I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 61: Monotonous

Chapter 61: Monotonous

Monotonous was the only thing Irene could use to describe how the winter had panned out for her.

While inactivity was normal for anyone in that region during the snowy months, she hadn’t considered just how bleak it could feel to attend to the same schedule every single day. She would wake up motivated but finish the day tired as if she was going into hibernation like one of the monsters lying in wait in the forest.

At least when she was at home with her brother, Arne, she would have someone to chase around and bother the maids and her parents until they were forced to separate them. She never thought she would bitterly miss those days, but it was creeping up on her.

While Felix and Leif were her friends, the only time they could get up to mischief was when they were attending practices in the icy mornings and trying not to freeze off their fingertips.

So far, there had been a few mornings when they had to cancel practice because the ground was too frozen and too slippery to even walk on at all. Those days, the one thing she looked forward to was taken away and she realized just how much she relied on it.

Eventually, those with indoor duties had to switch with the others for outdoor duties and more excitement was introduced into their lives. However, it also introduced the very real need to figure out how to survive in such a bitter cold.

Only with double gloves on did Irene feel like her fingers weren’t going to fall off. It inhibited her finer movements a little bit but she felt it was worth it to not succumb to frostbite.

She also felt a bit of happiness as she saw Sorrel getting fatter for the winter just as she had promised him after the journey they endured during the monster culling trip. One of the first worries she had after being injured was where her horse was and how it was doing. It turned out that Sir Sven, who she was less familiar with, tied Sorrel’s reins to his horse’s and he brought the horse down.

While they were allowed to run their horses once a week even in winter, she had been begging the other apprentices to give him sweet oats whenever possible. The stagnant nature of his life at that time was certainly what was making it easy to gain weight.

Other horses were having a similar outcome so she didn’t feel all that bad that her horse had packed on a few pounds.

"They said we can take out our horses, can’t we?" Irene asked Leif as he raked some new hay into one of the stalls.

She had been working alongside him but her rake had long since gone stagnant as she thought about other things.

"We need to finish all of the stalls first," Leif said. "But I’m not trying to move quickly, at the moment. What else are we supposed to do for the weeks we’ll be on this duty? Might as well stretch it out for as long as we possibly can."

"You have a point," Irene admitted begrudgingly. "Have you been feeling as bored as I am?"

Leif was the more responsible of the two and continued working while he talked.

"This is only my second winter, but I know that every year is like this," he explained. "You’ll get used to it. I would rather no excitement than unprecedented monsters."

She sighed and continued working. He had a point even if she didn’t want to admit it.

True to Leif’s word, he continued working slowly and Irene matched his slow pace. They would even brush the horses before they would put them back in their pens.

After an entire day, they had only done one side of the stables. It took all of the next day to do the other side.

Only then were they allowed to start taking the horses out for a lap and Irene found something else to look forward to.

One lap around the Duke’s property. That’s all they were allowed to do. It was enough to make her feel alive again.

Even though the girl had to put a scarf over her face or she thought her nose and lips might fall off, it was so freeing being able to ride a horse.

They didn’t have to carve out a new path since the previous apprentices with outdoor duties had already made a place for them to run.

Around the front of the tower, up the northeastern wing, behind the barracks, around a few more buildings further along the edge of the property line, and then back to the stable. All in all, it took about ten minutes and she didn’t make the animals go very quickly. Again, she took Leif’s advice and moved slowly since there wasn’t much else that they could do.

The stables, compared to the usual nearly forty horses that were normally there, were reduced down to about twenty with only the apprentices, a couple of knights, and the Duke’s entourage to worry about. Riding didn’t last as long as Irene would have liked, but as she neared the end of the path with one of the last horses, Sir Gunnar appeared out of nowhere with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Pull out your bow and line up a shot," he ordered.

Irene’s leaned back into the saddle so that the horse would slow but Sir Gunnar’s expression changed.

"Don’t slow the horse," he continued. "Keep up the speed and line up a shot."

While squeezing her knees to keep the horse moving forward, Irene did attempt to do what he asked her. She nearly fell off the animal while trying to multitask in such a way.

When she finally met the man, he pulled on the horse’s reins to get it to stop beside him. Irene nearly fell off but Gunnar reached out to stabilize her on the horse.

"You’ve ever wondered why knights are trained to ride the way they do?" he asked her. "We’re meant to carry a shield or bow, depending on where you have been assigned to stay during battle or competition. It seems we’ve found something you’re quite bad at. I look forward to you getting better at multitasking on the back of the horse this upcoming season."

His eyes crinkled as he smirked at her.

There was something else to be excited about other than the snow melting.