The Apathetic Knight

Chapter 3.1 - Kynareth

Chapter 3 – Kynareth

July, 313 A.R.

In the time that had passed since that fateful Christmas party, I'd continued getting lessons in etiquette—as well as lessons on how to keep my opinions to myself, especially in front of royalty.

Also, the Christmas that we had been twelve, I had awoken the morning after Christmas to greet my newly-started monthly cycles, so I was officially able to bear children.

Now, our coming-of-age was only a month away, and my maids began to send me catalogs of Knights to see who piqued my interest.

My brother already had someone in mind, and was seemingly happy with the decision despite not yet meeting the person...it was a surprisingly lean fighter, tall and well-muscled but not overly bulky. He was supposed to have good agility and speed, making him light on his feet and highly alert and reactive to surprise attacks.

I sighed, looking through the stack of catalogs, when I finally came across the only name that I'd had in mind from the moment that I had learned what his full name was, and that he would be available.

He had returned from war, now, and had become a hero, having saved multiple fleets during the war, and taken out four battalions and seven beasts single-handedly.

He was only available, according to the second prince in his letter to me earlier this month, because he had agreed that he would undergo the Oath of Fealty if—and only if—he was chosen as a personal knight.

If he was not chosen this year, he would not swear the oath, no matter what they did to him.

They had agreed.

So, in order to save him from imprisonment, and in order to give him honor, I wanted to have him as my knight.

He was the strongest of them all.

He was truly a prodigy of war, and though his personality needed some work, he was the only knight that I was interested in.

I could only hope that he would be interested in me, too.

*

August, 313 A.R.

"Happy birthday, sister!" My brother shook me awake, sitting on my bed, and I startled awake with an irritated cry.

"Brother," I groaned. "You realize that I need to not die of a heart attack first thing in the morning, don't you?" I asked, smacking him half-heartedly as he laughed.

"No more time to sleep, sister. Father demands for us to look our very best today for the coming-of-age ceremony!" He laughed.

I groaned again, but he and the maid helped me sit up, and he strode over to my mannequin, looking at the gown that had been chosen for me for the occasion.

"It is similar in design to my suit," he smiled, stroking the material. "Alice...leave the room for a moment," he said, giving her a hard expression when she didn't move right away.

"But, my lord, I am ordered not--"

"And I am, as the heir of the dukedom, ordering you to leave. Don't worry. I won't do anything that would damage her reputation."

She glanced to me, before Astaroth cleared his throat, glaring at her. She scurried out.

He waited a moment, before he turned to me, coming to kneel in front of me even as I still sat on the edge of my bed. He brought forth a massive bouquet of dandelions, both the gold ones and the wispy, white blow-away ones.

"Astaroth...?" I asked, my cheeks heating.

"I swear my undying loyalty to you, Kynareth Renna Severing," he said, his voice soft. "As the manager of your affairs and your reputation from now on, I shall protect you; I will become your shield and sword, my vow will hold true to you no matter what. Even if you cannot see it, all of my words and actions are in your favor. I, Astaroth Renard Severing, so swear to you, on this the day of our birth, in the month of August, in the year 313 A.R."

He looked up with so much emotion swirling in his stormy gaze that my stomach clenched, and my heart raced.

"Astaroth...you're scaring me," I said, trembling.

He stood and took my hand in his, bringing it to his lips and pressing a kiss there, looking at my face.

"It's because...I already know what's going to happen today, and I need for you to trust me. Our lives are about to change, forever, and it might be tempting for you to blame me, because...I was not the one who had the final say so. I know I was supposed to become your manager, but father kind of took the final decision from me, though he did make sure that I had some input. You just need to always trust me. I have always been on your side, no matter what. After today, things will be different, Kynareth. We won't be together anymore, no matter how much...no matter how much I want us to be." A blush darkened his cheeks. "I need you to know that you can trust that all that I do, I do for you."

"Brother...what do you mean we won't be together? What's going on? Are you going somewhere...?"

He shook his head. "Not me," he said, soft and sad.

I gaped at him. "Did...did you already find me a husband? I'm just coming of age today, Astaroth! How could you—"

"I didn't have the final word," he said, a murmur. "If I had, it wouldn't have happened this soon. Father is the one who agreed to push it to be this early."

"Can't we go, Astaroth? Why can't we just run away? We have time!"

"We don't," he said, shaking his head. "Things have already been set in motion. We can't change things now...and it is too late to wish for those things. We can only do the best we can with how things go from here."

"Astaroth, you're scaring me," I said again, trembling harder. "I want to run, Astaroth. We can, we can do this! I can do this. We can get out of here."

"Today, our roles will change dramatically..."

"Astaroth-"

He pressed his lips gently to mine, a simple kiss, but my cheeks flamed. I saw him set the bouquet down on my bed.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I know you want to run away, but we don't have time, we don't have anywhere to go, and we can't escape, even if we do run. I don't have the strength or the power to protect you properly, right now... Perhaps in the future, but right now...we just can't."

"Astaroth," I whispered, hugging myself into his chest. "My heart is going crazy."

"Mine is, too," he said, soft. He pulled back to look at me. "I've...always loved you," he said, and my heart raced...because I had always felt my heart race around him. All of our lives, we had been unnaturally close. We'd been best friends. It was starting to make sense. "This is our last chance to do this, for a long time, at least. Is that...alright?" He asked, timid, eyes glancing at me nervously even as he kept glancing at my lips.

