The Virtue of a Simple Knight: Chapter 3 – In the Depths of Darkness

Chapter 3 – In the Depths of Darkness

“Howard!” Alfie says while snapping his fingers in front of my face. “Howard! We need to get ready!”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m ready,” I say.

“You don’t look ready. Staring out into the distance isn’t going to make Bonnie come back any sooner. Speaking of her, how did that date of yours go? You haven’t told me yet.”

“Oh, I didn’t?”

“No, well, I was busy with the penitentiary committee because of all the trouble I’ve been getting into, but still, you haven’t told me.”

“I’m sorry, uh, it went well, and I got a kiss!”

“You did? Did she kiss your forehead, cheek, or lips?”

“Lips.”

Alfie smiles and contains a scream of his while patting me on the back and then hugging me.

“That’s my boy! Did you set up the next date?”

“She said that she needed to make time for me again.”

“Ah, don’t worry about getting another date then.”

“But it’s been weeks since she was transferred to another unit.”

“It was a temporary transfer. Besides, we don’t live too far from one another.”

“Still, I’m concerned.”

“Don’t be. Besides, we gotta go soon for another deployment and it’s going to be a big one since we’re going to be clearing out an undercity of ratmen with the oh-so-grand knights of Noctua. Are you afraid?”

“Honestly, yes. I’ve never fought ratmen underground before.”

“Well, that’s why the knights of Noctua will be helping us. If you survive, you’ll have a story to impress Bonnie with, so you best be on your guard, and if you do die, try not to do so in an embarrassing way. We have to show those “elite” knights that we’re superior to them.”

“Yeah…”

While getting the last of my stuff and putting it on the back of my horse, a messenger runs to me.

“Are you Howard?” he asks.

“Yes, do you have something for me?” I say.

“Yes, the commander directed me to give you this.”

The messenger gives me Bonnie’s diary, which immediately sends chills down my spine.

“What’s…what’s this for?”

“It was your friend, Bonnie’s, diary. The commander knew you were close and it was her final wish that you should receive her diary before she died. I’m sorry for your loss. If it’s any consolation, know that she died honorably in battle.”

After bowing, the messenger runs away. I look intently at the diary with Alfie saying something to me that I can’t care to listen to at the moment. I’m hesitant at first to read it already being upset as I am and afraid that reading it will make me even more upset, and yet, I open it with trembling hands and skim through it. Bonnie had written all about her plans of being with family and friends, seeing plays, going to the beach, and finding someone to spend the rest of her life with. She noted that she had feelings for me when we first met and complained that I didn’t ask her out sooner. On the day of our date, she wrote that she had a wonderful time, couldn’t wait till the next, and was greatly upset at the fact that we were being separated though she jokingly wrote that she was glad to be away from Alfie.

Her final writings detail what she wanted to do with me and that she prayed for my safety. Lastly, there’s a note in the back of the book that simply says to not worry, that she’ll be watching over me and that she loves me. This last note makes me drop the diary and start crying uncontrollably.

“What’s wrong?” Alfie says as he picks up the diary and starts reading through it. “Don’t be upset, Howard. I’m sure that you’ll find another girlfriend in no time. If anything, since you were able to win over Bonnie, then any lady will surely fall for you. Ha! I knew she wrote a lot of dirt on me. I…”

Looking up at Alfie, I see that he’s upset at something as he slowly starts turning the pages rather than flipping through them like he previously was. He then stops on one page before looking at me.

“Howard, I’m so sorry,” he says.

I can’t help but continue crying and fall to my knees as I wonder why God let this happen to me. Suddenly, Alfie picks up and slaps me across the face.

“Hey! Bonnie loved a strong knight and not some whimpering sap! Pick yourself up and move on,” Alfie says before shoving Bonnie’s diary into my chest.

“I don’t want this. It’s just going to make me more upset,” I say with the diary in my hand.

“Fine then.”

Alfie takes the diary from my hands and throws it away into the dirt and, in that split second, I go from not wanting the diary to wanting to safeguard it forever, so I run after it and pick it up.

“Bonnie is watching over you right now. Do you want to make her see you in this sorry state?” Alfie says.

“No. I’m sorry,” I say while holding back my tears and trying to keep a strong face.

I can see that Alfie’s strong face is beginning to quiver as he looks at me. He’s obviously just as upset as I am and is on the verge of crying as well.

“Good, good. Now, let’s both move on.”

“Yeah…okay.”

After putting Bonnie’s diary into one of my pockets, I get on my horse and join the rest of my unit with Alfie. Together, we join with the unit of knights from Noctua during which my mind is still and silent as I don’t want to think about Bonnie’s death or the reason why God allowed it. Everything around me is a blur and passes by me while I silently follow along with Alfie making sure that I’m awake and still moving. Eventually, my senses and mind catch up to me when we enter the city where the ratmen undercity is located. This city is one of those newly built ones that have all traces of the past erased, unlike the city where I’m from.

