The Virtue of a Simple Knight: Chapter 2 – Honorable Common Work

Chapter 2 – Honorable Common Work

Bonnie, Alfie, and I are riding on armored horses on our way to our next assignment alongside other soldiers who have their own horses and those who are in horse-drawn carriages.

“It’s nice finally having our own horse to travel in, isn’t it?” I ask.

“It’s a nice benefit of our increased rank after fighting so many battles, but I would’ve liked more such a new sword, armor, and helmet. My own personal tent would’ve been nice too,” Alfie says.

“Oh, stop your complaining and be thankful that you’re alive to get anything,” Bonnie says.

“She’s right, Alfie. I’m always surprised and glad when I survive battles that our fellow knights fall in.”

“That’s because you’re not as highly skilled as I am. If you were and you took my advice, then you’d have a higher chance of survival and would’ve taken Bonnie on a date already.”

“If he took your advice, he’d be dead and if he took your advice on asking people out, then he’d be rejected like you’ve been.”

“I’ve only been rejected because the ladies don’t realize a true gentleman when they see one.”

Bonnie scoffs at Alfie and I can’t help but laugh. Our destination is finally ahead of us and is a town that’s been suffering from frequent attacks by rogue beastmen and orcs. The town’s walls are currently being reinforced by orcs from Bernhard who are also setting up catapults, barricades, and ballistas. Once we get into the town, a majority of the citizens welcome our arrival by saying hello to us and how thankful they are to see us while other citizens go about their daily business and may only smile and wave at us. Our commanders meet up with the orc commanders to plan out how we can defend from the next attack and take the fight to the rogues while we are simply stationed around the town to relax until they make a decision. While sitting around with Bonnie, Alfie, and a couple of other fellow knights, Alfie seems to be fixated on the orcs who are walking around town.

“Is something wrong?” I ask him.

“It’s these orcs. I just don’t trust them,” Alfie says.

“Why’s that?”

“Is that a question that really needs asking? We’ve fought many bandit groups and the toughest ones had orcs in them. There’s also the fact that they’re one of the most violent kingdoms out there besides Canis who also think that they deserve more because they’re always putting their troops on the frontline. I’ve got news for them. Leo has more troops stationed throughout the world than any kingdom, we’re tougher, and not as temperamental.”

“But the orcs are able to station themselves in the toxic wastes of the ratmen-infested lands of Eastern Europe and go easily beyond it to the Asian lands unlike we can.”

“So? Once we figure out a way to be in the places they can, they’ll have nothing to hang over us.”

I look over to Bonnie and am about to ask her opinion but see that she’s writing in her diary again. She looks up at me, smiles, and rolls her eyes while shaking her head. The people of the town are nice enough to give us food and water as the day goes on so we don’t need to take from our own supply, but as we eat, we hear an orc horn going off which signals to us that there’s an incoming attack. We race outside the town’s gates and await the enemy.

Our orc allies push us aside and get in front of us to which Alfie shakes his head and says, “Glory hounds.”

Ahead of us, we see an incoming wave of rogues heading toward us with orcs leading from the front and beastmen behind them. Before we’re even given the signal to charge by our commanders, the orcs on our side rush to meet the enemy. We’re then given the go-ahead to charge, however, by the time we enter into the melee, most of the enemy is dead leading to an easy victory. Unlike everyone else who is glad about this, Alfie seems annoyed and approaches one of the orc knights.

“You just had to run ahead and have most of the fun, didn’t you?” Alfie asks.

“It was more than just taking most of the fun. We were cleaning up the mess of one of our own. It was the fulfillment of duty,” an orc knight says.

“No, honorable knight enjoys the slaughter like your kind does. You can pretend to be noble, but I know what you really are.”

The orc knights and Alfie begin to square up as they both intensely stare at each other. Because of the orc’s heavier armor that is lined with spikes on their helmets, shoulders, and arms, the orcs are obviously the more intimating ones, but Alfie isn’t backing down and shows no sign of fear.

“Ha!” an orc knight laughs, “I like how this one isn’t afraid to speak his mind and doesn’t back down.”

“We’ve heard your words before and known that ours think it without saying anything. What you’re truly getting at is that you’re jealous of the power of the men of Bernhard and try to bring us down by saying we’re nothing more than violent beasts because we’re quick to fight,” another adds.

“I didn’t say you were nothing more than violent beasts, but hey, if the shoe fits, wear it.”

“Let me remind you then that we’re the ones who put down more rogue orcs, slaughter more legions of ratmen, and can survive in lands that no ‘normal’ human like you could last a second in.”

