Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 136

The defeated one fell to the ground, struck against the wall by Lord Polydoro’s thirteenth strike.

It seemed like a knockout, but not a fatal blow.

Without even a glance, Lord Polydoro began to walk away.

It wasn’t that he considered his opponent unworthy of recognition.

“Strong, indeed.”

He muttered softly.

It wasn’t just the defeated who could keep up with Lord Polydoro’s flurry of blows for the first time.

I understand the intention, but—

“It looks like an easy victory.”

“There is a gap in our skills. However, no one has shattered and died from receiving my full force.”

Lord Polydoro is wielding violence with all his might and soul.

The result does not appear as if the opponent shatters like glass.

But for me, Alexandra, I have never been able to demonstrate such strength.

“Lord Polydoro, weren’t you serious in our sparring matches?”

“—I did not hold back.”

After the Virendorf campaign, in the capital of Anhalt, during our training, he never went all out in sparring.

I thought I couldn’t win, but I could be his rival.

It’s a bit frustrating.

“If you wanted to go all out, you should have told me.”

I couldn’t imagine winning.

But, like the defeated earlier, I had the skill to keep up in swordplay.

“It would be troublesome if the battlefield was filled with spears and arrows,” enough to make me recognize the challenge.

There was no need for me to deal with such a bizarre, superhuman group like the “Mad Boar Knights.”

“You—”

Lord Polydoro moved his lips slightly, troubled.

“I did not want to injure you. I’m sorry.”

From the way he sounded, truly troubled, I forgave his apology.

If it had been from any other knight, I would have raged at the insult.

“—After this matter is resolved, let’s have a match.”

But it seemed Lord Polydoro was genuinely troubled and sincerely apologizing.

Did he not want to hurt me because we are comrades-in-arms?

Or because he has feelings for me?

I wanted to ask if it was the latter, but I know I am not being overly self-conscious; it’s the former.

As the fiancé of Valiere, the Second Princess, I should not harbor such unrequited love.

However, I can’t stop my feelings.

If I were to end up like my lord Anastasia, who seems like she could devour humans, or Duchess Astarte, driven mad by lust, then it would be excusable for me to join in too.

There aren’t many sane people in that country; my joining would hardly tip the scales.

As the captain of the Queen’s Guard for Anastasia, I will uphold my contract, but I wonder if he could give me enough money to buy some land as a sign of affection.

Or if I could raid the lands of some corrupt lords, plunder them, and be given such jobs where I can steal money.

As a lord and knight, I want to buy Lord Polydoro’s chastity with the money and position I acquire, have a child with him, and enjoy small dinner parties with that child and Lord Polydoro.

These are the humble, petty dreams I, Alexandra, have.

Surely, they should be fully accepted.

So I thought.

“Understood.”

Lord Polydoro muttered, unaware of my thoughts.

—Well, it’s all for later.

“They’ve appeared.”

Yue-dono muttered softly.

After a short walk, the fifth superhuman was there, standing upright.

It seems she noticed us and waved her hand—huh?

She waved her hand joyously, as if meeting a dear friend.

“What’s with her?”

Yue-dono was the first to voice the question.

It makes sense to wonder.

She’s about to fight Lord Polydoro to the death, be beaten severely enough to crawl on the ground in pain.

It’s troubling to be approached so amicably.

“Well, she’s a subordinate of Duchess Temeraire.”

I muttered while tilting my head.

Even if it’s insane, mentioning that name could make it somewhat understandable.

The three of us continued walking.

Eventually, at a distance slightly too far for Lord Polydoro’s great sword to reach, we confronted the fifth superhuman.

“Sun Salutation!”

She stretched her arms high above her head.

Thrusting her chest forward, she seemed to be worshiping the sun, as her words suggested.

In other words, completely defenseless.

Her neck seemed within reach if a sword were extended.

Lord Polydoro likely had no intention of doing so, and neither would she on the battlefield.

Still, it was an inappropriate stance for a duel opponent.

“Please join us!”

She called out to us.

Lord Polydoro, looking a bit troubled, tilted his head and then stretched his arms high above his head like her. Are we really doing this?

I didn’t want to, but Lord Polydoro was participating.

Even Yue-dono, after a moment of puzzled expression, assumed it was some kind of sacred ritual in the Holy Gusten Empire.

Completely deceived as a pitiful foreigner, she adopted the pose, hands spread wide and chest thrust forward.

It couldn’t be helped.

I did the same.

Stretched my arms wide and arched my chest, adopting a pose of praising the sun.

