I stayed in my bed for a few more minutes after waking up, trying to wait for the rest of my body to decide to leave the comfortable bed. I stared at the ceiling trying to mentally organize my thoughts on what to do today until I heard a few knocks on my door.

“Brother! Wake up! I made breakfast so get out of room already!” I heard my little sister shout at the other side of the door while banging my door.

“Yes, yes! I’m already up! Stop breaking the damn door!” I got off my bed and stretched. After putting on my tunic and pants, I went to eat breakfast with my sister. On the table was bread, mashed potatoes and meat. My sister and I thanked our blessings and our new lord shortly before eating.

“Is mother still doing fine?” I asked my sister.

“She’s fine. Luckily, the lord sent a doctor to check on her yesterday when you were gone,” She replied.

“A doctor from the lord? I better work harder then, I can’t disappoint Baron Sarjay.” I smiled and silently thanked the noble.

We weren’t this lucky before.  A few weeks ago, an army of black knights came to Follis. I thought we were being invaded and that we were all going to die. Fortunately, I was wrong. Someone took over House Follis and kicked the region back into its feet. We didn’t really question who Baron Sarjay was, but why would we?

Previously, my family was living in a run-down shack. My mother was sickly so I had to work for what little scraps I could earn. While my sister was still young, she was already hunting for fish at the nearby river. It was almost like this for every family until the new baron came.

I finished my breakfast and prepared to start the day. I went to the nearest guard barracks and saw someone sitting at the front desk.

“Hey, Stella. Any interesting news lately?” I asked my childhood friend.

“Not really, Matt. Well, the new castle was coming in nicely, I heard.  But there were some problems so some knights had to be pulled off from guard duty to help with construction,” She answered.

“Really, what’s with our lord? Using his knights as masons and architects, as well. We could help, too, you know?” I shrugged.

“Well, it’s not like the knights do everything, you know? There are the volunteer workers too.” Stella snickered. Everyone knew what ‘volunteer workers’ meant. It was a wonder how the lord managed to round up all these ‘workers’ in such a short time. Though, it wasn’t like Follis was clear of bandits. But then again, more bandits meant more workers.

“Oh, right. Recently there were sightings of a pack of lycans heading to Follis from Green Hills. The knights intercepted them, but found them to be harmless,” Stella informed me.

“Oh, lycans! I’ve always wanted to see one. Do you know why they’re heading to Follis?” I asked.

“Merchants, I heard. Pretty weird, if you ask me.” Stella scratched her head then decided to go back to her work. I went inside the guard barracks and wore my uniform. There weren’t many knights to cover all of Follis so the gaps were filled in by us normal folks.

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I went to the armory and grabbed one of the swords. I unsheathed it and inspected it. As usual, I couldn’t get over how beautiful the blades were. Its colors kept changing from dark red to dark blue, sometimes a shape would form if you stared at the blade for too long.

I heard this was made from a rare type of metal, but we seemed to have it almost everywhere so I started to doubt those rumors.

“You’re early,” The captain called out to me when I came out armory. The captain was one of the black knights.

“Yes, sir. Always good to be early.” I saluted him with utmost respect.

“I’ve already sent some men out so there are not enough men to make a patrol, yet. You could wait for a few more guards to show up but if you’re free, why not bring this package to the manor?” The captain held a box and showed it to me. I took the box and inspected it.

“Don’t look inside it. There are some important documents in there. Give this directly to the one in charge,” The captain explained. I agreed and started making my way towards the manor.

The streets had changed since I last knew them. They were clean, had stalls lined up and was maintained so well that carriages could go through them without going through a single bump.

Workshops and small houses lined the streets, and the village was starting to resemble a small town. In fact, I should start referring to this place as a town. There were a lot of new faces around, obviously migrants. Ever since Follis got uplifted, there was a surge of people coming in.

I passed by a group of three guards. The one leading them was a bearded dwarf. Dwarves with beards were very weird and out of place. I almost thought they couldn’t grow beards.

“Sir!” I saluted as I passed by.

“It’s ma’am,” The dwarf replied. Eugh? I looked back but the guards were already gone. Sigh, dwarves were really weird people.

I arrived at the town gates, still impressed at the walls erected by the knights. Follis always had things that could be barely called a wall, but volunteer workers and knights restored them to its former glory. Though, I felt like it still hadn’t reached its former glory just yet. The walls were small, and some parts of the walls were still being raised. But it was still impressive to me who had never been outside of Follis.

The lord’s manor was outside the town, just a few minutes away by carriage ride. I heard the lord’s manor was huge and opulent, unfitting for someone who only ruled over a small town.

I requisitioned a horse at the guard post by the town walls and loaded the box onto the horse before riding off to the manor. The roads in Follis were still made from dirt, but I heard there would be a project to pave them. It was exciting to see your home town be transformed into something else other than a forgotten backwater village.

After a quick ride, I managed to arrive just outside of the manor. The place was walled with stone, and the gates were guarded by the renowned knights.

“State your business,” One of the knights ordered.

“I’m ordered to directly give a package for the current warden of Follis, sir!” I saluted the knight.

“Directly? I see. You cannot go into the manor, please wait here while I fetch the warden,” The knight informed me.

I was disappointed that I couldn’t go in. From outside, the rumors were true about the manor. I almost thought it was a palace fit for a king. Or perhaps the king’s palace was bigger? I continued to study the manor from outside until the knight came back with another one. Except, the newly arrived knight had a farmer’s hat on top of his helmet.

“What in tarnation is it? I'm trying to use them death essence to grow muh tumaoteos but them thangs keep turnin' into snarling varmins. Guess we could use them rascals into attack dogs...” The knight grunted about some things I couldn’t understand. What was death essence? Hmm…Ah well.

“Are you the warden, sir?” I asked.

“Ye, I am,” He answered.

“Er…I see. Sir! A package for you, one of my superiors told me to directly give it to you.” I gave him the box. He opened it and quickly looked through it.

“A lettur to Lord Sarjay…I see. This one here is a…Hmm. What in sagging troll's tarnation is this? A love letter from the dwarf queen…for ta' Imperial Grace? Well now, I never,” The warden mumbled, “Alright, boy. That’s it. You’re done here. You may return to your post.”

“Y..yes sir!” I felt like I heard some weird things that I shouldn’t be hearing but I ignored them like a good citizen and saluted the warden. I couldn’t wait to tell my sister all about the manor!