Gawain

"Go," she said. "Go to Arthur's court. The finest, most generous, and bravest men are all there."

—Pirdue

When Christmas arrived, King Arthur would hold a New Year's feast at his court. Not only would Arthur's trusted Knights of the Round Table attend, but influential figures from all over would gather together to celebrate the New Year.

Gawain would also go to meet King Arthur during this important festival, and for the sake of his sister, Arthur would arrange a job for his nephew: becoming a knight.

Of course, it would be best if he could become one of the Knights of the Round Table.

Everyone in Britain knew that their king, Arthur, was not only a king but also a knight.

The Knight King ruled the realm through his Knights of the Round Table. The knights were not merely members of the Round Table council; they were also high-ranking officials in state affairs, the military, and every other field. As long as one could join the Knights of the Round Table, power, status, wealth, and glory would practically be within reach.

In Britain, even three-year-old children knew that the most glorious profession in the world was becoming one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. Therefore, if one wanted to be king, one first had to become a knight.

"Gawain, I heard King Arthur is going to dub you a knight."

"I was wondering why you hadn't been practicing your swordsmanship lately. So you were about to be knighted. If it were me, I wouldn't practice either."

"Yeah, Gawain, you were already incredibly strong back in Denmark. You're a prince, after all, and you killed evil dragons and frost giants with your bare hands! I'm afraid that aside from our king and Sir Lancelot, none of the other Knights of the Round Table could be a match for you!"

Gawain had come to the tavern for a drink. The moment he casually found a seat and sat down, he saw familiar faces raising their cups in greeting.

Gawain awkwardly accepted a cup, looking at his friends in the tavern and feeling somewhat unaccustomed to their flattery and praise.

He had been in England for quite some time since arriving from Denmark. Gawain had been entrusted to the instruction of an old knight named Ector.

Ector was an old-fashioned knight. His greatest achievement was fostering King Arthur under the orders of the late King Uther and teaching him into an outstanding knight capable of drawing Excalibur from the stone.

In the eyes of the world, King Arthur's ascension to the throne was inseparable from his foster father, Sir Ector. A knight who could teach Arthur as his foster father must surely be Britain's most outstanding knightly instructor.

Parents throughout Britain longed to entrust their children to Sir Ector's education. In their eyes, their children might never become as great a knight or king as Arthur, but under Sir Ector's instruction, perhaps they could become one of Arthur's glorious knights.

Sir Ector had established a knight training school in his castle. Countless people who aspired to knighthood and could afford the fees received knightly training under him, and Gawain was one of them.

Thanks to his mother, and through his status as the son of Princess Morgause, King Uther's daughter, Gawain entered Sir Ector's castle to receive orthodox knightly education. Yet it was not the orthodox Camelot knight training everyone had imagined.

From the very beginning, he had not been taught advanced knightly arts such as swordsmanship, lance work, or horsemanship. Instead, he had been thrown directly in with the castle servants. Every day, he was either tending the castle's dogs, serving its horses, caring for its hawks, or helping the servants with their duties.

Sir Ector was an old-fashioned knight, and he taught his knight students exactly what he himself had learned as a knight's squire.

To become a great knight, one first had to become a qualified squire. Polishing armor, feeding horses, raising dogs, helping knights put on their armor—these were all a squire's duties. Even the hot water for a knight's bath had to be prepared by a squire.

During the more than half year Gawain had spent training at Sir Ector's castle, aside from swinging a sword during his free time, he had actually spent most of his days waiting on people, tending horses and dogs, and feeding hawks.

Sir Ector was old-fashioned and orthodox. Even the harshest knight could find no fault in his morals, but it had to be said that his methods of instruction were somewhat behind the times.

For instance, Sir Ector believed that one should treat one's hunting dogs like family, and therefore eat and sleep alongside them so they would become more humanlike. Thus, he shut Gawain and the other squires of his batch inside the kennels.

Gawain truly came to appreciate the dogs' humanity at that time. He thought that even he would not like being crammed together with strangers, especially a whole crowd of strangers.

The kennel dogs directly regarded these young squires who had moved into their kennel as fellow creatures trying to seize their territory. The dogs bared their teeth and attacked. Fortunately, Gawain wore armor, and though he was wounded in his struggle with the hounds, he emerged victorious. The hounds acknowledged his supreme position in the kennel, and he successfully completed the task Sir Ector had assigned him.

Gawain had not gained the hounds' trust as their master, but their affection as the leader of the pack. The subtle distinction was truly sigh-worthy. It was on that dark and windy night, when he was attacked by the pack of dogs, that he had transmigrated. A month earlier, he had lost all his former memories. His mother, Morgause, could only hold him and weep bitterly, saying that as a Nordic prince and Odin's grandson—Viking kings were considered Odin's sons—he had come to Camelot, adopted the gods of Rome, and accepted a church priest's baptism. Thus, he had incurred Odin's curse, and Odin had taken away his courage.

He had clearly transmigrated, yet his mother and the priests had interpreted it as a curse from a pagan god. It was truly baffling. However, because he had subdued the hounds in the kennel on that dark and windy night, Gawain had gained standing among the squires of his batch. Once he calmly revealed that King Arthur was his uncle, even the squires and knights with the finest swordsmanship at Sir Ector's castle could only bring out three-tenths of their strength against Gawain. Some could barely muster one-tenth, while others suffered the negative curse of trembling legs and slippery hands.

Damn it, King Arthur was your uncle? Why didn't you say so sooner? That was terrifying.

The knights and squires watching from the side saw Gawain win with ease. Whether it was swordsmanship, lance work, or horsemanship, he had improved tremendously, and no one found it strange at all.

At fourteen, King Arthur had followed Sir Ector to London for a tournament. Though he had been a squire, he had still easily drawn the holy sword from the stone, accomplishing a feat that was practically miraculous.

Gawain was King Arthur's nephew. His mother was Arthur's sister, and both carried the blood of the late King Uther. Considering that Arthur had no children, then by that logic, Arthur's sister was practically Arthur himself, and Gawain was practically Arthur's child.

At least in terms of bloodline, that was so. Like King Arthur, Gawain carried the blood of Brutus, Britain's first king.

We believed that Gawain had defeated frost giants. We also believed that Gawain had slaughtered evil dragons. As Sir Ector's squires and his fellow students, they spread the stories Gawain told far and wide.

For example, he had once used the alias Dala Bengba to defeat an evil dragon and save a princess; he had wandered to a foreign land and fought a foreigner named Abe no Seimei against a nine-tailed fox that could transform into a beautiful woman; and at Lanruo Temple, he had fought alongside Yan Chixia against the Black Mountain Monster. All kinds of legendary tales fell upon Gawain's head.

In short, King Arthur's nephew, Gawain, was awesome!

And so, after attending Sir Ector's knight training class for only a month and a half, Gawain graduated early with "excellent" results.

Yet Gawain was utterly bewildered. What had he even learned? Wasn't the course supposed to last at least three years?

Other than raising dogs, I actually don't know how to do anything!

These knight courses—did you forget to teach swordsmanship, lance work, and horsemanship? Give me back my tuition!