The Duke’s question about whether I could cut down even the most precious person made me think a lot.

First of all, if we’re talking about who is most precious to me, of course it would be His Majesty the Emperor.

Although Johannes, my family member, was also precious, I was a knight of the Empire before being an older sister.

Haven’t I lived all this time with only the loyalty that a knight should possess in my heart, excluding all other trivial emotions as much as possible?

So the most precious existence to me was also His Majesty the Emperor, my lord.

Then, does this man want to ask me if I’m prepared to cut down His Majesty the Emperor?

Probably not.

He’s likely curious if I can cut down family or friends if needed.

I answered without hesitation.

“I am prepared. For the sake of the Empire, I would gladly cut them down. Be it the neck of family or friends.”

“That’s an even more brutal answer than I expected. As expected of my brother’s knight.”

“So, what is the task you have for me?”

Eager to get the task or whatever it was over with and be recognized as deputy commander, I urged him.

Instead of answering me, he silently stood up from his seat.

While I stood there blankly, not knowing what was going on, he put on his coat and strapped his weapon to his back.

As he passed by me and went to the tent entrance, he finally spoke.

“What are you doing? Don’t you follow?”

“……”

Telling me to come out without any explanation.

I was dumbfounded, but for now I followed behind him.

Our conversation must have been quite long, as the rain had already stopped outside.

The Duke crossed the still muddy ground towards where the horses were tied.

Seeing him mount his horse, I quickly got on the horse I had ridden here.

After that, he started galloping off somewhere.

I quickly set off on my horse so as not to lose him.

I didn’t ask where we were going, and he didn’t answer.

So I wasn’t sure of the destination, but it seemed we were heading somewhere quite far.

Given that we stopped briefly in a small village along the way instead of riding straight through.

“Let’s rest here for a bit. We still have quite a way to go, so we should give the horses a break before that.”

“Yes.”

“By the way, aren’t you curious where we’re going?”

I stared at him blankly before asking back.

“Will you answer if I ask?”

“No.”

“……”

I wasn’t planning to ask anyway.

He really was a man who irritated people.

I was curious what the members of the Silver Knights saw in such a man to give him such loyalty.

My Emperor was the best ruler – gentle, kind, and caring for his people…

At that moment, the Duke spoke again.

“I can’t tell you the destination yet, but in any case, when we get there, you’ll be engaging in a fairly difficult battle. We should fill our stomachs here too.”

“Bread is enough for me. I don’t like overeating before battle.”

“I’ll pay for the meal, so don’t worry and just eat. I can at least buy you that much.”

“No, it’s not that I don’t have money—”

As I tried to explain that wasn’t the case, the Duke had already started walking.

I hurriedly followed behind him as he headed toward a nearby restaurant.

The restaurant he chose and entered was a place that served seafood, with a small hall where people were seated closely together.

As someone who dislikes crowded places, I couldn’t help but furrow my brow.

Meanwhile, the Duke managed to squeeze through the crowd of people and sat down in an empty seat.

As I sat across from him, he glanced at my expression.

“You don’t like seafood?”

“No. I dislike crowded places.”

“Hmm, disliking people and preferring to quietly nibble on bread alone… You really are exactly as I expected. Truly befitting of the Emperor’s knight.”

I had let it slide earlier, but this time I couldn’t, so I glared at him sharply.

“What do you mean by ‘befitting of the Emperor’s knight’?”

“Exactly like you.”

“So what am I—”

“Cruel, cold, inflexible, prickly, unsociable, someone who looks like they’d nibble on bread alone in the shadows.”

While I was too shocked to close my mouth at the barrage of insults thrown without hesitation, he added one last remark.

“I thought a knight of our cold-hearted Emperor would naturally have such a personality.”

I could tolerate him insulting me, but I couldn’t just let him insult His Majesty.

I stared at him straight on and refuted point by point.

“His Majesty is by no means a cold-hearted ruler. And I am not the kind of person who would nibble on bread alone in the shadows, as you said.”

“Well. That’s how it looks to me. I know the Emperor best as his younger brother, and it wasn’t difficult to figure you out either. Just hearing a few of your answers earlier, I could easily tell what kind of person you are.”

It seemed that my earlier answer about cutting down anyone without hesitation had rather given him a bad impression.

I had only wanted to appear reliable as a knight.

He called over the owner to order food and then continued speaking to me.

“We’ll probably never be able to get along. The day I trust you will likely never come either.”

“……”

“So prove that at least your abilities are outstanding. If I don’t like you and your skills aren’t even that great, I have no reason to keep you by my side.”

The food arrived while we spent an awkward time in silence.

It was quite appetizing-looking seafood dishes.

But after just being verbally abused, I didn’t feel like enjoying those foods.

In the end, as he had said, I finished my meal by nibbling on a few pieces of bread.

Afterwards, we rode our horses again for a long stretch, and finally arrived at our destination.

The destination, that is, in front of a rift.

It was a small rift, but it seemed to have been left unattended for a long time, as the surrounding area was already quite corroded.

Thinking that closing this must be the task that would be given to me this time, I asked him.

“Is closing this rift all I need to do?”

“Yes. Have you ever been inside a rift before?”

“Not many times, but I’m confident.”

It wasn’t baseless confidence.

Although I still lacked experience in dealing with rifts, I definitely had the skills.

Skills created by honing my innate talent through effort.

So when I answered confidently, he snorted while looking at me.

“You’ll be surprised if you look at it so lightly. This rift is special.”

“…?”

“I mean special monsters come out. I’ll explain the rest once we’re inside.”

He entered the rift first, and I immediately followed behind him.

Hearing an unpleasant ringing in my ears as I passed through the rift, I then looked around the surroundings.

And I understood. Why the Duke had called this place special.

“…It’s a forest of mirrors.”

As I murmured, there were mirrors standing all around us like trees in a forest.

Full-length mirrors of various shapes standing alone in the wilderness.

Looking around at that bizarre scene, the Duke spoke.

“The world beyond rifts usually takes on natural forms. Deserts, snowy fields, forests, and so on… But sometimes there are places like this with traces of civilization left behind.”

“…Did people live in the world beyond the rifts?”

“Maybe. These mirrors probably didn’t occur naturally like trees or rocks. Anyway, that’s not what’s important.”

“…?”

As I looked at the Duke with a puzzled expression, he pointed towards the mirrors.

“According to what I’ve investigated in advance, monsters will soon come out of these mirrors.”

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, something walked out of a mirror.

It must be the monster he mentioned.

After confirming the appearance of those monsters walking out one by one from the placed mirrors, I let out an “Ah” in exclamation.

“Is this why you asked that earlier? If I could cut down even those precious to me?”

Strangely, the monsters that appeared had forms very familiar to me.

The forms of my family, my old acquaintances, friends, and so on.

Looking at them, the Duke explained.

“Yes, to put it simply, those are monsters that read people’s minds. They read people’s minds to find out who they cherish, and then copy their appearances like mirrors.”

“……”

“Those must be the people precious to you. Am I right?”

As he asked me that while looking at the monsters that had appeared in human form, I answered in a subdued voice.

“That’s right.”

“Can you deal with them?”

I answered by raising my sword towards the monsters.

Then I continued.

“You might point fingers at me again, calling me a cruel and cold-hearted person. But I can’t help it. Cruelly and coldly wielding a sword is my only usefulness.”

There was no need to ramble on further.

My usefulness wasn’t something that could be shown through words.

I immediately swung my sword, taking down the monster in Johannes’ form with a single strike.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.