Chapter 14. Even Knights Are Allowed to Be Tired

Chapter 14: 14. Even Knights Are Allowed to Be Tired

She pulled a scrap of leather from her belt pouch and turned it over so we could see it. Burned into the surface was a small symbol, a jagged circle with a line through it.

It looked like a horrible tattoo, but I’d seen the same shape stitched on the gloves of one of the dead bandits.

"I need to take a witness to Elarion," she continued. "A courier named Martin carries documents that prove the thefts were planned from the inside..."

"But most of the knights in this district have been sent north to deal with a monster surge, and I can’t spare anyone to escort him."

"If I go alone and something happens to me... the whole case goes up in smoke."

"Would you look at that? You’re lucky that we’re headed for Elarion anyway," Alicia said. "We need to register for the new knight selection."

"Huh? Is that so?"

"We were on our way when we met you."

I’d like to say I took a second to think before agreeing. But fuck... I did not.

The royal reward for returning stolen crystals would have paid for two months of food and a decent inn, and that was lovely, but what actually decided it for me was the word "outer districts."

Somewhere out there, a kid like the one I’d carried on my shoulders... that afternoon was living in a house that might lose its protection because somebody got greedy.

"Yeah! We’ll do it, and that’s going to be a good help, ain’t that right?" I said.

Laura raised an eyebrow. "Just... like that?"

"Hyuupp~! Just like that."

"You don’t want to discuss compensation or anything...?"

"I do, but I’ll discuss it while we’re walking so that we can at least save us some time."

"So let me get this straight..." Alicia said, leaning on the table and ticking items off on her fingers. "We escort a courier, investigate missing caravans, and probably fight an organized bandit crew, right?"

"Yes... That’s the plan," said Laura.

I sighed. "And here I thought that I was really hoping for a peaceful trip."

Alicia patted my shoulder with exaggerated sympathy. "Don’t be chickening out on this one, Roland~!"

"You’re an SSS-Rank knight, sugar flakes! Did you honestly think your life was going to get quieter?!"

"Yep... That’s exactly what I thought, but it seems like I was already wrong from the start."

"That’s adorable~!"

Laura watched us with a faint crease between her eyes, then folded the letter and slid it into her jacket.

"I don’t like relying on strangers," she said. "But I saw what you two did today... and I don’t think you got lucky."

"Fine... I’ll accompany you to Elarion, and we’ll see where the evidence leads."

"Welcome to the team," I said while extending my hand to her.

"Keep in mind that I haven’t agreed to be on a team."

"Ohh~! You will."

She ignored that, which I took as a victory.

...

We left at dawn the next morning with Martin in the middle of the group.

He was a plump, nervous man in his late forties with ink stains on his fingers and a travel pack that he clutched against his chest like a baby.

According to Laura, he’d been a clerk in the royal transport office for twenty years until he noticed that some of the shipping records didn’t add up and made the mistake of saying so out loud.

He hadn’t slept properly in a week, and he jumped every time a bird took off from a branch.

And it seems like he’s a fucking wimp because it reminds me of myself from my previous life.

Alicia walked at the front with him, chatting about nothing in particular to keep his mind off the road. Laura took the right flank, scanning the trees with the focus of someone who had never relaxed a day in her life.

I brought it up the rear because somebody had to and because it gave me a good view of the group and the woods behind us... also my girlfriend’s ass and Laura’s ass. Almost the same level of size.

And yes... It also gave Laura an excellent view of me, and she was not shy about it.

"Your posture is sloppy," she said after the first hour, without turning her head. "And here I thought I got a little hope when Alicia said that you were an SSS-rank knight."

"Didn’t I already get my proof by saving your life yesterday?" I said this while smiling smugly, with both my arms behind my head.

"That still doesn’t improve your posture."

"Eh... Fair enough. "Next time, I’ll save your life by using better form."

"You also walk like you’ve never been in a hurry in your life."

"I’ve been in plenty of hurries, you know... I just prefer to arrive relaxed."

