Chapter 11: Princess Sibylla

The first to walk in with her head held high was, of course, Princess Sibylla.

Like Baldwin, she inherited Amalric I's blue eyes and their late mother's dark brown hair. Her hair, which rose and fell elegantly like seaweed in the waves, was neatly braided, coiled up, and hidden by a hennin—a hennin was a cone-shaped, tall, and pointed hat, shaped inside with wire.

The Princess's hat was covered with a layer of white satin consistent with the long-sleeved underskirt inside, and layers of fine gauze hung from the top. When she moved, it was like clouds or feathers surrounding her.

Her eyes were indeed blue, but not like Amalric I's; the King's gray-blue eyes were as cold as steel. Nor were they like Baldwin's; the Prince's eyes were as pure as a lake unstained by dust. Her blue eyes were like the deepest part of the ocean, with a ring of gorgeous golden fissures surrounding her black pupils, as if bright magma were surging and erupting from the sea eye, making one's soul shake and unforgettable at first sight.

Her skin was like snow, as if it were thick, bottomless snow. This extreme whiteness even caused the vermilion velvet cloak on her body to carry a hint of tragic meaning, and it also gave her a majesty that completely transcended gender and age.

Unlike the coldness around Baldwin, the Princess was followed by at least twelve ladies-in-waiting, and behind the ladies-in-waiting were attendants and servants. But only four ladies-in-waiting whom the Princess trusted most and were the boldest walked into the room. They were also all young, with exquisite makeup, wearing either hennins or flower crowns, holding bouquets, and two of them had small hand drums hanging from their waists and were holding lutes.

They had certainly heard of Cesar's name long ago, but when he was still an attendant of unknown status, any extra attention and favor would be a stain on the noblewoman's reputation. Now that the Princess allowed them to see him, they had no such concerns and could look at Cesar carefully and openly.

The ladies-in-waiting surrounded the black-haired, blue-eyed boy, all smiling and relaxed. Although they couldn't touch his face, pull his hand, or kiss his lips, they were satisfied.

Sibylla and Baldwin watched them with smiles, just like watching a group of kittens circling a new puppy. Then Sibylla called over a lady-in-waiting who might only be seven or eight years old, with a round face and round eyes. "This is Damara," she said. "Damara of Gerard. From now on, if you have any matters, you can come directly to her."

"Is this Damara's knight?" The ladies-in-waiting's laughter grew louder, teasing the blushing Damara one after another.

"He is not a knight yet." Although Damara blushed, she was calm and said solemnly, "Only after he cuts off the swallowtail flag (one of the signs of promotion to a knight) can he come to offer his loyalty to me—I wouldn't mind then."

She then took off her gloves with a bit of shyness, small, white satin gloves, handed them to Cesar, and said, "You are not a knight yet, so you cannot wear them on your helmet, but you can place them on your chest."

Cesar had already learned from Baldwin that in this era, whenever a young man became a knight, he should have a lover, or if a noblewoman reached the age of marriage, she should also have a knight willing to be forever loyal to her. This kind of love did not involve the body in reality, nor did it involve marriage. They would marry others, but this feeling, especially for a knight, was worth paying with one's life to defend.

Although Cesar didn't understand this behavior, which people regarded as extremely noble and beautiful—he had never thought that to declare a lady the most virtuous, beautiful, and intelligent, one had to challenge dissenters to a duel, and one where one side had to surrender and become a captive or die.

But Damara was a girl of the Gerard family. Cesar had only known one person from the Gerard family before, and that was the chubby Dean John. Dean John's care for him was beyond doubt, so he only thought for a moment, then walked forward, knelt on one knee before Princess Sibylla (because she was Damara's master) according to the custom of the time, and said, "Although I am not a knight yet, and this noblewoman has not reached the age, I can promise that if I become a knight in the future, I will come to take an oath to her."

The ladies-in-waiting cheered, but except for Damara, who was genuinely happy, the others couldn't help but carry a hint of slight sourness. Even Sibylla couldn't help but say, "Are you sure, child? An oath is not something that can be joked about!"

"I am sure."

"Alright, alright," Sibylla clapped her hands. "The matter is decided. I will be the witness here. When you become a knight, you must repeat this oath to the priest before God and the cross."

This sentence seemed to be the switch that opened the celebration. Everyone present was immediately overjoyed. Damara handed the small hand drum to another lady-in-waiting, who, along with the lady-in-waiting holding the lute, began to play music, and everyone danced happily.

