My Wife Waited in the Wheat Fields

Time flew by, and the end of the first month of the new year was approaching.

It had taken this long for Elric to be able to face Veron, despite his confident words to Tyria.

And there was now only a week before the knighting ceremony.

He’d used the excuse that he needed to prepare himself… but it was just an excuse.

He was cowardly, after all.

Elric finally realized it the day he went to Herman Inspiration’s forge alone.

“Squire, are you sure you want to do this?”

Those were hard words for him to get out.

But as frightening as it was to make the decision to leave the shadows of his past behind, he now felt that it wasn’t really so bad after all.

It was all the more frightening because, in the end, he had tried to run away, just as he had done before.

But Veron was not the boy soldier.

It was funny how hollow that fact was.

“Really…?”

Veron had flashed a dreamy, languid smile in disbelief.

Then his scarlet eyes burned clear.

“You don’t want to?”

“Of course not! I’ll do it! I’ll do it, Grandpa!!!”

“Yes! I heard you! You!”

It was a sweet sight to see the family’s joy as they hugged each other.

They bounced around so much that he wondered if they were going to fall over backwards.

He chuckled.

Now Elric saw something else on Veron’s face.

Instead of the boy soldier dying slowly on the battlefield, he saw his younger self, the one who dreamed of becoming a knight.

Yes, that’s what Elric Portman, the prodigal son of Wiven, should have looked like.

“Ah! Elric-hyung… no, Milord. Can I also participate in the knighting ceremony next week? What should I wear? Should I dress in armor?!”

“Inspiration would understand better than me. Inspiration, please bring your grandson to the knighting ceremony in a splendid manner.”

“Ah, trust me, I’m not saying this just because he’s my grandson, but he’s got a good enough physique to wear celestial armor!”

“I’ll look forward to it then. I must go now. I’ll see you next week, Veron.”

He leaned on his cane and stood up.

His steps were lighter as he turned around.

Was it because his knee was in full recovery mode?

‘…No.’

It was because he had finally been able to look his way.

After killing that boy, his father, and countless others, he still had the audacity to live to tomorrow.

Shamefully, he had come to hope that his days wouldn’t end.

Elric fiddled with the dagger in his hand.

He wondered if the day would ever come when he could throw it away.

Would there ever be a day when the past no longer chained him?

He’d once thought that that day would never come, but, for some reason, he had started changing his mind.

His steps become more impatient.

He couldn’t stop thinking about one person.

“Milady!”

He saw Tyria in the distance, out in the manor’s flowerbeds.

Elric smiled widely.

Tyria nodded briefly.

“I hope your business was done well.”

Elric replied.

“I was finally able to do it.”

He grinned like a child boasting of a great feat.

Another few days passed, and it was now the day of the knighting ceremony.

The cabin fever of winter had been replaced by a great ceremony, one that hadn’t been seen in decades.

A knight.

A name that had lost its luster with the changing times, but one that still retained a sense of grandeur.

The sword of the lord, the shield of the commoners, and the power of the estate.

Who in Wiven would not yearn for the romance of such beings?

As such, the manor’s central plaza was densely packed with people.

Everyone was preparing to welcome the new knights of the realm.

It was such a pleasant day.

If he had to name two people who didn’t like festivities, he could name two.

One was the former lord of the manor, and he had just become the second added one.

“Alas, this is just my luck.”

Surrounding the parties receiving the knighthood.

“Oh no…!”

Thud! Thud! Danal groaned, clutching the chestplate of his full plate armor.

It wasn’t the only thing he’d been struggling with.

The assassins from the Ferdinand branch, preparing for their knight appointment ceremony, all wore grim expressions, creating an atmosphere of tension.

Finally, it had come!

The moment they would sign their own slave contracts through their own free will was coming.

“Leader…!”

Danal, who was now truly the leader of the Knights, felt his nerves flare at the call of his subordinates.

He was tense, but he couldn’t bring himself to harass his innocent subordinates.

After all, what would have been the point?

“Boys, you must live.”

He closed his eyes and spoke his last words.

Danal thought about it.

He wondered what Kasha, the vile sword demon, would do to them.

How many times would they have to bear the name of a knight and do knightly things?

He couldn’t help but think of the ever imminent, dreadful future.

And what was a lord?

It was a generic term for rulers who appeared to be wise leaders who took care of their estates, but in reality, they waged ugly wars beneath the surface.

In the midst of their squabbles, the chances of their actions being chivalrous were slim to none.

Of course, the lord of the castle was Kasha the Sword Demon.

He was sure that they’d be rolling around in bones soon enough.

