He Finds Her Training

The sound of hooves hitting the dirt road finally came to an end. The warm sun beamed down on Earnest as he dismounted his horse, hopping off the saddle and leading it by the reins. Marmedoke was an older mount, certainly not the fastest, but affordable and reliable. Since Earnest was on personal leave and not a mission, he had to bear all the costs himself. While his earnings as a knight weren’t poor by any means, he kept little to himself, sending the rest to his family back in his hometown. While he couldn’t afford to fully purchase a horse outright, he was able to negotiate borrowing from one of the horse traders in the capital, one that had quite the favorable impression towards the 7th squad and commander Roland.

Thankfully, the journey from the capital to Knottori was blessed with mild weather and no delays. While Earnest’s mind would grow worried for Rosalind during the late nights camping, the swift pace that he was making towards her eased his mind during the day. After only a few days of travel, he reached the entrance of the remote village in the early afternoon. He had already passed a few fields and caught glimpses of some farmhouses as he neared the village, but a simple wooden sign attached to a plain log post signified that he had officially reached his destination.

Earnest followed the dirt path, leading his horse behind him as he found himself outside an inn. He tied Marmedoke’s reins to a post that was near some fresh looking grass, then entered the inn. Inside, Earnest saw that his arrival was towards the end of the lunch. There were only a few patrons still eating and drinking, with most of the other tables only occupied by used plates and cups from diners that had already left. Earnest himself hadn’t eaten since the early morning, and the smell of food provoked a loud grumble from his stomach. He walked up to the counter, catching a few eyes as he crossed the room in his knight’s armor, and caught the attention of the innkeeper.

“‘Ello there, sir. How can I help ya?”

“Hello. I’d like to order a meal, if that wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

“A meal? O’ course you can order a meal! I thought you were about to come arrest somebody, walkin’ in here lookin’ like that. Uh, no disrespect.”

“None taken, what do you have?”

“Well if you don’t mind waitin’ a bit, we can fix ya some chicken or pork. Comes with a bun and a roast potato topped with cheese. If you want somethin’ right now, we still have some leftovers from lunch. Leftovers ‘re pork sausage, a bun, an’ a mix o’ roast veggies.”

“I’m fine with leftovers, thank you. Before you go, do you happen to know Rosalind Shields?”

“Miss knight? Oh, I mean Rosalind? O’ course I know her! Why, everyone in town does. Why do you ask? Ya here for her?”

“Yes, I am. I’m a friend of hers. Just visiting.”

“Good to know! Well if you wanna find her, you might spot ‘er patrolin’ ‘round the village or trainin’ not too far from the inn, up the path that starts goin’ north. Anyways, I’ll have your food out real quick. I heard the noise from your belly ‘fore I heard the noise from your armor!”

The innkeeper left with a chuckle, and true to her word she returned just a few minutes later with a plateful of lunch leftovers. It was good for what it was, but it was still lunch leftovers in a small village inn. Earnest didn’t mind though, his mind was more on Rosalind than his meal.

From what he saw, the village seemed peaceful on the surface. It was just as Rosalind had described in her early letters to Earnest. A quaint and quiet place, with friendly people just going about their own lives. From what the innkeeper said, Rosalind wasn’t just bragging when she wrote about getting to know most of the villagers.

However, in the last letter that Earnest had received, he had detected some subtle changes. A sense of **** positivity, like Rosalind was worried about something but didn’t want to concern Earnest with her own problems. Earnest normally wouldn’t have noticed it, but ever since her letters stopped, he had re-read it multiple times for any clues as to why.

Just hearing that Rosalind was still in Knottori and still alive was already a weight lifted from his mind. In his worries, Earnest's mind had thought of some truly tragic worst-case scenarios, things that he knew were very unlikely, but tormented him nonetheless. But now he knew that his worst fears were nothing but paranoia. Still, this begged the question as to why Rosalind had cut contact so suddenly. There were plenty of possibilities and speculations that Earnest could conjure, but now that he was in Knottori, the truth wasn’t far.

