บท 15: The Calm
Hans Eques calmly stood guard at the academy's front gates. He watched as eager magic casting apprentices walked through the gates. Their neat and tidy appearance displayed their status in society as nobles and their attitudes reflected that. Hans was already used to their haughtiness and so he did not mind it, instead just continuing to stand guard as the students entered the academy in their small groups. After all why should he care about the attitude of some brats who were brought up in a sheltered life? Sooner or later the harshness of reality would come crashing down onto them. Within the waves of smug students a certain group caught his gaze.
While Hans was one of the warhounds assigned to the academy he belonged to the reserve troop who usually idled around in the staff rooms and as such he was not well acquainted with the students. It was Hans turn to sub in for a fellow warhound who went missing recently.
This certain group that stole his gaze composed of three people, two girls and one boy. The one in the middle had a fair face with bronze-red hair and exuded an air of absolute courage and impulsiveness but not egotistical like the other students, instead displaying an aura of naivety. The one to the right was a boy with a bland doll-like face, being neither beautiful nor ugly, he gave a cold and calculating aura yet within that aura, Hans could feel a sense of benevolence, it was an awkward way to describe it but Hans nevertheless felt still it. The blonde one on the left however, exuded an air of peace and tranquility, from her he could sense mercy and forgiveness yet within those emotions he could also sense self-doubt as if she wasn't sure of herself.
[These three, now these three are different from the rest. They experienced it. A life changing moment that forced them to mature. That's good. It's nice to see that a among the crowd of self righteous smug nobles there are people like them.] Hans continued to muse about the trio to pass the time, after all the abundance of chaos beasts that were supposedly spotted in the academy's vicinity weren't spotted in quite some time. The only reason the warhounds even continued to guard the academy was out of formalities due to the contract they signed.
While Hans would have preferred to see some action, he knew better than to break the warhound code and betray the organisation's trust. Soon there were no more students to be seen and as such the gates were closed. All that was left for Hans to do was to stare absently onto the open field in front of him, to the west there lay the Dasos forest while to the east there was the Archeron river. The academy wasn't located within the capital's city walls but rather closer to the villages near the city. This was because the academy used to be one of the many fortresses on the outskirts of the city where a knight's garrison was stationed to protect the local villages who were the lifeblood of the capital from bandits and roaming monsters.
However, within the last 50 or so years, the King grew tired with bandits and monsters raiding the trade convoys that was importing foodstuffs from the local villages and started a large scale campaign. The bandits were virtually exterminated while the monsters where pushed back to the wild lands. The only monsters to be found were the occasional chaos beast who unlike the natural monsters have no sense of self-preservation. The result was that the garrisons were no longer needed, so some of the fortresses were repurposed as manors for new nobles or embassies for the foreign kingdoms. The academy was one such fortress.
"Didn't expect to see you actually guarding the front gate Hans. I expected you to sneak off and bribe a friend to replace you while you indulge in your liquor in your sad little corner."
The one who was speaking, Skylos, was a fellow warhound who just arrived after closing the gate. The closed gate meant nothing to him as he simply teleported onto his post. Skylos was one of the few rare magic casters who could teleport however, according to him, due to his trait 'haste' he learnt the technique with relative ease.
"Stop with the unfunny jokes. You know that I'll always remain loyal to the organisation, as long as my belly is full and the battles aren't boring, I'll gladly throw myself into any battlefield."
"And that's exactly why you won't live too long."
A third voice, belonging to that of a women cut into the conversation.
"What's the point of all those extra years if you waste them standing idly by? The thrill of battle is the only thing I'll need in life. But that's something a person like you wouldn't understand"
This person in question was Sylvie. Since most women warriors were generally looked down upon and female knights were virtually non-existent this lead to most female warriors becoming a warhound where they are accepted on the basis on their abilities as well as how well they can keep to the warhound code. However, unlike most other female warriors who joined the Warhounds to seek thrills in combat, she simply joined to feed her stomach and have a roof over her head. Perhaps the fact that Nobles seldom interferes with warhound affairs may also be a contributing factor as Hans heard from the rumours that Sylvie was actually the bastard child of an earl. While she lived a sheltered life for a while when the nobles eventually found out she was banished from the household.
Her skills with the sword that she learnt from the Earl's knights however, quickly earned her the respect of some warhounds and eventually, she became one herself. Rumour had it that some of her step-brothers detest and secretly wanted to murder her but due to her status as a warhound which technically marks her as a 'foreign' citizen they can't do anything to her.
As their laughter filled the air, he caught something in the corner of his eye. To the west in the Dasos forest he saw something. Focusing his eyes onto the forest, he found two glowing red eyes. Two blood-red eyes that displayed an innate desire for bloodshed and carnage. Two glowing red eyes the craved chaos.
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