With his gear ready, Arthur leaves his room early in the morning. When he steps out of the castle, he turns his head towards Clock Tower and sees the time. Only 20 more minutes until dawn.

He walks down the main eastern street, heading towards the city gate. He greets the guards already there who are probably itching for their shifts to end and goes through the gate to find Sir Luis and Lianne already waiting.

“Good morning,” Arthur greets with a smile.

“Good morning, Arthur,” Sir Luis nods back.

“Good morning,” Lianne gives him a quick nod of acknowledgement.

“Good to see you’re consistently punctual,” Sir Luis praises. Then, he groans. “Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait too long for Edward.”

“There’s still five minutes until the appointed time,” Lianne says, looking at her pocket watch. And the fact she has a pocket watch at all reminds Arthur she comes from one of the four great noble families.

“Have you ever been to Planta Village, Arthur?” Sir Luis asks.

“I have, but I was too young to remember much. My mother is a courier and would take me with her all over the country.”

“You said your mother was the one who taught you how to fight, didn’t you?” the knight nods to himself. “It makes sense. Not many would willingly choose a job as a courier instead of working with a caravan.”

“Why’s that?” Lianne asks, eyes filled with curiosity.

Sir Luis opens his mouth to speak, but turns to Arthur and keeps quiet, prompting the young man to answer.

“Well… caravans are safer by definition,” Arthur says. “They travel in groups to protect larger cargos. Couriers handle smaller packages but travel alone. Or in my mom’s case, with a brat running behind her trying to catch up with her way too long steps.”

A snicker escapes Lianne’s lips, which she immediately tries to hide. Instead of commenting on it, Arthur decides to chalk that one up as a win.

“Anyway, this usually means couriers are faster at delivering letters and small objects, but it also means they have to be strong and/or cunning enough to survive traveling alone,” Arthur sighs. “Mom is a lot of the former and not a lot of the latter.”

“What about your father?” she asks.

“Died of an illness when I was around five, I think. I don’t remember much about him.”

“O-Oh. I’m… I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Arthur chuckles. “You two are both from big noble houses, right?”

“Yes,” Sir Luis answers. “I’m from house Astram, as you may remember. The second son of the duke.”

“…And I’m the third child of Duke Silva,” Lianne says, her tone and expression thankfully lighter than during previous interactions.

“If I may, does it imply something whether you’re the second or third child? I don’t know how nobility works just yet.” But he needs to know if he’s to earn himself a title eventually.

“Lianne?” Sir Luis says, now prompting the young woman to explain.

“…Okay,” she takes a deep breath before starting. “In nobility, it’s only the first child who takes over as family head. From there, second and subsequent children serve the family in other ways.”

“Such as…?”

“Becoming knights to honor the family name, joining the regular army as officers, managing business and territory or even… political marriages.”

‘I guess the duties of nobles are plenty. Even if only one of them can serve as head of the family, the rest are still expected to do their part.’

Then, a very familiar sound alters Arthur, making him turn back towards the main eastern street. He’d recognize the sound of hooves against stone anywhere. Sir Erik and his family, along with Sir Edward, are coming their way with seven horses in tow.

“Good to see everyone’s ready to go,” Lady Eliza says. “Did you have a good breakfast?” she asks everyone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Arthur and the others reply.

“Then if you have all your things ready, let’s get going,” Sir Erik says before turning to Arthur. “You’re a country boy, aren’t you? I assume you have experience with horses.”

“Plenty, sir.” the young man nods confidently. “But… is it okay for us to take seven horses?”

“It works like this,” Sir Erik starts explaining. “Our brigade is chosen for jobs like this one because we can move fast. Giving us seven horses is better than giving 20 to a larger brigade.”

Arthur nods in understanding.

It only takes him a quick look to see the quality of these horses. Their bright eyes, strong muscles and shiny coats speak clearly of well fed and well trained animals. Even in Yellowseed they didn’t have horses as good as these.

Being the new guy, Arthur gets last pick, but even so this one is a far cry from any other Arthur has had the pleasure of riding. The horse they give him has a beautiful brown coat and a long white mane. He gets close to it, but the moment he steps forward the horse snorts and raises its head, stomping its hooves and looking down at him.

“What’s wrong, Arthur? I thought you were good with horses,” Sir Edward teases.

The young man brushes off the comment, takes a couple of steps back and reaches for his backpack. From it he procures a knife and an apple. He deftly cuts a fourth of it and puts the rest of it back into his bag.

The horse, seeing the fruit, takes a couple of steps closer. Arthur holds a firm hand to it, making it stop. Only when the horse has visibly calmed down does Arthur walk up and feed it the small piece of apple, which the horse chews with delight. When it’s done, it starts sniffing Arthur’s hand and trying to reach for his backpack with its mouth, but he puts a gentle hand on its muzzle and pushes it back.

“You get the rest when we get to Planta,” he tells it firmly. The horse backs off, now more tame than before. “Does this boy have a name?”

“Sorry, I didn’t ask,” Sir Erik laughs.

