WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 229

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Chairman, Dieta (3)

Agesio Arbenia was the eldest son of the Duke's family.

Until recently, he had been the prime candidate to inherit the position of family head. Wherever he went, he was the center of attention, every eye in the room. The Arbenia Duke's house stood behind him, so no one had ever looked down on him, and no one had ever dared be rude to his face. Which was why the scene before him now was something Agesio simply could not make sense of.

'Isn't Sir Griffin a knight of the Arbenia family? A knight who swore to serve only Arbenia, who pledged his loyalty to this family and no one else?'

Then why was Griffin bowing his head to someone else? At an angle he would only ever lower himself for his own father, Osman? Agesio's eyes went wide.

Had Griffin been bowing to anyone else, Agesio might have told himself 'Sir Griffin must have his reasons' and swallowed his irritation... but.

Clench.

The problem was who that person was.

Griffin was on his knees before that infuriating woman and the young man who had humiliated him not long ago.

The moment he saw it, Agesio lost control. Inferiority lit the fuse, and the blaze it ignited burned his judgment to ash. His mouth moved a full step before his mind could catch up.

"What kind of disgraceful behavior is this, Sir Griffin!"

His voice rang through the dining hall. Every noble eating there turned to stare.

"You are a knight of Arbenia. A knight who swore his loyalty under the Arbenia name."

Whether it was wise to publicly reprimand his family's knight in front of so many watching eyes was not a question he had the presence of mind to ask himself.

"What kind of knight bows his head to another while his own master stands right there? Have you forgotten the code of knighthood? A knight is supposed to..."

The code of knighthood.

The moment those words left his mouth, Griffin's head snapped around. He was always composed, never one to make a scene, but now he turned sharply and looked at his master. With his eyes, Griffin said: please, shut your mouth. But.

"...to be a sword devoted to one's master alone, to bow only before one's master, to exist only for one's master..."

Agesio didn't catch it.

He went right on, spelling out the code of knighthood, his vision of what a knight should be. An entirely aristocracy-centered vision, needless to say.

It wasn't a view unique to Agesio. Ask any ten nobles what a knight was and eight out of ten would give the same answer.

Only one condition would change that. With that single condition present, all ten would hold their tongues, or offer some dignified platitude like, 'A knight is one who upholds honor and pride, would you not say?'

The condition was simple enough.

Standing before the knight among knights, the Knights of Atanga.

Or before someone who held an equivalent rank.

"......"

Najin belonged to the latter.

From the moment Agesio uttered the words 'code of knighthood,' Najin's eyes had narrowed. Griffin caught the look and went white.

Because Griffin knew.

He knew exactly how bad this situation was.

Najin was a Free Knight. A Free Knight was one who protected all knights, a symbolic figure every knight looked up to. To invoke the code of knighthood in front of such a person was no different from pressing a blade to your own throat.

'What happened to the nobles who brought up the code of knighthood in front of Atanga?'

The outcome hadn't been pretty. That much he remembered.

It wasn't just a legal matter. It was an insult to the title of knighthood itself, the kind of act that could draw the collective fury of everyone who bore that name.

"Stop looking away, Sir Griffin. Am I not speaking to you right now!"

He wanted to scream at Agesio to shut his mouth, but Griffin exercised remarkable restraint, limiting himself to a single blow to the back of Agesio's neck. He channeled mana through the strike and knocked Agesio out cold.

Even if it meant laying hands on his own master, he could not let this go any further.

"Ugh..."

With a faint groan, Agesio went limp. Griffin settled him into the chair beside him, then knelt before Najin.

"On behalf of my master, I apologize for the rudeness."

He had stopped things from escalating, yes. But you can't put spilled water back in the glass. A burning sensation worked its way up Griffin's chest.

Too many eyes watching.

A mistake made on their side.

And the other party handed justification on a platter.

The political footing was terrible. It was as if the other side had been handed a sharp sword and every reason in the world to swing it. Griffin looked up at the one holding the hilt.

