The Weight of the Sword
Jeanne rose the moment the rooster crowed and woke Divine.
The hour was still early, so a pale mist clung even to the mid-slopes of Mount Yver around the temple.
Traveling the mountain in such conditions would be dangerous, yet they had no time to spare. The enemy was coming; they had to descend as quickly as possible.
“I will show you a shortcut.”
Bern, the priest who had guided Jeanne the day before, offered to help them on the way down. He served as a kind of watchman among the priests of Hode.
No one came to see Jeanne’s party off. Only the quiet dawn air lingered around the temple as they slipped away in silence.
Samuel had risen earlier than the other priests and already prepared his sword. He had woken even before Jeanne.
The priests who stirred at the sound of his movements assumed he was simply going out for his usual dawn training and drifted back to sleep.
Samuel had already stepped outside the temple. Anticipating the path Bern would take, he moved ahead of the group. If someone were following in secret, they would normally watch the rear rather than the front; his plan exploited that blind spot.
Mount Yver was as familiar to the priests of Hode as their own front yard. For Samuel, who had grown up on these slopes since childhood, the paths were so well known that he could have walked them with his eyes closed.
Once Bern finished guiding them and turned back, Samuel grew bolder and closed the distance between himself and Jeanne.
By the time they reached the foot of the mountain, midday had already arrived.
The territory below offered no decent place to hide. Even so, Samuel did his best to mask his presence as they moved. It was then that they entered the lands of Yver.
“I never expected you to follow us all the way here.”
Jeanne spoke directly to him.
Samuel, unaware the words were meant for him, looked around in confusion, scanning the trees for another traveler.
Jeanne approached the tree where he was concealed.
“Your movements remind me of Heini among my retainers. You are slightly better at traveling through the mountains, but she is better at hiding her presence.”
Heini was a hunter. Concealing one’s presence was essential for a hunter closing in on prey. If Jeanne had noticed Heini following her, she would certainly have noticed the less skilled Samuel.
Only then did Samuel realize she was speaking to him. He dropped from the tree.
“I want to fight alongside you as well.”
“Do as you wish.”
Jeanne’s ready permission caught him off guard.
“Are you certain that is all right?”
“I have no authority to decide your actions. Nor am I bound by the rules of Hode. Even if I told you not to fight, you would not listen.”
Everyone she had met recently possessed a stubborn streak. Sending Samuel back to the mountain would only result in him returning anyway.
She worried a little about straining relations with High Priest Jules, but wasting time trying to persuade a single young priest was pointless.
“Let us move quickly, then.”
Jeanne immediately turned her attention away from Samuel and resumed walking.
The lord of Yver territory knew nothing of warfare. He was closer to a kindly village headman. When Jeanne’s party arrived, he entrusted them with full command of the territory’s meager forces.
The troops were few. Even scraping the bottom of such a small domain yielded only two knights and forty soldiers. In truth, the Second Knight Order that had followed Jeanne constituted the real fighting strength.
Because Divine had left with Jeanne, Ethan and Ines were examining the territory and discussing how they would fight when she returned from the temple of Hode.
With both the captain and vice-captain absent, Ethan served as the acting leader of the Second Knight Order. He reported the preparations he had made in her absence.
“Before you arrived, my lady, we surveyed the terrain around Yver. Defending from within the castle does not seem feasible.”
“Hmm.”
“This so-called castle is not a castle at all. It is merely a wall of piled stones.”
“It certainly looks that way.”
Though called a territory, Yver was little more than a large village.
The walls were so low they served only to mark the boundary of the settlement rather than to repel attackers.
“Relying on these walls is meaningless. The enemy has cannons and superior firepower.”
“So what conclusion have you reached?”
“We have no choice but to meet them in close combat.”
“You mean we should march out and engage them directly?”
“Yes. With so few local troops, our knights will have to bear the brunt of the fighting.”
Jeanne looked to Divine for his opinion. He nodded in agreement. Her voice grew heavy with concern.
“The greatest problem with fighting at close quarters is the guns.”
Divine spoke.
