Ryle 5

“Why so diligent, Ryle? Nobody in the camps here exercises as much as you do. It’s not like the monsters are gonna kill you for your lack of muscles or something,” Gilbert asks.

“…”

I keep swinging the blade.

“Hey, that seems impressive.”

Not enough, I still need to do a lot more.

“Hey, that’s a lot… alright now you are done with that… Hah? Are you gonna run a round around the region? Not that I’m saying you shouldn’t exercise too much, but you aren’t afraid of the fireballs?”

“If I were afraid of them, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. A soldier's obligation is to be fearless to protect his own country.”

“Fireballs could hit randomly, it’s just recklessness speaking like you.”

I shrug him off. What I can handle during a battle should be much much more than that. A dragon’s fireball flying toward me shouldn’t be an issue, if I could muster enough speed to dodge it. Just because nobody has ever managed to do so doesn’t make it an excuse for me.

The lines of troops keep advancing. Supply lines proceed behind, led by people of the Western region. If you don’t fight in the Western region, you just never see how the people and the army can fight alongside that intimately like this. I look toward the crowd of youthful men and women who are singing some songs in cheering for the soldiers.

A huge contrast to life in the capital, where there’s a separation between the army and the people. People there mostly join it for career advancement after all, those in the capital don’t seem to love being sent over here.

“Ryle, the royal court wants to see you.”

“Is it urgent? I’m in a campaign right now.”

“It’s the Queen.”

“…Alright then…”

A lot of the knights gather inside the palace back in the capital. I stand by the side of the other knights. I can see Paul standing right by the side of Levenbar and Audiever at the topmost line. They are the top knights of the kingdom after all.

In contrast, I stand almost at the bottom line. “Why do I have to stand beside this common knight though?” some of them whisper as they give me some quick glances.

“Don’t pay any heed to them, Ryle,” Gilbert says, “we know how much you have done for the country. Even though… well, it’s hard to get recognition when you come from a common background yourself.”

Half-true, my dad used to be a high-ranking official. That doesn’t mean anything after I was born however. At least we were still affluent enough. Not enough to stop him from venting his frustrations upon me though.

“You three have done a really good job recently, especially you, Paul. Without you, our troops wouldn’t have conquered half of the monster realm like we did now. Come forward, and take this highest order of merit.”

Levenbar and Audiever pat Paul’s shoulders. He receives the badge from the hand of the Queen, their hands touched in a very intimate way.

My eyes get drowsy. “This sure is boring,” Gilbert comments, “some of them deserve the orders, some don’t, but still get them anyway.” The list of names keeps getting recited. “Some still do, but have a much inflated order more than how well they contributed during the war,” he looks at Paul.

Then I hear my name. I come forward and hold out my hands, respectfully.

“Thank you for your service,” the Queen coldly says, before dropping the badge onto my hands. Her expression shows nothing when she looks at me. I return to my line.

“Hey, you finally got an order badge. Better than nothing, even though I would say you deserve more than that.”

“Thank you, Gilbert.”

“So… I guess it must feel bad serving your childhood friend with all your heart, just to gets ignored by her huh?”

“As long as it is for her… I don’t mind.”

“Given Paul’s status in the kingdom right now, he seems to be the prime candidate as a potential King right now, if your childhood friend decided to marry him.”

“Don’t call the Queen like that.”

How do you judge if a certain knight deserves an order or not? I wonder as I roam around the demon realm. If we disqualify people by the bad conducts they did… a lot of these people who have been frequenting the ‘place’ shouldn’t be given it at all. Yet they still do.

“Release me! You are gonna get arrested for this!!”

“Young girl, you think people care about what we do during a war? I think you shouldn’t resist us this hard. I mean, at some point in your life you will have to be-“ I hit those soldiers with the scabbard of my sword, “Who the hell are you? …Ryle huh? A low-ranking knight like you… you think you can get away with doing this? Just wait!” they point at me, then leave the scene.

“Ryle… wait a minute!” she tugs on my shirt. “Long time no see…”

I look at Roselyn.

“Same.”

“Thank you for saving me.”

“Why are you even wandering here though?”

“I just decided to become a military officer. Cute uniform, isn’t it?” she turns around.

“A military officer who almost got into the- nevermind…” I sigh.

“I almost told them they were gonna get into trouble for touching somebody like me anyway.”

A line of troops bringing a guy with them toward the capital.

“You know anybody there?” Roselyn looks toward the line of troops.

“Sort of. Not really friendly though.”

Although to be fair, it has never been any easy to work with fellow knights. Having said, that guy when we first met made it very clear how he looked down on me for being a low-ranking knight, despite being one himself. It’s not really a surprise that he got into some trouble, given the defiant and upfront personality.

But still, he’s a really upright guy. And has been one of those few people who strived the hardest during the wars. I can count 3 campaigns whose credits were given to some others, even though he played a large part.

“Ryle has really changed a lot hmm?” Roselyn looks at my face. “You used to look much more adorable than you do now.”

I close my eyes.

“Still, what a surprise that Regina turned out to be the Princess of the kingdom. Although, she’s the Queen now. I still remember people’s faces when we were in school and heard the news. ‘First time the Princess ever appeared to the people’. People surrounding the palace were cheering loudly. Not sure because she was cute or because of how encouraging her words sounded, ‘I shall devote myself to serve the beloved people of my kingdom, have trust on me’. I still remember it.”

“…”

“Knowing Ryle, you must be serving in the frontlines, all for her right?”

“…”

“You two haven’t talked to each other, ever since graduation, right?”

