I felt someone gripping my body hard. Normally I could have shaken them off in an instant, but who knew what I'd eaten last night. The morning sun was up, and still my eyes wouldn't open.
I hadn't fully come to yet, so I couldn't put any strength into my body. As I was dragged out of the fortress, my senses slowly returned.
Looking around, I saw five or six guards holding my arms and torso fast.
"What do you all think you're doing?"
"......"
The guards said nothing.
"Let go of me. What is this?!"
I strained against them, but I couldn't move the way I normally could. I tried to tear free of the guards' grip, but the strength wouldn't come.
"Please come quietly."
"I am the Knight Commander of House Karnande. I should at least know why I'm being dragged away! What did you feed me last night?"
Dragging me off like this without a word of warning. Did they mean to throw me in a cell? But we weren't heading toward the cells.
This way led to the execution ground.... Since entering House Karnande as a squire, I had served it loyally for a full 20 years. Was this all that steadfast loyalty had earned me?
I couldn't understand for what reason I, the Knight Commander of House Karnande, was being hauled straight to the execution ground without so much as a trial.
When we reached the execution ground, a crowd had come out to watch.
Sprawled there helplessly, I shouted.
"This makes no sense! Is this the treatment 20 years of loyalty deserves? Let go. My only crime is loyalty!"
The guards roughly hauled me up onto the scaffold, then wrenched my hands behind my back and bound them.
That this should happen to me, the man who did more than anyone to restore House Karnande. I screamed.
"Aaaargh! Aaagh!"
When I had screamed with all I had, I looked at the dais beside the execution ground. My lord was watching me.
"My lord, what crime have I committed? I have only ever served House Karnande loyally, body and soul."
"What, served loyally? You're telling me a bastard like that raised a private army?"
"That was no private army. I was recruiting men who had volunteered for the guard."
"That's not all. The castle has weapons enough, so why did you draw up a plan to buy arms from the Hansa Guild?"
I had never reported the arms purchase to my lord. I had, however, discussed it with my right-hand man in my quarters.
Laying in more arms for the castle while there was room to spare was only natural. I had meant to report to my lord once I had worked out the size of the purchase in detail.
"I meant to report it to you, my lord."
"I don't want to hear excuses. There is no mercy for one who plots treason."
"My lord, I have never plotted treason."
"Hahaha. I thought well of you from your days as a squire, and I even seated you as Knight Commander. And you dare betray me?"
If this went on, my head was going to roll.
Someone must have slipped poppy juice into my food last night. My body still wasn't right. If not for the poppy juice, I could have escaped somehow.
The people around me hadn't been on my side. I should have watched what was going on around me more closely, but there was no use regretting it now.
"My lord. This is a plot by someone who wants to frame me."
"I have nothing more to say."
My lord rose from his seat, raised his hand high, and brought it swiftly down. It was the signal to carry out the execution.
The guards and workers watching the execution were murmuring.
"The Knight Commander, a traitor. Could he really have done it?!"
"I can't believe it."
"Nobody can match the Knight Commander for loyalty, though."
"You don't know what you're talking about. A man's greed has no end. He wanted the lord's seat, that's what."
A moment later, the headsman, his beard thick and shaggy, came toward me carrying a huge execution blade. Then he raised it high.
— Shhk
A searing pain shot through my neck, and soon I lost consciousness.
***
Rafin Valone, eldest son of House Valone, began to have strange dreams from the age of 8.
They were dreams of a knight commander. A loyal, strong knight commander who carried all the hopes of his lord and the vassals.
At 9, at 10, at 11.
The dreams of the same man kept coming once or twice every year, and from the age of 12 he began to think that the man in the dreams might be himself.
When the same person had appeared in his dreams for some 4 years like this, he thought, it could not be coincidence.
As he trained in riding and swordsmanship, that thought only grew firmer.
The knight commander in his dreams rode and swung his sword exactly the way Rafin did now.
That was it. Rafin became certain that the knight commander in his dreams had been his own past life.
Rafin grew up strong and healthy at House Valone's Winstio Castle and turned 14. Every morning he was tutored in the study by the house scholar, Jamas Inyand, and every afternoon he honed his swordsmanship and his stamina.
Jamas's main method of teaching was to have Rafin read books he chose himself, then discuss their contents with him.
Rafin finished his day's lessons and opened a book to prepare for tomorrow's class. He had been reading for quite a while when his hand, turning a page, paused.
'Karnande...'
The moment he saw that name again, his heart gave a strange leap.
How could he ever forget that name? Karnande was the name of the house that had cut off his head after he served it loyally in his past life.
When he checked the dates, it was a house that had already fallen 500 years ago.
'They threw out a fine talent, so of course the house fell!'
Rafin meant to talk more about House Karnande with the scholar tomorrow.
The next day, Rafin went to the castle's study for his lesson. Books were packed tightly along 3 of the study's walls. Rafin reckoned it would take him another 10 years to read every book in the study.
At the large wooden table in the middle of the study, only Rafin and Jamas sat facing each other.
Rafin set a book called 'The Chronicle of Light and Darkness' on the table and opened it to the part he was reading.
Jamas was a scholar whose experience and learning were as great as his 62 years. Whenever he looked at Lord Rafin, who was growing up uncommonly sturdy, his heart swelled with pride. Jamas looked at Lord Rafin's hand and saw a red wound on it.
"Lord Rafin, what is this wound?"
"I got a bit hurt during sword training yesterday."
Rafin smiled as if it were nothing.
"You must be careful."
"This much is fine. If it were bad, I could just use a potion. Don't worry. You have to train as if it's real combat to get any better."
"Hahaha. Quite right. Shall we begin the lesson, then? You've read today's section, I trust?"
