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Chapter : 6
Reporting for duty at the Imperial Palace’s Order of Knights wasn’t particularly difficult.
Back when I was Tiel, I had practically lived in the palace.
Aside from the areas reserved exclusively for members of the imperial family, there wasn’t a single place inside the palace that I didn’t know. It would have been harder to get lost than to find my way around.
What wasn’t familiar, however, was the atmosphere of the training grounds.
Is this what an Omega Knight Order is normally like?
When I first arrived that morning, nothing seemed unusual.
Compared to the Imperial Guard’s training grounds, this one was smaller and simpler, but it was well maintained. Like the Imperial Guard, everyone trained with wooden practice swords rather than their personal weapons.
The problem arose the moment I picked up Ayla’s practice sword.
“Urgh… What the…?”
It was an ordinary practice sword—not an oversized greatsword or anything unusually heavy.
Any average knight should have been able to wield it as naturally as their own limbs.
Yet this frail body struggled just to lift it.
Don’t tell me someone secretly modified it…
Unless someone was exceptionally stupid, there was no reason to make a practice sword so heavy that it became difficult to use.
But as unbelievable as that sounded, it was even harder for me to accept that a knight couldn’t comfortably lift a standard training sword.
So, just in case…
Just on the slightest chance…
I picked up another sword whose owner wasn’t present.
The result was disastrous.
It’s even heavier!
It wasn’t Ayla’s sword that had been modified to be heavier.
It had actually been modified to be lighter.
I simply couldn’t believe there was a knight who would do something like that.
Even more unbelievable was the fact that he hadn’t been expelled for it.
For a moment, I even forgot I was currently inhabiting Ayla’s body.
I felt an overwhelming urge to report Ayla to the commander and have him thrown out of the Order immediately.
“Y-You! What do you think you’re doing?!”
A knight who had just entered the training grounds pointed accusingly at me and shouted.
Touching another knight’s sword without permission was considered a serious offense—grave enough to justify a duel in some cases.
I immediately placed the sword back where it belonged.
“My own sword seemed unusual, so I compared it with one that didn’t appear to have an owner present.”
“If it had belonged to someone who was here, I never would have touched it.”
“I apologize.”
“What?”
Instead of calming down, he looked even more bewildered.
He hurried over to inspect the sword I’d touched.
After confirming it truly didn’t belong to anyone present, he narrowed his eyes and looked me up and down.
“What’s your angle?”
“Were you planning to switch the swords so you’d have an excuse to talk to Sian, Jaina, Ain, or Shilo?”
“…Or are you trying to flirt with somebody else this time?”
I barely resisted the urge to rub my face in exasperation.
I’d heard Ayla flirted with absolutely everyone regardless of gender or secondary sex.
Apparently that included fellow members of the Order.
At first I had simply thought him pathetic.
But at this point, I almost had to admire the sheer dedication required to hit on people so relentlessly.
“No.”
“I’ve simply decided it’s time I started acting like an actual knight.”
“I want to focus on training.”
The knight continued staring at me from head to toe with obvious suspicion.
Honestly, I couldn’t blame him.
If someone notorious for fooling around suddenly declared overnight that they’d changed, I wouldn’t believe it either.
But what can I do? I really am a different person now.
So many urgent things had happened lately that I had deliberately avoided thinking too deeply about the bizarre fact that I’d died and awakened inside another person’s body.
Still…
If I ever had to return this body to its rightful owner someday, I wanted to leave it in better condition.
At the very least, I could improve its physical strength.
And maybe, while I’m at it, Ayla will eventually decide to become a real knight.
Of course, there was no way the man in front of me could understand any of that.
“Whatever.”
“Like I’d waste words on someone like you.”
“But listen carefully.”
“If you pull another stunt, I’ll expose everything.”
“It wasn’t enough for you to juggle three relationships within the Order—you even flirted with someone who was already married.”
“And then you tried hitting on that person’s spouse too.”
Listening to him made my head spin.
Going after a married person had already been insane.
Trying to seduce their spouse as well…
I genuinely didn’t know what to think of the lunatic who originally owned this body.
With a face as attractive as Ayla’s, he could have dated perfectly well without causing trouble.
Why had he insisted on living like this?
I couldn’t understand it.
“I’m sorry.”
“It won’t happen again.”
It wasn’t my fault.
But since I was using this body, I apologized anyway.
The knight blinked in surprise.
“Wha…”
“…What’s gotten into you?”
Feeling that continuing the conversation would only give me a headache, I quickly picked up my own sword and retreated toward a corner of the training grounds.
Fortunately, Ayla’s body was naturally flexible.
As I stretched and warmed up, one knight after another entered the training grounds.
