"Late as usual, what can you expect from an Incompetent rookie."
I sighed, ignoring my superior's usual abuse, before sitting at my desk. The Knight's station wasn't exactly spacious, Stations like this were built on mass after the Witch Cult's attack on Pristella, everyone had their guesses on why but mine is they were built to show to the world and the kingdom's citizens they were still able to act and protect themselves even after dealing with such an attack. However, they failed to be able to have each station have the minimal amount of knights needed to man it. Because of this, they had to resort to having trained soldiers or militia led by one knight or someone who had shown command skills and fighting skills similar to a knight.
I hadn't minded the lack of space, actually, I enjoyed the neatly laid out structure of the building. No, what I hated most was that I could not avoid Damon.
"We both know I came on time, Damon.' I said exhaling, laying back on my desk chair.
"That's no way to address your superior, Zander!" Damon shouted,
"Damon, what have I told you about shouting?" Alden, our squad commander, questioned tiredly his face only being held up by a single arm.
Damon immediately quieted down, I couldn't help but smirk much to Damon's displeasure. Damon always seemed to be after me for no reason, he always made my life a pain.
"I was the one who told Lysander he could call us by our names. I won't have him be reprimanded for something I told him he could do." Alden calmly explained, after Damon nodded he once again laid back in his chair.
Damon was almost the exact opposite of Alden, he had always been kind to me and the rest of the knights in our squad. I always saw him as a perfect leader.
With an obvious frown, Damon sat back in his chair pouting. Rolling my eyes I looked back at Alden who was leaning back in his chair, his face covered by a pile of files. br
Seeing this I used the time to grab papers from my desk and prepare myself. I took long deep breaths in an attempt to calm my nerves. Without realizing I had gained the attention of almost the entire station.
"Are you alright Zander?" Damon had been the first to speak up, I rolled my eyes brushing away his question, knowing full well he did not care.
Seeing this, Garret spoke up.
"If you don't want to tell him, mind telling me?!" He jokingly said
Garret was the only other Rookie in the station, and we quickly bonded because of that.
"I'm trying to show the captain this." I paused, giving Garret the file I was holding.
On it were reports of criminal activity. After Garret saw the file he closed it and handed it back to me, before sighing.
"You have to stop trying to push the captain on sending us out on expeditions so much, you know how he is." Garret explained
"We're knights!-" I tried to say before Damon interrupted, "Guards." He said, smirking, I glared at him before continuing, "We shouldn't just sit here while Criminals are out there. How can we claim to be upholding justice when we just sit he-"
A loud sigh rang out from both sides of the station, coming from Damon and Garret both
"This again Zander?" Damon and Garret asked almost in sync, I stopped talking immediately trying to hide the redness of my cheeks.
After sighing Garret looked at me before responding, "I know you want to hunt them down, and follow this justice of yours which you told us over and over. But in the end it's the captain, and well, he's not the type to uh.. move." I sighed knowing well Garret was correct, but that didn't mean I would give up. The squad captain always had my respect. While I didn't understand his true strength, it alone is why our squad was allowed to only have four members. However...
Leaving my chair I walked up to the captain, his face still covered by a pile of papers. Nervously I called out,
"Uh, Captain. Can I speak with you?" I asked only to be met with silence.
I asked again but still, only silence answered me. Already tired of the lack of response I pushed aside the pile of papers, immediately finding out why he hadn't said anything.
However, putting it nicely he lacks.. prowess.
"Captain, could you please wake up!" I shouted, nudging him awake, his eyes slowly fluttered open, and he quickly straightened up in his chair, wiping the drool from his face. Before putting on his usual smile.
"Ah. Yes, what did you need, Lysander?" He questioned, still desperately fighting to stay awake. I gave him the folder before speaking.
"I compiled a list of all the sightings of potential sightings of criminal activity. I was wondering if maybe we could patrol those areas," I asked, knowing the answer.
After rubbing his eyes and looking through the contents, he placed it back on the table and slid it towards me, I sighed in defeat.
"Lysander, why are you so persistent? You should be happy our squad doesn't get assigned anything. Trust me it's much better that way none of us get hurt." Alden said, now fully awake.
