Chapter 38. After Two Lives as a Joke, I Was Knighted in Front of Two Hundred Knights

Chapter 38: 38. After Two Lives as a Joke, I Was Knighted in Front of Two Hundred Knights

Before we left, Alicia caught my sleeve.

"You know you’re actually going to be a Royal Knight today," she said, and her voice had gone softer. "Aren’t you supposed to look happier?"

I opened my mouth to say something clever and found that nothing came out.

For years I’d watched other people get awakened, honored, celebrated, and carried off to the capital with banners.

But here I am... I’d trained until my hands bled, and I’d never had so much as a spark to show for it.

The world had politely and thoroughly informed me that I wasn’t the main character.

"I don’t know why, but... I’m still having trouble believing it," I admitted.

Alicia squeezed my hand. "Then believe me! I knew you’d get here!"

"And after what you did the other night," Laura said, "nobody in that hall can tell you that you don’t deserve it."

I looked at them. Almost tearful.

For once in my life, I didn’t feel like I had to prove anything to anyone. I only felt like walking forward with the people who’d chosen to walk with me.

"Thanks... Laura... Alicia..."

...

The ceremony was held in the great hall of the Royal Knight Order.

It was an enormous room with white marble pillars, banners as tall as houses, and a ceiling so high that the echoes took a second to come back.

The crest of Elarion was carved into the far wall, a tower beneath a rising sun, and at least two hundred knights were standing in neat rows with their hands behind their backs.

Along the sides stood royal officials in dark robes and a few nobles in jewels, all of them whispering.

I’d learned later that Sharon had fought the Order’s council to hold the ceremony early. By their own rules, newly recommended knights should have waited a month for the review.

But the city had been scared half to death by the attack, and Sharon argued that the people needed good news and that two heroes standing in public in white and blue would do more for morale than any proclamation.

The council had given in, probably because arguing with Sharon Sanford was about as productive as arguing with a landslide.

I walked in beside Alicia, and I swear... my fucking knees were shaking, not because of the sex with Laura last night, but nervousness!

"Are you nervous?" I whispered to Alicia, just so that I can cover my nervousness.

"Huh? Of course not. Why would I be nervous?"

"Your fingers... are twitching."

She shot me a sharp look. "If you keep mentioning that... I’m going to step on your foot."

"That’s very romantic."

"Roland!"

I grinned. It didn’t make my knees steadier, but it helped.

At the far end of the hall, Sharon was standing with the senior officers. Her orange hair was tied neatly back, and her broad shoulders looked even more impressive in the dress uniform of the Order.

When she saw me, she nodded once, and the look in her eyes was clear enough: ’Don’t you dare embarrass me.’

I spotted Laura in the rank of knights to the left, standing straight as a spear with her sword at her side. She caught my eye for a second, then looked pointedly at the ceiling, and I saw the corner of her mouth twitch.

God... she’s still the cutest. Almost the same level as my Alicia.

And then... The ceremony began with a reading of the battle report.

A herald in a long coat unrolled a scroll and began to recite. He described Garrick Voss’s attack on Elarion, the explosion at the secondary gate, and the black-armored troops that had poured into the eastern district.

He told how a man with no title had run into the smoke to save civilians, had fought the traitor commander with a sword that cracked in his hand, and had climbed the control tower to tear out the sabotage device before it could take down the barrier.

Then he read Alicia’s name.

He told them how she’d organized the guards on the avenue, how she’d held the line against a larger enemy force, and how she’d run down a fleeing courier and recovered a case of critical documents.

A murmur went through the crowd. The knights in the front rows turned to one another, and I could hear fragments drifting back.

"He actually beat... Garrick Voss?"

"With no rank...?! With no armor?!"

"And the gold-haired one... held the east side?"

Sharon stepped forward, and the whispering stopped like she’d turned a tap.

"Courage isn’t something you can hand out with a title," she said, and her voice rolled across the hall without any effort. "A title should go to the person who has already proved their courage!"

"These two didn’t wait for permission to protect the people of Elarion!"

"They ran into the fire when nobody had asked them to, and nobody had given them the authority to do it!"

She turned and looked straight at us.

"For that reason, I, Sharon Sanford, SSS-Rank Knight of Elarion, formally recommend Roland Ravenshield and Alicia Ainzfield to be raised to the rank of Royal Knight!"

An official in a gray robe nodded. "The recommendation is accepted."

My chest went warm and tight. No fucking way that... it’s finally happening.

We stepped forward and knelt in front of the crest. A senior officer drew a ceremonial sword and touched the flat of it to my right shoulder, then my left, and then did the same for Alicia.

"Roland Ravenshield," he said. "Do you swear to devote your strength to the protection of the people of Elarion, to obey the laws of the kingdom, and to use your power with responsibility?"

I lifted my head. "I do."

"Alicia Ainzfield, do you swear the same?"

The fuck...? Alicia should’ve got the same word as me, and not just ’swear the same. ’What a fucking lazy bum.

"I do," Alicia said, steady and clear.

But at least... she still looked cheerful as ever.

The blade lifted.

"By the authority granted to me, I name you both Royal Knights... of Elarion."

The hall exploded with applause.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

I stood up slowly. I’d been imagining this moment for twenty years, in two different lives, and I’d always pictured something bigger... a shout, a raised fist, and a moment of triumph with music in the background.

But what I actually did was stand there and look up at the crest on the wall and take a long, shaky breath.

’Two lifetimes,’ I thought. ’ Fifteen years of getting my ass kicked by twelve-year-olds...’

’And now... I’m finally... here.’

’My life really turned sideways ever since I got that system...’

’I’m really thankful... and also grateful...’

Without me noticing, I almost let out a tear.

Alicia nudged my arm. "Don’t cry."

"I’m not... crying."

"Your eyes are red."

"It’s dust... ugh... from all that applause."

"We’re in a closed room."

"Alicia," I said, "I just became a Royal Knight... just let me... have this."

She laughed and hugged me quickly, and I hugged her back. "Fine... But don’t forget that I got the same title."

"Congratulations, Alicia Ainzfield."

"Congratulations to you too... Roland Ravenshield."

Across the hall, Laura was applauding with the rest, and her smile was something that I hadn’t seen on her face before, wide and unguarded and so proud that it almost hurt to look at.

She’d been in my corner since a muddy crossroads in Dunmore, and now she was watching me get what I’d wanted for a lifetime.

There was one more part of the ceremony that nobody had warned me about.

Sharon walked over carrying a long object wrapped in blue cloth. She held it out to me with both hands.

"Your old sword broke on my tower," she said, loud enough for the front rows to hear, then lower, for me. "So the Order will cover the loss... you know that a proper royal knight needs a proper blade, right?!"

Oh wow... gifts! I love gifts!

"Thank you so much... Lady Sanford." I bowed down to Alicia, who then thanked her after me.

And with that... the most exciting part came, which was unwrapping our gifts!

I unwrapped the cloth. And inside... was a straight, plain sword with a dark leather grip and a pale steel blade that gleamed like water.

It wasn’t flashy, but that’s fine by me as long as it was well balanced. It’s also light enough to swing all day, and when I turned it in my hand, I could feel a faint hum inside the metal... the same hum I’d heard from the best swords I’d ever seen.

"It’s made of king steel," Sharon murmured. "Don’t scratch it."

"Thank you so much, Lady Sanford...! I’ll treat it better than I treat myself, promise!"

"That’s not a high bar."

I laughed, and she gave me a gruff little nod and walked back to her place, and I stood there holding my first real sword in my life and trying very hard not to look like an idiot.

The celebration lasted exactly as long as it took to cut a cake.