Ten minutes before training officially began, everyone had assembled.
That was when something struck me as odd.
Everyone stood perfectly in formation.
Except…
There were two empty spaces on either side of me.
Is there some invisible barrier around me or something?
Given Ayla’s reputation, I could understand people wanting to avoid him.
Still…
Keeping this much distance—acting as though I simply didn’t exist—was remarkable.
Even the commander inspected everyone’s posture one by one.
When he reached me, however, he merely shook his head from a distance before moving on.
That alone said everything.
At this point, I genuinely wondered why Ayla had stubbornly remained in the Order at all.
Just as my curiosity about this body’s original owner was growing…
I realized that while every other physical ability had declined, my hearing remained exceptionally sharp.
During the break, I could clearly hear a group of knights whispering far across the training grounds.
At first they chatted about their respective noble families, and I paid little attention.
Then…
The topic suddenly changed.
Something I couldn’t ignore.
“I heard the Sayers family is officially coming to the palace today to lodge a protest.”
“About what?”
“Don’t tell me they’re protesting over one dead knight.”
“His Highness has been adamant that the body absolutely cannot be returned.”
“I heard that knights who serve the imperial family directly are expected to dedicate even their remains to the Crown.”
“What?”
“That’s just a procedure meant for cases where the knight’s family doesn’t want to claim the body!”
The knight spreading the rumor came from a minor viscount’s family in the provinces.
Despite their modest status, that family was well known for having excellent sources of information.
In other words…
This wasn’t just idle gossip.
Combined with what Kevin had told me yesterday, it became obvious.
Everything had been true.
“Exactly.”
“That’s why everyone’s so confused.”
“I admit Sir Tienas was an excellent knight, but…”
“…Something about this feels strange.”
None of them dared mention what had happened at the funeral.
Yet it was obvious they were all thinking of the same scene.
Anyone who entered the Imperial Palace knew about His Highness’s strange behavior that day.
And His Highness himself had acted knowing full well people would talk.
Completely forgetting about Ayla, I focused on every word of their conversation.
“What’s more…”
“Officially, nobody knows where the body is now.”
“Wasn’t it buried during the funeral?”
“They didn’t show it, but I assumed it had been.”
“If that were true, the Sayers family would be requesting a reburial.”
“They wouldn’t be demanding the return of the body.”
A chill ran down my spine.
The thought that my corpse hadn’t been buried…
That it might still be somewhere inside the Imperial Palace…
Made my stomach churn.
“But I heard…”
“…that the body is inside the Crown Prince’s Palace.”
I couldn’t hold back any longer.
Walking straight toward the whispering knights, I stopped before them.
Startled by my sudden approach, the man instinctively took a step backward.
“What did you just say?”
“H-Huh?”
“W-What do you mean, what did I say?”
“S-Sir Ayla…”
“I don’t really want to be talking to you…”
“Just now.”
“Where did you say the body was?”
Apparently they had never imagined I could hear their conversation.
The man’s face turned pale.
He clearly wanted nothing to do with Ayla.
But I didn’t have the presence of mind to care.
“I-It’s only a rumor.”
“I don’t think it’s something you need to concern yourself with.”
“I’ll decide that.”
“Tell me again.”
Seeing I wasn’t backing down, he hesitated for a long moment before finally speaking.
“The rumor is that Sir Tienas’s body is inside the Crown Prince’s Palace.”
“It’s not confirmed information.”
“It’s simply speculation because no one knows where the body actually is.”
But…
His Highness would certainly know about that rumor as well.
I had always relied on information brokers because I was terrible at gathering rumors.
His Highness, on the other hand, was always one step ahead.
He always knew everything before I did.
But why…?
At that instant—
My vision blurred.
A brilliant flash burst before my eyes.
The dizziness passed.
Then…
A familiar room appeared before me.
The Crown Prince’s Palace.
More specifically…
His Highness’s bedchamber.
The strange thing was that His Highness wasn’t lying in bed.
Instead, he was sitting beside it as though tending to someone.
Before I could lose myself in the beauty of his face, I hurriedly looked toward the person on the bed.
Who is that…?
Could it be His Highness’s fiancée?
The clouds covering the moon drifted away.
Moonlight illuminated the figure’s face.
It was a man with dull silver hair, his eyes peacefully closed.
No.
More precisely…
It was Tienas’s corpse.
“Gah!”
When I blinked again, the training grounds returned.
A moment ago I had been questioning the knight.
Now…
One knee was pressed against the ground.
I knew exactly what I had just seen.
It had been a prophecy.
Which meant…
My corpse was either already inside His Highness’s bedchamber…
Or it soon would be.
A freezing chill shot from the tips of my toes all the way to the top of my head.
