Chapter 15: Treasure Granting

Achilles was kneeling before Lord Contantine, the palace was splendorous, paintings of previous Lords and their feats, there were columns of marble, a high ceiling in a dome format made with briliant materious that reflected the lights from the candles below, Constantine's clothes were various mantles of vibrants colors, there were yellow, blue, red all mixed in paterns and on the openings that showed the other mantles, he also used a shoulder cape with his house's insignia, it was a double headed dragon, one head was blue the other was yellow and the body was green, the arms of one side held a lance and the other held a staff that had as it's head an orb with a star like shape on top. Beside him was young Justin and Constantine's wife.

Achilles before being in this situation was given clothes morecomfy and beautiful then anything a simple hunter could ever taker look at, and on his sides were the other men that were with him on the hunt the day before. You could ask, why is Achilles even here? Well, you problably also know why, it was to thank to those brave men that saved the life of his son and heir.

- I, Constantine, welcome all of you! Today I called those brave men here to thank them for their valiant actions, as they saved the life of my son, Justin, at risks of their own lives!

Lord Constantine started to speak to the other vassal nobles and coutiers that were present, watching from the sides in rows. Constantine continued.

-First, Aesop, who slashed at the eyes of the monstrous boar that allowed it's slaying, even at the cost of his arm! You may raise your head!

The man on Achilles side raised his head.

-Aesop, I shall give you gifts of horses, weapons and riches in plenty, but is there anything else you'd like?

The man, Aesop stoped for a moment to think then said.

-Ó! Lord Constantine! I'd like nothing but a modest housing for me and my family with servants to work the fields and maintain it!

Aesop answered, Contantine nodded and granted his wish.

-Second, Achilles, who, noticed the great monster before all other as it was attacking my son, and allowed, with his great speed, to throw the monster to the ground and buy time for the others to arm themselves! You may raise your head!

Having his name called, Achilles rose his head.

-Achilles! For your valiant actions I shall give you gifts of horses, arms and treasures in plenty! Is there anything else you wish?

-Ó! Lord Constantine! I wish nothing but to have my spirit raised to the stars and for my family to be able to benefit from my glory!

Constantine nodded and granted the wish.

And one by one the eight men where granted presents and wishes, some wished for land, others for the fairest of all women to marry and some asked for small titles and powerful positions in the court.

After the ceremony there was a feast where a great boar was served in the table. This feast was not those classy types of feast that people are used to think of when they think of a noble party or feast, that is much more of a late modern early contemporary type of party that happened during the victorian era. No, this was a party with jesters dancing and juggling, food and wine and beer being served by the barrel, there was singing, and demostrations of strength with grappling matches, there were poets singing about the old heroes and god, incredible feats and legends of old.

The servants served wine and beer, food of far away places were brought in, there was delicious flamingo's tongue that was tender and soft as flamingos use their tongues to filter water for small crustaceans so their tongues are always moving. There was heart of lions from the southeast dry lands. There were peafowl that were cocked then had their feathers putted back again. And in the end a large pie of half a meter tall and 4 wide were sliced by the servants and a flock of white doves came out of it and flew around the hall until they found an open window, of corse the last one was not to eat, since problably it was full of bird poo, it was all for the spectacle.

Achilles had never eaten those meats with so much spice and taste, never tasted wine as sweet as this and never even thought of making food just to put up a show, as he would some times even have no food for some days. Achilles liked his first taste in luxury, he at that moment decided to live in that splendor and prestige for all of his and his descendants lives.

Achilles that night had slept at the servant's room of the palace, although when he fell asleep it was almost sunrise. At his side in the bed there was a woman, a servant of the palace who was flirtious with him at the banquet, Achilles got up, dressed himself and left without saying a word or waking her up, not that he will be seeing her again.

Achilles went out of the servants quarters and met a servant who said to him to go to the training grounds where his wish would be granted.

As instructed Achilles went to the training grounds and there he saw a somewhat familiar face, it was a knight that often accompanied Lord Constantine when he went hunting, his name was Sir Agamamemnon, the Dragonheart. Dragonheart was a nickname given to him first for his fury in the battlefield but then officialy when he and his band went out to kill a dragon that was causing problems and when they slew it the Order of the Dragon was formed and he was given the name Dragonheart cause it was said that he slew it by piercing the dragons heart, although most of it is somewhat of a legend.

