ILJV 09

Chapter 09

The knight’s name was Lionel Dilf. He belonged to the Frost Knight Order of House Oberon — specifically, the youngest member of the 5th Northern Division.
He really did his best to guard us. It was obvious to anyone watching that he was trying very hard.
The problem was, he only tried hard.

[What’s that guy doing?]

Harry, walking beside me, clicked his tongue and gave Lionel a pitying look.

[He’s full of openings. At this rate, you’ll be the one protecting him, not the other way around.]

Even someone like me, who knew nothing about swordsmanship, could tell he was hopeless.
He tripped over rocks on the road, dropped the sword that had been hanging securely at his waist…

[You could make a man out of paper and he’d still be sturdier than that one.]

With Harry’s cutting commentary, we finally reached our destination.
After twisting and turning through narrow, dark alleys, we arrived at a small orphanage.

“This is where I spent my childhood,” Emma said, giving me an embarrassed smile as she looked at the lamp in my hand.

“An adult can somehow endure the cold, but there are only children here, so I was worried…”

As soon as Emma stepped inside, I could see the cramped, dim interior.
Naturally, the fireplace was stone cold.

“Big sis?”

At the sight of Emma entering with the light, a little girl got up from her spot.
The children were all huddled together under thin rags.

They must’ve been trying to share body heat to survive the long, cold night, I thought.
But it clearly wasn’t enough. If Emma hadn’t brought fire, someone here might have frozen to death. Children were fragile like that.

“It’s big sis!”

“Big sis!”

One child’s cry quickly spread through the room, and soon a group of shabby-looking children rushed toward Emma.
Emma smiled gently and patted their heads.

“You must’ve been so cold. Just wait a little, I’ll light a fire soon.”

“You can’t. There’s no firewood,” one child pointed out.

Emma lifted up the black ironwood in her arms.

“What do you mean no firewood? See? I brought some.”

It seemed true that black ironwood was plentiful in the region; by the time we got here, Emma’s arms were already full from picking it up along the way.
But the kids just snorted.

“Eh, that’s black ironwood. It doesn’t burn.”

“It’s fine. I brought fire that can burn it. Just trust me.”

Emma stroked the children’s heads and then went to the fireplace.
While she was filling it with the black ironwood, the kids’ attention turned to me, Harry, and Lionel.
Among us, Harry was definitely the favorite.

“Wow! A dog!”

“Doggy!”

The children squealed and rushed at him. As they hugged, petted, and kissed him, Harry cried out:

[Ah! What the—?! What are these things?! I can’t breathe!]

Lionel wasn’t doing any better — surrounded by children as well.

“What’s this? A sword?”

“D-don’t touch that! It’s dangerous!”

“Then why do you carry something dangerous?”

“Because I’m a knight. It’s okay for me.”

“Liar. Knights don’t look like you!”

“…So I don’t look like a knight, huh?”

But unlike the two of them, who were drowning in children, I had plenty of space.
Around me, there was a neat, empty circle — as if someone had drawn a line in the floor.

Guess my villain face is too scary for kids to come near.

When I walked toward the fireplace with the lamp in hand, the children quickly stepped aside, faces tense.

That’s when it happened.

“Ahhh!”

A little girl tripped as she hurried to move out of my way.

If she had just fallen, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But as she fell, her hand struck the lamp I was holding.
The lamp flew out of my hand and hit the floor. The small flame inside flickered out in midair before it could even land.

Emma froze mid-motion as she was feeding wood into the fireplace.

“The fire… The blessed fire…”

She looked broken, repeating the word fire like a machine stuck in a loop.
The girl who had tripped looked on the verge of tears — she didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she could tell she’d done something bad.

“What do we do, milady? That fire… we barely managed to bring it out of the manor… That was no ordinary flame…”

Emma sank down in front of the fireplace, tears welling in her eyes.

“The fire… without it, the children will… freeze…”

“B-big sis, I’m sorry! It’s my fault! Please don’t cry!”

The girl who’d fallen quickly stood up and tried to comfort her, but that only made Emma sob harder.
Soon she was clutching the girl and crying loudly.

And just like that, Emma’s tears spread like an infection through the room.
First the girl she held, then the boy next to her, then the girl beside him — until all the children were wailing in unison.
The orphanage was filled with the sound of crying.

Watching a dozen kids all bawl together was such a sight that I couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Unbelievable. Why do I keep running into crying people today? Am I doomed to be a babysitter tonight?

I scratched my cheek and stood before Emma, who was crying the loudest.
If I wanted this noise to stop, I had to calm her first.

“Don’t cry. When you cry, the kids cry too.”

“But, the fire, and the children, they’ll f-freeze, hic!”

There was no sign she’d stop.
There was only one way to end this noisy chaos.

Guess I have no choice.

I gave Harry a look.
He barely managed to free himself from the kids and stumbled toward me, fur ruffled and messy.
I knelt down to smooth his fur and glanced at the fireplace filled with black ironwood.

[Harry, we need fire. Like before.]

[There are too many witnesses. I thought you wanted to keep the manor incident as a “miracle” that happened by accident?]

[That was the plan, but…]

I slowly looked around at the children — thin, frail, wrapped in tattered rags.
Emma had been right. Without warmth, they wouldn’t survive the night.

