act13d5

B-but, it's fine! At least——

Maria, just seeing you all makes me feel like I've returned home.

...Margaret.

Maria, your equipment...

Oh! I went and borrowed your old stuff... Hehe, how is it? Fits me nicely, right?

Yeah, it's a nice fit. You've really grown up.

Hehe... I'm as tall as you now.

You've worked hard, truly. I wasn't able to talk with you properly in the arena earlier...... I've really missed you, Maria.

Ehh... Sis, you're making me embarrassed...

You've fought alone until now, but you survived, you've persisted.

I was aware what kind of impact my decision back then would have on Uncle and you, but I never thought that you would——

Margaret!

There's something you absolutely have to do, that you'd never back down from, right?

...Yeah.

Then you didn't do anything wrong!

Besides... I was never able to become like you, tough inside and out...

But I've started to understand. At least, I can think about what Aunt Zofia has always said... I can think about what a knight truly is.

Even though I still couldn't become like you... I've been able to get where I am today, with everyone's help!

If there were ever any beliefs that I held on to, they came from you! Because I too am a member of the Nearl family!

B-But, Margaret, you can't ever leave again, not like how you left six years ago...

I'll follow you this time, no matter what happens to us in the end... I, I believe in you.

Maria, you... Heh, you've really grown up.

...E-Ehh? Where did all of that come from...?

Anyway, just go upstairs and have a look——

...Margaret.

Uncle... this is...

Keep quiet.

Margaret. What did you come back for?

Don't you know what it means for you to appear here?

You rescued Maria... But why did you return to Kazimierz?

Do you know how much your father and grandfather sacrificed to 'send you out'?

Yet you dare to appear here so brazenly... Do you think that the Association and the corporations aren't watching your every step?

...I will join the Major.

Impossible.

I will retake the glory that belongs to the knights.

Glory is meaningless.

Meaning is in the eye of the beholder.

Kazimierz has changed. They have changed.

—Yet I'm still here. We're all still here.

Don't be greedy... Margaret.

I imagined you would calm down after leaving Kazimierz... But this is your answer?

You're wasting my time.

Uncle...

Enough.

In the time I've spent talking to you, a mountain of documents has piled up waiting for me to handle. Don't interrupt my work...

Leave Kazimierz before things turn worse. You've made a life for yourself elsewhere, just don't come back anymore.

Uncle! How can you say that?!

Maria.

Margaret...

Uncle Młynar, I understand your decision. I still respect you just as I did back then.

I also hope for your support.

—Understand?

You know nothing of what I've seen, what I've done. Yet you still hold on to your idealistic thoughts...

I was once lucky enough to catch a glimpse of hope. I have also experienced the shadow of war.

I'm merely choosing to continue believing in my faith, and to fight for it.

...Kazimierz will not change one bit, no matter how much the Radiant Knight sacrifices, no matter how much she wins.

Of course. Of that, I'm very clear.

Even so...

Even so.

...Draw your blade, Margaret.

U-Uncle?!

If you insist on being so stubborn, I have no choice but to to teach you how to 'give up' the hard way. To fall by my blade is far better than falling into the shadow of the Armorless Union.

...As you wish.

Those stupid competition knights are just a bunch of trash willing to be manipulated for the sake of money.

If the young mistress of the Nearl family were to have an accident as well, don't even bother calling this campaign knight a knight anymore! I'll go flip the National Council's goddamned table myself!

——That's what the old man said.

...Senomy, there's no need to mimic him so convincingly...

Ehh, but he specifically instructed me to convey the exact message.

You don't need to listen to everything he says.

He even said that if the Grand Knight didn't agree, he'd go greet the Radiant Knight himself, even if he had to hobble all the way there.

He also said that if you sighed and cupped your forehead, reluctant to answer, he would——

Alright, alright... I know how unhappy he is. He hasn't changed at all, still causing a ruckus in the Court Sprawiedliwi Kazimierz every day over what few accomplishments he has...

Don't forget he is still an offender.

But the National Council, totally corrupted by the General Chamber of Commerce, has no right to convict my old man. They don't representing the citizens or the law at all. They're just representing themselves and the merchants behind them.

...He taught you that as well?

No, I figured that one out myself.

*Sigh*...

Is that all?

Ah, there's one more thing.

...Yeah.

The people from Rhodes Island seem to have arrived.