Chapter 56: The Knight's House (2)
Chapter 56: The Knight's House (2)
The meals provided by the knight's house were closer to mess hall fare. They were not as lavish as the hospitality of a noble family, but they were excellent for one's health.
Largo, the instructors, the scribes, and the other administrators were present at the table.
"To be granted a fief at such a young age. You are remarkable."
"He is the knight who cut down Sir Geist in a single stroke, so it is only natural."
'I didn't cut him down with a sword. I beat him to death with a shield.'
Like any rumor passed from mouth to mouth, the story had picked up its share of distortions. Still, killing someone with a sword did sound better in an epic. Eugene smiled and let it pass.
"Sir. As you have crossed blades with him, you will know. Haind is a capable swordsman. If you are amenable, would you consider taking him on as a trainee knight for your future journeys?"
"...!"
At Largo's suggestion, Eugene clenched his fist beneath the table. He did not show it, but it was something he had been inwardly hoping for.
A squire stayed at a knight's side, shared his fate, and inherited everything from him. The bond was tighter even than a vassal contract.
A trainee knight, on the other hand, had a looser bond. It was something like a mercenary contract between a renowned knight and a fledgling knight.
Unlike a mercenary, a trainee knight needed only food, lodging, equipment, and enough money to maintain his station. In return, he received combat experience, instruction, and connections from the knight he followed.
That alone still cost as much as several mercenaries, but Eugene welcomed the offer wholeheartedly.
"I would be delighted. Where else could I find such a knight? But Cadet Haind may have other plans."
"Haind has devoted himself to one goal: becoming the best here. He has no plans for what comes after tomorrow."
"Is there not the option of returning to his family? He seemed to be from a fairly noble household."
Neither his looks nor his manner suggested a rough upbringing. He seemed to have spent his childhood cherished in a wealthy household.
"Haind's father is a self-made merchant who rose to success in a free city. He took a wife from a fallen noble family and had the boy."
"Ah!"
Eugene could roughly piece together the story from that explanation alone.
Commoners who forced their way into noble society often harbored an undying jealousy toward those born into old noble blood.
That obsession inevitably focused on their children. It was not uncommon for the children of successful merchant families to receive knightly training.
"Haind's father will not be satisfied merely with him receiving a knighthood. But being at the side of an outstanding knight who has been granted a fief by Count Morad is a different story altogether."
Eugene realized anew that he had become someone worth attaching oneself to, even if he was still only a weak connection at the bottom of the landed nobility.
"Has this been discussed with Haind himself?"
"His future plans were something the boy was already pondering. If I recommend it and you accept, it will be done."
At that point, Largo stepped back from the conversation. The other instructors at the table were visibly itching to ask questions of their own.
The questions came pouring out as though a dam had burst, but none of them concerned Eugene's martial prowess or his duels.
They were intensely curious about how Goffrey had trained him. As educators responsible for raising future knights, it was a subject they could hardly resist asking about.
When the lively meal ended and night fell, Eugene was assigned a private room.
"This is the first time I've seen a lunar eclipse in person."
The sight of the moon that normally hung in the sky disappearing completely was deeply unsettling.
Mage or not, everyone seemed to have shut themselves indoors. The village was utterly still, without even a torch-bearing watchman on patrol.
Was it because of the lunar eclipse that destabilized all the mysteries of the world? That night, Eugene had a peculiar dream.
Eugene stood alone and naked in a massive stone building. Though he was bare in a place without a hearth, let alone a single candle, he was not cold.
Splash, splash.
The stone floor beneath his feet and the castle walls he groped along in the dark were both warm, as though hot water—no, blood—flowed inside the stone.
After wandering for a while, Eugene reached an enormous door. He pushed against it, and it opened without a sound.
A vast space unfolded within, and at its far end stood a throne, alone and bathed in faint light.
[Come to me. Come to me, quickly.]
For some reason, the throne was yearning for Eugene.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
As if bewitched, Eugene walked forward and finally reached the throne. He turned around and slowly sat down.
Rumble.
Then the entire stone building trembled.
The throne, the floor, the walls, the ceiling. Every element that composed this place seemed to tremble with delight.
