Sir Erich Hofmann Wolfgang Reinhardt von Theodesburg was an Imperial Noble and an Imperial Knight.
He held the title of Sir from the Theodesburg Knight Family, and upon reaching adulthood, he passed the Knight Family's trial, ascended the Iron Throne, and became a noble Imperial Knight.
This was a life journey every descendant of the Theodesburg Knight Family had to experience: completing the trial ceremony at the age of sixteen to gain the recognition of the Knight Family's ancient Iron Thrones and become an Imperial Knight.
The trial ceremony was not merely a test of physique and mind, but also the ultimate tempering of will and loyalty.
As for those who failed… Erich had personally killed a childhood friend who participated in the trial ceremony with him but failed to pass.
It was a cold winter night, moonlight spilled onto the cold stone ground, reflecting their intertwined shadows.
At that time, his friend had already gone mad from failing the trial ceremony, his eyes losing their former luster, leaving only endless pain and confusion.
To lessen his friend's suffering, Erich had no choice but to draw the short sword his friend had given him as an adulthood gift—a short sword inlaid with the Knight Family crest—and plunge it into his chest.
The moment the blade pierced flesh, Erich's hand did not tremble, but his heart felt as if it had been torn apart.
Though cruel, both parties had actually agreed before the ceremony that if one failed the trial, the other would end their suffering.
This was an ancient tradition of the Theodesburg Knight Family, and it was also the final mercy for the failures.
Erich remembered clearly that on the night before the ceremony, they sat side by side on the high walls of the castle, gazing at the distant Star District, making this heavy vow.
At that time, they naively believed that failure would only befall others.
This was a trial every descendant of the Theodesburg Knight Family was bound to undergo; only by passing could one become an Imperial Knight upholding the Knight Family's honor.
And those who failed? They were merely waste, the Knight Family's stagnant blood, needing to be purged.
The Knight Family elders always admonished the young descendants so coldly, as if failures had never existed.
Every descendant of the Theodesburg Knight Family was educated and instilled with such a philosophy from childhood, or rather, all Imperial Knight Families shared the same philosophy.
Because for these Knight Families, only those who could pass the trial and become an Imperial Knight were qualified Knight Family descendants.
If the Knight Family's Iron Throne and knight titans were insufficient, that was one thing, an objective limitation that could not be helped.
But as long as there was an available Iron Throne, the Knight Family's descendants had to undergo the trial to become a true Imperial Knight.
However, for Erich, becoming an Imperial Knight was not as 'interesting' or as full of 'adventures' and 'excitement' as he had imagined in his childhood.
The gap between reality and fantasy was like an unbridgeable chasm, shattering his former aspirations.
When Erich was a child, the Knight Family's rules were not as strict; he did not need to recite the original family epic, which was longer than his life, but only needed to remember some short anecdotes adapted into fairy tales.
At that time, he always sat by the fireplace, listening to his elders recount those beautified stories in gentle voices, as if war was merely a grand ball, and an Imperial Knight was the most dazzling star at the ball.
Precisely because of this, much of the cruelty of war was downplayed, leaving only legendary stories of heroic adventures.
For a child, this was very appealing, and it sparked the idea in young Erich's heart that he wanted to become an Imperial Knight to go on adventures and experience those legendary stories.
However, when he reached adulthood and faced the Knight Family's overly complex rules, which had standard regulations for every breath, he realized that becoming an Imperial Knight was not as interesting as he had thought.
The Knight Family's rules were like an invisible net, binding him tightly, so much so that even his every gesture had to follow strict standards.
Every sword swing, every bow, even every breath, had to conform to the Knight Family's ancient traditions.
Those adventure stories that once captivated him now transformed into endless training and tedious etiquette.
Trapped by the Knight Family's rules, Erich felt like he was going crazy.
He once thought becoming an Imperial Knight meant freedom and glory, but now he understood that so-called glory was just another form of shackles.
He felt as if he was trapped in a giant iron cage, surrounded by wall-like rules, and he could only struggle within it, unable to escape.
And perhaps this was why the elders of the Knight Family were so fond of making friends and why they would immediately respond enthusiastically when someone called for their help with even a minor problem.
In the past, he didn't understand, but now he realized that this was how they could go out and fight wars when someone called, without having to abide by those abnormal rules!
So, upon learning that a holy war-like expedition was about to be launched in a certain Star District of the Solar System, and that Imperial Knights were being summoned to participate, Erich immediately took his knight titans, 'Glorious Aura,' and boarded a transport ship, heading towards the Mariupol Sector without a second thought.
And once on the ship, having left the Knight World where his Knight Family resided, Erich finally understood why the elders of his Knight Family loved to go out so much; fighting wars truly was like being on vacation!
The three months spent away from the Knight Family on the transport ship were simply the happiest three months of Erich's life.
He didn't have to recite a list of ancestors that was a hundred thousand characters long every day, nor did he have to strictly regulate his movements and eating speed according to the Knight Family's traditional twenty-eight rituals just to eat a meal, let alone follow complex etiquette rules for every word, action, and gesture.
He could eat whatever he wanted, as long as it conformed to the common Imperial noble etiquette standards.
Although this was also a very tedious set of etiquette, compared to the strict rules of an Imperial Knight… Ha! It was like the difference between an elementary school essay and a university thesis.
The former could only be considered a guide for behavior and etiquette, while the latter was a code of law that had to be strictly obeyed, and the complexity of the latter was more than a hundred times that of the former!
For Erich, the strictness of the former was not even as strict as the simplified version of the simplified Knight Family etiquette he learned when he was twelve.
Here, no one would remind him that this or that was not allowed, nor would anyone demand that he recite a ten-thousand-year-old family tree before eating, nor did he need to recall and recite the full achievements of his eighteen generations of ancestors before bathing…
Ah, this was simply a heavenly life!
Erich praised the Emperor from the bottom of his heart and hoped that this expedition could last for several more decades, so he wouldn't have to rush home.
With such beautiful expectations, Erich finally arrived in the Mariupol Sector, where the expedition was launched, and gathered with others participating in this expedition, then transferred to a Department of Military Affairs transport ship, heading to the starting point and main battlefield of this expedition—the Rostov Sub-Sector.
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 40 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
Here's the link:
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!