88: The Training Program
――I knew I was ordinary.
I had received a noble education and… shone, to some extent. …Probably. Well, I must have shone a little…
Even an ordinary person, polished with so much time and money, should have some shine.
However, I was expected to be the next head of a ducal family.
The required skills were diverse, and the responsibilities were heavy.
I couldn’t afford to stand still.
So, even though it was embarrassing to show such vulnerability, even to Ciel, my governess and tutor, who had been with me since infancy, I decided to listen to her advice.
Many had opposed the idea of me participating in the knight training program—and skipping the basics to go straight to the final training course.
Even the instructor, upon our first meeting, had been incredibly harsh.
“During this training, I won’t think of you as a noble. I won’t respect you, and I certainly won’t go easy on you. If you don’t like it, you can threaten me, assassinate me, whatever. I don’t need spoiled nobles playing games here.”
…He had declared.
――I had been so frustrated I almost cried, but I gritted my teeth and endured.
Just in case, I also asked Ciel not to pull any strings behind the scenes.
This was no game.
I couldn’t be the first in line to inherit the Vanderwaals ducal title on a whim.
So, when the instructor finally told me I had passed, I was inwardly ecstatic.
While I wasn’t exactly confident, I tried to appear calm and collected as I listened to his congratulations.
“I still won’t think of you as a noble. —You are a knight. No matter what anyone else says, I, and those who stand here with you, know that you strived to be a knight, more than anyone… Congratulations, Adelheid.”
――I almost teared up, but I gritted my teeth and endured.
I couldn’t count how many times I had cursed that demon instructor during the training, but it all seemed insignificant now.
Of course, there were those who whispered, “She only passed because she’s a noble.”
…That was only natural.
Even I often wondered why a noble lady was undergoing such grueling training, where the only glamorous aspects were the armor, the swords, and the spear tips.
Those whispers would probably never disappear.
There would always be those who saw the title I had earned through blood and sweat as nothing more than a decoration.
Even so, most of those who trained with me, and all those who passed, were angered by, or laughed off, such rumors and whispers.
The retention rate in the Territorial Army had apparently increased slightly since I passed…
Though the causal relationship couldn’t be proven.
…Towards the end, I had felt… comfortable.
I had even wished I could stay there.
…I had briefly dreamed of a different future.
The knight’s examination was a narrow gate.
No matter how high they rose in rank, the knights of the Vandergant Territorial Army would never be granted the title of “Ritter,” or the ‘von’ prefix denoting nobility.
Even so, it was a position romanticized in stories.
Until then, I had always thought I would live my life as the head of the family.
But after sharing the joys and hardships of training with my comrades, chasing the same goal… the same dream, even for just six months…
…I had dreamed of living my life as a knight.
If I could live that way…
If I could believe in honor and glory…
Earning the title of knight, alongside comrades I could trust with my life…
If I could live that way…
As long as there were no wars, being a knight in the territorial army was a good job.
While daily patrols within the city and on the highways, maintaining order, weren’t exactly glorious or heroic, they were far less dangerous than the battlefield.
And if you served until retirement, you received a pension.
If I could live such a life…
I had dreamed of it.
I chose to be the one who provided that life.
I was the eldest child, the only child… of the Vanderwaals family.
I was always first in line to inherit the title.
My future had been determined from the moment I was born.
Even so, I had made a choice.
Having glimpsed a different possible future, even so—or rather, because of it.
My comrades, like Johan and Horst, whom I had just seen, who trained with me. The instructors. The senior knights I met during training, and the junior soldiers.
To me, the knights and soldiers of the Territorial Army were no longer just numbers on a report.
――And yet, I still had to see them as numbers.
I was Adelheid von Vanderwaals, lord of Vandergant and supreme commander of the Territorial Army.
I dreamed of a future where none of those under my command would die.
Despite our notoriety, our family had power. The ‘power’ to enforce our ideals.
But my current destination was the guillotine.
I knew there was a fate governing this world.
I had learned of the existence of a ‘power’ greater than myself.
If that fate were simply unjust, I would have resisted.
As the head of the family, as the lord… as a human being, I would have defied fate.
But [Moonlight Liberium] was a story with a happy ending.
The interests of the nation outweighed the life of a single villain. It was a logic I had applied countless times.
And now—I wouldn’t—couldn’t—make an exception for myself.
…It was fine if I was executed.
As long as the future of my territory was secure, as long as my sister was happy, that was all that mattered.
However, I felt…
…a twinge of sadness… at the thought of betraying the trust of those who called me their leader…
…and at the thought of all my efforts, before I became the head of the family—before I became the ‘villainous sister’—to be worthy of their loyalty, vanishing like dew on the guillotine.
