Chapter 13: A Knight in Name Only

The sunlight was not what roused him from his sleep.

It was his dream that did so.

This time, it was unlike the rest. There was no black void, no disembodied voice obsessing over him.

Now he saw a city. It was cold, so cold. There were people all around him, huddling under broken clothes and cloaks for the tiniest bit of warmth. The buildings were decayed and on the verge of falling. Snow blanketed everything, even his vision. In the distant horizon, the silhouette of a towering cathedral spire rose to the heavens.

The cold threatened to kill him, but it was not the only thing trying.

Subaru coughed uncontrollably, falling on all fours and feeling the freezing ground touch him. A shadow loomed over him, lanky and slender.

He looked up.

The man above him was not one he recognized. Amethyst-purple hair with a hairpin in the shape of a flower and a braid on the right side of his head. Pale skin. Several layers of clothes, all black and purple. A scabbard on his hip. His eyes were green and sharp and filled with an emotion he could not describe.

The ground shook, a tremor. None around him paid it any heed. They were too busy dying, starving, freezing. A shadow loomed over him again, dwarfing that of the man.

It took Subaru a second to adjust his gaze, but he wished he had not.

Behind the man, above the slum, a massive figure blotted out the snowy sun.

A dragon, with scales of black and purple.

If his dream had not woken him up, his sore arm would have done so.

He was laying on his side, embracing the sleeping princess who had, while he slept, moved upward and brought his head to her chest, unfortunately leaving one of his arms under her. Sure, Emerada was quite light, but…sometimes he kind of wished for a little more space when sleeping.

Not that he would ever admit such a thing, not even under torture.

Emerada was a bit…physical with her expressions of love and it was very clear she had never heard the term "personal space."

Still, it was not as if he disliked it too much.

All he had to do was wriggle his arm just a tad…and done. With the nerves on his arm no longer screaming in agony, he moved it below his head and used his other arm to bring Emerada closer.

Even asleep, she smiled and tightened her embrace, putting his forehead to her neck. Wearily, she ran one of her hands through his hair.

He was perfectly content just staying here for the rest of the day…or maybe even his life.

Outside the room, he could hear footsteps, voices, the whole deal. It sounded like a marching band had decided to parade right in that hallway but decided to do so acapella.

The steps began to decrease in frequency, and now resembled a poorly-trained group of geese performing the YMCA dance.

Finally, the steps became rhythmic, and it took Subaru way too long to realize that it was actually the sound of knocks on the door. The knocks kept going, even when he tried to ignore them and drift back to sleep.

After a minute or so of continuous knocking, he gently broke Emerada's embrace and walked toward the door.

Whispering, but loudly enough for whoever was on the other side to hear, he said, "Listen, I don't care if you're a knight, a Wiseman, a noble, or even that goddamned Christmas-tree assassin come back from the dead. Knock on the door one more time and I'll set fire to your bathroom…maybe with you in it."

There was one more knock.

Sighing, he opened the door, only to find the familiar one-eyed knight on the other side. Truth be told, it was taking some time for him to get used to Niko looking like anything other than a run-over raccoon. Him actually shaving his beard and combing his hair pushed him right into the "uncanny valley" of human pattern recognition.

"Set my bathroom on fire," he said, as serious as he could be. "Go ahead. Do it."

"Now I'm not so sure I want to follow up on that threat…"

"Coward."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. What's so important you had to disturb our…my sleep?"

Niko lifted his eyebrow, giving him that usual what-are-your-plans-for-my-daughter look. "Uh huh…as much as the thought of you two…yeah…it's not something I am particularly happy t' keep in my thoughts. Anyway, I need to talk with you, and I'd like for it to be…private."

"My, is this the part where you say 'Touch my daughter and I'll kill you' in a really gruff voice and brandish your sword?" the inventor laughed.

"This is the part where I say 'There's about thirty noblemen on the gallows because of our shopping trip and I want to make sure it was worth it.'"

Subaru nodded, and his mood fell. It had been a day and a half since the throne room drama, and from what little he heard, the aftermath had not been pretty.

