Schnellia von Kondenburg.
Born the youngest daughter of the eleventh Emperor of the Kondenburg dynasty of the Dengliwood Empire.
Under the seventh Emperor the Empire had been a great power capable of unifying the continent, but the glory did not last long.
Because of the mountain range that bisects the center of the continent vertically, the west soon slipped out of its sphere of influence and gained independence as the Kingdoms.
When the Outer Gods' invasion began and the Kingdoms took the field in full-scale war against them, the Empire shrank further within international society.
War is opportunity for development.
With the war against the Outer Gods, the Kingdoms met the greatest flowering in their history.
Those who held the great cause of peace, those who wished to challenge their own limits.
Countless talents flocked to the Kingdoms.
The four knights whom no one disputed to be the strongest on the continent were there as well.
"The Dawn of the Four."
The tale of them, who became the hope and the light that would save the crisis, spread across the whole continent.
This was more than enough to make the Empire feel political pressure.
The imperial court was sinking together with its aged Emperor.
It was a period in which they barely kept up appearances by imitating the Kingdoms' knight orders.
A knight powerful enough to surpass the Dawn was needed.
A weapon of war that would end the conflict and drive out the Outer Gods.
'......It is quiet.'
Schnellia was born against that background.
For some reason she could read from the moment she was born. She could understand speech.
"So this is the weapon of reversal."
The Emperor, seeing her for the first time, murmured that.
"Teach her the sword. Grow her to perfection without a single flaw."
Following the Emperor's command.
The Empire's most renowned knights and professors were assigned to educate her.
She first took up a sword at three.
At five she learned the Forms.
And even so.
The word genius was insufficient.
'I must become perfect.'
Without knowing what she fought.
Without knowing why she must fight.
She lived a life solely for her mission.
Every day she looks in the mirror.
Not a stain nor a mote of dust on the pure white uniform.
Her eyes and her hair always sharp.
Only one thing.
If there was an exception.
"Your Highness. Will you be taking this book on this expedition as well?"
It was the year she turned ten.
Her dedicated lady's maid asked.
It was a single book.
However much she had read it, the edges of the pages had gone ragged and grubby.
[The Tale of the Dawn of the Four]
It was a storybook about the four knights active in the Kingdoms.
A children's fairy tale.
She read it whenever she had a spare moment and never grew tired of it.
The four knights who splendidly rescue a princess captured by an Outer God.
The princess meets the knight of her destiny and falls in love.
She would imagine.
How perfect must the Dawn be.
How splendid a sight must they be.
How strong.
"......Pack it."
"Understood."
It was the period when, at the Kingdoms' request for support, the Empire's knight order was to go on expedition.
It was the Emperor's command, in the belief that a real battlefield would make good experience.
Not long after she returned from the year-long expedition.
"The Kingdoms have fallen."
Her secretary delivered that news.
"It appears they could not withstand the Outer Gods' invasion. Every route connecting to the Kingdoms has been sealed, so the exact situation cannot be known, but."
"......And the Dawn?"
"Pardon?"
"What became of the Dawn of the Four Knight Order?"
"They are said to have fallen in battle......"
"Mm."
The action Schnellia took at once was simple.
She threw the fairy-tale book she had cherished for years into the rubbish bin.
"It seems they were not perfect."
She said that and went into her room.
She shut the door.
Leaning against the wall, she sank down as though a gear had stopped.
There was no perfect being in the world.
There was no invincible being.
Only after realizing that fact.
"......I am afraid."
For the first time in her life, and the last, she spoke that word aloud.
Schnellia grew strong.
At only sixteen she attained the rank of Sword Master, a feat without precedent in history.
The Outer Gods' claws that filled the west now began to cross into the east, into imperial territory.
Dungeons appeared without warning and swallowed citizens.
Those eroded into minions walked abroad with the night.
Schnellia rode out on horseback.
East, north, as far as her feet would carry her.
Without the black curse on that sword ever having time to dry.
The knights who followed her steadily increased.
Before long the Emperor handed over the Lionheart Knight Order, the Empire's finest, and she continued to run out ahead alone.
'A white knight who rescues a princess is an illusion.'
Reciting it to herself.
'This one becoming perfect is the only way.'
Swearing it.
"I shall cut down all of them. Cut them down, cut them down, and after I have cut them down."
Resolving.
"I shall stand at the summit."
Every morning she gazes into the mirror.
Looking at her own perfectly packaged figure.
"......Mirror, how do I."
Look to you.
Are you afraid?
She endures the urge to speak.
And grips her sword.
"......Haah, haah."
Not one day missed.
Not once had she shown so much as an opening.
And yet.
"I am going to anesthetize you. Tell me if your arm goes numb."
Her vision blurring. His face wavered before her eyes.
"Dunker Grimwald."
"Please try not to talk to me during surgery. I have to concentrate."
Sloshing. Dunker used up the one remaining water bottle without hesitation.
Her left leg had no strength in it at all because of the Covenant.
That she still felt the pain exactly as before was a little unfair.
But Schnellia knew how to endure pain.
More precisely, she did not know how to express that it hurt.
"Hoooo......"
When he administered an injection to her leg, strangely the sensation dulled.
It was her first time receiving treatment directly.
It was just like magic.
Thanks to his clamping tight above the thigh, the blood was stopping as well.
"Open laceration of the femoral region, fascial rupture...... judging by the blood loss the femoral artery is definitely partially damaged."
Squelch. An unpleasant sound of a hand burrowing between flesh.
"Aha. I knew it."
His gloves, which had been pure white, were stained red before she knew it.
