The Boy and The Man, Offer R [ereader for textbooks .txt] 📗

The crowd roared approval and the king moved on to the three champions, who were standing in a line in front of the rest of the Guard.

The prince was commended for his strategic finesse and flawless planning of the kind a very senior Captain would be acclaimed for. Perhaps the greatest honor of all for our prince was his father's declaring in front of the whole kingdom that he'd proved that his appointment had been a very wise one.

Our boy was handled by the king with almost the same affection as the prince. The king was gracious enough to honor our heroes with not only words but a great deal of physical contact. He pressed his hands firmly against The Boy's broad shoulders before stepping back so he could speak loud enough for the thousands to hear.

"Our young Lieutenant didn't cower in the face of a fierce enemy", he declared, showing that his understanding of the events was as imprecise as the members of the Guards'.

"I was in fact terrified beyond my wits", The Boy said under his breath.

"He demonstrated cool reasoning and terrific resourcefulness in favor of his Guard in moments of great stress and urgency", the king continued.

"You mean I was very cunning in favor of my life", The Boy corrected.

"And most of all, he demonstrated the kind of confidence in a brother Guardsman that will keep our kingdom safe in the face of any enemy as long as these men continue to fight for us."

"It was really a lack of confidence in myself more than anything else", our boy pointed out to nobody but himself.

The audience roared again, even louder now than for the prince. People love to root for the underdog, and in many senses our boy would always be considered an underdog. But in this case the underdog didn't return the same appreciation for the people that cheered for him. And why should he? They were only cheering because he'd done them a great service, if not for their security than at least for their pride.

'If the stands were filled with Capitals, they'd be scorning and hateful and even demand my head. They're merely thanking me for a great service I've done them, so I owe them nothing', he thought caustically. His scorn for the audience was the result of a feeling that he deserved more that what he got, which isn't to be confused with low spirits or self-deprecation. Similarly his mocking of the king's accolades was a demonstration that he saw things more clearly than anyone else- that he was better. This unfavorable state of mind was the result of his disconcerting encounter with Aphrodite, of course. He felt the prince could steal her from him at any moment, and even if he didn't he'd already tainted the purity of her love for our poor boy. He knew that her love for him was real, but it wasn't enough.

If we were, for the sake of comparison, to delve into the prince's deep inner workings, we would find an even greater detachment from the festivities. His moroseness was rooted in his thoughts of Aphrodite as well, and one might say that it was even less warranted than The Boy's. Nothing had really changed with regards his relationship with Aphrodite, and it was mostly the resurrection of buried pain that anguished him. Like a dormant disease that has never healed and suddenly strikes again. And in any case, the reason and common sense that we use to explain all other things in the world aren't applicable to affairs of the heart. Love, heartbreak, jealousy- they have a reason all their own, and not a very reasonable one.

This unfortunate distribution of sorrow between our two protagonists was about to be changed by The Boy, and he waited impatiently for the king's blessing of the ecstatic Gladius to do it.

The King's high words Gladius were the most expectable ones, but by no means the least significant. "It takes a true master of the art of swordsmanship to attain such a decisive victory over a rival as powerful as yours. And it takes a noble man to show mercy and spare the life of such a vile man as your rival." Here the audience's reaction was the most emphatic, not due to the King's words but simply because Gladius was the man who'd physically imported the victory from across the stream to our kingdom.

At the this the climax of the ceremony was behind us, and following were several processions, formalities and a short display in which the finest riders among our heroes mounted their new horses, flaunting their abilities to the avid audience. It was during this display that The Boy snuck a minute of privacy with the prince in order to settle their affairs. There were thousands of ears around them, but no more could they hear The Boy's words than their hearts could sense the prince's pain.

"I met her today", The Boy said.

"You met whom? Oh, you must mean Aphrodite", the prince said blandly, as though this weren't the one thing that had occupied his thoughts since their return from the valley.

"Yes, Aphrodite. I didn't reveal your feelings for her, of course, but managed to probe her heart for its tendencies toward you."

The prince said nothing. There wasn't a finding of The Boy's research that he could hope for with a clear conscience; the result he hoped for filled him with guilt.

Next our boy spoke even more softly, and he took on a low, dark, apologetic tone. "She respects you dearly. She sees in you a noble prince and would pledge allegiance to you willfully at any opportunity. But she doesn't love you, my friend."