"Yeah," Niko said, reading his thoughts. "I'm a little scared that the rope might break what with all those fancy assholes being sent there, and I might just envy the poor sod making 'em take the dive."

"You're dark…"

"Don't blame me. Last time I saw so many people hangin' was when that suicide cult pulled into town. Oof, the stench…you'd think they would at least clean a place before…yeah…"

Grimacing, the young inventor said, "This story won't be one of my favorites, right?"

"Hell…it's one of my least favorites. I do like telling that story about Vollachia though. Who knew Evil Eyes coul-"

Subaru stopped him by raising a hand. "Tell me later. Let me sleep."

"No can do," the other man shrugged. "We need to talk, urgently, and hopefully before half the fuckin' aristocracy ends up takin' long walks off short gallows."

He sighed. "Let me get dressed…"

"Please, go ahead. And close the door when you do so."

In response, he slammed the door shut.

Niko's laughter still came through it.

"I tell ya, we had them all surrounded, but the pricks thought a grave was more comfortable than a cell, and they all got up with some fire crystals, but be-"

"Niko, please, I get it. They blew themselves up."

The knight laughed as Subaru just rubbed his eyes, internally cringing at every story told.

"I kinda miss those days, ya know?" he said. "Being the princess's bodyguard is definitely fun…was, now that I'm on the forefront of the biggest murder mystery of the century. Even so, I guess I felt like I was doing more good back then."

"You're still doing good," was Subaru's comment.

"Don't get me wrong, I know that. Just…never mind. It makes no sense. The royal guard was my family, but when it happened…"

"Are you afraid they won't like you?"

"I'm afraid the Council will shove its arm so far up my ass I'll be tasting its fingernails. Leavin' the royal guard was the right thing to do, but coming back is a whole new challenge."

Neither talked for a second, listening only to the wind around them. There was a nice breeze today, and it ran right through the castle's courtyard, where they stood.

"Niko, you're joining the guard again, but do you really want to?"

In response, the knight sighed. "I have to. Not jus' for myself. For the princess. Whatever happened back in Banan…it was humiliating. I'll never let it happen again. With the royal guard's coat over my uniform, it'll change things…for the better."

Subaru gave a low chuckle. "Hard to believe you're the same man that threatened me when we first met."

"Princess was…rowdy back then," he replied, laughing as well. "But that's what being a royal is all about. No one in that damn family comes out right, I tell ya. Between us, though? I blame Gionis."

"Really? Why? He seemed nice enough."

The knight's expression was one of disbelief. "Were you even in that throne room? I could hear her yelling from outside. Poor door guards looked like they'd eaten a bug."

Not knowing what to say, Subaru just nodded.

"Thing is, Gionis is real nice," Niko went on. "Amazin' guy, but he's a king through and through. It's always 'kingdom this' or 'Vollachia that' and never a word about himself…or his family. Growin' up without a father is bad enough, but growin' up knowing that your father's alive and here but just has more important things to do? Damn, I woulda come out like that too."

Without even realizing it, the young craftsman asked the question he had been wanting to say for a long time. "What about the queen?"

It was the wrong thing to say, apparently, as Niko's face turned to a scowl. "Dead in childbirth."

Seconds passed between them in silence, but it was more deafening than a battlefield's worth of guns going off.

"I hadn't known," Subaru spoke. "I'm sorry."

"I knew both my parents," the knight went on. "They were good people. But…I can't imagine what the princess…Emerada must feel. Is it even painful to grow up without a parent you've never met? Do you mourn someone who never existed, at least for you? An' what's more, her only real…well, I wouldn't call myself a 'father figure' but I presume I'm something along those lines. Being a dad's tough, especially when your kid is a royal and you've just been accused of murder."

Although he remained unmoving, Subaru responded, "If it makes you feel any better, she's wanted for murder now."

"It'll pass, it has to. Kararagi is either gonna bury this under or have a nice talk with Gionis about why his daughter was almost murdered."

It was difficult to resist the urge to say that she had not been almost murdered.

