Chapter 39. The Commander Was Nothing Like My Imagination, and I’m Glad

Chapter 39: 39. The Commander Was Nothing Like My Imagination, and I’m Glad

Almost before the last of the applause had faded... a messenger arrived at my elbow and told me that Commander Hallis would like to see us.

Alicia, Laura, and Sharon got the same message as well, which was a good thing because I don’t want to meet the commander alone.

We slipped away from the hall through a side door, followed a corridor to a stone staircase, and ended up in a plain, windowless room on the second floor of the garrison... where a long table was covered with maps.

Commander Hallis was already there.

I’d been building a picture of him in my head for days. I’d imagined a tall, imposing man with a booming voice and a chestful of medals.

But what I got was... a lean, gray-haired man with a crooked leg, a tired face, and a mustache that had gone white at the edges.

He had been up on the northern wall when the attack started, he told us, holding off a monster surge while the real enemy slipped in through the east. He’d come back at dawn, wounded and furious.

"Which is why I owe all of you an apology," he said, stiffly shaking each of our hands. "Knight Lapisfield, I should have met you at the gate..."

"If I had... we might have avoided some of the chaos."

"There’s nothing to apologize for, sir," Laura said. "You were just doing your duty..."

"No. More like I was doing my duty badly." He looked at the man in the corner, who was practically vibrating with relief. "Martin."

Martin took two steps forward, and then, to everyone’s surprise, he burst into tears.

"I’m sorry, sir," he said, wiping his face with both sleeves. "I didn’t know who to trust... and that’s the reason why I ran without thinking... and because of that... I’m so sorry."

"No, no, don’t be sorry... You did exactly the right thing," Hallis said gently.

He put a hand on the clerk’s shoulder. "You brought the evidence to people who could use it..."

"That was brave, alright... I’ve spent twenty years in this uniform, and I’m not sure I would have done the same thing with that courage of yours."

Martin sniffed, nodded, and tried to say something, but... failed.

I looked away to give him a minute, and I saw Alicia swallow hard, so I knew I wasn’t the only one with something in my eye.

When he’d recovered, Hallis moved to the table and tapped a sheet of paper with one thick finger.

"The warrant for Martin’s arrest," he said. "I’ve had it examined..."

"The garrison seal on it is genuine, but the stamp was applied by a junior clerk who vanished the same afternoon."

"Nobody has seen him since... As far as the records show, the order never came from any officer with the authority to issue it."

"So somebody forged it," Alicia said.

"Somebody used a real seal in a fake way, which is arguably worse... It means they have access." Hallis straightened. "And the black-armored knight who spoke with the gate guard has no record in any of our rosters."

"The guard says he gave a name and rank, and neither... exists."

"Convenient," I said.

"Very much so, yeah," Hallis agreed. "And Garrick Voss hasn’t said a word since we put him in a cell with Aether-dampening shackles..."

"The interrogators have tried everything short of torture, and none of it has worked..."

"The only thing he’s asked is whether the child in the plaza survived."

That hit me harder than I expected. Not sure why the villain had to ask about that.

"She did," I said. "I saw her mother take her."

"I’ll make sure he hears it," Hallis said.

Garrick was a murderer, or at least he’d been trying hard to become one, but a man who still asks about a child isn’t entirely lost... so I filed that thought away for later.

Martin brought forward a flat metal case, the one Alicia had pulled out of the fleeing courier’s hands. He opened it on the table and drew out a single sheet that hadn’t been in the earlier documents.

It was a shipping order, stamped in a deep red ink that I didn’t recognize, with a line of cramped code at the top.

[S-09 / PHASE TWO / AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED]

At the bottom was a small emblem, partly scratched out.

Sharon frowned and leaned closer. "I’ve seen that mark before... It’s on the storage crates used by the Royal Crystal Guard."

"Which means Garrick had help from inside the kingdom?" Laura asked.

"Not necessarily... That symbol has been in use for decades." Hallis held his chin. "But if someone is still using it to authorize shipments, then we need to find out who holds that access."

