Silver Tree - Chapter 1

Part 1. Leah d’Acre

A Chatty Daughter Of A Cowardly Family

“You can go there alone, can’t you, Leah? This sword, I’m sure you’ll be able to deliver it to General Guillaume.”

“Yes, father. I’ll deliver it to him, don’t worry.”

‘I can’t do it because I’m scared…’ She quickly nodded before the whisper popped out. 

She was not her four-year-old brother, Rachel. She was sixteen, so don’t be fooled into thinking that she couldn’t get the job done.

As soon as she received the heavy sword, which was wrapped in cloth, her throat itched, but her mouth automatically closed shut when she saw her father trembling more than she was.

‘I’m not scared! I’m not scared! I can go and come back safely!’

Leah shouted inwardly about ten times, clenched her fists, and nodded. However, she didn’t stop walking even though she was trembling.

Her family was full of cowards. The greatest among them was her father. On the outside, he was no less than a ferocious brown bear, but he easily fell into surprise and was very good at running away from scary things.

As the head of the family with the motto ‘Make a lot of money quietly, eat well, and live well for a long time,’ he had lived a life where his neighbours kept hitting and running, yet he never had watched a single fight. Objectively speaking, he could be said to be more fearful than Rachelle, who was known for being the biggest crybaby in town.

Of course, her mother was unhappy too. Even though the couple had two children, they lived in a narrow house. It was so small that they often heard squeaking sounds from the rats passing the roof at night.

So, as long as Leah was capable of slaying rats and insects, it could be said she was of ‘Hercules’ grade in the house.

Given the circumstances, Leah’s greatest wish had become to be a brave and strong woman like her aunt Alice, who lived next door. To protect the family full of cowards.

In fact, when she was young, her wish was to become an invincible knight like King Richard (Richard of England) the Great of Angleterre, who was said to have the heart of a lion.

[T/N: Angleterre – The English word England comes from Old English, Engla land, which like the French word, “Angleterre” means “land of the Angles.”]

It was a simple dream to defeat those evil Mamluk cultists, take away the treasures of Al-Aqsa Palace, make a fortune, and live happily by eating delicious food every day.

Sadly, in order to achieve that dream, she had to be born as a ‘son’ of a ‘noble family’, and also as a ‘handsome boy’. Even if she prayed to the Virgin Mary and Saint Michel (Saint Michael) the Archangel a hundred times a day, it was highly unlikely that such a miracle would happen in this lifetime.

So, when she got to know the world a little, Leah, with tears in her eyes, decided to change her dreams in a swipe. By becoming a well-paid person, and having a strong and brave handsome knight as a husband.

It wasn’t impossible for a knight with a very small territory to marry the daughter of a wealthy artisan. Among them, there may be a strong and brave knight who still had faint traces of being a flower boy.

[Ed./N: Flower boy = a boy as pretty as flowers, so Leah wanted a pretty, strong, and brave knight!]

Although Leah was young, she was very realistic, so the knight of her dreams was often the owner of a pea-sized estate, not a handsome prince of a big country. Of course, Leah did not compromise on appearance in the slightest, so the appearance of the lord of her dreams was very beautiful all year round.

Well, what if a man was a little poor? I can make money if I’m competent. 

After all, I’m not a fragile metalsmith! I’ll be a wife who can wrap her head to her toes with self-made gold, and even make weapons for myself! Alas, my heart swells. God. What a perfect match!

Leah used to dream of working gently on the ‘poor but handsome knight’ every night.

But her simple and realistic dream came to nothing when her father engaged her to Benson from the same workshop last year.

Her father had a beautiful and grand dream of his own. It was his dream to have the best and most reliable of the three craftsmen as his son-in-law, who could hit the hammer with his daughter in the workshop.

Then, when Leah’s classmate Marguerite got married last year to him and was already pregnant with her second child, her father became upset.

So, out of the three craftsmen, Benson, who had poor skills, poor dealings, and an even worse face, but who was very good at speaking and was naughty, was chosen as the son-in-law.

‘He’s a merchant from heaven. If we make it and he sells it, we’ll be rich in no time!’

The future her father dreamt of grew rosy day by day.

But the fiancé was quite far from the groom Leah had dreamed of. He wasn’t brave, he was far from a handsome guy – the trinity of crooked teeth, yellow teeth, and this wasn’t easy — let alone a knight, he was a coward who never even spoke a word.

