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Chapter 1.16: Sigrid Ankertna
That day, the knight members present in Knight Order were Morris, Alkerto, Kaul, and Sarid.
“Alkerto.”
“Ah, you’re here?”
“Did you see Sigrid today?”
“No? She’s on break, isn’t she?”
“She just came and took the horse.”
“I guess she’s doing some exercise at the horse paddock.”
“No, she took him home.”
“There is a stable in her home?”
As Alkerto tilted and murmured, Morris said something as if he were throwing a bomb.
“She bought a house. In Zone 2.”
Suddenly silence filled in the anteroom. Sarid, who was cleaning the sword, raised his head.
“What?”
“She bought a house. SIgrid. In Zone 2. And she invited me over the weekend to have tea in the garden.”
Alkerto quickly shut his widely opened mouth, then asked. “Buy a house? Zone 2? Sigrid?”
“Yes, and also, she’s wearing nice clothes, even with a cloak.”
Sarid, whose skin color was darker than others due to the mixture of foreign blood, tilted his head for a moment and then focused again on cleaning his sword.
“I see she’s finally come to her senses.”
Alkerto shook his head and said, “come to her senses? No, Sig’s like that is insane. She’s the kind of person that is always picking on us whenever we buy something a little expensive and nagging at us for wasting the Knights’ supplies. But honestly, I thought she was a little weird. I thought about it…”
Can a person change that much?
“Is she dying?”
Morris looked at Alkerto who was murmuring by himself.
It was plausible. A sudden long vacation, spending the savings like crazy, frankly admitting what people said, everything she did seemed to be what someone with dying disease would do.
“Maybe…”
If anyone thought about it, now it was understandable the strangeness of Sigrid that night, breaking the curfew. It was like the kind of behavior of someone who was notified that they have a dying disease. And Sigrid Ankertna was a person after all.
Alkerto squeezed his chin, his face became dark at the thought Sigrid’s was dying. Morris pondered over for a while, then he said.
“Should we have a look?”
“What if she doesn’t want us to know?”
“That is that, but still…” Morris grumbling at Alkerto’s words.
They didn’t know how much they’ve grown attached to each other as they always quarrel, but they were sure they’ve been through thick and thin together…
“Then, does she have a family?”
“There isn’t.”
“She said she is an orphan.” Sarid, whose eyes were still on his sword, said the words that made Alkerto and Morris get more depressed.
“But, wouldn’t having an invitation to tea time mean that you want to get acquainted with people? Who wants to go with me? I don’t want to go there by myself.” Morris said.
“I refused.” Sarid answered firmly.
“I’ll go.” Alkerto raised his hand. Sigrid and him were the only members of the Knight Orders from commorner. He couldn’t help but care less. Furthermore, he was concerned about the conversation not long ago.
Morris nodded.
Of course, Sigrid, who had no idea that such a discussion happened in the Knight Order, walked lightly along the road. The public wagons that saw her outfit stopped and waited for her to pass first, which was a novel experience. She used to have to listen to the coachmen’s interruption and thick swear words when she didn’t wear a uniform.
‘It’s not a uniform, but wearing this kind of everyday wear is kind of good.’
Sigrid returned home.
After brushing echo thoroughly, and mixing hay and oats for him, Sigrid changed her clothes and came back to the under the tree in the garden to meditate. The amount of aura gathered increasingly.
In the past, she became an aura user three years later, so it was a considerable achievement that she had moved up three years ahead in this lifetime. She was 20 year old now. In the past, she became the aura user at the age 23, and she was given the title of prodigy because of that. If the people were to know she was an aura user at the age 20, she would get a lot of attention. And Sigrid didn’t want that. If someone was an aura user, there would be absolutely an offer to enlist from the Imperial Guard, and Sigrid has yet to make up her mind. For the time being, she decided to hide—as long as she could.
Tingling—
‘Aaack’
Sigrid felt a small pain in her chest. The meditation was stopped. She then caressed her fingertips at her upper part of her solar plexus and between the breastbone. She felt something sharp and bold.
“Aura core.. It’s already out.”
Part of the aura core that is shaped solidly inside a body supposed to protrude from the body. It occurs somewhere in the body, usually on the back of the hand, forehead, solar plexus, and the back of the neck. It is also called sword jewel because it glistens like a jewel. Most people call it aura core. At first, it is small like a dot, but as you collect more and more aura, the core got bigger and the color got darker.
