The heads at each table

It was morning, a day after the bloodbath that took place out on that training ground. The morale of my men has recovered substantially thanks to the performance of Conrad, though it still doesn’t remove this sense of shame I feel. I felt guilty enough for leading my men to their deaths, and now here I am placing my resentments and past on an innocent young man. I once prayed to the souls of my men that they wouldn’t hate me for my failings as a captain, but after this there’s no way I’ll be able to greet them on the other side. That’s enough about me and my men, the most alarming change has to be in the knights of the border patrol.

Ever since they watched their leader get beaten in front of them, they’ve been on their hands and knees trying to please us. The most shocking surprise was watching them accept training under our supervision, even some of their higher-ups joined. Despite the training starting today my men aren’t cutting any corners, perhaps they wanted these slackers to taste a bit of the hell they’ve been through. Makes sense considering the fact that the learning curriculum of Soleil direct knights is far more intense than that of frontier certified knights. What’s even more surprising is that Prince Aeos decided to joined their training, perhaps seeing Conrad’s efforts was the wake up call he needed. Speaking of, then there’s the matter of Conrad.

An hour or so ago, he and his squad left. Behind him was a platoon made up of 50 of the border patrol’s knights. I told Conrad to be careful out there, and reminded him that his squad was his responsibility. Conrad smiled and told me I had nothing to fear, although he seemed to be in a hurry. It also appeared that he had a new sword in his sheath, makes sense since his original sword broke. After saying our farewells, Conrad made his way back into the Lenore forest with his platoon behind him.

I thought he would be wallowing in despair, but instead the boy moves forward. He might’ve been wrong about what he said, if he carries himself like this, he may still succeed me as the leader of the Gray Scabbards. Seeing this gives me hope, right when I felt that my knights were withering away, my knights are slowly returning to form and growing at that. They’ve taken the pain of their loss and used it to better themselves, looking at it like that our hardships can be seen as pruning us for the better. Although, I’ll never thank those bandits for what they’ve done. I now sit here with a glass of warm tea in my hand, finalizing my letter to the king. The letter acts as both a report of our secret mission, and a status update about the situation here. I can only hope that his majesty hasn’t waited too long, especially with his son being on these front lines with us. Despite that, I have nothing but hope for the future for me and my men.

I looked into my tea glass, and see my reflection on the tea’s surface. I see a man who’s refined and prepared for the future’s challenges, not the unkempt man I was trying to hide from my men. I raise my glass as a toast to my fallen comrades spirits, and I drink. With this there’s only one thing to say.

“My old battle is over, I can leave that in the hands of the future generation.”

****

On the same day the knights began to enter the forest, The Mountain Moes were on high alert. Traps were being prepared, patrols were set for incoming enemies, and equipment was being forged in a hurry in preparation for the bloody onslaught. Everyone was working themselves haggard just to have the chance to survive. Rich hid himself away in his room, he had two barrels of booze in there so he was probably drinking himself into a stupor. As for Joffry and Moe, those two were focused on a different task entirely.

****

““CHEERS!!!””

I clicked glasses with my right hand man and downed my whiskey in one go. I couldn’t help but laugh at these idiots for trying so hard, even Reginald and Rich could tell the outcome.

“Man, I knew people could be morons but this is just hysterical!”

“My thoughts exactly Joffry! Especially Latrine Boy! The fool has no idea he’s been played, it’s that lack of common sense that makes me treat him like a boy and not a man! At least with this, he won’t survive!”

I responded with a cheerful look as I spoke to the person I considered my true right hand. However Joffry stopped laughing for a moment and looked at me seriously, he then asked me a question.

“Tell me Moe, you won’t discard me like them right? This loyalty we share with one another, our brotherhood is real, it will continue for the future correct?”

“If it weren’t for these booze, your words would wound me! Of course our brotherhood will go untarnished Joffry, you’re the only person I could never betray!”

“Excellent! To our continued partnership brother!”

His expression changed back to the usual jolliness he portrays, and we continued to drink. Of course, I was lying through my teeth. If the time ever comes where Joffry’s sword fails to reach its mark, that will also be the day I abandon him. He’s lucky I lost Reginald’s steel, if it weren’t for that I would be cutting my losses sooner. For now let’s focus on the task at hand, getting rid of that unlucky bastard Thief!

My culling plan was perfect, let our undesirables get purged and then continue on with the rest of our obedient followers. Then Reginald just had to catch onto what I was planning and force my hand, however I had a feeling the Kingdom of Soleil wasn’t gonna play around and they would send one of their best squads to handle the situation. It’s true that I sent Jasmine and Rat, some of our fastest runners, out to help our guys escape. However, it would be in vain if they raid team was already dead. All I needed to do was wait for those two to return and inform us that the raid team was wiped out, however that didn’t happen. Not only did some of the raid team survive, but also the members I wanted gone the most as well. All thanks to the intervention of that meddlesome Thief, he even survived dealing with the teams pursuers.

I originally thought that Thief was useless, but now he’s becoming a problem. Now I don’t just have Steve to worry about as far as mutiny goes, but also I have to worry about the growing faction for Thief. What’s worse, since Thief and Steve and friends, their factions can be considered allies. My downfall as leader is approaching, if those boobs don’t die here then it’s my own neck that’ll be flying one day. However the chances of this failing are slim to none, there’s no way they’ll survive the attacking knights. Even is they survive the first wave, the king won’t take that lying down. As an added bonus once me and my chosen make it out the fort, we have a little surprise planned. Can’t have a festival without fireworks, you know! That said, cheers to me and being rid of my annoyances soon. As I tools another toast, Joffrey continued our discussion.

“So boss, who’re we taking along with us?”

“Good question, let’s take a look…”

****

And so Moe and Joffry continued to drink and plan into the night, laughing at how their followers didn’t even foresee their coming betrayal. However, what they didn’t notice was that their words fell on the ears of a silent maiden. A maiden covered in bandages.