Still, Niko kept talking. "Not to mention, that dungshit Auream was the killer, an' Zerzel confessed to everything as well. Fat lot of good that'll do us. Let's put their bodies on a chair and preten' we gave them a trial. Bah, what's it even matter? Those Hoshin lapdogs – no offense – are in the worst bargainin' position in history. Drizen won't like the idea of dealing with people that could harm 'im, and the Gustekans will play along because them having an original thought would be as rare as the Witch leaving her seal and coming down here for a party."

"What those two did shouldn't harm the whole country," he countered.

"My advice? They shoulda thought of that first, before pullin' a light show. Back in the guard, I met this guy who'd gotten into a gang fight, an' his side won. In revenge, the losers found his family and killed 'em all. I told him: every bad choice you make comes back to bite you in the ass, be it now or on your deathbed. Poin' in case, my decision to do what I did came back for me just now."

Niko laughed, but there was no real humor in his voice.

"Anyway, this is gettin' too grim. What were your parents like?"

A pang of nostalgia and pain ran through the inventor, but he did not show it. "They were the best people I knew."

"Huh," was the knight's response, genuinely surprised. "No offense, but I thought you woulda had a pretty rough childhood or somethin'. You're the only person who likes the princess, yours truly excluded. I mean, it took me bein' just a little crazy to like her. You're sure there's nothing weird? You won't run off to sacrifice people to the White Whale when I'm not looking, will you?"

"I won't do that, I promise. Scout's honor."

"That's good enough for me. Now come on, let's go back inside. I hear the Court Mage's name was on that notebook of ours, and if that's true, I wanna see the Council's response."

"You have a morbid fascination with this kind of thing!"

"Nothin' wrong with wishing a little death upon my enemies and those who inconvenience me…just a little though."

Laughing, the knight in name only led the way back into the castle.

Compared to all that had transpired in the measly 3 months since the Astrea's party, the days and weeks following the notebook's revelation were heaven.

Finally, Subaru was at peace. No more hitmen, no more drama (whoever tried to interview him would fall in Niko's "inconvenient" list and have their name cursed till the end of days), no more dealing with the incessant deals offered to Alcyone (his employees forced him to take a rest), no more annoyances in general.

It got a little boring after the third week.

All he had now was the castle's library, and he found that most of the books there were about how great Lugnica was and how bad the other countries were. It was as if someone had mapped out Niko's mind and made it into a real place, except the library was way more coherent.

Once, he had voiced this opinion to Emerada, who agreed.

"This is the public library," she explained. "If you want actual history, it'll be in the archives. Dunno if they'd let you in, though…only the royals have access."

"But I'm a royal by association, right?" he sighed.

"Are we married?"

"No…"

"That's your answer."

Seeing his disappointment, Emerada kept going.

"It's for security reasons, sadly. That place has everything you can think of. If even one person broke in and stole just what they could carry in their pockets, they'd change the world forever."

Subaru paused to think for a second. "Do they have…my stuff in there?"

She nodded. "As funny as it is to think about, there's probably a couple of mages out there that spent hours tasting your…'mayonnaise' to replicate it. That knowledge would be in the archives."

"I pity whoever steals that…has anyone broken in before?"

"Couple times, and most intruders were Vollachians. Why did you think no foreigners are allowed in the royal guard?"

"No foreigners are allowed in the royal guard!? There go my dreams!"

Emerada smiled, and he put a hand to his chin in thought. "Hm, if no one can sneak in, why not brute force their way in?"

"Such a thing would be an act of war," the princess answered. "No one wants the Divine Dragon after them because they stole food recipes."

"What if it was an independent group?"

"Dear, are you planning to break in there? As amusing as it'd be to see you try, I doubt you would like it."

Subaru had to concede defeat this one time, but he still really wanted to see the archives someday.

Someday…

More time passed, and Subaru's only reprieve from the boredom was to get back to work.

Alcyone was growing considerably. At least three new offices were expected to open in Lugnica alone.

Zero would open in Kararagi.

The death of Yorghan Zerzel severed any ties the company had to the Border Committee, and until his replacement was found, Alcyone was stuck in Lugnica. Few delegates wanted to associate with someone who aided in killing two of their peers, even if it was justified.

