"Single combat"

Bryce Caron still had little say in anything.

Looking on the bright side, he also thought Titus wanted to take him away from this place of trouble for a while and plan their next move.

A young lord's succession was fraught with difficulties anywhere.

All the more so in the Dornish Marches, where strength ruled supreme.

Even for Titus himself, had he not successfully become a knight and possessed some skill, only the Seven knew what sort of rotten bullshit might have happened.

"Lord Titus is right. I was wondering how those bandits could have made a fool of you! You must have taken bribes and colluded with them, you traitor!"

Ser Maddy reacted quickly, changing his tune ahead of anyone else to test the waters.

He was making his position clear: he was willing to "cooperate" with Starpike. He turned on his deputy captain and berated him angrily. When he saw Titus smile and nod, he even waved two guards standing in the hall forward to seize Tyronn Lue.

Tyronn Lue had never been strong-willed. He had only just returned after suffering a setback outside, and he knew his future lay entirely in the hands of these few people in the hall. The moment the guards behind him laid hands on him, he collapsed to the floor.

Titus walked over, stepped across Tyronn Lue, and approached Ser Maddy:

"If Tyronn Lue is a traitor, then we mustn't show him the slightest mercy..."

Titus fixed his eyes on Maddy's shifting gaze and continued coldly:

"...when dealing with traitors, the more the worms wriggle, the more I want to crush their bellies."

Hearing this, Maddy thought he was making a promise: as long as they got rid of Tyronn Lue and allowed Iomine, who belonged to Bryce's faction, to gain a little power within the castle, he would be satisfied.

After doing something good, people always wanted the Seven to know.

After doing something bad, they always thought the Seven did not know.

That made things terribly difficult for the Seven.

The former was like Titus, who had been doing his best to earn himself points ever since entering Nightsong.

The latter was like Maddy, who had a guilty conscience but would occupy Nightsong for every extra day he could. He was quite willing to accept the "terms" Titus offered, and willing to "compromise." After all, he was not the one losing out.

As for whether Titus might turn on him afterward and use the Earl as a hostage to command Nightsong?

Please. Titus was a lord of the Reach, whereas Maddy was a man of the Stormlands. He could easily turn the accusation back on him. What really mattered was cementing his position as acting castellan first.

If the situation turned unfavorable in a couple of years, he would surely have pocketed enough by then and could simply take his men and run. With his abilities, he could go anywhere in the world...

Titus wanted to take Bryce as his squire.

This had brought about a tremendous change in the attitudes of both the red and black sides toward him.

Yet none of those present had anticipated the sheer size of the Earl of Starpike's appetite.

Wait a couple of years first? What nonsense.

Time was pressing. Titus Peake could not wait even a single day.

A squire named "Bryce Caron" was nowhere near as useful as an Earl of Nightsong named "Bryce Caron."

With both sides tacitly agreeing, Bryce Caron becoming his squire was now a done deal.

As for Tyronn Lue, who lay sprawled on the floor, Maddy found his disgraceful display embarrassing and had already ordered his men to carry him out of the hall.

Every Nightsong guard in the hall had witnessed this scene, and a different meaning began to creep into their eyes.

This was precisely what Titus wanted.

Twelve men, twelve swords.

Having paced a circuit of the reception hall and counted Maddy's guards, Titus stopped and suddenly smiled at his newly acquired squire:

"Bryce, I've been away for a while. How is your swordsmanship coming along?"

Bryce seemed accustomed to his abrupt changes of subject. He only paused briefly before answering honestly, "Fairly well, I suppose. Father... and Ser Iomine both praised my progress."

Mentioning his recently deceased father brought a touch of sadness to the young Earl's voice. Now, he had only his guards to protect him.

"Very good. I know what sort of foundation you have."

Titus nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Practice with me for another day or two, and perhaps you'll be a match for an ordinary knight..."

Maddy, standing nearby, had been about to return to his seat. The more he heard, however, the more wrong it sounded, and he immediately interrupted. "Earl Titus! What do you mean by that?"

Hadn't we already reached an understanding and settled this?

He felt his side had already made a sacrifice by "giving" the current Earl of Nightsong to Starpike as a squire. Was that still not enough?

"What's wrong, Ser Maddy? Haven't we all agreed? From today onward, Bryce is my squire."

Titus all but laid his cards on the table. "I believe I have the right to educate my own squire by whatever means I choose, and to judge whether he is good enough to become a knight. Don't I?"

His attitude confused Maddy, who could not tell whether he was probing further or genuinely intended to knight Bryce. For a moment, he sputtered in exasperation, "You've only just taken your first squire, and you want to knight him immediately? I think that's entirely inappropriate..."

Titus curled his lip, his manner even more overbearing:

"Ser Maddy, I must remind you again that he is my squire. What you think doesn't matter. What I think does."

"You're asking for trouble! You're courting..."

Maddy was merely a somewhat ambitious knight of the Dornish Marches. Provoked into speaking a little recklessly, he took a deep breath before trying his best to contain his temper:

"...what I mean is, you've only just become a knight yourself. You simply lack the ability to judge whether someone else is qualified to become one!"

"Oh? Then Ser Maddy is questioning my abilities? May I consider that an insult? An insult to me personally as a knight, an insult to Lord Baylan, who knighted me, and an insult to Starpike, which stands behind me?"

As Titus spoke, he rested his right hand on the hilt of the longsword at his waist.

Maddy showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, he stepped forward and looked down at the Earl of Starpike, who seemed small beside him, while also placing his hand on his sword hilt.

"The fact is-you 'greenhorn' have only been a knight for half a year!"

He was angry.

People of the Dornish Marches handled things with just this sort of crude simplicity. At the slightest provocation, they let their swords do the talking.

Titus was sincerely delighted by this.

Of course, Maddy would not be easy to handle.

Comparing the now stone-cold Othello Blackmont with him was like comparing Takeshi Nakazato's Nissan R32 GT-R with Ryosuke Takahashi's Mazda RX-7.

Titus was no pushover either. He loved nothing more than a duel. He was a man who intended to become the King of Duels.

Want to test me? Send the Sword of the Morning!

A smile had long since settled on Titus's face, and his hand slowly tightened around Orphan-Maker's hilt.

"I now understand Ser Maddy's position. To clear my name, and to demonstrate your obvious misjudgment, I can only refute your disparagement through action. If you also wish to prove your discernment... then we shall have to see what you're made of."

As soon as Titus finished speaking, he drew his sword and seized the initiative without the slightest courtesy. Lowering his body to an acute angle with the floor, he darted toward the tall knight opposite him.

Brimming with confidence, Ser Maddy likewise drew his cross-guarded knight's broadsword. He had originally intended to give it half a turn in his palm, perhaps adding a flourish to display the composure of an expert swordsman.

Who could have expected that his opponent, an Earl no less, would attack without warning-and so quickly? The less-than-towering dark figure darted forward, and his blade had already traced an icy straight line directly toward Maddy's lower abdomen.

Trusting in his martial prowess, Maddy had no intention of retreating. He hurriedly tightened his grip on his knight's sword and stood his ground to block.

After a brief, grating scrape of blades.

Immediately afterward.

An even denser series of clashes rang out...

Sword of the M*rning: