Just a few moments before Lief charged at the dragons before they were in view of the dragon(s), on the night camping.
The whole party was strategizing; the Knight had decided not to participate and was still heavily embroiled in thought when it was disturbed by the silence. Their strategy meeting had concluded, it could not go far since they were still in the dark about the Knight's abilities.
"Sir Knight."
"Yes, Mage of Ice."
"I was wondering, what is it like to be a knight?"
Truthfully, even though none of them had admitted it, they were curious. How many chances does one get in a lifetime to be in a party with a knight, and one as accomplished enough to earn the rank of Bachelor. The all listened quietly to the answer. "You ask me what it's like to be a knight, when you know not what a knight is. They defend the world against horrors the likes of which you should hope to never see.
I have seen these horrors, and to put it simply, asking a knight what it is like to be a knight, becomes a simple answer, one as short as their lives in the face of these terrors; A gruelling experience, one of which, to trade for anything else, would cost more lives than that lost. I have memories tracking back over two hundred years, and yet the encounters I remember the most are with the knights and those who believe in them. They seek not glory, not honour, and settle on their lives amounting to nothing but a defiance against the forces that wish to eradicate them from the world they call home."
In the silence, Lief shifted, and looked up, "You mean the destroyers, right? I have never seen one before, and even with my clear night vision, I have never felt as powerful as I was when I was submerged in darkness.
I could frail around and try to reach for safety, but none I found... I come from a village you see, and even though we had been warned not to set up so close to the dungeon, the war of the knights felt so unreal and distant to folks like us, at the bottom of the livelihood. It was our family's choice to abandon the towns and cities, but for me I had come to dislike the knights. The other kids in the village wanted to be one when they grew up but I simply had no such delusions.
In that darkness I was alone, I had no idea where up or down was, no sense of self, I felt like I had died and woken up on my way falling to the bowels of hell. I could faintly hear the sounds of my sister, but even though she was so close before the darkness fell, now she sounded like she wasn't even in the same room. Even sound did not travel far in there, I did not cry for help, no-one would hear me."
He looked at his sword. "That was when a passing knight Errant grabbed me and my sister and dragged us out. I was still dazed, but I noticed once I was outside that he had evacuated so many. 'How could he move with such confidence in that place?' I wondered. By what the village leader told us, we were lucky. The actual horrors in the dreadful place had not yet appeared.
The knight dragged a few more out, but then after a while he stopped showing. The morning came, but the shaken villagers still wanted to step nowhere near the village. This place was clear now that the day had come, but the memory of the terror was still fresh in our minds. I was at level 32 by then, so when the village leader looked for volunteers to go looking for survivors, and by how small the party was, he even took my along.
We moved slowly, watching for sunset. And I found him, laying there in the grass, bloodied, mangled, even the armour was broken beyond repair. I am not sure how the knights moved around that place, but he must have knew what was waiting for him. The people it was protecting were half eaten behind him, with these grey cloudy eyes, frozen in terror. I found their remains a few step away, in a disgusting pile of sludge."
The rest of it looked to take a lot out of him. "When I got stronger, I tried becoming a knight. I was still terrified of what dwells in the deep darkness, but I had hoped that they would teach me some trick to sleep better at night. But no matter how many times I tried out, I failed, I eventually gave up and became an adventurer.
I had become so much stronger, a hundred years had passed, but when I stood at the boundary of the darkness on one fateful night, I had hoped to conquer my fear by going back and facing the horrors. But no matter what I tried, I could not even take the first step inside, at that moment, I finally understood why I could never be a knight. No matter how powerful I get, facing those things was more than I could take.
Till today I still have nightmares about it. My sister had it even worse than I, she even took her life, she was young and had not even unleashed to level 1 yet, so I don't blame her. I may talk about the knights whenever I can, but that's because I feel like they should not do it either. I understand that they do it for the people, but I wonder if the people would send them in if they knew what they were up against, next to destroyers, monsters were just easy value points."
Before the silence became more tense, the sleezy looking scoundrel spoke, "I have never been one very adamant admirer of the knights, the one I admired was the man who trained me. Growing up I was convinced that as long as I had him, nothing could ever harm me. My father was brutal with his training, like me he was an assassin.
