"You see kid, killing is easy. Catching them alive though, now that's a challenge. So don't even compare yourself to me, you are nothing but an immature child in my eyes." Mark then went to the chains near the boulder as the Golem has arrived with the metal cuffs. The Golems arrival made the knights wary but with a quick explanation of the one armed old man they relaxed seeing it was an ally.
While the Old man explained Mark was so excited inside as he heard the mission being cleared but what he was more excited was what he had just done. 'I said it! I said it! I said it! I said it! I said it! I said it! I said it! I said a cool phrase!!!' Deep inside Mark still wanted to play like the normal teens but being raised in a family like his he didn't get to experience much.
Thus even if he is a cold calculation genius, every man is a child deep inside. Mark felt a check was done on his bucket list of things he wanted to do as a teenager. He smiled as he bound the Minotaurs as well as the Gors and Ungors captured by the peasants. He also gave them one gold coin for every Ungor and three for the Gors. But this was interrupted by the stupid idiot again who asked the question.
"If you could have defeated the Beast easily, then why did you let the town lord die? You are a heartless man!!" The knight tried to grip at straws with his pride but the Paladin looked more disappointed in him letting his feeling get the best of him. He was quite hopeful of this one as he came from a family line of Grail Knights but it seems the youth was not ready for this kind of thing.
"I did say to go find a room and fuck yourselves right? That counts as a warning." Mark then ignore the idiot as he kept cuffing the captured Ungors. The Young Knight was speechless at the answer but was angry again seeing the uncaring attitude of Mark. This was watched by the other young knights but they kept quiet about it as they were calmer than the other guy, this was observed by the Paladin.
The Paladin sighed and looked at the man in front of them, he could tell he was young, probably in his twentieth years already but he was mature than most of these young knights. Seeing the man ignore the young knight again he went to stop him but he couldn't stop the young knight from speaking.
"You still ignore us? Have you got no respects to a knight? You are not even one so you are to kneel before us!" The young knight somehow felt that what he said was right but he still failed to see the atmosphere that was getting tense all around.
"Respect? You seem to think respect is to be given boy, respect is earned! I can see that you're raised from a family with lots of influence but don't mistake the respect people give to the name your forefathers as respect towards you. Without their name you would be probably another chump in the road without anything to get by. So don't speak as if you are to be respected, you have not earned that yet boy." Mark said in his deep voice trying to emulate Kratos' way of speaking. He really is killing it today doing things he liked.
He had been stressed the past few hours as this was his first battle in all and to keep himself from getting in a panic attack he tries to redirect his stress to being childish (In his own way but people see it as a serious side of him). He then went to tying down the prisoners who went limp and obedient at his presence.
Being in the presence of someone who could kill the Shaman and defeat the Minotaur blessed by Khorne himself made them want to turn into rocks by the side of the road. In their minds this guys was more of a monster as they saw him punch the large Minotaur unconscious themselves. So they gave up resisting and let themselves be bound in chains.
"Young one that is enough, you have brought shame to yourself already so don't bring anymore to your family's name." The Paladin stopped the young Knight from doing more self-harm. He then looked at the stoic knight besides the nobleman, he could not gauge the strength of the individual but he could tell that the horse he was riding is a top breed horse.
Such a fine breed must be also very hard to tame as creatures like these tend to be prideful. To be able to ride the Steed and make it obedient takes a master to achieve. The Paladin felt that the family line of this Lord Mark is somewhat extra ordinary, he felt he should not mingle too much until he gets more information later.
This was just supposed to be a small excursion handled by the knight academy for these young ones to gain experience and hopefully they did learn something from the man in front of them. His words earlier were great example of lesson to be learned, respect is to be earned. The Paladin sighed again as there was still two months for these young men before they go back to Lyonesse.
Meanwhile the pawns of the dead Town mayor stood still as they wanted to vanish in the wind as of this moment. They knew they were unwelcome to this town as they were just mercenaries who were paid with the money of the Town Lord. They silently walked back towards a carriage they were guarding as they knew that it was full of money and treasure.
"Where do you all think you're going?" The Captain of the town guard said as he surrounded the personal guards of the old town Lord. They were already angry at the Town Lord leaving them to die but now these outsiders even dare to slip past with their town's wealth made them irritable. Mark who saw this scene frowned, even if these peasants were armed those men were still equipped better and looked like mercenaries.
But thankfully his stare was noticed by one of the mercenary guards and tapped his friends shoulders, soon they all realized the nobleman was looking in their direction. They could intimidate peasants but offend a noble, even if Mousillon was a crappy place it was still part of Bretonnia. Much less offend a man who punched a Minotaur unconscious.
They were regretful of the gold coins but they valued their life more. So they too left in a hurry riding their own horse, Mark shook his head at the cowardice of those people. But it was better than dying his hands with the bloods of humans. He had indeed killed today but they were half-humanoid so Mark didn't feel that much guilt.
"Lord Mark, can our small contingent make camp in these hills? It would soon be sun down and our horses are tired from our rush here, even if the problem has already been solved." The Paladin went near Mark and asked this.
"Go ahead, it's not like the hills are mine anyways. Who am I to stop you?" Mark was quite petty at the arrogance shown by one of them but he was sure it was just some spoiled kid crying unfair to all things he didn't like. He watched the Knight trot away while the impatient one was still glaring at him like he murdered his family.
Seeing this Mark flipped him the bird, the young knight saw that but he didn't know what the hateful man meant. Yet somehow he felt offended for some reason which made his scowl more prominent. Mark chuckled at the idiot as he thought it was funny, he has already been proven wrong and has shown some rash attitude but still won't try to accept he was in the wrong. This is one of the general problems in society in every world where ever he might go. Useless pride of people who think the world owes them shit because they were born with a silver spoon.
Mark was not averse to such behavior but at least do it if you have earned such thing to demand to others of respect. Not bark like an entitled idiot saying he is a knight this or knight that, Mark then remembered Tywin's quote in GOT "Any man who must say 'I am the King' is no true King". He felt this was true everywhere even in this chaotic world.
Mark sighed for the umpteenth time again as he thought of the time he would spend in such a world. Many compromised would be made by him as this was a place full of wars and intrigue. One day he might have to cut down fellow humans but he knew it was necessary. It is to kill or be killed in this place, he hopes that one day he'll be influential enough to change the status quo.