Roy sat in the shade and looked down at the gymnasium. There, the Knights of the Holy Empire were being trained.
Among the big men, a female knight trained them with an irritated face. Summer hasn’t come yet, but the sun was hot, and the training looked hard.
She swung her tall sword around and pointed out the knights’ posture. The faces of the trained knights were serious, and respect was smeared in their eyes towards her.
Roy, who returned to the Holy Empire after leaving his hometown of Leipsden, had nothing much to do compared to his busy days at Leipsden taking care of orphanage children, organizing services, talking to believers, and treating sick people unnoticed by the empire.
It was not that he did not use the powers of treatment at all, but it was his duty to perform the functions of treatment only a couple of times a day because he was not entrusted with detailed treatments for being the cardinal. Besides playing chess with the Holy Father sometimes, Roy spent most of the time sitting in the shade and watching Embro train the knights to kill the boredom.
“Is this how they do it?”
He picked up a branch and tried to imitate the posture of the knights, but he seemed to have no talent in using his body. It was not until he saw from afar that Embro said, ‘Hold up, you’ll get hurt,’ that Roy gently put down the branch.
Roy imitated her a few times before and fell, getting a big cut in his knee. No matter how capable he was in treating, it was very embarrassing to heal his wounds from folly.
“I envy you. I wish I had become a great paladin like Embro.”
Embro was a close friend who had grown up with Roy since he first came to the Holy Empire and became a young priest.
They dreamed of becoming paladin together, but the other colleagues laughed at the two. In other words, it is impossible for a woman, Embro, and Roy, who often tripped over a stone’s beak and fell, not to mention exercising, to become paladins unless God poured his power upon them.
Even in the Holy Empire, it was natural to it that way because only one out of a thousand people had the power of God. But both Roy and Embro received God’s powers.
What’s interesting was that both of them have no relation to being paladins. Roy got the unusual ability to heal and Embro got the ability to track.
Nevertheless, Embro became a paladin with her own efforts. Not only that, but she also became the knight commander, who was respected by other paladins.
“If I try now…”
Roy shook his head when he thought for a moment whether he could become a paladin and stand side by side with Embro if he made a great effort. He often imagined himself wearing shiny armor next to her, but he could hardly conceive of being trained with such a heavy sword.
So, he decided to live with what he had been given by thanking God for God’s will.
“Yes, it will all be used where it needs to be used…”
“What are you talking about? Used where it needs to be used?”
Embro sank next to Roy as she finished training. The hot sun drenched her with sweat.
Roy handed over the water and towels he prepared. She wrapped a cold wet towel around her neck and gulped down the water. Then she turned her shoulders and relieved the stiffness.
“Do your shoulders hurt? Do you want me to heal you?”
Roy asked her with sparkling eyes. Embro said with a look of annoyance.
“It’s all right. The muscles need to be torn and rehabilitated repeatedly. If you treat me now, my training today will be a waste. And I’m proud to have this kind of stiffness.”
Roy looked at Embro with admiring eyes. She was his friend, but whenever she talked like a knight, he couldn’t help but look at her with admiration. He could see why the knights trained under her looked at her with teary eyes every time.
Embro, not caring about Roy’s gaze, roughly handed him over the bottle of water.
“I hear you’ve accepted a request for asylum from a man named Delhi?”
“Yes. His Holiness gave me permission.”
“Oh, stupid. What are you laughing at? You’re being used.”
“There’s no such thing between friends. It’s good that I can help when someone needs help.”
When she saw Roy smiling in a friendly way, Embro hit her chest as if she was frustrated.
“Gosh, you’re friends with anyone. Why don’t you be friends with that dog over there?”
When Embro pointed to a dog in the temple and said with discontent, Roy scratched his cheek and said, “When was I ever friends with anyone?… you and Empress Sienna are the only friends I have.”
“You’re her friend, but you always use honorific titles for her. I don’t like that empress woman anyway.”
“Why don’t you like her? You haven’t even met her.”
“I just hate it. I hate everything.”
“You’ll see how good a person she is when you actually meet her. You should have met her back then.”
When the temple of Leipsden was attacked by gunmen, Embro led the Knights of the Holy Cross and visited Leipsden to use the powers of tracking to catch the criminals.
There was also an attempt to find the criminal, but in fact, she was ordered by the Holy Father to bring Roy back. Roy was not the man to run the small temple of the Leipsden Empire.
He was considered to succeed the pope. He was the only one within the Holy Empire who could perform the power of healing. It was dangerous to leave him in Leipsden any longer.
Even if not for that reason, Embro was thinking of bringing Roy to the Holy Empire. It was because she could not keep his clumsy friend in another country for too long.
