Knights are often looked up to, especially the strongest. A normal townsperson can only dream of ever seeing a High Knight, the third-highest rank of knight. On a sunny Monday morning, Dillie, a normal townsperson of Gouon, woke up with quivering excitement. She quickly washed up in the bathroom, dressed for school, and hurried downstairs.
"Woah there, Dillie, slow down." Hiruyo watched her wolf down her bowl of rice and chug her milk.
"I have to hurry, or I won't see the High Knights!" Dillie exclaimed and scraped the last few grains of rice into her mouth.
"You don't have to hurry. They'll arrive at around 9 in the evening," Shun said.
"Huh!? But-Ah, whatever." Dillie went upstairs to get her bag, frustrated. Hiruyo told her about the knights yesterday, but he didn't mention that they were coming in the evening.
Dillie left for school; it was a twenty-minute walk from her house to school. She met Paley in class and asked him to take her to see the knights. He refused at first, but she insisted until she got him to take her. They agreed that he would pick her up after his workout session with Teerom.
She came home that day in high spirits and with a big, excited grin on her face.
"I'm home!" She said.
"Welcome home," Shun replied from the living room as she peeled some onions with Hiruyo. "You sound happy. What's up?" Hiruyo asked.
"You don't have to take me to see the knights. Paley will." Dillie reassured.
"Really?" They asked optimistically.
"Uhuh!" She went into her room, took her uniform off, and put her blue pajamas on. Shun and Hiruyo looked at each other cheekily. "It's a date." They mumbled and giggled.
Dillie spent the next hour sketching a handsome, black-haired man in a long black overcoat.
'Crap!' She stared at the drawing she made, blushing. She had intended to draw a rough veteran knight instead of this villain with an icy glare. Her energy died as she realized she was drawing Paley.
She sighed and buried her head in her arms, frustrated that she couldn't tell Paley how she felt.
"I'll tell him today!" She suddenly came back to life, springing out of her chair, "I'll definitely tell him today." She turned to the air.
"Hello, Paley..." She began practicing with the air, "I love you." Pause. An uncomfortable wind carried her curtains up. "That's too sudden." She shook her head and continued practicing frantically. Her parents cracked the door open slightly and watched her.
"Reminds me of how I felt before taking you to the Liphkeep Orchard," Hiruyo said, smiling nostalgically.
"Mmm, I remember that. You looked so dumb." Shun quietly laughed.
"Hey, you didn't look any better with those shorts."
"It was a hot day. What did you expect me to wear? And I'm pretty sure that my outfit was better than your big traditional tunic." She teased.
"It was my grandfather's! My father insisted I wear it." Hiruyo pouted, having lost the battle.
Paley arrived to pick Dillie up at around eight in the evening. She was listening to music as she drew, so she didn't notice Paley climbing in through the window.
"Hey." He tapped her on the shoulder, startling her.
"Ah! H-hey!" She haphazardly hid the drawing she was making and turned to him. He was drenched in sweat from the acrobatics training he was doing. After working out with Teerom, he decided to learn how to do a backflip so that he had more mobility and options during battle.
"What you doing?"
"Nothing. I'm just listening to music." She lied, and he saw through it since she couldn't hold eye contact for more than a microsecond. Though, he failed to notice the intense blush covering half her face.
"Come on, let me see." He swiped the paper and took a look at what seemed like a comic of a man and a woman having sex. The man's face was hidden away from the viewer, and he was also covering the woman's face, but he could tell they both had black hair. Dillie screamed and took it back.
"My bad." Paley apologized awkwardly as she scrunched it up and covered her face in sheer humiliation. "Y-You want to go see the knights?" He asked sheepishly.
She nodded meekly and took the sword she trained with before flying to the gates of Gouon with him. The discomfiting air soon disappeared when five knights wearing shining armor with the moon's crest on the chest plate came through the gates.
"They've arrived!" A crowd had formed on the sides of the road where the High Knights trotted along on their horses. They rode with perfectly straight posture and a high level of prestige.
The leader took his helmet off before the others, revealing a handsome, clean-shaven face. He waved with a charming smile at the crowds. Surprising to Paley, he had no trace of darkness around him. He had no bad intentions as you'd expect of someone that high up.
"Want to follow them?" Paley asked Dillie.
"Hm!" She nodded, and he took her up to the rooftops, from where they followed the knights. They tailed the knights for about forty minutes to the Lord's mansion.
