I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 110: No More Fire

Chapter 110: No More Fire

The travelers drifted slowly forward toward the smoke.

Before Irene could keep walking, she was shocked to feel Leif grab her arm.

"Weren’t you the one who said that smoke will kill you?" he asked urgently.

"I don’t think there’s anything left," she admitted. "It’s best to try and see what happened. If perhaps someone did this on purpose or, I’m not sure..."

The closer she got, the stench was worse but she didn’t see any visible sign of the poison. It didn’t help that the darkness had settled and so the smoke rising didn’t have a particular color only that it was rising in the first place.

It was a shame that the only real light source they had was the orange ashes of what was left over. It didn’t give off much light.

"What does this mean?" Irene wondered when she was at Sir Gunnar’s side. "An accident? On purpose?"

Sir Gunnar was quiet for a long time.

It was such a shame that a cabin he had been using his entire career as a knight was suddenly in ashes and they would never be able to use it again on the winterization trip. He had many memories on those mountains. It seemed that this would just be one of them.

"I’m not sure of the state of it before," the knight admitted. "Perhaps it was burning before but we didn’t realize. It seemed that the chimney was shut so we wouldn’t have seen it anyway. There isn’t much we can do about it. Wasting our water on it wouldn’t be advisable, but it could perhaps catch the surroundings on fire if a spark catches wind."

Sir Sven approached the two.

"Burying it with dirt seems the only option now," the knight admitted. "Shall we get started before it takes up all of our trip down?"

They had already been going down the summit for a few hours and it was certainly faster than the night before but it still wasn’t preferred to have to camp in the forests below one more time.

Sir Gunnar nodded before he turned to the others.

"Sir Sven is right," he agreed. "Let’s bury what we can and move along quickly."

Irene had an idea and she took a bowl out of her pack so that she could get piles of dirt from deeper in the forest. Since the grasses were still green, there was a bit of moisture left over.

The others followed her lead and she felt a bit proud to have thought of something like that.

On the other hand, Sir Gunnar became a bit more brave and he started stomping out some of the edges of the fire whenever he could. Since the cabin was sat atop a solid brick and stone foundation, there was little risk of it collapsing underneath him.

Nearly an hour later and plenty of sweat shed, they were satisfied with the outcome of their efforts.

All of them cleaned off their bowls and back onto the trail they went, their path getting darker as they started to approach the trees.

The group made it to their horses next and Irene was sure to wrap her arms snugly around Sorrel’s neck. He shook out his mane and huffed as if telling her he was over having to sleep outdoors.

"Just like last year, I’ll let you get fat this winter," she uttered to the horse with a grin. "Our work is almost finished."

"Not until after you escort the Royal Family," Sir Gunnar gently reminded.

Irene acknowledged him with a grin. "Of course."

Traveling on horseback after using their legs to climb mountains was such a relief and gave them a bit of a break. It helped them wake up when they began feeling tired, but what woke them up most was getting back to the body they had buried before.

They had nearly forgotten that it was one of their duties, but Sir Gunnar was sure to never forget something like that.

As carefully as the man could, he brought out a canvas bag from his saddlebags and they all participated in the horrible act of trying to put a body in a bag as it crumbled apart due to decay. Gunnar put everything that might be useful for someone to identify the body, but otherwise, they were going to have to cremate the body in hopes that it was never taken advantage of by the necromancers of that season.

The knight took the duty of carrying the body behind him and Irene felt grateful for him because she certainly didn’t want to do such a thing by herself.

Relief set in when the forest became more sparse in parts and they were finally able to see the Duke’s Tower as the earliest signs of morning started peeking out over the valley. It wasn’t as beautiful of a sunrise as the previous one, but being lower meant that a more comfortable slumber was ahead of them.

Irene breathed a sigh of relief as they got onto the foothills and she threw her head back gleefully as a breeze pulled off her hood. She didn’t bother fixing it because it felt invigorating to be down in the plains, having successfully completed a monster culling winterization for the first time.

When they arrived, there were squires already there to help them with their horses. The travel party was permitted to take baths and get into fresh clothing before they would attend breakfast and fill their stomachs before going to bed.

Irene waited outside of the barracks for Felix and Leif. When they were all together, they seemed a bit lighter in their step as they headed towards the dining hall.

Irene wanted to see her father badly, but she didn’t know where in his schedule he was or if he was as nocturnal as they were.

Figuring she would see him at breakfast at some point, she kept going towards the dining hall.

She thought that nothing could keep her from filling her stomach, but a voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Where in God’s name is Arthur?" a voice screamed through the hallways.

It was a voice she hadn’t heard in a while but one she would recognize anywhere.

The girl’s eyes widened in horror and she ran back down the hallway, witnessing her mother coming through the front of the Duke’s Tower with a sheepish knight following her as well as Arne. Both the knight and Arne looked like dogs who were in trouble with their tails between their legs.

When green eyes much like Irene’s landed on her, Rochelle shouted, "Ir—!"

Luckily, Arthur made it in the nick of time and his remaining large hand covered his wife’s mouth or something unsavory could be revealed that day. After all, Leif and Felix had followed Irene to the end of that hallway to witness what was unfolding.

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