Although dragons in this world don't fly they still are a danger with a lot having venomous bites, killing in great numbers as they can eat rotten food, so they just let the corpse there for eating later, and for being extremely territorial and also having an acidic poo that kills the plants and makes the nearby soil infertile. Having long sharp claws and a tough hide don't help, as the scaly hide is so tough that if you were to slash or stab it the blade would just slide of the scale. If you want to kill one you'd need to either use a blunt weapon, use a strong and heavy bow or stab it under the scales that were hard to aim at. Also, also dragons have about 10 meters in lenght minimum and can get up by 1 meter when not dragging it's body in the ground, and can run up to 50km/h to chase it's prey. Well at least they are a bit easier to kill then a wyvern that can actually fly and have at minimum a 15 meter wide wingspan and ove 6 meter tall.

-Hey boy! So I heard you saved the Young Master, you said you wanted to honor the stars, huh? Let's see, you are a bit too old to do the proper way to knighthood, so we'll have to do something different for you.

Agamemnon told Achilles as such then stoped to think about how to make this peasant to a proper knight not only in name but in practice. Fighting was the full profession of the nobles to begin with, all noblemen would be born and the moment the child had enough strength it would train the sword, spear and mace, how to ride a horse and how to use a bow to hunt and all of it for the sole goal of becoming a instopable killing machine in the battlefield. Nobles were born and trained to kill and when they weren't training they were drinking, feasting or having fun with women, that was the proper way to live as a noble knight.

Of course that is somewhat of a exaggeration, but still very accurate.

-So first of all your gifts and presents, Lord Constantine also gave you a house in the state for your training, it would be troublesome to have to come all the way from the forest to the state every morning after all. Some servants will take care of your horses, you sure are a fortunate one.

Agamemnon was old, looking like a tough old man, with a grey beard and mustache and hair. He had the rugged face of an old man but still a strong one. He had brown eyes and some old scars that didn't show much on his cheeks and hands, since as a knight and soldier a helmet is the most important thing of all and gloves were also very important, you wouldn't want to lose your hand or fingers after all, but when he was young he did various duels, most for first blood but some were to the death.

Agamemnon wasn't from the beastmen ethnic group so he didn't have the paterns in the hair that is common among beastmen and his eyes wouldn't shine in the dark because he hadn't the night vision that the beastmen had.

Agamemnon said to Achilles to go to his new house and pick his armor, he needed to train how to put it on himself or on others.

-Sir Agamemnon, I do indeed appreciate the gifts that M'Lord Constantine granted me, but I think he gave me enough to fill an armory.

The house granted to Achilles was a two story building divided between the normal house stuff and three rooms of armors and weapons, there were 10 sets of different types of armor, there was mail, scale, plate and bringandine all included with the gambeson to use between the armor and body. For each set of armor there was 2 types of matching helmets, one type was a more closed one that had holes all around the helmet for a full vision, for this type of helmet was fixed still on the armor and you would move around your head to see around you.

There were also a more traditional greek looking helmet that was closed on the cheeks but the eyes were visible with only some protection on the nose separating both holes for the eyes. There was also some more traditional beastmen helmet, at least some people thought it was traditional but it really was just a famous helmet that was used in ancient times by many people including the beastmen that was a boar tusk helmet. It problably was a reference about what his acomplishment was. All of the armor and helmets made with incredibly detailed patterns from stars to flowers to chess like patterns, truly beautiful craftsmanship.

On the room ahead was full of saddles, caparisons with vibrant colors with drawings of Lord Contantine's house's emblem and the drawing of a white sun above a yellowp plane of golden wheat and a blue sky, there was horse armor from various types, there were lighter one that protected just the more vulnerable areas like the front and back legs, there was flexible mail and scale armor to protect the body and the heaviest was the full body plate armor that it was so heavy that only the strongest and biggest of horses could run wearing it together with an armored rider.

The next and final room was full of weapons of all sorts, there were jousting lances, throwing javelins, there was poleaxes, glaives, halberds and many others, all with decorations carved in the steel and wood. There were spears for hunting and warring, there was spears for hunting boar and for hunting deer and another just for hunting bears. Tere were maces and warhammers, warhammers were not big like some would see in fantasy but the were the size and format of a normal building hamer, with a smaller head and a long spike, for hitting hard and sometimes even piecing armor, although it would problably get stuck on it. There was war daggers that were thin, long and pointy, with about no edge as it was meant for stabing between a knight's armor on the back of the knee, on the neck, on the armpit and in the visor of the helmet. Of course there was some swords but those were not really important, swords were mostly side weapons for you to use if you lost your spear of if the enemy came in to close of you to use it in the first place, of course it was simbolic important as swords were very expensive to make and were somewhat of a status signal.

Achilles just didn't know where to start.