Mission Debrief

It’s been a day since I realized Kesandra’s on my side, I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been up till now. After all those times she helped me and stood up for me, of course she was my ally. Knowing that’s made me more cheerful than I usually act, much to the annoyance of the others, especially Scott.

“Hey, did you hear what I just said?”

“Yep, I have everything prepped and ready to go.”

“Grrr, wipe that damn smirk off your face!”

Alright so maybe I was a little bit smug about being Kesandra’s favorite, but before I could rub it in the lieutenant came by.

“What are you two doing?”

“Lieutenant, this wench is-”

“That doesn’t matter right now, and cadet make sure you hear this too. Our scouts have returned, we’re moving to the checkpoint.”

I wiped the smug look off my face and Scott put a sock in it for once. We’ve mobilized from the northern border base in order to come to the territory of Pewter. So the scouts have finally returned with information. We moved towards camp for our squad debrief, there the captain went over everything the scouts found out. To think that we were this close to finding-

“Cadet Ferris, would you mind sharing the information we picked up in this debrief?”

I could hear the regulars snickering at me, Kesandra wanted to chew them out but I nodded no. It's easy enough to recap what we’ve found out.

“Based on the intel we received, there was a girl fitting the princess’ description seen in town recently. Her arrival also coincides with the information we’ve pieced together thus far, meaning the princess has to be somewhere close by.”

The captain nodded along at my explanation so far, the regulars had nothing to jeer at. I suppose the piercing gaze I felt was probably Scott being a sore loser. The captain opened his eyes and asked me a question.

“Based on the intel we have, where do you possibly think the princess is?”

I started to ponder why the captain was asking this, is this some kind of test? I soon felt the eyes of the other soldiers locked onto me, but I also felt Kesandra’s eyes too. I can’t make her look bad, summoning up some courage I gave an answer.

“I think the princess may be within bandit custody.”

Immediately some of the soldiers began to raise a laugh, but upon seeing silence around them they stopped. The captain sighed and humored my answer.

“Tell me, why do you think Princess Ophelia is with the bandits?”

“This is just speculation, but the scouts mentioned that girls/women around the princess’ age have gone missing. There’s been no strange happenings in the forest and Lord Twigo has stayed to himself thus far. That only leaves the bandit cave.”

The captain gave me a stern look, I wanted to tremble but I forced myself to stand firm. In the end, it was the captain who broke the silence.

“For the past two months those supposed bandits have been hauled up in the mines close to town. As for the reasoning we decided not to act, let’s use timing as an excuse. After all, we were dealing with Heckler’s forces.”

I could hear the shifting of armor in the crowd, it appears the other soldiers feel terrible about leaving this situation unresolved as well. The captain inhaled before continuing the explanation, after a deep breath he continued on.

“With the Heckler situation handled we then had to deal with the piling problems caused by our delay, we didn’t have the manpower to throw towards the bandits at that moment. However, if those bandits captured our princess, that changes things. If that happens, our circumstances will be turned to negligence. We would be seen as compliant in kidnapping the crown and executed, do you see the terror in your statement cadet?

I froze, what was I supposed to say? Everyone in the camp went quiet, there wasn’t even one jeer. Just the silence of a company that realized this might be our final mission, the captain saw the panic and fear on our faces. He pulled out his sword and raised it high.

“My men, as Cadet Ferris said, we must rid this land of those bandits. Even if the princess isn’t there, we must rid the land and its people of their troubles! What knights would we be if we didn’t protect the land and its people. My men, we must atone for our mistakes, who’s with me!”

The camp roared a fierce roar, our fear had washed away. All that was left was to go to the mines and save those girls, and hopefully the princess would be alright to. Suddenly I felt a chill run down my spine, I turned to see no one except the captain standing there. It couldn’t have been him though, he was talking with the lieutenant. Along with the rest of my squad, we prepared to attack the mines and save the kidnapped girls as soon as possible.

****

I didn’t expect the cadet to have such a good grasp of the situation. Perhaps Kesandra was right about her.

“Oh? Do I sense a need to break into my patented ‘I was right’ dance?”

Speak of the devil, there she was. She smiled that same dumb smile, I found myself becoming annoyed with her.

“So captain, do you trust my judgement now?”

“It takes more than decision making to be ready for such a position.”

“Captain, you and I both know the reason you're so hard on Matilda. It’s because unlike the others here, her potential surpasses all of ours.”

Faced with Kesandra’s words, all I could do was stare at the wall. She was right though, that young lady’s potential is vast. However, it’ll be some time before she’s ready to be a captain. Let alone a vice captain.