In the afternoon… In squire training ground, Louis had been called to receive an order from the knight. He already knew what the order was, because it was the same order for him everyday, the order to bring the princess back to the castle. He already knew where the princess would be?
He left the castle with his horse, and moved toward the countryside of the capital. After an hour, he spotted the princess in the middle of the meadow standing alone, he hopped his horse and went toward the princess, the princess saw him and immediately ran away.
He was confused that she was running away from him, the speed of her could not match the horse. After Louis in front of the princess, he went down from the horse
"Your Highness, so you are here." with a worried tone and uncontrollable breath..
He saw the princess was so confused..
"Your Highness, are you alright? Is there something wrong? Your Highness Father, The King, is worrying you."
She asked "I'm sorry, but can I ask you a question?"
"Yes, Your Highness, what is that?".
"Where am I and why did you call me Your Highness?" she looked at his face.
He was so confused, but giggling about her question, he thought that the princess was pretending. He explained about her identity, and she was so surprised, after that he helped the princess to the horse.
When the princess was on the horse, he was surprised by the princess talking, and she offered him to ride it with her. He just refused politely and said it was alright for him to walk and lead the horse.
Louis thought this was not the princess like he knew, she offered a lot to him and rode it with her, it was like the princess had a pity feeling for him, even praised him and wished me to become her personal knight.When they passed the village in the countryside of the capital, the princess blatantly asked about the condition and history. Why did the village look so poor? Louis just gripped hard his hand, and answered all the questions from the princess. They went to the capital, he saw the princess was so excited, they walked until the castle.
In front of the entrance, there were a lot of maids who were waiting for the princess. He helped the princess to get down from the horse, after she went down, all of the maids rushed over to the princess and brought the towel. He saw and was surprised that the princess refused the towel from the maid, and said it was for the maid that the maid was waiting all day for her. He brought the princess in front of the king and the queen, but the princess suddenly collapsed in the middle of the throne room. He was immediately ordered to get out of the room. He saw a lot of nobles surrounding her while he was walking out of the room.
In the night..
Louis went to the tavern to meet his friends, in the tavern all of his friends were already waiting for him, they were Aldea, Darryl, Zoe, Elpis, and Cail..
Zoe was the first to notice the arrival of Louis "Look, who is finally shown? It is no other than the famous princess errand boy."
"Cut the crap.." He immediately sat.
Darryl spoke "So what had happened that the errand boy was so late?"
"Not you too, Darryl…I am late because the knight interrogated me all day."
Aldea was surprised and said "What the hell are you doing until the knight interrogates you?"
"I don't do anything, it's just about the princess. After I picked her up and brought her to the king and the queen, she suddenly fainted and collapsed in the middle of the throne room."
Everyone was surprised.
"The princess fainted and collapsed, so they were accusing you for the incident." Zoe said.
Darryl said "Well, the princess may be so tired, she always runs from the castle."
"But….today…I felt something different from her…"
Zoe seemed confused "What do you mean different?"
"It felt like she was not the princess…"
Darryl reasoned "The princess's act is sometimes different and not readable, so you felt different."
"No…It..is a different feeling…When I picked her in the middle of the meadow, she was just standing there…I moved to her and she ran away…she must know the horse of the castle or me, so it was so weird to see the princess run away."
Aldea spoke "Because you came to pick her up, so she ran away…"
"It's not just that, when I spoke to her about her condition, she was so confused like a baby, and the thing that made me so weird was that the princess seemed not to know that she was the princess…"
Zoe asked "How do you know that?"
"because…when I called her with honorifics of your highness, it seemed the princess didn't know that I had called her, and she asked about whereabouts and who she was…"
Cail spoke "Maybe she was pretending…."
"That was my thought, because after the princess rode the horse, she kept giving me an offer to ride the horse with her, also she wished me that one day I will become the personal knight of the princess."
Zoe was dumbfounded "Become her knight? What the hell is that? Is the princess about the rule of knights in this kingdom?"
"That is impossible for you to become her knight.." Darryl said.
"I know and that was what I thought when I heard it for the first time from her,it was impossible for me or maybe all of us to become knight, but she was smiling when she wished me, that smile still in my head, the smile of sincerity."
Elpis finally spoke "Oh my…I think the mister squire fell in love with the princess, it is possible that he is always beside her, and picked her up at the castle."
"I am not falling in love with the princess, but today the princess's smile was different from usual, that I felt there was full of sincerity in the smile."
"That's the sign of falling in love, mister squire…Oh my..my…"
"I have told you that I am not falling in love.."
The night passed with all the friends of Louis teased him so much..
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The next night, in the tavern..
Louis came inside the tavern with a full smile and a different aura. The friends who were already waiting for him were so confused by him, he immediately sat beside all of his friends.
Zoe, the one who asked him first "Mister errand boy of princess, why are you so happy tonight?"
"You will not believe what I will say if I answer you the reason."
Darryl was also curious "Come on, just tell us why you are so happy tonight?"
"I have become a knight."
Everyone suddenly became silent for a moment…..
And suddenly everyone was laughing…
"Nice joke you have told us.. How about you share your joke with everyone in this tavern? Or how about I share it with everyone here?" Zoe kept teasing him.
Zoe shared about Louis becoming a knight, immediately everyone became silent for a moment…and burst laughing, all the people in the tavern thought it was a joke, they kept teasing Louis with the joke of the commoner impossible to become a knight, which made Louis's face red.
