He Finds Her At An Inn

Earnest’s legs were towing a fine balance of exhaustion. He wanted to travel as fast as he could, so he pushed himself, but also needed to conserve enough energy to confront an unknown situation. He had been maintaining a marching pace the whole journey, sleeping at inns along the way and camping when there were none to be found.

Earnest cursed himself yet again for being short sighted. If he had just talked with commander Roland more instead of leaving as soon as possible, he could have gotten Roland to send him to Knottori village as a mission, rather than grant him leave time. That way, Earnest would have the ability to make use of the squad’s horses. However, he was on leave, so there was no justification for using the knights’ horses for personal time. If he had only thought of this before talking with Roland. He was sure that Roland would have made it happen, as it was in Roland’s interests that he got back sooner, and in better condition.

Further, if he had properly kept an emergency fund, he could have purchased a horse for personal use. However, Earnest regularly sent nearly all his pay back to his family, and kept only a small amount at hand. At the time, this filled Earnest with pride, but now he only saw his past self as foolish. Earnest had gained some self hatred when he found out how short-sighted and reckless he became when it came to Rosalind. He felt like he was failing some sort of test or trial. Instead of being calm, composed, and clever, he found his own character to be brash, panicked, and foolish. He had been in plenty of high pressure situations before, but none had caused him to act like this.

Earnest was **** for information. Whenever he took a necessary rest in an inn, he would ask the innkeeper and the patrons for any rumors regarding Knottori village. The only answers that he got were of Rosalind replacing the old knight who was stationed there before. Past that, there was absolutely nothing. Such a lack of information only led him to speculate on more and more outlandish scenarios.

There was no news of bandits roaming the area, nor any unusual monster activity. There were no disruptions with trade or communication with the villagers. It was only Rosalind that changed, but there weren’t any rumors after her arrival. With his own concern as his travel companion and his imagination as his conversation partner, Earnest's head ran wild with conspiracy.

Did the villagers kill her and cover it up? Maybe they dumped her body in the forest to be eaten by feral beasts, or buried it under the farmland.

Did Rosalind abandon her post and desert the knights? Maybe the punishment really was too much for her. Maybe the 26th squad and its commander shattered her faith in the knights as a whole and killed her dream to become a hero.

Maybe she became an adventurer, and was out on the frontier, slaying beasts and crawling through ancient ruins with a plucky party of misfit characters.

Perhaps Rosalind was just fine at Knottori village, but someone in the knights was intercepting their letters to each other. Maybe one of the exhibition participants wanted Earnest to perform poorly, so they orchestrated this simple sabotage. But then again, no one knew about Earnest’s and Rosalind’s connection, not even commander Roland knew until Earnest brought it up while asking for leave.

Maybe Rosalind was simply done with Earnest. Even though they were close in their childhood, they were both from a small village, and maybe after coming to the capital, her view changed. Maybe she was in Knottori village right now, happily married and in love with a new man, expressing their passion for each other at every opportunity…

He rationalized away his rampant fantasies, telling himself that the truth had to be simple, even boring. The courier that delivered letters probably lost them a few times. Maybe it was Earnest's letters that had started to get lost, and Rosalind worrying about Earnest as much as he was worrying for her right now. She wouldn’t be able to leave the village as he was able to leave the capital, so maybe she was thinking of drastic measures to try to check up on him.

This idea brought half of a smile to his face, something it hadn’t done since this all started. Imagine, two people worrying their heads off over each other, over some tiny, unlucky mistakes. Earnest laughed through his nose, breaking into a full smile. He didn’t know why, but he felt like it would all be okay, that he would look back at this moment and laugh about how overly worried he got. He imagined telling Rosalind how worried he was, and her teasing him for always worrying about her too much, putting her arm around his shoulders as both of them sharing a laugh. Such pleasant thoughts filled Earnest’s head as he approached the Knottori village inn.

Earnest pushed the old wooden door inwards. The rusty hinges groaned, signaling his entrance to those inside the inn. Anyone who looked saw a man clad in traveling gear, with a camping pack to match. Even without the knights' shining armor, observers could detect the disciplined and measured way that he moved and the decently built musculature that gave him away as no simple traveler.

While multiple sets of eyes were on Earnest, he looked back just the same. He saw simple folk, dressed in simple clothes, likely just finished with their day’s work. Inns served as social centers for small towns, and Knottori village was no exception. He saw men covered in dirt with large arms forged from years of hard labor in the fields. Nearby, there were women seated together, chatting amongst themselves, one of them knitting as she listened and occasionally chimed in. There was a teenage couple sharing a small table, chatting, laughing, and surely flirting with each other by the way the looked at each other.

As Earnest continued to scan the room, preparing to ask the villagers questions about Rosalind, his eyes snapped to a patron that was faced away from him with a familiar head of hair. He immediately began striding towards her, growing more certain the closer he got. It was Rosalind.