(Damien's POV)
I was called into my father's office room. The servants said that he had something important to talk about which got me a bit curious.
I knocked on my father's door, and after a short while, I heard a voice that signaled me to come in.
"Father, what is it you wish to talk about?"
"Come and sit down. Me and your teacher decided that you need actual combat experience. Because of this, you'll be joining our Knight Order at their expedition."
"Consider this as a learning experience. You need to desensitized yourself from gory situations as you'll be killing a lot of enemy from now on."
"Understood, I'll make sure to not shame our family name."
"No need for that, just make sure you stay safe. Nobody will say anything to a kid that has only experience his first battle even if he messes up really badly."
"Alright. Is that all we need to talk about, Father?"
"Mm... For the time being, this is the only thing that's concerning you. You can go now. Make sure you stay at a distance from the battle, all right? The goal of this is to make sure you throw away all your disgust. Only then will you be able to join the battle, do you understand?"
"Understood. Please excuse me, father. I'll be leaving now."
"Mm"
I stood up from my seat and left the room. I walked the hallway absentmindedly as I thought how well I'll do in this expedition.
'There's no need to think deeply. I'll just leave it to my future self.'
After walking for quite a bit, I finally reached my room. I opened the door and immediately rested my body in the bed. After a while, my body succumbed to the comfort of the bed and fell asleep.
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After a few days of waiting, the expedition day has finally arrived. Naturally, I didn't slack off in training just because my master is now gone.
When I looked at the window, I saw knights, which yesterday weren't there. It looks like they're all prepared to begin the expedition any moment now.
As I was putting my armor which isn't like the knights that had a full body armor except the head, mine was simply a more lighter, however more movable. I can't imagine moving fast with that much armor on.
'Done.'
I finished my preparation, now the only thing to do is witness how the knights of our house deal with monsters. I remember our knights being renowned for their strength. Apparently, there are a lot of B ranks and a few A ranks in our night order.
A person's strength is classified with the good ol' F, E, D, C, B, A, S, and SS.
Now, you might wonder why such a renowned order to not have any S class? That's simple. People who achieved the rank S, usually doesn't work for anybody and register as an adventurer. Why? They earn a lot of money by themselves, they don't need to work for someone.
Plus, adventurer's are generally much more freer than their counterparts who work for someone. Working for someone has a lot of restrictions. This is why S classes and above don't want to work with anyone but themselves. They want to be strong so they can be free, why change that now for a little bit of more money?
S classes who do work for someone tend to work for royalties. Working Royals have a lot of benefits. You not only will get a high standing on society, the money you earn is also quite big. Bigger than your average S class.
Although there aren't any S class, our family's Knight Order is stronger than most. Majority of our knights are B class. A person who's rated B class is rare, so having most of them that strong is a flex in itself.
I walked towards them, the moment they noticed my presence, the immediately straightened their backs and saluted.
'How embarrassing'
It's not like I don't know they should pay respect to me, but frankly speaking, it's embarrassing. Sighing, I signalled them to stop.
"Are you all ready?"
"SIR, YES SIR!!!"
"If that's the case, let's go."
We walked into our respective rides and we were off our way to the battle.
'Come to think of it, I haven't said goodbye to Ali and Father. Looks like I'll get a scolding later.'
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Our trip was quite long. Spanning around 3 days. It was quite boring as I don't have someone to talk to me unless it was the occasional 'Are you alright, young master' from the knights.
Just as I was thinking how incredibly torturing my situation is, I finally saw what can be considered a border.
"Are we finally here?"
"Yes, this is the border that the Maxwell's have protect for lots of years."
Due to our Dukedom being situated in the borders, we need to protect this place so we don't get flanked by the monsters. Rather than 'need' we are 'tasked' to protect this border. That's probably the reason why our land is in the border. They want to make use of our power without actually needing to dispatch troops that will cost money.
So rather than spending money and man power, why not let the newly appointed Duke be the one to do it?
'Sigh, politics are hard.'
Few minutes later, we passed the border. As I stepped out of the carriage, what i saw was something I didn't want to see.
What I saw was something that was burned in my retina for a long time in order for me to get over it.
It was a gruesome scene. Monsters attacking, people covered in blood, the stench of corpses.
"Keuk!"
It was enough to make me throw up and lose my willpower to continue watching.
"Young master! Are you all right?!"
"Hah, Hah"
I tried to fight the urge to throw up again by taking deep breaths but I failed to control it and threw up once more.
"Young master, please don't force yourself. You're still young, let's go back for now."
"No! I can handle it, I just need some time to adjust to the smell."
I calmed myself down and took a look around me once more and realized what it meant to fight.
Yes, this was a real battle.