V. O, Glory of the Tournament! (4)
V. O, Glory of the Tournament! (4)
The County of Bogenberg, and at its heart, the city of Bogenberg, which had grown into the largest trading network in the region.
As befitted a city that borrowed the territory's own name, Bogenberg was a massive fortress that seemed as if it would never fall, even if foreign enemies invaded.
It was not that its walls were ironclad strongholds or that it was a natural fortress surrounded by harsh terrain, but rather that its sheer scale was overwhelmingly imposing.
"Are there any decent inns here?"
"Sir Keldric. Bogenberg has everything."
True to Sir Henri's word, Bogenberg, which was also connected to the southern Empire and the Avalonchne Republic below it, truly lacked for nothing.
Among the wares lined up at the market stalls were things Keldric needed, and also things he had not seen even in Bellam.
As Keldric was taking his time looking at them, Sir Henri quietly approached him and spoke.
"Sir. How about we look at some weapons before you take part in the tournament?"
"Weapons?"
"During a tournament, weapons sometimes break. If you run short on spares at a time like that, things can get difficult."
Indeed, Sir Henri's words sounded plausible.
Aside from Sir Werner's mace, which was forged from a single piece of solid steel, Keldric lacked any weapon he could truly rely on.
Although he had acquired a new shield, there was no telling whether even that might shatter after taking repeated blows.
Moreover, longswords frequently lost their edges, so it was often necessary to tend to one right after a single fight.
If he were merely a wandering knight, it might be different, but to take part in a large-scale tournament like this, having sufficient spare weapons was essential.
"There are about three days until the tournament, so it would be good to go look around on Artisan Street tomorrow."
"I understand. Will you be coming along, Sir?"
"I have to go meet a relative, so that will be a bit difficult. My apologies."
"Not at all. That cannot be helped."
While it looked as if he would need more backup weapons, Keldric did not even expect weapons of superb craftsmanship.
The smart thing to do was to think of them as disposable weapons—things he would use a few times in the tournament and then discard—and buy cheap ones.
But that did not mean buying utterly worthless weapons was acceptable.
It was crucial to pick carefully, choosing a weapon with a reasonable price and adequate durability.
"Alisa. Are you busy as well?"
"Yes. There is something I need to look into on my own... I am sorry."
"No, that's nothing to be sorry for."
It seemed he would be spending tomorrow traveling alone for the first time in a while.
Keldric quietly pushed down a faintly lonely feeling inside his chest.
Having journeyed with other people this entire time, it seemed he was not quite used to the idea of going around by himself again.
"What is the quality of weapons in Bogenberg?"
"There are many artisans. Even a few famous ones. The swords made here, especially, are works of art. They are very sharp."
"Oh..."
"There are also armors in the Republican style. Many knights hold those armors in high regard for being light."
Anticipation rose on Keldric's face.
Perhaps Bogenberg's Artisan Street would have weapons or armor of yet another new style.
As if to prove that point, a somewhat exotic-looking building came into Keldric's sight.
"What is that?"
"A building in the Republican style. It is unusual, but not so terribly rare."
"It seems there are many here from the south."
"They are people who came up the Ronaun River. Mostly merchants and sculptors. Some also come from the Principality of Firenza."
Several buildings with slightly unfamiliar architectural styles dotted the city's main thoroughfare.
Even within the same Empire, the way of life in the North inevitably differed somewhat from other provinces.
The North, which received heavy snow, built its houses mindful of damp and cold; the warmer, drier central and southern Empire, by contrast, had comparatively fewer worries about damp and cold.
And Bogenberg, linking the central Empire to the North, was a chaotic blend of the two.
Keldric observed the buildings that mixed Northern and central-southern Imperial styles with an ambiguous eye.
Occasionally, a few buildings here and there were constructed in the southern Republican style or the style of the Kingdom of the Franks.
Sir Henri, riding alongside Keldric, pointed a hand at one of them. Judging by the appetizing smell wafting over, it seemed to be a dining establishment.
"Places like that serve genuine cuisine. Sir, have you ever eaten Frankish food?"
"Proper Frankish food... No, I don't think I have."
