Blue Ear Wine Cellar

She was pacing around right by the door, but then she left just a minute ago. She's worried about you.

I say you go find her.

......

They've already decided my next opponent.

If I can win, do you think my auntie... do you think everyone will understand me then?

There, girl...

...Things aren't that simple, Maria.

Hey! Watch it, old boy, what're you blabbering?

The reason Zofia doesn't want you in the Major's not just because she reckons you'll lose or get hurt...

The competition isn't fair. See, the moment you set foot up higher, you're up against more than just your opponents...

Think corps. Corps playing other corps. Families fighting other families.

Not even them Adeptus watchdogs'll stick their hands in. Between the Knights Association, Grand Knight and all the directors, they make a three-way power tussle messier than you might ever imagine.

......

Course, I wouldn't tell you to give up, Maria.

'Think it through, look at all the difficulties you'll face, and only then should you press on. ' When you figure that one out, go knock 'em all the hell down for us old-timers to see.

...Mm!

We've got a new face—

——

—You're not welcome here. Kindly leave.

Don't be so cold, my old friend, dear Tremoriron Knight.

Your sacrifice brought a chronic heat to us all. I'm greatly respectful of your disposition within the arena.

Who the hell're you?

...The level-2 knight, Vogelweide... the former second-order knight. Or ought I be calling you Batbayar? I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it correctly...

Hey—

Ooh, no, no, let's not bring the daggers out. I'm certainly no knight, merely an assiduous civil servant...

Cool it! Vogelweide!

...If I had my bow on hand, you wouldn't dare talk to me like that.

I appear to have made a transgression. If I offended you, I deeply, profoundly apologize.

Leave that little two-faced act by the door. What are you doing here?

...I'm a mere working stiff. As is natural, I'm here to relay to Miss Maria Nearl some arrangements the Knights Association have made.

Miss Maria?

Ah... um, here...

Your next opponent has been duly decided.

No reason to come in person for this.

True, but I do prefer to handle things personally. It is the only way I ensure I have an exact grasp on all manner of matters that may arise in the workflow... Of course, there's a selfish element as well.

I can hardly contain my curiosity regarding the sister of the Radiant Knight Margaret Nearl. The young knight who's all the rage.

There are many seeded players, hopefuls for the Major, who have hardly the popularity to match up to you, Miss Maria. It is a strength you bear as a competition knight, an advantage.

I hope to see you make appropriate use of this advantage. Of course, I also possess many... high-grade business contracts.

When compared to any of those sponsors who sought you out in private, I can guarantee that these are all corporate and Knightclub affiliations beyond your imagination...

We're long sick of your sales pitch. Maria here takes things her own way.

Hear, hear! You've taken all the glory out of knighthood. It's profane!

Glory? Ah... right, glory.

The campaign knights garrisoned the frontier fortresses at dawn, and competitors of every standing brought value regardless to Kazimierz—

Glory, where is glory? Has it vanished?

No.

No-one can excise glory from Kazimierz. Not even if the hundreds of thousands of Kazimierz companies, big and small, were to join forces as one.

So have knights been reduced to tools of war, eyes blinded by profit? Have knights abandoned glory themselves, forgotten their pasts?

No and no. To say that is to look down on the knights. No director would dare entertain the lie that knights have become marionettes. For what reason would the flourishing of the competition knights bring us sorrow?

*Spit*! Who are you to talk about glory?

Kazimierz can't even remember what the past—

—Past glory, the spirit of knighthood, ah—the great transcendental soul! The sun that beamed in history's hollows!

Do I have that right? But neither spectator nor tourist need spirit, and it's hardly necessary for us to make a show of it for them.

Slippery little... I could tear your face off right now.

Ah, let's not be so hasty. Glory, yes, what a wonderful thing, what an impeccable thing, and still it exists upon every knight family's crest—

—But, most unfortunately, the Kazimierz people no longer need it.

