Chapter 1: The Mercenary
Light shines down on this lone mercenary's face, waking him up from his slumber. As he woke, he looked at his surroundings, seeing nothing but dust and rubble. Carefully he stood up from where he lay, picked up his helm, and made his way outside the ruins. Outside, he saw where he had crashed. It was the basement of some abandoned house, and from the looks of it, the house had not been used for years. But for whatever reason the house was abandoned? He could not care, it could be that because of the monsters the former residents had to leave, or that the former residents of this place was murdered, or that this was some hideout by some gang.
"Where am I?" He immediately thought like any human would.
Studying the area around him, he could see vast plains and greenery, so his conclusion was he is in an area around either Geffen or Prontera.
"What the hell happened?" He thought afterwards, and after a while, it all came to him.
He was travelling down south from Al de Baran doing a bodyguard job for some rich noble. Their destination: The Castle of Prontera. Until they were, of course, ambushed by an unknown group. What he could remember from the ambush was that flames suddenly surrounded the carriage, scaring and cutting him and the carriage away from the other escorts. He did what he was supposed to do; he defended the carriage with what he can.
A Lord Knight by profession, he unsheathed his Claymore, enchanted by the element of ice, a little gift from his Whitesmith friend some years ago. Calmly, he waited for the assailants to show themselves and attack him from all sides, but directly in front of him, 2 figures approached him, one with muscles as hard as stones and a body the size of an orc, wielding a large and mighty Axe, while the other, was of small build, probably a scholar in the field of magic. Both of them hid their faces under their hoods.
"State your names!" the knight shouted at the assailants.
"Our names are of no importance to you…" laughingly replied the mage, "Now stand aside mister bodyguard…"
"Sorry but I can't do that," said the knight, "You'll have to go through me!"
"Well said! Hehahahahaha! Now GO!" the mage ordered his companion.
"Grrraaaaaaaggggghhhhhhhh!!!!" The brute held out a load roar, charging towards the knight.
The lord knight took his stance and readied himself for the attack. He waited for the perfect opportunity, and clang! The brute's axe clashed with his Claymore. He was successful at parrying the brute's first attack, reflexively, he swung his blade towards his enemy, but the brute was able to defend from his attack with his big axe. The 2 blades kept on clashing, and all the while, the mage had to butt in.
"Sorry to interrupt," said the mage, "but we're on a very strict schedule."
The mage conjured spell after spell and gave the Lord Knight a very hard time. Parrying and dodging attacks from both a large weapon and magic is no easy task.
The battle was fierce, but ended up with him being blasted away by a distance. Thankfully enough, while he fought the two, his client was able to run away a few moments after the start of the battle.
After remembering what happened, he made his journey towards Prontera to see if his client would be there, and for him to receive his pay.
Knights were said to be a symbol, a symbol of pride, loyalty, and nobility. But as time passed by, the meaning of chivalry slowly died down. A lot of young adventurers choose the profession of knight mostly for the money, more knights are being hired as bodyguards, and they agree to it due to the high wages that they could sum up from their clients. And this protagonist of ours was once an exception. He became a knight at a very young age, and became a Lord Knight at the age of 25, but a few months after his promotion, he could see the deteriorating Code of Valor among knights. So just then, he kept it in his heart that becoming a knight is nothing more than a resume qualification in Rune-Midgar today.
While on his way to Prontera, he stumbled upon a lost adventurer, a pure novice. It seemed that the little novice got lost on her way as she took the test to become an acolyte. He took his time to observe the newly-born adventurer, seeing her walking back and forth. She was clearly troubled. Out of impulse, he walked towards the girl. He didn't know why he should walk that direction, but his instincts told him to help. The novice didn't know what to do, but as soon as she saw the lord knight, she immediately tried to ask for help.
"Ummm sir… could you please help me? I was doing my acolyte exam, I need to find Father Rubalkabara, but then I got lost, do you know where I could find him?" said the novice.
"I could help…" said the lord knight, "but you will need to pay me up one day for the service… Hrmmm how about 1000z?"
"1000z!? All I'm asking is a lil' help, aren't knights supposed to help those that are in need?" replied the novice.
"Chivalry is dead little girl, but I will let you off with a little debt on your hands…" he said coldly.
"Sigh… Well if there's no other way…"
The two of them set off travelling towards Prontera.
"Hey mister, may I ask for a name?" said the novice.
"Name's Vincent B. Crow… call me Crow…" he replied.
"Crow huh?... wierd nickname... ha ha ha" she said giggling, "i'm Reina L. Allsted, nice ta meet ya!"