Chapter 64: The Long Eared Guardian 4

He rode through the snow. His rear felt numb but the mission in his head kept him focused. He rummages through his saddlebag and took a bread. Rye bread, a bit hard but it was enough for him to bite. The bread was hard as it is and it was a bit soggy. He didn’t know why but still kept on biting it. His horse was tall, about seven feet high. He could see the white landscape.

He wishes that he has a flagon of wine. He’d be damn if he doesn’t want any wine right now. He exhausted all of his wine during the travel. He is a Knight in full steel armor but that doesn’t stop him from being a human with human needs. The cold snow around him made the thirst for wine harder. He traveled long roads but winter this time was rather colder. He heard whispers of old nannies about how the old blue will return. He’s rather dismissive of whispers but when he was sent to search and kill. He knew that the old nannies back in the Capital might right. They are long-lived elders so they might know things he wouldn’t know at all.

He kicks his horse. He walloped through the dirt road while keeping an eye for any ambushers. Winter made the road foggy and misty. The roads especially are either covered in snow or bandits. Monsters come occasionally but they are mostly taken easily by him. He used to fight them before he became a knight. People like him don’t usually get sent to missions like these. He was a levy who became a soldier, who became a squire and then a sellsword till finally becoming an anointed knight by a lord he saved. The lord is long dead though, fell in the hands of an Orc Slayer. He then went Errant and finally meeting a vassal of the Kingdom, an heir to the throne of Altria.

He worked for that heir for five years and got kicked out for being too sharp tongued. He never holds his words and never will ever do. He refuses bending the knee and even the threat of a blade near his neck won’t make him. It is his principles and because of his principles that he is now stuck searching for miles for a tribe of nomads who hold the half blood.

Half-bloods are pure abominations. He was taught this by the Zealous Priests back in the Capital of Altria. He was forced to wear the sun’s crown on his breast and ordered to kill someone that they threat as dangerous. He couldn’t refuse obviously and even his sharp tongue won’t save him from a High Priest. He might be able to do it with nobles and even royalties but the High Priest doesn’t tolerate heresy.

The High Priest in Altria’s Capital told him to either kill the half blood or die valiantly knowing that the other Paladins will be his avengers. He didn’t like dying by an executioner’s blade and thus took the mission with distaste.

His reason for enduring this snow is simple. He was forced to find the girl and eliminate her. He had no choice in the matter and even if he did he would still do it. He learned that the half-bloods are worse than Elves. They possess two types of blood, meaning to say they get two blessings. The Zealous High Priest living in the Capital and the Pope of the Empire of Light won’t allow such heresy to live.

If he kills the woman he will receive honors and glory. Doing so would allow him to earn a pardon for his insolence and be with that heir again, serving as her sword and shield. He really didn’t want to do anything other than that. He loved that heir to the throne. Not because of her power but simply because it was her. He felt hard and he rather wastes the rest of his life fighting for that helpless lady.

He’s in this damnable road filled with snow because of her. He hated the snow. He hated the weather and he hated killing more than anything but it is his duty. He already journeyed miles and with the letter that the sun’s crown sent to the nomad tribe acting as his guide. He will never lose his way unless they burn the letter. The letter’s string of energy still hasn’t vanished. He has a compass that follows the energy and when he looks at it. He saw that the line hasn’t disappeared. Either the elders are still thinking or they are letting him follow them. The string of energy didn’t have any sign of moving.

For three days the line hasn’t stirred. Since he wouldn’t know if they want to hand over the half-blood or not. He can only follow the line of energy and hope that they will offer the half-blood to him. He prays that the half-blood is being served to him. But as experiences tell him, he needs to expect for the worse.

The elders might be willing but how about the half-blood herself? He assumes that the half-blood will put up a fight or worse run away. No idiot would be willing to offer themselves up. There might be some around the world but he believes that people act purely on intentions or instincts. The instinct to survive lives in most beings and he knows that no one would want that. They might resist and get shot down but even so what he is hunting is far dangerous. A half-blood with two blessings is something that he needs to be wary. He saw paladins fight after all and the way the Elves fight too. He journeyed to the middle lines ones but not once he would dare to go back to that place again.

He feared Elves for their Mana while he feared the Paladins for their ability to make use of the Sun. And now he is hunting someone that has the ability to have both.