Knight’s & Magic: Volume 6, page 8
The crowd was facing a set of guest seats that rose above them. A figure appeared on a high balcony. It was, naturally, Leotamus, King of Fremmevilla, with some attendant knights in tow.
These new knights now knelt. The king looked over the crowd, nodding, before bidding them to be at ease with a wave of his hand. “You knights have passed through numerous trials to be here today. You have all been chosen to bear the youngest flag of our kingdom. I believe you’ve already heard of why you have been gathered here today.”
Without further ado, the king broached the subject while being bathed in everyone’s rapt attention. “I’m sure you’ve seen it several times already. After the last war, we’ve received levitating ships from the West. These are large, unheard-of vessels that sail through the sky. With that power, we are able to challenge an entirely new world—a place that we hadn’t even thought of, until now. The vast skies!”
Leotamus gestured up to the infinite sky. It was a blue world that seemed to go on forever. Up until now, they had naturally been unable to touch this place, but a single new invention had changed all that. “Still, levitating ships are now widely spread in the Occidents. There’s no doubt that many will eventually try to rule the skies. We cannot afford to simply bow aside and accept them leaving us behind. But we have another, equally important new invention: something of ours, that we have over the Occidents.”
He paused for a breath. “And that is a flying silhouette knight. We aren’t just relying on ships, knight runners! Now, your battlefield is no longer just the ground.”
The king could sense the crowd wordlessly gulping. Just being able to hear the king’s voice as new knights told of how big a deal this was. Furthermore, they were starting to realize the gravity of what they were about to take on.
The new knights stiffened under Leotamus’s gaze before he once again opened his mouth. “You will all be placed into a new knight order, specially formed for flying knights. At the same time, your main duties will be a sort of test. If you bring forth good results, more will follow. So don’t forget that! Right then, I shall now introduce you to the one leading your new order.”
With that, the king raised his hand. The new knights all fixed their postures, but for the next while, nothing happened and no one moved. Silence crept over the large training grounds, and doubt ran through the crowd of new knights. They couldn’t help but look around, and that was when it happened.
A shadow appeared in the horizon, undulating. It seemed to stain the wide blue sky as it crept forward, slowly getting bigger. Was this shadow a levitating ship? No—it was actually a multitude of objects, all smaller than a ship.
They all gracefully swam through the sky before eventually settling in the air above the training grounds. The new knights couldn’t suppress the stir that ran through their group. An explosive sound rumbled through the sky, and the new knights could clearly see each individual figure.
“Incredible... The silhouette knights—they’re really flying!”
It wasn’t just the new knights. All the Royal Guards assembled in the area were also staring up at the sky in shock. Silhouette knights were supposed to be humanoid weapons. Even though the form had been changing recently with the advent of the Tzenndrimble, those were still far in the minority.
The flying knights seemed to take after the centaur knights. Their outer skin was smooth and streamlined, and the body within the armor was truly bizarre. The upper half was indeed human, but the lower half was completely different. It looked like a fish—the kind of thing that swam through water.
Furthermore, while they had winglike fins, they had no legs with which to stand on the ground. In a sense, they were even more specialized than the centaur knights.
Ahead of the crowd of knights that were frozen in shock, four mermaids circled around, rainbow light spewing from behind them.
“They’re...descending?!”
It was clear to see that the silhouette knights were gradually losing altitude. They continued to drop while bathed in the nervous stares of the crowd. The rainbow light coming out of their backs grew larger, which in turn slowed their descents.
Once it got close to the surface, the crowd was able to hear loud exhaust sounds. The four mermaid silhouette knights used their thrusters with a light touch to make for an empty area of the training grounds they prepared to touch down.
Towing anchors shot out with a sharp jetting noise. These anchors stuck themselves into the ground, tethering the units.
The wires made audible noise as they were wound in, lowering the machines. In the meantime, their thrusters deactivated, so there was no cloud of dust. In fact, it was almost unnatural how quietly they settled down. The crowd watched this silent procession, swallowing with tension.
Eventually, the mermaids lowered their altitude enough, allowing their fins to work as legs and support them on the ground. The towing anchors and fins firmly grounded the silhouette knights before they fully deactivated. The intake and exhaust sounds continued for a while longer, but silence returned to the area once the ether reactors calmed down.
This was the first time anyone had seen a flying silhouette knight, and their eyes were glued to the new machines. No one made any noise, even to cough; they were so entranced.
Leotamus looked around at the crowd and sighed. “My word, that Ernesti. Apparently he likes to shock people.”
He secretly complained about the culprit behind this little show. It was through stunts like these that Ernesti’s inner child was clearly visible. Though, the king himself had asked the boy to make a big impression on the new knights.
Meanwhile, the mermaid knights were moving. Their protruding back armor released pressurized air and opened up, as their cockpits were on the back. Figures clad in silhouette gears appeared with everyone’s eyes gathered on them.
