'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 3: The Prophecy

Black Knight's Armour

Saturday, 24th September 1442

I realised it was already the wee hours of the morning after I had completed performing the breathing exercises and also the meditation as I hurriedly went back to the domain. I hoped that Heather and the twins were still asleep since the rooster had not even made its morning crow yet.

I glanced at the mechanical clock on the ground floor of the domain and saw that it is only past 1 o'clock in the morning and the nights during autumn would be longer.

I removed my soldier's uniform, followed by the Shadows' toughened leather and then finally the gambeson which I had guessed correctly. It could literally stand upright by itself after soaking my sweat for the whole day when I placed it on the floor. Hahaha...!

You can call it reinforced sweaty gambeson if you like. Hahaha...!

I wore my nightgown and went to have a quick wash up and after that I felt much more relaxed as the heavy pieces of clothing was finally removed from my self.

I saw that after tucking Heather to sleep, she didn't budge an inch and wondered if that's the trick to make her not to sprawl unmajestically on the bed every time.

I sprawled myself next to Heather and soon was fast asleep and was lulled into a dreamless state.

It was Heather who stirred first from the bed and she woke me up as she discovered she was still dressed up in her last night's clothes. "Dear, are you awake yet? It seemed that you had a late-night shower, didn't you? The smell of body soap and hair shampoo is still lingering on your body and what did you do to your gambeson?"

I mumbled a few words and tried pulling Heather back to bed but she told me that dawn is already breaking as the night sky was filled with bluish-green clouds. I squinted my eyes to look at her and then I saw that the gambeson that I had placed on the floor was still there and was still upright...!

"That's the sign of my gambeson working hard for the citizens of this town, my dear. Hahaha. It is filled with sweat, blood and tears and right now it's also stinky as well. Hahaha."

I sat up in bed and how I wished I could have breakfast in bed instead for a change. But with the twins around, I don't think it would be possible when the twins were still pitter-pattering along the floor but maybe in the next few years to come.

"What would you like for breakfast dear? I had not prepared anything but I would get some freshly toasted bread from the bakery instead. As for lunch, what would you like to have?"

"Freshly toasted bread with fillings would be great, my dear. Wait... I've prepared something for you back in the realm for you. Why not you get breakfast and then I get changed first, alright?"

Hearing that so, had made something for Heather, her eyes seemed to sparkle. Luckily, I had removed my trinkets before I went for my shower or the secret would be out from the bag already.

"Alright honey, you get dressed first. Let me have a change and wash-up a little bit before we get breakfast for all of us.

Furthermore, the twins are still sleeping so it would be some time before they stirred up from their sleep.

Besides, the twins knew that there won't be school today and it seemed that they would prefer to spend additional time in bed.

When Heather had prepared breakfast after she had prep herself up, she went up to me and asked me, "What's the surprise, honey? The twins are still asleep, so you want to do something adventurous?"

I laughed at her and told her it's nothing sort of that. I held her hands and told her that all this while I had not gone her something significant or valuable except for the coronet that belonged to my late mother.

Her eyes were sparkling when I held her hand and when I produced two pairs of rings for her, she screamed in delight. I placed one ring on the ring finger on the left hand while I placed another in the right hand. Heather was literally speechless when she received those rings from me.

"It's so beautiful, although it looked a bit gaudy looking. But I loved it... Thank you so much, dear. Now at least I've got a rock bigger than Maricel. Hahaha...!"

I glanced at her sideways and wondered that was all in her mind since she was thinking of the rock or gemstones that had adorned her fingers for the first time ever since she was betrothed to me.

Besides, she ever held the rings before that was belonging to my late family but I didn't offer her anything and had never crossed my mind before until Marcel had brought his life partner and that's where I noticed Heather was mentioning the ring finger of the duo when she noticed those identical pair of rings.

"How about you, dear? You didn't get anything for yourself?" Heather asked and I was a bit too shy to reply and I showed her the set of trinkets that I had enhanced and handed it to her as I explained.

"These trinkets were imbued with good quality blue sapphires. These blue sapphires were used to add mana points where I would be able to deploy multiple skills without fearing that I would deplete my mana pool."

"Here, take a look at my new set of black knight's armour, there are 11 pieces here and every single piece had been enhanced with a single piece of good quality ruby, diamond, sapphires and emerald. I haven't changed into it since I do not have a black or red gambeson."

I showed her the armour pieces and pointed out the sockets where the enhancements were made. She looked in awe that I had more pieces of 'rocks' embedded in the armour as well as trinkets but she was more than happy to have the 2 rings that I had made for her.

