My name is John, a young man who dreams of becoming a knight.

  I call myself a “Knight of the Six Virtues,”

  but people are more used to calling me… the Cowardly Knight.

  Why the nickname?

  Because, well, I have mastered six virtues—Faith, Hope, Love, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom—

  all except one: Courage.

  And that missing piece?

  It’s exactly what’s kept me stuck at the peak of the Silver Rank for three whole years.

  Theoretically, once you break into Gold Rank, you get a title, the right to command a hundred-man knight corps, even a piece of land of your own—

  and a seat in the Knight’s Assembly.

  But alas, the heavens weren’t kind to me.

  I’ve been afraid of the dark since I was a kid.

  Afraid of shadows, afraid of monsters.

  And the sun, moon, and stars in the sky…

  there’s something off about them.

  Like there’s something strange hidden in their light—

  or maybe I just see things that others don’t.

  According to old man Andrew, that’s called natural spiritual sensitivity.

  It’s not that I don’t have courage.

  It’s just… it doesn’t always show up when I need it.

  To put it bluntly, my conviction wavers.

  Compared to that, my fear is extremely stable.

  Shows up every day, right on time.

  Why do I want to become a knight?

  Well, when I was a kid, a wandering mage passed through our village.

  He wasn’t here to trade or heal—

  he was a lunatic who kidnapped children for experiments.

  And that day, I just happened to be on his list.

  Right when he was about to make his move,

  old man Andrew stepped in.

  That was the first time I witnessed what a true knight could do.

  As for where Andrew came from, the grown-ups never said.

  They just whispered that he was a monk who fled disaster from the outside world,

  and only stayed because he promised to protect the village.

  From that day on, I pestered him endlessly to teach me those cool moves.

  He said I was still too young—

  so he started by telling me stories about knights.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  It was through him that I first heard about the world outside…

  and the country I lived in—Erandel.

  The villagers didn’t like knights.

  Most of them had moved to the mountains to avoid rent and taxes from nobles and landlords.

  But they liked me.

  They’d watched me grow up,

  and even though they didn’t understand my dreams,

  they still pooled their money to forge me a sword before I left.

  As for my parents? They were adventurers that dropped me off in the village while I was still an infant and left before the villagers could refuse. What kind of parents are they?

  Usually, it was old man Andrew who handled the monsters around the village.

  But one day, I ran my mouth and bragged I could take care of one myself.

  So I had no choice but to go.

  How did I handle it?

  Well… not very nobly.

  Mostly, I ran.

  Fast.

  I was terrified of monsters—

  but I could outrun them.

  For some reason, they’d chase me endlessly, until they dropped dead from exhaustion.

  This tactic… wasn’t useless, per se.

  Just… kind of funny-looking.

  So people started calling me “The Cowardly Knight.”

  Old man Andrew never commented on the name, one way or the other.

  His attitude only started to change after one particular day—

  when I returned from the forest with a strange horse:

  black coat, crimson mane, and eyes like fire.

  I’d seen this horse in my dreams.

  It even told me its name in the dream: Mecha.

  But nobody else called it that.

  They just called it the Brave Horse—

  except for Andrew.

  He saw what it truly was.

  And because Mecha had chosen me,

  he said that meant I had what it took.

  From then on, he finally began teaching me for real,

  and formally took me as his disciple.

  They call Mecha the Brave Horse because it knows no fear.

  Not of monsters’ claws,

  not of mages’ fireballs—

  nothing could make it flinch.

  Instead, it would charge, cold and deadly.

  So when I started fighting monsters on horseback,

  my “run away” tactic… changed.

  It turned into a charge.

  People started calling it:

  “Little Johnny’s Dash.”

  Meaning—

  I was just the knight being dragged into battle by his horse.

  Truth is, I’m actually pretty talented.

  I officially became Andrew’s disciple at 14,

  and reached the peak of Silver Rank in just a year.

  Even the old man said my progress was astonishing.

  But for the past three years, I’ve been stuck.

  So the old man sent me down the mountain.

  He said that with my unique resistance to damage,

  and unmatched talent for running away,

  even stuck at Silver, I was ready to face the world.

  October 8th, Year 1473 of the Pillar Calendar—

  I, John, left the mountains.

  Following the map given to me by old man Andrew,

  I rode through the wild and tangled forest,

  headed for a place called Dawn Town.