One guy at our fort is always talking about how the end of the world is coming closer. Most of us ignore him as such events already happened multiple times in the past. I sat in the corner of a carriage staring down at my elderly superior in his knight’s armor.
“So this Great Evil that got taken down 5 times already is back again. The previous attempts to put him down permanently failed. Now I have to work with others who are choosing their first path this week to take down this guy. Do you see what I have a problem with, respectfully? Sir?” I question my superior knight. I was going to get my first path, class, specialty, whatever you wanted to call it as soon as I could at 20. I could already see my future, starting as a swordsman. I hoped to become an honorable knight at my second path and move up to Royal Knight, and working with dishonorable adventurers would ruin my chances.
My superior takes off his helmet and sighs. “Technically, though this is a secret so don’t talk about this, we believe the first Great Evil to have been different from the other four times. Plus, they never fought straight forward and we have it on good authority that anyone that has their first path already would be unable to defeat them. Worry not, you will be given as much help as we think can be given without being detrimental to your future path”
I held my head in my hands. I, Louis Baux, heir to the Baux barony, prodigal knight candidate, one destined to work up to a royal knight, am being forced to sully my name with an evil we won’t even be defeating. “So what’s the damage?”
“Excuse me?” My superior knight looks at me.
I look at his confused, wrinkled face and sigh. “Who am I fighting it with, how many in the group, how competent are they, I need details to work through as our carriage nears that fort.”
My elder rubs his chin and thinks for a second. Suddenly, he smirks and looks over at me. “No, tell me your thoughts first.”
I scratch behind my ear. “The first demon lord fight wiped tens of thousands. Eventually, a group of elites led the first saintess to him and sealed him. We have had a saintess in every group after this incident. In the second demon lord fight we rushed them with an entire army and lost a fifth of our population as a result. Hard to count that as a win, the commander in charge was incredibly incompetent.”
The carriage smoothly came to a stop. The knight accompanying me looked at me to leave. I ignored him.
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“The third fight was a group of twenty people who later tried to form a coup. I have not been told what happened as a result of this, given how the fourth and fifth fight went, I assume we now volunteer candidates so people have someone to blame when everything inevitably goes wrong.”
The knight opened the door but turned back to look at me. Glaring he simply said, “Go”.
Instead, I looked away and continued. “The fourth fight had a prearranged group that got poisoned not even two days after being announced. They almost died because others cared more about showing off than competence. The fifth fight included our current commander’s brother who was continuously hitting on the saint of foresight.”
Before I could react I was in the air and out of the carriage. Twisting my body and covering my head instinctively, I landed hard on the ground. I was more shocked than injured as I used my momentum to get into a more defensible position. He gave me a hateful glare while putting a hand on his sword hilt and stared down seething. The tension grew as I had my hand on my sword. Given that I had no path yet, I was assuredly going to lose to someone trained and had the muscle memory given by a knight’s path. Stupid as pulling out my sword would be, choosing not to try to fight would show cowardice. While I contemplated my next move, he pointed towards the wooden doors to the fort in silence.
I look my escort in the eye when a question comes to me. “Sir, could I not just be rude enough to everyone such that nobody takes me as a member? I mean, it only took a single sentence to piss you off.”
He chuckles and gives a wicked grin at me. “You can, but a member of royalty will be watching.” The silent threat that was left unspoken was clear enough for me.
I walked towards the stone fortress in mild disrepair near the edge of a cliff. I hadn’t been told much but there was quite a bit I could guess based on what I saw and knew. The fortress was a great place for a meeting as many important people would be present, it would need to be able to withstand whatever threats the participants were afraid might happen. The fact that it was in disrepair meant that no threats were in the area that would warrant it being used and would leave it open to use without alerting the soldiers. I can only guess what the lack of other carriages meant.
A strong hand smacked me in the back. “You’re overthinking things again. It’s a bad habit. Leave the overthinking to the scholars.” As we walked forward to the large wooden door, the soldier outside nodded at us and waved to the man behind the gate to open.
“Sir, even if I am chosen, I don’t have to pretend to be happy right?”
A set of eyes still filled with a multitude of negative emotions rested on me. “No”. He walked past me into a courtyard filled with people talking in hushed voices.
I didn’t want to enter. I didn’t want to join some ignoble adventuring group. I didn’t want to trust my back to anybody I didn’t know. I didn’t want the country to be destroyed by someone less competent being sent instead. I didn’t want to walk away when in many ways this was what a knight should be.
I nodded at the guard who waited for me to collect myself and entered the fort.