"See, right now we have identical rings and not one but two even. Hahaha. Imagine if I punch someone, that person would be left with a permanent mark on their arms or face." the moment Heather mentioned that to me, I realised in horror that what she had said is true...!

Heather loved to bite, kick and punch so it's either I will be equipped with a full set of armour, or I would end up with more bruises instead...!

I guessed I would be better off wearing a full suit of armour and watch the games held in the Macleod Coliseum. As Ceres had ever mentioned to me, 'change the present to alter the future'. So wear an armour today and avoid bruises for tomorrow...! Hahaha.

"Hang on a minute dear. Do you think Innes would be around at this time in the morning? I would like to get a black or red coloured gambeson as my inner-wear. Anything to prevent chaffing when I put on these 11 pieces of armour."

"Not this early, dear. Don't worry. You can be left without your armour today. I will get your innerwear ready when the clothing store opens for business. They would be open after breakfast and we still haven't had ours yet."

I realised that I was still in my nightgown and had not changed into something decent. I went into the bedroom and rummaged through my old chest of clothes that were brought in by Eagle when he made his last trip to my old hometown and discovered that there was a piece of long sleeve shirt that I could use it for my under armour wear.

"I guessed this will do for the moment even though its in white colour." I thought to myself as I put it on along with a pair of tights as I slowly don my studded leather armour pants and followed by the rest.

After I was done, I stood in front of Heather and she was once again screamed in delight. Little did I knew that this simple black leather armour could bring so much delight for Heather.

After wearing the long sleeve under armour wear, even though the colour is white, the whole armour pieces covered all the exposed under armour wear and what stood before Heather was a slick and shiny black-coated man. If not for wearing my helm, she would not have recognised me at all. Hahaha.

"Well, I guess I could do away with the gambeson right now. Alright dear, I'm going for obstacles run now. Be seeing you soon for  breakfast."

I said as I adjusted the trinkets that I wore to be underneath my armour instead of dangling around. Besides, I am clearing the obstacles in the latest armour and what I would not be expecting would be any trinkets to get stuck while I'm clearing the obstacles.

I leaned forward to kiss Heather's forehead but she pulled me close to kiss me full on the mouth instead. After she had released me, it seemed she had to spend some moments before she was able to regain her breath...!

"Alright, I would be off now. Catch up with you later." I called out as I started to jog in my latest set of armour towards Macleod Coliseum and found that the armour pieces, even though it had some considerable weight in my hands before putting on, seemed to be rather manoeuvrable when all the pieces were on my body.

Besides I'm also wearing the soldier's uniform over my black armour since I would try to look inconspicuous as possible before the official day when I had to expose what I had worn.

"This black knight's armour really suited me very well..! Now to see how it would perform under extreme conditions today." Little did I realised that I had worn a total of additional 25 pounds on my self and I would also be carrying an additional 25 pounds of the sack of sand soon.

I gingerly jogged to the starting point where I carried the sack of sand and trapped dot on my back. The additional weight on my self was not really felt and the weight of the sand behind me also leave little significance.

I checked the timer of my information system panel and checked the timer was set. Once the guardsman blew his whistle, I literally flew down the 650 yards and soon reached the low wall where I cleared with a single sideways leap and not even scraped the top of the wall as I cleared it with ease.

The moment my foot touched the ground, what I left was a cloud of dust in my trail...!

I sprinted in between the obstacles and soon each of the stations was cleated with ease and no difficulties at all. I ran up the ramp, leapt off at the edge of it and soared a slightly longer distance than previously.

I sprang to my feet once it touched the ground and then those watching me were thinking that I might even be soaring through the air after that leap as I took off running the next moment.

I simply sprinted down the last 450 yards with large strides and when I crossed the finishing line, I soon discovered that I had slowly reached my own personal target.

The timer had stopped at 7 minutes and 25 seconds and I knew that if I didn't carry the sack of sand behind me I would have easily attained my old standard records. But again, the additional weight that had been evenly distributed on my body was as heavy as the sack of sand I'm carrying.

I handed back the sack of sand over to the guardsman and told him that I'm done for the day as I jogged back to the domain where Heather and my twins were waiting for me to have breakfast together.

"Back so soon my dear? I thought you would run a few more rounds today with your flashy new armour? Hahaha." Heather asked me as she twiddled her fingers that had a huge diamond on it and was proud when the domain helpers noticed it and complimented on it.

"Ah... I didn't know that Heather was this vain. Hahaha...!" I thought to myself as I reached for a halved golden pillow bread and shared it with the twins.