Chapter 101: Oswin The Lesser Levy Mutant

Later it was said that he came through bloody and ragged as usual. His leather lamellar was tattered and he had bruises everywhere.

The men and women who would see him will immediately recognize him as the ‘vassal’ of the Princess Engelise. This loyal vassal who was only knighted was named as Oswin.

Oswin was a simple levy farmer turned knight. In order to reach the state, he is in. He took many missions. His last mission was killing the knights assigned to him by the princess who hated him for breaking a vow. The princess hated oath breakers and thus the princess can only look at him as a man without honor.

Oswin already knows he cannot win the trust of the lady back. Thus he can only hope to serve him loyally and endure hardships such as the missions she is giving him.

He just returned from a hunting trip. This trip was akin to a suicidal one. It took him weeks to accomplish the mission and as result, he was ragged, tattered and cut everywhere. He has bruises under his armor and only through the last of his dignity that he's able to walkup.

He somehow was able to reach his room. Seeing the room, he collapsed on the floor. He kneeled, took something out from his dirtied bag and drank it. It was a potion of health made by the alchemist of the fort. Its effect was slow but he didn’t need instant action potions for he was tired.

Being tired, he fainted.

...

He woke up feeling refreshed. The light from the window bothered him. He stood up, crawled to the side of his bed and removes his armor. He spits some of the blood on his mouth and took the medical kit in the drawer near his bed. He took out the bundle of bandage. He applied a green healing save made of herbs on his body. After putting the green salve he drank a reagent that numbs the pain.

He felt a bit better. But that wasn’t enough. He took out a flask of wine wrapped in a cloth, uncorked it and sips on it. He felt the wine go down his throat.

It was spicy and it made him feel less tired. The wine was something he brought with him. The Princess didn’t accept his gift when he came back. The princess actually mocked him for bringing such wine. It didn’t offend him though. Since he knows that he has done something worse to the honorable princess of Altria.

The Princess was honorable and his sin of dishonoring her and making her look like a fool was embedded into her heart. She trusted him once and he broke that trust by making the lady hate her. He only came to serve because he knows that lady was a lonely woman.

She was walk up and talented yet there was little to none who would dare to stay by her side. He only dares to go near the princess because he was considered foolish. He’s a knight of rags that was pitifully anointed. He’s also not strong. And he doesn’t have enough talents to make him act like a true knight.

Oswin isn’t bothered, however. As long as he keeps his heart true to the princess. He’s willing to serve despite being hated. After all, without anything, he rather fights for the one last thing he admired the most.

He took a deep breath. He scoured his drawer and took a tunic shirt and a pair of breeches. He wore the clothes and then climbed up to his bed. He lost his sword and wrecked his lamellar armor so the one thing he had was the leather jerkin he used when working for the sun’s crown.

He remembered the sun’s crown. He also remembered that the one that the whole crusade of ashes happened because of the blue-haired witch who possibly did the explosion. Honestly, Oswin has doubts that the blue-haired girl could do such thing. He traveled with that girl after all. And along the travel not once did the half-blood showed disdain or any traits of an elf. She was also cooperative and was human all in all.

Hence he questions the possibility of that kind girl blowing the monastery in Dunwich a lot. He kept the opinion to himself, however, knowing that the sun’s crown might not like his words. Heresy purging has been widespread lately and he’d rather not be branded as a heretic by the sun’s crown especially when he’s in the castle or the fort that the Princess and her followers occupy.

The place is rather well-maintained and heavily guarded. The princess of Altria was well liked and even though she is along with her duties. She has many followers under her but not that many vassals. She has the order of light however which solidifies her position if she wants to make herself Queen of Altria. Oswin thinks that she can do that but her interest in politics is abysmal and she only cares about the front-lines.

But if she desires it, she can rally most of the banners that support her. The bannermen of the kingdom would follow her and would even leave the prince factions if she arises.

The Princess is supported because of her talents and partly because she has the divine blessing and the symbol of the God of Light branded on the back of her left palm.

That left palm marks authority and in the kingdom. Those who have that mark are what people called as the ones who have been given the divine right to rule. Not even the Prince’s has such markings and even the current king does not have the marking on his hand.

So it was no surprise that the people would love to have the blessed Princess of the God of Light as the ruler. Not because of her gender or talents. But merely because of the marking she had.

...