“Sun Salutation!”

She shouted again.

The four of us struck an odd pose together, feeling somewhat foolish.

“Thank you! Thank you!”

She spoke with a cheerful voice, genuinely smiling with joy.

“I am known as ‘The Shadowed One’ in the ‘Mad Boar Knights’. I deeply regret that I cannot reveal my true name to you, Lord Polydoro, even as we share this gesture of friendship. Please forgive me!”

“Disinherited” had abandoned her family name in a rage.

“Samurai” no longer used hers due to distancing from her country.

“Knight of Cologne” was too insane for anyone to care about her name.

“The Defeated” had lost interest in everything in this world except for Duchess Temeraire, perhaps even forgetting her own name.

So, why does “The Shadowed One” not reveal her name?

I pondered, but—

“I don’t mind.”

Lord Polydoro, with an extremely gentle and melting voice, gives his consent.

With this, I cannot ask for the reason.

“Now, I will not force you to reveal your name. However, I would like to hear about your origins. I won’t force this either.”

Again, it was a gentle voice.

Sometimes, Lord Polydoro speaks with such an extremely gentle voice.

For the most part, Martina monopolizes that voice.

I occasionally chat with that girl and have built a friendly relationship, but—

—I dislike how Martina, the moment she is spoken to kindly by Lord Polydoro, responds with a cloyingly sweet voice.

That is clearly not a child’s voice but one she uses towards someone she recognizes as a man.

Is that girl, a 9-year-old ward, infatuated with her guardian, Lord Polydoro?

Ah, I’m thinking about irrelevant things.

“Do you dislike it?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m pleased, but I will answer you.”

The person in the shadows answered with a soft voice.

“It is because we are from the shadows. Now, Lord Polydoro, are you familiar with the island country to the west of the continent?”

Ah, this island country to the west of the continent.

I know of it, but Lord Polydoro is not much—

“I know it.”

My mind isn’t great.

I understand that and am terribly excited by the thought of deceiving poor Lord Polydoro and pinning him down in bed.

While I thought this, it seems he does know.

“So, do you know of the island further west of that western island? It’s not too small. It might be small compared to the continent and that island, but I’d like to think it’s not too small.”

It sounds somewhat self-deprecating.

I found it odd, but I don’t know.

Yet—

“I know it.”

It seems Lord Polydoro knows.

“Ah.”

The person in the shadows groaned.

Why, I do not know.

Perhaps, his heart wavered because Lord Polydoro, true or not, answered “I know.”

“So, do you know the history of my country? How my country was plundered of its harvests, our ancestral customs were banned, our language prohibited, and we were oppressed?”

The previously cheerful words changed.

The words of the person in the shadows were filled with hatred.

“I’m sorry.”

Lord Polydoro apologized.

“I don’t know much about that. I truly apologize.”

Why apologize like that?

I thought so, but Lord Polydoro looked just as troubled, if not more, than before.

“I’m sorry.”

But Lord Polydoro apologized sincerely.

It seems to have reached the person in the shadows.

“—I apologize. I forced someone who knew nothing.”

The person in the shadows apologized to Lord Polydoro.

Yet, the words continued.

“Essentially, I am from the island further west of the western island. My country was plundered of its harvests, our ancestral customs banned, our language prohibited, and we were oppressed. That’s why we sought help.”

“From whom?”

“From Duchess Temeraire, of course.”

Is Duchess Temeraire scheming something with the western island?

“Duchess Temeraire planned to destroy the western island by having a girl from a local bakery in my country perjure herself, claiming she was the orphan of the western island’s royal dynasty, using that as her banner.”

Wait.

“Wait a moment.”

I couldn’t help but mutter.

Lord Polydoro, Yue-dono, and the person in the shadows all looked at me.

“Please say that again.”

I requested it to be repeated.

“Duchess Temeraire planned to destroy the western island by having a girl from a local bakery in my country perjure herself, claiming she was the orphan of the western island’s royal dynasty, using that as her banner.”

“Wait!”

What are you talking about, Duchess Temeraire?

What are you scheming?

Her country’s island to the west of the continent, and even further west from that island.

Did you actually get the daughter of a baker from a country whose existence I wasn’t even aware of to challenge the powerful “Western Island,” which, as the First Princess’s royal guard, I of course know of, even though it’s far away?

“Duchess Temeraire, you’re insane!!” 

“What’s new?”

The person in the shadows smiled.