“Guns take a long time to reload. Even if they rotate men to cover the delay, once we close the distance after the first volley, the guns will become nearly useless.”
The long barrels and complicated reloading made firearms awkward once friend and foe were mingled. That was precisely why closing for melee was preferable.
The remaining question was how to approach the enemy while they still held their guns.
“I know you dislike this plan, Princess, but the knights must lead the charge. Otherwise the soldiers will suffer heavy losses.”
Each of Jeanne’s knights possessed the skill to deflect bullets with aura. They would have to carve a path into the enemy lines first, creating openings so the soldiers could fight without worrying about gunfire.
“Hmm……”
“I said it before: without risk there is no victory. Unless we can prepare as perfectly as Matthias and choose our own battlefield, the danger the knights accept is the safety the soldiers gain. Knights must fight the enemy; they cannot remain hidden in the rear.”
Jeanne swept her gaze over the gathered knights.
Fabian. Ethan. Ines. Nael. Dane. Chastan.
Telling them not to step forward because it was dangerous would be an insult.
Each met her eyes and answered with a nod or a hand resting on the hilt of their sword.
“Then let us go meet the enemy.”
They left the strategy room.
In the distance, a haze of dust was rising.
Samuel entered Yver territory and headed toward the gathered soldiers. No one would turn away a volunteer, and the occasional visit of Hode priests to the territory meant his identity was accepted without question.
Ordinary soldiers were usually given spears.
Unlike swords, which required technique, a spear needed only a forward thrust to be lethal, and wooden shafts were far cheaper than blades forged entirely of metal.
Yet those who possessed skill were given weapons suited to them.
Samuel, trained in swordsmanship, received a sword.
He had practiced with wooden swords for years, but this was the first time he held a real blade.
The silver edge was more than cold; it was chilling.
One swing could end a life with terrifying ease.
The weight felt different from a wooden practice sword, and his heart grew heavy with it.
Doubt crept into Samuel’s mind. Could he truly swing this thing?
Priest Presnel came to see High Priest Jules.
“Samuel has left.”
“I know.”
“Why did you not stop him?”
“I did stop him. Yet he left anyway. If the boy is determined to go, there is nothing to be done.”
Jules spoke with forced calm.
“Is that truly the end of it?”
Presnel stared at him as though seeing through the pretense.
“Then what would you have me do?”
Jules raised his voice. He had only pretended to be calm; the frustration remained the same.
Presnel changed the subject.
“What is atonement?”
“That is……”
“I can guess why you came here carrying so many sins. What have you done to wash them away?”
Jules could not answer.
Meditation? Asceticism? Observing the rules of Hode? He knew none of them were enough to cleanse the sins he had committed.
“There is no single correct path to atonement. One can only keep driving oneself forward.”
At Presnel’s words, Jules recalled his conversation with Samuel the previous day.
If true atonement was impossible from the start, then the only path left was to live for others until one’s body broke.
Those words suited Jules more than anyone.
While Jules remained silent, Presnel added one more thing.
“He is a child you care for, is he not?”
“I am not even qualified to care for him.”
For the first time since entering the temple of Hode, Jules spoke of his past. He told Presnel what kind of man he had been before, how he had met Samuel, and why he had come to the temple. By the time he finished, his voice trembled faintly.
Presnel listened quietly. He had suspected most of it, but this was the first time he had heard it directly from Jules.
“Then all the more reason not to let the boy face danger alone.”
Jules lifted his head. Presnel’s eyes were clouded with age and crusted at the corners, yet they remained clear.
“Go. A human life is worth more than the rules of the god.”
Presnel rose first and retrieved a real sword from deep within the temple.
It was the only real blade kept in the temple of Hode, where swords were studied only for self-discipline, never to harm others.
“Take this. It will help.”
“How could I accept something like this……”
“Think of it as being for Samuel’s sake, not your own.”
Jules accepted the sword and felt its weight for a long time. It had been years since he last held a real blade, yet the grip felt familiar.
He fastened the sword at his waist. Presnel nodded.
Jules stepped through the door with the sword in hand.
“I will return shortly.”