The Death Knight Became an Escort Knight for the Saintess

36. Promise to come back

36.

Returning to her inn in the evening, Celia, the holy maiden of innocence, began to organize her own belongings with a smile on her face. Contrary to her fresh face, Zer Pied was still slightly frozen. It was because the reaction of the old gnome I had seen before was very different from what I expected, and it was too close to irrational behavior. To him, the holy maiden of innocence gave her smile and awakened her spirit.

“I’m really glad I got a boat. Right, knight?”

Zer Peed stood blankly and nodded her head.

“Ah… That’s right, I’m glad.”

Seeing the escort knight’s reaction, the saintess tilted her head and asked a question.

“What’s up, driver?”

“… No, just… It’s amazing that she got on board in a way she never expected.”

The saintess smiled even more after hearing the words of her escort knight.

“Because you are pure.”

“Pure?”

Again, this was an unexpected word, so Death Knight had to ask the word again with her doubts. Ecilia replied without removing a smile from her lips.

“Yes, that is great. I’m not very knowledgeable about ships. That’s why I don’t know exactly what condition the ship is in. But, I can tell you this.

Unlike the other sailors, the old man didn’t talk about whether he could go or not, but about the ship itself. It’s probably because he’s been with Bae for the rest of his life. If a person lives innocently, life is filled with that innocence. I was just helping him a little to make it easier for him to make a decision.”

Zerpied realized once again that his lady was a saint. It is because the words that transcend rationality that life is filled with innocence are not properly understood. Like the other saints he encountered, Esilia too sometimes said things that transcended such rationality. But strangely, for some reason, the saintess’ words seemed to be vaguely grasping the fragments of understanding.

It was the same even now. Receiving a peculiar feeling of being tickled in his mind, Zer Pied nodded his head. When Esilia saw the move, her big smile broke out. Ecilia nodded her head broadly, as if she saw something remarkable.

“Whoops, shall we finish packing?”

While organizing her belongings along with her lady, the Death Knight found something different from other luggage in a long form. He picked it up right away. As the escort knight lifted the object, Escelia exclaimed as if she had realized something.

“Huh? That?”

“The rapier given to me by Chief Pelsire. I wasn’t in a situation to wield a sword, so I just left it unintentionally.”

“Come to think of it, how do I do this? He said to sell it if it’s hard to write, but… Still, it’s something I gave you, but I don’t want to sell it….”

Celia rested her chin on her hand and was lost in thought. With her moan, a deep furrow formed between her white eyebrows. It seemed to indicate the depth of her distress by the degree of the goal. Fortunately, those deep wrinkles didn’t last long.

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“That sword is of good quality. Even I think it’s a waste to sell it. Speaking of which, how about learning swordsmanship, Esilia?”

“Uh, yes? Me? Swordsmanship?”

“Yes…. Ecilia, don’t misunderstand and listen. Of course I will do my best to escort you. However, there may be unavoidable circumstances. For example, like in the realm of demons.”

When Celia heard that, her body trembled. She felt as if the cold of the northernmost part of the world had been released somewhere in her body. Her memory of that time lingered in her bones.

Hundreds of her demons pulled out her sharp claws and flew towards her. Her escort knights were in a state where they couldn’t properly display their powers due to her demon priests. If she herself hadn’t had the ability to stop her demon priests……. Ecilia felt her body freeze.

The Death Knight, who was watching the saintess’ hard face, opened her mouth.

“So let’s learn swordsmanship. There is no law saying that what happened once cannot happen again.”

Celia nodded her head with her slightly tense face. Zer Pied glanced outside of her and continued.

“Fortunately, the time the captain asked us to come aboard was two days later, so we still have plenty of time. So try it now.”

Cilia’s eyes widened at the conclusion that didn’t match the content of her words.

“Huh? Gee, now? Here?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t it be better to learn when you have more time to spare? The room isn’t too small, so there’s no problem learning at least informally.”

“Yes? Short form?”

“Anyway, it’s because I don’t use a sword. I have knowledge of swordsmanship, but I can’t say it’s systematic. I can teach you the basics though.”

“Ha, but I never learned how to use a sword, did I?”

