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What on earth am I doing right now?

Hailey let out a sigh as she stood absentmindedly in the center of the Training Grounds, doing nothing.

There was still a lot of time left until dawn.

Considering her duties as a handmaiden, she should have gone back to bed to get some sleep by now.

She knew very well that if she stayed up all night with wide-open eyes, she wouldn’t know what kind of state her body would be in the next day. Even if she wasn’t feeling sleepy at all, she should have forced herself to lie down in bed instead of coming out like this.

But right now, Hailey’s body was outside.

Even as she told herself that it was wrong, the place she was currently in wasn’t her bedroom, but the Training Grounds. She neither entered the room nor came out to do anything, yet Hailey remained standing there.

What had lured her outside, she was already aware of within herself.

If she wanted to escape the stuffy room, there was no need to come all the way to this place far from her bedroom. She simply wanted to be here. Ever since she had encountered the knights yesterday, or even long before that, she had wanted to stand here all along.

She had merely suppressed that feeling until now.

One might say that a handmaiden has no relation to swords, but Hailey Hartmann.

Before being Elena’s handmaiden, she was the daughter of the Hartmann family, a vassal house of the Duke House of Edelweiss.

Currently, as the captain of the White Wolf Knights of Edelweiss, and as you could see from Wilhelm Hartmann, who is still counted among the best knights of the Empire, the Hartmann family could proudly be called one of the few noble warrior families in the north.

How could it be that the eldest daughter of such a family had no connection to swords?

From before she could even read, she had learned how to wield a sword from her grandfather and father.

“You have no talent.”

The voice of someone who shouldn’t have been here echoed in her ears within the empty Training Grounds. It was a very common and predictable question to ask why she had chosen to be Elena’s handmaiden instead of staying in the family to train as a knight.

Knights are superhumans.

They are those closest to the legendary heroes who slice mountains and slay dragons with a sword. Like wizards, they wield weapons and perform miracles that mere humans cannot achieve.

And for such knights, the power called Aura, which serves as proof that they can perform these miracles, was something Hailey had no talent for.

It is not an exaggeration to say that a knight’s abilities all stem from Aura.

What transforms the sword they hold into a legendary weapon capable of cutting anything is Aura, and it is also Aura that grants them superhuman physical powers.

This Aura is akin to the achievements one has built up through martial arts, yet a certain level of innate quality is needed to contain it within one’s body.

Hailey had exceptional insight, capable of understanding the intricacies of Wilhelm’s swordsmanship from a young age, but unfortunately, the capacity of her body was below that of an average person, contrary to her outstanding intellect.

Continuing to train would indeed lead to her acquiring excellent skills in the martial arts she learned, but reaching the level of knights who run like the wind and shake the ground with their strength was a distant dream.

To be precise, her physical nature was more suited to being a wizard than a knight.

While knights harness power within their bodies, wizards draw upon external forces to enact their will and perform miracles. Although Hailey could not contain Aura in her body, she had the potential to manipulate it, thus qualifying her to walk the path of magic.

Knowing this, the Hartmann family no longer forced Hailey to pick up a sword.

Coincidentally, the Duke House of Edelweiss was one of the best magical families on the continent, so they sent her there hoping that the Duke House would provide excellent masters for her.

Thus, although she wasn’t sent from the beginning to be a handmaiden to the Duke, it was ultimately Hailey who decided what she wanted to do while there.

Hailey had no desire to pursue magic; thus, unlike what was intended, she chose to remain at the Duke House as Elena’s handmaiden, but regardless of the reason, the fact that she became Elena’s handmaiden was ultimately because she had no talent as a knight.

Even if Hailey hadn’t met Elena that day and decided to become her handmaiden, if she hadn’t put down her sword, she would have eventually been sent to serve as a handmaiden like any other noble’s daughter. Hailey chose to take action herself rather than have decisions forced upon her.

“It’s been a long time since I held a sword.”

As she lifted the sword taken from the storage, Hailey couldn’t help but smile faintly at the unfamiliar sensation after such a long time.

Having lived at the Duke House, she had occasionally been urged by Elena to become a wizard. The words she had given Hailey were not said with any ulterior motive, but rather as a pure gesture of friendship, yet Hailey had never accepted them.

