“The rules are clear, ain't they? We're at war, that calls for immediate execution!”, Rowe tried to argue, but Berengar shook his head.
“One of them is only 14 years old. Do you know what impact that could have on moral if we had to execute a child? Besides that, would you be able to execute someone that young without it affecting you?”
“Yes.”
“I heard of what happened, and I can see why you would say that now, but trust me on this. This is not something you can just shake off like nothing happened.”
“...tch. Fine! Throw em in the dungeon and send a message to the capital, then. However, if the others start getting annoyed about having to deal with these scumbags for the next month or so I'll send them straight to you to deal with their complaints, since it was your idea and all, right? Captain?”, Rowe relented, though he could not help but end the conversation on a sarcastic remark. Berengar, however, understood his frustration of his comrade and decided to ignore the snark thrown his way.
Thus the 8 Bandits were healed to a point where their wounds were deemed no longer life-threatening, and were moved to the jail-cells beneath the guard-quarters.
“Eh bien, Damien, on est dans la merde!”, Lou asked the youngest of the group in Western Ordt.
The teen looked at him with a wide grin, before kicking the man in the shin, which caused him to lower himself with a loud yelp, just enough for the teenager to grab him by the collar and drag him further down to eye-level.
“Imbécile! How often do I have to repeat myself? Do you want to give it away that we are not from here? Speak in Common like the commoner you are, or I cut your tongue out like I did with them so you do not forget it!”, Damien yelled at him through gritted teeth, before letting him go. The others slowly moved away from him as he uttered those words, and Lou angrily rubbed his stinging shin.
Long before he had been sentenced to death in Domitor, Louis Berlioz was a respected researcher in the field of medicine. However, this changed when one of his “research projects” managed to escape from his estate and reached law enforcement. Despite her barely being able to communicate due to Berlioz having used large portions of her body to turn them into cures with alchemy, she managed to guide them to her former captor. Berlioz had just noticed her being missing as they burst through his front door and put him in shackles. They almost decided to execute him on the spot, as one of his “donors” turned out to be the child of a noble. To his luck, however, one of the guards decided a public execution to be more fitting for a monster such as him. As soon after, the Court-Mage of Domitor took over command over Domitor's army and started the Death-Row-Knight-Initiative, where those destined to die could regain their freedom by joining the army, Berlioz thought himself to have landed the chance of his lifetime.
His luck turned immediately, however, as the once famed physician was now reduced to a mere lackey under the command of a teenager. Berlioz would have loved nothing more than rip Damien apart with one of his spells, but the teenager in question had a kill-count twice as high as his own, and his skill with the blade he liked to demonstrate all to gladly whenever he noticed someone in his team moving out of line. When they started their journey towards Pont, their group used to have 19 members, all hardened criminals, with two among them magi which could have ended Berlioz with a snap of their fingers if they wished to. Both of them perished, and, in the end, only 12 members of the team remained, courtesy of Damien.
Berlioz almost spoke up to say that he would be useless without being able to cast his spells after having his tongue cut out, though as he came to the realization that this would give Damien a reason to kill him on the spot, he stayed silent.
“And no, we are nowhere close to being in trouble. Quite the opposite. Not only did we escape execution thanks to me, they have yet to find the curse-seal on our bodies as they only checked for contraband, and we even figured out how our target looks like. If anything, it almost went too well.”
“So we wait now?”, Berlioz asked.
“The others know what to do. I hope you 7 know too, or we will have to lose some more dead weight.”, Damien stated, his grin never leaving his face.
The next few days passed without incidents, with Corvo and his friends resuming their duty as guards and continuing their training. Mira and Eleonora found sparring partners among the other guards, which were able to give them pointers on where they needed to improve, Sean managed to find another bard with whom he could exchange stories, Brom continued to work in the church in his free time, and Corvo practiced some low-tier spells of the Arcane School of Magic, which Kassandra Lambert had shown him, as they would greatly increase his options in combat.
After a long day of work, the 5 friends decided, that they would eat outside of the barracks for once, as though the guards of Pont received plenty of nutritious food, every now and then one would crave something that might not have been on the menu that day. Today was one such day, as they currently made their way towards a restaurant which specialized in fish.