Her escort knight shook her head sluggishly at those words. You learned? I? The saintess tilted her head at the behavior of her escort knight.

“Wasn’t Miss Renemie kindly teaching you?”

Celia then slammed her palm with the side of her fist with a short gasp, as if realizing it. The reason she couldn’t remember her was simple. Originally, teaching is a two-way communication, but it is because Renemier was somewhat closer to one-way communication than teaching. Of course, she couldn’t deny that there was kindness underneath.

At the escort knight’s question, a wrinkle appeared again between the saintess’ white eyebrows.

“How much do you remember what Miss Renemier taught you?”

“Ummm, um… You mean to duck down and attack aggressively?”

Death Knight nodded her head.

“That’s right, rapiers are specialized for stabbing, so it’s hard to catch your breath and counterattack after blocking like other swords. When blocking, you have to let go and stab at the same time. Bondi elves often use rapiers based on this characteristic. In a forest with many trees, it is difficult to make large movements, and there are obstacles such as trees, so you have to be fast.”

The saintess of innocence nodded her head eagerly with her red and blue eyes wide open. To her, her escort knight held out her silver rapier.

“Take a pose.”

The saintess’s eyes lit up at the first sword she grabbed, and she braced herself and took her stance. In her head, when she was in the cathedral, she ruminated intently on the postures of the paladins she saw through the window. Her Death Knight stared blankly at her as she caught her stance. She had the same expressionless gaze as usual, but the saintess felt ashamed of her for some reason, perhaps because it was the first time she was holding her. As he looked at her, he opened her mouth.

“Hmm, have you ever seen swordsmanship?”

“Oh, yes. A little bit of what the paladins are doing in the cathedral….”

“I guess they didn’t use rapiers.”

“Uh, maybe? It seemed that the blade was wider than this sword.”

Zer Pied nodded her head in understanding. He strides toward her saint and grabs her left arm, which she hides behind her back. The saintess’s eyes widened at her sudden contact. It was yesterday that I saw the escort knight undressing…. Her weak arm of the Saint was led to the place where the Death Knight was moving. He had Escelia’s arm forward to her.

“The swordsmanship you saw is the method used with a broadsword, not a rapier. They are relatively specialized in cutting, so if you stretch out your hand, you might get hurt, so I put my left hand behind me like before. However, since the rapier has opposite characteristics, the stance is also opposite… Ecilia?”

The Death Knight stared at the frozen saintess with her eyes wide open. When her escort knight called her name, Celia trembled as if her frozen body had melted. She, of course, trembled at what she was saying.

“… Uh? Uh? Yes? What, what did you say, did you?”

“I told you that what you saw was a swordsmanship with a broadsword, so I had to push it forward with her left hand on the contrary.”

“Yes, yes, yes… yes yes….”

“… Ecilia, are you okay?”

The saintess swallowed her saliva and nodded her head eagerly. Her body remained the same, only her head moving up and down seemed funny. Ecilia hastily added her excuse.

“Gwa, it’s okay! Just, just… I was just nervous the first time I held her sword… ! Yes yes… ! There is no other reason than that! Never!”

Fortunately, the death knight no longer looked at her with her eyes mixed with bewilderment and strangeness, perhaps because her saintess was reasonable in her excuses. Instead, he acted a little more appropriate to what her saintess had said. He gripped her Eccilia’s arm a little softer. The gentleness she could clearly feel, and the tension of her saintess – of course, not the tension caused by holding her sword for the first time – slowly began to dissolve.

“Like this… Can I?”

Now she was in a rather awkward posture, her right hand holding her rapier forward, and her left hand forward as well. But the Death Knight said she was satisfied.

“Yes, well done.”

The saintess wiggled awkwardly with her hand that was not holding anything. Zer Pied said to her saintess.

“Please attack.”

“… A knight?”

At the death knight’s positive action, Esilia hesitated, then, “Aye!” With a shout, he rushed at Zerfied. He looked very funny at the sight of her rushing towards her with his eyes slightly closed, but soon after, he seriously took the posture of stabbing her saintess with the partisan hilt held against her. In response to her sudden escort knight’s counterattack, Escelia unknowingly tried to block the hilt with her left hand.