“She did praise my service some days ago.”

“…say, what are you gonna do after the war?”

“It’s not ending soon.”

“But what if it does?”

“Find something else to do. I don’t know.”

The military court summoned me for some certain ruckus few days ago. According to the official version, I was the one who suddenly assaulted the soldiers for no reason at all. They decided 2 weeks in jail should be enough for me. Then somebody comes into the courtroom, and whispers something to the judge. The judge nods, then says to me.

“So well… this case has come to the ears of the Queen. I don’t know why but… she seems to have decided to look into the files of this case… and… she has decided to intervene.”

He proceeds.

“So now, your sentence will be a month now, since she wants to make sure the punishment is harsh enough, to deter people from committing the same crime again. Are you listening?”

“Yeah.”

I keep having dreams. Sometimes of the past when I was playing around with the Queen. Sometimes of the war.

Winter. Spring. Summer. Autumn. I have gone through so many seasons.

It would be a lie, if after each of the cycle, I didn’t raise my head in expectation, that the Queen shall recognize… my sacrifices. No, not my sacrifices, which don’t amount to much anyway… but my existence.

I want to hear her saying my name, one last time.

I wonder… if I can survive, this war.

“Come on! Run faster! You are not catching up to me at this rate!” her frolicking noises fill me with happiness.

“…Regina.”

I feel bad at myself, calling the name of the Queen, after waking up.

A month later. I return to the battlefield. The dragons keep bombarding us with fireballs after fireballs. “Why can’t we ask for some magicians to eliminate them?” somebody asks, “Because they are valuable, and we are not,” somebody responds.

There are cases where people absolutely need a brigade of magicians of course. When the dragons happen to be so many, or they are too tough. In such cases, some sacrifices of the magicians are absolutely needed.

The dragons fight during the day, rest at night. We advance during the night, and surround them while they are half-awake. But awake or sleeping, it’s much easier to deal with a dragon in close combat. Even though they can still fight back, the casualty is still lower.

“That’s the end of this campaign,” Gilbert wipes the blood on his face, “gonna have our fighting credits taken away by somebody else huh?”

“You say that, but maybe they are leading a lot behind the scenes.”

“As far as I can see, I only see them giving out ridiculous orders, and tell us to accomplish. If we fail them, we get punished. Although still not as bad as that young guy over there,” Gilbert points at Rick, who has been locked into a cage for longer than I got jailed. I first saw him being accompanied by some troops maybe more than a month ago.

I approach the cage, break the lock.

“You are getting yourself into another trouble, at this rate,” Gilbert comments.

“I’m used to it,” I give Rick some civilian clothes. “Well, guess I’m not seeing you around here now,” Gilbert comments.

Rick sighs, his face seems unsure, “Thank you I guess.”

Gilbert continues, “Still wanna fight around here? The main campaign is gonna end soon. Maybe run somewhere, and they are gonna forget about you, so you can fight in the next campaign.”

Rick quickly hits me with a punch, to which I dodged in time, and another kick of his. He comments, “You have grown a lot, first time we met you couldn’t even handle two of mine light sword hits.”

“This isn’t a way to gauge growth. And besides, I didn’t find your attacks painful back then. I just felt… disrespected.”

Rick shines a brotherly smile, “See you,” he taps my shoulder, then disappears into the darkness, as the snow keeps falling endlessly.

I must have reached the palace much sooner than expected. I see Paul and the Queen standing shoulder to shoulder, looking through the windows. She smiles a lot, until she sees me. Time passes, the knights have all gathered. She proceeds to talk about the agenda.

So… the last campaign is here.

Finally.

I remember the smiling faces people in Western region had, when I passed through the region on the way back to the capital. Perhaps, the border being pushed way deeper toward the headquarter of the demon realm makes life much easier for the humans here to live.

“Your highness, according to some reports, Paul had been attending some… during the war.”

Such a scandalous report shocked the entire palace.

“Is that true, Paul?”

“Yeah…” he sheepishly admits, then proceeds to make a lengthy excuse. The crowd gets fed up with the nonsense he’s spouting, and boos him repeatedly.

“Alright, that’s a sorry thing to say. Judging by all the contributions Paul has given to the kingdom during the war, I think we should forgive him for some certain misdeeds he may have committed. This isn’t to say he did nothing wrong there, what he did was unbecoming of a knight.”

With all that said, Paul receives no punishment.

I, on the other hand, get jailed again for a lot of built up failures (as reported by the officers, however). It’s 6 months this time.

“…”

Somebody throws me a key at night.

“Once you got out of here, consider yourself an ordinary person, not a knight anymore.”

“Is this an order, your highness?”

She still turns her back to me. Then, she prepares to leave.

“Can I at least hear you calling my name for one last time, Regina?”

“…don’t call me by my name…” she says in a strange voice before leaving.

Snow fall endlessly. I make my way toward some place, I haven’t even managed to decide yet.

…

..

.

To the surprise of the kingdom, the monsters in the headquarters of the demon realm weren't that easy to deal with. To the point they fought back, and pushed back the army. To the point the monsters, and the gigantic boss of them, reached the capital.

To the point they reached the palace.

I don’t remember much of what happened that day. But well… basically, I returned to protect Regina, since there was no way I could just look away from it.

That was the final battle the kingdom had to wage, against the demon realm, thankfully.

What else do I remember? Well… maybe her highness… Regina… was crying, as she saw me flung myself toward the boss?

I didn’t remember what happened. But it seems like… I did manage to defeat the boss of the monsters… which should have significantly led to the end of the war.

So… with that war ended, where am I right now?