“Our sun, the great sun that is Duchess Temeraire, being insane, what’s new about that? There’s no way that sun could be a normal person.”

The person in the shadows, who worships her lord as the sun, had a slightly mad expression. I’ve only just realized it now. This person in the shadows is no ordinary superhuman. She’s a bit mad. Especially among the bizarre superhuman group called the “Mad Boar Knights.”

“There’s no way you could win!” 

“Indeed, we lost.”

The person in the shadows muttered sadly.

“Everyone lent their strength. The truth didn’t matter at all. If we could break free from the yoke of that hateful powerful island to the east, the truth was irrelevant. In fact, the town hailed the baker’s daughter as ‘a descendant of the dynasty that escaped the prison tower.’ Everyone lent their strength. Yet, we lost.”

“Of course you did!”

I shouted. There’s no way they could have won. The national powers are simply too different.

“I served in that war. Yet, we lost. Now, there is nowhere in the country for me to go. That’s when Duchess Temeraire said,”

“What did she say?”

Gradually, I could see where the story was going, but I muttered in place of Lord Polydoro.

“If you’ve nowhere to go, why don’t you come to me?” 

“You’re being deceived!”

Clearly, she was deceived. If she could have won against the Western Island, of course, that would have been fine. But that wasn’t the goal. Probably, even if she lost, ‘Well, I got the superhumans and other things I wanted, so it was a cheap purchase.’

I pressed on.

“Let me say this again, you’ve been deceived by Duchess Temeraire—” 

“Don’t insult me!”

However, the person in the shadows got angry. Essentially, this name “person in the shadows” was a self-deprecating name given because their existence, being from an island further west of the Western Island, is not even acknowledged by our country.

I kept silent, and the person in the shadows shouted.

“My sun, my Duchess Temeraire is not that clever!”

She shouted that her sun is stupid.

“My sun, my Duchess Temeraire said to the baker’s daughter who was made a banner, ‘You’re going to lose anyway, so run away. Come to me.'”

You, the baker’s daughter who became a banner? Duchess Temeraire had gathered material to make trouble for the Western Island.

“Duchess Temeraire said if she continued to rule the Holy Gusten Empire. If she ascended to the throne of the Empress, she could also rule the Western Island. That’s what he said!!” 

“Do you believe that?”

I voiced my doubt. Honestly, it was a doubt even without saying it.

“I don’t believe it.”

And as expected, that was the response. Yet.

“But my sun, the person who said that a mere baker’s daughter has the value to become a monarch of a nation, believes it. If she’s a superhuman, if her abilities have value, if I lend my power, she could be the Queen of the Western Island.”

Duchess Temeraire is insane.

“Just as you think, Duchess Temeraire is insane,”

The person in the shadows murmured, as if reading my thoughts.

“She has no interest. Not in skin color, not in the country of origin, not in birth. Even criminal history, such things are minor considerations to her. Whether she’s a baker’s daughter, or born from a family that produced Empresses, she has no interest in such things.”

“Has such a person ever been above us? If that sun wasn’t shining in the sky, I would probably be a civilian selling bread in a bakery by now.”

The person in the shadows muttered. I think that would have been better. The person in the shadows doesn’t seem to think so.

“Indeed, that person, that sun, has flaws. Being stupid is a flaw. There are other flaws too. Hating men, not having children, filled with such unsuitable fixations for a sun.”

I’ve thought about it many times. This person in the shadows is mad.

“Yet, if I can get my hands on Lord Polydoro here, even such thoughts would change. After all, that person is weak to clearly superior beings like superhumans. That weakness has even led to the current situation being attracted to the powerful superhuman, Reckenber.”

The person in the shadows was cheerfully laughing. Even seemed friendly, and her expression was such that it felt inconvenient to hit him.

“Yet, if I can obtain Lord Polydoro, it would be different. If I win, if I meet that person’s expectations, I could become the sun. Ah, I’ve talked at length, but in short, what I mean to say is—”

The person in the shadows chuckled and murmured.

“Lord Polydoro. Would you lose to me and become Duchess Temeraire’s spouse? I think that way, that person could truly become the sun.”

An absurd request. Lord Polydoro answered honestly.

“I refuse.”

I want to testify that Lord Polydoro had the same troubled expression as he had towards me before. I, Alexandra, decided to record this incident in my diary. I thought I should leave the absurdity of Duchess Temeraire for posterity.

But. Well, whether Lord Polydoro would allow that. While Polydoro was troubled yet somewhat amusedly smiling, I thought about such things.