"Once you taste the real food of the Kingdom of the Franks, you likely will never want to return to the Empire. I guarantee it."
Keldric wondered if it was really that good, but the fine cuisine of the Kingdom of the Franks was already slowly gaining renown across the continent.
'Should I look for some good food to try?'
Keldric already had enough money to comfortably buy food, and if he won at the tournament, his funds would only grow.
There was no urgent need to rush off anywhere in particular, so Keldric decided to take things at a relaxed pace.
He was not going to stay in Bogenberg for only a day or two, after all. To carry out the tournament schedule, he would need to remain for at least a week.
"Ahem! Sir. How about we turn in for now?"
"Ah, well... Are you in a hurry?"
"No, not a hurry... Well. You know."
When Keldric showed signs of wanting to look around the streets a bit longer, Sir Henri discreetly hinted at him and pointed somewhere.
An inn built in the Republican style stood there. A couple of fairly beautiful women were visible at the entrance, soliciting customers.
Catching on to Sir Henri's lewd designs, Keldric immediately put on a sour expression.
"...Your stamina is impressive. Do you not get tired?"
"Sir Keldric. When we are in the prime of life like this, one has to enjoy such things as well."
"It's not my place to criticize, but mind your nether regions well. What will you do if you carelessly sire a child?"
"Th-that won't happen! Sir!"
Like hell it wouldn't. Keldric privately scoffed to himself.
Given Sir Henri's conduct, there might well be a bastard of Sir Henri's already growing up somewhere in the Empire.
'Still, it's better than a brothel...'
The inn looked high-quality and clean. That meant the prices were fairly steep.
Not every inn was like this, but establishments with such high prices sometimes kept their own receptionists.
Room prices might be expensive, but the quality was high, drawing occasional visits from knights and nobles, so the inns sought to satisfy them and squeeze out just a bit more coin.
Regrettably, Sir Henri seemed to have already fallen deep into their clutches.
"Alisa. Will you be all right?"
"Yes, well... I hope the soundproofing is good."
Perhaps if Sir Henri were a disagreeable man, it might be one thing, but even at the inn in Salzfluss where they stayed a few days ago, moans had resounded all night. This time would probably be no different.
Sir Henri's sickeningly syrupy tone and expressions were strangely effective with women.
The trouble was that those it worked on were mostly prostitutes.
If left like this, Sir Henri's tool might turn as grotesque as a troll's wooden club, but that was not something Keldric had any reason to worry about.
"In that case... Let's choose that one."
"A superb choice. Sir Keldric has a discerning eye."
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
The inside of the inn was just as tidy as it had looked from outside, and while the smells of food were unfamiliar, they were full of appetizing aromas.
Keldric was quite pleased to be having such novel experiences.
This sort of thing would have to be fully enjoyed by going there directly, but it felt like a preview that satisfied his anticipation.
'Oh. Those people are...'
Among the people seated in the hall, he spotted a few who looked like knights. Keldric's eyes narrowed slightly as he glanced over them.
Any knight staying in Bogenberg at this time of year might be participating in the tournament. They were potential opponents for Keldric.
"Sir. Do you see any familiar faces?"
"Hm... No. There are no knights I recognize."
Even Sir Henri, who loved making friends, saw no familiar faces.
That suggested these might be knights who had arrived relatively recently, perhaps even from afar.
It was not something Keldric needed to concern himself with especially, but manners dictated that knights announce their house and name upon meeting each other.
As if realizing that fact, a knight who had been sitting with a boy who appeared to be his squire approached Keldric and Sir Henri.
"May God shelter you with His grace. I am called Alan of House Hawksworth, in service to the Duke of Bankshire. I am honored to come across you here."
"God be with you. I am Keldric of House Bellaf. I too am truly honored by this meeting."
Sir Alan of House Hawksworth appeared to hail from the Kingdom of Britas.
However, since the Duke of Bankshire whom Sir Alan served as his liege was a nobleman Keldric did not know well, Keldric concluded the greeting as quickly as possible to prevent the conversation from drifting in that direction.
"A fated encounter, ordained by God. I am pleased to meet you. House Hawksworth—I have often heard of its valor."
"You are...?"
