Swords ~ Bread Knight Chronicles ~ Chapter One (Patreon)

"He's gone!" a voice yelled.

The Bread Knight turned to see the Princess of Hiltshire, Joyeuse, and her companion Ōdachi approaching.

Joyeuse may have been royalty, but she was dressed as anything but. Her casual adventurer gear included a plain brown shirt and heavy boots. 

Ōdachi, a samurai from the faraway land of Katana, wore a purple kimono emblazoned with teal leaves. He was also sporting heavy injuries from his last battle.

"We are too late." Ōdachi complained. "We will never catch him on foot."

"He said he's going after someone." the Bread Knight explained.

"The Godswords." Joyeuse explained. "The Demon King was talking about it during our last battle, when he absorbed my sword!"

"Mine as well." Ōdachi explained.

"And he grew bigger each time! If he's going to collect another one, there's no telling how powerful that will make him." Joyeuse explained. "I don't know if there is a single sword in Hiltshire's Sword Library that is powerful enough to defeat an enemy like that."

The Demon King's minions were still rampaging across the Kingdom. One began lumbering towards the three as they spoke, dragging its huge weapon along the ground behind it. As it got closer, it growled and lifted it's sword up to attack. Ōdachi, with katana in hand, darted forward and disabled the beast with a single sword swipe. It dropped it's weapon to the ground, gurgling in pain as it fell backwards.

"I need to go and talk to the Goblin Elder of the Enchanted Forest. They say he wanders the forest, gifting magical weapons to those in need." Joyeuse decided. "What will you do?"

"I already have a sword." the red-haired knight explained, swinging his bread loaf in front of him.

"...Huh?"

"...But I need to get stronger too!" the Bread Knight nodded. "In order to defeat the Demon King, I'll need to be able to defend myself against his powerful attacks."

The Bread Knight thought quietly for a moment and then nodded. "I'm off to talk to the Dwarves."

---

It was late afternoon when Bread Knight set off from the Kingdom of Hiltshire. As is streets continued to burn and demons roamed about, his mind was set on a higher purpose. Become stronger, save Stabastian and help the Princess stop the Demon King.

The dirt roads connecting Hiltshire with neighboring villages like Pommelgrove didn't connect to the Dwarven lands to the east. The Bread Knight quickly found himself travelling cross-country, wandering through corn fields.

"Hey. Hey you."

"Huh?" the Bread Knight looked up to see a Scarecrow nestled amongst the rows of corn. In it's chest there was a sword with an odd patch-work handle.

"Take this sword out of me, will ya?" the Scarecrow spoke, in a creaky, shrill tone. "It hurts."

"Hm. Alright." the knight was largely unphased at the notion of talking with a scarecrow.

He leaned up and wrapped his hand around the hilt, pulling hard and dislodging the sword. As he tumbled backward in to stalks of corn and the magic sword fell to the muddy ground with a wet thud, the scarecrow went limp. Then, something miraculous happened!

The scarecrow transformed in to a human - button eyes became healthy round circles, cloth became meat and suddenly a full person was hanging from the same pole the scarecrow had once graced.

"ARGH!" the scarecrow-man wailed. "PUT IT BACK! PUT IT BACK!"

There, in his chest, was the same stab wound he had had as a dummy. The transformation had done nothing to reverse the wound. Blood began to spurt out of the wound as his body filled with veins and those veins with fluids.

The Bread Knight scrambled in the mud for the sword. It slipped from his grasp multiple times as the Scarecrow-man continued to wail.

"It hurts!"

"Hyah!" the knight yelled as his stabbed the man once more. In no time at all, the sword worked it's magic and flesh reverted to sack. The pained expression on the man's face was replaced with the monotone stare of a mannequin.

"Wow, I'm sorry." the Bread Knight sighed.

"It was worth a shot." the Scarecrow stated, dejected.

"Hey, I know the timing is awkward but uhh... Can you tell me how to get to the Bearded Hills? I think I'm lost."

"Oh, sure man." the Scarecrow said. "Just head that way until you see trees with black leaves." The Scarecrow pointed with a hand made of straw. "It's maybe a day's travel."

"Thankyou. Really."

Bread Knight began to depart, pushing his way between rows of corn.

"Oh and hey." the Scarecrow chimed in. "If you find anyone who can break this curse, send them my way, okay?"

"Sure thing."

The sound of the Bread Knight leaving grew faint in the distance.

"Yeah, he's not gonna remember." the Scarecrow sighed to himself.

---

The Bearded Hills were the home of the Dwarves. Each hill was a home, and they were carefully cultivated with two entry holes that looked like eyes, and a shroud of black trees at ground level to make a faux beard. Even the largest, most important hills in this land followed this simple rule, but there was fierce competition for the most well groomed 'beard'.

A few dwarves were wandering around outside, but largely this was an unprotected land. Nobody seemed to mind a knight wandering around armed only with a loaf of bread.

The Bread Knight looked around for a blacksmith or an inn, but his human sensibilities couldn't easily identify either. Finally, he settled on a door he could hear the sound of iron being hammered from.

He let himself in and as he began his descent down the eye-hole, a dwarf in a green cap blocked his path.

"Heyo. Can I help ye?"

"Dwarf! I require a mighty shield!"

"I only make doo-" the Doorsmith began. "Wait... Do you think all Dwarves are blacksmiths?" he asked perplexed. "Little bit prejudiced isn't it?"

"Uhh..." the Bread Knight stuttered.

"Ahh, whatever. Give me a minute." the Doorsmith gave a thumbs up, which the Bread Knight smiled at in turn. The dwarf waddled away in to the depths of his hill. There was clattering and clanking as he moved things about.

"I was only messing with ye! No harm I hope!"

The dwarf returned with a small metal door, designed for a vault or a dungeon. It was clearly heavy and made of a thick dwarven alloy, surely capable of repelling all sorts of intruders, magical or monstrous.

"This ought to repel just about anything ye throw at it." the dwarf nodded.

"Perfect." the Bread Knight smiled. "Then I'm off to see the elves!"

"Why, are they hungry?" the dwarf chuckled, nodding at the knights humongous loaf; but he was already bounding off to continue his journey.

"Hey. Wait a minute." the dwarf muttered to himself, realizing he had been swindled