1. Ed Glead
From noble mtl dot com.
A corner of Alkea Nursery, eastern part of the continent.＜ B id=”Docs-internal-guid-40151fc6-7fff-73f5-d499-a3bdbe43de38″＞
Two children, whose appearance shines infinitely just by looking at it, were looking at each other and talking.
“You know, if we meet later, then I will be your knight.”
“A knight?”
“Uh, the nun said that you and I can’t be together forever because of the difference in social status.”
“Isn’t that just the case with me meeting you like now? Even if you don’t have to be an article….”
“I thought that becoming your knight would be the easiest way to stay by your side in the future.”
The girl who listened to the boy’s words laughed as if it was absurd.
“What, it doesn’t matter if it’s not an article.”
“Chersha, I mean it. I want to be your knight.”
The sincerity of the young boy who met her gaze as she turned her head. At her young words, a girl named Chersha blinked her eyes.
“Ed?”
Despite Chersha’s bewildered call, the boy named Ed did not take her eyes off the girl.
The girl met the boy’s eyes for a moment, not the usual mischievous gaze, but with an infinitely clear and determined will, and suddenly turned her head away.
Her heart suddenly pounded.
In this nursery school, he met Edra, her child, by chance.
She’s the same age as himself.
In the few encounters with her, I was impressed with how she was always kind and gave up even what was given to her to other children, and always did dirty things.
So she didn’t even know she was the one who approached first.
The characteristic childish look.
Complaint. Interest. Affection. Selfish.
Those things that are common to a child of that age, all of them didn’t exist to that child.
So, at first, she might be ‘of the same kind’ as him.
She might have had that thought.
Every single behavior of that child, who seemed to be the same age as her, seemed strange to her, and after exchanging conversations with her several times, it became a fixed pattern for herself to come to this nursery school every weekend to meet this child. .
“Edner…… Do you know what it means to be a knight?”
Chersha opened her mouth playfully and said to her Ed.
‘Maybe I don’t know.’
That’s why I can say it simply like that.
Being a knight.
And… To be her own knight.
She seems to have come to see the side of her child in Ed, who seemed mature beyond her age, so Chersha felt strange about Ed now.
“I also heard the detailed explanation from the nun. How difficult and difficult it is to become a knight, and how difficult it is even more difficult to become a knight who makes a contract with a wizard.”
A knight that makes a contract with a wizard. Involuntarily, my eyes went to Ed.
It wasn’t like a child’s prank.
ㅡA knight who made a contract with a wizard.
That’s because there weren’t any words that would come out of a child’s mouth.
Ed’s calm expression had a kind of weight to it that he couldn’t possibly feel that it was something a child his age was uttering.
Maybe that’s why a feeling of incongruity welled up in my heart.
Chersha knew that a boy named Ed was not like a child his age, but even so, the voice he heard now sounded infinitely unfamiliar.
It’s as if you’re dealing with someone you don’t know….
“And… Actually, today is the last day. I am at this nursery school.”
And even that sense of incongruity quickly disappeared like petals blowing in the wind at the boy’s calmly continued words.
“Ed? What does that mean?”
“… Sorry, I was notified of the news a few days ago, Chersha, I didn’t have time to tell you properly.”
Last.
Suddenly Chersha regained her senses at the unexpected sound and urged Ed.
“Ed, tell me more. Why is today the last day? Are you suddenly going somewhere? Or maybe adoption… “
“Adoption, I heard that one of the people who visited the orphanage the other day liked me. I haven’t heard much about it, but I’ve heard that it’s from a northern knight family. “
At those words, Chersha naturally understood.
Ed. Even when I first saw him, he was too mature for his age.
From the trivial behavior to the tone of voice, to the attitude towards people who exist in a higher class than oneself.
It was not something a child of that age could possibly see.
That’s why he might have been implicitly thinking that Ed would be adopted.
It was only natural that Ed would look unusual in the eyes of the servants from other families who occasionally stop by the Alcaa Nursery.
That’s why it wasn’t surprising that Ed was adopted, but it was also a realistic situation.
“Adopted… That’s it, congratulations Ed.”
But.
Still, what is this shaky feeling nestled in his heart?
Among the children in the orphanage, the adoption rate is only about 1% of the total.
Considering that most of the children living in the orphanage live in the orphanage until they reach a certain age and are eventually sent out, the fact that Ed was adopted was definitely something to celebrate.
She was Chersha, who belonged to an aristocratic family, so she had a vague idea of the reality of the orphanage.
Even that was a fact she knew a little bit because she was interested in a man of her age named Ed, but she adopted a child from a family that was at the level of a knight, taking Ed because he showed ‘talent’.
Compared to other children in the orphanage, she was given an opportunity to rise in status that was virtually incomparable.
In the first place, adoption was not something that was done well in this world.
Commoners are busy raising their children, so there are very few commoners who choose adoption.
Nobles give affection to their children who will succeed them.
So, to adopt someone from a family of knights recognized by the nobility or the imperial family is to see the child’s ‘talent’ and take it. Other than that, in fact, most of them didn’t try to adopt.
So even if you think about adoption, everything will go well for Ed.
But why does he not like that?
She congratulated her proudly, but Chersha couldn’t understand what this feeling was, as if one side of her chest was tingling.
“Thank you. So she won’t be seeing you Chersha until next week. So she wanted to tell you about being a knight.”
I nodded while meeting Ed’s gaze as he calmly continued his conversation.
Today is the last day with Ed.
And when the fact that she was ‘breaking up’ with him came to her mind, strangely, Chersha’s chest went beyond numbness and felt as if it were in pain.
“… I’m sorry too.”
I lowered my head involuntarily at the sight of Ed talking with a gentle smile.
“What, what.”
It was hard for her to look at that face, so she said it brusquely.
And Chersha’s appearance was surprisingly clear to those who knew her, as if ‘that boy her age’ could whimper.
There is nothing you can do in this situation.
Being adopted is the best thing for Ed.
Chersha kept thinking about that fact, but she continued to hate something.
She tried to understand the situation because she hated groundless behavior, but she continued to feel that it was difficult for her to accept the fact that she was breaking up with Ed.
“By the time I become a knight, you will be a full-fledged wizard.”
“Sounds natural.”
Chersha lifted her head in an absurd manner.
Then she was able to meet Ed’s stare staring at her.
As if trying to engrave the girl’s face into his eyes, his dark gaze as if trying to remember the girl’s face he faced with the brightest eyes.
Chersha, who met Ed’s gaze without saying anything, hesitantly opened her mouth.
“Ed, if you tell me the family name, maybe I can go find it?”
“Probably, it will be difficult.”
“Why? Why…… That’s not going to work.”
“Gleard family.”
“If it is the Glaad family… ….”
The girl murmured over and over again as if not to forget the name of the family Ed had mentioned, and let out a small sigh.
“… ….”
Glead.
It was the name of a family of knights located at the far north end of here.
Belonging to the Mage Tower family that manages the eastern region, he didn’t think that he would be able to go all the way to the northern end…
***
Eight years later.
“…… Ed!”
A voice I can’t quite get used to even if I try.
She turned her head at the voice calling her name, and at the same time, she saw the figure of a woman.
And the sight of her in front of her makes her body harden without even realizing it.
There is tension all over the body, like an animal facing its natural enemy.
“Still, do you have anything to say to me?”