Defending Left-Handed

Chapter 8

Liriel walked towards them exposing himself to everyone. He did not wince or even decided to take a step back. He heard a man chuckled. It was the knight who got jealous of him. Liriel looked at him and he saw he already had a lot red ribbons on hand. He has some from yellow, too. He was from red team, just like him. He betrayed some of their teammates. He should not supposed to have some red ribbon. smirked. Looks like he has a target, he thought.

“Look who’s coming. Have you decided to surrender your ribbon?” He looked at Liriel with a threatening eyes.

He roamed the surrounding and it looked like everyone were ready to surrender their ribbons for him, too. Were they calling themselves a knight? The king’s knight was a joke. They were a lot of chicken people here. How could they be afraid of a senior? Maybe that was the reason why Reasee and I got in easily despite of our background, Liriel thought.

Liriel passed through the yellow team and secretly grabbed the yellow teams ribbon. Luckily, they did not notice because it was dark and they were focused of them talking. “Yes sir, I am willing to surrender my ribbon to you. I know you are the perfect fit to be the assistant leader. No one should become the assistant leader other than you,” Liriel said with a monotone tone to mock him.

He walked towards him and offered him his red ribbon. “Here you go, sir.”

The knight laughed and forcefully grabbed it to Liriel. “You sound bullshit but that’s right. Worship me.”

Liriel did not say a thing as an answer. He turned his back and walked to where he came from.

“Where are yours?!” the jealous knight asked to the others. Liriel smirked and ran. He would no longer be the assistant leader. Liriel counted the yellow ribbon that he has. It was only fifteen. So the remaining yellow ribbon was with the jealous man. If he were to compete with Reasee, for sure, he would win. He laughed and inserted the ribbons on his pocket. He did not want to become an assistant leader anyway.

His attention was diverted when he heard a rustle of leaves behind his back. All of the red, green, and yellow team members were on the other side. Who could it be?

Liriel walked towards the bush where he heard the rustle.

“Show yourself,” he called.

No one answered but the bush continued to rustle.

On the corner, he saw a foot. It must be a human. Liriel tapped his holster but he has no weapons. Their weapons were removed for this training but Little did the captain know, he already embedded some hidden weapons. He grabbed a knife under his sole.

“Show yourself if you do not want to be hurt.”

The rustle continued but this time, he heard a laugh. A man’s laughed.

“A king’s knight,” the man said and stood up from the bush.

Liriel looked at him from head to toe. He also has this ragged cloth that was the same from the left-handed man who got killed during the king’s ball.

“And you are a left-handed, are you camping around here?”

The left-handed man laughed. “Why would I expose our hideout to a king’s knight?”

Right, I am a king’s knight. He would not trust me, Liriel thought.

“I am one of you. I am the son of the Gaden’s. Remember them? The king’s right hands?”

The man laughed. “I do not believe you.”

“What should I do for you to believe me?”

He really need to get his trust because eventually, he would join them of he could not execute his revenge as knight due to different restrictions.

The man quietly stared at him for a few minutes before he uttered a word. “I do not really consider trusting a knight but if you want my trust bring us some supplies of weapons and food. I’ll be here every time. I am the one who will come to you,” the man said and drifted off.

Weapons and food? How would he be able to get those without being notice? The food might be a little simple because all he need to do was get into the storage area. There were a lot of supplies of food so no one would really notice if he would take some However, with the weapons, it was sure that it was counted. They might have a lot of spare weapons inside the weaponry but it was guarded. If he would to become an assistant leader, he might have an access to het inside.

He looked at the yellow ribbons in his pocket. He only has fifteen yellow ribbons. Would he be able to win? But if Reasee win, he would just ask him for favor.

Liriel was removed from his thoughts when he heard the signal from their captain. He waited for a few minutes before going there because if he were to walk with the other knight, they might grabbed his ribbon from him.

“We have 60 boxes prepared here in front. They all have your names. Please put all your ribbons in your box. Step forward, all of you.”

They were three-colored boxes in front. Red, green, and yellow.

Most of the knights did not move a step. They were only three knights who were walking towards their boxes. Liriel put his fifteen ribbon in his box. The other boxes around him were empty. It looked like they were not able to grab some. They let there fear overpowered them than their will to be promoted or improve.

Liriel looked at Reasee walking. Reasee looked at him, as , and smiled. Based on the ribbons on his hand, he had quite a few compared to him. It looked like Reasee would win.

“This is disappointing. How could only three knights have a ribbons on their boxes. What about the others?!”

The other knights bowed their head down due to embarrassment.

“Starting from now, during the training, if none of you improve, I have no other choice but to remove some of you. I wonder how did you qualified as the king’s knight if you were this weak,” the captain said angrily.

No one talked.

“Tsk,” the captain hissed and walked towards jealous man’s red box, “Emmanuel,” the captain called. Emmanuel stepped forward.

“Yes, sir,” Emmanuel answered proudly because he has the most ribbons.

“What are your insights for this part of the training?”

Emmanuel pauses for a minute to think. “All right, captain. My insight is ‘You will do anything for your heart’s desire’.”

“You have 25 ribbons,” the captain counted. “You have the most ribbons among the three of you, Gaden and Sarhel “

Emmanuel smiled and confidently answered, “Yes, si-“

However, the captain cut him off. “And you are the only one who did not understand the assignment. Sarhel and Gaden here are both from your team but they did not have any red ribbons here. Which means, they value and know who there teams are and they would not betray them but you, you have most of the red ribbon, you betrayed your team which means, you are automatic disqualified for this part of the training.” Everyone’s jaw dropped. They did not expected it. If they did not expected it, then they definitely did not understand why the captain gave us this assignment.

The captain transferred to Liriel’s box, “Gaden, you have 15 yellow ribbons,” he said. Liriel stepped forward. “Yes, sir.”

“Sarhel,” the captain called Reasee and it was Reasee’s turn to step forward. “Sir.”

“And you have 20 which means you have more ribbons compared to Gaden. Congratulations Sarhel, you will be the captain’s assistant and the company’s leader.”