Chapter 47: The Knight Who Pursued a Dragon

Dagonet's performance as a knight's squire was far from ideal.

However, he still managed to become a retainer to a local lord in Cornwall.

On the day of the squire selection, Dagonet, with the loudest voice of all, stood out and became one of the first loyal knight squires chosen by the lord.

Dagonet was overjoyed to secure a stable position. On the day he was led away from the group of boys, he loudly repeated the words, "I will be loyal to you until death," to his master all day long.

Afterward,

He was sent to the stables, where he spent his days with the packhorses used for transporting goods.

However, Dagonet did not see this as a disgrace but as an honorable mission assigned to him by the lord.

Every day, he meticulously cleaned the packhorses, even though they were rarely used due to the Church's influence.

When no one was looking, Dagonet would ride a scrawny packhorse, picking up branches to use as lances to practice charging.

But even though he never slacked off, training tirelessly every day,

All the other boys who became squires at the same time as him, one by one, transformed into true professional knights before his envious eyes. Some went to the battlefield, some to big cities, and some to ennobled villages to live better lives.

Each time, he would take out his notebook and carefully ask every companion who became a knight for advice. He meticulously recorded all their experiences during their promotion and understood the three essential elements of becoming a knight.

Loyalty, bravery, and justice!

But Dagonet still didn't become a knight.

He believed it was because he wasn't loyal enough, brave enough, or just enough.

So, every day that followed, he carved these words onto the wooden railings of the stables, wrote them on his palm, and whenever the lord passed by, he would perform a knight's salute with the utmost piety and precision, proclaiming his allegiance in a loud voice.

Year after year.

Dagonet still didn't become a knight, but because of his diligence and display of loyalty, the lord exceptionally allowed him to join his personal guard and praised him as a model for the guard.

Thus,

On the day the New Year arrived,

Dagonet, though not yet a knight and without a knight's strength, was about to be exceptionally granted the title of knight by the lord.

Dagonet's knighting ceremony was held on the same day. The lord gathered the villagers of the manor and announced the news to them.

That day,

Dagonet knelt on the high platform, looking up at his master with the most sincere, devout, almost tear-streaked expression.

The ceremony quickly reached the point where the lord was to bestow the sword upon Dagonet.

Dagonet, filled with an unprecedented excitement, raised his hands as if receiving the Eucharist of Jesus, waiting for the moment the sword would fall into his grasp.

Then,

"—Boom!!!"

A thunderous roar erupted at the ceremony site.

Dagonet heard the lord shouting: "Protect the King! Protect the King!"

"Quick, kill that beast!"

"Are you deaf, are you deaf!? Dagonet!"

Dagonet unhesitatingly stood up, snatched the saber from the lord's hand, and took a huge stride to mount the packhorse the lord had made him feed for three years!

He drew his sword, slapped the packhorse's rear with all his might, trembling like a sieve all over, and yelled loudly with tightly closed eyes:

"W-what!"

"You evil dragon! How dare you harm my lord!"

"I, Dagonet, swear to kill you!"

The packhorse charged forward at an unprecedented speed!

It leapt off the high platform, burst through the crowd, knocked over stalls in the domain, and trampled oranges splattering juice everywhere!

It crashed out of the ceremony site, out of the village, out of the manor,

until it reached a forest where only the chirping of birds remained.

Dagonet opened his eyes,

And found himself in a forest dozens of kilometers away.

And at that moment,

he realized that he had finally become the professional knight he had always aspired to be.

"Dagonet had neither talent nor the unwavering will of his comrades."

"He relied on his slippery personality to infiltrate the lord's personal guard,"

"However, when protecting his monarch, he had the thought of fear."

"And I thought that the beast I was afraid of and fled from, under the pretext of pursuit, was a dragon, but in reality, it was just a wild boar."

"By the time I realized my mistake, felt regret, and turned back to the domain, the lord I swore allegiance to died right before my eyes."

At this point, Dagonet lowered his head in dismay, giving a self-deprecating smile.

Su Ya, having heard the story, was at a loss for how to comment and could only pat Dagonet's shoulder.

"Dagonet, you did nothing wrong. Fear is a human emotion."

"It's just... the wild boar, did you take it down?"

Dagonet shook his head and sighed:

"I've been hunting that wild boar for over ten years, moving through more than ten different lords. In the end, it still got away. Through Sir Ector's intelligence channels, I investigated and found out that it's probably in Canterbury now."

Hearing this, Su Ya couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

A wild boar that a Master-level knight has been chasing for over ten years and is still alive and kicking... What species and level of wild boar was that?

Moreover, while this story sounded like a coward's confession, it seemed to have odd details everywhere.

At this moment, Dagonet shook his head and returned to the main topic:

"The most extreme emotions can transform into the most scorching flames, igniting Battle Scars and opening the door to the professional realm, even an emotion like fear, which is typically seen as disgraceful."

"This emotion allowed me to become a high-level cavalryman."

"The Battle Scars ignited and burned by it left a crest on my body. This is something I view as a disgrace, yet it has saved my life countless times in danger—"

Dagonet slowly raised his hand, removed his gauntlet, and showed Su Ya the black lines on the back of his hand.

It was a pattern of a raised torch.

"The name of this crest is—"

"Shadow Dissipation."

Su Ya stared at the crest's pattern and asked curiously: "Is this the combat technique you're going to teach me?"

"No."

"My King, the crest burned out after igniting Battle Scars is different for everyone, depending on the choice made at that moment and the state of mind."

"This crest is called a 'crest combat technique' at the high-level warrior rank, a 'unique specialty' at the master rank, an 'inherent ability' at the hero rank, and a 'mental world' at the legendary rank."

"In short, it's something that will constantly grow with your development."

As he spoke, the gloomy night sky had begun to lighten with the pale glow of dawn.

Dagonet stood up and said:

"Lucan sent me to tell you how to acquire this ability."

"And to tell you the path we want you to take next."

Su Ya was startled: "The path I'm to take?"

"We will no longer teach you combat techniques. All your combat techniques will need to be observed and learned by yourself. Your future direction of growth, whether dead or alive, whether becoming a swordsman or an assassin or something else, will also be decided by you."

"A king's path cannot be interfered with by his subjects!"

"Furthermore,"

Dagonet suddenly chuckled and translated:

"Limited to this morning's meal, all the food that brat eats from now on will need to be hunted and captured by himself. Otherwise, he'll starve."

"Those are Lucan's exact words."