Normal silhouette knights were entered from the front, and you weren’t expected to be wearing a silhouette gear in them either. While the crowd’s shock got somehow more intense, the knight runners moved with surprising alacrity in their heavy equipment. They got in front of the crowd of new knight runners before the armors opened up. The pilots inside removed the belts used to fix them in place inside the silhouette gears before getting out.
Another ripple of shock ran through the crowd. The knight runners of those mermaid silhouette knights were just as young as they were. Well, they might have been a little older, but it wasn’t much of a difference. The four knight runners in front of the crowd had completely different builds, but they all turned to the king and bowed.
“Four Windines from the Order of the Silver Phoenix have come in response to your summons, my liege.”
Leotamus nodded before turning around to the still-frozen crowd and raising his voice. “Knights! Burn this sight into your minds! These are the new silhouette knights you will be controlling: flying knights of the windine style!”
The new knights were speechless. Their mouths were dry, and their legs unsteady. First came flying ships, and now flying silhouette knights. This was a totally unknown world, and just hearing about it would not do it justice. The shock they felt was from seeing these things in real life for the first time. Truly, seeing was believing.
For the sake of the future, it wouldn’t do for them to underestimate this. Seeing the real thing was good for giving them a shock, but it was too much of a show. The king couldn’t be blamed for thinking Ernie had gone too far.
But he did not show any sign of that regret as he said, “I hereby declare the formation of a new knight order by the name of the Order of the Violet Swallow. The knights of this order shall soar through the skies. For the time being, you will work with the Order of the Silver Phoenix.”
It would’ve been fine for the flying knights to belong to the Order of the Silver Phoenix, but their paths would definitely diverge eventually from the rest of the order, which moved to the beat of Ernie’s whims. So instead, it was decided to establish them as a separate order.
“Levitating ships have set off for the sky, and now silhouette knights have been created to protect them. Now, our kingdom will take a step into the future with you as the vanguard. I expect great results.”
Starting with the new knights, everyone stood up straighter—even the Royal Guards—as they all energetically proclaimed their acceptance of this duty. The king nodded, satisfied, before finally turning to the four knight runners who’d just landed.
“Also, you will be learning the basics from the Order of the Silver Phoenix. Come forward, Knight Captain...” Leotamus said. In a quieter voice, he muttered to the boy behind him. “I leave the rest to you, Ernesti. Do...try your best to hold back.”
“I understand.”
Leotamus let out a small sigh of worry, but he decided to let it go and step back for the moment. In his place, the small figure who had been waiting behind him came forward. It looked like he was going to immediately give a speech, but instead he jumped from the balcony to land in the training grounds.
The gazes of the new knights concentrated on the small boy, and he put on his usual smile. “I give my thanks to His Majesty for introducing me. I am the captain of the Order of the Silver Phoenix, Ernesti Echevalier.”
This was a sudden turn, after a fashion, and the new knights looked at Ernie, clearly stupefied.
The Order of the Silver Phoenix’s captain was recognizable to anyone in the know. All the rumors about him had taken on a life of their own. This was because, outside of those who lived in Laihiala Academy City itself, there was rarely ever a chance for people to see him.
The most well-known thing about him was that he’d been making silhouette knights since he was still in school, and that he had piloted these cutting-edge machines himself to get the king to give him his own knight order.
No one would be able to immediately accept that such a storybook figure was in fact this small boy who was pretty like a girl, who had not a speck of the dashing dignity expected of such a legend.
Of course, Ernie continued to talk, heedless of that. “Now then, all of you gathered here will have to learn how to control these flying silhouette knights created by my order. While levitating ships can fly, this kingdom’s skies are too dangerous for them. It is imperative that we raise knights who can protect these ships.”
In this situation, where doubt swirled through the entire crowd, the knight runners of the flying silhouette knights placed themselves behind Ernie as if it were only natural. Looking closer, it was clear to see how battle-hardened three of the four knight runners were, while the fourth was a girl who seemed to be about the same age as the new knights. The four were Edgar, Dietrich, Helvi, and Addy.
Judging from the loyalty they were showing, it seemed Ernie really was the leader of their knight order. Slowly, the new knights’ minds were catching up to reality.
But that was when... “Eventually, you will come into your own. When that happens, the Order of the Violet Swallow will split from ours. By that time, I’m sure that levitating ships will have gone far—possibly even past the bounds of this land. If that does come to pass, wouldn’t you think it’s unfair for only ships to get to do that? It’s fine for silhouette knights to fly, so we can send them anywhere and everywhere in this world—”
“Hold on, Captain. You’re getting off track.” Edgar came forward to whisper this warning into Ernie’s ear.
A beat later, Ernie cleared his throat and corrected himself. “Anyway, all of you here will be taught by your seniors, who you see behind me, so you can gain the skills you need. I hope you will carve your names into history as the pilots of the first flying silhouette knights.”