Earnest finished eating, then paid the innkeeper for his meal and a room to stay the night. He dropped his bags off in the small upstairs room before leaving the inn to search for Rosalind. He made the reasonable choice of first heading to the training area that the innkeeper had mentioned. Following the northern path, it wasn’t long before he saw a familiar figure in the distance, swinging a sword in the shade of a large tree.

She was fully equipped in armor, and seemed to be practicing against imaginary foes. Dodging invisible attacks, responding in kind with attacks against the emptiness, Rosalind seemed to be immersed in her fictional battle. Earnest had rarely seen Rosalind do this type of training, usually preferring raw exercise and sparring. In his mind, Earnest could imagine Rosalind saying, “Experience from sparring against a real person is worth more than any imaginary opponent.” or something to that effect. The few times that he had seen Rosalind practice this way, she made it a point to cut out any unnecessary movement, focussing on quickly and efficiently dispatching her assailants, just like she would in a real spar.

However, what Earnest now saw was far from that. Rosalind looked almost like she was doing a dance of sorts, making dramatic movements that flowed into flashy sword moves that lacked real, practical substance. It was certainly very different, but somewhat endearing, like she was doing it for fun rather than seriously training. Maybe after being stuck in such a boring assignment for so long, Rosalind was merely finding ways to entertain herself.

Earnest continued to walk down the path towards her, with Rosalind surprisingly failing to notice him even as he got closer. Perhaps boredom and peace had also dulled her senses as well. When Rosalind finally saw Earnest approaching, she froze at the sight of him.

Her surprised reaction got him to crack a smile, it was nice to see her again. Earnest half expected her to start running towards him with a big hug prepared. Instead, she remained rooted in place, staring at him. Perhaps she didn’t believe her eyes? Her expression seemed to be a mixture of surprise, confusion, and awe. Earnest had to be the one to break the silence.

“Long time no see.”

Rosalind seemed to be lost for words, something that he never thought possible for her.

“I hope you don’t mind the sudden visit, I was just worried since your letters stopped a few months ago. I’m sure I’ve been worrying over nothing, but I came to check on you just in case. How have you been?”

It took a second, but something seemed to click within Rosalind and she finally responded.

“O-Oh, Earnest! Yea, Earnest, long time no see. Yea of course, the letters… I, uh, sent ‘em. I did send them… They must’ve gotten lost along the way somehow. You know how it is with couriers and letters out here and all… In fact I was getting worried myself ‘cuz your letters were missing too. But I can’t just leave Knottori so easily, and it’s just a few mistakes with the mail. No big deal right? Anyways, how are you, Earnest?”

Earnest spent the next couple of hours talking with Rosalind. He told her about the upcoming tournament, recent missions, and some new techniques that he had learned. Rosalind seemed more attentive than usual, drinking up Earnest’s words with great interest. At the same time, she also seemed to be a little… nervous perhaps? Maybe on-guard was a better way to put it.

Despite this, she would ask tons of questions about Earnest’s activities as a knight of the 7th squad, and request all the details he could give. Earnest guessed that being confined to this rural village had made Rosalind hungry for stories of action and whatnot. He usually wouldn’t exaggerate his stories, but for Rosalind’s sake he embellished things a little, since she seemed to enjoy it more that way.

“...so after fighting until we reached the deepest parts of the cave, we finally reached the nest. The queen was much larger and more ferocious than its children, and we were starting to feel some exhaustion by then. Through our teamwork, we were able to carefully kite the queen and attack her blindspots. I’ll never forget the horrific sounds of its dying screams, or the feeling of having to destroy its numerous eggs after the battle.”

“Oh wow, how scary… A dark cave infested by demonic monsters… I can imagine the bravery it took to keep going deeper… And to face off against the queen yourself… Incredible…”

After some time and many stories, Earnest’s voice grew hoarse, since he was the one doing most of the talking. He would have loved to keep chatting, but he knew that there would be more time later. Rosalind seemed fine, a bit different now, but hardly in any danger. He invited Rosalind to join him for dinner, which she readily accepted. Earnest left Rosalind to return to her training, and started heading back to the inn, content in knowing that Rosalind was safe.