The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

“The news is out—the Knights Tournament is happening!”
The streets were buzzing with festive excitement.
The Empire’s Knights Tournament was the greatest spectacle Rodness had seen in over a decade.

Everywhere you went, talk about it had been loud for quite some time. With fights and gambling involved, excitement was inevitable.
And the participants weren’t local thugs but famed knights? From kids to housewives, everyone was interested.
“This time we’ll finally find out who really is the Empire’s best knight, after all the talk.”

Usually, knights would dodge such events, but the royal archbishop’s decree—‘All pilgrimage members must participate!’—left them no escape.
—Who is the Empire’s best knight?
Public interest was increasingly focused in that direction.

Around that time, Merigold’s days also grew busier.
———
[Fallen Noblewoman Simulation]
Schedule for the fourth week of June:

Mon – Church etiquette class.
Tue – Saintess Church prayer meeting.
Wed – Art modeling session.
Thu – Art modeling session.
Fri – Learn horseback riding ‘Beginner’ (Location: Mansion).
Sat – Learn horseback riding ‘Beginner’ (Location: Fallow field).
Sun – Hunt magical beasts together (Location: Forest).
※ A hectic week ahead! If the goddess is watching, surely she will bless our diligent Merigold?
———
[Monday. Church etiquette class]

Thunk.
“Ugh.”
Merigold flinched as something hard was placed atop her head.

A thick book. On top of it, a teacup was gently set.
“Don’t drop it.”
Hestia adjusted Merigold’s posture with her hands.
“Keep your head up. Pull your chin in and walk calmly. Be careful not to raise your shoulders.”

“Ugh, ah, ah!”
Merigold stumbled and nearly fell forward.
If a large hand hadn’t caught her in front, she would have fallen face-first.

“Lan…”
She had meant to say “Lord Lancel” but changed her words.
“Lancel, saint.”

“That title’s embarrassing.”
“You told me to call you that...!”
Unintentionally about to raise her voice, Merigold quickly lowered it in surprise.

“…you know.”
“Of course, Mary.”
“You sound like you’re teasing me.”

“Just your imagination, Mary.”
Merigold awkwardly fixed her bangs.
She seemed unfamiliar with Lancel showing her such formality. Every time she heard it, she desperately tried to hide her expression by turning her upper body.

“Then I’ll try again. Please keep your posture straight.”
“Yes, yes!”
Hestia led Merigold’s posture correction all day long.

[Tuesday. Saintess Church prayer meeting]
Eleven Saintess Churches had already been built around Rodness and its outskirts.
Though each was just a space with a lone saint statue, where anyone passing by could enter.

“Let a bag of gold coins fall before my eyes!”
Even if people murmured such prayers, no one scolded them.
Still, a church was a church.

Merigold wandered through these Saintess Churches whenever she could, spreading the prayers she had learned.
“God of dawn who splits the morning sky, thank you for blessing today’s meeting. May your blessings always be with all our neighbors.”
“May blessings be with you.”

To the ignorant who thought churches were just places for saying whatever they wanted, Merigold was like a teacher.
One week. Two weeks.
One month. Two months.

Lancel felt them gradually being captivated by Merigold.
It was no wonder—tens of letters arrived daily at the mansion, delivered via paper, clay tablets, wooden boards—using all sorts of media.
Without even reading, they were all expressions of affection toward Merigold.

“Already a celebrity, Mary.”
“…”
Merigold gave only an embarrassed look at Lancel’s teasing.

In every village she visited, young people and children lined up waiting for her. It took less than a few months.
“Those followers are heartless to blind someone like her.”
“Nonsense. Her blindness only makes Sister Mary all the more noble.”

Lancel thought their reaction was due to Merigold’s pure white attire. The mysterious aura felt from her calm expression and gestures while walking with eyes closed.
Even Lancel, who’d lived centuries and grown numb to women, was occasionally lost in thought because of her.
Thanks to Hestia’s etiquette lessons, Merigold’s every movement seemed to glow with a halo.

“Saint Lancel, where are you?”
“…”
Merigold wandered the field, backlit by the setting sun.

Lancel felt nostalgic, reminded of someone from long ago.
He quietly approached and took her hand.
“Mary, it’s time to return to the mansion.”

“I thought you were gone.”
Lancel smiled as he saw Merigold’s eyes well up.
Perhaps truly sulking, she spoke less than usual that day.

[Wed–Thu. Art modeling sessions]
Bang!
“No! My artwork! My masterpiece of a lifetime!”

A statue shattered to pieces after Lancel’s kick. The head resembling Merigold rolled to the corner of the workshop.
“Who told you to make it provocative? I said just make it calm and composed.”
“You call yourself a knight, but your aesthetic sense is worse than some street thug! The statue you just destroyed was a masterpiece worthy of this Empire’s—no, this continent’s history!”

“If you’re unhappy, put clothes on it. Why leave a decent statue naked?”
“Ah!”
Startled by Lancel’s threat, Merigold seemed to finally understand the situation.

The sculptor avoided looking at Lancel, staring into the distance.
“...Eros is art…”
“You, who seek Eros in art displayed in a church, are the real devil.”

“Well, what can I do? If the artistic soul dwelling in me is that of a devil, then so be it!”
Lancel grabbed the sculptor’s beard firmly.
“Ah! My hair!”

“Make it right and send it back nicely, or I’ll have you sold as a devil worshipper.”
“W-will do, will do...!”
That night.

“Saint, did you… see everything clearly?”
“Well, yes.”
Lancel answered without hesitation.

“How could I not see?”
“…”
Merigold quietly backed away. She simply didn’t want to lie.

[Friday. Learn horseback riding ‘Beginner’ – Mansion]
“Don’t be afraid.”
“Ha… ha… hic!”