"......"

A girl gazed down at them with cold, detached eyes. Her golden eyes, frost-still and sunken, reminded him of the look his own master wore. Born of Arbenia blood, carrying those golden eyes that ran in the family's lineage, the corners of her eyes curved like a crescent moon.

A born merchant. A negotiator. A political creature through and through.

In less than a year she had seized the title of the empire's foremost merchant, and there was no chance she would let an opening like this pass her by. It wasn't a battlefield where swords and spears flew, but in the political arena where justification was the weapon, this girl was every bit as dangerous as a Sword Master.

"Knight Commander of the Arbenia Duke's household, Sir Griffin."

Dieta spoke.

She opened her mouth and named his affiliation and title precisely. It was like the moment before a duel when each side calls out the other's name.

A signal. I'm coming for you.

Griffin swallowed the sigh trying to escape him and straightened his posture. Hoping to deflect even a fraction of what was coming.

Agesio came around about an hour later. He scrambled upright and looked around. His own room. Fully dark now, night pooled across everything. He pressed a hand to his throbbing head and blinked.

He had been reprimanding Griffin, that much he was sure of. Everything after that was gone.

He was still trying to piece it together when,

"Are you awake?"

"Wh-whoa!"

A voice beside him made Agesio flinch. He grabbed the ore lamp from the nightstand, lit it, and swung it toward the sound. Griffin sat in a chair, fingers laced together.

"...What is it, Sir Griffin?"

"First, I must apologize for laying hands on you, my lord. I will accept whatever punishment you see fit. But there is a matter I must report."

He wasn't in the mood to listen.

Still, his head had cooled enough for him to decide he should hear it out. He nodded, expression sour.

"Go on then."

"To give you the conclusion first: the Arbenia family must proceed with a trial by combat against Free Knight Sir Najin."

"What? What are you talking about?"

Agesio's eyes went wide.

Griffin let out a long breath and continued.

"My lord, you committed a grave offense against Free Knight Sir Najin. Furthermore, the Arbenia family has a history of illegal conduct against the Dieta Trading Company. At the time, the company wasn't large enough for the nobility to treat it as a serious matter... but if someone decides to make it one, it becomes one."

What's that supposed to mean? Speak plainly. Despite Agesio's demand, Griffin didn't stop.

"The past incident has been brought back to light. The rudeness you committed gave them justification."

"I was rude?"

Even faced with Agesio's blank blinking, Griffin held himself in check. He is my master's son. He is someone I must serve. Do not question, do not suspect, do not judge. He turned the creed over in his mind several times and steadied his breathing.

"He's a merchant at the end of the day. A bigger operation doesn't make him a nobleman. And as for being rude to that young man? It was Sir Griffin suddenly bowing that caused the problem! What did I ever do that was..."

"Listen carefully, my lord."

Griffin cut him off.

A rudeness he had never once committed before.

"Setting aside the fact that Chairwoman Dieta cannot be dismissed as 'just a merchant'... Sir Najin is a Free Knight."

"I know that. In terms of status, isn't he treated as my equal? The equivalent of the highest-ranking noble..."

"That is an administrative classification and nothing more. If you'll forgive my bluntness, a Free Knight is not someone bound by rank. Not someone protected by rank. A Free Knight uses rank when it suits them."

Griffin explained to his blinking master.

"A Free Knight is something like an idol to every knight in the empire, a figure who carries real symbolic weight. They hold the same title as the mythic knights who stood alongside the founding emperor himself."

In an empire that prized tradition above all else, what that meant should have gone without saying.

"It wasn't that nobles came first and the empire was built around them. The empire came first, and nobles came after. And this empire was built by the founding emperor, Knight King Arthur, together with the Round Table and the Free Knights. Do you understand what that means?"

"......"

"To speak publicly about what knighthood means is to shoulder an enormous political burden."

