The next day.
Erman was holding a wooden sword in the castle's backyard.
Beside him was a knight with a bored face. He was the instructor Calhog had assigned for the sake of the royal family's dignity. But he had never once actually taught Erman anything.
"My prince. Put your right foot forward a little more."
"Like this?"
"Yeees."
Hundreds of simple orders correcting his stance, and nothing more.
The knight yawned wide, lifted a wooden sword in one hand, and prodded Erman's thigh as if poking a dead rabbit.
"Put strength in your legs."
"Very well."
"Then we'll begin a hundred basic cuts. When you've finished, you'll rest, then another hundred."
The knight sat on a nearby tree stump.
While he half-watched, half-didn't, Erman worked hard at his basic cuts. One, two, three.
He was used to doing basic cuts. There'd been a time he'd wanted to learn something more than this, but the instructor had answered indifferently.
-Your fundamentals are far from sufficient, my prince.
Erman still didn't know what fundamentals were in swordsmanship. If he did nothing but basic cuts until he dropped, would he be recognized someday?
Erman glanced at the instructor nodding off and little by little slowed his downswings. Soon he stopped the basic cuts entirely, looked around and took a fresh grip on the sword.
A step forward, a downward cut to the right. One more step, one more to the left.
Then, turning his body a half circle, a rising cut on the left. A horizontal slash, then following the sword's path to stab an enemy behind him.
When the enemy dodges aside and parries— he'll obviously dig in from the side, so stand the sword up and knock it away.
Against another attack coming from the side, a binding with the same cut.
Spying on the other knights' training had paid off.
Erman swung the wooden sword as he pleased, enjoying himself. He was imagining fighting the terrifying barbarians he'd once heard of, thrusting at will and cutting the air, when.
"-My prince!"
"Ah."
The instructor's shout suddenly burst out.
The wooden sword fell from his startled hand. The knight, awake since who knew when, strode over and snatched Erman's wrist.
"Ow, that hurts!"
"Did I not tell you? That your fundamentals are lacking, so do basic cuts! And yet the moment I look away, you do this?"
His wrist, slender beyond comparison with an adult's, was shaken mercilessly.
Pain squeezed out tears, but the knight paid no heed and let go of Erman's hand as if flinging it away.
"You may be the prince, but who would try to teach you when you make light of the word of the knight who's become your teacher?"
"I wasn't ignoring you! I'm sorry, I was wrong!"
"This is truly tiresome. I must tell the Queen. She'll be deeply disappointed to hear that you make light of swordsmanship, my prince."
"D, don't do that. Don't do that!"
"You've brought all of this on yourself, my prince."
"No, I'm sorry. I was wrong. So don't tell His Majesty and the Queen, please! From now on I'll work hard at basic cuts too. Even if the lessons get hard, I'll quietly do as I'm told!"
The corners of the knight's mouth twitched as he listened to Erman's plea, close to tears.
Got him.
I was a bit worried, him being a prince and all, but just like I heard, he's nothing but a needy little bastard.
The knight slowly knelt on one knee. In his eyes was reflected not the Prince of Loegria but only a stupid brat who'd cough up jewels with a little scaring and coaxing.
"I don't want to do this either, my prince. The instructors before me were all nothing but harsh with you, weren't they? Right?"
"Y, yes."
"You know well how much I've been putting up with your sluggish progress. That's how much I cherish you, my prince."
"......R, really?"
"Of course. If not me, who on earth would wait for you so patiently? So I won't tell the Queen about this."
Erman's tearful eyes went wide.
"Truly?"
"Yes. But then, someday, I'll fall out of the Queen's favor. And when that happens, a guy like me will have to give up the post of your instructor right away."
"That."
"You wouldn't like that, would you?"
Just a little. Just a little more will do it.
The knight lowered his voice.
"But...... if you were to help, I might be able to find a way, my prince."
"What way? How can I help?"
"It's nothing much."
The smirking face came close to Erman.
"Won't you lend just a little strength so that I can give the Queen a small gift and put her in a good mood, my prince?"
He already knew of Erman, the subject of rumors even in the royal castle.
An illegitimate child abandoned by both the king, his own father, and the Queen, his stepmother. All he had was the glossy title of prince and a few jewels bestowed for show.
He'd heard that many people before him had already used the prince's neediness to take jewels or expensive clothes.
Adding himself to that wouldn't even show. The brat, ignorant of the world, didn't know how to wield power anyway, and would be pushed to the back as soon as Queen Cadwin conceived.
By then the jewels would surely be useless too, so wouldn't it be wiser for the prince himself to hand them out to those around him now and win their favor?
Jewels. Emeralds and rubies smaller than a fingernail. A golden badge.
With those, he wouldn't have to care about a knight's pay. Sell them off and change them to gold coins, and they couldn't be traced either.
Who would look into the jewel box of a neglected prince? The knight opened his mouth to persuade the hesitating Erman more actively, but,
-WHAM!
An extraordinary force dug into his side.
Only after the knight, letting out a single cry, had rolled over several times did a thunderous bellow ring through the backyard.
"Who do you think would readily take a bribe offered by a wretch like you?! You wretch with your wits snapped, how dare you, to a royal of Loegria!"
"C, Commander!"
"Rumor is rife that you've been hanging about trying to join the knights, you wretch, so I'll make it so you needn't make that effort anymore. Get lost at once, before you can't so much as set foot in this castle!"
At the old general's growl, the knight scrambled up.
Once the knight had bolted in a panic without even a greeting and vanished, Erman, unable even to wipe his tears, blankly looked up at the old general.
