I Will Be the Greatest Knight-Chapter 41: Comiserating

There were unwritten rules in life that Irene always had a firm understanding of. Until she woke up with a new lease on life, she was a rule follower in every sense of the word.

In the future she saw, she never had friends who cared to push the boundaries of understood rules. As she followed the two other apprentices down the halls of the barracks in the darkness of night, she knew that, yet again, something had changed.

However, anytime it seemed she might start talking, one of the others would shake their heads or put their fingers over their lips to quiet her down. Without many words needing to be said, she understood that they needed to be quiet so the other apprentices and knights would stay asleep.

Finally, they made it out the door of the barracks and Felix let out a sigh.

"Couldn't sleep either?"

Irene glanced between the two others and she was met with judgment-free expressions.

"I had a bad dream," she admitted, revealing nothing else except for that.

"Same here," Felix responded and shook his head.

His dirty blonde locks fell into his face and he swept his gloved fingers through them. Underneath his eyes were a bit hollow.

Irene was starting to realize more about him than she could have ever expected.

"What about you?" she asked Leif.

"I just couldn't sleep," he admitted. "I don't think anyone should see that many goblins at one time. I was practically buried with one of the squires."

He shivered.

She momentarily wanted to spill her heart out. At that second, the two seemed so trustworthy. Their frankness made her heart ache and she knew she was thinking more as a twenty-year-old than an eleven-year-old and should tone it down.

"What will we do now?" she asked. "I don't want to stay out here. What if something else appears?"

Felix smirked and he nodded his head towards the Duke's Tower.

"I estimate there's about an hour or two until the sun rises," he explained. "Y'know what that means?"

Irene shook her head.

"Well..." he trailed off. "I guess you'll just have to see."

The three walked along the edge of the practice yard in hopes that they would disturb nothing and not meet the knights who were likely patrolling at night. Everyone seemed on high alert after such an alarming amount of goblins appearing all of a sudden.

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She heard them mention something about a cave system being full of monsters. It filled her heart with dread that something like that could happen again despite the knight's efforts to constantly cull the forests.

The three went southeast and around the side of the Duke's Tower. There were stairs wrapping around the shorter of the three towers and Felix gestured for the other two to go on ahead.

Leif then gestured for Irene to go first.

"Me first?" she asked. "I don't know what we're doing."

"Go over the wall," Leif explained. "There's a side entrance at the bottom of the stairs."

"On top of that, we have to help you because you're so unbelievably short if you go last you'll slow us down," Felix explained, wasting no opportunity to poke fun at another's insecurities.

He said it with a grin and Irene could only roll her eyes.

"Step here," Leif explained, placing his boot in a piece of brick that had been removed.

He continued to be helpful and Irene followed his instructions.

After that, Felix helped push her over the wall and she turned to see the other two doing much of the same.

Felix towered over the two of them considering he was a few years older and effortlessly cleared the wall so that none of them were left in the dirt.

Since it seemed Felix was their leader that night, he was the first to go through the door and immediately they were met with the smell of something cooking.

He didn't wait for the two to follow and simply kept going.

When they made it to the dining hall, Felix went straight towards the kitchen.

At the kitchen's opening, there was a girl cutting up vegetables and discarding scraps into a barrel likely to be taken outside and composted. When she saw Felix, she straightened her posture and her light brown eyes widened.

"What are you doing here, Felix?" she asked quietly, surprised to see three apprentices walking in so early in the morning.

Irene watched Felix walk slowly to the girl and lean against the wall. He was moving in a way she was unfamiliar with. She soon realized as the girl laughed that he was flirting with her. He played his cards openly to get what he wanted.

"Breakfast preparations are going on about now, right Agnes?" Felix asked, already knowing the answer. "Think you could spare us a bit of bread and preserves? We're tired from fighting monsters all night."

The girl placed a hand on her cheek.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Of course. It is our duty to support those fighting for our protection. Please sit down."

The girl tucked the paring knife she carried into a leather pouch in her apron's pocket. She then wiped off her hands and rushed into the depths of the kitchen.

Felix turned to the others with a grin on his face.

Irene and Leif were both in disbelief at what they had just witnessed but it didn't stop them from going to their usual spots at the tables they normally ate at. His shamelessness was going to benefit them that night.

Soon enough the girl returned with plates that had hot loaves of bread on them and an opened jar had some sort of berry preserves inside of it.

"Please, enjoy," she said before excusing herself once more.

"This is what you guys normally do when you can't sleep?" Irene asked.

Leif had already dove into the bread and he could only shake his head since his mouth was full of food.

"Normally dozens of goblins don't attack the duchy in one night," Felix uttered. "I don't know how anyone is sleeping through the thought of that. I thought this place was supposed to be safe—"

He cut himself off reached for the bread and ripped off a piece so he could cover it in preserves.

"None of us died, right?" he asked and raised his bread into the air as if he were celebrating the fact that they were alive.

"Yeah, we're all still here," Leif responded, his voice flat. "We got luckier than my little sister."

Without thinking, words fell from Irene's lips.

"I thought you were the youngest in your family," Irene realized.

The expression Leif gave to her made her realize she was in the presence of people badly scarred even if the wounds weren't visible.

It was truly no wonder none of them could sleep.

However, as their conversations shifted to slightly lighter topics, Irene understood why they were doing what they did. It was so much nicer being around others when you were terrified of something.

Since they had eaten their fill of breakfast and morning practice was canceled, it gave all of them a head start for their monster projects that day.