It was the same trembling one felt when embracing a person who had been sobbing in loneliness. Eugene also gently stroked the armrest.
Everything was fine, but it was a pity that nothing could be seen because it was so dark. What meaning was there in sitting on a magnificent throne if that were the case?
"It's too dark."
Flash.
As Eugene uttered those words carelessly, the building brightened as if in response. Not candles, but glass tubes everywhere emitted magical light, driving the darkness from the vast hall.
"...!"
Where he had thought it empty, the traces of death lay scattered in every direction.
Skulls caught his eye everywhere he looked. Skeletons clad in splendid armor, antique scribe's robes, and the garments of maids and servants lay collapsed all around.
The startled Eugene reflexively tried to rise from his seat, but failed.
[Do not leave. Stay with me.]
Along with a will that seemed to echo throughout the entire castle, chains that sprouted from around the throne bound Eugene.
Crunch!
Even in his dream, Eugene's strength was intact. He shook his arms and they shattered in an instant. But immediately, twice, three times as many chains entangled him.
An unpleasant pressure, as if trapped in sleep paralysis! A sensation as if the chill of the cold chains was seeping into his very soul.
At that moment, leaves and flower petals poured down from the ceiling. The chains they touched crumbled away into dust.
Through them, a radiantly shining woman descended. A beautiful, naked elf embraced Eugene. Warmth and gentleness enveloped his entire body, as if protecting him.
At the same time, Eugene realized he was beginning to wake from the dream.
A feeling as though his consciousness was being sucked somewhere. He felt the lamps deep within his brain clicking on, one after another, clack! clack!
Eugene's eyes opened.
He raised his upper body from the bed. He was held in Varda's embrace. His face was filled with the sensation of her white nightgown and soft warmth.
"Are you coming to your senses? You were in great distress."
"Varda-nim? What on earth is..."
"The energy of mystery was churning in the room next to where you slept. Along with it, groans as if you were in agony could be heard. Yet if I could not open my eyes to that, I would be a failure as a mage, and a failure as an elf."
Twitch, twitch.
Varda's long ears moved. Like the elf she was, her sleeping ears were as keen as Homi's.
"Thank you for worrying. But it was just a nightmare."
"Shh."
Eugene felt Varda stroking his back. Her scent was identical to the one he had smelled in the dream.
"You must not dismiss it as merely a nightmare. The dream of one who understands magic is no simple replaying of memories. Do you happen to remember the contents of the dream?"
"Parts of it are hazy. But it was a sight I have never experienced in my life."
Eugene described what he had seen in the dream. Wandering through the dark, vast stone building and nearly being bound upon sitting on the throne. The pressure and chill the chains had given him were vivid.
"What are you checking?"
Varda lifted Eugene's nightshirt and inspected his chest, back, and arms.
"You said it was terribly cold. There might be frostbite or other injuries."
"It was only a dream."
"If it is what a mage dreamed during a lunar eclipse, it cannot be ignored. It could have been a prophetic dream, or perhaps your spirit temporarily visited another world. The influence received there may leave marks upon the flesh."
Having finished checking here and there, Varda let out a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, there is nothing wrong with your body."
"Just as I was about to be bound tight by the chains and locked down, you descended and saved me, Varda-nim. Your form was like that of an angel."
Varda smiled bashfully.
"My will to pull you out of the nightmare must have materialized in that form."
It was common for sensations the physical body received to manifest during sleep. Such as the contents of a dream changing to themes of fire or boiling water when one grew hot while sleeping.
"I am curious about the place you saw in your dream."
"It was an austere space that cannot be compared to any building I have ever seen."
It was too dark and the scenes were too fragmentary to say anything for certain. Perhaps for the sake of Eugene's stability, Varda did not ask further.
"If I fall asleep like this, will I dream again?"
Though Eugene feared little in the world, being cast defenseless into a nightmare was not a pleasant sensation.
"It will be alright."
The yellow moon visible beyond the window was shedding its veil of shadow and revealing itself once more.
"The lunar eclipse has ended, and the world's magic has stabilized again. Even if you sleep now, you will not fall into a nightmare."