The buildings here are mostly made out of steel and stone, whereas the buildings where I’m from are mostly metal with useless fixtures that are said to have been lit up with the flick of a switch. It truly feels like I’m in the past when I’m in towns and cities like this that don’t have the same architecture as my home. Besides that, everyone in the city dresses the same as they do where I’m from so places like this aren’t too foreign to me. If anything, I’m sure that being in the overgrown lands of Bernhard, the fiery lands of Canis, or the ever-shifting icy lands of Polypus would give me greater whiplash because of how strange I heard those places are. I imagined that I would travel to safer, yet foreign kingdoms I’ve never been to such as Noctua, Serpentis, or Equus with Bonnie, but that’s not going to happen-no! I have to get her out of my mind, for now. I’ve got a task I must focus on.

Around me, the knights of Leo and Noctua mingle while we wait for our commanders’ orders. Despite being considered normal, the men and women of Noctua have ashy, black skin and golden eyes that seem to glow. I’ve heard that they can cast a spell from their eyes that blinds their enemies and create a dark fog from their hands kind of like dark elves but can’t enter into the shadows like the dark elves and only use it to cover their advance. Of course, Alfie and some of my fellow knights of Leo are smack-talking with the knights of Noctua and boasting about their kingdom while downplaying the other. Eventually, they both agree to challenge each other and whoever wins is the better kingdom. Whoever gets the most kills, clears out their side of the undercity faster, and has the most knights surviving at the end wins. It’s possible for one side to win by only winning in two of the challenges so it's not like either side must win in all three, but both sides are acting as if they can.

Our commanders call us over now that they’ve finalized their plans, how big the squads are going to be, and who is going to go where. Alfie and I are put in a squad with two knights from Noctua and one fellow knight from Leo, all three of whom are adamant about winning their self-imposed challenge. After saying our before-battle prayer, all squads head into the undercity through the various tunnels in the city. The threat of having a ratmen undercity has always scared me, especially since you’ll never know there’s one until they make themselves known by accident or on purpose, and if it’s on purpose, like in the case of this city, then you know they’re confident about their strength. When they’re confident, they’ll kidnap and assassinate people more and steal more from the city’s armories, and if this goes on for too long, then they’ll eventually take over the city and kill and take whatever and whoever they want until moving on to the next city or town.

I’m more than thankful that there haven’t been any ratmen sightings in my city, though my fear is that they may be there and just too sneaky to notice. It doesn’t help that there was an event in the past where the ratmen attacked most major cities from beneath to let their presence and strength be known that ended in the deaths and kidnappings of many. The tunnels that we’re traveling through right now were built in secret without people knowing and made safe and big enough to travel through thanks to the efforts and sacrifice of the city’s guards, but also, I’m not sure how safe these can be when the ratmen are allowing us to go through them. I’m expecting there to be a lot of trouble ahead, and even though I’m afraid, a small part of me wants to die because of all the stress I’ve been through and of Bonnie’s recent death. No! I can’t think about that. Bonnie wouldn’t want me to, so I press on with the hope of living to fight another day in mind.

Eventually, my fellow knights and I make it to the undercity of the ratmen and find that chaos is already brewing here as the fight has started. Although this vast cave is lit up by various torches spread around the area, I can still see the impressive structures that the ratmen have managed to build down here and the many battles taking place in it. The largest structures are like pillars holding up the ground beneath it and every building is made out of scraps of metal, wood, and stone. Every part of this cave is a possible trap that holds either a ratman lying in wait or a hole filled with spikes. Before we know it, the knights of Noctua are gone forcing me and Alfie to stick closer together.

“Get over here!” Alfie says to the other knight of Leo who is with us only for that knight to be dragged into one of the holes by ratmen.

We try to get our fellow knight out of the hole, but we aren’t strong enough to pull him out and the ratmen take advantage of our distraction to launch a sneak attack on us that we only manage to survive thanks to our allies. Some of the torches in the undercity start going out making it harder to see and the situation even more panic-inducing. Alfie almost hits me in the chaos forcing us to stay closer to one another and constantly be talking so we know where each other is. The knights from Noctua start using their spells to cast a blinding light at the ratmen to get some advantage on them and people start burning the buildings of the undercities and starting fires so we can see, but as the cave starts to light up, the more obvious it becomes how outnumbered we are.

Somehow, against all odds, we manage to make it through it. I don’t even think that I fought well. All I remember doing was swinging my sword and shield around praying as many Hail Marys as possible and then running for my life when the ceiling and walls around us started to come down. My senses don’t completely return to me until I rest outside on the ground with Alfie and the other knights who managed to make it out. We look at the large sinkhole that’s now in the center of the city and probably a trap set up by the ratmen who made the ground sink into itself as a backup in the event of their defeat. Right now, I don’t even want to think about that common ratmen tactic and their other dirty tricks. I don’t even want to join in the celebration of our victory afterward because I don’t feel that I deserve to have lived through that because of everyone else who died. All I want to do is go to sleep and that’s what I do when I go back to the barracks.