

She searched his eyes, trying to understand. Of course she had to deny that she was, in actuality, the most fetching maiden in the village-maybe in the entire realm. She denied it, and he told her that he knew she would deny it. The man told the girl that he knew her secret. She simply possessed a very mild form of magic, which she used for the purpose of hiding her loveliness. Because unlike everyone else in the village, including the candlemaker himself, the man could see one thing: the young lady was not plain at all. For now, the point was the man knew that he had to marry the candlemaker’s daughter. Not until they had been married for many years would the man come to understand how sad she truly was.īut the man was getting ahead of himself. He eventually found such a woman, the only daughter of the candlemaker, a girl whom everyone thought of as plain. No, he was going to have to find a woman with sufficiently low standards so as to give himself a fighting chance. If he was going to find a fair maiden to marry him, he would have to do it the old-fashioned way: trick her into it. He thought about enchanting some young lady, but he had no talent for magic so that was not really an option. On those endless nights, he would lie in his cottage alone, looking through the window, up at the starless sky, and wondering: Was there a life for him out there in the world? Someone who would love him? Or could learn to love him or, at least, let herself be loved by him? Nights when the moon was new and the sky was dark, and the hour before dawn stretched out before him, threatening never to end. It was just that, well, there were those nights. People he could call to get the occasional beer or catch a movie. But it wasn’t like he didn’t have friends. His parents were both gone now, and his sister lived in another kingdom, on the other side of the sea. Allowed him to enjoy the company of loved ones. Competently plying his trade afforded him a very livable existence. Nevertheless, again, the man could have done worse. The pay was a bit below market, and the position wasn’t exactly his first choice. He landed a job with a medium-sized firm.
#Charles yu how to
And, after all that schooling, the man was ashamed to admit the sad fact that he still did not know how to use a sword.īut the man was fine with this. Accordingly, despite the man’s efforts the local maidens were not overly impressed.

Really hard to overstate how many lawyers there were in that village. Skills that would allow him to earn a living in the village and to court the women of that village.īut what the man came to find soon after graduation was that, in this particular village, there were many people with the same skills. Once upon a time, there was a man who did not know how to use a sword and was also very afraid of dragons, so he took the L.S.A.T., did pretty well, and ended up getting into a decent law school.
