Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: The Freelance Knight Guild (1)
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Leaves scattered chaotically. Dust, kicked up by the force of the punch, stung my eyes.
But I couldn't even blink.
I saw the fist that had grazed my left ear. My cheek burned as if it had been torn off.
If it had connected, it would have been more than just a few lost teeth.
I let out a sigh of relief, only for anger to well up belatedly.
“Master. What in the world are you…?”
What the hell has gotten into him?
Gunther didn't answer. He just stared silently at his waist.
The staff I'd been handed in the confusion was touching Gunther's waist.
Ah, ahh. When did that get there…!
No wonder the impact felt so heavy amidst the shock; it seemed I had counterattacked without realizing it.
Gently.
Gunther pushed the staff away.
I didn't resist and withdrew the staff.
He muttered softly.
“If that had been a real sword…”
I’d have been cut in half.
Only then did I realize what I'd done and froze.
‘A knight leads their squire as a parent, and a squire serves their knight as a parent.’
While the former was a choice, the latter was a tangible duty, written plainly in the imperial code.
And yet, a squire had attacked the master he served.
There was no greater act of insubordination.
It was a grave offense, incomparable to simply talking back or acting out of line. Depending on the circumstances, I could have been accused of attempted murder of a knight, and I'd have had no defense.
Of course, I didn't think Gunther would go that far, but I couldn't help feeling terrified.
I hurriedly made excuses.
“No, Master. It was a reflex, I didn't even realize… I never meant to attack you.”
It was true. I felt wronged.
This wasn't insubordination or anything like it.
It was just a habit from my past life.
A habit ingrained in me from being tormented by a certain foul-tempered man who would draw his sword on his squire without warning.
So, for me, it was unavoidable.
“A-Are you hurt badly? No. You should have dodged better. Why would you just stand there and take… No. I'm not saying it's your fault, Master.”
As I continued my excuses, Gunther raised a hand to stop me.
“How did you do that?”
To me, it sounded like an accusation.
But it wasn't.
“Hand-to-hand combat isn't my specialty, but I've trained and honed it as much as any other knight.”
The look in his eyes as he said this was strange.
“Even if I wasn't using my full strength, it wasn't an attack a child like you could easily dodge.”
He wasn't accusing me, nor was he angry.
“And yet, you not only dodged but even managed to counter.”
It was a kind of gaze I had never received in my past life.
For some reason, my heart fluttered.
The excuses that had risen to the tip of my tongue were swallowed back down.
“Did you do the same in the slums?”
I never imagined he knew what I'd been up to in the slums, so I was momentarily at a loss for words.
“On reflex. Without thinking. Letting your body lead. Like that.”
All I could do was nod awkwardly.
Fortunately, it seemed he had no intention of holding the commotion I caused in the slums against me.
After those words, Gunther said no more.
He was simply lost in his own thoughts.
Leaving the food I'd begged for untouched, he remained absorbed in thought all day.
Until the night was almost over.
* * *
Several days passed.
Contrary to the atmosphere of that day, Gunther's attitude toward me didn't change much.
He'd lie around sleeping all day, eat when I brought back food from my begging, and then go back to sleep.
He would occasionally give me a strange look, but that was all.
Gunther was the same.
I, too, acted as usual in response.
“Did I tell you I hate dog food or not?”
“Ugh, it's sour. You want me to eat this and die? Don't you have a nose?”
“You stole this again, didn't you? Just eat it yourself.”
As I rejected all the food they'd worked hard to get, the beggars looked at me, bewildered.
“Boss. Is something wrong?”
I crossed my arms and answered dismissively.
“Why am I your boss?”
“You took down Boss Hansen, no, Gaejangsu Hansen, so you're the boss now, sir.”
The nonchalant reply from the youngest beggar left me speechless.
“Am I a beggar?”
“Aren't you? Strange. You were taking tributes just like he did and shaking down the slum folks, so I thought you were quitting being a squire to do this full-time.”
I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic, pretending not to know, or if he was genuinely clueless.
“Tsk. Tributes? You need to get your facts straight.”
“Huh?”
“Don't you know what a life-debt is? You think that butcher kept you around because he liked you?”
It wasn't an excuse I'd forced myself to come up with.
Guys like Gaejangsu Hansen never forget the pleasure of killing.
For a wanted man whose movements were restricted, the easiest prey was those around him.
Especially when the targets were beggars, whose disappearances would go unnoticed.
This gang might as well have been a breeding ground for his pleasure.
In fact, a few beggars from the gang had apparently disappeared.
They all seemed to think nothing of it, assuming they'd just moved to another city.
So this wasn't extortion, nor was it a tribute.
“To pay off your life-debt with mere leftovers... it's cheap. Incredibly cheap. It's a loss for me. I get nothing out of it.”
“You earned five shillings…”
“Get out!”
I yelled and chased the pack of beggars away.
“…?”
Only the youngest beggar remained.
“Why are you still here?”
“Well…”
When I asked his business, he hesitated before answering.
“H-How do you become a squire?”
It was such an unexpected question that I was stunned for a moment.
“I want to be a great person like you, Boss!”
