Goddesses above, hear us all.

Goddesses above, hear us all.

In the darkness, there is peace.

In the darkness, there is peace.

Nothing in the world is eternal.

With the cycle, blessed us all.

After the long dark came the sun.

Where a Goddess laid to rest.

The Goddess of Darkness laid to rest.

The God of Light gave us welcome.

The sun rose, and the snow began to melt.

The flowers bloomed and borne fruits.

Chimed with the Goddess of Wind.

The Goddess of Water danced along the river.

Two spirits blessed the spring season.

Two spirits blessed the spring season.

With their blessings, the world sprung alive.

The three Goddesses blessed us all.

With wealth untold and fertility.

With wealth untold and fertility.

And the people shall celebrate.

And the people shall celebrate.

CELEBRATE!

CELEBRATE!

CELEBRATE!

God of Light, Oh God of Light.

Grace us with the light, light, light.

The sunlight, the starlight, the moonlight, your light!

Light, light, light, light, light.

As the Goddess laid to sleep, here, He comes with the light.

The people and the lamb, the woods and the grain...

God of Light, oh God of Light.

God of Light, oh God of Light.

BY YOUR GRACE! GRACE! GRACE!

...

Garnet stretched her arms as soon as she left the Church vicinity. Because her preparations for entering the academy had been quite hectic, it had been a long time since she had prayed with any peace of mind.

For the same reason, the joints of her Starfall had been ruined. She had pushed that particular suit very, very hard. Despite her efforts to maintain it, she could only do so much with her limited resources.

And she didn't want to rely on Dame Alcott's generosity, not after what she had given her.

Dame Alcott was the person who had ordered barding equipment for her prized sumpter and also repaired and painted Garnet's junk plate armor, all without her realizing it.

Dame Alcott had warned her that it would be suspicious and embarrassing if she had a knight armor suit but wore rusting plate and rode a naked draft horse. She wouldn't just humiliate herself, but her mother and the Alcotts' fief too.

Even though Dame Alcott had refused to admit Garnet as a squire, she still acknowledged her as part of her household. Her family.

"Let's go, Gray!" Garnet skilfully climbed her giant horse and gently patted him.

And the pair traveled through the road, occasionally getting a glance from pedestrians. Garnet's gray school uniform made her instantly recognizable as a student of the highly respectable Knights Academy, thankfully.

"Garnet!" a voice called from just behind her.

There were the jangling sounds of bells followed by the clip-clop of a horse closing in. Garnet looked to one side and saw a hazel-haired woman riding a black courser. She wore a similar uniform to Garnet, though with some differences in the details.

Namely, the brooch they wore and the cape materials were different: it was one of the unspoken social codes in the Knights Academy of Marble Valley.

The origin of this social code was the sumptuary laws. Sumptuary laws were made to restrain luxury or extravagance. Particularly against inordinate expenditures for apparel, food, furniture, and so on. In practice, it was used to enforce the gaps in social hierarchies and was thus a form of social discrimination supported by the law.

Due to the rise of the burghers and middle-class urbanites, there was a heavy pushback against the enforcement of sumptuary laws. Even so, the majority of people still abided by them. The outdated legal codes had simply become the expected norm. Anyone who dressed outside this norm would be ridiculed.

Those who came from the nobility wore light purple silk capes, often embroidered with gold threads, with a small gold brooch tying them together, signifying wealth spent on an otherwise mundane item. In extreme cases, the brooch could even be decorated with gemstones.

The light purple colour being associated with the nobility was because dyes from the pre-chemistry era had required an enormous amount of a specific type of ground snailshell.

And then there were the ordinary citizens. While they were considered a minority among the students, they often wore capes that had been dyed in a variety of cheap-looking colors. Garnet herself wore a cape that was the color of a brick, the same crimson red color as her armor, paired with a bronze cross-shaped brooch.

Thus, even at first glance, these two people side by side made a stark contrast.

"Good afternoon, Lady Olive." Garnet respectfully bowed.

"Oh, don't give me that." She dismissively waved. "There's no need for formalities since we're friends and all."

"That will have to wait until I graduated and become part of the nobility, Milady," Garnet half-joked.

