Chapter 3.2

Chapter 3: The Debut – Part 2 (2)

“Don’t you want to be the best knight in the Empire, now that you’re officially a knight, Mia?”

Cermiane was at a loss for words, for some reason. Hm? Why does he look so shocked?

“… That thought has never crossed my mind before. You have a point. As a knight, it may be true that I ought to aim to be the highest knight of the Empire.”

“Of course! You look like you have what it takes to be the best — if you work hard enough, you might grow to be even stronger than the Emperor.”

For some reason, Cermiane made an even more surprised expression.

“… Stronger than His Majesty?”

“Yes. Out of all the people I’ve seen, His Majesty the Emperor is by far the strongest. But, I have a feeling you’re also gonna be really strong, so work hard!”

At this time, I considered myself to be stronger than Cermiane, so I spoke a little haughtily. However, Cermiane was smiling very happily.

“Yes, I see. I will work hard.”

I didn’t really understand why Cermiane was so happy, but seeing him so happy made me happy, so I smiled too.

Like that, I was in a really good mood eating delicious food and chatting with Cermiane, but Cermiane told me we should start heading back to where Father and Mother were, so with no choice, we started walking back. At that moment, that happened to catch my eye.

In the corner of the banquet hall, a couple of boys were surrounding a single girl. The little girl looked as if she were crying. Based on their stature and fancy outfits, they must also be debutantes. Even though we’ve been officially recognized as adults, we’re still kids. Both appearance-wise and behavior-wise. The boys surrounding the girl were laughing as if they were mocking her. Likewise, with girls nearby.

When I unconsciously slowed to a stop and furrowed my eyebrows, Cermiane appeared to have noticed the situation as well.

“Mia, what do you think they’re doing?”

While continuing to smile, Cermiane spoke with a tone exposing his unhappiness. What a skillful guy.

“Most likely, higher-ranked nobles are bullying a low-ranked lady. Where and what is her escort knight doing?”

When we found him, the knight looked worried, but simply looked on. At that time, I didn’t know, but the young nobles were significantly higher-ranked than the knight, so he probably couldn’t interfere.

The young boys were relentlessly mocking her, and the young girl did nothing but cover her face with her hands and cry. This had already made me reach the limits of my patience, but when they shoved her and made her fall over, all reason flew out the window.

Before Cermiane could stop me, I ran over.

“Hey, you!”

The high heels didn’t slow me down as I sprinted toward them. Within the ten meters between the boys and myself, I reached my top speed. Then I kicked myself off the ground.

“How dare you raise your hand against a girl! Be ashamed of yourselves!”

My flying kick hit the bully’s guts straight-on. My full-power kick had once knocked a stag out before. So, I made sure to greatly adjust my power. However, the boy flew back a couple of meters and hit the ground.

Crourgh!

Letting out a flattened frog-like groan, he bounced off the ground once and then stilled. Did I go overboard? Nah, it’s okay. He wouldn’t die from that.

The other boys and the bullied girl’s eyes and mouths hung wide open. I gracefully landed and glared at the boys.

“And you boys! Huddling together to bully a single girl, how shameful! I’ll be your opponent, so come at me!”

I then helped the bullied girl up to her feet. She was weeping just a moment ago, but for some reason, she was so stunned that she had stopped crying.

“Are you okay? Do you have any injuries?”

“Y-yes, I’m fine.”

“Not to mention, you! Why didn’t you do anything?! Once its honor has been tarnished, even an obedient dog will bear its fangs!”

“Huh? Uh, the difference in status…”

It was later revealed that the girl was the daughter of a man who just received his baron title, and there was an unspoken agreement that the children of barons would not attend the debut. Since they had obviously attended, this was used as the pretext for the bullying. Apparently. By the way, the boy I sent flying with my kick was the son of an earl.

“That! Doesn’t! Matter! Throwing away your honor is the equivalent of dying alive! If your honor has been tarnished, fight!”

As I continued to berate the knight, the young lady bit her lips and nodded. Good. I then glared at the knight who scrambled towards the girl.

“You can’t even rescue the lady you’ve been assigned to protect, and you call yourself a knight?!”

“Uh, so, that is, the difference in status…”

“Are you going to pick and choose your opponent based on their nobility status? In a battle to the death, your opponent won’t spare a single thought on what your rank is!”

Once I said that, the knight straightened his posture as if he had come to a revelation.

“T-that is certainly true…. I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”

“Good! Now, protect this young lady properly!”

After I entrust the young lady to her knight, I look around.

“Any complaints? None? That’s why all you can do is bully a poor little girl… because you lack courage!”

I sneered and tried to leave the scene. At that moment, two well-built boys sneaked behind my back and tried to pounce on me.

“Too slow!”

I happily accepted their invitation for a fight. I crouched down, letting the boys miss me and grasp air, and then I gracefully rotated my body while holding my sleeves and collar. One boy let out a screech and then went flying. I continued into a low kick to the other boy and when he went off-balance, I jammed my elbow into his solar plexus. He fainted and fell over in agony.