The laughter echoed through the town, the commoners silent from the arrival of the familiar faces. One was younger than all the rest, not even in his twenties yet. The rest were older, in their late thirties and early forties, each well known to the town for they had each been knighted in the town square, the same square they had all gathered to celebrate.
“Truly a great shame I was not here,” the young noble said, his hair like liquid copper, his eyes emerald green, his ears leaf shaped. “I would have cut down the dogs like… dogs.” He continued to roar with laughter as he pulled out his blade, which was seemingly made of pure silver, and he swiped through the air swiftly, so swiftly they could hear the wind whip around the blade.
“Sit down, Mikael,” Baron Matteas Moonglow stated, firmly.
The young noble smirked even wider, before he walked up to the older noble. “You keep shuddering, you’re old. Your bones, like you, are too cold. If I was here, we wouldn’t have lost such a valuable knight.”
“If you were here, I’d need to remarry so my line could continue, boy,” Matteas stated. “There is a reason you arrived with four knights, and I only needed two.”
“Yet you can see that I still have four, and you only have the one.”
“While you were prancing on your pony, I was beheading beasts that only appear in your nightmares,” Matteas stated, firmly. “Now sit down, boy, and drink.”
Mikael smirked, before he raised his glass, and finished it all in a single gulp. He stepped aside, going off to find more alcohol to drink, and to find a wench or two to warm him up that evening.
Matteas glared at the boy as he stepped away, going off to party. It was a miracle the boy was still alive, his only living descendant, considering the curse which plagued his family. There was no thought within the baron’s mind that the young man had conveniently arrived after they had dealt with the attack, nor that he had been somehow safe from the bandits.
The baron sighed, before making his way towards his personal knight, and the four strangers who had arrived. The young man in purple fed his horse an apple, stroking the side of the creature tenderly.
“Once again, I must thank you for your assistance,” Baron Moonglow stated. He needed to make sure the mercenaries were on his side, so that they wouldn’t think of using his own grandson against him.
“As long as we’re rewarded, we don’t mind,” Adam replied, still rubbing the side of his mount.
“You said you wished for an unrestrained knighthood?”
“Correct.”
“What does that entail, exactly?”
“You will knight us for our good work, give us our dues, and then allow us to leave away as knights.” Adam turned to face the noble, feeling the deathly glare from the knight beside the baron. Adam flashed a charming smile towards the knight and winked at him, before his eyes fell back to the lord.
Matteas remained silent for a long while, trying to decipher what the young man meant. “You would like me to knight you, but you do not wish for the responsibilities of a knight?”
“Exactly.”
The baron furrowed his brows. He hadn’t heard of such a request previously. There was no one shameless enough to ask for such a thing. His eyes fell across the four, noting how relaxed the trio were, but not the young man in purple, who seemed to be ready for… something.
“You believe what you’ve done warrants such a reward?”
“I believe that was the deal we made,” Adam replied, simply. He smiled slightly, his neck growing tense. “You believed it was fair when your people had been killed and looted, and thanks to us, your people have been returned their loot, and the wicked fiends have been dealt with.”
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Adam pulled out his axe, causing the knight beside the baron to tense up. He ran a finger along the side of the axe head, feeling the cool metal. “Dealt with so easily, mind you, while you and yours struggled to defend just your lives.” Adam’s smile seemed almost innocent, but the shadows formed by the nearby fire painted his face with sinister darkness.
“It is difficult, but not impossible,” the baron admitted. “If you are willing to assist my barony for a year after gaining your knighthood, it is possible.”
“How unfortunate,” Adam replied, sighing, wondering how they would make their escape after killing a third noble. “We wouldn’t even do so for a month, never mind a year.”
Jurot nodded his head, as if to emphasise Adam’s point. They couldn’t spend their times doing nothing for a year, not when they only had a year to complete their tasks and find a way back to the Iyr.
The baron thought for a moment, feeling the tension in the air. “It is not an issue to hand you such knighthoods,” he began, his eyes glancing between the pair of young men, who seemingly ready to do something, something which caused the back of the baron’s neck to grow wet with a chilly sweat. “I fear this attack has dealt quite a blow to the town, and once such is known to the nearby barons, it may come to pass that they will attack the town. I could give you a knighthood, but the moment this town falls, such knighthoods would be worth nothing.”
Adam hummed quietly, almost groaning. The lord had a good point. The reason why he wanted a knighthood was so things would be easier for them as they moved about the land, but if they did so much for the baron only for him to fall, what was the point?
“Have you had some trouble with nobility?” Matteas asked. There was only one logical reason they needed a knighthood, especially if they didn’t want to remain bound to his service.
Adam smirked, the shadow forming across his face once more. “More than one noble have caused trouble for us, mee loadship,” Adam stated sarcastically, struggling to not let out a chuckle. “I just hope you don’t start any trouble, because it’ll be awkward for us if it becomes a habit.”
“Which nobles have caused you trouble?” the baron asked. He had heard some news recently that some nobles had been killed, but that was expected considering how many had begun trying to force the nearby lands to heel.
“We don’t need to speak of them since dead men can’t trouble us any longer,” Adam stated, keeping his gaze firmly glued to Matteas’ eyes.
The baron narrowed his eyes lightly. “You killed them?”
“If a man covets your magical weapon, I think you have a right to defend your property. If a man poisons you, I think you have a right to defend yourself. This right extends regardless of whether the aggressor is a noble, and whether the defendant is a dirty, filthy, no good peasant.” Adam remained glaring at the baron before his face softened. “Though, that being said, technically aren’t each of you nobles?” Adam asked, turning to face his companions.
“Adam!” Jaygak gasped. “How could you state such a thing?”
“I mean, in a technical sense.” Adam shrugged his shoulders. “You’re all the oldest of the main line of your families. You were all raised up pretty well, learning multiple languages, learning how to fight, with all the equipment that was given to you, so on and so on…”
“There are some things you can say and some things you cannot say, Adam,” Jaygak stated, frowning towards the Half Elf. “If you want to call us nobles, then what are you?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Adam said, raising his hands up defensively. “I’m no noble.”
“You know multiple languages, you were raised well, know how to fight better than even myself, and your equipment makes my own look like toys, so on and so on,” Jaygak said.
“Yeah, but I-,”
“What of your children?” Jaygak asked. “They will be raised better than yourself and even any of us. Will they be considered nobles?”
“They’re my adorable little Princes and Princesses,” Adam replied, though he cleared his throat.
“There are no-,” Jurot began, before he crossed his arms, stopping himself from saying too much in front of the baron.
‘Is he…’ Matteas narrowed his eyes towards the young man in purple. If he was the son of a distant ruler, things made much more sense, though why would he need a knighthood from a lowly baron if that was the case?
“I’m sorry,” Adam said, frowning slightly. “I didn’t mean any offence by it.”
“You can’t joke that much, Adam,” Jaygak stated.
Adam caught the other Iyrmen staring at him and he quickly glanced aside. “Sorry.”
“We forgive you, this time,” Jaygak stated, shaking her head lightly.
Adam paused for a moment, thinking deeply. “Right. The only way for my children to be called princes or princesses are if I was a duke or king, right?”
“Yes,” Jaygak said.
“Hmmm.” Adam fell deep into thought. ‘Should I?’
The baron blinked, realising they were using the term noble as a pejorative. ‘He wants to become a duke or king?’ Matteas remained silent, realising just how dangerous the four warriors were. Then his eyes fell to the mount nearby, as well as the well saddlebags, which were filled with sacks of coin, a silver box, and something long which was wrapped within cloth.
‘…’