Chapter 3
Honorary Knight
Rats fight back whenever they're cornered. The ferociousness of the rat decided the intensity of it's rebellion. Now what if a child got cornered by a trained knight? Would the child submit to their fate or fight back like there's no tomorrow? When all's said and done a question like that can only be answered by action, and right now the act I chose was to….
"Fight back!!"
I flung my hand to the knight and unleashed a Water Ball. It had enough force to knock her over but not enough to kill her. Committing murder at my age would be mutilating to say the least.
The knight dodged my attack with ease and turned her attention to me with wide eyes.
"Did you just...."
Attack a knight? Yeah, sorry lady, I can't get caught.
In an act of desperation, I fired two more water balls at her. She dodged them both with impressive skill but left her legs open enough for me to slip right through them, so I did. It was times like these that made me appreciate how truly small I am.
It was demeaning mostly but it had its useful moments. Once I slipped through the knight, I found myself in the castle hallways. There were several windows lined up on either side of the hall, each and every last one of them was as tall as a full-grown man.
The hallway its self was decorated with all sorts of furniture. Vases, fancy curtains, angry knight giving chase.
Wait what was the last one?
I turned my attention to the sound of clattering footsteps coming from behind me. The knight that I'd attacked earlier was chasing me. Of course she was chasing me, honestly, I didn't know what I was expecting. After all I snuck into the royal palace and attacked a knight of the kingdom.
Conscience and job description dictates that she gives chase. That said, I refuse to get caught.
"Let's gooooo!!!!!!" I yelled from the pit of my lungs. Increasing the velocity of my life-or-death jog, I slung shot down the hallway of the palace while trying desperately to form a plan of escape.
I don't even have a map of this place! Why the hell is it such a maze!!?
The longer I ran the longer the hallways got, and the more stamina I'd waste which I assumed was what the knight lady was waiting for. She never stopped chasing after me but she maintained enough distance between us so as to not lose sight of me.
I assumed that she watching my movements for now. Either that or she was weary of me. When I turned my head back to the road ahead, I found a group of knights with spears- no, fire arms in hand. They had guns on them. They were chatting away like high school boys until one noticed me running to them.
"Halt!!" he commanded.
Of course, I ignored him and continued charging at them, not to attack, but to grab one of their helmets. Having my face seen would make me very easy to identify.
When the other knights noticed me, and realised that I had no intention of stopping, they all lowered their barrels at me. I asked myself if they'd actually shoot a child. Of course they would, to them I'm an intruder first and child after.
"Alright. Water Ball." I conjured two water balls on both hands.
The knights prepared themselves to fire at me but stopped short when they realised what I was doing, that is to say they stopped when they realised I was climbing up the wall.
I'd hardened the balls of water and turned them into daggers of ice and used them to create foot holds on the wall. I hopped from one platform to the next, eventually reaching the ceiling of the hall. I grabbed on the light, which I assumed was a chandelier, swung myself back and forth to gather momentum and finally...
"Not so fast!" said the female knight from behind me.
She'd used my footholds to climb up as well. Once she reached the last platform, she leapt off to grab my legs.
"Got you!"
"Nope!"
Her swing for my legs missed when I flung myself towards the knights. Startled and confused the knights could only stand like statues while I hurdled towards them.
My landing on them felt less than comfortable, not only that but it was also pretty loud, it even coughed up a surprising amount of dust for a palace.
"Maybe the maids have been slacking... Ow." I said, caressing my tooshie.
Landing on full grown men in metal armour did not make for a comfortable landing.
At least I knocked them out...
The knights, all four of them, were laying down in a spiralling daze. I took the opportunity to relieve one of them of their helmets, putting in on my head immediately. Regret hit just as quickly, the thing smelled like rotten onions and garlic going on a date in a pig sty. Oddly specific analogy but highly fitting.
"To be able to take out four armed guards...quite impressive." Said the female knight.
At some point she snuck up behind me and watched as I relieved her comrade of his helmet. Like a rat that got startled I jumped off the knights then turned to my pursuer. She had her arms folded over her breastplate with this weird gleam in her eye.
"So, who are you?" she asked.
Introduce myself as the villain and escape, never looking back.
Or you could do the sane thing and give yourself up.