Facing this issue, Subaru was perfectly content to let things stand the way they were…until Drizen came along.

Drizen Vollachia, newly crowned emperor, was a lot more stubborn about getting the company's products on his land than his predecessor had ever been. In a month, he had sent nearly a dozen letters of varying length (and quality) to the main office in the capital. Reading them was like listening to someone talk on a phone but not hearing what the other person responds.

The emperor was offering many things: protection, money, fame, etc. At one point, he heavily implied that he was more than willing to "lend" him a couple of Vollachia's "finest" and "most breathtaking" courtesans in exchange for a trade deal.

"Oh man," Niko had said when he read the letter. "This…this is so damn funny. It's also a little…hm. I'm not sure if he'd send ya courtesans or assassins."

"Knowing Vollachia, they're probably one and the same," he replied.

"Oh, don't get me started on that. The most attractive Vollachian women I've ever met are the ones that could snap my back like a twig. Well, he migh' send ya poison or something more discreet."

Chuckling nervously, the inventor said, "You know? Maybe you can send him a letter. I'm not looking for either courtesans or assassins, thank you."

The knight responded with, "It's your loss, and my funeral."

Even if Drizen was a consistent thorn on his side, he was a bit more preferable to his main competitor in the matter: the Gustekan Holy King.

No one outside Gustekan nobility had any clue of who the Holy King was. The man had not even given his name to the public. As such, there was no end to the theories surrounding him.

One could have imagined the inventor's surprise when Drizen's messenger was scared off by a troupe of Gustekan envoys, all of them physically intimidating in their own right, who delivered a manuscript ("letter" was an understatement) about twice as long as the average dining room table which, beyond its flowery jargon and pompous language, basically said that he was not going to get a better deal than the one being offered, which was rather lackluster itself.

"I miss Yorghan," Subaru said one day, buried under the many trade propositions he had received that day. Not a single one of them bore the Kararagian emblem.

"That says a lot," Emerada answered. She suggested he bring the letters home to discuss them together.

"Yorghan was evil, sure, but at least he knew how to negotiate," he lamented. "The guy could've scammed me and left me broke. What are these guys even offering? Why is…'Bishop Anwyl of the Holy Church of Gusteko' offering me an invitation to 'the magnificent Odglass's coronation ceremony?' Isn't that done when a Holy King dies? I mean, why are they inviting people now? Are they going to kill the king?"

The princess smirked and picked up a letter. "That sounds unbelievably boring. My condolences. I believe this…'2nd-class General Miina of Vollachia,' who is proposing to you, will be a much better partner than that crusty old bishop. Hey, she's even offering you a halberd! I don't have a halberd!"

"You don't need a halberd to make me love you," he murmured.

"That's so~ cute, dear, but I seriously wonder if you don't want that halberd."

"Niko would like it."

"Niko likes anything that has an edge to it. Niko likes geometry. Niko dislikes being married."

"I still think he should get it. That way he has another story to tell, which decreases the chances that he'll talk about the Evil Eye again…"

"Hand me something to write with. Our dear knight is about to get betrothed."

Instead of complying, he took advantage of the fact that they were sitting close to one another to wrap his arms around her. As expected, she rested her head on his chest and smiled.

"Promise me you won't marry the cool halberd lady?" she asked.

"Promise," he answered.

"You sure?"

"Absolutely," he said, then put his finger on her nose.

As Emerada looked at him in confusion, he lightly pressed down on her nose.

"Boop."

Months passed since the attack, and with them came birthdays, and with them came parties.

For his birthday, Subaru decided to hold the "ceremony" (a term he believed to be way too fancy) in the royal castle's main hall. It was large enough and it saved him the trouble of having to decorate anything. Besides, this technically was his home, even if he lived in the guest wing.

Emerada was among the first to arrive, something that was not too impressive given that she lived there too.

"You're getting old," the princess told him the very moment he was within earshot. "Jeez. I look away for a second and you've got gray hair."

"Nice to see you too, Emma," Subaru replied happily.

Beside her, Niko shrugged. "I don't get a greeting? You've got somethin' against royal guards? For shame."