"Henri of House Candillon. More to the point, Sir Alan. I have heard that the previous head of House Hawksworth fled from a heathen army with his tail between his legs; is that true? I am a bit behind on the latest news, you see."
But when it was time for Sir Henri to exchange courtesies, Keldric looked over at Sir Henri with a start of shock.
'Has he lost his mind?'
He had not lost his mind; he had plainly gone mad. This amounted to heaping insults on the man to his face.
Sir Alan seemed to catch on immediately to Sir Henri's blatantly sarcastic words, his face crumpling hard like a sheet of paper.
"...I believe I must have misheard. What did you just say?"
"Oh, dear. It was not clear, was it? I was lavishing praise upon the courage of Hawksworth."
"Your loose mouth prattles on, doesn't it? Do all knights of the Kingdom of the Franks behave this 'honorably'?"
"Compared to the vulgar knights of the Kingdom of Britas, I suppose we are, however slightly, more honorable? A pity, that."
There was one thing Keldric had momentarily overlooked here.
The Kingdom of Britas and the Kingdom of the Franks were on extremely bad terms.
The reason was a tangled mess of bloodline issues between the royal houses, snarled together like mongrel dogs; the dispute lay in the fact that the King of Britas and the King of the Franks, who stood in a fifth-cousin relationship to each other, each claimed the other's territory across the sea as his own.
Bloodline was one of the most important things for the nobility and royalty. Since children who inherited a bloodline succeeded to their house's legacy, it had to be made clearer than anything else.
And because that very bloodline had been mixed this way and that under the principle that "noble blood must only mingle with noble blood," the King of Britas and the King of the Franks were able to each claim rights of inheritance over the other's territory.
All sorts of complications followed, and the recent outcome was a war that had finally broken out.
The outbreak of war meant that knights desperate to display their loyalty and honor to their king had also taken part in the war, leading to the result that knights of the two kingdoms were none too pleased when they met.
"By that measure, is House Candillon not likewise deserving of praise? I've heard there is a good-for-nothing knight who abandoned his wizard betrothed because he was afraid of magic... I cannot quite recall who that might be."
"What I heard differs a little. I heard that an adopted son of House Hawksworth did not know his place and usurped the position of the head of the house."
"Honorable Sir Henri. Did you not, by chance, take part in the territorial battle at Ramburg?"
"...Why does that come up?"
The conversation, which had begun as simple courtesies, was steadily veering wildly off course.
Left like this, even the color of the shit they took a week ago was likely to fly out into the open, so Keldric hastily stepped in between the two knights.
"Now, now, let us calm down. Sir Henri, and Sir Alan. What is this behavior in a place where many eyes are watching? It is not honorable."
"Oh, I made a mistake. Since a Britas knight probably wouldn't know what honor is, I shall have to teach him."
"That sounds good. But before that, shouldn't someone first teach you how to fight, you who fell off your horse during a cavalry charge?"
Quite apart from how the previously calm-seeming Sir Alan had gone cold, this was the first time Keldric had seen Sir Henri act so openly hostile.
It was disconcerting enough that Keldric fully intended to separate the two by force if necessary.
Of course, solving everything by force sometimes did not work.
"You morose, wretched son of a bitch from Britas! Do you dare trample on my honor!"
"You prattle on, you damn, cowardly knight from the Franks! It was you who insulted my honor!"
"No, wait―."
Both knights had drawn their weapons.
Sir Henri had a messer and shield, which he had roughly snatched from his attendant, while Sir Alan had raised a poleaxe.
"I challenge you to a duel! You rotten, worthless pig of a man!"
"I accept your duel! I will make you pay the price for trampling on my honor!"
Glaring at each other, the two poured out increasingly vulgar insults, and then they both turned to look back at Keldric.
"Sir Keldric! Bear witness!"
"Excellent! If it is the honorable Sir Keldric, we can trust him!"
Since when did they know him to call him honorable?
Utterly dumbfounded, Keldric let out a sigh.
Even if he wanted to ignore the situation and smooth things over, the truth was that both knights had insulted each other's honor.
A knight whose honor had been insulted could not simply let the one who insulted him walk away.
A duel between two hot-blooded knights had abruptly been arranged.