Why am I doing this?

That was my only thought as I swung my sword once more, earning me a round of applause. I sighed, bored by the monotonous activity. As the man I am, though, I stabbed my sword through the wooden training dummy, even if just to please my family.

A man in the crowd noticed me slowing down. “Keep at it, Sir William!”

I groaned in exasperation. Every time I tried to give the hint that I wanted to stop by slowing down, somebody had to ruin it by trying to encourage me to keep going. They had good intentions at heart, but I wished they would stop.

I continued like this for hours, until I was soaked in sweat and my muscles were sore as could be. I lifted my sword one last time, stabbing the remains of the dummy as I collapsed to the ground. A wave of disappointed sighs came from the crowd, accompanied by some loud boos.

As angry as I was about people acting disappointed that I had to stop after I collapsed out of exhaustion, I could do nothing but lie there as the crowd got up to leave. As per usual, I was picked up and tossed carelessly onto a bed to sit there and recover.

Despite the poor treatment, this was one of my favorite times of the day. While waiting to recover, I could sit here and think all I wanted to with no interruption. I thought about many things, but my train of thought always landed on one topic.

Should I continue living this way? I hated having to live like this. I found swordsmanship boring, and was much more interested in topics such as food or animals. I didn’t want to become a military commander or knight or hero. I would much rather be some random restaurant owner or monster taming enthusiast.

I always forced myself to keep going, though, as I didn’t want to disappoint everyone. My plan was to slowly fade out of everyone’s mind as I gradually fell behind my competitors, and then I could start living how I’ve always wanted to.

I wasn’t wrong in thinking this would work. If everything had continued as normal after I recovered, it would have worked. Of course, with my luck, that was never going to happen.

“We would like for you to become a knight apprentice,” my brother, Christopher, told me with an indifferent expression. My fake smile froze on my face, and I slowly opened my eyes wide as I realized what he had just said. My plans, dreams, and hopes for the future collapsed with just ten words from my brother.

I struggled to speak, but I managed to calm myself and get some sentences out. “W- Why do you want someone like me to become a knight apprentice? All I have is sword skills. I have no honor or pride. I have no manners or courtesy, and I am not gallant in the slightest.”

Christopher looked at me and laughed, as if ridiculing me. “Do you really think even half of the royal knights have those traits? The requirements have weakened, and sword skills are the only requirement. Those who think knights still have self-sacrifice or manners need to rid themselves of delusion and face reality!”

I had no answer. As someone born as a normal person, I had no more right to agree with him as he had to say it; that is, none. On the other hand, my brother was the kind of person who would not take kindly to people disagreeing with him, especially for something he sounded so vehement about.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Despite that, I had enough of this. “Did you not get the hint? I don’t want to be a knight. I don’t want to be a swordsman. I don’t want to be a member of the cruel world of combat and heroism. I don’t want to be envied by the less talented. I just want to live a normal life, so stop trying to rope me into all of this knight stuff!”

Christopher blinked a few times, his expression changing for once in a lifetime as shock spread across his face. He started shaking as he lifted his hand to slap me. Due to his slow start and big movements, though, I was able to barely duck under his hand. Crouching down into a more comfortable position to begin sprinting, I pushed my feet off the ground and ran away as fast as I could.

Forgetting my bedroom was on the second floor, I jumped straight through my window after snatching my bag off of my bed. As a person who had been preparing to leave this house for years, I already had some basic necessities packed in case I needed to leave early, which is clearly what is happening right now. As I looked down at the rapidly approaching ground, I didn’t comprehend what was happening until I was feet away from slamming my face straight into it. Time seemingly slowed down as my mind went into overdrive thinking about what to do. Before I could think of a solution, I saw a passerby notice me and widen his eyes in alarm.

Right before I slammed into the ground, I felt the familiar feeling of magic being cast on me as I turned all but weightless, flipping onto my feet as I landed softly on the ground. I looked in front of myself to thank my savior, presumably one of the mages of the household, but all I found was the same passerby, this time with his hand outstretched.

Even though I was known as a talented swordsman from a young age, I was not arrogant. I knew that a lot of mages were of common birth, and at least half of those decided to live relatively normal lives. Because of this, I recognized this man as the one who saved me after a few seconds of thinking. Walking towards the man as best as I could while still shaken up, I extended my hand in greeting.

“Thank you very much,” I kept it short and simple as I still needed to get to somewhere safe from my family’s eye, which was difficult after they had gathered money and workers using my brother and I’s talents. The man responded with a simple nod of his head, indicating that it had not taken very much out of him to use a simple spell such as feather fall. This made sense, as any experienced mage should be able to use something like that without any effort.

“Your name, sir?” I asked.

“Joseph,” he answered. Short and simple. He seemed to understand that I was in a hurry and needed to go, so he answered in the same manner that I asked. Saying a formal goodbye as quickly as possible, I moved past him and into the woods.

It wasn’t far enough. It was questionable whether it was even possible to escape my family’s eye within the maximum amount of time that I had, but I had to make it. I started sprinting once more, barely avoiding trees as I ran past at full speed. Just after I found a rough looking path and thought I might be able to make it, I encountered a roadblock. Literally.

It seemed there was a reason this road was so rough and unfinished. Because It’s a dead end. I stared at the cliff in front of me and almost flew into a rage. Calming myself, I thought about the possible solutions.

One solution would be to jump up, hope I get a hand and foothold, repeat. Very unreliable and dangerous, but would probably be the fastest. Another solution would be to climb up slowly. Reliable and safe, but slow. I knew that, if I didn’t make it up in time, I would probably be forced to live a life of a knight, never to be able to achieve my hopes and dreams.

Although I knew it was a bad choice, I threw myself as high as I could into the air, grabbing onto a small ledge and pulling myself up. Just as I was about to jump again, I noticed a slight vibration at my feet. Looking down, I saw a rock rise up. It was a strange, unnatural looking shape for a rock, looking almost as if it was a shell-

Oh.

A rock tortoise.