“I tell you guys, I almost can't remember the last time I had a paradise trout, and I'm really starting to miss it.”, Corvo exclaimed wistfully, and Mira agreed.
“Yeah, I get you. The stuff from the canteen is good and all, but they really can't do fish well. Maybe it's because most of the food had to be preserved?”
“The lack of freshness when it comes to certain types of food truly makes me crave the food we got back at Rouclier.”, Eleonora added.
“Don't worry about the price either, Corvo and me are going to cover the tab today, right?”, Sean stated, and Corvo nodded.
“Yep, since Brom paid last time, it's only fair.”
“Why, thank ya laddies! Tho it be ta way of the Ardent Path ta give without expecting, I can't help but feel grateful ta see me kindness returned.”
“Anyway, Lieutenant Levy recommended the place, so I hope-”, Corvo explained, though he interrupted mid-sentence by a loud explosion.
Three more explosions followed, each seemingly at a different location, far apart from one another. Sensing that this could not be a coincident, Corvo and his friends immediately returned to the barracks. There, they found Captain Berengar and Lieutenant Rowe yelling out orders, as well as multiple guardsmen who could looked like they could barely stand for some reason.
“Oi, Cadets from Rouclier! Get over here!”, Rowe yelled out, and they immediately ran over to him to greet him with a military salute.
“You're still in uniform, perfect. Am I right to assume you dodged the canteen today to eat elsewhere?”
They affirmed his suspicions.
“Great. As you can see, most of the others were not so lucky. We have about 16 guards out of 150 who aren't currently puking their guts out due to whatever it is the cooks smuggled into the food, and they have their hands full finding out why four different houses in all four corners of the city suddenly exploded at the same time. Squire Galahad, inform the church and make them send their clerics here to detoxify as many guards as they can. The rest of you will guard the entrance to the jail-cells with me. I hope I'm wrong, but this smells like a jail-break attempt. It looks like the guys we caught might be more dangerous than we had thought at first.”
“Do not bother, mon ami, we are already out.”, a voice called out to them, stopping Rowe in his tracks.
All eyes were now drawn towards the bandits, who were standing in front of the entrance to the jail. They were covered in blood and armed to the teeth, with their leader, Damien, holding a knife in his left and something oval-shaped, which they could not recognize at this distance, in his hand right hand.
“Captain Berengar and Lieutenant Rowe of the Radiant Knights, I assume?”, he asked, as those he mentioned, as well as Corvo and his friends, drew their weapons and pointed them at him. The other guards followed suit, though most of them looked in no way ready to attack anything.
“I will take that as a yes! I am Damien épine, naught but a humble servant of foreign royalty. Do not mind us, we are merely here to settle a debt, and we will be on our way. Oh, before I forget! I have a little parting gift for you!”, he explained, before throwing the object in his right hand towards them.
Lieutenant Rowe caught the object, and his face contorted to a pained grimace as he recognized the face staring back at him.
“Damn it, Roy. I told ya to take the day off..shit!”, he hissed through gritted teeth as he dropped the head of his comrade to the floor.
The mocking laughter of Damien only fueled his anger, though before he could jump at him to avenge his comrade, he was held back by Berengar.
“ROWE! STAY PUT! His name was on the list! These guys are from Domitor! Don't act on your own!”, Berengar stated, which only seemed to amuse Damien more.
“It seems my infamy precedes me? How fun! Almost as fun as-”, he continued to ramble, but he was quickly shut up with a
“Apologies for acting without orders, sir, but I believe we cannot afford wasting any more time!”, Corvo commented on his action.
“We will have a talk about this later, Cadet Rhedi. All guards, lethal force is permitted, eliminate the threat immediately!”, Berengar yelled out orders, and sprang into action, followed by Rowe and the Cadets of Rouclier.
After having dealt with his burning clothes, Berlioz immediately tried to cast a support spell to strengthen his comrades. However, before he could even utter a word, his vision started to spin and his head sank to the floor, decapitated by Rowe. Berengar managed to kill two more in one strike, while Mira, Brom, and Eleonora each dealt with their own opponents, with Sean providing assistance, and Corvo going after Damien.
