Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Suikoden II etc.
A Knight's Tale:
After all this war, all this fighting, I finally had some time for some thinking. I never really had a chance to look back on life and see what I did right, and what I did wrong. When I was six, I met one of the people that would influence my life forever, and become one of my best friends that I would ever know. I was fooling around with my dad's wooden sword when I looked back and saw someone watching me from behind the fence. I never noticed him around town, so I figured he was new. I went over and said hello.
"Hi, my name's Miklotov, what's yours?"
"I'm Camus, I just moved here from the Highway village. My dad's a mercenary, so we move a lot," he replied. From then on, I knew we would become the best of friends. We played together almost everyday. We got into quite a lot of mischief as well. One time, we went into Madame Bonacieux's chicken coop and scared all the chickens. We couldn't stop laughing for days, but her chickens didn't lay eggs for days, so she got pretty mad. Another time we decided to see who could climb the highest on a tree. Turns out we both could climb pretty high, we just weren't so good on the getting back down part. We got stuck and Papa had to come get us out. We got grounded for several days by our parents for doing such a foolish stunt.
Yes, I remember it as if it was yesterday, playing in the back yard, sparring, having fun like little boys should. But it all changed that one day, that one day we decided to become knights in the Knightdom of Matilda. Camus' father had given up being a mercenary and became a knight, so did my father, so naturally like every boy does, he wants to be like his father. So we both decided, at age 16 to become part of the Matilda Knights. That day when I got my badge, and my token, I was so proud.
"Look at us now Camus! We're knights!" I said.
"Yeah! We'll be together forever!" he replied. Those days were good. When there was no fighting, and no wars, we were just allowed to be knights and fool around to our heart's content. Pretty soon, we had the admiration of most of the knights. We practiced our sword fighting everyday, and pretty soon, Lord Garudo had honored us with the command of the Red and Blue Knights of Matilda. We went and did everything together. We were seen all around town together. But, after the war started, everything changed.
I noticed that Lord Garudo didn't seem to be the same person. When we went to the Jowston Hill Conference when Highland was marching toward Muse, his first comment was that he refused to help. He was changing, he wasn't the same lord as I knew before. But I also knew not to question his authority. A knight's job was to serve his lord, or so Camus always said. When we were sent to stall the Highland army so the rest of the reinforcements arrived, I was glad that we could help. But he made us pull back, and so much blood was shed. From then on, I think I had a different look on Lord Garudo. I was beginning to question my life.
I still remember that day when I resigned from commanding the Blue Knights of Matilda. I had disgraced myself infront of all my friends, all my knights, but I was a human first, a knight second. When I pulled off the emblem sewed into my cloak, I amazed myself, that I was able to do such a thing. When Lord Garudo commanded Camus to arrest me, I only expected that he would, but he didn't. He too, disgraced himself infront of his comrades, his men. Still to this day, I don't know if that's what he really wanted to do. I'm the one who started it all, I'm the one who was the catalyst. I still wonder if Camus did it because he wanted to, or was it because of me? That he didn't want to arrest me, so he too, resigned from commanding the Red Knights.
After joining him, that boy that gave the State so much hope, I was beginning to see why everyone had hope in him. He was the symbol of hope for all humanity. If Luca Blight ever won, the land would be scorched, the people dead, the world sucked into oblivion. He was the only hope we had left.
I'm still wondering, if everything I did up until now was right. No, probably not…but not everything you do will always be right. That's a part of life I guess. As I stand here at the edge of the balcony, looking at the stars, I wonder if it was fate that brought me here to the State. Fate that caused everything I did. No, I don't think so either. Fate is one thing, destiny is another, one person's strong will can change both if they wish. Sometimes, two people is even better.