Olive Evelyn was a young noblewoman who had just happened to meet with Garnet during the orientation. They had been paired together quite often in various activities during that period. As a result, she had become the closest person to what Garnet could call a female friend.

Garnet was still being cautious about her, unfortunately.

Still, Garnet was no more cautious of Olive than she was of Reinhard. She made sure to recognize her position as a person of lesser social strata while nevertheless respecting and appreciating Olive's fair treatment of her.

Even something simple as friendships were complicated once politics and money were brought into the equation. Still, Garnet believed that nobles were just like ordinary people: they could be good or bad.

"What are you doing today, Lady Olive?"

"Since I just finished my business in the city, I have nothing important left to do." Olive shrugged. Her gray eyes aimlessly wandered as she asked in return, "What about you, Garnet?"

"I need to meet someone in the engineering department," Garnet said. "I ruined the left knee joints of my Starfall, long before that duel of honor. I planned to fix it at some point, but the timing was awful."

"Really? I didn't know that. You fought so well too," Olive mumbled with a hint of amazement in her voice. "There's no way I could be half that good with a ruined joint."

"You're underselling yourself, Lady Olive." Garnet shook her head. "Lady Denver and Lady Darlington let their pride and arrogance get in their way."

She had been lucky that both Serena and Lina looked down on her and had underestimated her. She would have had precisely zero chance of winning against two people with skill and composure comparable to Olive's.

But if it was Lady Adrianne...

"Oh, right. Since I have nothing to do, do you mind if I tag along?" Olive asked. "I haven't seen an original Starfall before."

"Sure thing!"

It's not as if Garnet had anything to lose by showing her. At this point, the secret of her outdated armor suit had become universal knowledge.

CHAPTER 09 - A MOMENT OF SILENCE, PART 2

In all honesty, the original Starfall was so old that Garnet had a particular issue finding spare parts for it. The suit hadn't been in production for almost twelve years!

The parts were no longer in market circulation, meaning she would have to make a custom order for replacement. And, at that point, she might as well order parts from Starfall Crusader to slowly replace them piece by piece.

It wasn't that Garnet didn't have the money. What she didn't have was the time. Garnet didn't have someone she could rely on for help maintaining and repairing her armor, whereas the wealthy squires would have a servant to do it. Usually, the same servant would also be enrolled in the engineering class.

In other words, Garnet was supremely confident that Luna Linker was Lady Adrianne's personal aide or at least one of them. Even the highest-ranked noble kids wouldn't have more than two servants enrolled with them.

"Good afternoon, Lady Evelyn," Luna politely greeted her when they arrived in the Knight stable, where all the student's armor suits were kept and maintained. "And good afternoon, Miss Pucheria."

"Forgive me if I'm presumptuous, but you're Lady Adrianne's servant, aren't you?" Olive asked.

"My name is Luna Linker. My family served the House of Lyster for generations, yes." Luna nodded proudly. "Though my sister became a knight of her own merit."

Figures.

Garnet went to the place where she stored her Starfall. While tampering was not impossible, the knight stable had always been guarded heavily by the school staff for security purposes. It just happened to be near two of her classmates.

"What even the point of armor suits you can't use?" one of them jeered.

"Yeah, you should go back to the capital and start studying accounting instead!"

"Are you even old enough to enroll here to begin with?"

Rambunctious laughter not befitting of noblemen echoed in their vicinity, which made Garnet even more annoyed. She saw a bunch of nobles were harassing a short boy near her Starfall.

That boy was Timothy Hill, one of her classmates and the son of the Royal Exchequer. Timothy often got mocked for his short stature and youthful face, which made him seem four years younger than he really was.

Garnet was about to help him, but someone else was ahead of her.

"Big talk from a bunch of crook-nosed knaves who relied on their parent's money to enroll." Lewis came in, his spectacles glowing with an unearthly light. "Well, what should I expect? You brutes can only be brave with superior numbers behind you. Perhaps you should enlist in the military. We know the best way to gang on someone."

Lewis raised a forge hammer with a wicked grin. "We can hammer the knowledge into you... thoroughly and carefully."

"Tch, bespectacled bastard."

"Let's go! He's not fun to deal with."