However, unlike Rowe and Berengar, the Cadets of Rouclier tried to incapacitate, not kill, leading to them struggling against their opponents. Seeing what they were doing, Berengar immediately started to yell at them as he struck down another Death-Row-Knight.
“What are you doing? Eliminate them!”
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Rowe, who had watched what was happening, almost jumped in to help them, but he was held back by Berengar.
“In one year, they will have to be able to cut down their opponent, no matter if it is a human or a monster. The sooner they are forced to take their first life, the better.”
His words rang true, but Rowe could not help but grit his teeth in annoyance.
“Yeah, I know. Still, if I see that they mess up, I will interfere immediately!”
The first to bring down his opponent was Mira, who pierced her opponent in the heart with her spear, before throwing the body out of her way. Her thoughts started to race and her hands started to tremble as she realized that she had just taken a life, though she managed to quickly calm herself with a few deep breaths, before looking around to see if her friends needed help.
Brom was engaged in combat against a tall man wielding a rapier, who had managed to get past his defenses a few times and slashed the dwarven paladin in the face and left arm. Hearing Berengar's order, he steeled his resolve and charged the attacker, who managed to get one more hit on his left shoulder, before being tackled to the floor. As soon as the man's back had hit the ground, Brom immediately jumped over him and brought his hammer down on his opponent's face. As the body still moved and the man tried to reach him with his rapier, Brom brought his hammer down twice more to make sure he would not rise again. After the deed was done, he slowly stepped back, before closing his eyes and speaking a prayer for the life he took to save his own.
Next was Eleonora, who had received multiple opportunities to kill her target, a bulky, muscular man wielding a club, though she could not bring herself to deliver the killing blow, and instead aimed for non-lethal spots. Coincidentally, this caused her to reveal the slave-crest on the man's chest, which all Death-Row-Knights had been afflicted with. The moment she noticed the mark, her entire body stopped out of shock. This turned out to be a fatal error which would have cost Eleonora her life, if it was not for Sean, who managed to stab the giant in his leg to distract him. Seeing Sean in danger ripped her out of her stupor, leading to her moving behind the attack and stabbing him through his back, piercing his heart in the process.
Meanwhile, Corvo had managed to trap Damien in a corner.
“Alright, I give up! You broke at least 2 of my ribs, and my men are dead. You won!”, Damien exclaimed, while throwing his arms up in surrender.
However, Corvo did not react to his surrender, but charged a spell instead.
“HEY! WAIT! I HAVE INFORMATION!”, Damien pleaded, but Corvo seemed adamant on finishing what he started, just as the others did.
“Cadet Rhedi! Stay put!”, Berengar suddenly called out to him from behind, causing Corvo to immediately stop his incantation. However, as Corvo stepped aside to let Berengar pass him and interrogate Damien, the teenager started to sprint towards him.
“HAH! JE T'AI EU!”, Damien mocked Corvo as he went for the kill, but Mira managed to prevent the attack by throwing her spear at him.
Damien parries the spear flying at him with his knife and rushes past Corvo to attack the weapon-less Mira instead.
“YOU DARE?”
As Damien's knife hurtled towards Mira, she guided the arm with the knife away from her with one arm, and tried to counter with a punch of her own. This was followed by Damien ducking under the punch and, using the momentum of his first attack, spun around to stab Mira in her thigh. Mira yelped as Damien pulled out the knife and tried to grab him, but he slipped part her and brought his knife to her throat while standing behind her.
“EVERYONE STOP OR I WILL CUT HER THROAT!”, he screamed as he grazed her skin with the knife, causing a small trail of blood to trickle down his knife.
Berengar and Rowe immediately stopped in their tracks after running towards them as soon as they noticed that Corvo had been tricked by the skill known as [Thrown Voice], which could mimic any voice one had heard and cause it to echo from somewhere nearby, though only in the exact cadence one had heard the words, making it easy to distinguish it from the real source, if one was perceptive.
“Yeah, good. Now, drop your weapons! And Captain Berengar, slowly walk towards me, both hands in the air! And no skills! If I see your aura shift even a little, this girl is going to bleed out before you can even get close to me!”
