A Female Knight From A Commoner Background

Rosalind Shields made steady progress along the less than well maintained road. She was the only figure trodding the dirt path that snaked through a sea of wild grass. An overstuffed, bulging backpack was strapped to her back, one that looked heavy enough to have troubled a mule, yet she strode forward with a steady discipline. The repeating sound of her heavy steps and the clanking of her armor created a rhythm to accompany her journey. Her destination was the remote village Knottori, where she would be stationed until further notice, which meant until she quit or caved.

What made Knottori such a difficult assignment? Could it be cruel bandits that would show no mercy to men, women, and children? Maybe monsters that would savagely rip the flesh off of a farmer defending his land with only his tools? Perhaps a curse from an insane witch or human sacrifices by a dark cult? Rosalind’s imagination ran wild as she knew exactly what reality held for her. Boredom, only torturous boredom. The only reports that came from this entire region read “All’s Quiet”. These reports were penned by knights that were sent off like her, waiting for a replacement to finally take over their monotonous duty. Someone had to be there to make the villagers feel like their taxes were buying them security, so knights of low talent, low ambition, or knights that were being punished by their superiors were sent to fill the undesirable role.

Rosalind undoubtedly had talent. During the knight’s entrance exams, she stood just under the first sons of various noble households that had access to training and teachings from birth. What impressed the test administrators was her lack of such background. While she lacked the technique and experience that her fellows had, she made up for it with every other aspect. She had clearly trained extensively, displaying strength and stamina that greatly exceeded expectations. Her reflexes and cleverness were on full display during the sparring test, using them to react to techniques and styles that she had never seen before. At the end of the testing, she had managed to place above all other commoner entrants as well as sons of lower noble families.

Such a result drew as much ire as admiration, with squad commanders opting to pass on her talents in order to keep the nobles within their ranks satisfied. With hindsight, it may have been wiser to perform closer to others’ expectations of her. As the saying goes, the clever hawk hides its claws, but the excitement of coming to the capital as well as her lack of insight into knights’ politics resulted in such a predicament. At the end of assignment, she was stuck in the worst squad under the worst commander.

The 26th squad “Zan” was composed of the bottom of the barrel recruits who were tasked with taking the jobs that no other squad wanted. The only reason that the squad was allowed to exist under the knights was so that the other squads did not have to fulfill such perfunctory tasks. The Zan squad commander, Bhuta, took full advantage of this. All he had to do was make sure that his squad kept doing the knights’ chores and not cause a huge enough scandal. With no motivation nor ability to train his squad members, he indulged himself in the power of his position, taking any bribes he would be offered, spending the budget on personal expenses, and a myriad of other petty corruptions. He was a disgusting, fat frog sitting contentedly in a small well full of sewage. Rumors and stories about the squad and its commander did go around occasionally, but the other commanders frankly didn’t care about such petty crimes. The public failed to concern itself as well, as it was expected from the squad of barely knights.

It was in this environment that Rosalind was constantly sexually harassed by commander Bhuta, ranging from derogatory remarks to thinly veiled propositions for sex. She wasn’t the first female member that he had done this with. Commander Bhuta was known for exchanging sex for better task assignments, and even recommendations. Even with the reputation of the Zan squad, there were still members that pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and proved themselves worthy of a better post. Within the squads, outstanding members could be given a recommendation by the commander, and move into more prestigious squads. When it came to female members, commander Bhuta would offer such a recommendation, but only after several discussions in his private chambers.

After enduring commander Bhuta’s incessant badgering, Rosalind finally vented her frustrations in a very loud fashion in front of both the commander and the squad members. She voiced her disgust for the commander, and her utter disappointment in the knights as a whole for the situation she had been put in. After leaving in a rage, she was greeted the next day by a change in assignments.

Even though her backpack and armor weighed heavily on her shoulders, her heart was light and her mind was clear. Rosalind was finally out of that hellhole where she only wasted her time and efforts. While she was sad that her dreams of becoming a heroic knight didn’t go the way she had hoped, she was just relived to leave all the politics, discrimination, and harassment behind. Ever the optimist, she was sure that this was not the end to her story, but rather just the beginning.