Danal, unaware of Elric’s lack of concern, felt like hanging himself right then and there.

It was at this moment.

“Sorry, I’m late!”

A loud voice rang through the barracks.

Turning his head, he saw a boy in full plate armor with an aged face and a less-than-perfect mug entering the barracks, smiling broadly.

‘Ah, that’s the squire.’

What the hell was he supposed to do with him?

Did he want them to turn him into an assassin, or did he want them to kill him?

No, he was actually a watchdog, wasn’t he?

Suspicion gripped Danal.

“Uh, hello.”

“My name is Veron, and my grandfather is the best blacksmith in all of Wiven…!”

He could tell that the boy was excited to introduce himself without even trying.

The boy was enthusiastic.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the possibility of the boy being Kasha’s spy dropped a little.

“It’s an honor for us to have you all, and I hope you’ll serve us well!”

Veron bowed his head ninety degrees.

The former Moonlings exchanged glances, discussing with only their eyes.

‘What do we do?’

‘I don’t know, I just feel sorry for him.’

‘He’s so young, shouldn’t we get him out of here?’

‘But what if it gets back to Kasha that we were bullying him?’

‘Gee, I didn’t mean that we should bully him, I meant…’

‘Arthur. Kasha’s extremely short tempered.’

For now, shouldn’t he just pretend to not know anything?

When he was about to come to that conclusion…

“But you guys are amazing! You’re all still so young, and yet you’ve become such great knights! Your armor looks so good on you… do you think I could be one of you guys someday?”

Passion, aspiration, and longing.

Seeing the light in Veron, a simple country boy, the hearts of all the Moonlings melted.

Mostly because of compassion. [E/N: Uhm… should I be calling Chris Hansen???]

‘Chief… he’s so nice.’

‘It’s possible he’s Kasha’s spy….’

‘I can’t believe this! That evil Kasha is definitely going to have us train him to be an assassin! He’s just a sacrificial lamb!’

Riki, who particularly held a lot of resentment among his subordinates, asked for a reconsideration.

Danal’s heart weakened.

‘…Yeah, if he really put him under us to train him as an assassin…!’

He had already washed his hands of the assassination industry.

How could he further continue the chain of evil?

He couldn’t.

Danal was gripped by a strange sense of justice that he couldn’t explain.

It was a perverse human instinct to empathize with the underdog.

Danal rose from his seat and placed a hand on Veron’s shoulder.

“Boy.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Run away now.”

“…What?”

“You’ll live a horrible life. You may come to regret this day for the rest of your life, so I’ll give you a chance. Run away.”

Danal’s expression grew stern and sterner.

However, his tone was troubling.

“S-Sir…!”

Veron could only see what was in the man’s eyes, but through the sternness, he saw a sense of knightly responsibility.

Veron’s chest heated.

“Even if it is hard, I will endure it!”

Thud!

Veron fell to his knees and looked up at Danal.

“That’s what knights do after all!”

Pity filled Danal’s heart.

“…How foolish.”

He turned his head away, not daring to look directly at Veron.

What he didn’t know was that Veron could only see him as a man with a knight’s gravitas and a grown man’s cool bitterness.

The misunderstanding was deepening.

Elric stepped out into the town square to start the knighting ceremony for the former Moonlings.

He’d finished his boring speech and was looking good for the assembled townspeople.

And now was the time for the long awaited knighting ceremony, wherein he would place the edge of his blade on the shoulders of his knights to be.

It would be his first time.

Elric’s stomach churned a little.

‘I can see them squirming.’

Did they think that he was going to eat them in such a crowded place?

It wasn’t a pretty sight to behold, as they flinched and turned a deep shade of blue every time his sword was placed on their shoulders.

If they continued to react like this, even out of sight of the townspeople, he might raise suspicions with Tyria behind him.

Elric pressed down on his sword a little harder as a sign of self-restraint.

“Ah…”

Danal’s lips quivered.

Elric sighed.

‘I wonder if they’ll ever get good at bravery…’

Clicking his tongue, Elric didn’t know.

He didn’t realize that the reason they were so frightened was because they were afraid they would actually be decapitated.

Anyway,

“With this, the appointment ceremony has concluded! From today onwards, the knight order of the Wiven territory, the Seolyeong Knight Order, has been officially established!” [1]

“Waaaaaah!!!”

In any case, the knighting ceremony went off without a hitch.

[1. Apparently, Seolyeong means “to explain” or “to instruct” according to our KTL. It can also be used as a name though, and so we went with using it as a name because the other two instances don’t make sense in this context.]