Knighting

Gawain was in a terrible mood.

An inexplicable shame filled his heart. Looking around, he saw Knights of the Round Table everywhere in the banquet hall, holding winecups as they leaned together and recounted their legendary tales.

Watching their gallant bearing, Gawain felt completely out of place, like a husky that had wandered into a pack of wolves.

In Arthur's mythical court, Gawain realized just how great the gap was between himself and the other Knights of the Round Table. Each of them had legends and stories of their own, while he could only hold a winecup and idle away his time here.

If Arthur had not been his uncle, if the same blood did not flow through their veins, he would never have been qualified to enter Arthur's court and stand so close to the king and queen.

From beginning to end, Arthur had not blamed Gawain. Instead, he had offered him words of comfort.

From that moment on, Gawain understood that Arthur's impression of him was probably not very good.

This impression was not of him as family, but as an heir to the throne.

Whether that impression was good or bad, Arthur was still Arthur, and Gawain was still Gawain. Their blood relationship, that of uncle and nephew, could not be changed no matter what.

But when their relationship became one of successor and predecessor, Gawain had to accept harsh treatment.

Clearly, this interview had been a failure.

Gawain took a sip of red wine, a sense of misery rising within him. After this court banquet, he no longer had the face to go home and see his mother.

As far as his mother was concerned, this succession to the throne might have been a foregone conclusion.

Arthur had only one nephew. If Gawain was not first in line for the throne, then who was? Arthur could choose to bypass Gawain for another relative, of course, but the blood relation would be so distant that no one knew how far back it would go.

With a dragon right in his face, how was he supposed to lose?

Yet Gawain desperately wanted to tell his mother that he had most likely ruined everything.

From the very beginning, Gawain had overlooked the most important issue. An interview was still an interview. The interviewer might have a very favorable impression of the candidate, but once he saw Gawain's terrible résumé, Gawain would inevitably fail to get the position.

He had no legendary deeds of his own. His résumé was blank—no education, no honors, and none of the relevant skills.

Queen Guinevere's attitude toward Gawain had become much colder, and that was only natural.

After all, Gawain was not her own child, but someone else's—the child of her husband's sister. In any family, even if a relative's child was naughty, an aunt by marriage could not simply claim the right to discipline him. She could not hit him or scold him, and even criticism had to be phrased tactfully.

"Gawain, what have you been doing all these years?" Queen Guinevere asked helplessly.

You actually wasted your years away and did nothing until now.

Gawain heard the queen's unspoken thoughts. He lowered his head, feeling nothing but shame.

It was not as though the queen had never given him an opportunity. As long as he chose the daughter of a powerful duke or influential baron as his fiancée, he could use that marriage alliance to gain a powerful army and a stable ally.

Gawain might not have legendary accomplishments or a reputation of his own, but he had a powerful uncle—Arthur, whose name was renowned among kings. Combined with his handsome looks, no princess would refuse his proposal.

Yet Gawain's stubbornness had exceeded the queen's expectations. He had actually refused her for such a frivolous reason.

The marriage of a prince and princess was not the romantic union found in fairy tales.

From Queen Guinevere's perspective, the marriage of a prince and princess was essentially a political marriage between the prince's father and the princess's father—an alliance, political and military, between two kings.

For Gawain, marriage to a princess meant using his uncle's reputation and his position in Camelot to secure that marriage. The greatest gains from that marriage would not be the wife herself, but the army of his father-in-law's family, their alliance, and their financial support.

If Arthur were not king, it would have been difficult for him to marry Guinevere, a princess.

Likewise, the country ruled by Gawain's father, King Lot, was a tribal kingdom. Compared with wealthy, powerful, and vast Camelot, its international standing was worlds apart. Such countries were not everywhere in Scandinavia, but there were certainly plenty of them, and the polygamous system had made princes utterly commonplace.

Otherwise, that sister-in-law of hers would not have traveled all the way to Camelot with her son. Back in her own palace, she had been a lofty queen. How could she be like this now, having to wash clothes and cook for herself?

Ruling a country was not merely about fighting and killing. It was also about navigating human relationships.

Everyone knew that Arthur's sisters did not seem to like her, the queen. According to Merlin's prophecy, she was the one who would bring disaster upon this kingdom, and the fact that she and Arthur had never borne children seemed to prove it.

I'm very good at raising dogs. No matter how violent a dog is, under my training, it can become as obedient as a police dog. Even Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell—I'm confident I could tame it.

Gawain thought this to himself, but he did not dare say it aloud. At the end of the day, at Sir Ector's castle, the only thing he was truly good at was raising dogs. Of course, he was not bad at raising horses either, but he lacked the same talent for it.

Such abilities were not enough for Arthur to knight him, much less promote him into the Knights of the Round Table.

To become a knight, the country first had to practice the knightly system. That was a prerequisite. Without it, becoming a knight was impossible.

For instance, in Gawain's homeland in Scandinavia, the knightly system was not popular at all. There was no profession or social class called knights there, so even though Gawain was a prince, he could not become a knight.

