Chapter 21 : Luna Grace

“I’m Luna Grace, of the Armonia Empire Imperial Knights.”

Even though ten years had already passed, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize her.

She was much taller now, but her voluminous platinum blonde hair, rosy cheeks, and those characteristic sparkling emerald eyes were still the same.

It was undoubtedly Luna.

“It’s been a while, Saya.”

I couldn’t speak, wondering if this was a dream. Silently, I stood up and hugged her.

From the day I was expelled from the orphanage, I had always regretted leaving her behind. I wished I could have written even one letter, but the situation hadn’t allowed for it.

Above my head, I felt Luna’s hand gently resting.

Carne and Yuri seemed quite flustered by the sudden hug.

“Sorry, but… do you two know each other?”

Know each other? Of course.

It was like a father-daughter relationship. No, physically, maybe more like a mother-daughter relationship…?

The knight recruitment ended successfully, and we were assigned a room for four. Although it was used as a dormitory, staying was optional. The room had two bunk beds on either side of a partition placed in the middle.

The first to jump into bed was Carne, her face tired.

“Let’s decide on the beds later. Let’s just sleep for today. I’m exhausted from participating in events all day…”

But Yuri, who I thought had come with us, was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Yuri?”

“Miss Freesia is training, it seems. Losing to Saya must have left quite an impression on her.”

It was typical of a protagonist, but from the perspective of the person who ignited her competitive spirit, it was terrifying. Ever since Yuri showed interest in the beastmen’s martial arts and I demonstrated some movements, she had been training relentlessly, even at the expense of sleep.

“You all seem to have become quite close, Saya,” Luna remarked.

“Uh, yeah…”

‘One is a battle maniac obsessed with beating me, and the other is planning a murder… but are we friends?’

“Sit down. I have something to do for you.”

Luna pulled a chair over, so I tilted my head and sat down. I heard a rustling sound, and soon something scratchy touched my head.

“I’ll brush your hair. I’ve always wanted to do it.”

“I have short hair, so I don’t think I need it.”

“No. You’re a girl, aren’t you?”

Hearing that, I remembered how Luna used to run away from the caretakers because she hated having her hair brushed, saying it was painful. I used to coax and soothe her to get her hair brushed, but now it seemed the roles were reversed.

My hair, which had been cut haphazardly without proper brushing, snagged and broke painfully with the first strokes of the brush.

“It hurts.”

“It’ll hurt at first. It did for me too.”

“Ow, ow…”

My tangled hair gradually loosened. As she brushed each strand, Luna spoke.

“When we were little, you said you wanted to become a Spirit Master, right? Since then, I’ve been running toward that one goal.”

“Because of what I said back then…?”

“Yes. I thought, maybe then, we could meet again.”

But she had reunited with me as a knight, not a Spirit Master. Why had she chosen such a difficult path when there was a sure way?

“At first, I wanted to become a Spirit Master. But even after I turned 11, and then 12, the Mark didn’t appear.”

“…Could it be… non-manifestation?”

She didn’t answer. Even if she was a knight, it was unlikely she didn’t use magic, but this meant she had reached this point purely through swordsmanship.

“I found out that even among knights, there’s a chance to be dispatched to the Spirit Master Academy if you work hard. From that day on, I picked up a sword and practiced every day. Eventually, I found myself in the Imperial Knights. I even saw the princess’s face up close.”

She spoke briskly, but it was clear her journey hadn’t been easy.

“Come to think of it, the last name Grace is the name of the family you were adopted into, right?”

“Yes.”

“How was the place you were adopted into? Was it okay?”

“…It was okay. Just.”

“That’s good.”

Since she said she was doing well, I didn’t pry further. As the brushing seemed to be finishing, she tapped my shoulder.

“Okay, it’s done. Now it’s time to sleep.”

“Isn’t that what I used to say?”

“Haha. Was it similar?”

We lay in bed and talked all night about things we hadn’t been able to discuss before. From the story of almost being sold as slaves with Gillian to living with the beastmen.

Ah, of course, I didn’t leave out the story of the giant rabbit. Luna, who always liked rabbits, said it sounded cute, which was embarrassing.

All the stories I shared with Luna after reuniting felt so surreal and wonderful.

The next morning, I was woken up by Luna.

“Wake up, Saya. We have to get ready.”

“…Um.”

She was already dressed in her armor, standing by my bed.

