It was a good day, his mother made his favorite sweet potato sugar bread, the taste wasn’t great for most, but he had got a taste for it, the uncommon sugar they could get his hands on would be used to make his favorite sweet, he didn’t have much chances to eat sweets, so he made do with fruits, the tastier ones were probably stolen with the help of his friends. He still remembers when Cato distracted the commissioner’s guard while they were still up on the trees, stealing all the guava they could carry. That was the day that he felt his skinned and numb feet the most. Four hours up in a tree does that to you.

Remembering that, he made a promise to save some of the bread for his friends. Something unexpected made this one promise, the first one he broke, at least the one that he remembers. His father entered the house sooner from work, that was always a cause for joy. Sometimes his father gained some extra products from the merchants that bought his produce. He still remembers how tasty was a weird chocolate egg he ate two months ago.

“Hello dadd-”, the boy made a shocking expression.

Surprisingly, a man in full armor entered the house after his father, the steel glinting, making him unable to focus as light flashed on his eyes, the smell of iron was strong, he felt in the presence of another creature, another type of being.

Of course, he always heard about knights, but never saw one. Armor was expensive. The most someone could see in the isolated village was someone using a leather armory, and that was only the rich and the powerful. He still remembers how cool the new armor and lance Douf the chief son, was gifted by his parents as a celebration of reaching adulthood.

He wasn’t the only one. Another two knights entered the house, his mom between them. They still had their helmets on, so he couldn’t guess if they were all man, their presence made his simple house crowded. At least now he could get a good look at their armors, they seemed different from each other, the first one was stocky, he seemed like a beast made to demolish houses only using his body, the second one was slimmer, the third one was weirder like his skin was iron, this knight at least he could tell he was male, there was even some cloth to hide his private parts, it didn’t diminish how vulgar it looked, but he wouldn’t be the one to tell him that, that was for sure.

His foolish thoughts were the only way the boy seemed to accept how unreal the situation looked. He would do anything to get at least a piece of their armor, he knew he wouldn’t though, he would be a farmer too like his parents, remembering his parents and his friends he dismissed the idea, he wanted to be here, it could be poor, but here he felt happy. Now the dazzling situation turned to fear, ‘why are these knights here?’

“Hey little hero, don’t fear them ****, they are my friends…friends that never wanted to see again—”, the heavily armored knight interrupted him as he bellowed angrily to all present.

“Stop with the theatrics King ****. It’s time to stop all this”, he gestured to the house with dismissal and disgust, “To a king to live like this is a sin”, remembering the station of the one he addressed to, he got into his knees, “Pardon my King, but the matter is urgent, as I said before, the Regent Richard said that he can’t control the situation anymore, we need you to deal with King *****, he marches against——”

“There was a reason I left my post as the King, Owen, was because I don’t want to deal with this anymore. We have a council, they should deal with it, we are nearing the end anyway, I want to live the last years with my family, having a simple life, no more political intrigues, treason, and vain luxury, you should also do what you love with the people more dear to you, Arthur won’t stop, it’s in his nature”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“King **** I’m doing what I love. I love my kingdom, the one that I swore an oath to serve. I will do it until I die, and nothing will stop it, not even you! All our knights are the same, even as they were disheartened as their king left and tried to forget his kingdom, living in a poor made fantasy. We need to do something now, before King **** do something that he will regret”.

“How many times do I need to say it?! The kingdom is over. All of you are just in denial. It doesn’t matter even if all the planets united in a single banner, we just can’t!'“

The heavily armored man took a look at the boy. Something weird happened. The boy couldn’t see what, just feel the consequences. Deep slumber assaulted him, but before he was knocked out, he only saw how the expression of his dad changed as the knight uttered something to him.

The rest of the boy’s life was speeding up in a flash, fragments of his life were shown one after the other. His family leaving the village, the sadness of seeing his friends saying goodbye, all of them still unaware of his father's station, of his station. At least he could feel their sincerity, and treasure this moment forevermore, he knew that something changed; he was sure that it wasn’t for the better, as his father had an expression of anger and his mother tried to show false happiness, but there is no way he couldn’t feel her sadness.

His introduction to nobility was hard, boring and ardours, he didn’t know someone needed to learn the most wondrous things as the geography of the planets in the galaxy, to the most dumb things like knowing what is the first spoon to take and the sequence of serving food between a banquet. That part of his life was short, and he spent only two years like that. During those years, he barely saw his father, but his mother was with him daily, helping him in his lessons or trying to cheer him up.

When he could see his father, he could see how his father tried to be cheerful, even if all the people that left him or were still with him when they met were full of tension. Any tries to know what is happening with his father was met with dismissal, always trying to change the topic, in a way he was happy to try to live like in his old life, but he couldn’t get out the feeling that there was something that he needed to know.

Before his 11th birthday, he knew something was wrong, eavesdropping on the work personnel showed that his planet was in grave danger, they also mentioned something about the entire galaxy, but any trial to know more was denied by his mentor Justus, he seemed like a sort of spy, but at the same time he knew that Justus was always looking him, why he always never stopped him in the beginning confused him.

After the celebration of his birthday, he was accompanied with just to his father's throne-room. There he saw all the knights, his father's advisors, and some people from the council. His mom was there too, on his father's right side. To his left was a bald man in a knight's armor, his helmet seemingly connected to his hip, like some sort of luminous cable holding it.

Stopping the conversion of all present with a clap of hands, his father call to everyone in the room, especially to him:

“Son, it’s time for you to follow my steps. Some people would say it is too soon. If it was for you late grandparents, they would start since your first day born, like happened to me, but I digress.”

“What do you mean father? What do you want me to do?”

His father forces a smile, his mother doing the same, all the others in the room try to show a neutral expression. The bald man, though, he makes a feral grin.

“To become a knight. Don’t make that face, that’s for the future”, his father leave his throne, going to him. Getting near enough, his father makes a fast move, poking at his belly softly. The boy started disliking that a while ago, his father always used that to disarm his questions.

“For now, become a squire for your dad. Can you do that little hero?”, said the king, messing with his son’s hair.