Walking around the estate was a messy black-haired man whose hair was starting to show strands of white. While his pale face may not show many wrinkles, he was older than people might assume.
His petite goatee was more groomed than the rest of his hair. Unlike Jacob who could be considered handsome and innocent-looking, he appeared to be rough looking like a hoodlum. He even had a scar going across his nose, improving his menacing aura.
As long as glanced at his armor, they would see that he was a knight. And the sight in front of him caused him to twist his lips in disdain.
The wooden building to his left was a decent size, but it was worn out. Holes penetrated the walls allowing him to peek inside, and the door was slanted, showing that it was off its hinges.
Were those the living quarters? Unacceptable. Who would live in that shack of a place?
Before he even entered the building, his eyes moved to the uneven dirt filled ground. Inside his head, he did a mental calculation estimating the distance to be around two meters. Two meters until he could see the green grass. It was a decent distance but needed to be expanded upon.
After, he walked around the location stomping his foot on the ground here and there. After going around in a circle, he ended up at his starting position.
"Pitiful. Not one real dummy in sight, and where the fuck are the targets?"
He shook his head and entered the wooden building. Seeing the outside already caused him to have an idea on the condition, but now that he was here he wanted to take his sword and demolish the entire place.
It smelled terrible, flies were zipping all over the place, and dried blood was splattered on the floor.
No bodies though, but from the deep cut on the bed along with the destroyed mattress, he could tell that someone was murdered here.
The toilet situation was even worse, piss and shit left in the shitter. No one bothered to toss it out.
"What the hell did I get myself into?"
He asked himself, feeling a great amount of regret.
As a knight who worked as a trainer for years at Dawn's Knight Academy, he was used to better facilities. A working toilet where it went into the sewer, a clean environment, equipment he could use whenever, and an actual training ground.
Whatever this was, was not that.
Why did he make that vow again?
Oh yeah, because too many of the students filed complaints against him due to him being slightly tough on them. Once he beat a student with a stick for his disobedience, turns out that his father was a duke. He could still recall that day like it was yesterday, having to listen to an earful from some fat-fuck.
The guy did not even listen to him when he tried to fill him in on the actual situation, but all the fatass cared for was him putting his hands on his son. It wasn't even his heir, but the third son.
How was he going to teach him, without instilling discipline into the lad? Luckily, that student transferred to another class.
There were other incidents as well, but nothing that major.
Hardly any students cared for him, but as a teacher, he did not care. He was not at the academy to make friends with them but to teach them what it meant to be a proper knight.
A few of his students actually liked him, and eventually went on to become decent knights employed by high ranking nobles. Some of those nobles even had their own territories.
The headmaster told him there was a noble willing to employ him, but at the price of taking a vow. Naturally, the headmaster also informed him of Damien's Heart, and the amount of prestige he would earn.
He was already fifty-four, he worked hard enough at the academy. It was time to close that chapter and open a new one.
"Hello? Matthew?"
A voice called out, cutting off Matthew's thoughts.
Turning around, he left the building to see who was calling his name. The voice was unfamiliar to him and did not belong to the young lord who he vowed to protect.
Outside stood a young man looking to his right, before he turned his head and noticed Matthew standing at the door. His curly blonde hair needed to be cut, that was what Matthew thought to himself as he saw how it went past the young male's ear.
Majority of the males had short hair, because long hair was wearisome, always getting in the way and sometimes blocking your vision.
That was his initial take before his black eyes observed the man's posture. Only took him a moment to see the lad was putting a lot of weight on his left leg.
For some reason, it bothered him.
"Are you Matthew?"
"Yeah, whatcha looking for me for?"
"Lord Lezhalt figured it would be a nice idea for us to get acquainted."
Reaching out his hand, the young man introduced himself.
"I'm Jack."
Matthew only looked at the outstretched hand for a second, before his black eyes gazed back up towards Jack.
"Now why would he want us to do that? I don't make friends."
Jack's hand retreated back to his side, while he lowered his eyes. He wanted to click his tongue but stopped himself from doing so.
This guy was rude.
Matthew approached Jack in a few steps, and with his left foot kicked Jack's left foot.
"What the hell you do that for? That is not how you greet people!"
Jack shouted as he raised his leg a little bit and wiggled his foot. The kick came unexpectedly, and too fast for him to even react.
"Oh."
Nodding in understanding, Matthew observed the shift in Jack's body.
From Jack's reaction, Matthew was able to get a faint idea of why he was putting so much weight on his left side. He probably was doing it without even realizing it himself.
Most people would not notice this, nor would they care. But for him, it was bugging him, driving him insane.
He could not fully focus on Jack's face because his eyes just wandered back down, causing him to become irritated.
To distract himself, Matthew closed his eyes for a few seconds before he focused his attention to the background behind Jack. The wall, the trees, the pathway, the stove, the storage. Anything really, to keep his attention off the lad.
"From your looks, you and lord Lezhalt are not related. Guess you must be the butler, no, some kind of guard…"
Jack was proud of his position, it was just work and paid a decent amount. There were tons of citizens who worked as guards, so why was it that when Matthew said it, it sounded as if his job was something to laugh at?
His left eye twitched a little.
Jack was rarely one to hit someone first unless he was defending himself, or someone he cared about. Yet, he really wanted to punch Matthew.
It was unknown if Matthew was a noble or not, but to be on the safe side Jack assumed he was the former.
As much as Jack found Matthew irksome, Matthew saw Jack as a problem that needed to be fixed. The two who Jacob presumed would become friends, started off in an odd direction.