I thought about Garrick in the street, with his scarred face and his carved-out crest, saying that the kingdom had sacrificed its border villages to protect the nobles.

He was probably a criminal... He was also probably telling the truth about at least some of it.

Those two facts could sit in the same man at once.

"I see two possibilities," I said slowly. "One... Garrick wanted to break the crystal supply from the inside."

"And two... someone else was using his anger as a smokescreen, to keep us staring at the walls while they ran Site Nine."

Alicia tapped the order. "Then whoever changed the shipping routes has to be someone with inside access."

"Right... But we need to be careful."

"If we accuse anyone without proof, the real culprit can burn the evidence and walk away clean."

Sharon looked at me for a long moment.

"You’ve been a knight for about an hour," she said, "and you’re already talking like a commander of inquiry."

"O-oh...! Why thank you, I’m taking that as a compliment."

"Don’t... It’ll go to your head."

A few people in the room chuckled. Hallis hid a smile behind his hand.

Then he cleared his throat, and the room went quiet again.

"For now, you’ll help secure the documents and question witnesses," he said. "Nobody goes anywhere near Site Nine without a plan and proper authorization..."

"I can’t afford to lose any more good people."

He pointed one finger at me. "And Ravenshield... I’ve read your file."

"Make sure to not try to take down an entire facility by yourself."

"W-what...?" I raised my hands. "I never said I would."

"You hadn’t said it yet," Sharon said. "I know your type, especially what you did that night."

Alicia let out a snort, and Laura nodded solemnly in agreement. I looked at the ceiling and wondered how I’d managed to earn a reputation for reckless bravery before I’d even gotten my own bunk.

...

When the meeting ended, we walked out into the main courtyard of the Order, and the whole place stopped to look at us.

Knights saluted as we passed.

"Sir Ravenshield."

"Lady Ainzfield."

Some of them said it with real warmth, and some said it like they were trying out a language they didn’t speak yet.

A few of the younger ones couldn’t quite hide the doubt on their faces.

Well... I couldn’t blame them. A week ago, I was a nobody with no title.

But now...! I was the man who’d taken down Garrick Voss. And I deserve all that respect, of course.

I was working out how to answer a salute without looking foolish when Laura stepped in front of me and tugged at my collar.

"It’s crooked," she said.

I bent down so she could reach. "Thanks."

She gave a tiny nod and then noticed that half the yard was watching her. Her ears went scarlet.

"What are you all looking at?!" she snapped. "Get back to your duty!"

Every knight within earshot found something fascinating on the ground. And can’t they make it more obvious by doing the same thing at once?!

Alicia put her hand over her mouth, and I leaned in to whisper, "You scare people more than Garrick did."

"Keep talking and I’ll show you the reason why."

"Gulp... I wouldn’t dare."

She huffed, but she didn’t step away from me, and that was a whole conversation in itself.

On the far side of the courtyard, a group of male knights was watching the scene with expressions of deep, personal grief.

"So... it’s really him," one of them muttered.

"Laura Lapisfield? The one who turned down every sparring invitation for two years?"

"She barely talks to anyone who isn’t on duty."

"And now she’s fixing his collar."

A tall one with a beard sighed heavily. "I asked her to dinner three times."

His friend patted him on the shoulder. "At least you only got rejected... I once asked her for advice on my sword form, and she made me drill for two hours."

"How is that worse than a rejection?!"

"At the end of the two hours she still said my form was bad..."

I didn’t hear any of this, of course. I was too busy listening to Alicia explain that now that we were official, we’d have a training schedule and a duty roster and a pile of reports.

Laura kept interrupting to remind me not to ignore my recovery.

Eventually, I held up a hand.

"Wait a second... I really need to ask this again. "I crossed my arms. "Did I just become a Royal Knight, or did I just acquire two personal supervisors?"

"Both," Alicia said, without a trace of hesitation.

"Agreed," said Laura.