The paths of magic and martial arts cannot coexist.

If you choose one, you must forsake the other.

In the dim light, it was hard to discern where she was, lit only by a small lamp. However, just standing in the Training Grounds made her feel a heightened sense of emotion.

The emotions she thought she had tossed away while living as a handmaiden still lingered in Hailey’s heart. No, even with ample opportunity, the moment she chose not to step into magic, she had never considered putting down her sword.

Perhaps it was because she hadn’t trained systematically for a long time. The weight of the sword in her hand felt heavy. It felt as though a boulder now rested in her heart as well, but more than that heavy feeling, she was overjoyed that she was currently holding a sword.

What she initially thought was just a brief escape suddenly transformed her concentration to a serious level as if the world had turned this intense.

Although it had been ages since she last wielded the sword, and her body had stiffened like stone, she had never forgotten what she had learned. She took a stance and moved her feet, letting her hands follow her heart.

Since her internal energy was very low, Hailey’s sword movements were quite slow, but they held no instability.

The blade, kissed by moonlight, glimmered like it was wrapped in sword qi amidst the dark.

It was but a fleeting illusion maintained only for that moment, but Hailey found joy in it. Though fake, the sword cloaked in moonlight made her feel like a true knight, and she couldn’t bring herself to hate that.

The sword techniques of the Hartmann family were originally mighty swords filled with power; however, in her current state, it was impossible for her to replicate the sword she remembered accurately. Thus, she merely executed what was easiest for her.

Had it been merely a weak sword without power, it might have looked clumsy, but her sword was anything but.

With a graceful sword path filling the space alongside the moonlight, it created an illusion that the surroundings had brightened.

For some time, Hailey’s sword dance continued under the moonlight.

As she concluded her sword technique with a downward cut, she released the sword from her hand.

“Haah… Haah… It’s really been a while since I held one. It feels heavy.”

Her voice was filled with regret, yet her expression was nothing but relief.

The moment she let the sword go, Hailey stumbled slightly, her body swaying this way and that after having not trained for so long. She had definitely lost the stamina she once had. Even with the effort to relax her movements, wielding a heavy piece of iron was tough for a mere handmaiden’s body.

“Still, I think I’d be able to sleep now.”

With her body completely drained of energy, all she had to do was lie down on her bed, and she would succumb to sleep, free of any lingering thoughts. Though she wasn’t sure how the next day would unfold.

Perhaps it was because she was so exhausted. It was hard to keep her balance.

Due to her wobbling body, she almost fell forward, but Hailey quickly solved the problem by driving the sword into the ground. Her body, which had almost tumbled forward, narrowly stopped, using the sword as a support.

“Uh? I think I just heard something…”

Hailey turned her head toward the other side of the Training Grounds. Without the light of the lamp, there was nothing but darkness in that direction. Soon, she turned her head back, concentrating on catching her breath.

*

In the darkness, a small boy moves his body.

The boy, Alphonse, was fast in trying to distance himself from the Training Grounds, but there was no sound of footsteps to follow.

The practice he had secretly done to sprint to the Training Grounds was now bearing fruit. Once he felt he was a good distance away from the Training Grounds, Alphonse stopped and looked back.

Fortunately, no one appeared to be chasing him from behind.

“Haah… They must not have seen me, right?”

Alphonse sighed in relief at Hailey’s inability to find him.

His body involuntarily moved at the sight of Hailey staggering and almost falling after finishing her sword dance.

If things had gone as they should, he would have just checked who was in the Training Grounds before returning to his room, but the person standing there was so unexpected, or perhaps he simply couldn’t take his eyes off the sword she had shown.

Unexpectedly, he watched from start to finish.

The scene of moonlight dancing with her sword would have felt magical to anyone who witnessed it. As she drew light with the sword, painting the air, her figure was beautiful enough to be worth praising.

Alphonse recalled the image of Hailey dancing under the moonlight in her nightclothes, swaying the sword, that grin on her face making her seem so joyful.

Suddenly feeling warmth rising to his face, Alphonse dismissed it as just the heat from running and shrugged it off.

 

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