“I made a simple breakfast for the four of us. When you’re done eating, let’s change clothes. I washed everything last night.”

“You did all that overnight…?”

“Yes. I always do it!”

Even in medieval times, a soldier is a soldier. Now that I looked, everything from the angle of the blanket to the cleanliness was meticulous. Carne, who had woken up first and was eating the prepared breakfast, said while rolling her spoon,

“How can I thank you, Miss Grace?”

“Call me Luna. Formality is fine!”

“How can your personality be so cheerful?”

I sat down across from Carne, still dazed. A fresh salad that looked like it had just been picked and fried eggs with steam rising from them were served.

“You have a good friend, Saya,” Carne remarked.

“…Just eat, okay?”

I was glaring at her when Luna shouted from the bathroom,

“Saya, I drew a bath for you!”

“A bath…?”

She didn’t need to take care of me that much…

“As an expert, I’m telling you, that girl might be in the early stages of obsession,” Carne said.

“Shut up. What expert…”

“Hmm—don’t believe me? Just watch.”

I knew I should take half of what Carne said with a grain of salt, but I dismissed the thought that it might not be entirely impossible… There was no way.

“Saya! Do you want me to help you wash?”

“I’ll do it myself! It’s okay! Really!”

Unlike Carne, who was laughing as if this situation was funny, I couldn’t be so cheerful.

After getting ready, we moved to the combat training room. My biggest concern today was who the combat instructor would be.

The Spirit Master Windgart Luares, who was originally supposed to be the combat instructor, had died by my hand.

Therefore, the person I would meet today was an unknown figure, even for me, who knew the plot in advance.

‘That’s strange. It’s way past the time he should be here.’

It was more than 30 minutes past the scheduled time, but the instructor showed no sign of arriving. Daengdaengi was also getting bored, yawning loudly next to me.

When the students’ complaints began to surface one by one,

Creak—

The large door opened, and he appeared.

“Sorry. I was a little late taking a nap.”

The smell of alcohol wafting from him made the faces of the students in the front row grimace.

“I’m Cled. Your, uh… combat instructor.”

His messy gray hair, shabby clothes, and roughly trimmed beard seemed to reflect his personality. He carried a greatsword wrapped in bandages without a scabbard on his back.

‘That guy is the combat instructor to replace Windgart…?’

“In the first class, we’re supposed to do a team grade evaluation, but honestly, I can’t use magic, and I don’t have an Osteon, so I don’t know the evaluation criteria.”

When he held out his hand, there was indeed no Mark on it.

A person who couldn’t use magic and didn’t have an Osteon was the combat instructor. Before that, could that person even be called a Spirit Master…?

“So, today we’ll combine the evaluation with outdoor training.”

Cled took out a blue crystal from his pocket.

“I got some education funds from the academy, but I didn’t have much use for it, so I bought a few bottles of alcohol and this. It’s a large-scale teleport stone, they said.”

‘He’s casually admitting to embezzlement…’

“I know you’re all here, so I’ll use it. Prepare yourselves for motion sickness.”

“Instructor, wait…!”

The opinions of countless students were uniformly ignored.

When he crushed the teleport stone with his hand, all the students were engulfed in a bright light. Only a blue light flickered before my eyes, and with a sudden feeling of nausea, my vision returned.

“Ugh… Ugh…!”

Experiencing extreme dizziness for the first time in my life, many of the teleported students were retching.

“I don’t understand. It should feel good, like being drunk,” Cled said, the person who had caused the group vomiting.

When the nausea finally subsided and I looked around, I saw that the students were standing in the middle of a grassy plain, in the same arrangement as before.

Cled, standing in front of the students, said,

“You have currently been teleported to an unprotected area on the outskirts of Semal. Unlike the inside of Semal, which is protected by Spirit Masters, all kinds of Sarkas and wild animals appear here.”

“Kieek!”

Just then, Cled slammed the handle of his greatsword down on a passing rabbit-type Sarkas. He picked up the bright red bloodstone from the disintegrated remains.

“I’ll evaluate your grades based on the order in which you collect the most of these bloodstones. The size doesn’t matter, so I’ll give higher marks to those who fill the bags I’m giving you the heaviest.”

Dozens of bags were placed at the base of a huge tree where they had been teleported, as if they had been prepared in advance.

“The time limit is until the sun sets. Good luck.”

When he gestured, the students, who had been watching each other, all ran toward the bags. I ran along with them, thinking,

‘This… is an instructor…?’