Chapter 223: The Knights Assemble!
Before Emilia could respond to Crusch and Anastasia's advice, another voice came from the entrance.
"Making common fools wait is simply another privilege of mine. The reverse, however, is absolutely unforgivable."
The haughty tone immediately told Shiro who it was.
Priscilla strode into the hall with her head held high, Al following behind her.
Priscilla's arrogant attitude made Crusch frown slightly. Her narrow amber eyes turned toward the approaching woman.
"Even if we are competitors, we should still arrive on time for an occasion like this."
"Being late only gives us reason to question your character."
The education Crusch had received since childhood made her equally strict with herself and others.
Personality-wise, she was probably the person here least compatible with Priscilla.
"Sorry, sorry."
"My sword suddenly disappeared when we were leaving today, so finding it took a bit of time."
"And wasn't the gathering scheduled for the thirteenth hour tomorrow? We should still be early, right?"
The moment Crusch finished, Al immediately stepped in to defend Priscilla.
Anyone could tell he was lying.
Most warriors capable of entering this hall would sooner forget to put on clothes than forget their sword.
To them, a personal weapon was practically a second life.
Still, since Al had already offered her a way to let the matter drop, Crusch had no reason to unnecessarily worsen relations with Priscilla's camp.
She merely nodded and warned him to be more careful next time.
Priscilla, however, clearly had no intention of accepting Al's goodwill quietly.
"Al."
"As my attendant, you have no need to explain your actions to anyone except me."
"Give me a break, Princess."
"Making enemies everywhere before the Royal Selection has even started is seriously troublesome."
"You aren't going to say something pathetic like you're afraid, are you?"
"So what if everyone becomes our enemy? Can't you simply think of a solution?"
"One or two would be manageable."
"But everyone? There's no solution to that!"
"And one of them even has the Sword Saint!"
"If I fought a monster like that, I wouldn't last a single minute!"
While Al and Priscilla continued bickering, Shiro quietly moved toward a red-haired young man among the guards who was smiling brightly in their direction.
"Hey, Reinhard."
"Where's Felt? Why isn't she here?"
According to Shiro and Emilia's guess, today's gathering had probably been called to officially announce the beginning of the Royal Selection.
Felt should therefore have been present.
Yet no matter where Shiro looked, the girl was nowhere to be found.
Only Reinhard, who had already sworn loyalty to her, was here.
"Something unexpected happened on Lady Felt's side."
"She should arrive shortly."
Reinhard's cheerful smile stiffened slightly as he remembered Felt at breakfast.
Then he hesitated before speaking somewhat awkwardly.
"However... Lady Felt has been rather resentful toward you these past few days."
"I hope you won't be too hard on her when she arrives."
"?"
Shiro stared at Reinhard in confusion.
Sure, he had more or less pushed Felt into following Reinhard.
But if anything unpleasant had happened afterward, shouldn't her resentment be directed at Reinhard?
What did that have to do with him?
Still—
For Reinhard to become nervous enough to address him this formally, Felt must genuinely be furious.
'Did she already hear that I'm attending as Emilia's representative?'
"The situation may be somewhat different from what you're imagining."
Reinhard understood Felt well enough to guess what Shiro was thinking.
"You'll understand when Lady Felt arrives."
"Hey, handsome!"
A lively voice suddenly rang beside Shiro's right ear.
At some point, Felix had quietly slipped away from behind Crusch and approached them.
"Long time no see, nya!"
"Remember me? We met once at Roswaal Mansion."
Felix pointed toward his delicate face, mischief flashing through his catlike eyes.
"Yeah."
"Felix Argyle."
"Male."
"The youngest person ever to earn the title [Blue], representing the pinnacle of Water magic."
Shiro deliberately emphasized the word "male."
"Ugh."
"So you already found out?"
Felix stuck out his tongue awkwardly.
"What a shame. I wanted to see your shocked expression when you learned Ferri-chan was a man."
"Then let's introduce ourselves properly this time."
"I'm Felix Argyle of House Argyle, knight serving Lady Crusch."
"Though you can just call me Ferri-chan or Ferris, nya."
"Torajirou Shiro."
"For now, I suppose my position is Emilia's proxy knight."
Shiro nodded in response to Felix's renewed introduction.
"Proxy knight?"
"I'm not actually a knight."
"I'm only answering this summons under the title of Emilia's knight."
"If Emilia finds someone better suited to her preferences, I'll step down from the position."
While speaking, Shiro suddenly thought of something amusing.
He smiled at Felix.
"Come to think of it, I actually have you to thank for the fact that I'm attending today as a member of Emilia's camp."
"Because of Ferri-chan?"
Felix touched a finger to his lips.
"But Ferri-chan only met you once that day, nya."
The gesture looked exceptionally cute.
As long as one ignored the fact that he was a man.
"That one meeting was enough."
"You already categorized me as someone from Emilia's camp when you saw me at Roswaal Mansion, didn't you?"
"If I started wandering into the territories of other candidates after that, people might mistake me for a spy Emilia sent over."
Shiro shrugged.
"So there was no helping it."
"I could only meet all of you today as part of Emilia's faction."
Of course, Shiro had not fabricated that entire explanation.
At the very least, Puck's original reason for inviting him to act as Emilia's knight was partly because Felix had already treated him as someone belonging to Emilia's camp while gathering information.
"What a shame."
Reinhard joined the conversation with a regretful expression.
"I had been thinking of inviting you to Lady Felt's side the next time we met."
"You got along rather well with Lady Felt when we first met, and she had already shown an interest in recruiting you."
"Now it seems we can only meet as political opponents."
"Eh?! Wait!"
Felix's eyes widened immediately.
"Handsome is someone even Reinhard wanted to recruit, nya?!"
His shock was understandable.
This was Reinhard—A man so overwhelmingly powerful that even leaving the country was subject to restrictions.
Someone even Reinhard wanted to recruit...
"Guh..."
Felix's cat ears visibly drooped.
"Did Ferri-chan mess up this time?"
"Lady Crusch is going to scold me, nya..."
…
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