"Your sword is too loose in the scabbard."

"It’s comfortable like this, and I hate it when something on my body makes me uncomfortable."

"It will stick when you need it."

I tried drawing it a few times, and fuck... she was right, so I tightened the strap anyway. She nodded once with the air of a teacher who had made a small point and was satisfied.

I’d decided that being corrected by Laura was weirdly enjoyable, like being scolded by a very strict cat. And god... don’t think of it as a fetish or anything because I just want to strengthen our bond.

At lunchtime, we stopped in a clearing by a shallow creek and split up the food. I gave my portion of the dried meat to Martin without saying anything, because he looked like he might faint, and Laura caught the whole thing out of the corner of her eye.

"You gave away the last of your meat...?" she said later, when we were refilling water skins. "Are you sure that you can survive with such little food?"

"It’s fine... I wasn’t that hungry anyway."

"Liar... you ate like... nothing this morning."

"Well... I had a big dinner yesterday and—" Alicia managed to stop my mouth because I was about to say Alicia also made my stomach full because we had sex for an hour yesterday.

"Another lie! You had the same dinner as the rest of us."

"Why don’t you take a good look at him?" I shrugged. "He looked worse than I did."

"He always does," Alicia said, joining us with her hair tied back in a loose braid. "Roland will complain for an entire day about his boots or the weather or how nobody ever cooks anything with enough salt."

"But if somebody actually needs help... he’s the first one off the ground! He’s been that way since we were kids."

"That’s a... terrible thing to say about me, but I’m honored somehow...?"

"It’s a compliment from your childhood friend."

"Nope... to me, it sounds like an exposé."

Laura looked at me for a long moment. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but I had the strong impression that a few of her assumptions had just shifted.

After we ate, she offered to show me something. "Since you insist on joining a royal investigation..."

"...you should at least learn the basics of reading a trail," she said, and led me a short distance into the trees.

She crouched down by a patch of soft earth and pointed at a faint depression in the moss. "A broken twig is not just a broken twig."

"Look at where it snapped... If it’s bent toward the path, something came through heading that way."

"But if it’s bent away, they went in the opposite direction."

She showed me how to tell the age of a footprint by the crispness of its edges, how to spot the places where someone had tried to hide their tracks by walking on stones, and how a shift in the wind could carry the smell of smoke or sweat from a campsite you couldn’t yet see.

Oh wow... all of these are good fucking information, and I can’t believe how far her experience about this kind of thing is. It almost makes Alicia and me feel like amateurs who just loved to play at being knights.

I listened, and I tried it out on a few small signs she pointed to. Between the years I’d spent hunting forest monsters and the sudden sharpness that my new instincts gave me, it all clicked faster than I expected.

"Aha! That one’s about a day old," I said, nodding at a half-collapsed print. "A heavy man... probably carrying a pack, and he was limping on the left side."

"W-what...?" Laura blinked. "How did you...?"

"It’s simple actually... just look at the left heel... it’s shallower than the right, and the toe on that side is dragged a little."

She stood up and looked at me, and for the first time, her face showed something besides disapproval. "You’re surprisingly a fast learner..."

"Oh wow... I’m going to treasure that compliment forever." I crossed my arms while standing proudly. "Should I write it in my diary?"

"Don’t push your luck."

We walked back toward the others side by side. I think it was the first time I’d seen her fall into step beside someone without being asked, and she didn’t seem to notice she’d done it.

After a few minutes of silence, she spoke again, quietly, so that only I could hear it. "My father was a knight... So was his father."

"Everyone expects me to carry on the name... and for a long time I thought the only way to do that was to never make a mistake."

I didn’t say anything. In my experience, the quickest way to make somebody stop talking is to interrupt.

"I’m not very good at not being perfect," she said. "I think I’m afraid that if I let one thing slip... all of it will fall apart."

I need to say something about this... something that isn’t related to any jokes.

"You don’t have to be perfect every second of the day," I said.

She looked at me.

"Even knights are allowed to be tired."