Some might say that King Lot was a king. Since he was king, could he not simply issue a law introducing the knightly system and knight Gawain if Gawain wished to become a knight?

The answer was, of course, no.

Because King Lot could call himself a warrior or a martial fighter, but never a knight.

A king could certainly knight someone. If Arthur wished, for example, he could knight Gawain. The reason was that Arthur was not only a king, but also a knight himself.

In history, Ferdinand I of the Kingdom of Portugal once knighted thirty-four new knights during the war in Castile, only to be told afterward that his knighthoods were invalid.

That was because the King of Portugal himself had never been knighted. A king who was not a knight had no right to knight anyone else.

Thus, the King of Portugal had no choice but to ask his ally, the Duke of Cambridge of England, to knight him first. Only then could he hold another knighting ceremony for the knights he had knighted.

If the king was unwilling to knight Gawain, that did not mean Gawain could not become a knight. As long as any Knight of the Round Table at the court banquet was willing to knight him, Gawain could still become one.

Only someone with knightly status could knight another knight. This meant that the new knight's ability and character had been recognized by other knights.

To become a knight, one first had to become a knight's squire. Only after receiving the full training of a knight could one qualify to become a knight.

This was neither a law of the state nor some tradition. It was simply the prevailing consensus of knightly society.

Nearly all knights rose from being squires. The usual way to become a knight was to gain the approval of the knight one had served as a squire—one's master.

After Gawain graduated with "outstanding results" from the knight training class held at Sir Ector's castle, Sir Ector had intended to follow convention and knight him.

But due to Gawain's special status, Sir Ector decided for certain reasons that it would be better for the king to knight him. He could not overstep his place.

Yet given Gawain's status, if Arthur did not knight him, not a single Knight of the Round Table would dare to do so.

In everyone's eyes, only Arthur was suitable to knight his own nephew, Camelot's future heir to the throne.

Among a knight's subjects, swordsmanship for fighting on foot was considered most important, followed by lance work on horseback, with archery coming last. Raising horses, training dogs, and training hawks were merely trivial side skills of a knight.

If his nephew had even the slightest ability, Arthur could use it as grounds to knight Gawain.

To gain the recognition of the Knights of the Round Table, one needed outstanding achievements, contributions, or abilities. Those were the grounds for knighthood.

Many wandering knights and squires had distinguished themselves in Arthur's tournaments before being promoted exceptionally.

There was no tournament now. Even without accomplishments or contributions to the kingdom, if Gawain had some skill, he could compete with a Knight of the Round Table at the court banquet. He did not even need to win; even a draw would allow him to become a knight.

But Gawain looked around at the gathered titans of the Round Table in the court banquet hall. More than a hundred Knights of the Round Table laughed, cursed, and chatted at the feast. He swallowed, and merely looking at these burly men made him feel overwhelming pressure. He knew perfectly well that he could not defeat any one of them.

It was exactly how a newbie player felt when facing a max-level veteran in a one-on-one duel.

Whether in swordsmanship, lance work, or archery, he was no match for these Knights of the Round Table—unless they competed in dog training.

Gawain clenched his fist, then finally let it fall.

He no longer expected Arthur to knight him. The best outcome would be inheriting some of Arthur's property and receiving a fief.

Even as a minor lord without a knightly title and not even a noble, he would still have a way to lead his people to prosperity.

If Arthur was so stingy that he was unwilling to grant Gawain a fief, then Gawain would have only one path left: applying to become a pioneering knight.

In the traditions of the Greek era, the king's eldest son would usually inherit the throne. The remaining princes would either enter temples or serve as generals and ministers. If they were not entrusted with important duties by the new king—their elder brother—then after inheriting their father's property, they could lead those willing to follow them elsewhere and establish a new city-state.

In fact, the same tradition still existed now.

If Gawain made this request, then according to ancient traditions and conventions, even if Arthur despised him, he would give him a sum of money, knight him, and send him away.

But that would also mean Gawain giving up his right to inherit Arthur's throne.

Gawain was currently trapped in a state of constantly belittling and demeaning himself.

Queen Guinevere, meanwhile, was rather baffled. Gawain seemed like a clever child. He spoke appropriately and could make Arthur so happy. Clearly, he had received a good education and upbringing. Why was he so modest—modest to such an absurd degree?

As Arthur's nephew, even if he only knew a few words, he could enter the Knights of the Round Table that governed the kingdom as a civil official. If he had even a small talent, then his position would be all but guaranteed. After all, even the Knights of the Round Table that governed the kingdom had been established by Arthur. As Arthur's nephew, Gawain naturally possessed a ticket of entry. That was the privilege of royalty.

Historically, the Kingdom of Portugal had once declared by law that after a king ascended the throne, even if he had not become a knight beforehand, he would automatically become a knight afterward.

Royalty always had privileges. Gawain seemed not to realize this. Was he so restrained because he had not yet realized that he was a member of Camelot's royal family?