He has read every book of chivalry ever printed and concluded that the age of knights is not over, merely under-staffed. He is wrong about almost everything, and he goes anyway.
A boy kills a hound and takes its place as guard dog. He is given a choice: a long life nobody remembers, or a short one they never stop singing about.
Nine years into a war he was promised would make him immortal, the best fighter in the world is sulking in his tent. The insult was small. The cost will not be.