kscans

Loyalty

1

Nineteen times. A new record. Longa collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily but savoring a sense of accomplishment. At fifteen, the ability to recover strength after just a brief rest was truly a blessing.

After catching his breath, he stood and retrieved his rapier. Though unsigned, it was a fine sword, a memento from his father. He drew the slender blade smoothly, but having just been striking the training post with a practice sword as heavy as a knight’s blade, his arms had lost their strength and he could barely maintain a proper form. That was precisely the point. It was when he was too exhausted to properly swing a knight’s sword that this rapier proved most valuable.

As the blade he had barely raised to the middle guard began to fall from its own weight, Longa timed his movement and lunged forward. The sword struck exactly where he had aimed. After repeating this exercise five times, his arms finally refused to move. He rested on the ground once more before leaving the training ground. Tyguert would be waking soon. He needed to attend to his lord’s morning routine.

2

Longa, or Longard Spendol, had a father who served under Seifert. Their relationship surely went beyond that of mere superior and subordinate. Longa had gathered this much from his memories of his father. When his father became bedridden from battlefield wounds and succumbed to illness, his final words were, “Longa… to Lord Seifert…” What had he wanted done for Lord Seifert? What message had he tried to convey? Seifert made a point of attending his father’s funeral, where he quietly handed a purse of gold coins to Longa’s mother. Enough for a mother and her child to live on for some time.

Two years after his father’s death, his mother passed away. To the grief-stricken Longa, Seifert spoke gently.

“Won’t you come live with me? I have a son your age.”

Longa nodded, and with that nod came his resolve. From this day forward, he is this man’s retainer. And someday he will repay this debt. The eight year old Longa made this vow in his heart. Seifert took him to the town of Bador and introduced him to Fermina and Tyguert.

In the six years before Longa moved to Lordvan Castle and joined the Frontier Knight Order, he only met Seifert twice. These two encounters became precious memories. The first was when he was ten, just after beginning his early knight training. Seifert taught him the principles of swordplay.

“Listen carefully, Longa. Many knights believe a sword should be swung with all their might. But ‘all their might’ means all the power they can muster, and drawing that out requires intense practice. Once a knight has swung with all their might, they have no strength left to attack again. Battles don’t end with a single strike. Rather than aiming for one killing blow, it’s better to increase the number of times you can attack using seventy percent of your power.”

Longa took these words to heart. There are limits to one’s strength. No matter how well-trained a knight is, they cannot swing a sword indefinitely. Just as archers have a limited number of arrows in their quiver, knights have a limit to how many times they can swing their sword. Longa aimed to become a knight who could accurately gauge his remaining strength in the heat of battle.

The second meeting was when he was twelve. He had been practicing with his sword. Despite his age, Longa could swing a small practice sword seven times. Afterward, he took out his rapier to practice. Seifert had been watching. Though rapier training wasn’t part of the knight’s curriculum, Longa expected to be scolded. Instead, Seifert’s words were kind.

“That’s a frighteningly accurate aim. That’s something innate, not something you can acquire through practice. Your father was also a master of the rapier. You’ve inherited his talent well.”

Longa’s chest swelled with pride, and his resolve to dedicate his loyalty to this man grew stronger.

However, he soon realized his misconception. Seifert was thirty years his senior. By the time Longa became a knight, Seifert would likely be retired already. His loyalty, therefore, could not be dedicated to Seifert. To whom, then, should it be given? There was no one but Seifert’s son, Tyguert. After all, why else would Seifert have introduced Longa to Tyguert and had them live together, if not to entrust his son to him?

From then on, Longa began serving Tyguert as his one and only lord. Outwardly, nothing changed. To Longa, Tyguert remained a boy of the same age who got along well with him, a partner in mischief, and the son of the main house whose needs he attended to. But in his heart, Longa had begun dedicating his sole loyalty to Tyguert. No. There was one more person to whom Longa pledged his loyalty. Leilia, his lord Tyguert’s fiancée.

3

When Tyguert met Leilia, Longa also met her.

“She’s the goddess Swen-Ko-El herself!”

With the pure intensity only a thirteen year old could muster, Longa worshipped Leilia. She seemed to have stepped out straight from mythology, radiating divine brilliance. An ideal maiden emanating a vivid presence just before blooming into womanhood. Longa probably failed to control his expression as he gazed at her. However, Leilia was lost in Tyguert’s eyes, oblivious to everything else, and no one noticed Longa’s expression. No, Fermina might have seen through him. But Fermina was the one who had welcomed Longa without hesitation, treated him like her own son, and would gently guide him when he strayed. Longa didn’t mind if Fermina understood his feelings.

Thus, Longa fell in love. It was a love that would never be confessed. Even after becoming a knight, Longa would never dedicate his sword to Leilia. Under no circumstances could anyone discover these feelings. Moreover, even without such grand gestures as dedicating his sword, Longa had already pledged an unwavering loyalty to Leilia in the depths of his heart. Protecting the lives, happiness, and honor of Tyguert and Leilia became Longard Spendol’s reason for being. Longa watched over them as their love grew. And when Tyguert finally confessed to Leilia and she accepted, Longa shed tears of joy in the shade of a tree.

4

A year had passed since Tyguert and Longa came to Lordvan Castle on Seifert’s order to become apprentice knights. By fortune, Seifert, the Frontier Knight Order Commander, was stationed at this castle. Longa continued to hone his literary and martial skills. Now he could finally swing a knight’s sword nineteen times. His accuracy with the rapier was improving as well. He had to keep building his strength. The time when he would be needed would surely come. That time might be approaching right before his eyes.