[If I hadn’t seen it, maybe I could ignore it. But now that I have… I can’t just walk away. I’m still human, you know?]

Honestly, I wasn’t the type to go out of my way to do good deeds.

Volunteer work? Donations? Please. I barely had time to take care of myself.

But when someone desperate stood right in front of me, I wasn’t cruel enough to ignore them.

Maybe most people are like that.

I was just another one of those ordinary people.

[So, Harry — we need fire.]

[Well, if that’s what my contractor wants.]

Harry’s voice carried a faint hint of amusement.
The next moment, flames burst from the fireplace.

“Waaah!”

Startled, Lionel let out a scream and fell flat on his butt.
Emma gasped and hiccuped again, and the children’s crying died down.
The air in the orphanage began to warm, the black ironwood burning steadily.

“…Big sis, is she a witch?”

One boy stared wide-eyed at the fire and asked timidly.
I just smiled and didn’t answer, then turned to Emma.

“Emma, remember what we promised back at the manor?”

She nodded, still hiccuping.
I asked again, to make sure.

“What do we do about what we saw and heard today?”

“We forget everything.”

Correct answer.
I smiled in satisfaction and stood up.

“We should go back to the manor. Emma, stay a bit longer and calm the children.”

Emma jumped to her feet in surprise.

“No, milady, I’ll escort you back.”

“Emma, you’re not the only one here with a mouth, you know.”

Meaning: Make sure the kids keep quiet too.
Thankfully, Emma caught my drift quickly.

“My mistake. I’ll make sure no one talks.”

I nodded, then gestured to Lionel, who was still pale and dazed.

“Sir Lionel, you’re coming with me.”

“Y-yes, my lady!”

He scrambled up and hurried to my side — leaving his sword behind.

Seriously, is this guy even fit to be a knight?

At the same moment, Harry sighed.

[Contractor, can we just leave him here? Watching him is giving me a headache.]

Even on the way back to the manor, Lionel couldn’t stop fumbling.
He was twice as flustered as he’d been on the way there. Clearly, seeing black ironwood burn had shaken him to his core.
I had left the children’s silence to Emma — but this man’s silence was my responsibility.

“Sir Lionel.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“What you saw and heard today…”

I trailed off intentionally, and Lionel immediately stiffened. His voice came out solemn and tight.

“I won’t tell anyone. Not a single soul.”

“Good. Because if I ever hear rumors about tonight, I’ll assume they came from you, and then…”

“And then…?”

“I’ll take one of your fingers.”

It was an absurd threat, but with this timid extra of a knight, it might just work.
And indeed, it did.

“Hiiiik!”

Lionel’s face went pale as he gasped. You could practically see him thinking, The rumors were true!

“I swear! I won’t say a word! I promise!”

“Good. I’ll trust you then.”

As he bobbed his head repeatedly, I pointed behind him.

“But that sword back there — doesn’t it look familiar? It’s awfully similar to yours.”

It was his sword, lying on the ground.
Lionel followed my finger and blinked.

“You’re right. It does look just like mine. But this type of sword isn’t common enough to just be lying— wait. Is that my sword?”

He started patting around his waist in panic.
Harry sighed again, a tired grin on his face.

[Contractor, it’s not too late. Let’s ditch him.]

Emma stared at the blazing fireplace, lost in thought.

Ivria Oberon. A name she’d heard to the point of exhaustion.

Since Erel was part of the Oberon duchy, servants often whispered rumors about the main household — and no one was more talked about than Ivria.
Because her stories were the most scandalous.
When you’re toiling through hard days, what better way to pass the time than with juicy gossip?
They say she did this. They say she did that.
The more outrageous, the better.

There were many ways to describe Ivria — most of them negative.
The witch who turned the capital upside down.
The disgrace of House Oberon.
The delinquent even the duke disowned.
Violent, arrogant, and utterly self-centered — that’s how people spoke of her.

So when Emma was told she’d be serving as Ivria’s personal maid, she had despaired.
She’d heard that Ivria once cut out a servant’s tongue for a slip of the tongue.
How could anyone survive under such a monster?
If the baron hadn’t doubled her pay, she might have quit on the spot.

But the real Ivria she met was nothing like the rumors.

Even when I tried to steal her precious fire…

Rather than punishing her, Ivria had come all the way out of the manor to help share warmth.

Emma reached her hands toward the fire.
The warmth seemed to melt her frozen body.

“Big sis.”

The little girl who had knocked over the lamp came up to her.

“Who was that lady earlier?”

Emma smiled at the cautious question.

“She’s the one I serve — and the one who just saved all of you.”

“So she’s a good person?”

Emma paused to think.
The Ivria from the rumors was far from good. Her supposed past deeds said the same.
But the Ivria Emma had seen today was different.

“Yes. She’s a good person. Don’t you think so?”

“Hmm… She made us warm, so I think she’s a good person.”

“Right?”

“Yeah. And she was really pretty.”

The girl’s cheeks flushed as she added brightly,

“I’ve never seen anyone that pretty before. She looked a little scary, but so, so pretty.”

“That’s right. Our lady is very beautiful. A little scary-looking, but beautiful.”

Emma laughed softly as she agreed —
and without realizing it, she had started calling Ivria our lady.