The Ticket to Becoming a Knight

The following year, Saina's family welcomed a new addition.

It was a girl, and they named her Su Na.

Just like that, another ten years passed.

The old locust tree in Wading Village looked even more ancient now, its bark cracked like a dried-up riverbed. But the blacksmith shop beneath it was doing better business than ever.

Su Li was forty this year.

By rights, in a world with scarce medical care and crushing taxes imposed by the nobles, a forty-year-old man should have been stooped, bent at the waist, and wearing a face weighed down with misery. But Su Li was an exception.

The years, that butcher's knife, seemed to have gone dull on him.

His face was still as smooth as a freshly peeled egg. If anything, after twenty more years of life experience, that blend of laziness and world-weariness had grown even more pronounced.

The fine lines at the corners of his eyes didn't make him look old. They seemed more like delicate embellishments, making him look more like a fallen noble than a blacksmith who spent all day working with coal dust.

But right now, he was troubled.

So troubled he wanted to grab that thick head of black hair and pull out a handful.

"Father, I want to go."

Inside the blacksmith shop, a boy on the cusp of adulthood knelt bolt upright on the ground.

This was Su Xiaochui. He was built like a young bull, his muscles stretching his coarse-cloth clothes taut.

He lowered his head. In his eyes, identical to Su Li's, two flames burned.

Su Li sat in his armchair, holding the purple clay teapot he'd polished until it gleamed. He'd made the imitation himself, shaping the clay and firing it based on memories from his previous life.

"You want to go?" Su Li blew across the steam at the spout, his tone even. "Do you know what kind of place it is?"

"I do." Su Xiaochui lifted his chin stubbornly. "The Saint George Knight Academy in the Baris Empire. I can learn skills there and become a knight."

"That place is a money pit." Su Li slammed the teapot down on the table. It landed with a dull thud.

"It's a place that devours people whole. Tuition alone is fifty Gold Coins a year, and that's not counting food, lodging, equipment, or the money to grease the instructors' palms. Fifty Gold Coins! Do you know how many times your father has to swing a hammer to save up that much?"

Su Xiaochui fell silent.

But he didn't get up. His fists clenched tightly around the seams of his pants.

Su Li looked at his stubborn son and sighed inwardly.

That boy was just like his mother. Once he made up his mind, nothing could sway him.

Truthfully, Su Li knew better than anyone.

The money had to be spent.

Even if they had to sell everything they owned, they had to spend it.

In this life, his last life, and the one before that, he'd been struggling in the mud.

Whether you were a laborer or a blacksmith, in the eyes of those lofty bigwigs, you were an ant, a filthy bug they could crush whenever they pleased.

The only way out was the supernatural.

That so-called "Breathing Method," that power that could let a person kill a bull with one punch and infuse a weapon with aether, was the only ladder across the class divide.

Once you became a knight's squire, even if you were the lowest-ranking iron tier, you were still a "prospective noble," free of commoner status.

You didn't have to pay the head tax or perform forced labor, and you didn't have to kneel when you met the town mayor.

It was something Su Li had dreamed of obtaining when he was young.

Now he was awake from that dream, and he was old—though his face didn't show it. But someone had to keep that dream alive.

"Get up." Su Li kicked his son. "Will kneeling make Gold Coins appear?"

Su Xiaochui jerked his head up, unable to hide his joy. "Father, you agree?"

"What's the use of my agreeing? It's up to the purse."

Su Li stood and walked into the back room.

Beneath the old bed was a loose floorboard. Su Li pried it up with practiced ease and dragged out a heavy iron chest.

This was the nest egg that he and Old Buck, across two generations, had scraped together bit by bit.

That night.

Saina sat on the edge of the bed, sewing clothes for Su Li as she wiped away her tears.

At forty, Saina's figure had changed a little. Her once-toned waist had grown rounder, though it made her look fuller. Her face was losing its collagen, and crow's feet had appeared at the corners of her eyes.

But to Su Li, she was still just as alluring.

"You're really sending Xiao Chui?" Saina sniffed, her voice thick with tears. "It's so far away, and there's a war going on. What if..."

"There are no what-ifs." Su Li cut her off. "Our family has been nothing but dirt farmers for eight generations. At last we've got a boy with some talent. If we don't let him take his shot, should we have him spend his whole life swinging a hammer here in Wading Village, just like me?"

Su Li drew Saina into his arms.

She didn't feel quite the same as she had ten years ago. Her flesh was a little softer, and her skin wasn't as smooth.

But Su Li didn't mind.

"Don't worry." Su Li patted her broad back. "That boy's clever. Besides, the sword I made for him has half a pound of Star-Patterned Steel mixed in. As long as he doesn't go looking for trouble, he'll be able to protect himself."

Saina buried her face against Su Li's chest, her tears soaking his shirt.

"Then... what about the money? We've spent every last bit of it. What are we going to eat?"

"Coarse grain and vegetables, I guess." Su Li smiled. "As long as we don't starve, it'll be worth it. Just imagine: if our son becomes a knight, he'll come riding back on a fine horse. Won't that make you proud? Aunt Li over in the east of the village will be so jealous she'll wear down your doorstep."

At the mention of Aunt Li, Saina's tears turned to laughter.

Vanity really was the best cure for a woman's sadness.

Su Xiaochui left.

He carried the family's savings, wore the greatsword Su Li had forged with his own hands on his back, and rode in a merchant caravan's wagon bound for the Baris Empire.

Su Li didn't go to see him off.

He stood at the blacksmith shop's entrance, holding a large palm-leaf fan and waving it lazily.

Only after the caravan had disappeared from view did he turn and go inside, slamming the door so hard it shook the whole building.

Life had to go on.

But the hammer blows from the blacksmith shop grew denser and more urgent.

Just like that, another ten years passed.

Time was a strange thing. When you thought it was dragging, it crawled along like a snail. But by the time you came to your senses, it had already turned your temples gray.

Su Li was fifty this year.

The age of knowing one's fate.

Wading Village had changed.

The war had brought heavier taxes, and many of the village's able-bodied men had been conscripted. The once-bustling village now seemed rather desolate.

But the Su Family blacksmith shop still stood strong.

In the courtyard.

Clang—

A clear metallic clang rang out.

But it hadn't come from Su Li's hammer.

A young woman wearing a coarse tunic with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows stood before the anvil.

This was Su Na. She was a grown woman of twenty now.

She hadn't inherited Su Li's looks. Instead, she took after Saina.

She was broad-boned and sturdy, and her bare face had a few faint freckles. There was a wild air about her.

At that moment, she was swinging a six-pound hammer at a glowing red piece of iron.

Her swing was steady, and her strike landed precisely.

Sparks burst like fireworks, lighting up her sweat-covered face.

Su Li sat nearby in a reclining chair, holding the purple clay teapot he'd used for decades. His expression was complicated.

"Your stance is wrong," Su Li said lazily. "Don't slouch. Use your hips to drive your upper arm. Are you forging iron, or just tickling it?"

Su Na didn't turn around. She simply straightened her back a little and kept working.

"Don't you feel bad saying that, Father?" Su Na gasped between hammer swings. "I've struck this piece of iron three hundred times. I've already hammered out all the impurities, and you're still finding fault."

"I'm your father. Finding fault is my privilege," Su Li snorted.

Truthfully, he was pleased with her work.

He was even a little proud.