Merigold’s face turned pale from the presence of the trotting horse since morning.
To a blind person, a horse might feel like a monster.
“Am I really riding an animal I can handle?”

“A fine horse recognizes its rider.”
“Aaah!”
Lancel pulled her arm quickly and helped her sit in front.

“It’s nothing special. Don’t stay still, pet it.”
With trembling hands, Merigold stroked the horse’s mane. It had white fur and a golden mane.
For a blind person, riding a horse seemed reckless, but with such a fine horse, it was the opposite.

It was a steed that could be her eyes and feet.
“How’s that? There’s no better horse in my stable.”
“I’ll just take a lap.”

“Anytime.”
Lancel grasped the reins with confidence, smiling at Baron Ibil Shen’s smug face.
“Let’s go slow.”

As the horse took leisurely steps, Merigold pressed close to Lancel.
Her earlobes had turned bright red with fear.
“Shall we speed up a bit?”

Merigold’s startled scream followed the horse far into the distance.
[Saturday. Learn horseback riding ‘Beginner’ – Fallow field]
“Already one year.”

The weed-filled wheat fields stretched beyond the horizon.
Lancel and Merigold rode through the empty fallow field for some time.
Merigold’s hand gripping the reins showed she had become accustomed to riding.

==========
—Horseback riding ‘Beginner’ mastered. Merigold has come to understand the feelings of horses a little. The wide-open plain is no longer frightening when together.
‘That’s the protagonist buff.’
She learned to ride in just two days. A blind person, no less. A natural talent.

“You don’t ask questions.”
Lancel’s sudden question contained much.
Merigold seemed to already know the meaning.

“Because I was happy.”
“What?”
“That I’m helpful.”

—Master.
“...”
How many lives had Merigold truly lived as of today?

Twenty-second? Twenty-third?
Repeated dozens of times, each life slightly different, each appearance different, yet something unchanging seemed to remain.
But Lancel was different.

He was a man who, waking anew each time, had come to see himself change. Worn down and eroded until he almost became inorganic.
Though given nearly infinite time, he knew with regret it was only a matter of time before he’d gradually lose his self.
There were many moments he thought he couldn’t endure anymore. That was before finding the ‘answer’ called Merigold.

“I will open Merigold’s eyes.”
It wasn’t for her.
It was purely for Lancel himself.

‘You must open your eyes so that I may live.’
What would she say if he said that?
“…”

Lancel somehow felt he already knew the answer.
“Shall we head back? I’m getting hungry.”
“Yes.”

 
The pilgrimage group’s atrocities were good news for Lancel.
His task was to root not just one or two, but two hundred Merigold Churches—the Saintess Churches—across the land.
For that, the key was one thing: making themselves known… marketing, or more elegantly put, ‘missionary work.’

‘Saintess Churches are all the rage these days!’
‘Is that so? I never resist a trend!’
Lancel alone struggled to build even fifty churches.
But what if he let others build on their own?

If he didn’t have to invest his own money, time, and effort?
At least, Lancel felt the possibility.
“The answer is rivalry.”

Lancel intended to control the feelings of the pilgrimage group from now on.
It would come in handy at the upcoming Knights Tournament.
There was no better means of missionary work.

The pilgrimage camp buzzed with whispers.
Knights, local guides, clerics from various orders filled the edge of the forest, preparing to hunt the monsters reported there.
Their attention was suddenly drawn to two newcomers.

A blonde woman.
What was unusual was the pure white blindfold covering her eyes.
Though she must be blind, she rode the horse steadily without wavering.

The entire pilgrimage group stared at her intently, as if seeing something new.
“What’s this?”
The leader of the pilgrimage, Duke ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Mayril Dun, spoke.

“Who are you people coming here for?”
The man beside the woman answered.
“Is there any other reason for carrying swords into a monster-infested forest, Your Grace?”

“I suppose you haven’t been told to give your names. You look young…”
“Lancel Dante.”
The man cut off the duke’s words. Duke Dun’s gaze grew sharper, but the man paid no heed.

“I serve as a knight for the Saintess Church. This is Mary, our church’s shrine maiden and cleric.”
Murmurs spread.
“That Lancel Dante who’s entered the tournament?”

“So that country bumpkin passed the preliminaries…”
“Saintess Church? What’s that? Never heard of it.”
Within the pilgrimage group, Lancel Dante’s name seemed well-known.

Mostly as ‘a bumpkin from the frontier’ or ‘a small sect’s nobody.’
Duke Dun twisted his lips.
“No help needed from other orders to slay monsters. Leave at once.”

“Please let us help. Our Mary sensed a bad omen last night and hurried here. Will you dismiss us so coldly?”
The duke’s face soured.
“Troublesome from the start…”

He wanted to shout at them to leave immediately.
But with a ‘cleric’ among them feeling unease, it felt wrong to simply send them away.
After all, they worshipped the same god, only different orders.

“If you cause trouble, we will send you away immediately.”
“We won’t be a bother, Your Grace.”
“You talk big. Poor Count Dante must be suffering. Tsk tsk.”

Duke Dun clicked his tongue and turned away.
He thought Lancel Dante was worthless.
The pilgrimage wouldn’t be endangered, nor would the duke lose glory to such a man.

But something went wrong.
From the moment they entered the forest, strange things began happening in the pilgrimage group.
“Sister Mary, bless me.”

“May the Saintess’s protection be with you.”
The blindfolded Sister Mary reached out to the sword-gripping, eyes-closed Lancel Dante.
“Lancel Dante, you have grown stronger.”

At the same time, a gentle light began to emanate from Lancel Dante’s body.
An unknown magical power covered him, lighting up the dim forest.
“Ah, this is the Saintess’s protection…”

Joy filled Lancel Dante’s expression.
The pilgrimage group watched the scene in stunned silence.