Chapter 3: The Princess's Engagement

After breakfast, Roy threw half a sausage to Oliver and continued watching the knights train. He dreamed of becoming a knight.

There were many types of knights: noble, powerful, famous, and respected... Roy didn't care about any of those. He only wanted to become one type.

The richest knight!

The current Roy was just a small servant. His meager salary barely kept him and his grandfather William above the poverty line. Life was very frugal.

Becoming a knight was the best way to change his current living conditions. That way, he wouldn't have to be a small servant anymore, and he wouldn't have to wander around.

The knight's fief, the beautiful maidservants, the followers, the splendid armor and weapons, and the flirtatious glances from noble ladies... Just thinking about lying in his own castle, lording over everything, sleeping in any room he wanted, sleeping with anyone he wanted, drinking large gulps of wine, eating big chunks of meat, and grabbing a passing beautiful maidservant, pulling her onto his lap, and laughing as he reached into her undergarments... made Roy drool.

That would be a life worth living!

"Whine, whine..." Oliver's voice came from beside him.

Roy had just turned his head when his shoulder was patted. A freckle-faced brown-haired boy called out excitedly, "Roy."

The boy was Roy's only best friend in Polabel, Tom, the son of the blacksmith Ken.

Tom was muscular, friendly, and had always aspired to become a great knight. Whenever Roy was bullied by other children, Tom would always step in.

"Hey, buddy, not working today?" Roy asked Tom in surprise.

"Dad gave me the day off," Tom said excitedly, shaking Roy's shoulder and pointing east. "Listen, buddy, we have a new bard here."

Roy jumped up and looked in the direction Tom was pointing. In the distance, a bard he had never seen before was sitting on a stone, with a crowd already gathered around him.

Just then, in the training ground, Bax had already thrown his sword to a nearby squire and, amid flattery and cheers, proudly mounted his warhorse, leading several other knights to the jousting field behind the castle. They would practice jousting there to prepare for the annual Lurian Province Knight Tournament.

Seeing the knights leave, Roy and Tom exchanged a glance and, without a word, sprinted across the open field in front of the castle, squeezing into the crowd around the bard.

The fat dog Oliver scrambled after the two boys.

"... Although the annual Lurian Province Tournament is lively, if you really want to see the greatest heroes in the world, you have to wait for the Imperial Knight Tournament in the capital three years from now."

As Roy and Tom squeezed into the crowd, they heard the bard's voice.

"The Imperial Knight Tournament?" A traveler's mouth half-opened, his eyes suddenly brightening. "I remember, the tournament scheduled for three years from now is specially held for Princess Aleria. The champion will become the princess's husband. It's said that the most outstanding young knights from royal families and all knight orders will participate."

The traveler's words immediately sparked a flurry of discussion among the crowd.

"Is that true?"

"Isn't this a tournament for a marriage proposal?"

Amid the noise, Tom, who had just sat down in front of the bard, nudged Roy with his elbow, excitedly saying, "Did you hear that?"

Roy nodded vigorously.

He had wandered around as a child and was no stranger to knight tournaments.

Knights in splendid armor, riding steeds, and holding lances gathered in the tournament field... As the herald announced the knight's family lineage and name, and hung the coats of arms of both sides, the knights would lower their visors, hold their lances, and gallop along the central barrier of the jousting field.

Finally, at the moment they passed each other, they would thrust their lances at each other.

If they missed, they would go around again!

The victors sometimes received gold statues, weapons, armor, fine horses, and sometimes a good position, or even a kiss from the Queen of the Tournament.

These were all things that Roy, the big-headed boy, dreamed of, especially since this was a tournament to win the hand of the most beautiful Princess Aleria of the Holy Solan Empire.

Competing for the princess, how exciting!

The people around them chattered, and their eyes eventually turned to the bard. After all, when it came to news, these people who lived on various news and stories were the most informed.

"That's right!" The bard nodded, confirming the traveler's words.

"But I heard that Princess Aleria already had a fiancé," a woman asked.

The bard smiled and said, "You're right, Princess Aleria does have a betrothed, the missing grandson of the old Duke Falington, Roland... Roy..."

The bard, dressed in a white robe with a long, graying beard, had just said this when the listeners suddenly laughed, all turning their eyes to the big-headed boy at the front of the circle.

"Hey, Lord Roy, you're Princess Aleria's fiancé," someone teased. "She's the most beautiful woman in our empire."

The crowd burst into laughter.

"Stop laughing, if I ever marry the princess, I'll parade in front of you every day, making you all green with envy," Roy thought, but his face still wore a confused smile.

Seeing the big-headed boy's silly, dreamy expression, the crowd laughed even harder. No one noticed that a veiled girl nearby was frowning, and the female swordsman beside her was already furious.

Hearing the teasing, the bard looked at the small country boy also named Roy and shook his head with a smile.

"The bloodline of the Falington's [Hanshan] Duke family doesn't have blue eyes."

The crowd laughed again.

The female swordsman at the edge of the crowd glared at the big-headed boy, seemingly angry that this silly country boy was also named Roy.

"Huh?" A young traveler suddenly asked, puzzled. "If there's a betrothal, why have a tournament to choose a prince consort?"

Everyone, including Roy, gave the young traveler a disdainful look.

"Didn't I just say that the princess's fiancé has been missing for over ten years?"

"Such ignorance."

"Boy, let me tell you, over ten years ago, the Roy who was betrothed to the princess, was taken by his mother, Sarah, to the capital for medical treatment. On the way, they were attacked. Sarah and the guards were all killed by the Frost River, and only Roy and a captain of the guards went missing."

Amid the noise, a merchant leading a camel turned to a topic of interest to everyone.

"I don't understand why the emperor would want to marry into the [Hanshan] family."

This question made everyone present look equally curious.

The Falington Knights, stationed in the border fortress [Falington] against the demons, were also known as the Sinners' Knights. Their knights all had the rare black hair and black eyes.

In a society predominantly of fair-haired, blue-eyed people, such individuals were few.

It was said that when the demons invaded, these warriors with devil-like black eyes fought from their homeland in the far east all the way to the Broken Sky Mountains. They not only participated in all the battles between humans and demons but also fought bravely in every battle, and when retreating, they always fought to the last to protect the rear, showing unparalleled ferocity!

However, it was also they who made a fatal mistake in the final battle three hundred years ago, leading to the defeat of the humans.

If it weren't for the Holy Emperor using the Great Cross Cutting Technique to open a space, allowing the humans to migrate to the western Redemption Land, the humans would have been exterminated by the vicious demons long ago.

It was from that time that the [Cross] became the symbol of the unified Holy Church, and the Falington Knights and their leader, Duke [Hanshan] Luo Zhan, became the sinners of humanity, ordered to permanently guard the demon border fortress Falington.

This guarding has lasted for over three hundred years.

The Redemption Land has experienced racial wars, feudal wars, the unified Roman Empire, and now the division of the world into three parts, a vast change. Yet, Falington remains the same. Generation after generation of Falington Knights' descendants bear their fate, fighting the never-ending war against the demons on the human-demon border.

No one provokes them, and they cannot interfere in human society.

Although geographically and nominally, Falington is still a province of the Holy Solan Empire, in the hearts of the Holy Solan people, Falington is a completely foreign world.

Therefore, the people couldn't understand why the prince, now Emperor Edward I, would have a betrothal with the [Hanshan] Duke family, who would never participate in secular power struggles.