Chapter 13
Chapter 13
A beautiful girl around fifteen years old sat with an aura of worry in the man’s room. She had almost transparent-white skin and curly chestnut-brown hair flowing to her shoulders. Her eyes shared the same chestnut color as her hair. She jumped to her feet and ran to Yuki and the man when they entered the room.
“Brother! Are you okay?” she asked.
The man beside Yuki smiled lightheartedly in response. The girl returned a relieved smile then turned to Yuki. “Are you all right, too? Did they do anything to you?”
“N-No, I’m okay,” Yuki responded, gripping the ripped dress together to cover her exposed chest. The girl’s expression clouded at Yuki’s ripped clothes.
“How terrible… Come now, why don’t we get you into some new clothes? My clothes might be slightly too big for you, but loose clothing is better than ripped,” she said, taking Yuki’s hand.
She led Yuki to the closet and held dresses to her until she found a short indigo dress. Yuki changed into the dress; the area around her shoulders was a bit big, but overall it was more comfortable than her previous attire. The girl suggested Yuki sit in one of the chairs surrounding a wooden table where she placed three cups of steaming tea.
“U-Um, thank you very much for what you did for me,” Yuki said, bowing her head. The man smiled.
“What, that? Don’t let it get to ya. People should help each other out in times of need.” He stretched out his large hand from where he sat opposite of her and rubbed the top of her head, messing up her hair.
The girl took a sip of her tea. Placing the cup back on its saucer she said, “Now then, I apologize for our late introductions. My name is Tita. What is yours?”
“Y-Yuki.”
“Yuki, is it? What a lovely name,” Tita smiled gracefully. A nice fragrance seemed to waft from her.
“Oh yeah, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I’m Nasette.”
Yuki mentally repeated their unusual names to remember them because she couldn’t even imagine how they were spelled. It took a moment before she shockingly realized she had heard one of their names before. Hadn’t Ain mentioned the name over and over again during their journey together?
“Nasette!”
“Whoa!” Shocked she suddenly said his name, Nasette asked, “What’s up?”
“I’ve heard your name before. Is Nasette a really common name in this world?”
“I-I’m not sure. Back when I stayed at the training dorms there was one other person with the name.”
“I see…um…then how about Ain? Do you know a young man named Ain?”
Nasette and Tita were surprised by Ain’s name.
“By Ain, do you mean Ain Revent?”
Yuki tilted her head at the unfamiliar last name. “Ah, I’m sorry. I only know his first name is Ain. Um, he has indigo blue hair and black eyes…”
“Then he is most likely the Ain we know.” Tita glanced at the ring on Yuki’s finger. “Hey, Yuki? I only just noticed your ring, but…what happened to your Knight?”
“What?” Yuki tilted her head.
By Knight, does she mean Luca? What does she mean by what happened to him?
Tita took Yuki’s right hand and held it up to the lamplight.
“…It’s violet.”
“Violet, you say!” Shocked, Nasette yanked on Yuki’s hand. “Oh yeah…this is violet all right.”
Yuki had absolutely no idea what the violet glow exuding from her silver ring meant. “They aren’t all this color?”
“Oh dear. You didn’t know about it, Yuki? The ring’s glow changes based on the Knight’s color rank.”
“…Knights are ranked by color?”
Tita and Nasette were speechless. Yuki wondered whether she said something bad and wanted to smooth over her error, but couldn’t find the right words to explain, so she sat there awkwardly.
“Yuki, violet is the designation for the highest rank.”
“What? Really?”
Then Luca is that powerful and amazing? Why on Earth did he pick me to be his Master then? Yuki thought, staring at her ring.
“There are only a few Violet Knights in each country…” Tita muttered, suddenly freezing. Curious about her reaction, Nasette and Yuki stared at her. “Wait a minute.”
“Wh-What’s wrong, Tita?” Nasette asked.
“Yuki, you were with Ain, right?”
