thought I wanted to swing a sword like Silli. I liked Silli’s beautiful sword rather than Sophia’s aggressive sword style. Silli’s style is calm and elegant. Whenever I looked at her swordsmanship, I thought.

The bloody road

I don’t think her sword had a scent like that at all.

Silli did not say a word about my sword style. Sometimes she would only participate in swordsmanship class together, but I heard that her sword style is like that, and she never said a word of intervention. I am very troubled by the fact that she didn’t say good job or fix yourself like this. Why wouldn’t she say anything about my sword style? Is it too bad for her eyes? Of course it is, but for a child who only started, she must say something like you are doing great, try harder, or something like that.

From some point on, I was confused whether I was trying to be good at the sword or trying to get a word from Silli. Nevertheless, Silli did not say anything until the end.

***

By the time I started learning swordsmanship for nine weeks, a maid pushed a note, slightly visible under my soup bowl while I was eating. She did it without anyone noticing, so I naturally put the note in my sleeve.