Chapter 20. Her Teacher Is an SSS-Rank Valkyrie, and the System Has Opinions

Chapter 20: 20. Her Teacher Is an SSS-Rank Valkyrie, and the System Has Opinions

The training grounds were on the eastern side of Elarion, and I could hear them from three streets away.

It was the sound of steel on steel, grunts, shouted orders, and a sort of rhythmic thumping that I eventually realized was the noise of people being thrown to the ground.

When we came through the gate, a few dozen knights were drilling in rows across a huge field of packed dirt, and every one of them looked tired and sweaty... also terrified of something.

The source of their terror was easy to find... I can already tell from the start when Laura said something like, ’She’s going to be extremely loud about it.’

And there she is... I can see a woman standing in the center of the field with a sword that looked like it had been forged for a giant.

She had bright orange hair tied up high on her head, shoulders as wide as a door, and arms that rippled with muscle every time she moved.

Goddamn, can a woman achieve this kind of build?! She’s muscular! And lowkey my type as well.

What makes it even arousing is that... her training clothes were plain, with no armor at all, but she didn’t seem to need any.

And right now... She was surrounded by three knights in full gear, and she looked bored.

"If you let your opponents read your moves that easily," she bellowed, "you’ll be dead the first time you meet a real enemy!"

The knight in front lunged. The woman turned her body a few inches, let the blade slide past her ribs, and dropped him with a short, clean strike to the back of his knees.

The other two came at her together. She stepped aside, smacked one sword out of its owner’s grip, trapped the second against her blade, and shoved.

All three of them were on the ground in about five seconds.

I raised my eyebrows.

Okay, I thought. I just watched three adult knights get treated like first-day recruits.

The woman glanced toward the gate, and her whole face changed.

"Laura?"

"Sharon!"

I had never seen Laura move that fast outside a fight. She crossed the field in a few strides, and the orange-haired woman caught her in a one-armed hug and thumped her on the back so hard that Laura nearly lost her footing.

"You’re alive!" Sharon barked. "I heard about the attack on Dunmore..."

"Why didn’t you send a word?"

"I was on an assignment."

"Heh! Of course you were. Always assignments, assignments, and assignments." Sharon held her at arm’s length and squinted at her. "But look at you now... You look thin."

"Are you properly eating MEATS?"

"I’m fine."

"That is the least convincing answer I’ve ever heard from you."

I watched them with a kind of fascination.

The Laura I knew was cool and controlled while keeping the world at a measured distance, but around Sharon... I can say that she was acting like a student who had come home after a long trip.

It was kind of adorable actually.

Eventually, Sharon noticed the rest of us. "So... Who are your knight friends?"

Laura introduced us and gave her a short version of what had happened, including how I’d shown up at the crossroads and how we’d fought together in Blackthorn.

Sharon listened with her arms crossed, studying me from head to toe like a butcher inspecting a side of beef.

"So you’re the man who saved my student, eh?" she said.

"Well... apparently... yeah..."

"And you helped take down a gang using Energy Crystal armor?"

"A team effort, mostly."

She walked up and clapped her hand on my shoulder.

’GUGGH!’

"Good!" she said. "I like people who actually do something when things go bad."

My knees almost buckled. I’m fairly sure I heard a bone make a complaint.

"Thank you," I wheezed. "If you hit a little harder, I might get to meet my ancestors."

Sharon let out a laugh that scattered the birds from a nearby wall. "Ha! You’ve got a mouth on you!"

"Sharon," Laura said sharply. "Please don’t break him... He’s still injured."

Sharon went quiet, then turned toward Laura with a slow, delighted smile.

"Oh?"

Laura froze. "What?"

"You’re defending him... that’s unusual from your mouth."

"I’m stating a fact."

"Of course you are."

"Sharon!"

I tried very hard not to laugh. Behind me, Alicia gave up and just grinned openly.

Sharon introduced herself formally after that. She was Sharon Sanford, senior instructor of the Royal Knight Order, and an SSS-Rank knight with a list of accomplishments long enough to make me feel like I’d been doing nothing with my life.

She’d cleared monster nests that other squads wouldn’t approach, dueled three generals in one afternoon, and apparently once held a gate alone for two days.

The people on the training field watched her like she was a small, friendly natural disaster.

I casually pulled up the panel because I’m a coward... and nearly stopped breathing.