Though they hadn’t totally caught up with what was happening, the new knights went with the flow and gave a unified salute. And that was how the Order of the Violet Swallow started, albeit in a very strange atmosphere.
◆
Some time had passed since the meeting that had served as a magnificent opening.
The Order of the Violet Swallow was sharing Fort Orvesius with the Order of the Silver Phoenix. The surrounding forest had been cleared some more to be used as an airfield.
On this airfield was an entire company (ten units) of completely untouched windine style silhouette knights, lined up in a neat row. These were the advance prototype units mass-produced by the full might of the National Silhouette Knight Laboratory, a model named Twedianne. The mechanisms in this version had been developed further than the Sylphianne, becoming even more polished. Still, they hadn’t gathered enough data yet, so there were still parts to work on.
The practical training the Order of the Violet Swallow was about to go through was also going to serve as a test-drive for these new units. They would operate these under a variety of conditions to help record detailed data. Then, the national lab would take another look at the Twedianne’s design. They were still a long way off from putting out a full mass-produced model.
The new knights of the Order of the Violet Swallow couldn’t help but steal glances over to their side at the silently standing Twediannes as they started their training. Just like the day of their inception, Ernie was standing in front of them, giving them a briefing.
“As you can see, we’ve procured some units, so I would like for you to get in them right away. But before that, you must complete some basic exercises. I cannot allow you to pilot these Twediannes without having completely mastered these.”
The Violet Swallows were overflowing with motivation, their expressions filled with determination. With their goal physically in front of them, it was only natural for them to get excited. Though, it would only be a little more time until they would learn that the training mainly involved falling from high places, and their determination would soon change to screams.
◆
“This is, uh...different from what I imagined.”
A few days later, the new knight runners were in the middle of their harsh training without any breaks, and they were groaning with overcast faces.
“I was actually moved when I saw flying silhouette knights before too.”
“We haven’t been able to get in one at all.”
The training they’d gone through up until now had started with learning how to put on Descendrads—the silhouette gear for use with the gear ejector—and practicing with the gear ejector. Then, they’d had to run with the silhouette gears on; the main focus of their training up until now seemed to be building up their endurance and muscle memory. To the order members who had just graduated from all the basic training-type exercises they’d been forced to do in the course of their curricula in school, it felt like they’d been forced back to square one. They complied because they were told it was necessary, but they couldn’t help but feel at least some amount of disappointment.
The newbies were being taught by the company commanders of the Order of the Silver Phoenix, plus some regular order members.
First, Edgar led the efforts, teaching them how to put on the Descendrads as well as how to stick a landing.
“All of this training has a purpose,” he’d said. “There’s no way other than steady repetition to build up the conditioned responses you’ll need to be able to react in any situation.”
With that, he made them repeat the training until their bodies themselves remembered the steps. Every time they got used to it, they were forced to jump from greater heights while also being put in more and more difficult situations.
Edgar led by easily, but thoroughly, going through the motions, and the new knight runners quickly came to fear him as a demon of a teacher.
Between those training sessions, Dietrich would lead other newbies on runs wearing silhouette gears.
“Okay, keep running!” he’d yell. “For knight runners, it all comes down to stamina and magic power! You need to train thoroughly, so you’ll be fine even if something happens to your silhouette knights and you drop right out of the sky! This will determine whether you live or die!”
As the leader of the Order of the Silver Phoenix’s “assault company,” Dietrich had gotten through especially harsh battle conditions. He wasn’t the only one—every member of the order had more experience with scenes of carnage than normal for their age. Naturally, their stamina had been trained fearsomely high.
After some intense running, the new knight runners were practically on the ground, utterly exhausted, while Dietrich alone was still standing as if nothing had happened. He was a monster, and he became feared as a demonic instructor only second to Edgar. There was no salvation for these newly minted knight runners.
Outside of that hellish training, they were also given lectures on basic knowledge. Addy, the youngest of the teachers, played the part of their lecturer.
Edgar and Dietrich were already comparatively young knights, but she was part of a very rare club indeed. Though the new knight runners found it a little odd to get lectures from a girl so close to their own ages, her liveliness and youth was like an oasis among all their other harsh training. Or, at least, it should have been.
“To control windine style silhouette knights, you first need to use the Etheric Levitator to float while adjusting the output nicely. When you want to go forward, move quickly, like you’re trying to catch the wind itself!” Addy exclaimed.
“Um, Instructor... I have no idea what you’re talking about...”
Her lectures turned out to be hellish in a different sense. Ernie and the boss had thought up all the teaching tools she was using, so those were pretty handy, but Addy’s explanations were fatally reliant on gut feeling. Her lectures were littered with sound effects, making them difficult to even begin to understand, and the new knight runners were on the verge of tears as they were forced to cling to the teaching materials for dear life.