It has not been abandoned, nor drowned beneath. It has always been here. The simple fact is people nowadays... do not need it.

I can hardly even say 'abandoned' is fair, my friend. When you buy an all-new intercity net-connected digital television, and you stow away your old radio into the cupboard, do you call that 'abandoned?'

Rather, it's forgotten. Not the kind that carries a spiteful meaning. It is the pure kind of forgetting, the one that results from the progress that scientific advancement and new modes of life bring.

How can you denounce progress itself? My friend?

Don't call me 'friend' this or 'friend' that. There's not a single friend of yours here.

Finish up fast and trot on home. Maria isn't on display here.

No, my friend, you are wrong once again.

Of course I do not stand in front of a knight simply to demean her status. No, but every knight has the obligation to recognize her own responsibility to Kazimierz.

Knights are no exhibits, but the most noble and lavish of the showcases, for all the world to gaze upon the beauty of Kazimierz! I dearly hope you can all understand this.

Ashley... you think we went overboard this time? Hey, Ashley, come on. Did you pass out?

Ggh, it's so loud... shit hurts...

Haha, yeah, I get you... but we have to keep up the pace. Want me to carry you?

...In hell!

They haven't caught up with us yet... What street are we on, even?

There's... their breath, from the front! Turn left!

Okay—hold on tight—!

...When's the next match?

Oh, my apologies, I'd almost forgotten what I was here for.

It's three days from now, and your opponent will be the Left-hand Knight... 'Left-hand' Tytus Topola.

......

As a sidenote, Miss Maria, if you accept any of the Knightclub proposals I've put forward to you, then even supposing you have no luck in the Major—

—I can still guarantee the legitimacy of your noble knighthood will remain secure.

I'm sure Miss 'Whislash' Zofia, and the Radiant Knight, far away wherever she is, will both be reassured.

...I appreciate your kindness.

I'll make Kazimierz recognize the Nearl family. I won't let all my ancestors' efforts go to waste. I WILL prove that the Nearl family deserves its knighthood!

Well, well, you'll prove... in the competition... Tell me, will you prove?

Is cooperation with a corporation not the greatest proof a knight could have of her status? When you face your most ardent fans, tourists from all corners of Terra, the loyal clientele of Kazimierz, what is it that you so desperately want to tell them—

—What will you prove?

...I will prove...

—Pardon?

......

I...

I'm sorry, please wait a moment.

Hello? Speaking. What? No, I'm currently... Right, I understand. Please, don't worry.

Regretfully, Miss Maria, it seems I cannot wait for your answer.

And to you, gentlemen, pardon the offense I've caused, and I hope you have a pleasant evening.

Keh. Get outta here.

......

Well, then. Let me bid you farewell. If you ever change your mind, contact me at any time.

......

Makes me want to hurl seeing that corp slime face.

Say, V... Why'd he know your...

...I'd like to know myself. Since my grandpappy passed on, been the better half of a century since I heard a soul call my old name.

And his pronunciation was a pile of shit.

Things are getting risky. Knights Association and the corps are looking into us now. Looking into all of us.

Someone might've already started making moves.

......

Don't look like that, Maria. You're not alone here. We owe a hell of a lot to your old Grandpa Nearl. We're all—

Anyone here—!? Sorry, we got a casualty—

...The Flametail Knight?

Nearl...? Uh, let's make this quick—could you help us out here a bit?

Ugh... well, this sucks... I was looking forward to our arena matchup. Now I get to remember you as my nurse first, huh?

B-Both of your injuries...! Come on, just come with me, quickly—

Wait, what are you all—

Maria, you look after the wounded. Don't need to worry about anything else.

Kowal!

Here's your bow, you old bones!

Looks like they brought company.

......

......

......

...They didn't come with.

Pfah. Who're we dealing with? Who sics themselves on competition knights in broad daylight?

That kid's an Infected. Let's go see what's what. Might need more than just Maria for this.

—Marcin?

......

...On my way.