"Could that inferior knight be James?"
"Ha! Yes." A smile appeared on the Baron's face for a moment before vanishing.
"And that is good. He got what he deserved. However, it seems that the matter regarding us had even involved the royal family. From this moment forth, we as no longer from the Dread Barony." Morgan said while looking not just at Kai but also at the soldiers.
"Removed anything that can identify you as such, including the emblems embedded into your armour. I am no longer Baron Morgan Dread, but rather just Morgan, and Kai is no longer Kai Dread, but just Kai. You are also no longer knights of the Barony. I would like to express my thanks to each and every one of you for supporting me through these tough times."
"Since I am no longer the Baron, you are no longer bound to follow me as my nights."
A moment of pause later he continued,
"Therefore, we will now go our separate ways, for your safety and my own."
The 20 heavy armoured cavalry soldiers who had been personally trained by the baron and had been following him around for almost all their adult lives, were suddenly at a loss on what to do. However, not a single one stood up to leave.
A moment later all the soldiers bowed down on one knee to the Baron, who looked at them with a strange expression of confusion and seriousness.
"We are no longer your heavy armoured cavalry"
"We are no longer soldiers of the Dread Barony"
"However, we will forever be soldiers trained by you Sir Morgan."
The soldier who had acted as the deputy to the Baron; Charles, spoke up for the rest of the nights, his words causing Morgan's figure to falter for a moment before recovering just as quickly.
In a coarse voice, Morgan nodded in appreciation.
"Stand my loyal soldiers. I thank you for supporting me in the future as well. We will wait here for a day or two until a reply comes. If none arrives, we take the risk and enter the Bluestone Duchy without any inside contacts."
…
Meanwhile, James was currently shivering in fear as his body was restrained to a cold metal table using bindings made of similarly cold metal. He had been knocked out within just a moment of engaging in combat with the people from the Royal family, and when he woke up he was already tied to this table.
However, he had been tied here for many days, and each day, a strange person in a brown cloak would enter the dark room, and feed him some food, before injecting him with some strange blue liquid.
At first, he had tried to resist, but he was unable to move, then he tried to speak to the person in the brown cloak to try and reason with them, only to have his voice sealed using magic.
How did he know it was magic? Being an Inferior knight, he could feel the slight changes in mana around him, even though it was very faint, it allowed him to identify this. Furthermore, being able to perform this strange and inconceivable act, only a mage would be capable of accomplishing this, and a high-ranking one at that.
After a few days, James finally gave in and resigned to whatever his fate may have decided for him.
'Ha… is this what they meant when they said fate was a fickle mistress?' James lamented as pain spread throughout his body and the shivering and spasms of his body grew.
"AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!" James unconsciously let out a loud grunt from his mouth as blood began to flow from his nose, then from his eyes and ears, until all of a sudden he stopped moving, lying there on the cold table motionless.