Chương 118: The Road To Thegnage

I returned to the castle, finished drying myself off, then ran to the library. This time, I wasn't here for Skill merges. Figuring out how to own land was my next step. Sure, I knew Dupes could just own land after our service, and any person could technically buy land—Gate wasn't nearly as feudal as some of the other nations to the West of us. But it was expensive, and owning land didn't automatically make you a thegn. But owning land was a condition of becoming a thegn.

I ran through the library, searching through the shelves upon shelves of books. There weren't just books about Arts and Skills in here—there were a few history texts and other books about the systems of Gate's government on the back shelf. There was even a copy of the Great Charter in a leatherbound book. Leveraging my Focus, I flipped through them quickly, skimming the pages and looking for any mentions of owning land, and how it could be done.

I didn't read them closely, but I wanted to judge how useful they'd be before I committed an afternoon to reading them. Sure, it would help improve my Focus, but I didn't have all the time in the world. I read for hours, scanning through documents and assessing the mechanisms of government. A few other Dupes came and went, and in the evening, Sage and Brawl arrived, looking for me.

"It's almost dinner, brother," Brawl said.

"Did I miss anything?" I asked.

"Warm-up jousts," Sage said.

"The early jousts aren't the most interesting, and there were no crowd favourites tilting today."

"Of course," I said.

"I'll be down soon." I closed the books and put them away. By now, I had enough Focus that I could commit most of a book to memory on a single read, but I still had to process all the information I'd read. Most of it confirmed what I already knew. To own land, you had to buy it from someone willing to sell it—which sounded obvious, but wasn't always the case in other nations. To become a thegn, you had to be granted thegnage by an Ealdorman or someone higher than him, and you had to own a certain amount of land.

They didn't measure that amount in area, though. An 'acre' was the amount of land a mortal man and a team of oxen could plow in a single day, but that unit seemed old. Now, land was measured in Hides—a Hide of land could produce value equivalent to two gold sceats a year. One of the requirements of being a thegn was that you needed at least five Hides of land, and beyond that, you needed to claim a tribute of ten Hides from other families and freemen who you protected. I could figure a tribute out later, though.

I couldn't afford to miss dinner, especially not tonight. Rushing down to the mess hall, I found my squad at a table, and I reported my findings to them.

"You could just buy it, then," Anchor said.

"Lord Ceonwin makes you a thegn once you own enough land, gives you a few farmers who pay tribute to you, and suddenly, you're a thegn. You'll command far more respect and can lead multiple battalions."

"That would be expensive, and Levi doesn't have that kind of money," Sage said.

"You're wealthy," Anchor suggested.

"Lend it to him."" My father is wealthy," Sage corrected.

"Regardless, even if Lord Ceonwin leant him the money and bought the land for him, it would be seen as a purely political act. Any future sway Levi wants to hold would be tarnished by his less-than-legitimate thegnage."

"There's another way," I said.

"It's an obscure method, and I can't see any other records of it happening within the last few centuries. But at a trial-joust, according to the Great Charter—""You read the Charter, brother?" Brawl asked.

"Yeah, this afternoon. Why?"

"That was fast." Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. I chuckled.

"I was curious. Seemed like it would be helpful to know what rights I actually had." I shook my head." Regardless. A trial-joust doesn't just challenge the Ealdorman in question. Anyone, in theory, can challenge another thegn to joust four courses, as a matter of personal grievance."

"Jousts are common to recover lost honour," Sage said.

"Not land."" Except at a trial-joust," I countered.

"You can challenge an opponent for land here."

"You're missing a detail," Anchor said.

"Only thegns can joust. It isn't a sport for commoners—not anymore. When the Great Charter was written, things were different. That loophole is gone now, sarge. It's a way for thegns to gain more land from each other, sure. But not commoners." My chest deflated, and I sighed.

"I think you'd best start saving your wages," Anchor continued.

"If that's the only way, perhaps we could pitch in."

"I need to hold five Hides of land," I said.

"It takes a Dupe's entire career to earn enough to buy a single Hide, right? It'd take far too long, even working together."

"A few years," Sage said.

"I don't think we have that kind of time."

"You'd best think of something quickly, then," Anchor said.

"There isn't much time left at the joust. We're here to help you—if you let us in on the plan."

"Well…I have a few ideas." ~ ~ ~ After dinner, I located Lord Ceonwin in his office. Rapping on the door with my knuckle, I leaned into the doorway.

"Sir? It's Levi. Can I come in?" Lord Ceonwin straightened up in his chair, then finished downing a vial of glowing green liquid. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand, then said, "Yes, Levi. You may enter." I pushed open the door and stepped in, then glanced at the vial in his hand.

"A healing potion, sir?"

"Jousting takes a toll, even on a Gold like me. My body doesn't recover as quickly as it once did, and I'm no spring chicken." He grunted, then tucked the vial into a drawer.

"Do you need something?"

"How large is your team of squires, sir?"

"I wish I had more, admittedly. I only have two at the moment—the rest remain in Eraen-Kalora, with my wife and remaining sons."

"Right," I said.

"I didn't notice very many. Sir, how difficult would it be to make me a squire? I know I'm older than most, but…" Lord Ceonwin laughed.

"What are you planning, Levi?"

"You'd tell me not to if you knew."

"Then don't do it."

"Sir, I have to."

"Does your squad know?"

"Yes, sir." Lord Ceonwin rubbed his forehead.

"I could only make you a part-time squire, and you might miss a little training. You would need time to help me practice my tilt. You would lag behind your peers."

"I can catch up," I replied.

"I'm not using all my Presence anyway, not daily. I can afford to live off slightly less sleep. If training took place in the very early morning…"

"Very well," Lord Ceonwin said.

"I shall make you my part-time squire, and you shall join me in the joust. Instead of sceats, I will pay you in extra Presence—Pillar knows, you'll need it. I'm sure Willaf and Foal will be pleased to have an extra hand. Meet me tomorrow morning at the castle's stable—at sunrise, no later." ~ ~ ~ Forcing myself to wake up early without an alarm was more difficult than I thought it would be. Thankfully, I hadn't had the most restful of sleeps, and I tossed and turned, waking up through the night more than once.

Before anyone else in my squad woke up, I rushed to the stables and waited for Lord Ceonwin, standing beside his horse. A moment later, Lord Ceonwin and his two other squires—who I assumed were Willaf and Foal—walked into the stable. The two of them were slightly older than me, and they looked like brothers. Both had long brown hair, tied back in ponytails, and a thin beard.

"We will use a training course in the woods," Lord Ceonwin said.

"I am rusty, and have not jousted in a while, so I will need to refresh my memory against targets. You will help keep my horses fed and brushed down, and you will hand me my lances. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir," I said.

"We don't have long. With me." We mounted Ceonwin's four horse, taking one each, then gathered his lances and gambeson from a storehouse by the gate. Carrying his equipment, we rushed out of the castle gates and galloped through the tournament grounds, until we reached the nearest woods to the north. Lord Ceonwin led us off-trail, until we reached a track of packed dirt.

"This is where I first learned to joust," Lord Ceonwin told me.

"My father taught me, back when this castle was still our summer palace…some two centuries ago, now." I tilted. Lord Ceonwin was that old? He was a Gold, though, and that increased your lifespan. Hell, I'd probably increased my own lifespan, with how high my Vitality had climbed. But that seemed to be the upper end of a Gold's lifespan. He didn't look that old, though.

"Don't look at me like that," Lord Ceonwin said.

"I'm not about to keep over and die quite yet. Now come on. We have work to do."