One-eyed. A shaggy beard and brown hair sparsely mixed with white. A face full of wrinkles. A bear-like build.
This person.
"S, Sir Eghon."
Knight Commander of Loegria's royal castle, captain of the Puil guard, and at the same time supreme commander of the knights and soldiers stationed in Puil. An outstanding, once-in-a-generation soldier rumored to tear barbarians apart alive and eat them.
Erman hiccuped before he knew it.
He had never met someone of such high rank. At most he'd only met apprentice knights, squires or regular knights. And now the Knight Commander had suddenly appeared.
Eghon looked down at Erman, far smaller than himself, then with a THUD went down on one knee to meet his eye level.
"Prince Erman. Do you know who I am?"
"E, Eghon...... Knight Commander. Supreme Commander. Captain of the guard......"
"Hoh. So you know who I am, all of it."
He scratched his head with a hand the size of a pot lid.
"I watched you train for a moment, my prince."
Since when? Erman's face went red.
How wretched his clumsy basic cuts must have looked to the most martially gifted person in Loegria. Just imagining it made him want to run away.
But the words that immediately followed were.
"-You're quite well trained. Your hand trembled a little, but not enough to make much of an issue of it. If you adjust the angle a bit more on your left and right downward cuts, you'll get even better."
"......Truly? It wasn't unsightly?"
"You are still young in years, my prince, so there are plenty of chances to correct it. Did you learn all your swordsmanship from that guy earlier?"
"A little from other knights too......"
"Did they teach you as far as thrusts and rising cuts?"
"No. Only basic cuts."
Eghon closed his mouth for a moment.
"Are you saying you've done nothing but basic cuts until now?"
"They said my fundamentals are lacking, and that I need more training. So only two hundred a day."
"Forgive my impertinence, but let me ask just one more thing. How many months has it been since you took up the sword?"
"5 years."
A sigh came from the old general's mouth on its own.
He'd done nothing but basic cuts for 5 straight years. Even at a hundred a day, that was over 180,000. And on top of that he hadn't done any other strength training, just swung a sword blindly. Whether this prince had great grit or was just a fool, there was no telling.
That he'd learned thrusts and rising cuts by himself amid all that might be a miracle in itself. Eghon slowly stood up.
"I shall make a recommendation to the Queen."
"Wh, what recommendation?"
Erman got scared without knowing why. If Cadwin found out about this, he might not even be able to learn the sword.
Then he'd only get further from the ideal image of a prince, and in the end, if that happened.
But at the next words, Erman's tears dried up at once.
"-I shall take on the post of your swordsmanship instructor."
Swordsmanship instructor.
The strongest knight in Loegria, was volunteering to be his swordsmanship instructor.
Unable to tell whether such luck was a dream or real, Erman blankly looked up at Eghon. Upon his wildly pounding chest, the rough wooden necklace that hadn't been there before touched him and passed on a lukewarm warmth.
And at that moment, a pair of pale green eyes was looking down at the little prince and the hulking knight left in the backyard.
***
"That went reasonably well."
<Is it okay to give Erman the Power of Ogham? This quest was originally meant for casting on yourself.>
"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I finished the quest."
「Albion Story Quest:
The Power of Ogham (Complete)
Student of the Power (Complete)
Reward → 50 Pennies」
I closed the transparent quest window and shrugged. Titania fluttered over and sat on top of my head.
<You've got 50 Pennies saved up again. Want to open the Chipping Market?>
"No. I'm saving up from now on. I might have to persuade an NPC again."
Eghon. The NPC with the highest Vitality, Strength and Stamina values in Loegria right now.
Even if I'd given Erman Onn, the Ogham script that means luck and a new start...... Erman's base stats were crawling along the floor, so I needed another way.
"Look at Erman's Luck value now. Still the same as his starting stats?"
<Hmm...... The base value is 6. Right now it's up 3% from the Luck buff Albion gave him. The total is 6.18?>
"......Good thing I emptied out all the Pennies I had."
Right. See, this is how it is.
I shook the item I'd bought from the Chipping Market to win over Eghon. A hard gray-green stem with pale white flower buds.
'Asphodel's Regret.' An A-Grade item. I emptied my pockets the moment I heard it had the effect of disrupting an NPC's thought computation.
At a glance it looks like a cheat code, but it's a consumable you can only use twice after buying. On top of that, the NPC thought-computation disruption doesn't always succeed; it's completely random.
In other words, with good luck the NPC chuckles and moves as I wanted, but with bad luck he goes berserk and treats me like a traitor.
Its effect is this unpredictable, but the problem is that thought-disrupting items are so rare even in the Chipping Market that players have no choice but to buy Asphodel's Regret, weeping while they eat the mustard. In that respect it's an even more vicious item.
Thank goodness I was lucky this time. I carefully put Asphodel's Regret away and looked out the window. Erman, eyes sparkling as he looked up at Eghon, seemed pretty happy.
Well, I've attached a good teacher to him, so I can take a breather here.
"Next Story Quest."
<Okay! By the way, there are three tutorial quests left! You'll be able to start your thrilling adventure soon!>
With a ding, a cheerful sound rang out.
Another quest about Ogham script, maybe? I thought that as I looked up, and at that moment.
「Albion Story Quest:
Traces of the Fairies Left in Tintagel – Taming the Dragon (In Progress)
The dragon that was toppling the walls of Tintagel is beginning to rampage again. Thanks to your prophecy the humans have found the dragon, but they have found no way to subdue him. Return to Tintagel, drive off the dragon and help Tintagel's walls stand upright.」