"Captain, with all due respect, I didn't take this job just to sit around. We need to do more than just exist in this station. Justice isn't served by waiting—it's something we have to chase, something I need to chase. If we just sit here, doing nothing then how can I-" I stop not saying anymore, I didn't even realize I was almost glaring at him. I never hated the captain, quite the opposite I had always respected him. But due to his laid-back behavior, we've never helped a single person, instead, we are stuck in the station doing pointless paperwork.
"You keep going on and on about Justice, stop trying to be a hero, Zander. To me it seems like you're just doing this job for fame." Damon loudly spoke out, irritating me even more. I glared at him, before turning back to the captain.
"Please just consider-" The captain stopped me, "Lysander please, I can tell you really care about this but can't you just be like Damon or Garret? I understand you want to help people. I sympathize with you. I do, that's why when you snuck out of the station without permission I hid the report." Alden paused, "But sometimes you need to learn when to lay back." He continued, I walked back to my desk dejected, I could hear Damon's snicker. Even though the distance from the captain's desk to mine was small, it felt as if the universe was laughing at me.
I sat on my chair and stared at the floor. My hands started to clench in anger, Garret's pity or Damon's snickers only added to the fire. I closed my eyes and lamented my powerlessness. Ever since I was younger I had always felt this way. I was born with a gift. A divine one from Od Laguna, if you could even call it that. It told me who was morally good and righteous and who was corrupted wicked, however, it didn't give me the power needed to do it. All it did was tell me. My whole life I had been unable to do anything, I became a guard in the hopes of getting what I needed to finally bring justice. But even now I'm still as useless as I had always been. I didn't even realize I was crying, for minutes on end, until I heard Garret telling me to stop, but I couldn't it didn't matter how hard I tried.
"Sir, I have something to show you." I looked up towards where the sound came from. It was from Damon he was in front of the captain's desk.
"An anonymous tip of Witch Cultist in the forest." Damon explained his eyes which were on the captain shifted towards me. "Zander, you can tell the captain why he can't ignore this right?" Damon asked me [a small smirk replacing his usually scowling face, I couldn't help but smile as I eagerly responded.
"A law put in place after the attack on Pristella, if there's any evidence of the Witch Cult no matter how small must be investigated," I said, smiling from ear to ear. Damon nodded before turning back to look at the captain.
The captain looked at Damon thinking for a moment before raising an eyebrow, after yet another moment to think he looked at me, sighing.
"Why can't you all leave this old man alone? Fine! Fine! Get ready, we'll go patrol." He exclaimed in a defeated tone, his normal smile being replaced with a cartoony frown. I almost jumped out of my seat out of joy, grabbing my equipment which was only some armor and a sword before running to the exit. The others were much slower, Damon came out after me, followed by Garret, and finally, the captain who was moving at a snail's pace.
Though I wanted to lead, I knew I shouldn't push it. Instead, The captain led now moving normally, followed by Damon, me, and Garret behind.
Our station is located in a town far off from Priestella. Unlike Priestalla which is much larger than our town, there is no river flowing throughout the city. The only notable thing about our town is the large forest surrounding us, it's the most interesting part of the town so much so it was named after it, "Woodhaven". The only downside is the forest isolates us, making it rare for people to come into the town. Even worse crime is prevalent in the woods, the towns themselves are quite peaceful.
Which made me confused about why we were seemingly wandering around the town.
"Uh, why are we walking away from the woods?" I asked,
"Oh uh, you wanted to patrol right? Plus, likely, we won't find them during the day." Alden said, his hands stretch behind his head.
Although confused I shrugged it off excited to finally be able to do what I've always dreamed of.
Unfortunately, however, as we walked by the first place that was on my list of criminal activity we were only met with nothing. This continued for a while until the silence was broken by Damon.
"Well Zander, I hope you're enjoying this." He sarcastically retorted, I rolled my eyes.
"He's right Lysander, I mean I don't know what you expected. I did see your report and yeah I'm sure those crimes did happen but they were probably sporadic and one off events." Garret said, looking to Damon or the captain for confirmation. They both nodded almost simultaneously, sighing in response as we passed by more places that were on the list only to be met with the same silence.
"Hey captain, are those rumors true?" Garret said, breaking the silence.
The captain continued to walk, as he answered.
"There rumors about me?" He said genuinely shocked, we slowed down.
"Did you actually beat Reinhard during a practice match?" Garret asked, suddenly both the captain looked behind me towards Garret. Before Roaring with laughter their laughs were so loud they started to gain attention from bypassers. They even needed to lean on me for support. After they gained their composer, the captain spoke, his eyes still a bit teary from laughing. "Is that what people are saying? No, I lost, honestly I didn't even think it lasted more than a couple of seconds." After I pushed Damon off of me he spoke.
