Understandably, there was quite a bit of push back against this. Grissell was not happy about this change. Yon and his wife were pissed off. Anthony was very dismissive of he drive to become a knight. Count Swifthunt and his wife were upset. Molly did not let it get to her. I did not let it get to me either. This was for her benefit. We were not united as a family, so it was a bit of a strain. Increasing her accuracy was something she could focus on. There was a really great rapport that she developed with the hunter. He was a middle aged man. He had been expecting to face off against one of my sons. He did humor me when he saw that she could string and drawback the string on her short bow all by herself. When he saw her hit all of the targets with the short bow, he was impressed. He did not want to encourage her. "She wouldn't win a archery competition in the capitol, but she would place near the top." he said. Then she moved onto the longbow. The targets within 200 feet were hit accurately. At 350 feet, her accuracy took a big nose dive. She could not launch it further than 410 feet.
Very impressed at seeing her go, he wanted to applaud, but caught himself at the last second. I noticed because I was focused on him the whole time. I knew Molly was going to do well. He cleared his throat and turned to me. I waited for his verdict. He had given her a backhanded compliment before. It would be in character for him to do it again. "Your girl is a strong one. I know boys that are her age that struggle to shoot that far. And the combination of speed and calm focus that she sets the arrows with is beyond this world. You trained her well." he praised me. I smiled. "She was a quick learner. We also started her off with exercise and meditation from a young age." I said humbly. He shook his head wistfully. "It's such a shame. If she were a boy, Lord Anthony would be begging you to let her take the vows as his vassal." That might have been the case. Anthony was not going to just accept Jeran or Petras's kids into his service. They were centaurs. Molly and the boys were the only candidates that I had. I was a knight raised by his father. If I dubbed them knights now, they would be.
When a knight had not liege lord, they were called a knight-errant. Just like the ronin, masterless samurai of Japan, a knight-errant had all the skills and education of their nobly employed peers. It would be on the wanderer to do good deeds to either chase an ideal of the warrior code or impress a lord to be employed by. Having a master had pros and cons. You were tied to your master and had to abide by his orders. There was no freedom. On the other hand, he was your employer. He could bank roll you and your family for a nice house, new weapons, armor and other gear to better serve him. That was on top of the salary he paid. It was also more prestigious for the knight to have a liege or jurisdiction of higher status. You could be the guard captain of a small town on the outskirts of the kingdom, attend to a provincial lord or lady, or you could be a member of the king's guard retinue. There was definitely a difference in the respect you would receive. The king liked to watch the tournaments. Plenty of knights-errant went their to test their skills and curry favor with the nobles watching it.
