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.