Turning to face the older man, he said, "Niko. Looking as homeless as ever, I see. Please, be a good royal guard and keep everyone here entertained. I wanna talk to Emma."

While Emerada beamed, a smug look on her face, the knight raised an eyebrow. "Hey, that ain't a guard's job! You want that done, hire a waiter or somethin'!"

"Niko," she interjected. "Royal guards must excel in all aspects of society. Are you saying a waiter is better than you?"

"Absolutely not, my lady! I shan't allow this insult against mine fair person stand!"

"Go, then! Beat these waiters at their own game!"

With a self-satisfied expression, the one-eyed knight did as instructed, going into the crowd and striking up conversations with the small amount of nobles that had arrived.

He drew enough attention to himself to allow Subaru and Emerada to sneak away from the party, in the castle's main hall, to a secluded balcony a couple of floors up.

From there, the two of them could see the whole capital.

"It's a big place, huh?" she commented.

"Too big," he spoke. "It makes me feel a little tiny, really. Don't you feel the same way?"

"Sometimes. I don't think about it much."

"Then what do you think about?"

A small smile appeared on her face as she answered, "You."

She offered her hand, and he took it.

"You're getting old, Subaru. What are you, 20? How repulsive."

He pulled her close and put an arm around her.

"Emma, I'm going to say the exact same thing to you in two years."

"Careful," the princess teased. "I might push you off."

"You wouldn't," the craftsman said, taking a tentative step away from the railing.

Emerada laughed. "Hm, it'd be regrettable to have you die before you see my present…indeed. In my bounteous benevolence, I have decided to spare you, at least for today."

"Oh, thank you, most generous goddess. What have you gotten this poor mortal as a gift?"

She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out an unsealed letter, which she promptly handed over to him.

As Subaru opened and read it, she spoke, "I am most generous, indeed. Do you know how difficult it was to get those old nags to agree to this? Hm, I'd say you owe me a nation!"

The letter was priceless to him. It stated, in classic legal lexicon, that the Holy King and the emperor, along with a fair number of their nobilities, were putting embargoes on Kararagi until they agreed to reopen trade with Alcyone. They claimed that it was in terrible faith to attempt to murder a man and then boycott his goods, although Drizen put it in more…vivid language.

"Kararagi won't survive condemnation like that," the princess said. "I basically got you their entire country."

Lowering the letter, Subaru looked at her and smiled. He put his other arm around her and hugged her as tightly as he could.

In response, she hugged him back and gave him a kiss.

After the party, Niko and Subaru were the only ones in the main hall.

"Pull that whole waiter thing again, I'll kill you," the knight said, punching him in the shoulder.

"Hey! I needed some time alone with her!"

Niko gave a quick look around, making sure they were alone. "Ya know, I don't like that wording."

"You know what I mean!" Subaru protested.

"Yeah, I know…so, if you came down here, I take it the princess's sleeping?"

"She's out for tonight," he replied. "And…there was something I wanted to talk to you about."

The knight's one remaining eye widened. "Is this good or bad? If you wanna hide a body, I know a pal."

"No! I wanted to ask you something…about Emma…"

"Well, now ya got my attention!" he smiled.

"Niko…this is a very serious question, but…have you ever seen Emma wear a ring?"

For a second, the knight pondered on it. "I guess? All types of clothin' are good for her, so long as she likes their colors or whatever."

He ended with a shrug, but when he turned to look at Subaru and saw his half-smug half-irritated smile, he gasped.

"You're serious!?"

"Very," Subaru affirmed.

"Ha! You little shit! I knew you had it in ya! Wait, have you ever been to a bar!? You haven't! Ah, we'll fix that soon! There's a sayin' in the army. 'Before you get married, get drunk. It'll hurt less that way!'"

While Niko kept talking, mostly to himself, the inventor smiled. This was the first step to the most important moment of his life. His joy was palpable.

He shared his secret plan with Niko…and, albeit unknowingly, he also shared it with a certain platinum-haired and sapphire-eyed eavesdropper who had been waiting for this moment just as much as he had.

AN: Hm, today, I will publish the 13th chapter, which is a number associated with bad luck...