He wanted to kiss me.

I nodded and then he was pulling me into him again, leaning down and I was opening my heart to him, if only for a moment.

I felt his tongue nudge my mouth, and I opened my lips to him, feeling his tongue barely brush in, a small lick.

Finally, he pulled away, giving me one last peck on the lips before striding across the room to the door.

I looked at him strange, I guessed, because he chuckled.

"I saw a knight kiss a woman that way, but that one looked like a lot...more," he explained. He blushed. "I wasn't sure what it'd be like, but I want to kiss you first, be your first."

My cheeks flamed, and I rubbed my lips with my fingertips.

He glanced over his shoulder at me one last time, soft, sad smile on his face, and I gave him a sad smile in return.

"Just remember that I love you," he whispered. "I will always be on your side. You just have to trust me."

"I love you," I echoed, and he gave me a small bow before he left the room.

A moment later, my maid came back in, a frightened expression on her face, but she said nothing. She watched me for a long moment before she came and, with trembling hands, helped me get dressed and get my makeup done.

*

Before we held the coming-of-age party, we would be journeying over to the Knight's Order so that we could choose our Knights.

Once we were ready, we met out at the drive around in front of the castle, and I was helped into the carriage and we made our way to the Knight's Facility.

It was an exceptionally large building, housing more than five hundred knights in all, and that included squires. This was where the knights who were seeking employment or currently employed to patrol the towns and territories resided. The Person Knights were on the three lower levels of the facility, going down into a basement that went far down into the earth.

I felt disgusted as I saw that their quarters consisted of a tiny room with a single-sleeper bed that they could likely barely fit on, a bucket to do their business in, and a rack for their uniform and weapons. Any personal affects had to be stored beneath the bed, neat and tidy, and kept out of sight.

Prisoners surely had it better...

I sighed, and the mage seemed to sense my distress.

"Don't worry, my lady, most of these knights do not stay here for very long, as nobles even outside of our country come to pick their personal knights from this facility. We provide knights for a total of five countries, and so we have a large stream of soldiers coming and going."

That relieved me a bit, but I was still bothered by the cramped accommodations.

We found my brother's knight rather quickly, a knight with auburn hair, a tall and muscularly lean physical body, with brown eyes and sharp, angular facial features. He was quite dashing, and he sat down for the interview with my brother. He seemed to have good manners, and sat straight and had a confident air about him.

"I would like to formally invite you to become my personal knight, Varo Hans Lupus," he said, bowing his head in acknowledgement.

"I formally accept your invitation with great honor, my lord," Varo answered, bowing his head in return.

The sorcerer came forward to the stone table at which we sat, and took out a piece of chalk, drawing a strange diagram in the center of the table with characters for their names all throughout the symbol, and he pulled out a small knife.

"Please cut your hands, and hold them over the frame," he instructed, and they both did so. "As I recite the ancient tongue of subjugation, you must deliver your Knight's Oath to your new master," the sorcerer told Varo. "When you are finished, he will respond in kind with a vow of his own, and use the power of the subjugation spell to bind you to him."

They each nodded, and I watched in awe as the chanting began, the circle on the table lighting up a bright red color as soon as the blood dropped onto the frame, and Varo spoke even above the chanting.

"I, Varo Hans Lupus, hereby vow to follow, protect and honor my master, Astaroth Renard Severing. I will not harm him, I will not betray him, and I will not abandon him. I so vow that I shall not obey any command from any other, with the exception of the royal family, due to my Oath of Fealty to the imperial family. I hereby vow that no other shall come before my master, nor my master's wishes. I so vow."

My brother spoke up. "I, Astaroth Renard Severing, hereby hear and accept this vow from my newly sworn personal knight, Varo Hans Lupus, and I vow in return to not ask any demand that would dishonor my knight. I hereby vow to be a just master, a deserving master, a master who respects my knight. I will rely on and trust my knight, and I will demand trust and obedience in return. For as long as this knight follows me well, he will be fed and clothed in my name, I so vow."

My father pulled out a sword, and had Varo kneel before him. He touched both of Varo's shoulders with the blade. "I, Leodore Renard Severing, duke and lord of the house of Severing, hereby witness and accept the oaths given by the knight and his new master. May this knight see true to his vow, and may the master see fit to honor his pledge. I hereby acknowledge this ceremony as complete."

I startled as Varo shouted out in pain, hissing as a seal in the same design as on the table began to melt into the flesh of the back of his hand, and I watched in fascination as my brother lifted his still-bleeding wound to rest over the fresh scorch mark, letting his blood drip onto the wound, and I could almost feel the pulse throughout the room as their heartbeats suddenly synced, matching beat for beat.

Both Astaroth and Varo gasped out, sweaty and seemingly spent, breath labored as the struggled.

A knight noticed my confused reaction, and he smiled at me, explaining with a small bow.

"The subjugation actually comes at a cost of energy. The more powerful the Knight, the harder it is to subjugate him, even with the help of a sorcerer. However, since Sir Varo's skills are mostly in speed and agility, his physical strength wasn't overbearing for someone who already trains in Knighthood himself, and that's why your brother has such a mild reaction.

"That's a m-mild reaction?" I asked, clutching my hands to my chest as I watched them still catching their breath.

The knight chuckled. "Oh, yes. We've seen some lords in here who passed out, ending up unconscious and have to retry when the Knight has been forcefully sedated in order to subjugate him properly."

"Even if both parties agree?" I asked, surprised.