### Chapter 55: Intermission Affairs (II)
“Just go to your dad; that’ll be fine,” Daisy said, leaning against the bedframe and slowly closing her eyes.
“But…”
Sarah’s face twisted in distress. “The Fifth Knights Order is really not where I want to be… It’s way too cushy. Out west of the Royal City, you can count the number of times we’ve dealt with bandit troubles on your fingers! Dad has slogged through all these years and still doesn’t have many real achievement badges to show for it… I’m still young, I have ambitions, I’m not going to waste my youth there!”
But honestly, the Fifth Knights Order is kind of perfect for you…
Daisy thought this to herself as she started to doze off; she was one of those people who could fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Blurrily, she asked, “Sarah, where do you want to go…?”
“I want to join the First Knights Order.”
“Pfft—”
Her words jolted Daisy awake, and she opened her eyes, unable to stifle her laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Sarah shot back, not amused. “I know it’s tough, but it’s not completely impossible, right?”
“Right, right, right…”
“What kind of tone is that?”
With a sudden surge, Sarah sat up, reaching out to grab Daisy’s chest. Daisy hurriedly put her hands up to resist, and the two of them ended up playfully tussling on the bed. When Daisy finally surrendered, begging for mercy, Sarah happily let her go.
“Daisy, have you gotten bigger again?”
“Absolutely not…”
“You’re such a savage female beast!”
Daisy’s face flushed at the remark, and she lowered her head, saying nothing. After a moment, Sarah began to rant again.
“Ugh, things have been so chaotic lately! Everything’s a mess and I can’t make heads or tails of it. In just two short years, it feels like everything has changed from what it used to be…”
“Hmm?”
Daisy panted slightly, tilting her head to look at Sarah, her gaze filled with confusion.
“Just the other day, I went to the market to buy stuff, and before that, I had shown off my apprentice knight badge to Mom. I forgot to take it off when I went out and some passing drunkards saw it and started mocking me…”
“They said things like, how can there still be idiots willing to serve the church at this time… and that the church doesn’t even spare little girls anymore… and blah blah. I didn’t want to deal with them, but they kept saying that if I weren’t wearing that badge, they’d knock all my teeth out. I still get mad thinking about it.”
“Daisy, you know, two or three years ago, who would even dare speak to a Church Knight like that?”
“Exactly…”
Daisy agreed, but she didn’t really understand what Sarah was trying to express.
This girl who preferred to huddle in her dorm room and hardly interacted with anyone apart from her roommates wasn’t sensitive to many changes happening in the outside world and didn’t care much either.
“I heard a priest just got taken away for questioning by someone from the Sword of Kanli… The atmosphere in the Royal City feels a bit tense, and things might be even more serious in the Northern Region… Peilo’s dad’s army seems to have taken Chielis City… I wanted to ask my dad for new information, but he refuses to tell me anything… He’s always like this—won’t tell me anything but expects me to do as he says!”
Sarah’s incessant chatter dissipated any lingering drowsiness Daisy might have had. She hopped off the bed and walked two steps over to the storage box they had moved in earlier, crouching down to struggle with the lid. Inside was a jumble of items girls typically used—combs, hair ties, a little Scottish-style handbag, some shiny jewelry, necklaces, oddly-shaped art sculptures, several faded school uniforms, and so much more…
Daisy pulled out the little handbag, holding it up for a moment before opening it.
“Ah.”
Sarah said, “That’s Peilo’s handbag.”
She stood up and came over.
Inside the handbag, there wasn’t much—a white handkerchief, a small church order letter, an embroidered purse, and a little yellowed handbook.
“Hey! Let me see that!”
With keen curiosity, Sarah snatched the handbook from Daisy’s hands, excitedly flipping through the pages.
She thought it was a diary filled with the little Pope Knight’s earth-shattering secrets, like methods to resist the Abyss or how eating more could boost your inner Power of Order, and so on.
However, when she opened it up, it turned out to be a mundane and almost painfully boring list of favorite foods.