At that moment, as soon as the Death Knight confirmed her appearance, she immediately stopped attacking. As her attack suddenly ceased, Essilia almost fell in front of her, unable to control her force pushing her. Of course, she didn’t fall. Because Zerfied caught her. But in return, the saintess had to change her face like a strawberry.

“Are you all hurt?”

Cilia shook her head up and down her bum. Zerfied did not harbor any particular doubts. Everyone has a moment, because she’s like that when she almost falls over suddenly. Zerfied waited for a while until Ecilia calmed down.

“Good job.”

“… Yes? What? I didn’t do anything She didn’t follow the instructions properly, but tried to block it with her left hand….”

“That’s what I did well.”

When her saintess tilted her head, Zer Pied held out something of hers to her. It was a dagger. It was the mangoche given by Renemie.

“As you can see, the blade of the rapier is not wide. That’s why it’s hard to say her defense is high. She says that blocking is actually only part of attacking while shedding. For this reason, unlike a broadsword, his left hand is thrust forward. To defend against enemy attacks. But it’s common knowledge that he can get hurt if he blindly blocks it with his bare hands. Mangoshu is what appears here.”

Shortly after the words were finished, Zerfied stabbed the Partizan in the same way again. As Esilia held out her rapier as well, she unconsciously took a defensive stance with her left hand.

But unlike her earlier, she had a mango shu, and the lightly stabbed her hilt collided with her mango shu, making a clear ting sound. And her scabbard rapier was aimed at Zerfied’s abdomen. The saintess opened her mouth and opened her eyes as if she realized something from the scene. Zer Pied lightly raised the corner of her mouth at such a figure of Celia.

“Then let’s try again.”

…… The saintess couldn’t believe that the Death Knight lied to her. His “Once” Ended only after two hours had passed. The saintess was so ashamed, but with her coyness and the rumbling of her own stomach, she could barely stop the teaching. The saint shed tears with her strawberry-like face, and it was only after she ate a very late supper of durian and fruits that she could go to sleep.

–

At dawn the next day, the saintess woke up in a daze. If she was originally the same, she would not have struggled so much with early morning worship, but yesterday she was tired from receiving the last ‘one’ lesson of the Death Knight. The Death Knight lightly lifted her up and came out of her, half of her mind still held by her souma.

Even though it was dawn, the streets were busy. From that early hour, the movement of sailors to appease the bobbing boats was busy, and the shopping districts were also stretched for such sailors. Along with the slowly awakening city, the saintess also yawned and slowly woke up.

“Haaaaa~! Ummm… Here it is….”

“Are you awake? This is the store, Gemini. It’s 4:30 now, so I think you can go a little leisurely.”

“Uh… shopping street… ? Right! Come to think of it, we had something to prepare! Knight! We have something to live for!”

“What to buy?”

Upon hearing the words of the Death Knight, the saintess instantly defeated her sorcery. She looked like someone who had just realized some important truth. Ecilia pulled the hem of Zer Peed’s clothes and headed to one of her shopping malls. The place she headed was her tavern.

Zerpied didn’t know why she was headed here. For this reason, the escort knight had to stick to the position of a bystander while slightly away from the back. After talking with the owner of the bar, she accepted a bottle and smiled. Before she could ask anything, she grabbed the escort knight’s hem again.

Walking in the direction of the pier in the alley, the saintess and the Death Knight caught the awakening sea in their eyes. The saintess muttered, still smiling.

“… I’m sorry. I wanted to see more of the city, but I couldn’t even get to the center.”

“… There’s nothing you can do about it. There are religious facilities near the center…. When you come back later, let’s try it.”

Her words were meant to comfort the saintess, but upon hearing her words, the saintess turned her head in the direction of her escort knight.

Esilia looked at Zerphied with blue eyes like the ocean and red eyes like the sunrise…….

“Really?”

Zer Pied blinked her eyes once.

“Really, if you come again, you must go then, right?”

He blinked once more.

“Promise me.”

She held out her pinky finger to him, as white as the first rays of the sun. Zerfied had no choice but to hold on to that finger. The escort knight nodded, entwining the little hand with his little finger.

“I promise.”

Soon the sun will slowly wake up. The saintess and the escort knight faced the experienced sailboat that had finally woken up from a long slumber.