Having someone rummage around inside her own body was not an especially pleasant feeling.
In truth it was humiliating.
Because in all her life she had never once shown her injuries to anyone.
And yet, strangely.
'......Am I reassured?'
A curious ease came over her.
"Your Highness, hold this for me."
Dunker handed her the scissors.
Without even thinking, Schnellia took them.
He took out needle and thread and in an instant sutured something inside.
She had felt it when he operated on the head lady's maid as well, but this man's hands were fast, and precise, and.
'......He seems not to be a being of this world.'
That handiwork held more mystery than any magic.
"Done. Cut just above this knot. Carefully, without touching anything else."
Schnellia carefully slid the scissors between the torn thigh.
Click. With a crisp cutting sound the thread came away.
"The urgent part is stopped. I will remove foreign matter and irrigate once more. It will sting a little."
Dunker examined carefully between the muscles, extracting every small stone fragment, every grain of sand.
"......Sss."
Her fist clenched hard.
An impulse rose to grab his hair if that was what it took to hold back a groan.
Tok, tok. The forceps removed them one by one with precision.
"The painful part is over. Realigning the fascia and muscle."
The twisted bone and muscle found their places again.
"I am going to suture."
Unlike a moment ago, Dunker took out a thick thread.
Puk. The needle pierced the pure white, firm skin of her thigh without hesitation.
"......You said the painful part was over."
"Pardon me. I meant the most painful part."
"Ss......"
Watching any longer was going to make her nauseous. Schnellia turned her head away.
"Done. Cut once more."
Snip.
The thread came away.
Dunker injected antibiotics and then covered it with bandage.
"Haah."
Dunker caught his breath.
"Is it over? It seems you did not close the gap fully."
"That is drainage space. To prevent infection."
"......I trust you."
Only then could Schnellia relax her body and rest her head back.
She could see Dunker's broad back as he cleaned up.
"Dunker Grimwald."
"Is there something you are curious about?"
"......Were you disappointed?"
"About what?"
Dunker tilted his head.
Schnellia mumbled the words in her throat and barely got them out.
"I asked whether you were disappointed that this one is weak."
"Weak?"
Dunker knit his brow as though he had heard something he should not have.
"If Your Highness is weak, what am I, a water flea?"
"That is not what I meant."
"I would not know much, but that technique you used earlier — is it not extremely difficult?"
"You mean the Form Release."
"Yes. My own knight commander cannot use it yet. If Your Highness had not been there I would not have devised a strategy of dropping the Outer God at all."
Rattling, having finished tidying up, Dunker said it flatly.
"You would not have known this one's exact capability."
"You are the Empire's Greatest Sword. Have some water."
Gulp. He held the water bottle to her mouth.
Her head cleared from the freshness of it.
He was a curious man.
Whether he was earnestly concentrating on his work.
Or joking around.
A strange trust could be felt in that lightly tossed-off manner of speech.
'......Come to think of it.'
This man had been like this then, too.
"Dunker Grimwald."
"Yes."
"Some years ago, you came to an imperial social gathering."
"Ah, the celebration party for subjugating the Giant's Grave."
Schnellia carefully studied his reaction and asked.
"......Do you remember it?"
"I remember."
For Dunker it was not a fond memory.
He had declared he would debut at the social gathering, secretly tailed his father there, been thrown out for having no entry pass, and after finally sneaking in had been mistaken for an assassin and arrested.
It was also the day Barkus had been angriest with Dunker.
"Mm, is that so."
"I had not expected Your Highness to remember as well. You must have met nobles until you were sick of it. That you spared a glance for a mere count's illegitimate son is an honor."
"Well."
How could I forget.
That day, you......
'So there was a reason Dunker Grimwald pressed such a contract on me.'
To think he too remembered her from that day.
Fate is a curious thing.
Taking him as her subject truly had been the finest choice.
"Dunker Grimwald."
"You may simply call me Dunker."
"......Not Grimwald?"
"Then you will confuse me with my lord."
"Mm."
Schnellia cleared her throat and continued.
"......Dunker."
"Yes, Your Highness."
She steeled herself.
From here on she would be seen in an imperfect state.
Carefully.
"There is something I wish to confess to you."
***
"A confession, you say?"
The word Schnellia brought out was fairly abrupt.
What confession?
We had gone so far as to make an unbreakable contract.
Perhaps I had been intended as something to use politically and discard.
Her expression was grave.
It seemed to be a genuinely bad story.
"It is about the treatment of Erosion."
"Ah. Indeed, you raised the subject before."
It did not seem to be a topic concerning my own safety, so I let out a breath for now.
"Do you believe you can one day cure Erosion completely?"
"I answered that I did not know yet. My opinion has not changed."
"......You must do it."
"Pardon?"
Schnellia's eyebrows trembled.
"You must do it without fail."
It was somehow different from her usual sharp, cool-headed manner.
Like a child begging Santa for a wish that cannot be granted.
Not an order but a hope.
"Well...... it would be good if I succeeded. It would fundamentally stop the Outer Gods' invasion, after all."
"It is not for such a great cause."
"Then what?"
Schnellia's eyes gazed steadily at me.
In that instant.
—Whoosh.
Swirling.
The illusion arose that red aura had seeped into her pupils.
"It is for this one's sake."
Schnellia confessed as though pouring it out.
"This one is already eroded. The heart, the head, all of it."
Hm.
What did I just hear.
"Cure me, Dunker."
Looking at Schnellia as she breathed it out like a plea.
'I am well and truly done for.'
I had no choice but to force a smile.