This last sentences was all our prince needed to hear. Being a master of poker faces, his expression didn't change, but his heart stung as sharply as if Dansalot's swords had cut right through it. "It's for the better, brother. I hope I've done nothing to impede your relationship. Take the advice of a man with our broken heart- you know, our advice is of most valuable kind: cherish her love, make it the thing dearest to you in the world if it isn't already, and thank the God's for blessing you."

"I will. Thank you, my dear friend. I wish things could be different."

"But they can't", said our tormented prince, and the subject was never spoken of between them again. But there was another matter to be resolved then and there, if only formally.

"Why did you do it? I've been eager to ask you since this morning", said the prince. The Boy was oblivious of the prince's intention at first, but he felt he would do anything within his power to alleviate his friend's grief so he very eagerly solicited an explanation.

"Why did you want to put Gladius on the battlefield instead of yourself? I've tried to figure it out myself but apparently my mind is too simple to read yours", the prince clarified. The Boy realized that this was a very obvious question, which had slipped his mind in the throes of the day's tumultuous events. The King's version, that he'd done it out of exceeding trust in his fellow Guardsman, could be sold to the audience just as well as the version the prince had formulated for Dansalot. But the prince deserved a far better explanation.

"I wish you didn't ask me this, for I'm ashamed of it a great deal. But then again if there is anyone who's entitled to the whole truth, it's you."

The prince's features, worn by the effort of remaining neutral despite the heavy blow he'd just received, were now deadened. He stared at The Boy blankly, waiting for the answer. By the looks of it, it would have no impact on him whatsoever. Be it heaven or hell, his heart was in pieces. The Boy stared back, exuding pity for this shadow of a man.

'I would do anything my power to alleviate the grief I've cause you, my dear friend', thought our boy. 'But it's beyond my power to reveal to you the grim truth of the matter at the moment.' So instead he fabricated a pretext that would put him in a vulnerable position and therefore be plausible even to an observant, quick-witted prince.

"I was scared. It's like you said: I've never dueled before. Not for real. And it was such a paralyzing fear that if I'd gone through with it- well, I was afraid my skills would be damaged irreparably." The Boy's act was perfect since he didn't need to feign his apologetic demeanor, and if he were watching himself in the mirror he might've believed himself.

The prince put his hand on The Boy's padded shoulder. "You did well, brother. I would go to battle with you and that fear of yours any day."

And this matter, too, came to a conclusive end here and would never to be spoken of again.

Chapter 9

 

Many consider the months and the years that followed that landmark day to be our kingdom's heyday. The tale of our Guard's victory over the almighty Capitals flew over the mountains and weaved its way into the awe-inspired ears of every soldier in the region. This accorded our people great respect and our Guard a great force of deterrence, therefore trade with neighboring kingdoms thrived and no one dared cause the slightest disorder. It also fired our people with great pride that didn't wane, and made them more united than before. Fighting a common enemy, and especially triumphing over a common enemy, tends to have this effect on people. So in general the air was permeated with optimism and a general levity of spirit.

For members of our Guard these were even more favorable times. The Guard's old horses were sold at exorbitant prices, and half of it was awarded to the Guard members, split equally between them. The second half was used to build a monument for the three heroes beside the bell tower, which was to be known as 'Men of Steel'. This quickly became a favored site for family visits, and changed the scene of the adjacent courtyard, that even southerners started to frequent it on occasion. Gladius earned a reputation as a legendary swordsman, on par with the prince and The boy, and as owner of a heart of steel that could deflect the thrust of any sword. Our boy was famed to be a clever fox, not to be crossed despite his southern origins. And the prince established his seat at the head of the Guard, a leader of foresight who was consulted on any predicament that required exceptional leadership to be resolved. The people saw him as a future king whose subject any man would be honored to be.

At first thought it may seem that this remarkable effect was a bit extreme for a single isolated event to induce. But we must bear in mind that most significant changes begin to happen due to a single hard digression from the norm. Sometimes there follows a long process until the full effect takes place, but it's all traceable to one unusual event. Even many of our mighty mountains owe their height to momentary crashes between the earth's tectonic plates.

Yes, those were indeed golden days for everyone, but people tend to forget that even gold may lose some of its luster over time. You see, the glory of the victory was so brilliant at first that it flooded all the negative thoughts in people's minds. But petty worries and concerns are, like germs, very hard to kill and impossible to exterminate completely. And the daily troubles began to surface again slowly and to remind the people, and primarily our Guard members, that all roses grow thorns.

The one who tired the fastest of the spoils of the victory was The Boy. On days when training was light and he had no other engagement he would visit the courtyard under the pretense of having business to arrange there. The real reason for