You're still here!?
Dude, I'm your brain. Me not being here would be a health problem.
You being here is a mental problem! It essentially means that I'm talking to myself!
...You do that all the time thou-...
Shut up!!
The nerve of one's mind reaches new heights everyday. I made a mental note to get myself some therapy to deal with this chaotic mind of mine that somehow had a mind of its own. Weird.
"Anyway, it's not important right now."
"Excuse me?"
"No, it's nothing. I mean um ....my name is...Super Villainous Man."
I felt my cheeks burn only after the words left my mouth. The knight responded to my introduction by taking her own helmet off. Underneath the metal helmet was a beautiful brown-haired girl who looked ready for marriage.
"Hard to believe she's actually a knight with that doll face."
Though I meant to keep that comment to myself, I unintentionally said it out loud.
"Very well then 'Super Villainous Man', my name is Ginevra Brine."
She gave a light bow with her introduction.
I returned the favour by bowing my own head. As I was about to raise my head a sudden realisation hit my mind, I realised where I heard that name before. The knight standing in front of me wasn't an ordinary knight.
"Possibly, but for now Captain Ginevra has been assigned to the village."
I remembered the knights' words like it was yesterday, or rather a few minutes ago. Ginevra Brine was no run of the mill knight. The guards from outside addressed her as captain. Though I was already aware of the painful truth I still felt the need to ask.
"Are you perhaps.... the famous Ginevra who's captain of the knights?"
Her face lit up in surprise. "Well, well. You're very well-informed Mr Villainous. That's right, I'm the current captain of the Knight Order."
"Heh.... I see."
I struggled to figure out how I went from sneaking into the royal palace to having a standoff with the literal captain of the knights. Fate dealt me a truly cruel hand indeed.
So, you ready to give up now?
Say what? No!
No!?
Yeah no!
She's the captain of Ester's knights, supreme commander of the kingdom's military forces but that didn't change anything because at the end of the day….
"I'm still the Water God!!"
"What!?"
I usually avoided using second generation water magic due to the sheer volume of water I'd have to conjure up. Creating the water posed no problem, the real problem came in the aftermath, said aftermath being cleaning up the mess that came with creating enough water to fill a lake.
But today was special. I was currently in the royal palace, home of the king of Ester, the richest man in the kingdom. I knew deep down that he could afford a few maids to clean up, hopefully.
I slapped my hands on the ground, focusing all of my attention to the palm of each of my hands. First generation water was easy to conjure up, all I had to do was call out the name of the spell and there it was. Second generation has a different set of rules. It took zero mana to make the water but I needed a lot of concentration to control it.
Letting it run wild was also an option, but I wanted to keep the damage to a minimum so I narrowed my focus to just Ginevra. She'd get washed away by the tide giving me- Super Villainous Man, a chance to escape the palace.
With a solid plan in mind, I worked to put it in action.
"Rapid Riv-…."
I blinked for only a second and Ginevra turned into a blur. She'd completely disappeared from my line of sight only to reappear from behind me. Calling it a disappearing act felt wrong.
She was just that fast, maybe I was just that slow. Either way Ginevra moved herself from my line of sight to my blind spot, behind me. I couldn't even react in time to dodge. Ginevra raised her hand and brought it down on the base of my neck.
In one swift move she'd knocked me out. The knight captain emerged victorious and Super Villainous Man was defeated.
***
"Yes, Captain Brine!!"
"You call yourselves men!? To be defeated by a child in such a disgraceful manner!! You shame your family lineage!"
"Please forgive us Captain Brine!"
The sobbing of full-grown men accompanied by the yelling of a ferocious she-beast woke me up from my slumber. My head hurt a ton, that and my hands feeling heavy made me feel like I was still dreaming.
"Oh, so you've finally come too huh?" called a female voice from beyond the river of dreams. "Wake up Mr Villainous, you and I have much to discuss."
That name...
I opened my eyes slowly, hoping against all hope that I was wrong but my hopes where dashed when I spotted the brown hair. Me sneaking into the castle, wreaking havoc on the palace grounds and getting caught by Ginevra Brine, none of it was a dream.
My heart sank upon realising just how badly I screwed up. My hands and legs were tied up in chains that prevented me from focusing my mana.