[Delicious cake shops:
Opera almond cake, sold at the market on Longdoll Street, usually at night. The owner’s a bit limp-wristed, but he’s a nice guy. His cakes sell out fast; you better hurry if you want one.]
[If you take the left turn after leaving the academy, there’s a great waffle place by that uncle, but it’s hard to find. Go in the alley, walk about 100 meters, turn left, then left again, then right, and finally go straight for 300 meters. Don’t forget!]
[Sarrah said her mom’s deer meat pie is delicious, I can’t forget to ask her for some after the rest day…]
[……]
Just a collection of food-related notes, some of which were hastily crossed out, while others remained intact. The handwriting was messy but showed she put a lot of effort into it, afraid to forget any detail.
“Hey, Sarah, don’t peek—it’s not nice…”
“You really are a fool…”
After glancing at a few entries, Sarah lost interest, just in time for Daisy to reach for the book back, which she handed back to her.
“In the end, she doesn’t even know that the deer meat pie that day was actually bought, huh?” Daisy’s eyes became a bit hazy, and her voice took on a dreamy quality.
“What? Are you talking about Peilo…?”
Daisy stuffed everything back into the little handbag and asked.
“Her dad is about to become the new emperor of the Empire.”
Sarah didn’t respond directly but changed the subject, asking Daisy, “Daisy, can you get more news about this from your home in the Emerald City?”
Daisy shook her head. “I don’t know; I haven’t asked my family…”
“Sophia definitely knows!”
Before Daisy could finish, Sarah slapped her forehead. “That copper-smelling girl goes in and out of the palace every day; she probably knows as much as my dad. When she gets back, I’ll grill her for information—”
“Who are you calling a copper-smelling girl!”
With a loud creak, the door swung open, and a fragrant breeze rushed in. Sophia, draped in an expensive fur cloak, her golden hair piled high, stormed in with an angry expression, pointing at Sarah’s nose. “I heard everything! Believe it or not, I’ll rip your mouth apart!”
“Sophia…”
“Hmph!”
Daisy stood up, looking thrilled, while Sarah turned her head away, sporting a “What are you gonna do about it?” expression.
After a moment of fuming, Sophia seemed to notice Sarah had helped move her stuff and didn’t want to push it further. She turned away and slammed the door shut, then plopped down onto the bed across from them, letting out a deep breath.
“What’s wrong…”
Daisy noticed something was off with Sophia’s face and asked.
“Come on, getting called a copper-smelling girl shouldn’t make you turn that color!”
Ignoring Sarah’s jibe, Sophia took a couple of deep breaths as if calming down and then turned to the two girls, saying solemnly, “I came to tell you both something.”
“Isn’t this about moving dorms?” Sarah shrugged. “What’s so important that Princess Sophia had to come in person?”
“Sarah, shut up and listen; I don’t want to see your jaw drop!”
Sophia snapped, leaving Sarah a bit dazed. “What on earth…?”
“I know you want to be a knight, but some things you need to consider for yourself.”
Then she suddenly lowered her voice: “Listen, this is confirmed news. The Northern Army and the Fourth Knights Order just clashed head-on in the southern Empire at White Tide City about half a month ago, and the Fourth Knights Order was utterly defeated. Not a single church clergyman, who are said to be at least of Pope Knight caliber, came back alive.”
“……”
Daisy blinked, looking utterly confused.
Sarah’s eyes widened as if they could pop out of her head, her mouth forming an O shape.
“The Northern Army captured Chielis City, Emperor Keynes has been captured and is awaiting trial, the Empire and the Church have completely severed ties, and our Her Majesty the Queen… has chosen to support Skarlij in this matter.”
“Sarah, do you realize what this means?”
Before Sarah could react, Sophia continued, “Things are going to blow up in the Royal City soon, and Her Majesty is already on her way back. But that’s not the point I wanted to discuss with you; in that battle between the Northern Army and the Fourth Knights Order, do you know how those most powerful clergymen from the church met their end, Sarah?”
“How…?”
“I heard from my father that it was all done by Skarlij’s little daughter.”