Everyone, no need to question whether the venue was too narrow. The dance at this time, especially in the court, was quite solemn. Both men and women had their hands hanging at their sides, separated by the distance of an arm, rotating elegantly with themselves or the other person as the center. The only contact was their gazes.

If you wanted to hold hands with others, that would be a dance of hell severely condemned by the Church, so as long as there was a place where everyone could stand with their arms outstretched, it was fine to use it for dancing.

Before long, servants brought over large platters of delicious food, from roast venison to dried figs, and nuts like walnuts and almonds. As an attendant, Cesar should have stood behind Baldwin, but everyone thought he should sit beside Damara and eat from the same platter. "Although you are not a knight yet," Sibylla said, "it doesn't hurt to start learning now."

Although Damara was still a child, she was as sweet and cute as her name (Damara means date palm), not very arrogant, and very bold. She ate everything Cesar brought to her mouth. Sibylla watched them, smiling, "They look like a good match, don't they, Baldwin?"

Baldwin took a look and really didn't want to be too insincere. Damara was very cute, but the biggest difference between Cesar and his peers was his calmness and restraint. When he was with Damara, he was completely like an elder taking care of a toddler, without a hint of ambiguity. "Perhaps," he said, but he didn't have much opposition.

Sibylla withdrew her gaze, as if she had just said it casually, and looked at Baldwin's plate. "Why don't you eat the venison?" she said. "Today's venison is very tender."

"I am fasting."

"But today is not a fast day."

"I made a vow." Baldwin said.

Sibylla didn't continue to ask. After the meal, they danced for a while together. This time, Sibylla and Baldwin also danced. Baldwin always wore a veil and gloves.

After this day passed, Cesar seemed to have suddenly shed his identity as an invisible person. Just like those noblewomen, even though everyone knew that Baldwin had long had a new attendant by his side, they had to wait until Amalric I brought him to the altar as if he were the son of a Grand Duke or Count, and Princess Sibylla allowed him to become the knight of her ward, Damara of Gerard, before they woke up as if from a dream and discovered that there was such a beautiful attendant.

Before this, Cesar's social circle, besides Baldwin and clerics like Heraclius, only included the servants in the castle. Now, when he walked outside the room, the servants would respectfully bow to him and say, "Master Attendant."

And the tolerance and warmth they once gave Cesar now turned to the higher-level pages or squires. They either smiled or nodded, and even if they didn't dare to invite Cesar to drink and play together, they sent him many toys.

Yes, that's right, toys.

This was a surprising thing. Children at this time, regardless of rich or poor, noble or lowly, were rarely treated with special warmth. They were either regarded as animals or as defective humans. People in later generations thought they might not have had a childhood at all.

But human nature can never be changed or restrained. Toys were presented in the form of tools or teaching aids. As for what Cesar had now, there were spinning tops, stilts, bubble-blowing pipes, small drums, and dolls with movable joints and heads.

Baldwin saw the gifts Cesar brought back and also took out the toys he had stored in his chest with great interest—when he thought he was going to the monastery, he had put them all away. The Prince's toys were indeed a cut above the rest. Besides the things mentioned before, Baldwin also had bronze knight figurines—people and horses, helmets and swords could be separated from each other, a pure gold Infant Jesus and His silk cradle, and a set of Shatranj chess made of walrus ivory.

Cesar only picked up the bronze knight and the pure gold Infant Jesus to look at them and then put them down. Baldwin noticed his gaze was resting on the Shatranj chess.

"Do you know how to play chess?" Baldwin asked. Although playing chess was also among the seven skills that knights were required to master—horsemanship, swimming, archery, fencing, hunting, poetry, and chess—just like most knights would rather hold a heavy two-handed sword than pick up a light quill, the last two items were often ignored by knights, or only dabbled in.

"I don't know if the rules in my memory are the same as here." Cesar picked up a chess piece and let it spin between his fingers.

"Let's play a game and talk while we play." Baldwin was interested, and he and Cesar set up the chess pieces together.

Shatranj chess at this time had three major differences from the chess of hundreds of years later. One was that victory was not based on capturing the King, but on the total annihilation of the opponent's army, which was very consistent with the current habit; the second was that there was no Queen, and beside the King was the Vizier, which was also consistent with the current status of women; the third was that not only was the first move decided by the size of the dice, but the number of steps one could take afterward was also decided by the points on the dice.