After resting he walked out of his room. He headed to the kitchen where he took some food and ate. There was a cook who saw him eating. The cook didn’t bother about and let him eat. Despite being called foolish Oswin was considered admirable to commoners.

Imagine a peasant levy of poor talents becoming a Knight despite all odds. He was that awe-inspiring to the others that he was secretly admired.

Oswin, however, can only smile about the admiration. He has experienced many things in order to reach knighthood. He was only a levy dragged out of a farm. Was armed with a spear then was sent to battle things he wasn’t able to fight greatly until one day he somehow got better at it while still being alive.

He remembers his first kill. Not some Orc or some glorious soldier but a mere child about five years old who wore a nice pair of sword and armor. Using that armor he survived and worked his way out in the battlefield until he was able to gather enough salary to leave the front-lines. He tried going back to the farm he was born in. But he realized that the town he lived was burnt by something unknown.

They call the incident as Mage fire and if he didn’t leave the place then he would have died along with the others in the town. He didn’t know if there was anyone that survived.

After learning the demise of his town Oswin roamed the land for five years until he was hired as the soldier of the Princess. He worked for the princess and the princess actually surprise how he was able to wield the sword despite being young.

Oswin serve in the front-lines when he was nine. He fought in the front-lines for two years before he was allowed to go out of the fields.

He and the Princess understood each other. But sadly there was an accident that broke his oath to the Princess, which made the Princess hate him enough to throw him out of servitude. He begged the Princess to take him in but only through working through the ranks of the military that he got anointed and was then hired by the sun’s crown to do their bidding for three years.

He has learned a lot in the sun’s crown. He learned how to fight and he learned how to use tools instead of magic. He was pathetic in all corner and the only thing they were able to do to him was mutating his limbs and made him drink pungent smelling potions until he was turned least human.

He is considered a mutant by the sun’s crown standard and he was an only a ‘prototype’ for the future soldiers that they going to bring to the world.

The potions he drank and the mutations his body experienced was at least helpful to Oswin. Due to this, he can eat the soup in front of him without agonizing. His wounds heal faster when he drinks a potion of healing from an alchemist. However, the regeneration factor only works when he is in deep sleep.

He fainted awhile ago because of his wounds. When he applied that salve and drank a potion. His body reacted and thus he was able to heal up nicely enough to walk.

People usually mistook his healing as him knowing spells. But in honesty, it was just his mutations doing a favor to him. The mutations are however not perfect. Sometimes, his wounds get festered enough to have maggots making holes in it.

Oswin has gotten used to it, however. And having the mutations allows him to survive encounters that would prove fatal to normal soldiers. He is indeed a normal knight but in terms of normality, he was rather lucky enough to have a mutation that allows him healing.

He didn’t have enhanced strength. He only has a defected mutation that barely qualifies as healing. He could use the services of the healers but doing so would reveal the mutations on him. Thus he can only go to trusted priests, alchemist, and healers that rely on science to heal him.

...

He was done eating. He put the wooden bowl away and cleans the dishes himself. As he cleans the dishes a cook arrives in the kitchen. This cook then told him about the happenings in the fort and that how the people from the Saclea are gathering to meet the Princess.

Hearing this he thanked the cook and left the Kitchen. He heads back to his room and cleaned himself neatly and wore his cloak that made him a bit descent enough. He also requested an iron dagger and a silver sword.

He uses the iron dagger when he needs to sneak up or something to draw quickly when needed to be. He strapped the iron dagger on his thigh.

The silver sword was for everything else. He didn’t have any sort of magic so having a silver sword would at least allow him to bleed mythical creatures if he can. Not to mention that silver swords are good for reagents that would allow him to inflict damage on things such as wraiths or screamers. He wrapped the silver sword around his waist and thanked the armory-keeper.

He then marched calmly along the fort. Some guards who knew him called out to him. While those who saw him just bloodied a while ago widen their eyes at him for already walking back to duties instead of resting. He’s called foolish because of this and not once Oswin really cared.

Oswin went up the gates of the fort. The fort was made of marble and tone. The gates were made of heavy iron and it can only be open through a crank located above the gate which is guarded by elder Knights. As a vassal of the Princess, he was allowed to watch on top. The elder knights didn’t have anything to say so he just crossed his arms and watched the banners with the sword shining under the moon marching towards the fort.