With ease brought from years of practice, Arthur easily mounts the now tame horse and pats its neck. “I guess I’ll only call him boy for now.”

“He’s in his element here,” Lady Mary-Beth chuckles.

“And speaking of element,” Sir Erik remembers, “we still need to talk about how your visit to Clock Tower went.”

“That’s right,” Lady Eliza nods, “but we can leave that for when we get to Planta.”

“We ride at moderate speed,” Sir Erik says. “Keep your eyes open for threats, monsters in particular. Remember our objective. We must find and capture monsters that show the following qualities: unusual strength of its type, overly aggressive behavior or any other characteristics we deem unnatural. Even if our mission says to look inside th Noble Woods, don’t discard the possibility we might find one on the road.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Don’t bite your tongues, people!” Lady Mary-Beth says.

With the first rays of light looming over the green eastern hills, the Sanctus Brigade leaves Radiant City on its next mission. And for Arthur, his first as part of it.

The trip was uneventful. There’s a common theory that monsters can tell when someone is too strong for them and naturally stay away, but as far as Arthur knows, there is no proof. To him, the aggressive sounds of seven galloping horses with armed soldiers riding them was a bigger deterrent.

In only a little over two hours of riding northeast and after crossing a stone bridge over a wide river coming down from the northern mountains, the walls of Planta Village come into view. They are not as grandiose as Radiant City’s walls, being made of thick logs instead of thick stone bricks, but they serve the same purpose of keeping the people safe. After all, Planta Village is the closest settlement to the Noble Woods. Yellowseed is close, too, but there’s a hill range that acts as a natural barrier that cuts the woods from the eastern villages.

Sir Erik introduces himself to the guards keeping watch on the towers behind the walls and after a quick checking of documents, the Sanctus Brigade is allowed inside the village. Arthur smiles at the rustic sight. Here, the houses are primarily made of wood, which Arthur assumes is a result of living next to such a thick and ample forest. The smell of wet soil and grass hits his nose, and he takes in a deep breath.

‘Weird. I didn’t think I’d be missing these sights so soon.’

The village is as small as he remembered. Perhaps even smaller than Yellowseed. He sees no more than twenty houses, and the farms aren’t as expansive as in his hometown.

He and the rest of the brigade follow Sir Erik to a stable, letting the captain do the talking and letting their horses there. All around people are looking at them with curiosity and giddiness which he can relate to. Arthur still remembers the few times he’d see knights pass by and be awestruck at their horses, armor, weapons and overall imposing air around them. Walking at the end of the line, Arthur glances at his teammates with the same admiration as the villagers.

‘That’s right. These people are full-fledged knights. They’ve handled many missions already and proven themselves. I can’t hold them back.’

The group arrives at a two-story building. The sign hanging from one of the two pillars at the porch reads “The Noble Inn”.

“Is this where we’ll be staying?” Arthur asks.

“Yes. Thankfully, even if it’s the only inn in town, they offer good service. At least good enough that our highbred teammates won’t complain,” Sir Erik says, shooting a teasing grin to Sir Luis, Sir Erik and Lianne.

“Captain, you know we’ve never once complained about accommodations!” Lianne argues with a frown.

“You haven’t, Lianne,” Lady Mary-Beth says with a devilishly teasing grin, “but I remember when two young new recruits would wince at the mere thought of sleeping on a bed without silk sheets.”

“Guh!”

Both Sir Edward and Sir Luis flinch.

“L-Lady Mary-Beth… that was a long time ago,” Sir Luis says with pleading eyes.

“Yeah, you don’t need to keep bringing it up,” Sir Edward sighs.

Both Arthur and Lianne turn to their senior knights with raised eyebrows.

“Ugh, getting that look from Arthur I can understand,” Sir Edward says, “but from Lianne it just hurts.”

“She’s a very adaptable girl, that’s for sure,” Lady Eliza giggles. “Now let’s head inside. We need to get settled and plan our approach to this mission.”

Once more, the group lets Sir Erik do the talking. He makes arrangements for five rooms and pays for a week in advance while telling the owner that they’ll probably be staying for a month.

“We get our own rooms?” Arthur asks, whispering to Sir Edward.

“Like the captain said, these are the benefits of being a small brigade. When the bigger ones get sent out and usually have to camp in the open.”

The group heads upstairs and each go into their own room. Arthur’s is not much different to the one he rented back in the city. Small with a bed, a closet and a cupboard. More than enough considering he’ll probably spend most of his time outside.

That thought makes everything start feeling more real. He’s really here in Planta Village for a mission. He’ll have to fight monsters. These will probably be stronger than the usual wolf types or oversized birds that attack the farms.

He takes a deep breath. This is what he signed up for, so there’s no use getting nervous now. He’s already fought monsters, and he now has to add a run in with a professional assassin and a tournament full of capable fighters to his combat resume.

…

‘Yeah, there’s no way any monster in there could be a match for Marcus. Compared to him, everything pales in comparison.’

With his mind calmer, he leaves his room and heads downstairs. There’s a room that’s rented for private parties and that his brigade will be using for a strategy meeting. With a quick knock to announce his entrance, he goes through the door.