They did as they were told, and Berengar slowly walked towards Damien.
“STOP! Stay there!”, Damien shouted, as Berengar was deemed to be within his reach.
It was at this moment, as Damien lowered his knife by a bit, when the noise of a wooden staff knocking on the stone floor rang out. Damien turned around and could see a mass of purple energy make its way towards him at a frightening speed, causing him to freeze up. Seizing the moment, Berengar lunged forward and ripped the knife out of Damien's hand, before the
As Corvo and his friends ran towards Mira to check on her, Lieutenant Rowe checked on Damien, who seemed to still be breathing. A quick stab in his heart changed that.
Corvo and his friends started to panic as they saw that Mira had lost consciousness due to the blood-loss caused by the wound in her thigh. However, Brom managed to quickly close the wound with the help of a miracle, and, after a quick check of her vitals, assured that she would be okay after some rest.
With the immediate threat eliminated, Brom contacted the clerics of the Ardent Path to heal the poisoned guards, and the incident came to a close.
The next day, Mira woke up and was able to move again, much to the relief of Corvo and the others, though the healer in charge of treating the guards of Pont recommended she stayed in bed for a few more days.
On the day after Mira woke up, Corvo and his friends were called into Captain's office, where both Berengar and Rowe were waiting for them. As they stepped inside, Rowe motioned for them to sit on the couch in the room. Rowe could see that they tensed up as they sat down, causing him to start the conversation.
“First of all, this isn't a disciplinary meeting. None of you are in trouble. Consider this a simple debriefing after an arduous mission.”
This visibly reduced the tension in the Cadets, who released a breath they did not know they held. After Rowe, Berengar took the word.
“Let us start with what went wrong. To get the obvious out of the way: Hesitation in front of a threat can cost you dearly. Not wanting to kill your opponent, especially if you never took a life before, may seem like a natural reaction, but in this line of work, not every situation can be diffused through non-lethal means. If you see no way out but to take the life of an attacker, you should do so immediately.
This brings me to my next point, as I have made the same mistake for different reasons. I failed to assess the situation and refused to execute the perpetrators on the spot as soon as they had shown themselves to be bandits of some kind. I have sent my report of this incident to headquarters in Corazón and included a copy to be sent in our weekly report to Rouclier. I am currently awaiting disciplinary action, though I believe an apology to you is in order, as Cadet Adelaide was wounded in the confrontation with the Death-Row-Knights.”
Mira tried to speak up, but a hand gesture of Berengar caused her to stay silent.
“I know, injuries are a part of this line of work, but soldiers in training are not to be put into reckless danger. Please accept my apology.”
“I...of course, Sir!”, Mira answered.
“With that out of the way, please stand up, as due to the incident, we are going to move your evaluation at the end of your training-period forward to today. As they were your responsibility, Lieutenant, I give the word to you.”, Berengar stated, and motioned to Rowe to continue, as Corvo and his friends stood at attention.
“Certainly, Captain. As Captain Berengar mentioned, if you ever see yourself on the battlefield, one moment of hesitation can end your life, so keep that in mind. Other than that, Cadet Rhedi, I would like you to refrain from acting recklessly from now on, or rather, tone it down a bit.”
Rowe's words caused Corvo to deflate a bit.
“Your first attack may have turned the odds in our favour, but your last spell was a bit too close to turning the situation sour, in my opinion. If épine did not freeze up there, he might have used Cadet Adelaide as a shield against the spell, and used the confusion to take out the Captain as well...not that I'm implying that he could have taken you out, Captain.”
Berengar just sighed at the comment and motioned him to continue.
“Anyway, other than that, you guys did a pretty good job at dealing with the enemy. Your combat experience is a bit lacking, but that will sort itself out in no time.”
“Sir, thank you, Sir!”, the 5 answered in unison, causing Rowe to smirk, as they reminded him of his time as trainee. Having finished his evaluation, he motioned for Berengar to finish the debrief.
“Very well. Due to your contribution to solving this incident despite still being in training, you will receive two weeks of paid leave to recover. However, you are to keep up your training, you hear me?”
