Elliris, who had overheard the father-daughter conversation on the stairs, never expected such a development.
This Marcus really treated Christina like a boy? How could any ordinary girl endure such high-pressure education?
“Sir Marcus, forgive my impertinence, but girls can’t handle this kind of criticism…” Elliris couldn’t hold back any longer. She really wanted to change Marcus’s stubborn, rigid personality. “Have you truly been raising Chris as a boy all this time?”
“Forgive me, but yes, Saintess. Perhaps I am indeed not a worthy father. Chris never had the childhood of other girls…”
Marcus sighed deeply, and in his mind, the ripples of the past gradually resurfaced.
—
“A knight’s weapon cannot have a trace of hesitation. If you think of yourself as a girl, then go back and play house right now!”
In the deep autumn knight training ground, Marcus stood on the steps with his hands behind his back. His military boots thudded dully against the ground as his icy gaze fell upon his daughter below, who had her short golden hair tied in a ponytail.
Christina bit her lower lip tightly. Sweat dripped from her forehead along her temples, soaking her boyish short-sleeved shirt. After swinging a wooden sword all afternoon, her finger joints were rubbed raw. Yet even so, she still didn’t dare to stop.
Perhaps because she hadn’t rested for so long, she stumbled and nearly fell. She quickly used the wooden sword to support herself. As she was panting heavily, Marcus deliberately knocked away the sword that propped her up, watching his own daughter fall to the ground.
“You’re so soft, like a spoiled little girl. You’re supposed to be the next head of the Parisio family! Grit your teeth! Start over!”
She pushed herself up on her knees. Her elbows and knees were already red and scraped. She could only clench her fists, bend down, and pick up the wooden sword her father had knocked away. Her eyes were red and shining. Who would have thought that a seven-year-old little girl could hold back her tears?
From a young age, there were no skirts or dolls. Her wardrobe was filled with loose men’s clothes. Her father taught her swordsmanship, paladin skills, and military strategy, but never allowed her to cry.
Suddenly, the wind blew harder, making Christina’s small ponytail sway. Her wooden sword struck the training post again and again, the crisp crack echoes clear in the empty training ground.
At that moment, Marcus’s heart softened. After all, she was his precious flesh and blood, the apple of his eye. That face, identical to his late wife’s, that childish smile—every expression reminded him of the sweet love of the past. Christina would be the last thing he could never let go of in this life.
Looking at Chris’s stubborn, unyielding profile, his eyes remained stern, but his Adam’s apple moved. In the end, he couldn’t utter harsher words: “Chris, don’t blame your father. Remember, your parents can only protect you for a time, never for a lifetime. Next spring, Father is going on an expedition. You must listen well to Grandpa the butler…”
Who would have thought that when Marcus left, the next time father and daughter met would be ten years later, today.
—
The perspective shifted to the Knight Princess. Chris was also pondering the words her father had just said to her.
Was she really blindly loyal to the Pope? Her father had returned alive and in good health—no problems there. And her own hands were already stained with blood…
All these facts pointed to the Pope. The Pope had been deceiving her all these years.
“I’ve been… completely… pleasing the Pope…”
She was blaming herself. She had betrayed a knight’s loyalty to inner order. Even if everyone around the Pope was drunk, why couldn’t she stay sober?
She truly felt that what her father said was right—she was a white swan that didn’t know the taste of the mortal world. All these years, she had been brainwashed by the flattery and hypocrisy of the nobility, gradually losing herself.
“Father…”
Even if the world had collapsed, a true knight wouldn’t easily change their faith. Yet she had fallen. Even if tears blurred her eyes, she could now understand. She was willing to bear all the guilt of her past.
Her mother died from childbirth complications when Chris was born. The only family who raised Chris was her father. A father’s love might have been too bitter and strict, but it was still family love.
Medieval chivalry was entirely a male society. Who would have thought a fragile woman could also hold up half the sky, even form a knights’ unit of women?
When she was young and ignorant, she once hated her father, thinking he was too strict.
But only after her father “died” did she gradually understand some truths. In this world, to survive in the knightly class, she had to be like a boy, even stronger than them.
So she decided: tomorrow, she would tell her father anew what her chivalry meant. No matter the outcome, even if her father cut off her head, she would not have a single complaint.
—
—
The resistance’s underground prison. The door to the Knight Princess’s cell was opened again.
This time, Elliris and Marcus came together. Elliris didn’t want to come, but Marcus insisted she be a witness.
Elliris thought to herself, ‘Now we’ve got two tin cans. Are they really going to go along with this—one willing to hit, the other willing to take it?’ She still wanted a good ending. The Knight Princess was an important combatant; let her atone for her crimes. A modern Earthling like her wasn’t as old-fashioned as a medieval old coot.
“Alright, Chris. Now give me your answer. In your eyes, what is a true knight?” Marcus’s tone was solemn, getting straight to the point.
Christina had thought about it for a long time last night and quickly responded. Her expression was relieved but not confused.
“A true knight should not be eager for quick success or fond of war. Instead, he should restrain himself—restrain his anger, control his strength. Sheathing the sword is not cowardice; it is the sign of a true knight.”
“A true knight should pity the weak and protect them. I failed to keep my former faith… I don’t expect Lady Elliris to forgive me. For the capture of so many of her people, I harmed them…”
“Father, I once read a novel that said, ‘Some knights walk in the valley of darkness, some knights walk in the field of flowers.’ I hope that after I die, I can walk out of the valley of rage. Please bury me in that flower field where birds sing and flowers bloom. That is my final request.”
“!!”
“Marcus, do you remember the novel about a knight from the fantasy kingdom of France that I told you about last time?” Marcus suddenly remembered his late wife saying the same thing. “‘Some knights walk in the valley of darkness, some knights walk in the field of flowers.’ That French knight Nia was so romantic—even confessing love in a violet flower field!”
…
Marcus’s late wife Claire’s final words.
“Marcus… our child… let her name be Christina. We naturally hope she will be a follower of the faith. Remember to bury me in the violet flower field outside Calonpolis City…”
“Don’t be sad. When you miss me, pick a violet from the flower field and place it before my grave. Even in this life and the next, I will still fall in love with you in my dreams. Our love will be as eternal as the violet…”
“Take good care… of Chris…”
—
Marcus listened to the Knight Princess’s answer and was silent for a long time.
Those words from the novel his late wife used to say, Christina had inadvertently brought up today. Marcus didn’t think it was a coincidence. He hadn’t told Chris about the novel her mother had read.
“Claire… I failed you… and I failed Chris even more.”
The Knight Princess had never seen her father cry. Now she saw Marcus’s face streaming with tears.
Even Elliris had never seen it. The grand knight commander, who never made a sound no matter how severe his battlefield injuries, was now crying like a child.
“Ah…”
Elliris naturally knew the verdict of the knight’s trial. She asked Marcus, “Sir Marcus, that’s enough. I don’t know what you were thinking just now, but from your expression, I can tell you’ve already forgiven the Knight Princess, haven’t you?”
“Holy Maiden, let me confirm again. Do you also agree to forgive Chris?”
“I am willing. But I hope the Knight Princess will become an ally in overthrowing the Pope. That is my only request.”
People always seek solace in a bed of sin.
At this moment, the Knight Princess certainly needed to be saved.
As Christina’s shackles were unlocked, this misunderstanding between father and daughter came to a close.