Her core was scarlet, like her eyes. It was not visible now because it was like a dot, but if it continued to be grinded, it would become more and more like a diamond-shaped ruby.
Sigrid smiled, feeling fortunate to be out of everyone’s sight.
She enjoyed swordsmanship. She couldn’t throw it away. She could proudly say that she likes sword very much. There was unparalleled joy in her when her body became accustomed to the swordsmanship, when her body delivered the unprecedented movements of it, when her body became accustomed to deal with the aura. These were her own joys that she could not share with anyone.
She put her hand on the core that was in her chest. The memories of the terrible pain and despair as her core was forcibly dug made Sigrid tremble as if she had a chill. She didn’t want to go through it again.
‘As expected, I’d better avoid the guards.’
It would be best to continue with the Second Knights Order. Or anywhere she could avoid the Imperial Guard. But she can’t quit the Knight Order. She had nothing to do if she were to leave the Knight Order. Return to be the normal helpless girl? She never liked it.
‘It’s okay. As long as I don’t get caught, it’s fine.’
Sigrid took a deep breath and thought, didn’t she change all of her lifestyle, food, clothing, and shelter to change the direction of her life? So it was going to be fine.
Sigrid went into the kitchen and put the kettle on the stove. After the kettle trembled, telling that the water was boiled, Sigrid poured it to the teapot that had a spoonful high-quality tea which actually just that one spoonful cost one can of cheap tea. She didn’t know how to make delicious tea, and she didn’t feel the worth to learn, but the tea leaves were expensive teas. Which it didn’t matter how Sigrid made it, the aroma was still excellent and there was no bitter taste. Sigrid sipped her tea and enjoyed the taste of little pleasure.
‘Shall I buy white sugar next time?’
Sigrid always wanted to try white sugar, but white sugar was much more expensive than brown sugar. It was not because she couldn’t afford it. White sugar was a luxury, and of course, as always, for a knight, brown sugar was enough. So she refused to eat it in the past, but now that the thought of herself wanted to buy it felt funny to her.
‘I think my notion about money is getting a little weird.’
‘Well, next time, buy white sugar.’ Sigrid wrote it in his head.
Sigrid looked at her kitchen and the tableware she used. The former owner of the house obviously quite well off, as the house was in Zone 2, so the tableware left was also high quality. However, while the plate or bowl remained, there was no silverware left in the house. Therefore, Sigrid opened her heart big, and ordered a set of silverware. The price made her hands shake. Still, considering she got free porcelain tableware, the money spent was fine. She was too lazy to manage the flatware and tableware. If she were to buy the cheaper price, she needed to polish and store it so that it wouldn’t discolor. And for her, that activity was annoying. Also fortunately for her, the teacups and teapots that remained in this house were quite great items. The teacups had a thin gold frame that glistened, it felt luxurious for her.
‘Somehow, it’s like a doll’s house.’
When she was a child, she had seen a large doll house in a shopping street. It was a big, beautiful doll house she would never have. Of course, she also had never even had a doll.
‘Come to think of it.’
Sigrid suddenly thought of one corn cob. There was a dry corn cob she wrapped with an old handkerchief and carried it in her harms as a doll. She even gave it a name. It was quite dear to her, but she couldn’t remember its name. But, she remembered that one time, she saw a doll’s house on her way to an errand when she was in the orphanage. She was holding a corncob doll and walking through the streets of the shopping street when she saw a colorful doll house. Small, finely crafted furniture, wall decoration, the structure of the house, copper pots in the kitchen, shiny palm beds, carpets… Sigrid’s feet clung to the spot and did not even move. And a porcelain doll that fit perfectly into the doll’s house, dressed in a fancy dress, sat on a chair in the parlor. Then, a girl of her age with a sable muff and burgundy dress came out of the store while holding the same beautiful porcelain doll that she saw. That girl then looked at Sigrid and laughed. Sigrid ran away from there. The ending of her corn cob doll was it was caught by the orphanage director and thrown into the fire. That day she bawled her eyes out on the ground.
Sigrid smiled lightly. Looking at her house right now, it really looked like the dollhouse she saw that time.
‘Sable muff, shall I go buy it?’