Chapter 36: Isekai Life & Several Reflections

“Sir Voss, please make your squire and teach me how to be a knight!”

Just like that, this bratty kid started an argument between Voss and I.

“We can’t take her along, she’s just a teenager.”

“We’re you technically just a teenager until a few days ago?”

“There’s a world of difference between thirteen and nineteen!”

“Actually, I’m fourteen,” Sorrel interjected, sounding hurt.

I ignored her. “Besides, all our spare weapons are with the storage chest in Pendleton.”

“Well, I need to get better with the halberd, so she can use my spear.”

That presented it’s own logistical hurdles, but I couldn’t just say ‘you have a weapon specialization for spears and not halberds’. But, I also realized he had a longsword in his kit somewhere but that didn’t exactly help my case. So I tried from a different attack angle. “She doesn’t know how to listen!” I said.

“At the time she wasn’t listening, we needed her help. You were just being stubborn, like you are now.”

That really made me feel furious. “Well, that suited you just fine when... !”

Through this entire exchange, Voss and I had closed in on each other, until we were yelling in each other’s faces. Suddenly, an iron hand seized each of us by the shoulder, and pulled us apart.

“Gentlemen! I do not think we need this situation to escalate further!” Haseth said sternly, even as he pulled us apart.

I was still fuming at Voss, but my two-layer personality meant that one part of me could see that this situation was getting out of hand. Voss and I had never argued before, and now that we had something causing strife between us, the “real” Theodore was experiencing the first time a subordinate went against him in such a strong way.

“Sir Voss, why don’t you take a short walk with the young miss, and find out if she’s serious about becoming your squire,” Haseth suggested in a way that made it sound like it wasn’t a suggestion at all.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” Voss replied before turned around and stalking off.

Voss turned, grabbed Sorrel by the wrist, and stalked off down the bridge. Haseth waited until they were out of sight before turning on me.

“What is your problem?”

“Huh?” I felt shocked. I was causing the problem? “We can’t take care of some kid!”

“She isn’t asking to be taken care of,” Haseth explained calmly, “She is asking Voss to assist him, evidently after she was helpful to you back in that tower. So why are you angry?”

“I ... uh...” I scrmabled to think of why precisely I was mad, “Because ... she’ll slow us down!”

“We are not in a particular hurry, and we are also well-provisioned,” Haseth pointed out, “So why do you hate this girl so much that you’ll have a fight with one of your closest allies?”

I relaxed a little. “I ... I guess she just got on my nerves, the first time we met.”

Suddenly, a hand clamped down on Haseth’s wrist. Yua was standing next to us, smiling a forced smile, but her eyes started daggers at Haseth.

“You will release.”

“Of course, Lady Yua, forgive me for being rough with your master.”

Haseth let me go, and I stumbled a bit, recovering myself.

“Think on what I said,” Haseth said before turning back to his princess ... but Kythaela was alright there, staring at me.

What now? I thought to myself.

“Sorrel is a good girl,” the princess said flatly.

“I-is she?” I stammered back.

“She was captured for longer than I was...” the princess look away as she said it, “She spoke each day of fighting back, or poisoning them. The goblins. She’s a spirited girl.”

“Uh, okay...” I sighed, “Yeah, okay I see what you mean. I’m sure she’ll be a good squire.”

Kythaela nodded her head once, and silently returned to her meal.

I sighed, straightening up. “I’m going to go find Voss, and apologize,” I said, to no one in particular, before turning to Yua, “Stay here for a bit, okay?”

“I am your servant, my lord.”

I headed down the bridge, to where I saw Sorrel and Voss speaking at the far side. The bushy-haired teen looked upset about something, but was nodding in response to what Voss said. When the knight saw me coming, he left her at the end of the bridge to dry her tears, and met me in the middle.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” I said, rubbing my nose for second, “Uh, sorry about that. I’m not sure what came over me, but it ... wasn’t good.”

“Yeah, you can saw that again,” Voss leaned on the railing, and looked down into the river. “I told her if you were a firm no, that she would have to go back, but ... she doesn’t have anywhere to go back to. Her whole family was killed by the goblins. It’s kind of amazing she’s here at all.”

“That’s not necessary,” I replied, “If you want her to be your squire, that’s good enough for me.”

Voss nodded. “Thank you. I’ll make sure she won’t let you down.”

“When you knight her, she might not choose to swear to me,” I reminded Voss, “Which could end up being an issue for our secrecy, but I guess I don’t have to worry about that for awhile.”

“Yeah, that’s a fair point. Let’s go finish our lunch, okay?”

It wasn’t completely over just like that- I didn’t really see the value Voss saw in the awkward, bushy-haired teen who couldn’t restrain herself from talking back. But it was over for now. I still found the girl annoying, but Voss kept her busy. Every time we stopped it seemed that soon after, he would have Sorrel on her feet making practice cuts with a branch.

Our journey was mostly uneventful. For two days we travelled northeast, before we met a larger road running west to east. We passed through the deserted ruin of Temple Meadows, a tiny speck a third the size of Rhymer’s Cross built around a sizeable stone edifice ... which lay in complete and utter ruin. Raszil’s analogy struck home- it was an absolutely biblical level of destruction, and I could believe that no stone would be found stacked on another. Unlike what he had implied about Birchen, there wasn’t anyone here trying to rebuild. We could see where the limbs of the dead were poking out from this or that pile of rubble, and heeled our horses a little faster. Thankfully, the main thoroughfare through town wasn’t so badly choked that we had trouble with the cart- the tooth marks on some of the corpses told us that the ghouls would be out once the sun had set, and nobody wanted to deal with that.

Two days later, when we saw the first signs that we were drawing close to Felldarrow, we agreed to swing south and follow river rather than remain on the road. Haseth made an excuse of wanting to avoid trouble with humans living so close to the Misty Kingdom, but I, at least, had seen enough death.

We followed the river for two days, until the river met up with a long, narrow lake surrounded by tall willows and ash-pale birch trees, and beyond them, the peaks of the northern mountains. It was drawing late, and the sun glowed on the still waters of the lake like a dying ember.

Haseth reined up to me. “We should camp here. This is Shaen Minarea, the last patch of wild before we arrive at the gates of the kingdom. This water is clean, drawn from the snowmelt, so we shall have a chance to bath and collect ourselves before you have to present yourself to His Grace.”

I nodded. Shaen Minarea meant “Sea of Willows”, it hardly seemed like a dire place to relax a little. “That seems like good council. Thank you for the recommendation, Sir Haseth.”

Sorrel had graduated to making practice cuts with actual steel in her hand, and was to one side, making lunges at thin air while Voss stood wide to one side and gave her instruction. Yua obediently went around making a fire without being asked, so I decided to hop on the the cart and portion out oats and the day’s opportunistic hunting for a porridge. Travelling together for so long, it was easier to pitch in and just do something rather than laze around and cause problems. Haseth was busy hobbling and rubbing down the animals, Raszil was at the lakeside gathering water, and although Kythaela was simply sitting on a blanket staring out at the lake ... well, she had been through a lot lately, so I was a little more forgiving.