Looking around, I see countless children and adults staring in awe as the troop passes by, their faces of adoration quickly turned into faces of jealousy, as they had noticed I was on the carriage next to Galahad. How come he gets to sit with him? Who is he? That's what they must be thinking as of right now.
And I understand why they could think that, many of the kids most likely wanted to join this group of strong knights once they reach the required age to enlist into the military, practicing hard to get noticed, yet a dude who they've never seen or heard of is sitting next to Galahad himself, a being who could slay golems with a single strike.
Galahad seemed to see that I was getting quite nervous, "Don't worry about what they think, just focus on yourself, and they will realize soon enough." he tells me with reassurance.
Durm catches up to the carriage, riding besides me, "How's the Kingdom so far?" he asks with a sense of pride, Durm seems to take great pride in the Kingdom.
"The townspeople are quite the thing, but so far, it's a nice experience, much better than the forest though." I say, cracking a little laugh, Durm chuckles a bit as he keeps riding.
Time passed quickly with all this small talk, that before I even noticed, we were already facing the walls of the castle. Past the walls, I saw large towers, ones that a little kid would see in their favorite fairy tales, ones built with stone, and finished with a flag on its roof. Looking past the towers as you enter the walls of the castle, you could see a manor made of marble, decorated with neatly trimmed bushes, and a grand courtyard.
"Hello Sir Galahad, the king would like your presence." says a man neatly dressed in a black coat, decorated with golden stitching.
"Take me to him, Lex, you follow the other knights" Galahad says as he heads off towards the manor with the man.
Durm leads the knights towards a stable like building, as another neatly dressed man takes the carriage somewhere separate.
....
"Greetings, my majesty, what have you requested of me for?" Galahad says as he kneels down on one leg.
"How was the training in those deadly forests?" The king asks in an authoritative tone to his voice.
"It was quite the training, in the forests we found this young man who was able to wield both the sword and magic. Quite the strong man if I had to say." Galahad says as he smiles.
"Bring me this man!" The king orders one of his butlers waiting near the doors.
....
As I finish washing up in the sleeping quarters of the knights, a knock comes from the door. Hurriedly putting on a new pair of clothing provided by one of the knights, I walk towards the door and open it. Seeing the suited man, I am confused on what he might be doing here.
"Would you be looking for one of the knights? They should be washing up right now." I tell him as I dry up my hair with a towel.
"I'm looking for a man named Lexter Von Grey" He tells me with an uptight tone as he looks around for the man he had called.
I let out a little chuckle before telling him that I was the man, he lets out a few coughs in embarrassment.
"The King has requested a meeting with you, Sir Lexter." He tells me briefly as he waits for me to exit the quarters and follow him.
As we walk towards the King's manor, I ask the man, "Why has the king requested of me?" Yet he stays silent as he walks towards the manor. Irritated by his actions, I walk behind him, cursing him out in my head.
We reach a large door, one so large I could barely imagine opening it myself, yet this man opens it quite easily. I stare in confusion, is this door enchanted with some sort of magic making it weightless? I question. The man takes a step to the side, revealing the king, who sat upon a grand throne made of pure gold.
The King himself seemed to be quite young, if I were to guess, maybe in his late thirties. He had a young face, clear of any scars, yet looked like it had seen battle. His eyes had a fiery look to them, like eyes that could look through your soul. His hair was silky black and was brushed back. He had a body that seemed ready for battle at a moment's notice. He had to be a great warrior, one at Galahads level, or even higher.
I get on one of my knees, with sweat dripping off my face. What could he have called me for? I'm already nervous being in an unfamiliar place, but now I'm facing the King of this Kingdom. I close my eyes, trying to stop myself from overthinking.
"I have heard great things of you from Galahad. You're quite the man" He says with a coarse tone. His voice was quite deep and steady.
"T-thank you, your majesty" I say hesitantly as I look up towards the king.
"I won't beat around the bush, I'm requesting you to join my forces, you will be paid handsomely and get gear of great quality." says with a slight smile.
"I shall humbly accept your request and join your force, as long as I am working under Galahad." I tell him, nervous that he would deny my request.
"That is fine, from now, you are part of Galahads troops." He says with a slight chuckle, soon stopping himself before releasing me from the room. Galahad follows after speaking with the King for a little while longer. They seem to be speaking about something quite important.
As I get closer to the sleeping quarters, I hear a bunch of men groaning and loud thumps, In panic that we were attacked, I hurriedly open the door to the quarters to be faced with half naked men throwing each other around. They all turn towards me and I see a grin form on each of their faces. Within moments, I am stripped half naked and tossed around the room like a little ball.
Creek!
"Guys! I have great ne-" Galahad was saying something as he opened the door but stops once he sees that a bunch of half naked men were tossing each other around.
He slaps his face with his palm in disbelief as he continues his sentence. "Like I was about to say, I have great news, Lex will be joining our group as a magic swordsman!" He says, and within moments they start throwing me around and hollering like little apes in a cage.
I stay there, crying in silence as I'm tossed around from one pair of arms to the other, with a face full of spit from all the hollering men. As Galahad opens the door in order to leave, he tells us to rest early since tomorrow will be a big day. Once the door was closed, they had other plans as they kept going on with their shenanigans.
....
I am the first to be up, looking at the other knights, I notice that the group was quite nice when they weren't acting like little kids or hooligans. I go into the bathroom in order to wash my face and brush my teeth before going out for a light stroll before the others woke up, but to my surprise, I see a figure in the training grounds practicing their swordsmanship.
I get closer in order to investigate who it might be, and to my surprise, Galahad is swinging his large sword around. The sword moves with speed and destructive power, yet the swings were smooth and flow into the next move.
That's enough watching. just watching won't make you better, I tell myself as I go for a light jog around the castle. After a few rounds around the castle, I was out of breath, huffing and puffing as I start walking back towards the training grounds to check up on Galahad.
Galahad was still training his sword, swinging with great speed and accuracy. I walk towards him with my sword in hand.
"Those are some neat moves" I tell Galahad, as he just finishes his training, he was drenched in sweat.
"Thanks! You're here to practice early in the morning too?" He asks as he puts his sword down and takes a seat to cool off.
"Yea, I have a long way to go if I want to get anywhere near as strong as you" I tell him with a chuckle.
"I could teach you a bit if you'd like" He says with an encouraging tone, as if he really wanted to help me become better than him.
"Really? I would happily take up on that offer" I say with a giant smile that had formed on my face.
After a bit of speaking, Galahad picks up his sword and tells me to unsheathe mine. We go into the little sparring ground, and I'm wondering what type of training we could possibly be doing here. I just hope he isn't saying we should spar with each other. Yet nothing could go my way because right after finishing the thought, he tells me to get ready to spar.
I hesitantly lift my sword up, and he dashes towards me striking my sword, yet that was enough to send me tumbling across the ground.
"Already out?" He says as he gives me a hand.
"Get ready for round two" He says before I could even prepare.
We spar for a while, and before I noticed we had already sparred more than 15 times, and each time I had lost within seconds. Galahad said something about doing this everyday, saying that training through fights was the fastest way to get better.