The bunch of noblemen left, trying hard to hide their fear. However, anyone else would have known that it was pointless.

"I'm sorry, Lewis." Timothy bit his lips. "If only I was a bit more mature..."

"People don't make fun of you for being short or childish, Timmy," Lewis coldly cut him off. "They made fun of you because you're a crybaby."

"Ah... ahh..." Timothy gasped. He was on the verge of tears just now and had unconsciously been about to let them fall until Lewis reminded him. "Sorry."

"You should apologize to yourself." Lewis sighed as he turned and faced Garnet. "And you should find a better role model, like Miss Pucheria here."

"Ah, good afternoon, Miss Garnet." Timothy grimaced and then wiped away his tears. "Sorry for showing you something ugly this early in the day."

"You don't need to apologize to me." Garnet cringed. "Those rascals always compensate for things they lack by punching down."

"Right, if it was you, you would punch back." Lewis sighed and put on a strange smile. "I still remember that first orientation day, what a magnificent arse-beating you did. You put those cocky noblewomen in their place."

"Nobles or not, I'll beat their arse just fine, Master Carter." Garnet smiled back, but hers had more genuine humour.

Unlike Lewis, Garnet didn't harbor a preexisting bias against nobles. Even if they were burghers or peasants, it didn't matter. No one was allowed to insult Dame Alcott.

"Be that as it may, it was still a memorable occasion to me." Lewis took Garnet's hand and kissed it lightly. "Consider this a token of my appreciation."

Ordinarily, people saw him as overbearing, but Garnet felt no ill intent from him, at least none directed at her. And it made her wonder... just how deep-seated was his hatred for the nobility, really?

"I might appreciate it better if you stopped being a passive-aggressive churl," Garnet outright told him.

"Funny hearing that from a miscreant like you. No offense." Lewis laughed and left. This time though, it was clear that he was mocking her.

Indeed, it has been ironic and hypocritical for Garnet to say that since she wasn't a soft-spoken woman either...

"Sorry, I don't get offended by facts!" she shouted after him.

"She didn't bother denying it."

That was what Luna and Olive thought. Still, they had felt a strange vibe in that conversation. Almost as if Garnet and Lewis had been hitting it off rather well.

Evidently, they weren't the only ones who noticed. "You're pretty amazing, Miss Garnet!" Timothy said in pure, unabashed admiration. "I haven't seen Lewis smile to a woman for a long time."

"Really?"

"Yes!" Timothy declared. "Lewis might be harsh at times, but he has a heart as soft as a ball of cotton! I know it's hard to believe, but..."

"It's alright. I believe in you, Master Hill," Garnet stopped him. "As you can tell, I'm kind of dense sometimes."

"Young Master Carter is really an enigmatic person,," Olive remarked. "People said Lady Adrianne could be the most skilled chevalier among the first-year students. But, in my opinion, Master Lewis Carter could be a strong contender."

"What, really?" Garnet's eyes widened in curiosity. Someone even more skilled than Lady Adrianne?

"Yes, Master Carter has been active in the military since he was fifteen," Olive told her. "And if rumors are to be believed, he even beat a newly graduated knight with a Black Knife."

"No way! A Black Knife?!"

Black Knife is the most common soldier armor suit in this Kingdom. The fifty-year-old armor had been updated continuously as the technology progressed, and it was both cheap and reliable. With the amount of money needed to buy a bare-bones knight frame, you could buy five or six Black Knife armors ready for battle.

However, even the newest Black Knife fell short compared to a knight armor. No, even a squire armor like the Indigo would leave it in the dust.

"That wasn't a rumor, actually." Timothy carelessly approached one of the covered armor suits and pulled back the cloth to reveal that, under the tarp, there was a soldier munition armor suit standing in menacing readiness.

Still, it seemed to be heavily customized. Garnet noticed additional plate armors on its chest, shoulder, head, and hips.

"It seemed to be quite heavily armored, but it's still made of iron, right?" Garnet knocked the additional plates lightly. "They're of different hardness too."

"How can you tell?" Luna narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Well, I just can." Garnet shrugged.

Garnet had exactly one special power that made her different to others. That is to say, she had selectively sharper hearing than other people. Just from the knocking sound alone, she could tell the structural difference in the different armor plates.

