Chapter 132 The Knight of the Elk Family (Part 1)
Prius had already been locked up for five days.
Although it couldn’t be called a cell, after the transformation, there was not much difference between the former house and a cell – the original wooden doors were replaced by wooden railings, all the furniture had been removed from the house, and only a few blankets were left. The only advantage compared to a cell was that the room was clear and that it had neither holes for draught nor rain.
In addition to Prius, there were four other prisoners. Three of them belonged to the house of the former Duke, the other belonged to the Wolf Family, and Prius himself belonged to the Elk Family.
“What the hell, he really wants to lock us up in here!” Shouted one of the Duke’s Knights, who belonged to the oldest people who have taken part in the battle, “The wheat on the fields in my territory haven’t even been sown yet! And my woman doesn’t know how to manage everything.”
“Your territory?” asked the young knight of the Wolf Family with a lot of contempt in his voice, “Do you really believe that the Prince will let you keep your rank as a knight? Even letting you keep your Horse, Armor, and weapons so that you can start your revenge whenever you feel like? Really, as long as he doesn’t send us to the gallows, he can still be considered as a kind person.”
“What did you just say!?” The old knight stared furiously at him.
“To tell you the truth,” the young knight explained further, ”The Duke did indeed plan to start a rebellion against the throne in doing so becoming a first-rate convict, taking all of his elite knights with him, and only letting a few stand by the side of his son. As for us, we would naturally be forced by the Duke to follow him onto the battlefield.”
“I see that you would really like to die now!” Hearing him talk like this the old knight suddenly went over, picking the young knight and lifting him up, while at the same time clenching his right hand into a fist, already going through the motion to hit him, but suddenly his hand was firmly grasped from behind.
“Stay your hand, Halon. Do you want that the guards come over?” the fist was grasped by a young handsome knight, “What he said is right, we were knights under the command of the Duke, so if we are to be convicted we are likely to be sentenced to a heavy punishment. Just look at the Knight of the Elk Family, he is waiting calmly for the result, and now look at how you are acting. Do you think you’re showing the right kind of demeanor?
Prius could immediately recognize this man, he was the star of all of the Longsong Stronghold’s knights, Ferlin Eltek, also nicknamed Morning Light. He had captured the hearts of many aristocratic families’ young ladies. However, after coming around, he finally settled down and married a civilian, creating a lot of heated discussions. After being mentioned, Prius decided that now wasn’t the time to stay quiet, so he said to them: “I don’t know what will happen to your territories, but I’m certain that the Prince won’t kill us.”
“Oh, why’s that?”
“If he had killed us all in the stronghold, he would have achieved a deterrent effect, but after spending so much effort to bring us to Border Town, why should he kill us here? To impress the civilians?” Prius shook his head, “During the battle, we weren’t even able to set one foot inside the town.”
As long no one attacked them, burning down and looting their houses, the town’s people naturally wouldn’t have any extreme hatred against them. Therefore, since the Prince didn’t kill them during their stay in the stronghold, he also wasn’t likely to kill them here in Border Town.
After thinking about this for a moment, the knight called Eltek nodded in confirmation, “What you said makes sense. May I have your name, please, mister…?”
“Prius Dessau.”
“Thank you for your encouraging words, Sir Dessau.” After he expressed his thanks, Ferlin grasped Halon by his arm and took him back to another corner.
The young knight of the Wolf Family also sat back down, and leaning against the wall and began to hum.
He really doesn’t seem to be afraid of it, Prius thought, but my staying “calm”, isn’t anything other than a facade.
Prius knew that he wasn’t made out of the things needed to be a knight. He did not inherit his father’s bravery, nor his mother’s wisdom, and instead of training with the sword he had always preferred to take care of their territory. Raising chicken and ducks, fishing in the pond or doing anything else similar to this. As a knight for the Elk Family, he was really a helpless case, not to mention killing someone, he didn’t even like to participate in hunting. So, during their charges against the defenders of Border Town, Prius had always kept as far to the back as possible, never expecting to come into a situation where he had to retreat for his life.