She hated to say this, but that man was the perfect son-in-law for a scaredy-cat family.

After their engagement, whenever he saw her, he smiled while humming up to his nostrils, grinning broadly, and kept trying to touch her hands, shoulders, or waist.

Even just looking into his eyes gave Leah goosebumps. She didn’t want to get married and instead wanted to go to a convent right away. No matter how good a man was, to be honest, even though decent manners are a little important, a little caution, taciturn charm, and little looks are needed.

No, a lot of looks.

It’s not that she wanted a shiny appearance like the handsome knight who was loved by women, or His Majesty, Richard the Lionheart, or His Majesty Philippe, who was rumoured to be a cold-looking man, representing France.

It’s not that she wanted strict chivalry like the Knights Templar, who couldn’t even talk to women.

Just, if this man could do the basics, where he could get better, just the basics!

However, her father’s grand dream was shattered when the prospective son-in-law stole 40 of her father’s florin gold coins and jumped onto a boat.

That night, Leah offered a prayer of thanks to God in tears. Of course, those 40 florin gold coins were worth the blood tears, but if the man hadn’t escaped with it, Leah would have stolen the money and ran away.

Now, the only dream left for Leah and her father was ‘Let’s make a lot of money quietly, eat well, and live well for a long time.’

…And not long after, war broke out in Acre.

“It’s gonna be okay, right? Will it be okay? You’re the only one who can go now, but what are you going to do with this?”

“Ahhhhhhh, honey, where are you! Ahh, help me!”

“Hey, honey, Celine! I’m here! I’m not going anywhere!”

Her father jumped like a mouse pricked by a needle and frantically whirled around the door.

“D*mn it, what if he comes out now? I don’t have anything to say. I’m going to have to go out to the dock and take a boat right now… Nothing goes as planned.”

Of course, according to her father’s plan, her family would have left Acre Castle this morning and sat on a nice boat on the dock.

But, isn’t it true that life consists of big holes in a rosy plan and tinkering with them?

So the night before, the commander of the Knights Templar came and said, “Repair and bring me this sword right away,” and her father locked the door of the workshop, finishing the repair in a day. After, her mother went into labour in the morning, and the midwife must have left Acre Castle on the first boat in the morning.

Her father described this situation as ‘a devil’s play’ and ‘a dung field of fate’, while her mother used to say that it was the will of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.

Her father, who was an Ashkenazi pagan and converted to Catholicism during his wandering life, never fully understood her mother’s higher-order claims.

How can the Virgin Mary or Jesus, who say that they love them so much, push them into the dung field of fate?

Leah supported her father’s opinion. The current situation was just a pit of fate, looking forwards and backward.

Leah, the eldest daughter of her family, did not want to get her hair cut off in order to realize the great will of the Virgin Mary.

[Ed./N: It was a tradition for those entering the convent to get their hair cut. Hair is like a symbol of vanity, so getting one’s hair cut is symbolic of giving up vanity in order to devote themself to God. Basically, Leah was saying that she didn’t want to become a nun.]

What will happen to our family if we don’t get out of the castle today?

Leah shook her head and shook off the scenes that came to her mind.

This imagination was not very good for the mental health of a coward.

For now, she had to think about completing this mission as soon as possible and escaping Acre quickly.

***

It had been a month and a half since the Egyptian Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil attacked the castle in Acre.

The knights guarding the castle could have raked all the way to the surrounding area, but she couldn’t even figure out how many Mamluk sl*ve units there were. There were as many as a swarm of locusts covering the sky black.

Looking down from the citadel, the whole field was filled with the flashing light of helmets, chain armor, and spears, as if the castle was floating on a sea of ​​iron.

Thump, Thump, Thump.

Stones, fireballs, and siege weights from catapults smashed the fortress walls non-stop, and enemy soldiers climbed endlessly on the walls.

The Knights of the Knights Templar fought against the Mamluk sl*ve soldiers with incredible valor.

Even if they were carried on a stretcher with blood covering the chain armor, they grabbed their swords and went out to fight again when they came to their senses. If they couldn’t stand up, they leaned on their spear to get up, and if they couldn’t walk, they crawled back to the wall.

They hated being branded a coward more than dead.

In fact, she was told that the Crusaders who ran away from battle had to eat like dogs on the floor.

‘We will defend this Acre and recapture Jerusalem, which had been taken away by the enemy.’

***