Thrown Out of the Hero Summons for a Worthless Haggling Skill, He Struck a Deal With the Dragon novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Silver

Ryota unfolded the paper on the counter, and the words rose off it in plain Japanese.

Corisande Arvenne and the Lord Marshal's son fight for command of the heroes' escort. First to draw blood wins.

Under that was a last clause, in the same neat clerk's hand.

A knight who draws the blood of a man of higher birth is dishonored, and forfeits.

Then the small line.

He wants her to win the fight and lose the command.

"What's your birth?" Ryota asked.

"My father was a captain. His father kept pigs." Corisande frowned. "Why?"

"Because if you cut him first, you're dishonored and he wins. If he cuts you first, he wins anyway."

She looked at the paper for a long moment.

Then she laughed, short and ugly.

"Six times," she said. "I read it six times."

"It's written so you'd read it six times. That's the whole job of a clerk like that."

"Can you change it?"

"Not on paper. It isn't offered to me." He folded it. "But when you put your hand on the stone in the yard, ask me again. Out loud, in front of everyone."

The Guard's yard was a square of packed sand behind the castle barracks, walled on three sides, with benches up the walls.

Every bench was full.

Knights in blue coats sat with squires and cooks and a few nobles in furs.

Up in the corner sat the guild master, with his Gold card on its chain.

Ryota stood at the rail with an Iron card on a string around his neck and felt every eye in the yard slide over it.

The Lord Marshal's son was a big man of about thirty with oiled hair and a breastplate engraved with his family's hawk.

He stood by the yard's oath-stone and smiled at Corisande.

"Dame Arvenne," he said. "Shall we swear?"

Corisande put her hand on the stone.

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