"We can't go any further than this. There's a barrier around that mansion." Paley explained.
"Do you think I can get an autograph?" She asked.
"Yeah. You gotta be quick, though. They're about to go in." He quickly flew them down and watched her run to the knights.
"U-Um, excuse me, sir knights?" She approached them timidly. They stopped, one of them giving her an annoyed look. "May I get an autograph," She held her sword out.
"Ah, are you aspiring to be a knight someday?" The leader took the sword and produced a small knife.
"Yeah," Dillie nodded, looking at the floor and dragging her foot left to right on it.
"Good! I wish you luck on that journey." He was a kind man, and Paley couldn't help but think that maybe he was wrong about knights. Maybe not all of them were evil. The leading knight carved his initials on the handle of the sword instantly.
"Wow... How'd you do that?" She asked, awed.
"It's advanced techniques called Arts. You should learn them, they will help you become a good knight." He petted her and continued into the Lord's manor.
"I will!" She exclaimed and watched them go in, their expressions turning straight and unsettlingly dark.
"Arts, huh?" Paley walked up to her, "Want to try to find something about them in the library?"
"I'd love to." She replied.
They went to the library and searched it for an hour until 10 p.m. but found nothing on Arts.
"That's a shame. I guess I'll just ask Libon to try and get one for you." Paley said, "Let's go home." He started walking to the doors of the library, but Dillie stopped him and grabbed his arm.
"I-I'm hungry. Can we get something to eat?" She asked timidly.
"Can't you go home and eat?"
"Mom made noodles for dinner- and I'm craving a sandwich. And some chocolate!"
"Okay. I've got 24 silver on me. Let's go." Paley took her outside. Gouon was deep in the night, so the streets were clear, letting them fly without worries. Besides, if anyone was out right now, they'd be visiting the Moon's temple that the dwarves built.
Paley took her to a grocery store in the supermarket, where he went with Madella to stock up on food. It was a cozy store with polished floors and regularly cleaned stock shelves. They picked out sandwiches of their choice from the snack shelf and took them to the checkout.
"Can we have some chocolate juice too?" Paley asked the cashier.
"Of course," The cashier walked over to a drink dispensing machine. It was a big white box with twenty buttons on the front face. Each button had an icon on it, representing a different drink. The cashier pressed the one with a brown bubbling drink on it and put two cups in the mouth of the box.
A deep, copper-colored drink flowed out into the cups, and he stopped it by pressing another button but to the side of the machine.
"Here you go," He gave them the bubbling drinks. The rich smell of chocolate filled Dillie's nose and mouth, making her yearn for the drink. "That'll be fifteen silver."
"Thank you," Paley handed him the money and left the store. "You want to find somewhere to sit?" He asked her.
"Yeah," She nodded, trying to fight the urge to take a big sip of the chocolate juice. Paley held her waist and flew them to the city wall, where they sat down and watched over the quiet city below.
"So, why do you want to be a knight?" Paley asked.
"No reason. Why?"
"I just wanted to know why you'd want to be one of them." He said that last word with spite, showing his despise for knights.
"You hate knights, don't you?" She asked.
"Yes."
"That's why I want to be one."
"Huh?"
"I want to change the world. One day, I will become a Great Knight, and I will end all the senseless fighting in the world." She said. Paley thought that she was being ridiculous, that the suffering in the world would never end. But she had a look of such determination to carry out her dream that he couldn't help but believe it for a moment.
"Who's to say you won't be corrupted by status and wealth?" He challenged her.
"Do you think I will?" She asked him earnestly, making him pause hesitantly.
"No," He said, confident in her resolve, "I don't think you will." They finished their food and went home.
"Hey, Dillie?" He called out to her as she approached her door.
"When you become a Great Knight, I will stand by you, as an Emperor Mage." His words bought great joy to her.
"Hm!" She nodded ecstatically as he began walking away.
"Paley, I had a lot of fun today. Let's do it again sometime."
"Sure," Paley didn't even realize that he'd replied and was slightly surprised.
Dillie entered her house after Shun opened the door for her.
"How'd it go?" Shun asked. Dillie was smiling blissfully as she took her shoes off.
"It went great." She replied, going upstairs to get changed.
"How'd it go?" Hiruyo popped out from the living room.
"I don't know, but I think it went great." Shun grinned. Dillie didn't get to tell Paley how she felt about him, but it didn't matter anymore to her. The time would eventually come for her to confess, and she was okay with waiting.