VIII. A Knight Craves Battle (9)
VIII. A Knight Craves Battle (9)
The reason Sir Henri had contracted with Count Bogenberg was utterly ridiculous.
"So... this was because of gambling debt?"
"Gambling? It was a duel between men!"
Keldric did not bother hiding his contempt. Henri had always been a wastrel, but losing all his money at dice was impressively stupid even for him.
"What did you gamble on?"
"Dice. Damn it... one more pip and I would’ve won!"
Dice had been an Imperial pastime since long before the Eastern Kingdom, predecessor of the Empire, was founded.
People of every status and age—even children—carved pips into pebbles and played.
It was so popular, and so thoroughly associated with gambling, that the Church had once tried to ban it.
High nobles, knights, and respectable noblewomen could not enjoy dice openly. They usually played chess or games resembling checkers instead.
They merely avoided doing it in public. Plenty still played in private.
Keldric remembered when his second brother Fritz had become obsessed with dice.
At only fourteen, while Sir Volfen was still hale, Fritz had become so addicted that he even sold his sword.
Sir Volfen later beat him like a dog. Dice possessed that kind of demonic pull.
'What a flimsy game.'
Keldric had no interest in such a crude form of gambling.
He knew far more vicious games of chance from his previous life. Dice looked like a child’s pastime by comparison.
If an opponent tampered with the dice, the victim could do nothing while his money vanished.
Then he would continue gambling in hopes of recovering his original stake, until he ended up like Sir Henri.
"Tell me, Sir Keldric. Have you ever gambled?"
"I’m not interested."
Dice did not interest Keldric. Cards might have been another matter.
The playing cards he knew, however, did not yet exist in this world.
Something similar might exist in the distant East or the deserts of heathen lands, but the Empire had none.
That realization gave Keldric an idea.
'...Should I make them myself?'
Knights obsessed with money and victory would never pass them up. If Keldric introduced the game, it would also gain the prestige of something played by their betters.
No vulgar rattling and tossing of dice—just the refined act of drawing stiff paper cards.
The inventor would enjoy certain privileges at first. If Keldric used the card tricks he already knew, what could knights playing for the first time possibly do?
Card games were nearly limitless. Once one game stopped attracting wagers, he could introduce another.
It was probably too soon, however. Keldric set aside his dream of becoming the gambler of the century.
"So you’re going to Yaven with me?"
"Hm? Ah, yes. That’s how it turned out. Lord Bogenberg assigned me to you. Our meeting must truly have been ordained by God."
Preparing for the imminent territorial war came first.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
Over the next few days, Bogenberg’s inner castle grew noticeably busier.
The territorial war was close. Serfs and commoners had been conscripted, alerting even the lowest residents that conflict was coming.
Military obligations did not fall only on serfs and commoners.
Count Bogenberg directly commanded roughly thirty knights. Adding the vassal knights serving other Advisory Council members produced a substantial force.
Most of them—and every knight directly under the count—had to assemble.
When Count Bogenberg granted a fief, the knight paid part of its produce as tax and answered his lord’s summons.
That obligation formed the core of a vassal contract.
Not every knight the count brought had received a fief.
Nearly ten were probably salaried knights, but their duty was much the same.
They had to answer their lord’s summons and lead the fighting when territorial war began.
Keldric’s temporary contract imposed a similar obligation. He had to fight when Count Bogenberg commanded him.
Unlike the vassals, however, Keldric retained considerable freedom from those obligations.
His contract lasted 'until Baron Gofrit’s castle is captured.' Anything beyond that required a new agreement.
Bluntly put, once Gofrit’s castle fell, Keldric could withdraw regardless of what happened to Count Rasau.
He would choose a tactful moment to leave, of course, but the burden was still far lighter.
Forty days of compulsory service was standard for a vassal knight.
After forty days, custom required the lord to compensate any additional service. Until then, the vassal knight bore his own campaign expenses.
Keldric would receive no such forty-day compensation from Count Bogenberg.
The count had offered to subsidize mercenaries, however, which was already extraordinary generosity.
There were other differences. Keldric did not have to swear fealty to Count Bogenberg, for example.
The count was unlikely to do so, but if he ordered a near-suicidal assault, Keldric had the lawful right to refuse.
That separated Keldric from the vassal knights.
A knight hired by contract was bound almost as loosely as a mercenary.
The difference was that mercenaries had thrown honor to the dogs, while a knight like Keldric was expected to risk his life for it.
"Every mercenary around Bogenberg has already been hired."
Sir Henri’s report made Keldric grimace.
If he intended to hire mercenaries, doing so before leaving Bogenberg would have been preferable.
That would prevent sudden changes in manpower from disrupting supplies and give them time to devise basic tactics on the road to Yaven.
Given the circumstances, however, he had little choice but to recruit locally, as Count Bogenberg suggested.
'That’s unfortunate.'
Keldric regretted that the Iron Claw Mercenary Company could not join him.
Mercenaries he had already fought beside were plainly easier to use than complete strangers.
He could not blame Count Bogenberg for hiring every mercenary in the city.
The forty elite soldiers proved how much the count trusted him.
In an ordinary territorial war, Keldric would have joined the main army and been used for cavalry charges rather than leading a separate detachment.
This was not an ordinary war. If fighting would erupt across several locations, splitting the force made sense.
Mercenaries would already be gathering in Yaven, so he could address the problem after arriving.
