I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 85: Obedience

Chapter 85: Obedience

For a while, Irene’s focus was on becoming suitably adaptable so that she could take on whatever was handed her in the knighthood and not crumble under pressure. However, it seemed that her focus had changed because, as they went on with the winterization, she found that the next trial was obedience.

Their tasks through each village, township, or simply a random group of houses placed in the middle of nowhere required them to check in with the reeves or leaders in each location. Best case scenario, the leader would walk the knight and apprentices around the area and show that they were well-stocked for the winter then they would be on their way.

More times than not, however, they had to lend a hand in helping the villagers with tasks that seemed menial but added up to their preparedness for winter. Only when the tasks were nearly complete did they move on to the next location.

Rather than it being simple knight training, it felt like they were training to be a ranked knight or even the Duke or Duchess themselves considering this wasn’t normally the job of a regular knight. In the years past, the Duke would lead the charge and bring most of the knights and apprentices with him to do the footwork.

Considering Irene was aiming for not only greatness but being the greatest, she decided to follow orders and do everything that was set out for her. While it was unlikely she would ever reach higher than the noble status she already carried because of her father, having a chivalrous reputation was also important. She decided to stress that point more than anything else.

Well into their winterization tour, they were working with a reeve who had quite an expansive list of things he needed them to help with.

Since Irene was practicing obedience, she decided to keep to herself that it seemed the reeve was anticipating the arrival of knights and waiting for them so he wouldn’t have to lift a finger. At one point, her eyes met Leif’s and she knew that he was thinking much of the same.

With the high amount of things to do, the four travelers had to split off from one another and attend to various tasks on their own. They would get things done more quickly if they weren’t there to distract each other. That had remained a common theme between the apprentices who could find something fun no matter where they were or what they were up to.

Gunnar was, unfortunately, well attuned to their habits both bad and good. Very little slipped by the man.

Irene was delivering grains to various houses that lacked supplies. She had been guiding a mule forward down the dirt paths throughout the village. Despite the days that were slowly but surely cooling down, she was breaking a sweat. She could only hold one bag of grain over her shoulders and would drop it off at the front door of the houses she had a list of, but she was tenacious enough to keep moving and not slow down.

There were only a couple of bags left and she made it all the way to the opposite edge of the village from where their food stores were.

Rather than walking alongside the mule, she decided she would sit in the wagon that time and she slapped the animal’s backside from where she sat.

The animal moved forward quickly, almost eagerly. She then realized that, despite one of the walls surrounding the township quickly approaching, the mule wasn’t slowing as much as she would have hoped.

In a panic, the girl leaped out of the wagon and onto the mule’s back. She pulled the reins in its mouth, but what ultimately stopped it was Felix jumping off of the wall and onto the mule, just behind Irene. His sudden weight on the animal was enough to stop it short and he relaxed with a heavy sigh.

"What the hell are you thinking?" he uttered from behind her before pushing himself off of the tall animal. "If Sir Gunnar saw you..."

Irene glared at the older apprentice.

"What are you going to do? Tell him?" she asked, accusatorily.

Fortunately, she had an even bigger secret over him so he returned the glare but didn’t indicate that he was trying to press forward at all.

"Actually—"

"Hold on," Irene interrupted. "What on Earth is that smell?"

It smelled like fresh manure but they weren’t anywhere near stables.

"That’s what I was going to retrieve you for," Felix was finally able to continue. He slapped the wall they stood beside. "Turns out this wall holds off snow drifts from taking over the town considering the expansive plains just off of it. Since it bears quite a bit of load, it can’t have any cracks on it. You know what we fortify it with?"

"Is that...?"

"Shit!" Felix exclaimed too gleefully, in Irene’s opinion. "You could have been a spoiled noble staying inside during this season but because you decided to join the likes of us, now you’re getting to play with shit."

The apprentice clapped his hands together gleefully and it got worse when Irene glared at him. He had been irritating her more than usual the entire trip. It seemed to just be his personality.

"Go get a shovel so you can mix it with hay and water from the buckets. We need to make a strong paste that will dry quickly before there is any snowfall."

Obedience, she reminded herself.

That wasn’t even the first time she experienced something so unusual during the winterization. There was a village that brought farm animals indoors so that there would be more body heat to keep their places warm. Another one lay down straw for insulation and she had to chase out rats who were building a nest. At one point, she and Leif even learned how to thatch a roof.

At the end of the journey, she would be able to finally see her father after not seeing him for months. His latest letter said that her grandmother was at least stable so she felt a bit of relief from that.

For miles, all the apprentices could think about was a warm bath provided by one of the maids and a supper that finally filled their stomachs the way they hadn’t been filled in the months they had been on the trail. The closer the Duke’s Tower got, the more they thought of being quiet and still for the winter.

Since it was early evening, the autumn sun was low in the sky and the promise of a comfortable bed that night seemed close enough to touch.

Irene never thought she would miss the stillness. Well, stillness until the Royal Family would arrive and then they would be tasked with escorting such high profile people.

However, as the group got closer to the tower from the west, they were confused to see knights standing outside of the tower entirely clad in armor and organizing themselves to take off.

Sir Gunnar rode a bit faster and he took off his helmet entirely when he was in front of the men.

"What is going on?" he asked.

Sir Sven could only explain as he moved, loading saddlebags onto his horse and putting arrows in his sheath. He even approached Irene without asking and pulled her sheath downwards so he could fill her sheath as well.

"Sir Arthur’s travel party is completely surrounded by monsters. We must go. We have already lost two knights and an apprentice."