"You're going to have to get up sooner or later."
"Leave me be Noree."
"I know that you losing your match hurt your sense of pride, but I have to get to work, and unless you get up and go back to the barracks I will be feeling bad all day, aren't you supposed to follow Sir Yrik all day anyway?"
"Yeah, I do, but he's probably still disappointed in me too. Didn't you hear, Sir Knight became a Knight Bachelor just yesterday, and Dart became a knight, I'm the only one who failed."
"Get over yourself, dozens of squires fail every single year, some even retiring still as squires and you have the gull to complain."
She grabbed him by the foot, she herself was unleashed but just at level 46, which was enough to drag his inactive brother out of bed, and onto the cold hard floor.
"You should be happy for Dart and be on your way to ask him about it, instead of mopping around. Trust me Its way better than wasting a year in self-loathing. So, what if your friend managed to get ahead of you, you will still one day become a knight like him, that is if you stop lazing around. Sure, you'll have a year to go through, but that just gives you that much of a better chance if you work better than you did last time."
She looked down at him and scoffed, "You know what, I can't be dealing with this. I am representing the city of Maroon, helping facilitate the transporting of goods through the monster infested lands.
I am sorry that you failed your test, but life does not have time to wait and comfort every selfish idiot who mopes around. But it does move on with us, so I will be leaving. Seeing as that you won't ever be a knight, at this pace, I still have to earn some value for us.
What a bothersome brother you have become, letting your sister take care of you, pathetic, why did they even promote you from a Paige."
She walked out, and after an hour had passed, Jack finally got up. His sister was right, he plans on becoming a knight, this is nothing close to knightly behaviour. "The Knight would never behave like this. He's probably out there slaying true beasts that have gone rampant."
He got up and went to the barracks, it was still early enough that he had not broken protocol, except that he slept elsewhere. If an emergency had broken out, he would be missing, costing the knights a helping hand. "Jack, after yesterday I thought you would not be coming back."
"Me? Give up? Never. I see that you have taken well to the station Sir Dart."
"Yeah, I will be receiving my standard armour soon, they take long to make, this is why they don't just hand them out."
"Have you seen Sir Yrik?"
"You haven't heard." There was a confused expression marring Jacks face. "Heard what?"
"Since Sir Knight became a Knight Bachelor, assigned to Knight Banneret Solace's squad. He will not be able to lead us into battle, so Yrik has been named provisional commander, until he can clear level 170, and win the match next year. We could be assigned a new commander in that time, but in the meantime, the Knight has placed Yrik as provisional knight commander."
"Not much changed though, he had been handling most of the squads' duties. It just means that I will have to apply to follow around a new knight. Do you have a squire already?"
"Not yet, but are you sure?"
"Yes. Anyway, since the Knight is not leading us anymore, does that mean miss Zuri will be leaving too?"
"Yeah, she will be returning to serve under knight Banneret Vice."
"It will certainly get boring around here without them."
"Do you wanna do some training before the knights on duty return and we have to go for patrol?"
He looked at the slowly rising sun, bringing light, a thing the world had long learned to appreciate. "Sure, I could go for a spar."
Someone walked close to them it was the knight who administered Darts challenge, Lady Nairn, "sorry to spoil your fun, but there has been a dungeon wave near the town of Dillo. We have been sent there, seeing that we are a squad under the jurisdiction of knight Banneret Vice."
They started to remember something. Vice was called from Maroon city because there was something more pressing. She was kept here for a while because she was on relief, by knight Banneret Goren. As soon as the tournament was over, she was to return, and before things had changed, they were under her banner, as such they would be going with her to the battle.
The town is a ways off, it is not evacuating because the darkness had not reached the town, it was just nearby, so the knights were there to slow down its progress. Unlike the darkness that had covered half of Maroon city, the emergence of any darkness near a settlement means war with the destroyers within.
If nothing is done, the darkness crawls like a high tide, like those of when the moon used to be, and wash over the area, leaving it nothing but a ghost town. The knights' job was to slow down or completely shut down this march, but mostly they just have to endure until morning, when all the darkness vanishes including the destroyers.
This cycle will continue until the enemy is pushed back to a safe distance, or until the darkness gets too close, then the town will get evacuated. There are many types of wars, those against destroyers, are fought by the knights, those against monsters are fought by mostly adventurers, those against humans are fought by soldier, and this is how it remains.
When the battles are in dire straits, then the knights might help in the other types of wars. The knights never need help from the others, because without the proper training, no amount of power and skills could ever help one face a destroyer, after all even the monsters themselves were afraid to enter this ghastly areas.
So, the knights never received help, unless the help is with evacuating the citizens who are still outside the darkness. This is why, even though the knights had prepared for this and had emerged alive from these countless battles with the darkness and the destroyers, they still feel this overwhelming dread when faced with having to go back in. The dark knights are those who had cracked under the pressure and gave up fighting for the world.
