"Yes. Understood."
Rewad answered and stepped aside.
Anies took up a sword and walked slowly toward Rafin.
Rafin could tell what Sir Anies had in mind in wanting to spar with him. He wanted to find out firsthand how much swordsmanship the tournament winner had.
By winning the jousting tournament, he had settled in at Barad Castle as a squire. He had, in effect, passed the first gate. When someone outstanding suddenly appears, people who envy and resent him always turn up around him.
Rafin thought it was now time to catch his breath.
"Everyone, don't mind me; carry on with your own sparring. Rafin, today was your first day of sword training here at the Barad Castle training ground, and still you showed us something good.
Rewad looked like he couldn't handle you. I'm curious what you'll show against me. When you're ready, come at me."
Rafin had never seen Sir Anies's swordsmanship, so he couldn't tell how good it was. For now, he meant to feel him out.
Rafin took an attacking stance and drew a deep breath.
A moment later, Rafin made a thrust. Anies stepped easily aside and swept Rafin's thrust away with his sword.
Rafin followed with three more thrusts in a row. But he gradually raised the speed of his attacks. Though the thrusts came faster, Anies blocked all three of them admirably.
Watching how Sir Anies defended, Rafin could sense the depth of his real combat experience. Anies truly lived up to his mercenary past. Rafin could gauge with the feel of his own body how much skill he would need to show to beat Sir Anies.
Rafin meant to hold back his strength while he felt Anies out.
This time, Anies's attack began. A diagonal slash. Rafin blocked it with his sword. Right after blocking, Rafin had a chance to counter, but he deliberately didn't.
Anies swung his sword in wide arcs to the left and right. Rafin blocked these attacks admirably too. Rafin could read every one of Sir Anies's movements. Again he saw an opening to counter, but he didn't.
"Rafin, don't just block. Try attacking too."
Anies stopped attacking and caught his breath for a moment.
"Your attacks are so fierce, Instructor, I have no opening to counter."
"Hahaha."
A moment after Anies's laughter ended, the two began sparring again.
Rafin didn't change his defensive stance. He countered only when an opening appeared that anyone could have seen.
Anies was no ordinary swordsman either, so he could block all of Rafin's counters.
Anies put distance between himself and Rafin and raised his hand to signal the end of the sparring.
"That's it for today's training. Good work, everyone."
"Thank you for your hard work."
The squires shouted.
Anies looked at Rafin and smiled.
"Your defense is very good. But you can't only defend. You have to find openings to attack."
"Your attacks were so fierce, Instructor, that it was hard to find an opening. I'll train hard under you from now on and improve my skill further."
Rafin felt a laugh rising inside him, but he tightened his throat and held it down.
The squires put their swords back in the equipment storehouse, took off their leather armor, and changed into their everyday clothes.
Rafin and Rewad went back to the quarters.
"The washroom is on the 1st floor."
Rewad showed Rafin to the washroom.
The two were washing off their sweat with water. Rewad handed Rafin a dry towel.
"How was your first sword training?"
Rafin wiped the water from his face, neck, and arms with the dry towel.
"It was fun. The Instructor's swordsmanship is amazing."
"Of course it is. He was famous for his swordsmanship in his mercenary days. But you looked really strong when you were running the forms with me. When you fought the Instructor, you didn't look strong."
"Well, that's because the Instructor's swordsmanship is better than mine."
"I guess swordsmanship is relative."
The sound of someone running came from outside the washroom. The washroom door opened, and a servant came in and walked up to Rafin.
"There you are. The Treasurer is looking for you."
"For me?"
When the Treasurer was mentioned, Rafin thought he knew why he was being looked for.
At the news that the Treasurer was looking for Rafin, Rewad stared at Rafin with wide eyes.
"Why would the Treasurer be looking for you?"
"Who knows. Why would he be looking for me?"
Rafin was playing innocent.
"Lord Rafin, please come with me."
Rafin and the servant headed for a keep some distance north of the quarters. They arrived at the top floor of the keep.
"I've brought Lord Rafin."
The servant knocked on the door of the private chamber and left. Soon a voice came from inside.
"Come in."
Rafin went inside. Inside was an old man of slight build. He had light brown hair and wore a tunic made of purple velvet.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Rafin Valone."
"Yes. I'm the Treasurer, Edmer. Have a seat."
Rafin sat in a chair.
"Do you drink mead?"
"I do. If I'm not drinking it, it's only because there's none."
Edmer took out two cups and filled them with mead.
"Try it. It's made from honey gathered from acacia blossoms."
Rafin smelled the mead and took a sip.
"It smells wonderful. It's like being out in a meadow."
Edmer set a leather pouch from the corner of the table in front of Rafin. It jingled.
