"I'm sorry." The governor looked down and pressed his brows together. "What?"
"The three walls of the vanguard have broken down and everyone is dead!" Melvin announced with excitement behind his words.
The sunlit room was then flooded by a wave of gasps followed by a moment of silence. Soon, the guards along with the others stood back and began whispering with one another. The air in the sunlit room of the governor grew heavy and after a slow nod, the green knight stood from his seat, tilting his head to let his long dark hair flow to his shoulders as he drew his blade.
"Not cool man… look what you've done." Charles moved forward, taking his gaze away from Melvin and diverting it to their governor who's now looking a bit grim. "I'm sorry, sir, but what he meant was… we spent the night in the southern outpost but we were attacked, and that's the reason why we rushed over to the vanguard, but by the time we've arrived at dawn, everything was destroyed, everyone was dead, save for a black knight who named himself Tiffany who had also claimed that he was the one who did it along with his army of noctems."
"A knight named Tiffany?" The governor asked as his voice grew sharper. "You're kidding me."
"We've managed to defeat it nevertheless, but all of us sustained a considerable amount of damage and we had to wait out a full day to recover," Roland said as he moved to Charles' side.
The governor, who's now pressing his fingers deep into his cheeks leaned forward. With his voice now becoming a bit hurried and irritated, he asked, "I'm sorry, but I can't… you're fucking with me aren't you?"
"Excuse me?" Charles raised his voice.
"You see, here I am, on edge, for the last two days, waiting on my beloved messengers to come back as fast as they could. I expected them to deliver a letter to the vanguard and, they came back announcing that the southern outpost has been fucked along with it because of a black knight named Tiffany!" The governor shouted as he clenched both of his fists, silencing those who were still whispering.
"Sounds about right," Melvin agreed with a smile but his friends killed his enthusiasm as soon as he realized that they weren't doing the same thing.
"The question…" The governor looked into his palm as he ran it over his face with a groan. He took a moment to take a deep breath through his nose and with his voice still sounding gruff, slow and irritated, he followed, "well, the thing about this is that I thought that you've spent the money I gave you on a brothel which would be reasonable, of course, or at least on drinks, which is, again, perfectly understandable. But this… the question really is I don't know what those rotten potatoes had in them, because, you see I am the governor, and I would know if one of my outposts is fucked… you understand that right?"
The smell of old paper in the air grew only heavier with their group now nodding in agreement with their leader sitting in front of them. None of them seemed to mind the green knight approaching them, except for Maya and Roland who had his hand right hand sitting on the hilt of his sword.
"So, following in your words, you came here after taking your sweet time on the fields, with a woman from the southern outpost who you claim to have been destroyed without me knowing, and along with this bastard who had the audacity to bring a decapitated head in my halls while saying that that came from a knight who referred himself as fucking Tiffany?!"
"Well…" Charles mumbled as he looked at his friends.
Seeing that as a reaction, the look on the governor's face turned even darker. He gritted his teeth behind his stern expression and slowly asked, "Last chance, again, I've got an army ready to march at my command. Just tell me you're fucking with me, tell me its a joke, please."
"Well, s-"
Charles was interrupted by a lethal gust of wind that shook his spine and weakened his knees. The green knight that he kept at the corner of his eye had disappeared in a flash and before he knew it, he was now there, in front of him, pointing his sword with a murderous smile dressing his face.
He found a moment to steal a glance at his sides. Maya had both her hands muffling his mouth, Melvin was left frozen in shock like the others with Tiffany's head dangling in his hand and Roland was left in place, gritting his teeth with only half of his sword drawn. The thought of him dying flooded his mind but even so, he calmed himself by taking a deep breath through his nose to lo let out a tired sigh.
He looked at the green knight and moved it to the governor who commanded him to stop. "With all due respect sir, I've had enough of being a coward within the span of three days and honestly, your views would change if you faced a monster who decimated the vanguard, who personally said that he would be coming for your ass," he chuckled while the others remained silent. "This honorable knight's attack was indeed deadly but sadly, I didn't feel any commitment behind it."
"Nice words… is your pants okay though?" The green knight's murderous gaze died down into a whimsical smirk that brought Charles and the others a bit of relief.
"Heh… might've noticed your pants…" Melvin scoffed under his breath.
"I'm doing my best to hold it in thank you…" Charles knitted his brows whispered before he turned his head to look at the governor once more. "So, you want me to say it right? So here you go. Sire, the vanguard is fucked and everyone is dead. If you had some extra time so we could all watch that goddamn play, you better spend all of that manpower to cover the city and its vicinity."
"So-"
"And fortunately, we might have all the time in the goddamn world because we made sure of it."
"I can't detect any lies after all but, all I could say is that there's a heavy trace of healing magic stuck on this man's arm. He doesn't look like an amateur so I don't think that he might've overdone it for just a sprain or a dislocated shoulder. Something must've happened." The green knight said and everyone took a moment of silence.
"Lower your weapon, you too, Roland, especially you, the guy with that head, just… don't wave it around... it irks me." The governor then moved his attention to the green knight. "What about the others' condition?"
"The poor knight had it all over his body, especially his hands, the woman had one around his stomach up to her chest, and for the last one… I… I don't think I can sense anything from him… something's wrong… It feels like something happened but I don't see any mana behind it."
The governor ran his palm over his face once again before he leaned back with a sad sigh. He looked outside as if in deep thought and after a moment, he looked at them and said, "That's enough. Pull out some personnel from the PR team, have them investigate.on what happened and have them report to me as soon as possible. Councilors, drop the war tactics for dummies and help me sort out the army in smaller groups for security, recon, and patrols… and you three… thank you for your service, you may now head back and rest. Look forward to your VIP seats."
"But… what about the information that we have?" Roland followed. Melvin wanted to speak but Maya jumped on him and covered his mouth.
"No, I need a bit of silence for now… I'll just sort things out here and take some time off myself."
"Sir, but what about the letter?" Charles asked as he glanced at the green knight who's walking towards his seat without anyone noticing.
"Leave it here, I'll think about what I could do with it later…"
"But before we go, out of curiosity, what did it contain? Was it a decree, a love letter, or perhaps, a song?" Roland asked with a smile as he turned his body to face the door.
"Fine." The governor sighed and looked down on his feet with his chin resting on top of his left hand. "It had a letter, I had it enchanted to reduce its weight but it had a book as well, a sequel, to be precise, which was supposed to be a gift for my best of friend, the commander of the frontier."