The cloud folk themselves had tried to flee, but the darkness reached even into the clouds. The only places that are ever safe from the darkness was the island above the city of Arulli, the house of mother, which is protected by the most powerful pattern spell to ever be created, it actually cost one of the original three their lives to do it, during the war of darkness. The other places safe from the tyranny of the destroyers, were the places protected by the knights.
This reason gave them the push they needed to know that without them the world itself would be gone. Having more knights might seem beneficial, but the reason the knights had to make sure that each knight embraced these principles,' was because they had no choice but to win in every fight, even if they rarely ever did. The mood in the room had grown sullen, at the mention of having to go back to the war front, eight to twelve hours a day, every day.
And as usual, everyone remembered what it meant to be a knight, what it meant to be the protectors of this world. Their spirits were resolute, their comrades had fallen in front of their eyes, even if they did not see anything, and they would not disappoint them by running. They had grown to live in the darkness why fear it now anyway? They were going to fight until the world once again became a safe place.
With their strength back, it was time to return to duty, life in Maroon city had been a holiday. Those duties were for the soldiers and adventurers. "When do we leave?"
"Today…"
Yrik had showed up, standing in front of the squadron, where the Knight used to stand to address them before a mission. "As you have heard, I have been placed as provisional commander. This would not be possible, but the Knight knew just how stubborn we can be and made sure that I would lead, as he'd promised us. He made me promise one thing, to lead you to victory. We will be departing to Dillo soon."
Someone screamed aloud, "So, it's true?"
"Yes, we will be going back to war, we are knights, we shall protect this place and every other. I don't know about you guys, but I want these people to sleep knowing safety."
After a controlled cheer by the squad he added, "We will be leaving later in the day, so I suggest you go say goodbye to your families, if you have some here. Remember, this does not mean we are marching to our deaths, it just means entering the battlefield needs no distractions. I don't want to see you guys dropping dead because you forgot to say goodbye to your families."
They all moved out, Dart and Jack decided to put their duel on hold. Dart had just gone with Jack in search for his sister. Just like Jack he was an orphan, but he had no sister, so he had to say goodbye to his friend. Jack was having problems figuring out just where his sister had said she'd be when she was yelling at him earlier.
"You have to be kidding me. We have about an hour left and you still can't remember? We might as well go enjoy some of the delectables found in this city only..."
Jack interrupted him, he had just remembered. "She said something about goods; she must be at the merchants centre."
They then ran all the way, keeping beneath their top speed, they wouldn't wanna cause whirlwinds and disturb the peace of the city. Even at this pace, they still made it with time to spare and some relative ease. However, she was not there, that is when they gave up and started walking back to the barracks at the knight academy. They found her waiting for them at the entrance. Seems she had bumped into Zuri, who had filled her in on the details.
"You guys haven't changed. I remember that day you came back late. And just like today, I asked someone to cover for me hoping to make it back in an hour or so, but I have been waiting here for hours, I just couldn't leave. Just like last time I was worried, it has been twenty years since then, but here we are, me waiting like the dutiful sister I am, and you two idiots making me wait…"
She had stopped and hugged them, "goodbye Noree."
"Yeah goodbye, Sir Dart," she then chuckled, it felt strange to say it, "Goodbye Noree," said Jack.
She looked at him and said, "Where are you going? You could choose a knight whose station here, for you to tail around, Zuri said that since Yrik is a provisional commander now, so you don't have a knight to follow. You haven't become a knight yet, it will take an entire year, but then you would have had ample time to prepare."
"You're right, I could but just like you said, I want to become a knight, the fact that I'm not one yet should not change my determination, knights are best studied at war. If I don't go, I won't be able to protect you, and if I stay, I may never want to leave again. Besides, I will be Darts squire, so I am obliged to go with. But it's good to know that Zuri thinks of me."
She punched him in the stomach, to no effect, then she laughed, "Idiot, just make sure to come back and become a proper knight, okay?"
"Promise!"
"By the way, Zuri has a real knight to protect her, the knight Bachelor, Knight."
"We both know that's not true; the Knight has never even taken his mask off, she couldn't."
"If you ask me, that makes him more mysterious. It gives a girls some space to dream."
They departed soon after saying their goodbyes. The whole legion left the city of Arulli soon after the whole legion had gathered. They were led by the knight Banneret, Vice, the maiden of revenge, and her knight Bachelors leading each lance, and leading the individual squads were the knight commanders. The mobilisation of a knight Banneret was a spectacular thing to witness.
An army of massive proportions marching, having nothing to block their path, this was an escort that would make one feel surrounded by an entire fortress. The whole city watched in awe as they left. This filled them with the assurance of their safety, that no force could oppose, but also with a sense of foreboding, because it meant that something needing this much power was why the army was marching onwards. Strange to look at this procession and remember that the darkness is still way more opposing.
Soon the Vice legion vanished off into the mountains, leaving no monsters alive in their wake.