"Congratulations on winning the jousting tournament. For a young man, there's no encouragement as good as gold coins, better than congratulations in words alone. Take it. Your prize money."
Rafin couldn't hold back the smile spreading on his face.
"Thank you."
"No one dislikes money."
"That's right. Winning the tournament is great renown in itself, but the prize money makes it even more of a joy."
"You're honest."
Edmer was slowly drinking his mead.
Rafin didn't know when he would again have the chance to talk alone with the Treasurer, one of House Rosrad's senior vassals, and he was reluctant to leave just like that. He wanted to hear something good from the experienced Treasurer.
"Treasurer, may I ask you for some advice, now that I've begun my life as a squire at Barad Castle?"
Edmer set his cup on the table and took one deep breath.
"Advice, is it... A squire attends the knights and trains, so you'll be using your body a great deal. Squires whom the knights rate well get dubbed knights later on. Becoming a knight is your goal too, after all."
"Of course. My dream is to become a loyal knight of House Rosrad."
"You're from a noble house, so you can read. Then it's good to read books and build up knowledge. Knights try to solve everything with force. But the world has many problems that force alone can't solve. To solve problems like that, you need to know a great deal in many fields. If you don't know things properly, wisdom can't come of it either. And this isn't true only for vassals; wise merchants can make a lot of money too."
"I see. You mean I shouldn't only train my body, but read books and, through reflection, work at how to apply knowledge and solve problems."
"Haha. That doesn't sound like a tournament winner. Right, you've understood me properly."
"I'll engrave the advice you gave me today deep in my heart. Then I'll take my leave."
Rafin left the Treasurer's private chamber. A servant was waiting outside the door. When Rafin came out, the servant went into the chamber and cleared away the cups.
***
The swordsmanship instructor Anies visited the private chamber of Artin, Vice Commander of the knights. On the table were wine, cheese, dried figs, and raisins.
Artin slowly poured wine into two cups. Then the two each took a sip. Just then, a sparrow flew onto the windowsill and looked around for something to eat.
Artin picked up a raisin and tossed it at the sparrow. To the sparrow, the raisin was food, but perhaps startled by Artin's throwing motion, it flew off into the sky.
Anies spoke.
"Did you feed the sparrow or chase it away?"
"Both. The sparrow took fright before it had to and flew off, so I suppose I chased it away."
Artin picked up a raisin and put it in his mouth.
"These raisins were freshly dried, so they taste good. They go well with wine."
Anies took a sip of wine and chewed a raisin.
Artin and Anies were on such terms that they often drank wine and chatted in Artin's chamber even without any particular business.
"Are you training the squires in swordsmanship properly these days?"
"I train them steadily so they don't lose the feel of handling a sword."
"If there are any squires who are lazy or lag behind in swordsmanship, give me a heads-up. Those bastards need to be swapped out. There are plenty of bastards who want to come into Barad Castle as squires."
"...There aren't any particularly lazy squires yet. But the new one who just came in, Rafin, is quite decent with a sword."
"You mean the kid who won the tournament. If he can handle a lance well, he'll handle a sword well enough too."
"For a squire, his swordsmanship is good. If he's raised well from here, I think his skill can grow even further."
"Have you already sparred with Rafin or something?"
"Seeing him train with another squire, he seemed skilled, so I sparred with him."
"However good a squire's swordsmanship, he couldn't have beaten you, with all your experience from your mercenary days."
"Haha. That goes without saying."
"Still, if you're praising him this much, his swordsmanship must be considerable. I know bastards of Rafin's kind well."
"His kind?"
"How do you think I rose to this position? To keep House Tiregel's line alive, I had to give House Rosrad everything, body and soul. Rafin comes from a house of no account too, and on top of that, he's House Valone's legitimate eldest son, yet he came into Barad Castle as a squire, after all. That bastard won't let it show, but the more someone comes from a house like that, the more he'll be burning inside with desire for power and money. I know that feeling well. I hear he asked the Knight Commander when he'd get his prize money. A mere squire bringing that up with the Knight Commander. He's a cheeky brat."
"To say something like that directly to the Knight Commander...."
Before they knew it, both wine cups were empty. When Anies refilled them, Artin downed a cup of wine in one go.
"Did Rafin get cocky just because he's handy with a sword?"
"He showed no sign of that. However, while we sparred, even though I was the one on the offensive, a certain ease somehow showed in Rafin's expression. I couldn't tell whether it was just my imagination or whether Rafin is the type who doesn't get nervous."
"Anyway, watch that bastard's conduct closely. Right now he's a new squire, so he'll be keeping his true self tightly in check, but once he becomes a knight and has some authority, who knows what his true nature will turn out to be."
"I'll keep a close eye on him."
"If, by any chance, you catch any impure intentions, report to me immediately."