But I pushed through because I kept reminding myself, 'if this is how much punishment I need to take to operate at my father's level, then I would do it over and over again.' One day the whole relief squadron sent to protect my town was wiped out, and the reinforcements that were on their way were a day away. The darkness had crawled just enough to reach my town, if nothing was done the town would be wiped out.
They were ill-prepared for a full evacuation. So, my father gathered a group of people, twice as large as the squadron, and each man relatively at a similar level. I remember seeing my father's proud back as he marched towards the area that would be filled with darkness first thing in the night, and thinking, 'My pops will show the knights how it's done.'"
A rustle of a bush had temporarily activated his scouting senses, but after seeing that it was just the wind he resumed. "Come morning, I saw my father, or what used to be him. He was the only survivor; he had a skill that allowed him to teleport to the last spot he marked. The ghost of a man in front of me was not my father.
The pride in his shoulders had vanished, his hair had visibly aged, and his face had wrinkles from the petrified look still plastered to his face. That day, they had not even kept the darkness from progressing, even the knights had kept it at bay during their last march. I was so confused. When the reinforcements came, the knights kept marching in day and night, slowly pushing the darkness away from the town. Eventually the town was moved, but on that day, my father had stopped speaking.
Not because he was mute, but because he had watched all his principles get eaten in front of him, and without them he had nothing else to say. I was not as ambitious as to become a knight and face the horrors my father could not face, so instead, I became an assassin. Till today nothing has ever come close to making me experience the dread my father did, and as such the knights earned by undying respect."
Miss Ice mage had her own story too, "I have always believed in the knights, but I had never ever wished to be in their place. I had this friend who became a squire and died before even becoming a knight. She had followed the knight she had picked into battle. This was not against a destroyer, squires are restricted from those, it was against a monster.
Her knight was at level 130, and she was at level 100, they had run into a monster that had managed to escape a dungeon somehow. They both died that day, but her family did not respond well to the news. They began this movement, hoping for some sick and twisted form of peace, or just some form of it in value points. I knew just what the knights faced, and as a young adult I knew plenty to know not to get involved.
(Even with her soft persona, she slightly got irritated when saying the next part) One day the knight Commander came and bowed in apology to these fools. The knight Commander deals with these loses first hand, faces these horrors himself, and yet there he was bowing in apology to the very same people he faces these horrors for. Yet they refused his apology. I remember waking up one day and hearing the news."
She seemed to fall short of breath when saying the last part, she was so low that one could barely hear.
"The spirit of their daughter had butchered the whole family. She had had so much regret that her soul had not passed, after all, she never did become a knight. Watching her family do all this, she gained so much attachment to the world that she became a full spirit. Right in the outskirts of the city, she materialised and butchered her family amidst the crowd.
Her Commander is the one who came and banished her, he had a skill making him perfect for spirit combat. When I got there, I saw the whole squadron, holding a funeral for their comrade and her family. That day I realised, that the knights were not just these strong soldiers on the war front, they are the same people who sit at the pinnacle of humanity and still have enough in them to not forget they were still people."
She added after a brief pause, "We may not know just who the knights are, but we know enough about them that even one as stiff, hard to agree with as you, pass by, we can't help but feel this admiration for you. Knights are the symbol of hope for the world, and seeing as that, even amongst them you are a hero, I could not hold back my curiosity. Just who are these people my friend wanted to be…?"
The Knight knew that the veneration for the knights ran deep, even after meeting Folisha and her friends, but knowing that this spirit ran through all of them was just moving, too bad all of it fell on deaf ears, the Knight is no human, all this just sounds like nonsense, but nonsense the Knight could understand regardless.
"I am no hero; I just possess a hero skill. I will tell you one thing, these people you all believe in, they are just as wonderful as you say they are. I have fought together with them, even against them in training, they have steeled themselves for the challenges ahead of them, they will be fine. It's amazing to be a knight, truly."
"Nice one boss, you almost sound human."
'Good, I wouldn't want to take away that from them, their experience with meeting a knight, even if their sentiments are misplaced.'