It could be helpful in battle too, but came nowhere close to being a decisive factor.

"Yes, I believe it's armored with cast iron." Timothy nodded.

Cast iron isn't actually pure iron. Instead, cast iron is an iron alloy with high carbon content, more than two parts out of a hundred.

"Isn't cast iron quite brittle? You can't use it for weapons or armor," Olive mumbled. "Right, Garnet?"

"Theoretically, as far as we know," Garnet said. "But I'm not a metallurgy specialist, so..."

"It's called duplex armor." Adrianne suddenly appeared with Reinhard by her side. "The relative brittle cast iron was put outside so it would shatter from heavy impact, especially when hit by a cannonball. However, the softer and tougher wrought iron armor would receive less damage."

"Huh? Yeah, that's right." Even if you shoot this one with a culverin, it won't be crushed instantly." Timothy pointed. "Sure, the person inside might get injured, but better than being pulped to death."

"Oho, so it was a medieval ablative armor. Very clever!" Reinhard remarked with a high-pitched voice. He remembered that even Modern Earth had similar concepts. "On tanks, the hard ceramics would be backed by structural steel hull instead."

"What is a tank?" Garnet tilted her head.

"This armor is very much ahead of its time." Adrianne closed her eyes. "Perhaps it will be the norm in a few decades."

"Why is that?" Olive asked.

"Because of the invention of cast-iron cannon, duh." Reinhard winked. "As you know, the cast cannons we have are made of expensive bronze. However, in fifty years, this Kingdom will be able to mass-produce culverins using iron casting."

"Whoever made this custom armor suit knew this for a fact." Adrianne opened her eyes again. "A genius ten years ahead of their contemporaries."

Reinhard wondered if Adrianne was being honest or if she was trying to imply something else.

The other people in the vicinity didn't notice the implication. What they did see was the potential for a massive cost-saving through the use of iron casting.

"A cast-iron cannon... if we extrapolate from hunting guns, it might cost two-third... no..." Olive gasped. "It might cost half of the current generation wrought iron cannon! Perhaps even less!"

"Amazing. How could Lady Adrianne and Sir Reinhard know so much about it?!" Timothy's jaw dropped in shock. As far as he knew, he was the only one who had been told by Lewis why this armor suit was different than others.

Adrianne replied with an ambivalent smile and left again without saying anything.

"Mysterious as always." Garnet gave up trying to comprehend her.

"That's because Lady Adrianne is an engineering genius!" Luna shouted with all her might. "She can see the future, I tell you!"

Her words were more true than she realised: Adrianne truly knew the future, the future of the Kingdom as a whole.

...

"So, anything else you know that you haven't told me?" Reinhard asked Adrianne.

"Five years from now, someone will invent a safe way to construct six-pounders, cast-iron cannons. From there, the Sutherland rearmament plan will begin under the reign of Theodore's Brother, Eugene III. And two years later, almost one-third of artillery in this country will be cast-iron cannons."

"You know, even modern world weapon acquisition programs aren't that fast." Reinhard jibed.

"Because our Kingdom of Sutherland wants to expand its territory. When it comes to that, we only have two choices. Invade our neighbor in the north, or expand into the southern wilderness and fight powerful demon beasts."

"With that kind of massive rearmament program, aren't you sure our neighbor won't attack first?" Reinhard raised his eyebrows. "Seriously."

"You're not too far off," Adrianne said. "Eight years from now, I'm supposed to die in the climactic battle of the war with our Nordland neighborhood. Well, at least that WAS what happened in Theodore's route at least."

"Yikes."

"I don't plan to die. So it's best to uproot the problem before it can grow and fester." Adrianne said. "Beyond saving myself, I want to find a way to avoid the war altogether if possible."

For Adrianne to do that, she had to climb her way through the Kingdom's politics.

"Meaning..."

"I told Theodore about it. However, I dressed it up as a vision of the future rather than memories of Kuro..." Adrianne said to Reinhard. "My parents and Avan are also aware of it."

"Oh."

Outside the knight stable, Theodore was waiting for them with a smile.

"Let's go," the Prince called them.

It Looked like Reinhard was in for a wild ride.