Chapter 17

Ocean Eyes, Ancient Ties

In a dimly lit room, long shadows danced under the light of scented candles. In this room, there were two people. The first, a girl with blue hair and a broken body, lay motionless on the bed as if she were part of it. The only thing proving otherwise was her eyes, which followed the second figure.

The second figure was a modestly built boy, with short black hair and ice-blue eyes that glowed with an unnatural purple light. Noah took a turn around the bed to where the old knight had stood earlier, his eyes never leaving the girl on the bed.

As he stopped moving, Noah addressed the injured knightess with a serious voice. "Do you know why I call you the kind knightess?"

Of course, she didn’t. She looked at Noah with a confused expression and asked, "Why?" Her voice was barely audible.

Noah smiled at her calmly, not responding for a moment. "Because you're kind, don't ask me how I know that, I just do."

Noah watched her astonished expression and laughed. "What, did you think there was some deep reason? There's nothing like that. People get these feelings all the time, it's just natural. And also, it helped break the ice a bit, didn't it?"

The knightess didn't say anything, just looked at Noah with an unreadable expression. But some of her previous tension had disappeared, a sign visible on her face.

Noah nodded to himself, taking that as a good sign. He glanced at the edge of the bed for a moment, then at the girl on it. Without even asking, he sat beside her under her astonished gaze.

"So, what's your name?" he asked, ignoring her astonishment.

The knightess turned her head to meet his gaze since their field of view lowered now with Noah sitting. "I'm not supposed to say... but..." She closed her eyes, an expression of deep sadness washing over her face. "I don't think it matters... anymore. My name..."

Before she could say her name, Noah interrupted. "Don't rush now, why don't you tell me why you think that. Also, I'm sorry for making you talk in your condition."

The knightess smiled with inward sarcasm and began to speak in a dry, cracked voice. "Imperial knights... their identities must remain... secret during their missions. No emotions should interfere... with their judgments, and... other things..."

Noah nodded in understanding from the poor explanation, but he also didn't want to burden the poor girl. He looked at her and said, "You're too young to even be a knight, let alone an imperial one."

The girl closed her eyes in absolute shame, not speaking for a long time. Noah said nothing, she was already hurt enough in every way. He gave her all the time to share. "I was given this position only because of... my father. Without him, I would never have gotten the chance no matter how hard I tried. Also, I'm just a trainee, I still have 13 years to become an official one, and there goes that dream."

Noah looked gently at the girl before him. "You really are kind." Noah's gaze returned to its previous seriousness as he continued. "Did your father die in the war with the kingdom?"

The girl said nothing, but the tears falling from her eyes were proof enough. "Then I owe you an apology, what I said on the balcony wasn't because I hated you or wanted to hurt you. I did it because I needed answers, and you were the easiest... thing to reach for. In other words, I exploited your weakness."

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The girl cried more, uncontrollably, all her emotions spilling out. Noah waited for her to calm down, which surprisingly didn't take long. "Why are you telling me this? Are you... mocking me?"

Noah shook his head and admitted. "No, I'm not mocking you. I confessed to you because it's the truth."

The girl wiped her tears with her good hand, the other seemingly unable to move. "It doesn't matter now. It was largely my fault, I didn't do my duty well, and I deserved the result," she said seriously.

Noah smiled and reassured. "Hold on now, don't rush, we're still talking." Noah leaned closer to her, watching her unguarded expression. "Something made me curious, why is your hair blue and your eyes as well? It's not a widely spread color in the Empire."

The knightess looked at him strangely for a moment before answering. "My family's origins aren't from the Empire, we only bought our noble status around 300 years ago."

Noah nodded in understanding. "During the fall of the old system, I don't think people still call it that."

For the first time, the girl smiled, albeit a sarcastic smile. "You'd be wrong, almost every day I'm reminded of my previous origins, just someone who bought their identity."

Noah tilted his head in confusion. "But even if your family bought your new identities, I think your origins might surpass even the highest nobles and bloodlines in the Empire. You might be blood from the old kingdom, half-human?"

The girl's expression changed to one of horror, but she quickly controlled it into something like feigned confusion. She looked at Noah, knowing the damage was done, so she asked without hope. "How do you know that?"

Noah laughed lightly and said, "I just guessed... Oh, don't look at me like that, I only knew from your eyes. I just connected them to the old stories. They say that the royal bloodline of the old kingdom had eyes as blue as stars, and those below them had ocean-blue eyes. And so on, with every shade of blue. I didn't think such a story had any truth."

The knightess looked at Noah with wide eyes, her expression like someone who'd been tricked. After a moment of silence, she said quietly, "And here I believed stories like that were forgotten since the fall of the kingdom, or at least that's what my grandmother said."

Noah said nothing to that, just waited for the girl to say more, even his eyes indicated so. "You're wrong about one thing, I'm not half-human, I'm fully human in appearance. Anything beyond that, I don't really know."

Noah laughed sarcastically and challenged. "I don't think I believe this 'I don't know' of yours. If your words were true, why do your eyes say otherwise—ocean-blue eyes."

A trace of anger appeared on the girl's face as she asked, "Why does that matter to you? And what's the point of this conversation, I thought you wanted an apology, but where are we??"

Noah closed his eyes for a moment and looked at the girl with sarcasm as he spoke. "You didn't expect this, did you? To be honest, I didn't expect this conversation either, until I saw you anyway. In the end, I'm someone who lets the conversation take control."

The girl said nothing in response to that. Noah anticipated this and took the initiative to speak again. "Now I'll ask you another question. If just a commoner from a remote place like this could easily deduce your origins, do you think the higher authorities of the Empire don't know about your origins?"

Noah left the girl to ponder this, before she could ask the question likely occupying her mind now. Noah asked another question. "Why would someone like you want, dream of becoming an imperial knight? I don't see the logic in that."

The girl turned her head sharply towards him, but at the same moment, a pained expression crossed her face. She readjusted her head with difficulty and asked with the same difficulty that had disappeared from her voice throughout the conversation. "What do you mean? Surely they wouldn't know, even if they did, why would they care about me, someone insignificant in their eyes?"

Noah smiled and declared sarcastically, "It's good that you know your place." The girl's expression turned ugly, but Noah ignored it, continuing. "Do you think anyone who lost their father in the last war gets offered the position of imperial knight like you?"

Noah didn't need an answer as he continued question after question. "How many people do you think got the same opportunity as you? Did every noble who bought their status and lost their father get the same position you got? Do you think anyone else got it other than you under the same circumstances? Do you see..."

The girl interrupted Noah with a pained tone. "What are you trying to get at, what do you want?" She no longer looked at him.

Noah waited for the girl to look at him again before speaking. "What I wanted before seeing you was a peaceful resolution. You return to your position, and I return to my quiet life. But now,... I don't know what I want."