"What the…. what is this thing?"
"Mana restraints, courtesy of yours truly. I don't know all that much about elemental gods but I do know that you need some level of mana to maintain control over your respective element." The confidence in her voice almost made me wanna cry.
"Am I in trouble?"
Last resort! Racial Art; Baby Eyes!
"Hmm let's see. You broke into the royal palace, assaulted four knights and their commander and caused hundreds of silvers worth of damage."
"So.... slap on the wrist?"
"Hehe." She snickered. "The more time I spend with you the more I learn just how truly shameless you are Mr Villainous."
"Ugh don't call me that."
"Oh but what should I call you? That is your name isn't it, Mr Super Villainous Man?"
She put her hands on her hips then bent over to meet my eye level, a mocking smile pasted on her face.
"No that's not my name. My real name is Eden Connor…."
"Ah so you do have a sensible na-…. Wait, Connor?"
"Yeah …."
"Are you perhaps, the son of Marianne Connor of the Saint Christian Church?"
"Um…. yes?"
Whatever little hope I had left was instantly crushed by the heinous smile that formed on Ginevra's lips. She went from mocking laughter to smiling with evil intent. A chill ran up my spine at the sight of it.
"Eden Connor...yes, I believe I've heard of you. And your sister is the dark elf, isn't she? I believe her name is Lucy?"
"Yes." I said between sniffles.
Kill me!
"I see now. Yes, I think I think you'll be of great use to me."
Ginevra seemed to be getting a kick out of my situation.
Which he completely brought upon himself.
Can it!
She mumbled over her words for a little while before finally turning her attention to me again. What she asked next shook me to my core.
"Do you want your mother to find out about this?"
"Absolutely not."
"Then you'll do whatever I say?"
"To best of my ability!"
"Then join the knight order."
"No way in Hell!"
My immediate rejection came as no surprise to Ginevra. She crouched down low enough for us to be at the same eye level.
"The church is right down the street you know and I also happen to be good friends with your mother."
You heartless monster!
Oh, this is getting good.
I ignored my self righteous, treacherous mind and presented my argument to Ginevra.
"W-what I meant to say was I'd love to join but you see I have prior obligations. There's simply no way I can balance working at the Moonlight Storefront all purpose store and the Knight Order."
"So you work for old man Luck?"
"Exactly! Wait you know him?"
"Of course I do. I'm the person who gave him the licence to sell fire arms."
Heh, the plot thickens.
More like the plot was working against me. Though now that I'd thought about it, Kai did seem rather familiar with our store. It would make sense if she was the one who sent him there in the first place. But that still didn't explain how the she-beast- sorry, Ginevra knew my mother.
You're worrying about the wrong details here bud.
I'm ignoring you.
Annoyances aside the nuisance had a valid point, if I didn't come up with a solid excuse, I'd become Ginevra's employee and something told me that she's one of those bosses that squeeze the life force out of their employees. Though in that sense she and Luck were no different.
"I'm simply far too young to work as a knight."
"You'll be a provisional knight for now, working directly under my supervision. Once you come of age you'll become an official knight."
"What about my current job?"
"I'll talk to old man Luck and have him hire a replacement."
The hell you will. What about my alone time with Reiya!?
Give up yet?
No! I just need to press harder.
"But I'm only eleven."
"Yet you snuck into the castle and defeated four knights."
The knights that were prostrated behind Ginevra sunk their heads at her last comment.
"My mother will not approve of this."
"I doubt she approved of you being here either. Yet here we are."
"Ugh…."
She was slapping my arguments away like she was swatting flies. For the first time in my life, I was actually losing a verbal battle. Me, Eden Connor, losing a contest of verbal warfare against someone other than my mother. To someone who also happened to be friends with her.
Ah, I get it now.
The circumstances aligned too perfectly for it to be a coincidence.
"It was my mother who taught you the ways of verbal war wasn't it?"
"Guilty as charged." She admitted all cheery eyed.
"I never stood a chance then."
"Agreed but good effort though. So, you gonna join or not?"
"What choice do I have?"
That was the day that I, Eden Connor, came to work under the heartless, muscle brained, she-beast known as Ginevra Brine.
At least you get to keep a close eye on Kai now.
I will flush you down a toilet one day!