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A/n: White Day Ichika time! Once again this au is mostly @yumizurueleonora's brain baby
Reflections
The same knight uniform Ichika’s always worn feels stifling as her fiancée walks down the aisle to her.
Dame Angela went all out, of course, with a brand new dress that flaunts the wealth her family is bringing to their faction.
Gris is a small country on the border of the Light and Dark Kingdoms that is always at risk of an attack from either one and the alliance of having the richest noblewoman in the Dark Kingdom marry one of their best knights will allow them to secure their position and prepare for an attack.
This is what’s good for their kingdom, to keep all her friends safe, Ichika knows this.
Besides, if the one she truly loved knew the truth, she’d reject Ichika in a heartbeat.
“Sir Ichika, are you ready?” the priest whispers as Dame Angela arrives at the altar, and Ichika nods.
The other benefit of this arrangement is that Dame Angela has three older brothers, and an older sister. She’s not expected to produce an heir, and if she did the child wouldn’t inherit anything. So the fact that Dame Angela doesn’t know Ichika is also a woman won’t raise any issues.
Ichika had spun a lie about being unable to consummate their marriage before due to a gruesome injury on the battlefield she never had to actually describe because most of the men in the room simply winced in sympathy and didn’t ask for further details.
Dame Angela simply thinks of her as another accessory, a symbol of status and a way for her to gain more power as the youngest child of a nobleman. Ichika fully suspects that once their “honeymoon” is over, different men will find their way into their bedchambers.
Of course, if it was discovered that two women were married, it would cause an uproar, so for the sake of the nation, Ichika will have to keep this secret with her until she dies.
“Do you, Sir Ichika, vow to love Dame Angela, and take her as your lawfully wedded wife?”
Love her? No, Ichika could never.
But to protect this country? Keep her fellow knights safe? Help Saki ?
“I–”
“Stop!” A voice rings out from the front of the chapel, and everyone turns to see Saki, one of the Black Roses, the most elite fighters in the Dark Kingdom.
But all Ichika sees, all Ichika has ever seen, is Saki Tenma, her childhood friend she’d left home to find, disguised herself as a man all these years to train as a mercenary, then a knight, just for a chance to see her again.
Her beloved friend with no memories of her.
“Saki? What are you–” Ichika asks but Dame Angela steps forward.
“Even now, you can’t stop trying to steal my husband?” she growls in an uncharacteristically feral way. “I thought we discussed this!”
“It’s not about how I feel, it’s about how Ichika feels!” Saki says. “He doesn’t love you!”
“Love has nothing to do with what you’re interfering with!” Dame Angela shouts.
“He’s the hero of this Kingdom! Doesn’t he deserve happiness? Not just being a political pawn?!” Saki turns to plead to the gathered knights and nobles and doesn’t see the knife Dame Angela pulls out.
Ichika doesn’t have to think before throwing herself between Saki and the blade.
Dame Angela herself seems shocked when it plunges into Ichika’s stomach, but Ichika stands firm and grabs her fiancée’s wrist.
“Dame Angela,” she says, “I cannot allow you to hurt Saki.”
“ Saki?! ” Dame Angela. “She’s a blight, an intrusion on everything we’ve worked for and–”
“She’s my best friend,” Ichika says. “And I can’t let you hurt her!”
The world is starting to blur, but Ichika doesn’t dare loosen her grip, lest Dame Angela try and attack Saki again.
“Ichika!” Saki gasps. “Why…”
“Because, what I’ve always wanted to do is… protect… you…”
~
When Ichika wakes up, she can tell from the gentle swaying of the room she’s on a ship.
“Ah!” Saki pokes her head over her. “Sorry, I was just cleaning your wound.”
Ichika’s heart stops, and her hands go up to her chest. Her unbound chest. “I-I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Saki asks.
“Lying to you a-about being a man,” Ichika says.
“If you say you’re a man, you’re a man,” Saki says, “no one will judge you for it, I know Gris is a very strict place, but Mizuki can–”
“I’m not a man,” Ichika says. “I… I was born a woman. A woman in the Light Kingdom, in fact, when knights attacked my village and took my dearest friend. I traveled to try and find her and ended up in Gris. The only way I could learn to fight, be strong enough to save my friend, was if I pretended to be a man.”
“Why not reveal yourself sooner?” Saki asks. “I mean surely once you were the greatest knight in the kingdom, you could reveal yourself and they’d have to respect you.”
“B-because I met my friend again,” Ichika admits, “and I was scared if she knew I was a woman she’d never love me back. So I continued pretending to be a man to pretend that she would return my feelings.”
“You shouldn’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not just for that,” Saki says. “Be whoever you want.”
“I… thank you, Saki.” Ichika says.
“And for the record,”
“Hm?”
“You know Ichi, I like women as well as men.”
Ichika feels her face turn bright red as Saki continues dressing her wounds.