At first, because he was unfamiliar with the rules, Cesar lost; later, Baldwin lost a few games because of carelessness, and finally, they were evenly matched—Cesar was calm, cautious, and thoughtful, and even when he was at a disadvantage, he could unexpectedly turn the situation around at the last moment; Baldwin's chess style was sharper, more aggressive, and often took risks, so it was either a big win or a big loss.

Unknowingly, the light dimmed completely, and Cesar couldn't see the chess pieces clearly. Only then did they realize that it was time for Vespers. According to the doctrine, one could not eat after sunset. Baldwin didn't care at all. "Just eat some dates."

Cesar disagreed. "Your body needs sufficient nutrition." He said, "A portion of food has been prepared for you in the kitchen." This was one of the requests he had made to Amalric I.

Baldwin had to put down the chessboard with regret and walked over to light a candle. "Then I'll wait for you, come back quickly."

When Cesar returned from the kitchen, even the vast open space only had a few remnants of the sunset's faint light. Several attendants were riding ponies, carrying long wooden sticks, and circling around a target post by the remaining light. This was an activity that could be called both a game and training.

The target post could be seen as a large wind vane standing on the ground. A horizontal bar that could rotate 360 degrees was fixed to the top of the wooden post. A shield was fixed to one end of the horizontal bar, and a sandbag was hung from the other end.

When someone rode a horse toward the shield and hit it, the horizontal bar would rotate due to this force and drive the sandbag at the other end. The sandbag would sway and hit him heavily, perfectly replicating the situation that would occur on the battlefield. It was very beneficial for training how to use a lance and prevent being hit by other people's weapons.

The target post used by the attendants had some small differences from the common style. The height was lowered, the sandbag became smaller, and the horizontal bar also changed from one to two and crossed. Looking down from the sky, it looked like an equal-length cross, with shields and sandbags installed at equal intervals.

An attendant stopped Cesar here.

"I am David of Tripoli," the attendant, who was on the boundary between child and youth, said arrogantly. "My father is Count Raymond of Tripoli. I am now challenging you—I want to say, in Al-Lazarus, the Arabian Peninsula, and even the whole world, there is only one lady who is the most beautiful, most virtuous, and most intelligent, and that is Princess Sibylla, the daughter of the King of Al-Lazarus. No other lady can compare to her."

Cesar put down the food basket. "Have you taken an oath to her?" He was not a knight, but neither was David. They would only have a chance to be knighted when they were eighteen to twenty years old.

"No." David said. "Haven't you also not officially taken an oath? But this does not hinder our loyalty to the ladies."

Cesar looked around. Several knights were paying attention here, but there was no intention to stop them at all. Indeed, people at this time were happy to see boys show a desire for honor and victory from a young age, and not fear injury and death.

Although he didn't think this behavior had any meaning, just like he hadn't forgiven those servants who tried to harm him, if he retreated or refused, he would only be seen as a cowardly weakling and would only receive more contempt and bullying. If Amalric I and Baldwin felt they had been deceived, his fate might not be better than Witt's.

"I accept." Cesar said.

David nodded with relief. "Then you choose the weapon and the method." He was strictly following the rules of the knights.

"God has already made the choice for us," Cesar pointed to the target post beside them. "We take turns hitting the shield with wooden sticks. Whoever is hit by the sandbag first loses."

"What if neither of us is hit?"

"The time will be until the sun sets completely and it becomes dark here so we can't see the shield. The winner will be the one who hits the shield the most."

"Sounds very fair, but the knights say you are not good at fighting on horseback."

"That was before," Cesar said. "I have a good teacher." Baldwin. After the martial arts lessons resumed, Baldwin discovered that Cesar could ride a horse but was not good at wielding weapons on horseback, so he became his second teacher, training him while reviewing his own skills.

Baldwin's martial arts teacher before he contracted the disease was Count Raymond of Tripoli. His patron saint was the brave Joshua. On the battlefield, he was also like the warrior who assisted and succeeded the saint Moses as the leader of the Isaac people, loyal to Amalric I and invincible.

With such a martial arts teacher, even though Baldwin was only nine years old, he had mastered more skills than other children. In this regard, he had no reservations toward Cesar. Cesar said this, making David's expression even more relaxed. "Then it's not just sounding fair now," he turned to look at his companions. "Who is willing to lend his horse?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 12 =====