And Agesio had done exactly that, in front of countless watching nobles, lecturing them on what a knight should be. From the most aristocracy-centered perspective imaginable.

"To utter words that could be taken as an insult to knighthood in front of a Free Knight, who is the very idol of all knights, is not something that can be lightly overlooked, my lord."

"I... I have to apologize to that man?"

"It would be fortunate if an apology were enough. The fact that it isn't is precisely the problem."

The conversation came back around to where it began.

"The Arbenia family's past illegal conduct. And the charge of insulting knighthood before a Free Knight."

Only now did Agesio truly grasp the situation. The color drained from his face.

"These are not charges you can bear alone, my lord. This has escalated into something the entire Arbenia family must answer for."

"Which means..."

"A trial by combat. Even this, I would say, is a merciful outcome. It's only possible because Sir Najin chose to take a step back."

A short breath from Griffin.

"A message from the family head."

He said it plainly.

"Return to the main estate."

We'll talk about the details then.

Agesio fainted.

The incident surrounding the Arbenia family, the Dieta Trading Company, and Free Knight Najin spread across the entire empire overnight. When it was announced that a trial by combat had been scheduled, the empire could only tilt their heads in puzzlement.

With evidence this clear and responsibility this obvious, why settle it with a trial by combat?

Trial by combat was something reserved for cases where evidence was ambiguous. It wasn't the right method for a situation like this. But when Najin's statement followed, the empire understood.

「Insults are washed clean through combat.」

「Honor and pride are proven by the sword.」

「That is the code of knighthood.」

Agesio Arbenia had invoked the code of knighthood and chivalry, and in doing so, had stained the honor of knighthood itself. The Arbenias had to prove that his words had been a slip of the tongue, not a reflection of what their family stood for.

How to prove it?

Fight. In front of a Free Knight, have the knights of the Arbenia Duke's house show that they are not what was implied, show their honor and their pride. Do that, and leniency would be considered for the crimes they had committed.

The empire cheered. The knights were just as enthusiastic, calling it a merciful choice and one worthy of a Free Knight. But for those directly involved, it was anything but merciful.

If they failed to prove it.

If they lost, and lost badly.

The entire empire would be watching. Depending on the outcome, Arbenia could see everything they had built over the years ground into the dirt. Family head Osman called in every Sword Seeker the family had.

The rules of the duel were simple.

Any number could challenge. If you were a knight of Arbenia, take up your sword.

The rules Najin had laid out were extremely favorable to the Arbenia family, and precisely because of that, the risk of an ugly defeat had grown all the larger.

Time passed. The day of the trial arrived.

A packed arena. Through the cheers and applause, Najin stepped onto the stage.

"......"

His Free Knight's coat billowed. A sword in one hand. The Lance of the Crossed Star on his back.

Thud. He drove the lance into the ground.

The banner tied to the shaft swayed as Najin spoke.

"Insults are washed clean through combat."

Najin recited the code of knighthood.

"Honor and pride are proven by the sword."

He raised his sword.

"Take up your sword and prove it."

That you are a knight.

The duel was declared. From across the arena, the first to step forward was one of the four Sword Seeker-rank knights of Arbenia.

"Free Knight, Najin."

"Knight of Arbenia, Giyot."

Sword in one hand, shield in the other.

Looking at Najin across the arena floor, Giyot turned it over in his mind. If you named the most famous person in the empire right now, it would be this young man. He had no interest in denying what Najin had accomplished.

He was strong. No illusions about winning.

But for the knights who would fight after him, Giyot called up his mana with one goal: wear Najin down, even a little.

'No matter how famous he is, he's still a Sword Seeker. Same rank as me. He's not a Sword Master.'

Hold out. That was the plan.

What Giyot was most confident in was endurance, dragging a fight into a war of attrition. He struck his sword against his shield. Clang. The shield, wrapped in aura, burned red.

Ready.

The Knight of Atanga overseeing the match called the start.

And then.

Crash!

The moment the duel began, Giyot was slammed into the wall.

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