His eyes were too earnest for it to be mere flattery, and I gave a bitter smile.
Because I wasn't the great person he thought I was.
A failure who'd struggled his entire life only to remain a squire—that was me.
“Why wouldn't you be great, Boss! Even the guards are scared of you! You're amazing!”
The truth was, the guard Pelon was scared not because of me, but because he feared the authority of the unknown knight behind me.
“Enough. What's the point of me talking to you about this?”
There was no need for me to reveal those circumstances myself.
“Being a squire isn't as grand as you think. Haven't you seen me going around begging?”
The promising ones were called 'Esquire' and lived proudly, but that wasn't me or the young beggar before me.
In the first place, the ones who lived so proudly weren't wandering around aimlessly like this; they were on the elite track in some respectable knightly order or noble house.
Guys like me were destined to spend our lives cleaning up after others.
“No! You're a great person, Boss!”
“Whoa. Why are you suddenly shouting? Are you crazy?”
“I'm a good judge of character. I can tell just by looking at someone's eyes.”
“A good judge of character ended up stuck under a human butcher because he had nowhere else to go?”
Despite my rebuke, the youngest beggar was resolute.
“They say Gaejangsu Hansen devoured twenty-three people. That's just the confirmed number. But you, Boss, devoured him in one bite, so aren't you an even bigger monster than Hansen?”
“Of all the people to compare me to, it had to be that human butcher… Am I a monster? Am I going to eat you?”
It was a compliment that sounded like an insult, and an insult that sounded like a compliment. I snapped at him, but he didn't flinch.
“Anyway, I want to become a great squire like you, Boss!”
His unwavering resolve made me sigh.
This kid. He's got his head in the clouds.
My answer was already decided.
“Dream on.”
Even if he got lucky and found a connection, no decent knight would take a beggar as a squire.
He'd obviously suffer like hell and then get abandoned.
“I'm not dreaming of becoming a knight.”
“…?”
“What I mean is.”
After a brief pause, the kid suddenly dropped to his knees.
“I want to be your squire, Boss.”
A squire's squire? What kind of nonsense was this?
Feeling like I'd just wasted my time, I stood up.
“Forget it. You don't need to come here anymore.”
Now that Gunther had caught me causing a ruckus in the slums, I couldn't keep shaking down beggars for their bowls anymore.
“Boss!”
“Why have you been yelling this whole time!”
As I turned away, the kid screamed at the top of his lungs behind me.
“I will become your squire, no matter what!”
I ignored the words coming from behind me.
“Sasha! My name is Sasha!”
Though I hadn't asked, he shouted his name over and over.
“Please remember it! Because I'll definitely become your squire!”
I ignored the kid spouting crazy talk to the very end and was about to leave when I stopped in my tracks.
Sasha? Sasha?
The name was familiar.
The name of a certain spear knight who had made a name for himself in the Great War was just like that.
“No way.”
I let out a snort of laughter.
It wasn't a common name, but there was no way he was the same person.
The spear knight Sasha I knew was a genius among geniuses, comparable even to Roman.
He was on a completely different level from that shabby-looking beggar.
“Boss! Don't forget the name Sasha!”
Leaving Sasha's desperate plea behind me, I left the area.
The next day.
“We have a place to go.”
Gunther woke me at the crack of dawn.
“Where?”
Half-asleep, I rubbed my eyes and hugged the iron pot.
“Let's go.”
After a quick glance at me, Gunther started walking briskly somewhere.
The place we headed to was the city center.
“Apples to die for! Three coins apiece!”
“Coming through. Make way, please.”
“Well, well. You're back. I'll give you a special price today…”
Unlike the outskirts where Gunther and I had been staying, the city center was bustling with life.
“Pickpocket! Stop that man!”
“Hey, you bastard! You just bumped into me and kept walking?”
Sometimes that excessive vitality expressed itself in the wrong ways, but overall, it had the distinct smell of a living city.
“Master, where are we going?”
I stuck close to Gunther's back and asked, knowing I'd easily get lost if I spaced out.
But he just kept walking diligently, as if he had no intention of telling me our destination.
We walked like that for a while, weaving through the crowded streets.
“We're here.”
Gunther stopped.
We were in front of some two-story building.
“That's a Swordstone.”
To one side of the building was a large stone, placed there by who knows who.
A stone marked with deep, haphazardly carved grooves.
“Ah…”
I found myself staring blankly at the stone.
“The Swordstone is a milestone for freelance knights, who are not bound by worldly vows.”
Watching me, Gunther explained in a rarely gentle tone.
“It's also the mark of a wandering Strider.”
Strider, meaning one who takes long strides, or something like that.
In our line of work, it's a term mainly used for freelance knights who wander the world without rest.
Anyway.
To put it simply, that unimpressive rock was the symbol and sign of the Freelance Knight Guild.
As I stared blankly, a memory from my past life suddenly surfaced.
‘Kid, with this kind of money, you can't even look at the stars, let alone become a Starseeker.’
‘How many times do I have to tell you? It's not people who choose who becomes a knight.’
‘Unqualified! Failed! Not eligible!’
I scowled fiercely.