Hold on… when he thought about the battle he got the feeling that there was something wrong, as the star of the Duke’s Knight, why was Eltek still able to stay alive? Shouldn’t he have been the first line in leading the charge?
“His Royal Highness wants to see you,” a guard suddenly shouted by the door, “Sirius Daly, you’re the first to come with me.”
Hearing his name a young knight jumped up, waved once to say goodbye to the others and left the cell.
“Hey, we also want to go!”
Seeing that one of them was allowed to leave Halon also chased to the door, only to be stopped by the blunt end of the guard’s weapon. After locking the door, he turned once more into the direction of the prisoner and coldly said, “Do not worry, it won’t be long before it will be your turn.”
Knowing that it was soon time for his own trial, with each passing minute Prius became more and more tense.
Damn it, previously the day of the trial couldn’t come along fast enough for me, but now that the day has finally arrived, I’ve become afraid. Prius thought angrily. But he couldn’t stop his body from shaking from time to time. Every few moments he would look towards the door, feeling the same as if his first child was soon to be born, feeling hope and panic at the same time.
Fortunately, the waiting time wasn’t all that long, probably only half an hour had passed before the guard responsible for escorting the prisoners came again, “Prius Dessau, it’s your turn.”
Panic-stricken he jumped up, but his feet accidentally tripping about one of the blankets laying on the floor, but Eltek seeing that just took a step forward and supported him, stopping him from falling down.
” Th-thank you.” Prius pressed the words out of his parched throat.
“It’s nothing much.” Said his helper with a soothing voice, taking away a lot of Prius’ tension.
He nodded once more thankfully in Ferlin’s direction and then followed the guard out of the cell.
Leading the way was a young man, who was about seventeen years old, was wearing a dark brown leather armor and boots while holding a strange weapon in his hands.
“Don’t you need to tie my hands together?” Prius asked confused.
“When we locked you up you were already searched thoroughly, so what can you even do without a weapon?”
“Where are you going to take me?”
“To His Highness’s Castle.”
“What’s happened to the previous man? The knight, how is he?”
The guard just shrugged his shoulders and didn’t give him an answer.
Well, maybe he doesn’t know what happened to him, or it is also possible that he just doesn’t want to tell me. When it became clear that he wouldn’t get another answer, Prius just closed his mouth.
Prius had a very strange feeling as he looked at his escort. The guard dressed and looked like an ordinary civilian, but when he just spoke to the knights he didn’t show even a trace of fear, he wasn’t even using the most basic form of honorifics. He seems to not understand, that during peacetime, we knights can easily decide his life and death.
But there was also the expression in his eyes – Prius had looked into the eyes of many people who were always fighting to survive, their eyes were all stiff and indifferent, just like the eyes of a soulless corpse, but in this young man’s eyes, he saw arrogance and pride. It was obviously that he was a civilian, but he was showing the same prideful demeanor as a full-fledged knight. This extreme incongruity confused Prius to the extreme.
In the end, what kind of environment was needed in order to give birth to such a person?
While walking, Prius viewed his surrounding, although he had never been to Border Town before, he had still heard about what a barren and desolate place it was. But the vibrancy he felt from the town, stood on the complete opposite end of the image he had previously formed of it. Everywhere on the streets there were people coming and going, always moving at a fast pace, giving the impression as if everyone was busy. From time to time, there were other people dressed in the same way as the young man escorting him. Everyone’s face was rosy, full of spirit, and not a bit like people who had just experienced the ordeal of the Months of Demons.
Close to the castle district, he saw an area where more than 100 people had gathered together – it seems this group of people were responsible for the construction of residential houses, but looking at the scale it seemed that they were building more than one. The materials they needed to build the houses were neatly accumulated on the side and within them, there were also plenty of fired bricks.
In general, only the aristocracy would choose to use this more expensive material, but assuming that the building was supposed for a noble, the area built was just too small for nobility. Looking at an already previously built house, he discovered that it was only as large as his family’s drawing room. In addition, all those houses were built with the same design, which aristocracy would like such houses?
With his head filled with questions, Prius entered the Lord’s Castle.