“Sir, yes, sir!”
“That will be all then. Dismissed!”
The rest of the year passed without larger incidents.
During their time as guards, Sean managed to improve his bard-skills by quite a bit, making him able to use more skills as well as shortening them to be used more quickly. He also received training in the use of pistols.
Brom managed to deepen his connection to the Ardent Path and increased the efficiency of his miracles. As soon as he returns to Viblan, he will be able to take the Vow of Order, which would turn him into a fully fledged paladin.
Eleonora managed to awaken aura-skills, and has learned how to use bow and arrows, as well as crossbows. The other guards also taught her how to track animals, and her survival skills improved greatly.
Mira fully recovered in after 4 days and went back to training immediately. At the end of their time as guards, her use of aura had improved to a point where she could keep using the [Aura-Armour] and [Aura-Weapon] skills simultaneously for 10 minutes without problems.
Corvo managed to learn all spells which Kassandra Lambert had tasked him to learn, among them
As their time in Pont came to an end, they bid farewell to the guards and made their journey back to Caelum via carriage.
In Caelum, they were given a week to assemble, before having to appear before Calros and the other instructors one last time.
“Cadets of Rouclier! From today on, you will no longer be treated as trainees, but as fully fledged soldiers! It both saddens me and fills me with pride to see all of you stand before me after we have shared the last 4 years providing you with the skills and knowledge needed to become part of Merdelum's Knights of the Red Sun. Even more-so, as not a single one of you was forced to drop out, be it out of injury or some other unfortunate circumstance. Though today should be a joyous occasion, I am forced to deliver you bad news as well.
Unlike our predictions, the war against Domitor has lasted for the entirety of your training at Rouclier. Thus, you are forced to continue working in service of the military for 6 more years. As you may know, we had originally planned to at least keep your team-compositions intact and let you finish your service as guardsmen, but recent developments have made this impossible.”
Calros' words caused unrest among the cadets standing in front of him, as well as among the families of the young soldiers. He could understand their feelings, but nevertheless decided to carry on without addressing their unrest.
“Though we have managed to keep you away from active battle-zones as you have just finished your training, you may see yourself be stationed in or near contested areas, as well as in foreign territory to help our allies. This will not be negotiable.”
This caused murmurs among the cadets and even shouts from angered spectators.
“SILENCE!”, Irene Karm yelled out as she smashed her right foot into the stone platform beneath her which started to crack on impact. Immediately, all noise ceased, as did all movement.
“Thank you, Lady Karm. After you receive your badge and rank, you will be given your deployment papers, and in one week's time, you will be sent to the location mentioned in the papers via carriage. With that out of the way, please follow your instructors to receive your badge. I hope to meet all of you back here in 6 years alive and well.
May the Light of Order guide you on the Ardent Path!”
After Calros concluded his final speech, the instructors of Rouclier each moved to a large table, which had been placed next to the large white platforms, on which badges and parchments had been placed, and before each instructor, a row of recruits formed shortly after.
As it was Corvo's turn to receive his badge, Kassandra Lambert handed him some books as well.
“Well Corvo, I guess that means I'm no longer your instructor, hm? You'd better not forget that I'm still your teacher though, despite me not teaching you in person from now on! And call me Kassandra from now on, alright? Unless we meet as soldiers, because I outrank you...anyway, don't think you can stop practising just because you are no longer in Rouclier! These are spell tomes with fire-magic, as well as rune-lists and some notes I made to guide you. Don't forget to write down stuff you discover so you won't forget it!”, she rambled on in her usual, absentminded way.
“Don't worry, Professor Lambert, next time we meet, I'm going to have mastered my magic, just you wait.”
“You'd better! Make sure to come back once the war's over, okay?”, Lambert said as she ruffled his hair.
“Of course.”
Thus ended Corvo's time at Rouclier.
On the day before they would leave Caelum, the 5 members of Team 6 met one last time in their favourite ice-cream parlour together with Team 4, as Martin Crevier and his friends had been accepted into their friend group as well.
Together, the two teams promised to meet again in Caelum once the war was over, before each going their separate way.
Random Notes