"Although he lasted more swings than most other knights who practiced with him," Damon added. "lasted more so avoided." The captain corrected before we started to move again. Garret who seemed to be slightly embarrassed was hiding behind me as we did.
"How long have you two known each other?" I asked, referring to the captain and Damon, despite seeming total opposites they almost felt like old friends every time I've seen them talking.
"What? Damon? Maybe only a week before I knew the rest of you." Alden said, walking uncaringly. I was slightly taken aback before Damon spoke. "The captain doesn't show favoritism, Zander." I only sighed in response.
"Captain, why did you decide to be just a squad leader of a small platoon like this?" I asked genuinely curious as my patrolling idea was completely a bust.
"So many questions. Can't you just leave this poor man alone?" Alden groaned, slouching a little, his normal smile turned into a cartoon frown.
"Actually I'm curious captain, are you really that much older than us?" Garret spoke up, who got over the embarrassment and started to talk again. I had been curious as well. The captain looked to be around the same age as all of us. Even when it came to physique, he looked much more muscular and toned than all of us. Not one from an old man like he claims. The only one who could come close was Damon.
"I'd say I'm around 20 years older than you all." The captain yawned as he did. I was fully taken aback, I could see Garret was even more shocked. We both looked towards Damon, who was essentially our expert regarding the captain. He looked towards us and nodded a smirk ever present on his face. And Garret both gave each other a look of amazement.
"But what about my other question?" I asked after the shock wore off. The captain just laughed it off before scratching the back of his head and shrugged, when I tried to bring it up again Damon nudged me in the shoulder. Even Garret told me it might not be best to talk about it. Finally understanding, I back off.
Suddenly, the captain stopped causing all of us to stop as well. This was followed by a similar sickening feeling I had gotten so used to. I turned my head realizing why.
"Did you notice it too, Lysander?" The captain asked, looking genuinely impressed. I was shocked he had noticed but I nodded, Damon and Garret looked at us with confusion. I pointed towards the town's cavern. Two people were arguing, one was a young male who looked to be in his mid-twenties with short unkempt brown hair, and the other was a female also in her twenties with blonde hair.
Garret and Damon only seemed to be more confused, The captain spoke up. "One of them is concealing a weapon. Judging on how mad they're, I'm guessing they're gonna use it." The captain said I was taken aback by how serious he was. Even more so how he was able to pinpoint all that on a glimpse while we were walking, I only knew because of my Divine protection.
"So the Female?" I asked.
"It's the man," Alden said
I paused, Alden looked at me confused. The sick feeling I had was coming from the girl, I had been sure of it. My Divine Protection has never been wrong. And that sickening aura only I could see was flowing out of her. Alden and I looked at each other for a moment.
As the screaming of the two people grew louder the captain started to move forward, before Damon stopped him.
"Alright Zander, time to be a hero." He said with a smile on my face I couldn't tell if this was an attempt to mock me.
I looked to the captain and he simply shrugged.
I didn't care at all, excited I finally got the chance I walked up to the two of them.
"Is everything alright?" I asked the two of them calmly. The two stopped arguing and turned to me.
"You called guards on me?" The man said tears were streaming from his face.
"They came on their own, scumbag." She said her face in a scowl. "Are you lying again? Why do you always do this?" He asked, his tears covering his cheek.
"I'll have to ask you both to calm down," I said, trying to sound as calm as possible.
Almost ignoring me they started to shout at each other even more. This went on for seemingly minutes when I turned to the squad for help. I was met with the captain pretending not to see, and Damon preventing Garret from helping. Their screams were incomprehensible, the kinds only a raging couple would understand. I tried over and over to calm them down but it only seemed to escalate things. Suddenly the man took out a small blade from his pocket and charged at her. I grabbed him and twisted the knife out of his hands. Then I knocked him down by sweeping his legs so he fell on his knees and forced his hands behind his back. I expected him to fight back or at least continue crying. But he did nothing, he only whispered. Not to me, or even to himself to something or someone who wasn't there.