"Of course."
"From what you read yesterday, was there anything you wanted to know more about, or anything you were curious about?"
Jamas had spread a sheet of paper in front of him and held a quill pen. It was the paper on which he kept a journal of his daily lessons with Rafin.
"Reading 'The Chronicle of Light and Darkness' lately, I've come to see all over again how many houses have risen and fallen throughout history."
"That's right. Just as there is no such thing as eternal power, no matter how mighty a house may be, its great strength dulls with the passage of time. Some houses lose their power slowly, and some fall all at once."
"The part I read yesterday had the history of House Karnande in it."
"House Karnande is one of the houses that fell all at once."
"Yes. That's what the book said. Why did that happen?"
"It fell thanks to a lord who believed whatever he was told. As his Knight Commander's renown climbed ever higher, he feared the man would eclipse his own achievements, and he cast him out."
"The book says he didn't just cast him out. He cut off his head."
The moment Rafin spoke of the head being cut off, his neck gave a brief flinch. It was such a small movement that Jamas didn't notice.
"Not only House Karnande's loyal Knight Commander lost his head; his immediate family was put to death as well. It happened over 500 years ago, but it is an incident worth taking as a cautionary example of how a foolish lord brings his house to ruin."
"The Knight Commander never meant to rebel against his liege, did he?"
How could Rafin not know that? In his past life, he had never had the slightest intention of rebelling against his liege.
"Indeed. When they killed their renowned and loyal Knight Commander, House Karnande split apart in every direction. How bitterly wronged that Knight Commander must feel in the next world."
"Wronged to the bone, I'd imagine."
Rafin discussed history with the scholar for a good long while before finishing the lesson.
Rafin went back to his room to rest and ate the bread and boiled pork a servant had brought him.
The state of the realm changed a little every day. Without watching it closely, one could never see the change. If, in his past life, he had known that the king was keeping House Karnande, the Northern Grand Duke, in check, he would have conducted himself accordingly.
Rafin's house, Valone, was a weak house in the land of Caldrea. The proof was that it did not have a single vassal house under it. It had to conduct itself carefully so as not to fall out of favor with the powerful houses around it. He had even considered leaving House Valone to his younger brother.
If he stayed here in Philia, out on the frontier, it would be hard to grasp the state of the realm. He had to leave Philia. But if he, the eldest son of House Valone, gave up his place as heir and announced that he was going elsewhere, his father would oppose it.
How could he leave Philia by legitimate means? His leaving Philia did not mean he was abandoning House Valone. If only there were a jousting tournament or something, Rafin could show his skill and get out of Philia.
Only then would he have a chance to become a knight. But Rafin would not remain merely a loyal knight, as he had in his past life.
Like an owl that sees clearly all around it in the dark of night, he would keep his eyes open.
And like the sharp talons hidden in an owl's feathers, he would build his strength where no one could see it.
***
Rafin's sword instructor, Ivan Herris, had recently heard talk of an upcoming jousting tournament. It was to be held at Barad, House Rosrad's castle in Unton, or so he had been told.
Ivan Herris visited the office of the scholar, Jamas Inyand, to talk about the jousting tournament.
Jamas, seated at a table, closed the book he had been reading and spoke.
"What brings you to see me? Come here and sit."
"They say a jousting tournament will be held at Barad Castle in 3 months."
"So House Rosrad is hosting a jousting tournament. What's the occasion?"
"They say it is to commemorate 50 years since House Rosrad became the house of the Northern Grand Duke."
"Hm. So many years have gone by already. We'll have a good spectacle to watch, for once."
"House Rosrad has told us to send one man to compete in the tournament."
"So it's not a request but an order."
Lord Rafin crossed Jamas's mind. A jousting tournament. There could be no better pretext for putting the boy on a bigger stage. He was superb at both riding and swordsmanship.
"......."
"Well, whom do you think we should enter?"
"Well, one person does come to mind, but I'm worried whether the lord will allow it."
"You're thinking of Lord Rafin too, aren't you?"
"Yes. That's right. I'm in no position to persuade the lord, so would you put in a good word with him for me, Scholar? I'll vouch for Lord Rafin's skill. If only he can compete in the tournament, he'll place in the top 3 at the very least."
"I see. I'll speak to the lord. Wait for my word."
Jamas thought this tournament was a chance to put Lord Rafin before House Rosrad's eyes. There was also the calculation that if Lord Rafin's reputation rose, so might his own, as the man who had taught him since he was small.
And going further still, he thought that by using Lord Rafin, his own house...... Inyand, too, could profit one way or another.
Jamas immediately asked for an audience with the lord, Vilhe Valone. Then he asked how the lord would feel about sending Lord Rafin to the jousting tournament.
"And what if Rafin goes to the tournament and gets hurt?"
"You know very well what Lord Rafin can do. How can you say such a thing?"
"I know my eldest rides well and is excellent with a sword. Even so, I don't want to expose Rafin, who will succeed me, to the other houses."
"My lord, what is it you fear? House Valone has been ordered to send one man to compete."
"What? They ordered us to take part in the jousting tournament?"
"They did. If we send just anyone and he makes a poor showing at the tournament, what will become of House Valone's honor?"
"But it's not as if House Rosrad singled out Rafin and told him to compete in the jousting tournament, is it?"
"At a grand event celebrating the 50th anniversary of House Rosrad becoming the Northern Grand Duke, shouldn't we let the nobles know how splendidly House Valone's eldest son, Rafin, has grown up? With Lord Rafin's skill, he will do well at the tournament."
Jamas pressed on with one thing more.
"There is a more important reason Lord Rafin must take part in the tournament."
"What is it?"