“Y-Yeah?” Yuki stuttered over the overwhelming aura exuding from Tita.
“And Yuki’s Knight is a Violet Knight.”
“Yeah, that’s right. What’s the problem—” Nasette tried to say, but Tita stood and glared at him.
“Brother, haven’t you noticed it yet? Isn’t it obvious that Yuki’s Knight is Luca!”
“Huh? Aaaah! Good point! That’s a really good point…Wait, what!”
“Huh, what? Wait, what’s wrong?” Yuki asked, bewildered by their sudden excitement.
“But our Luca would never make another contract,” Nasette commented.
“Who is Yuki’s Knight if not Luca? I doubt Ain would ever become a Knight,” Tita countered.
They debated the topic while looking at Yuki.
“So, Yuki, is your Knight Luca?” Tita asked her.
Yuki was intimidated by Tita’s dollish features, but nodded anyway.
“See! But thank goodness—now we will be freed from the hell of going to taverns every night.”
“Taverns?”
“Yes. Isn’t there a saying that where there’s alcohol, there’s information? So we thought if Luca and Ain were in the same town we would run into them if we went to the local taverns. But now that you’re here, we don’t have to look for them anymore.”
“Ah…but I don’t even know what inn we’re staying at.”
In this vast town, and Yuki’s inability to read their writing, she was the same as a lost child—especially after her kidnappers put a bag over her head when they carried her to the inn. She may have encountered the people Luca was searching for, but how could they meet up with him when they didn’t know where to look?
“Yuki, what are you saying? You should be able to figure out where Luca is right away. Brother, take out your Knight’s Token.”
Nasette pulled a copper Knight’s Token from his chest pocket and handed it to Tita. The token was the size of an adult man’s fist. Luca had a similar token, but his glowed gold—the golden light also appeared violet to Yuki.
“Here you go, Yuki.”
Tita handed the chain attached to the token to Yuki. Yuki sat there holding it, unsure of what to do next.
Tita explained with a smile, “You don’t know about how any of this works, do you? You see, our rings pull against each other like magnets.” She showed Yuki her own ring. Her ring gave off a brown glow, compared to Yuki’s violet. “You take the Knight’s Token like this, and suspend the ring from its metal chain.”
Yuki took the ring off her right hand’s middle finger and put the chain through the center of it. Tita took it and connected both ends of the chain together like a necklace. The ring shook at the bottom of the circle for a while before it abruptly stopped. Yuki stared at it closely—this time the ring emitted a dull light.
“If you do this—see, Luca is in that direction.”
The glowing ring floated toward the door.
“The ring can do something like this?” Yuki asked. She was the only one surprised by the floating ring.
Someone knocked on the door. The three of them looked at each other. Nasette nodded to the girls and walked to the door. Tita silently led Yuki deeper into the room. The two of them crouched behind the bed and cautiously watched the door.
“I wonder whether it’s the men from earlier,” Tita whispered.
“Sir Nasette tied them up with rope, so I don’t think it’s them…” Yuki answered in a hushed voice.
Nasette turned off the lamps, veiling the room in a gloomy darkness. The door cautiously opened, and a shadow entered the silent room.
Nasette nimbly moved to grab the intruder’s neck. But the intruder drew his sword seconds faster, and had it pointed at Nasette’s throat.
“…Yo. What a splendid way for you to greet me after all this time,” Nasette remarked.
There stood a blond-haired Knight—Luca.
“Luca!” Tita leapt up behind Yuki and dashed over to him.
“Tita,” Luca said, surprised to see her. His eyes found Yuki where she hid behind the bed—his expression abruptly shifted to an icy glower. Yuki felt as if he were rebuking her with his eyes.
Ain peered around Luca’s shoulder, “Nasette! Tita!”
Luca heaved a tiny sigh. “Explain to me what is going on here.”
Yuki was depressed by how angry he must be at her for getting kidnapped.