Relieved, Eugene drew back and only then could see Varda's condition. Sitting collapsed in an M-shape with her legs laid out, she was barefoot.
It seemed she had rushed over so urgently that she could not even put on shoes. The soles of her fine feet were black with dust.
Seeing that sight, Eugene felt a heaviness in his heart that went beyond gratitude, constricting it tightly.
"Are you hurt anywhere on your feet?"
When Eugene tried to touch them, Varda hurriedly knelt, hiding the soles of her feet behind her.
"They are perfectly fine without a single scratch, so you needn't worry."
"...I was too thoughtless."
Thinking about it, it was something a noble lady could be sufficiently embarrassed about.
Click.
The door opened and Homi entered, her face full of worry. She was carrying a towel and a basin filled with water.
"Nothing is wrong, so stop making that face. I just slept badly for a little while."
Relieved, Homi placed the towel and basin before Eugene.
Drip, drip, drip.
She carefully wiped down Eugene's bare upper body. As the cool towel cleaned the clammy sweat from his neck and back, he felt the remnants of the nightmare wash away with it.
"Good work."
He stroked Homi's hair, which was always pleasant to touch.
After conversing a little longer and sending the two ladies out, he looked up at the moon outside the window.
'Is this sort of thing part of the process of becoming a mage, too?'
The moon he normally took for granted felt unusually precious that day, almost like a guardian watching over him.
A little later, Eugene lay down on the bed. This time, when consciousness faded, he slept deeply as usual without dreaming.
The next day, Largo stood with a sword before the kneeling Haind. All the instructors, scribes, and senior trainees had gathered around them.
"From this day forth, I proclaim that you have shed your status as a trainee."
Largo's sword tapped Haind's left shoulder.
"The harsh training here has ended. From now on, true trials shall array themselves before you. It is an eternal vigilance against compromise and comfort."
Largo's sword tapped Haind's right shoulder.
"Always survey your surroundings when you fight. A knight's sword is for protecting honor and the weak. If you focus only on killing the enemy before your eyes, you will stray from the knight's path before you know it."
Largo's sword withdrew.
"Arise! Arise! Haind, Knight of Vigilance!"
All the instructors applauded to celebrate the birth of a new knight. Though an outsider, Eugene had been specially permitted to attend, and he joined in the applause.
'So this is a knighting ceremony. It would have been nice if Master Goffrey had done something similar for me.'
It was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Even Eugene, usually indifferent to such things, could not help feeling a growing sense of loss as his own life as a knight deepened.
- Just be a knight from now on.
The contrast with his own investiture, which had ended with that one offhand sentence, was almost painful.
A boy of about ten approached carrying a wooden box. Inside was a patch proving that Haind had graduated as a Knight of Vigilance. It could be attached to his armor, shield, surcoat, cloak, helmet, or almost anywhere else.
Largo personally affixed it to Haind's chest.
"..."
Eugene had seen plenty of knights by then.
But this was the first time he had witnessed the moment a man kneeling as a cadet rose to his feet as a knight.
Years of endurance, enough sweat to equal many times his own body weight. Masters and seniors who had shared that road with advice and affection, now blessing its end.
'The knights I've cut down must each have traveled a long, precious road of their own before becoming knights.'
A trace of sadness came over him as well. Knighthood itself suddenly felt terribly fleeting.
As Eugene's party left the knight's house behind, a new member had joined the group.
"I look forward to working with you from now on."
"The honor is mine. Sir Eugene."
With his fine chainmail and sword, Haind cut a dignified knightly figure.
Senior knights who had left the cradle and found success. Cities or lords who owed debts to the knight's house in times when military force was needed.
The patronage they sent allowed departing knights to be provided with equipment and warhorses.
It was a uniquely Roman custom, something like a medieval network of school and hometown connections. In Haind's case, donations from his wealthy merchant father had probably helped as well.
Having another knight at his back gave Eugene a different kind of reassurance from the loyalty he felt from Homi or the respect he received from Varda.
It was a reassurance only a fellow knight—one who had freely acknowledged him—could provide.
'Once the internship is over, I'll keep him at my side and work him for a lifetime.'
It seemed that the longer the journey became, the more his appetite for talented people grew.