If necessary, Baron Yaven would probably add troops of his own.
Keldric might even operate alongside the baron himself.
"You’re worrying too much."
"You aren’t worried? You clearly don’t know how base those mercenary bastards are. They’re cowards who flee the instant defeat looks likely!"
"Then I’ll make sure we don’t lose."
"As though you can simply decide that!"
"Why not?"
Keldric knew little about strategy or tactics.
Even so, his willingness to consider possibilities that people of this era could not imagine would help.
After discussing troop deployment with Sir Henri, Keldric summoned Alisa and his two young attendants.
"We’ll probably leave Bogenberg within three days."
Alisa wore her usual indifferent expression, as though she had already expected it.
Arno and Helga reacted differently. They exchanged bewildered looks and blinked.
Their bright eyes plainly asked, 'Where are we going next?'
Keldric had not told the two young attendants about the territorial war.
There had been no reason to warn them earlier. If Keldric entered the war, would they refuse to follow?
They had to go wherever he went. Telling them shortly before departure spared them needless time to fear and agonize over it.
"We’re going to Yaven. I’ll lead troops there against Lord Gofrit’s army."
Arno and Helga struggled to grasp what that meant.
They knew what a territorial war was, but had never imagined they would be drawn into one.
"Sir Keldric means that we are going to fight."
Alisa, standing beside them, explained. Helga finally understood and looked at Keldric fearfully.
"T-to fight...?"
"Yes. Sir Keldric is an honorable knight, so fighting is his duty."
"Does he have to fight?"
"Helga...!"
Arno gasped and grabbed Helga’s hand. Helga continued in a subdued voice.
"The miller who protected us disappeared. If Sir Keldric disappears too... I think I’ll be scared."
"That won’t happen! Sir Keldric is incredibly strong!"
"But Arno, Sir Keldric beats you up every day..."
"Wh-what are you talking about, idiot? That isn’t a beating. It’s training!"
Arno repeatedly slapped the back of Helga’s hand, but her gloomy expression did not improve.
Keldric watched them with conflicted feelings.
The thought of taking these children onto a battlefield made his insides ache.
Keldric would do the actual fighting. They only needed to assist when he changed horses or weapons...
If circumstances deteriorated, however, the attendants might have to fight as well. Knightly attendants entering combat was more common than one might think.
Some serfs conscripted in this age would be boys Arno’s age.
In far worse circumstances than Arno and Helga, those boys might have to withstand charges from monstrous knights.
Keldric had to harden his heart. He could not become too soft.
"Uuuu..."
Keldric raised a hand to stop Alisa from comforting her, then crouched before the tearful Helga.
Tears filled her round eyes. Knowing she was worried for his safety made her rather adorable.
A small smile tugged at Keldric’s lips.
"Helga, do you think I’ll lose?"
"But I’m scared..."
A knight could not begin by assuming defeat.
That might sound simple-minded, but anyone who had witnessed a knight’s majesty as a living engine of slaughter would agree.
Keldric possessed no profound understanding of knighthood.
He had not lived as a knight for long. At most, he had watched Sir Volfen’s back from afar.
Yet Keldric was a knight now, and barring an unforeseen death, he would remain one for many years.
He therefore needed to establish his own mindset as a knight.
He still understood little about the honor a knight should possess, the glory one could attain, or the path one ought to follow.
So Keldric would walk his own path of chivalry.
"Helga, I don’t know everything in this world, but I know one thing for certain."
"Sniff... y-yes...?"
"I will never disgracefully lose while my loyal attendants stand beside me."
Helga’s eyes widened. Arno, standing behind her, reacted the same way.
"I will protect the weak and never abandon the good and faithful."
"..."
"I will always defeat the lawless. That is my duty. If I uphold it, God will surely watch over me."
Keldric still did not understand all the honor, glory, and lofty principles pursued by the knights of this age.
He invoked God despite possessing scarcely any piety.
But Keldric upheld a righteous cause.
Keldric was a knight.
If he was a knight, then the path he walked would become a knight’s path.
Keldric rested one hand on Helga’s tousled head, then placed the other on Arno’s.
"Helga, I’ll ask again. Do you still think I’ll lose?"
Helga and Arno looked at him with different emotions.
Helga’s eyes held trust; Arno’s held admiration and yearning.
The emotions differed, but the meaning behind them was the same.
"No...!"
Sir Keldric would never be defeated.
Their faith in him was absolute.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
Bogenberg’s gates opened with a clamor as dawn began to break.
Two knights on warhorses rode out first, followed by their attendants and the soldiers marching in formation.
Peddlers who had failed to enter before the gates closed and slept outside the dim city walls jolted awake.
The peddlers and travelers watched the soldiers with anxious eyes.
That anxiety vanished when they saw the two knights at the column’s head.
"Good heavens, look at the size of him..."
"That’s him—the Undefeated Knight."
It was not a large force. The soldiers numbered only around forty.
A single knight, however, could face many men.
The newly awakened travelers stared until the knights drew near, then unconsciously bowed as they passed.
"Why are they taking soldiers with them?"
"Why else...?"
The peddler watched the knights recede into the distance.
Broad backs, armor glinting faintly in the torchlight, and surcoats bearing the crests of glorious houses.
No soldier could lose heart behind such men, and no enemy could face those honorable crests without fear.
"They’re going to a glorious battle."
A battle for glory—and to prove courage and honor.
Knights yearned for battle.