After all the laughter, Zoe and the friends noticed different from Louis, and quiet for a moment. Immediately Louis stood up, and slammed the table…
Louis shouted "SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! ALL OF YOU!!!" made people in the tavern quiet immediately, he backed to sit.
It made the atmosphere in the table become awkward, Zoe and the friends rarely saw Louis so angered like this before, there was no conversation and it was quiet for some minutes in the table until Darryl asked Louis.
"If you are so angry about this, it means this is real that you become a knight, is it the royal knight or the kingdom knight?"
"First…Sorry for bursting my anger, and the atmosphere of the table became awkward…Second…Yes I became a knight, but it is not the royal knight nor the kingdom knight?"
"It's alright for you to burst your anger…If you don't join the royal knight nor the kingdom knight, which knight have you joined?"
Louis took a deep breath and said [It is her highness knight.] The table became quiet once more.
Darryl tried to ask again "Her highness? Does the princess have a knight army?"
"Yes, she has, I have knighted in front of her, even though the process was in her highness room."
Cail asked Louis "It is treason for the kingdom, if a royal makes an army or knighthood beside the royal army, especially a royal knight. Does your master, her highness know about this?"
"Yes she does, she said it was a favor from him to the king…"
"A favor? It means there is a downfall about this thing.."
"You are right, Cail. The princess was granted to make her own army or knight, but she was prohibited by the king and the queen to recruit someone from royal knight or kingdom knight."
"It means the princess will prepare to be hated by the nobles across the kingdom."
Aldea asked about what Cail said "What do you mean by the princess will be hated by the nobles? She is the princess after all."
Elpis tried to answer it "Aldea…Do you know why Louis always be the squire and be the errand boy of the princess?"
"Is it because he is not capable?"
Zoe replied what Aldea said "You are really an idiot huh! How the hell is Louis not capable of becoming a knight?"
"Who do you call an idiot!! If he is capable so it's not a problem for him to become the princess's knight, it doesn't answer the question I asked."
Zoe was facepalming her..
Elpis answered it "There is a ground rule for a person to become a knight…This ground rule has been violated by the princess, and Louis is the subject of it…and I assume you don't know this ground rule Aldea…"
Aldea nodded her head.
"Oh my…It is a little bit shocking to me that you don't know this."
Aldea's face was not happy heard that.
Elpis kept explaining it "This ground rule is simple and straight to the point, that people who can become a knight are nobles, so a commoner like Louis can't become a knight, especially the princess private knight, It will make the kingdom shocked, that one of royal family violated the ground rule, and it made her to prepare be hated by nobles across the kingdom, if this news spread to across kingdom…I think you need to know or read some basic society or law, Aldea, don't just read some adventure journal or book."
Aldea was grumbling, meanwhile Zoe was giggling…
Darryl backed to ask Louis "Now, we know that the princess's knight violated the ground rules of nobles…Louis, are you really sure to give your sword to the princess? It will make you the target of the nobles."
"I have made up my mind to swear to her highness…Yesterday, I said to all of you that the princess was changed right?? Back then, I thought she was pretending to create sympathy, but she kept saying that nobles never said, like blatantly said about the condition of the village and people like she didn't know, but now, I think she was clueless and realized about what happened around her and this kingdom yesterday. I made up my mind, after I met her highness, and I saw and felt the different aura, it was different than other nobles in this kingdom. And she was tasked to oversee and govern the village of Chambery, and she even asked her personal maids first and let us sit on the couch in front of her, if they wanted to come or not. It was different from other nobles I think, if it was another noble, they would not consider the feeling of servant, and make the servants stand…"
Louis took a deep breath and everyone was focusing on him "First her highness considered her servants feeling…after that she said about me…She did a favor from the king just for me to become a knight…especially became her knight…I was astonished back then…and felt I was dreaming…even her servants was surprised…I immediately accepted it…and the process of knight held in the room…and became the first knight from commoner circle…After I heard her highness said '...your act will reflect as my act, your mistake will be my mistake, your sin will be my sin…' I believed she was so different and could make this kingdom better than anyone…"
Louis suddenly looked at all of his friends at the table, making the friends curious "Her highness gave me an order that I must recruit some talented people to become her highness knight before the departing to the Chambery...…How about all of you joining her highness knight?"
Everyone at the table was astonished, and without Louis conscious, that everyone in the tavern was listening to his story…
All of them were nodding and smiling at Louis, which meant yes…Suddenly everyone rushed to Louis, if they could join too…Louis could not accept all of them, he just wanted to invite his friends first…
And the tavern celebrated the first commoner knights until morning.
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The day of departure, in the morning, outside of the palace.
Louis and everyone had already gathered, with a carriage and 3 horses, they were suspicious that there was no one in there even the servants.
Cail came to Louis "Is today really the departure?"
"Yes it is…"
"Why is there no one here? All the servants should be here and send their goodbye to her highness."
Elpis joined the two "I think the same too, this is worse than I assume, even the rumor already circulated in capital, the servants should be here and send their goodbye to her highness like Cail said."
On the other side, Zoe beside Darryl felt someone take a look at them, she tried to find it without being noticed. She walked to Darryl to inform him.
Not long after, the princess arrived with 2 maids, and Louis with his friends lined up. They introduced themselves, after the introduction they started to depart to the Chambery..
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