CHAPTER 26 – KNIGHTED

The long-awaited day had finally arrived, the day for my conferment ceremony had arrived. The quick ceremony I had expected, was pushed back a whole month. This was due to a variety of reasons, but if I had to pick one, it would be because Claude had not prepared anything.

My dear brother the busy King of Kar had forgotten to set up a few important things. These important things included the barracks and headquarters for the battalion, military staff, and finally the actual venue. While it would be held in the usual throne room. There were still many things that had to be prepared for the event. Thus, my conferment of duty ceremony was pushed back.

I paced around the waiting room with my friends looking on. We were all dressed in the dark blue standard knight ceremonial uniform. As we were not yet affiliated with any knight order or military unit, we would only be wearing the standard uniform. If we were in the Royal Knight order, we would have a gold lining on our uniform. If we were a part of the Silver Wolf knight order, we would have a silver lining and a wolf motif on the collar. Knights under general Harlow’s army had a wings emblem with the number three on it.

For the sixth time, I had Erika check out my ceremonial uniform to see if there was anything wrong with it.

“Princess Ayra, you look fine everything is in place, but if you keep pacing around, I cannot guarantee that your skirt will not become creased,” Erika told me off.

I stood in place, afraid that if I sat down my skirt or blazer would be creased. I completely ignored that my friends were all sitting down, and their ceremonial uniform was fine. They were even slouched on the couches, completely relaxed.

“How are you guys not nervous? The conferment ceremony is going to start any minute now.” I called out.

“We’re not the ones directly getting promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and getting conferred with an independent battalion.” Replied Louise, with a smirk on her face.

“Yeah, we’re just being knighted,” Chandre added.

While I wanted to say something back, I just glared at the two of them.

There was nothing I could do now, but I would get my revenge eventually. Maybe I could make Louise my deputy or the head of logistics. That should keep her busy.

Distracted by my plans for revenge, a maid finally came to call us. Taking the lead, I led my friends to the throne room, leaving Erika and the maid behind us.

Stopping outside the massive throne room doors, I took in a few deep breaths. The guards by the sides of the door were waiting for my signal to open it. Once I had calmed down completely, I turned to face my friends and asked, “Are you guys ready?”

They firmly nodded their heads, indicating that they were ready. Looking closely at their shacky, clenched hands, it was easy to tell that they were faking it earlier. They were as nervous as I was.

Acting as if I had not seen anything I turned to the guards and nodded my head. Where they returned a quick salute.

Simultaneously, they both opened the massive doors.

Taking a stride into the throne room, my usual title was called out, “Crown Princess Ayra, the kingdom’s star has arrived.”

As my friends followed behind me, one after the other, their names were also called out. None of us were referred to as dames as we had not officially knighted.

I led my friends past the lower nobles and lower court ministers that had gathered. I gave a few smiles and nods to my friends’ parents in the crowd towards the front. Where the high nobles and generals were. I could see that there were many high ranked military officers here today. Five of the generals I knew were in attendance. I observed representatives from all nine armies of Kar were here and they had all sent at least a lieutenant colonel for the event.

It was either they were trying to intimidate me using their ranks or were trying to show respect. I had no idea and had no interest in these political games they were trying to play. If they are stupid enough to act against me, I would show no mercy. However, if they were just doing this as a sign of respect for my upcoming rank, I would accept their, well wishes.

Unlike usual I did not head up the stairs and stopped ten steps before it, where my friends and I performed a half kneel before Claude and Ingrid.

“Princess Ayra and the noble daughters of Kar greets the Sun and Moon of Kar.” In unison my friends and I greeted.

“Time sure goes by fast, I have watched all you girls grow up.” Claude started to talk. “Recently, you girls have graduated from the academy under the knight course achieving this accomplishment before the age of fourteen. I congratulate all of you for this.”

Ingrid followed on afterwards. “While not as long as his majesty, I have similarly watched you girls grow up. I have, however, seen your hard work and dedication. I too congratulate you, girls, on your recent graduation.”

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“We thank the Sun and Moon of Kar for your generous compliments.” Representing my friends, I thanked Claude for his compliments, following the script that had been planned.

Following the greeting the actual ceremony was to start, but different from how the script was supposed to go, Claude did not start knighting us. Instead, he called Viscount Lynes who was the master of ceremonies to bring some things out.

When Viscount Lynes returned eight royal knights were following behind him. Each one was holding something with a cloth covering it.

Claude got up from his throne and called out to Hilda, “Hilda Mancer step forward.”

Taken by surprise Hilda got up and walked towards Claude, where she resumed her half kneel.

One of the knights moved forward and presented the item he was holding to Claude, removing the cloth to reveal a shining silvery sword with a flower motif on it. It was most likely that the sword was made out of the magical material mithril.

Unsheathing the sword, Claude continued, “Hilda Mancer, I hereby dub you as the Myrtus Knight. A knight that symbolises joy and love.”