[SSS-RANK FEMALE KNIGHT DETECTED]

[Name: Sharon Sanford]

[Class: War Valkyrie]

[Combat Rating: SSS]

[Compatibility Analysis: Initiated]

[Potential Bond: Unknown]

[Special Condition: Exceptional Combat Potential]

I closed it so fast that I almost sprained my eye.

There’s no fucking way...

Not now, I thought.

Seriously, not now.

I’d just spent half a day carefully convincing myself that there was no hurry, and the universe had handed me an SSS-Rank woman with a sword the size of a door.

"Why did you suddenly go quiet?" Sharon asked, narrowing her eyes.

I gave her my most respectful smile. "I was just thinking how impressive the knights of Elarion are."

"Good! Then tomorrow morning, you’ll train with me, got that?"

My smile dropped. "T-tomorrow morning?"

"Yes."

"Do I have the right to refuse?"

"Of course you do."

I felt a wave of relief.

"You’d just have to explain to Laura why you turned down a chance to train with her mentor," Sharon added.

I turned toward Laura. She was smiling faintly, and she was clearly enjoying every second of this.

"I’ll be there on time," I said.

...

Sharon led us to a private room in the instructors’ wing, a long, quiet space with a table, a pot of strong tea, and a door that locked from the inside.

Laura laid out everything while Sharon listened without interrupting: Dunmore, the ambush in Blackthorn, the ledger and the jagged-circle emblem, the black-armored knight at the gate, and the warrant for Martin.

When she got to Site Nine, Sharon’s face went still. She took the ledger from Laura’s hands, flipped through it slowly, and ran her thumb along one of the sealed pages.

"I’ve heard that name," she said. "A few months ago, some royal crystals were moved through a route that wasn’t in the books..."

"I put in a request for an investigation, and the whole thing was killed... Not by anyone in my chain, but by someone higher."

"Why didn’t you tell me about that?" Laura asked.

"Because I didn’t want you dragged in before I knew who was involved." Sharon set the ledger down. "Several knights who looked into similar cases were reassigned without warning."

"Nobody asked questions... And there are rumors of a facility outside the city, but nobody’s ever confirmed what goes on there."

She looked at each of us in turn. "I’ll help you reach Commander Hallis."

"But I’ll do it quietly, and we won’t talk to anyone else in the order until we know who we can trust... That includes people who look friendly."

Alicia took Martin to a side room with a bed so he could sleep, and Sharon asked Laura to help her carry some gear from the supply house, since she didn’t want anyone else hearing what they were discussing.

I offered to carry boxes. Sharon said "obviously" and pointed me toward a stack.

The supply house was a dusty stone building across the courtyard, packed to the ceiling with training swords, practice armor, and crates of bandages. We hauled half a dozen boxes together.

On the way back, I noticed Laura watching me.

"Do you always do this?" she asked.

"Carry boxes?"

"Take on work that isn’t yours."

I thought about it while shifting the crate in my arms. "Hmmm... Probably."

"I spent a long time being too weak to help anyone, but now... I finally can, and it seems like a waste to think only about myself."

"I used to think you were reckless."

"I still am, alright. Sometimes... I don’t think at all."

She laughed under her breath. "At least you’re honest."

We reached the courtyard door, and I set the last box down on a bench. My arm gave a sharp pang when I let go, and I tried to hide it, but Laura was already turning toward me.

"You’re still... haven’t healed yet?"

"I’m okay."

"Roland."

It was the way she said my name that stopped me, quiet and firm, with none of the sharpness she used when she was scolding me. She stepped closer and looked me straight in the eye.

"I don’t want to see you hurt just because you think you have to carry everything alone..."

I couldn’t think of a joke at this moment, shit...!

For once in my life, it didn’t feel like a place for one.

"I’ll try... to be more careful," I said.

She reached out and tucked a loose end of the bandage back under the wrap. Her fingers were warm and steady, and I became uncomfortably aware of how close she was.

"Make sure you do."

I opened my mouth to say something, and I’m not sure what it would have been...

But she pulled her hand back first and put on her stern face again.

"Don’t get the wrong idea... I just don’t want to lose a travel companion."

"Of course," I said. "I wouldn’t dream of it."

"I can already tell that you’re holding back a joke."

"It’s the first time today that I’ve decided not to say one."

"Good."

"Mostly because I’d like to stay alive..."