"We trusted you, why did you?... If only we weren't at Priestalla at the time. No, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.. Why do I always?" He murmured. It was so quiet only people who were essentially right next to him would hear it. Not only that but it was like a string of unrelated words. He sounded insane, despite that. The sick feeling only got worse as I forced him down. The feeling continued to become unbearable, everything was telling me I was in the wrong. I had to stop myself from gagging. As time progressed the feeling of sickness increased tenfold. I couldn't take it anymore and let go of him. To which he made a surprise grunt.
"Why did you let him go? Didn't you see he tried to kill me!" She screamed, my hands were shaking. This curse of a divine protection had always been a problem for me one way or another. I've always wanted to be a hero, that's why when I understood my Protection I thought it was destiny. But how can I be sure if that's the case when I'm restraining a girl who had almost been killed because a Protection is telling me to do so?
She kicked and spat, I only tightened my grip.
"Help me! This man's insane!" She screamed but not to me, the captain and the rest of the squad without me realizing all ran towards me only stopping a few feet away. The captain was narrowing his eyes at me, his hand ready to draw his sword at any moment.
However, before the captain could speak Damon budded in.
"Zander, what are you doing? Leave the girl alone!" He commanded.
"Why are you doing this?" Alden's eyes only narrowed further. Garret was almost in shock only staying near the two without moving. When Damon moved closer to the man who was still on the ground despite no longer being restrained anymore, I placed myself in front of him. The captain started to step in, I could see him unsheathing his sword.
To say this was bad, is an understatement. I don't know how strong the captain is at fighting, but I knew he had to have some skill or else he wouldn't be squad captain he needed to at least be strong enough to be on the same level as some knights. There was no way I could beat him, even if I wasn't being handicapped. But I had to restrain the girl while fighting him, no chance. So I did the only thing I could do.
"Listen to me! I have divine protection! It tells me who is evil and who isn't! And right now it's screaming at me that this girl is horrible!" I shouted as the three of them stopped in their tracks.
"I wasn't aware of this, why haven't you told me before?" The captain asked,
"I assumed it wasn't important. Nobody believes I have it anyway." I answered.
It was a risky move, it's true I never told the captain of my divine protection. I never try to tell anyone, as far as I know. I'm the first one to ever have such a Divine protection. More than that, justice is a broad term and so is evil. What could be defined as evil and what could be defined as justice changes for each person. So whose definition of justice and evil does my divine protection work off of? Was it good? A divine protection like mine is unlike others, most just enhance one's own physical abilities, the only one I knew of that could even come close was the divine protection of one of the king candidates Crusch which was rumored to be able to tell when someone is lying. However something like a lie is often clearly defined while justice is a blur.
The captain took another step before, but to my shock Damon unsheathed his blade and aimed it towards the captain. Garret soon followed.
"Wh-what am I doing!" Garret screamed he was clearly a confused messed up, but he still stood in support. Damon narrowed his eyes towards the captain.
"Put it down Alden." Damon yelled, the captain tightened his grip on his sword.
"You're blinding, trusting this? As it stands there is zero proof the girl has done anything wrong! Right now all three of you are traitors." Alden said he wasn't shouting, his voice was loud enough for us to hear but it was almost melancholic. His hands were shaking albeit only a small amount.
Sometimes seconds can last a lifetime, this was one of those times. Until finally after eight grueling seconds the captain stomped on the ground before he sheathed his blade.
I felt a breeze pass by, I felt something grab the hand that was holding the girl. Out of instinct I rapidly slashed, but I realized too late it was the captain that had grabbed me.
The captain dodged it with only a slight shift of his body as if he had already known I would.
He freed the girl from my grasp and told the man to leave. The girl tried to punch me but Alden pulled me back before she was able to, as if he could tell it was coming. Both the girl and the man then ran in separate directions.
"I'll hide any reports of what happened here. We'll get the girl in trouble after we have proper proof. Until then I don't want you to do that again!" The captain shouted he didn't seem angry. Not that I would know what the captain would look like when he's mad, but his voice said otherwise. We all nodded almost simultaneously, if you looked at us from the outside I could imagine we all looked like scolded children. He sighed before walking back towards the knight's station.
"I swear you'll all be the death of me." The captain said while walking.
"Thanks Damon, and Garret for having my back." I asked, trying to hide my embarrassment. I had never thought the day would come where I thanked Damon for anything but he was the first one to come to help me.
Damon ruffled my hair, and Garret only chuckled. And even though he was facing away from me I could tell even the captain was smiling despite supposedly being mad.