University has begun again. I did these chapters during transit.
After Heath made off for the apprentice knight dormitories, Crow and York conversed by themselves.
The other members each had jobs, training, or resting to get back to.
“That silly kid left with a grin on his face, yanno. Looks like your words made him pretty happy.”
“I only spoke the truth.”
From his tone, Crow seemed quite close to York as well.
York had shown no sign of embarrassment, and stated that he simply spoke the truth, but Crow turned a cheeky smirk at him.
“But if he knew who you actually were, I bet he’d be shocked huh, Your Majesty Roy.”
His casual tone spoke of their closeness, and they were in fact childhood friends.
“I’m sure I told you to call me York while I have this mask on. I have no intentions of telling Heath until he graduates as a full knight. It is technically a state secret, and telling him would simply pressure him.”
The 18th was a division that answered directly to the King.
It was a secret that only captains or above knew, but Roy had strong charisma, winning the ardent respect of knights even as ‘York’.
That it was classified information was one of the reasons he didn’t tell Heath, but it was also because he was worried about Heath becoming too motivated, or conversely too afraid.
Heath entered the division because he was needed, but he was currently still in training. Letting Heath concentrate on his training was Roy’s way of being considerate.
“Changing the subject, was that Princess Fii white or black?” asked Crow, a little more seriously than usual.
“Who knows,” answered Roy. “I’ve left that woman to Kain. Both her investigation and her treatment. I told him only to contact me if she’s black.”
“Oi, oi. Is that alright?”
“I am busy. I have work as a King, and there are plenty of other things I need to investigate regarding Princess Fiiru’s case. Even thinking about a shameless woman like that is a waste of time. If she’s black, then we show no mercy. If she’s white, I still don’t care. Taking advantage of her younger sister’s marriage, and then intruding on my nation… It’s obvious that nothing good will come of us meeting.”
Sadly, that was how most of the country saw her.
Of course, nobody knew how angry Fii felt about this. Nor did they know how cornered she had felt, or even the fact she had almost given up on everything.
“Well, if that’s what you’ve decided then I’m not going to say a thing.”
“More importantly is Heath. He has a talent we can use, and guts as well, but he seems to be somewhat emotionally unstable. Please take care of him as best you can.”
“Don’t need to tell me. Even if you didn’t say anything, he’s like a little brother to me. You teach him something too. He seems to really admire you.”
“If I have the time.”
‘If I have the time’ was in fact Roy’s utmost consideration. As somebody who served as both knight and king, to spare time for Heath showed how much he valued her.
“I’m sure that kid’ll jump for joy if you teach him. Up until a few hours ago, he looked like he was going to die of despair, yanno. Did you see how hopeful he looked when he flew out of the room?”
“He is a knight who will shoulder the future of this country. ‘Tis a good thing.”
Roy had no idea.
That the woman he assumed was troublesome and insolent, and whose matters he had pushed onto a subordinate, had taken the apprentice knight exams, and of all things had been taken in by his own unit…
He had seeeriously no idea…
That although Heath had left the room filled with joy, the one who pushed her into the brink of despair to begin with, was none other than himself…
It was only far, far later, that upon looking back on this decision, Roy would find himself banging his head against the wall, wanting to die from regret.
The answer is actually different between Fii and all the other candidates.
For candidates other than Fii, in other words, in regards to the actual system, the 1st Knight Division occupies all positions of importance. Because all roles that are privy to sensitive information are contained within the 1st Knight Division, the members are chosen based on personal trust by the King, the results of their background investigations, the way they conduct themselves ordinarily, as well as their simple ability as knights. If there was an excellent spy who could topple all these hurdles, I think his infiltration would succeed.
As for Fii, she actually belongs to a division that answers directly to the King, but the way the story is written for her is actually more a matter of my beliefs.
‘There is no reason to trust, but there is reason to doubt.’
For example, a reason like ‘because they’re my parents’ might cause you to trust them, but there isn’t any reason that they won’t betray you. Things like ‘because she’s my friend’ or ‘because he’s my lover’ are the same, I believe.
Even if you trust in somebody because of a reason like ‘they haven’t committed a crime’, there’s nothing to stop them from committing one the next day.
If you fully trust somebody, there isn’t really a reason, and if I had to describe it, it would be because of an assumption or bias.
York trusts Heath, because he’s stuck in the mindset that she’s trustworthy. It’s because of this reason that so many people are scammed by dodgy salesmen, and after you trust somebody completely, all that’s left is to wait and see if they betray you or not.
~Otakude Neet
(Estelion: Note that this answer about Fii was in regards to a while later, when York takes a massive liking to Heath.)