I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 106: New Fear Unlocked

Chapter 106: New Fear Unlocked

Whenever Sir Gunnar thought he had tapped out on things to fear, he was faced with a new twist in his life that made him realize he was never done learning. Such was the life of a knight.

"Don’t follow me just yet," he ordered the two apprentices.

The knight was the first to dare climb up over the trail that was partially blocked by a rockslide. He could feel himself holding his breath as he went over because if he slipped on the loose rocks, there were hundreds of feet of drop on the other side. When rocks slid from where he stepped, he would pause for a moment before being forced to press on.

However, that wasn’t what he was so scared of.

He wanted to go first because he had a long, thick rope in his pack. He could hold onto it so that if one of the apprentices started to slip, he would be able to rescue them as long as they could hold onto the other side until they could be saved.

Felix insisted that Irene go before him and he dutifully waited for the younger apprentice to go, making sure that if she fell, she wouldn’t fall towards him and he could catch her from that side if it ended up being like that.

Irene’s anxieties became worse as she watched Sir Gunnar crawl up the mountain slowly but surely. Since his weight didn’t disturb the rocks too much, she tried to convince herself that hers wouldn’t either.

"Are you ready, Iro?" Gunnar called to Irene.

He could read the fear on the child’s face, but that had never mattered in the past.

She wiped the expression away even if it was how she was truly feeling. Then she nodded at the knight and held out her hands as if to tell him to throw the rope that he had pulled out of his pack.

The knight complied and tossed the rope.

Irene caught it on the first try.

She let out a sigh and crouched down so that her hands were guiding her up the steep mountain face.

"You’ve got this," Felix muttered quietly, just loud enough for her to hear.

He was motivating when it mattered. She always appreciated that about the jokester even if he was a pain most other times.

He wasn’t likely to bother someone when it came to fear because he had plenty of fears on his own. She found that out on the night they couldn’t sleep and instead went to the kitchen for bread so they had others to be around while going through something tough.

The girl crawled forward slowly, feeling the rocks for ones that seemed heavier and less likely to move. Unfortunately, it being evening meant that she couldn’t see finer details and was having to feel for a place to climb rather than see it.

A few times she had to pause as some rocks clattered away from her feet. Each time the ground underneath her shifted, she felt her heart race and the urge to escape struck her, but she knew it was bad to scramble or she might risk covering Felix with rocks.

No matter what, Gunnar would rescue her because she had the rope in her hands.

When her boots finally met solid ground, she let out a sigh of relief and collapsed onto her knees for a moment.

"You alright?" Gunnar wondered.

"A bit scary is all," Irene muttered.

The man chuckled lightly in understanding. If the girl’s heart was racing, she wasn’t the only one. His expression became more serious as he looked down at the final apprentice left at the bottom of the rockslide.

"Are you ready, Felix?" he asked.

"Never been more ready, sir," Felix called back. "What, like it’s scary? Please."

He scoffed and shook his head which caused Irene to turn on the trail and glare at him. He was clearly pushing her buttons because she was unable to hide how much it terrified her.

The apprentice was thrown the rope and, like Irene, he caught it the very first time with a confident grip. He then crouched down and placed his hands on the ground as he started crawling up the stones very carefully, knowing he weighed quite a bit more than Irene who only disturbed a few stones on her way up.

While he was confident in himself, he had considered all the unpredictability possible in what they were doing.

No matter how careful Felix was, he had to stop each time he felt his feet or hands start to slide. There was no denying that the feeling of the ground slipping was terrifying. Irene hadn’t exaggerated, it turned out.

Meanwhile, Irene watched Felix climb up practically holding her breath so she wouldn’t overreact at each point where his feet started to slide. There was truly nothing she could do if something happened. That meant she had to trust Gunnar to guide him up if anything happened.

The apprentice kept climbing slowly and as he put his left foot on a particular stone, he began to slide and his eyes cast upward to the two waiting for him. On his face was an expression of true fear that Irene had seen her father wear when he was falling off of the ogre. It turned out so badly for him that her heart felt like it stopped.

"Felix!" Irene cried.

"Christ!" Gunnar shouted simultaneously with the younger apprentice.

It felt awful to not be able to aid him more than they were already.

As he slid downwards, his hand couldn’t catch the rope, but when there was about two feet of rope left, he finally controlled his grip and stopped himself from going any further.

When he finally stopped, Felix’s shoulders heaved as he calmed himself down from the intense fear he had experienced. He was no longer in a joking mood when he finally made it to the solid ground. There he collapsed for a moment and placed his hands on his head in disbelief.

Death always loomed around them, but sometimes it was closer than expected.

To Felix’s surprise, Irene was unable to hold back and she placed a hand on his shoulder. Really she wished she could hug him after giving her such a scare, but she managed to hold back all she was feeling.

Gunnar’s hands shook as he gathered the rope and put it back in his pack.

"Never scare me like that again, Felix," he muttered.