“Let me remind you that the knights of Leo are the ones who are stationed in every possible place that we can be in and do more than simply fight and kill. Our commanders and royalty guide the politics of every kingdom of the Church and our people feed the poor, shelter those displaced by the wars, and educate the lame. What do your people do for those in need? Give them a weapon and tell them to fight to earn their place in the world or be forced to do slavish labor.”

A few of our own knights from Leo get in on the argument as knights from both Leo and Bernhard argue against each other bringing up the positives of their own side and the negatives of the other. Commanders from both kingdoms have to come in to break up the fight and bring them back into the town to discipline them. Meanwhile, Bonnie and I are allowed to rest in town whose inhabitants give us flowers, food, and drink for helping them.

While resting, I ask Bonnie, “Do you think Alfie is doing okay?”

“I hope he isn’t so he learns not to do anything stupid again,” she says.

“Yeah, but he’s probably going to be reprimanded harder than usual for causing a divide between us and the orcs.”

“I hope that’s the case.”

Some time passes and Bonnie and I don’t say much for a while besides some small talk about the situation. She breaks out her diary from one of her pockets and begins writing in it again.

“What are you writing about?” I ask.

“Writing more about my future plans and drawing some pictures to keep my mind awake,” she says.

“Do you have any room in those plans for me?” I blurt out without really thinking.

“Huh? What are you saying?”

“That-that I want us to spend some time together, but this time without Alfie.”

Bonnie smiles at me and looks at her books for a few seconds before writing something down and saying, “I can make some time for you after we’re down this tour of duty.”

“I promise I’ll make it worth it!”

What am I even saying? Regardless, I got a giggle out of Bonnie, so at least she found it funny. Some more time passes until messengers of the commanders come to us and rally the soldiers to them. When everyone is gathered together, I look around for Alfie but don’t manage to find him. The commanders tell us our scouts have they found the bases of the rogue orcs and beastmen and that we’ll be moving now to destroy them to avoid further attacks on the town.

Our squad formation when heading into the battle is the same as our defensive one in that the orcs lead from the front while we reinforce them from the back, and again, the orcs don’t wait for our commanders to give us the go-ahead to head in. They don’t even allow our archers to send an opening volley to make the fight easier, forcing our archers to spread out and instead take potshots from the back to aid us. Even though the ensuing battles against the rogues are made easy by them, we still end up losing a few men to which the orcs take responsibility over and their commanders promise to pay for their funerals as reparation.

“These men died bravely and honorably dying for God and the virtuous cause of His Church and deserve the best sendoff we can afford,” an orc commander says.

It’s easy to forget that the orcs put a lot of effort into burying their soldiers who died in battle and taking responsibility for any casualties that happened during battles that involved them. It softens most people’s views of them and shows that they aren’t just senseless and violent people. Speaking of forgetting things, I suddenly remember Alfie and wonder where he was during all of this and it isn’t until we return back to the town that Bonnie and I are reunited with him. While eating the dinner given to us by the town’s inhabitants as a thank you for our help, we sit with him and talk about the battles that we went through.

Alfie mentions that, “Everyone including me who caused a scene was put on the frontlines ahead of everyone. We were told that if we had two choices; we either put our differences aside and fought with each other to survive or back out and have our status as knights stripped from us.”

“I’m glad that you got over your biases over the orcs then,” I say.

“That’s not exactly what I did. Our knights made our punishment into a competition with the orcs to see who would get the most kills to prove which kingdom was better.”

“And? Who won?”

“Who do you think? We did, of course, but only by a few kills. In the end, the orcs conceded defeat but said they would prove their military is better in future battles and competitions and said we should have sparing matches later. What about you two? Did anything special happen when I was away?”

“We’re going to go out together when we get home.”

Alfie spits out his drink, and then says, “What?”

“Are you surprised that Howard managed to get a date before you did?” Bonnie asks.

“I’m not sure if you’re trying to spite me by going out with him or genuinely interested in him.” Bonnie gives Alfie a mischievous grin to which he gives a scowling face. “Regardless of your intentions, I wish you the best, Howard. I hope you take all my advice and make the right moves so that she wants to stay with you.”

“If he takes your advice, I’ll cut the date short and leave.”

“You would?” I nervously ask.

“Don’t let her get to you, man. Women like her like to play with honest men like us.”

The orc knights stop by our table and gather Alfie and the other knights from Leo for their sparing match.

While they fight for the entertainment of the townsfolk and soldiers, I ask Bonnie again, “Hey, uh, you wouldn’t just leave me during our date, would you?”

“I won’t if you don’t give me a reason to. Relax. I’m sure it’ll be a fun time.”

“Yeah.”

I might as well start writing down my plans for our date now since I didn’t even think she would say yes to me and was so focused on how I would ask her out. This is somehow making me more nervous than the nervousness I feel before entering a battle. Please, God, make it go well because I have no clue what to do at all.