After tapping the sword onto Hilda’s right shoulder, he returned the sword to its sheath and handed the sword to her.

Hilda attached the sheath to her belt and returned to her previous position.

It was time for the next person to be called up and Dorothy was called. As she had Hilda’s example, she was less nervous.

Like with Hilda Claude knighted Dorothy. “Dorothy Newley, I hereby dub you as the Freesia Knight. A knight that symbolises friendship and innocence.

“Anna Mar, I hereby dub you as the Lotus Knight. A knight that brings unity and strength.”

“Louise Adams, I hereby dub you as the Hyacinthus Knight. A knight that symbolises spring and playfulness.”

“Caitlyn Ward, I hereby dub you as the Paeonia Knight. A knight that symbolises dignity, honour and compassion.”

“Chandre Sweeny, I hereby dub you as the Centaurea Knight. A Knight that symbolises devotion and hope.”

“Catrina Dawson, I hereby dub you as the Monarda Knight. A knight that symbolises prosperity and health.”

Watching as Catrina returned to her position. It was finally my turn; all my friends had gone up. With expectation, I waited for Claude to call out my name. “Princess Ayra Asteri Kar, step forward.”

Like all my friends that went before me, I stood before Claude and performed a half kneel.

“Ayra Asteri Kar, I hereby dub you as the Purple Orchid. A knight that symbolises Royalty and dignity. I hope you will be eternally respected and admired.”

I accepted the sword from Claude with both my hands. I noticed a difference from the other swords that Claude had given to my friends. It was also made of mithril, so it possessed a silvery shine to it. It also had a flower motif that matched my title on the guard. The difference was that that unlike their swords, mine had an orchid motif that was made from a purple crystal, unlike theirs that was just a silvery colour like the rest of the sword. However, all of our sheaths were decorated with the colour of our flowers.

I attached the sword to my sword belt. While I normally did not use swords, this ceremonial sword made from mithril will come in handy when I needed to slash things or in a situation where I can’t use my spear.

However, I needed to stop admiring the shiny sword and focus back on the ceremony that was only halfway finished.

“I will now proclaim the formation of a new knight order, The Order of the Eternal Garden” Claude continued, as he had been waiting for me to bring my attention back to him. “Dame Ayra, Dame Dorothy, Dame Hilda, Dame Anna, Dame Louise, Dame Caitlyn, Dame Chandre and Dame Catrina, as the Sun of Kar I hereby initiate you all into The Order of the Eternal Garden. Your ranks will be directly promoted to major and be given military authority equivalent to your ranks.

Additionally, Dame Ayra will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Following this, she will oversee The Order of the Eternal Garden, as Knight Commander.”

Thinking that Claude had finished his speech, I was about to thank him as per etiquette, but to my surprise, Claude once again broke from the script and added something else. “After formation of The Order of the Eternal Garden, an independent battalion is to be formed around this new knight order. Also, under the command of Knight Commander Ayra. Do you all accept this conferment of duty?”

Even when the script had completely changed, without hesitation my friends and I all accepted in unison as we had practised

What Claude had just done was completely different from what Viscount Lynes had practised with us a few days before the ceremony. We had been told we would be Knighted and given military ranks with mine being lieutenant colonel and my friends being majors. This was the plan, but we had not expected the formation of a new knight order.

When he proclaimed the formation of a new knight order, I thought he had changed his mind on the formation of the independent battalion. Seeing as Ingrid was now pregnant and unable to oversee the battalion. Never did I expect that he would simply brute force everything through by forming a new knight order under my command, then form an independent battalion around my knight order.

With the new independent battalion under the control of a knight order, it could no longer be controlled by the military headquarters. Achieving independence without the need for royal intervention and supervision like Ingrid and me. However, I was a princess of Kar and a member of the royal family, who was still the current Knight Commander, it made little sense.

Thinking about it carefully, Claude must have done this to ensure the longevity of knight order. If for some reason I would leave one day, the knight order would still be able to continue operating without the interference of the military headquarters and other high-ranking officers. While I like to think that Claude was an insensitive person in daily life, I had to admit he was an unrivalled blade when it came to politics.

I was happy about the impromptu changes that Claude made for us. Never did I expect that he had even more surprise for us. “The Order of the Eternal Garden will have their headquarters station at a Royal academy until their new custom facility is built.”

I took particular attention to Claude’s choice of words here. Custom sounded strange as it would indicate that the facility would be different and made to order. Did this mean I could design and change the building as I liked?

However, my questions will have to wait till later as the ceremony had official ended under Claude’s signal and he had led Ingrid back to their rooms via the new magic lift that I had commissioned the magic rune mages and royal craftsmen to make, after seeing Ingrid have trouble moving from one floor to the next. It had only taken them a week to test and install as they already had a similar idea they were testing out.

Getting up from our positions my friends went back to their parents, while I was stuck dealing with the other nobles and officers that came to congratulate me.

By the end of the day, my facial muscles were sore from smiling all day. I guess sayings are usually right, too much of anything is a bad thing.