When she visited Leipsden, Roy was very pleased and wanted to introduce her to his new friend.
Although he quickly became close to anyone because of his good social skills, he did not make friends easily. Just considering that his only friend was Embro, one could see how careful he was in making friends. But Embro felt a subtle feeling when she heard that he had a new friend.
Moreover, that new friend was the empress living in a high castle. Embro thought there was no joke worse than that.
Roy asked Embro to meet the Empress together, but it didn’t happen. Because she could not enter the Imperial City without unsealing her sword.
Embro didn’t want to meet Sienna, so she secretly thought it was a good thing.
“It’s obvious—pretty face, gentle and feminine. I’m not interested.”
Whenever Roy tried to explain about Sienna, Embro quickly changed the topic around or left her seat and refused to listen.
In fact, without his explanation, Embro could hear a lot about Empress Sienna while staying in the Leipsden Empire. Because Sienna was a huge issue in the Leipsden Empire.
Embro heard about Sienna from time to time while she was in the Holy Empire, but at that time, she thought it was just amazing that the empress of the Leipsden Empire officially announced that she was a believer of the Goddess of the Earth and chose to be protected by the Holy Empire.
Even within the Holy Empire, there were quite a few people who had an interest in Empress Sienna. Rather than an interest in herself, it was an interest in knowing whether the Holy Empire’s influence would expand within the Leipsden Empire on their behalf through a top-ranking individual being friendly to the Holy Empire.
Until then, the Leipsden Empire had nothing to do with the Holy Empire. So was the priest, Dejane, who was Roy’s teacher, and so was Roy himself. When some renowned priests of the Holy Empire visited the Leipsden Empire for missionary work, no one harvested any fruit.
It was because the empire prevented the expansion of particular religions from settling in, but also the civic consciousness itself did not feel the need for religion. Thus the presence of Empress Sienna became a hope for the priests of the Holy Empire.
Embro was skeptical of such an opinion. She wondered how much influence the empress, not even the emperor, would exert. But when she went to the Leipsden Empire in person, she realized how powerful her influence was.
In the past, Roy wrote in his letter that fewer than ten believers came to the temple each week, but when Embro saw visitors in person, there were a lot of believers who visited the temple.
What was interesting was the attitude of the believers. It was indistinguishable whether they came in belief of the goddess of the earth or came to praise empress Sienna.
Since that many people praised Sienna, Embro began to think a little that maybe Sienna has more than just a pretty face.
However, Embro didn’t like the fact that Roy had a new, female friend besides her. So she didn’t want to hear the story about her through Roy’s mouth.
“Is she feminine? I’m not sure about that. You’re feminine, too.”
When Roy tilted his head and asked back, Embro asked back, frowning.
“What do you mean I’m feminine?”
She wielded a sword that was as tall as herself and has been trained with men. Since she had been called a sullen child, she felt that nothing could be more inappropriate than the expression ‘feminine.’
Embro said, lifting her well-muscled forearm.
“Even with these arms?”
Roy asked back with a look on his face saying, ‘What does being feminine have to do with your forearm?’
“What’s wrong with your arm? It’s so fit and I envy it.”
“Roy. Normally, you don’t use the term feminine for people with such a strong physique. It’s usually for a soft person.”
“Ay, that’s not fair. Then I’m a feminine person? Am I feminine because I have these soft arms?”
Roy’s arms, which he had not used to do any hard work, were as thin and soft as a boy. But even for him, the expression “feminine” was not appropriate. Speaking to Roy, the expression “feminine” seemed unusually strange.
“You know, Sienna is similar to you. She’s strong. That’s why we became friends easily. It reminds me of you in many ways.”
“Strong?”
It was a completely different story from the image that Embro had imagined about Sienna.
She assumed that the empress of the Empire would have enjoyed parties in a dress, and the heaviest thing she would have lifted was a dessert fork. But it sparked a little curiosity about Sienna.
“So how did she meet you? I’ve been wondering for a long time. I was wondering what you might have to see the empress.”
“She saved me from getting hit by a wagon.”
“What?”
Embro jumped out of her seat.
“You almost got hit by a wagon? What the hell are you doing out there?!”
Roy replied, embarrassed by his friend’s fierce response.
“To catch Coco…”
Coco was Roy’s black-haired cat from Leipsden, which he brought to the Holy Empire.
The cat didn’t get along with Embro very well, so it would notice if Roy goes to see Embro and run away. The little guy who always stands next to Roy was again absent now as if it fled a long way from seeing Embro.
It was rather a good thing. She decided to annoy Coco next time she sees it.
“Are you out of your mind? You almost died because of a cat!”
