Reborn: Knight's Code (3 page)

As they passed in front of the largest of the tents, they found the other four members of their group surrounded by more than fifteen people. It seemed that every bandit had come to the same place. From a quick look, Ash could tell that every single knight had been injured and Maria was laying in the center of the group unmoving with a small puddle of blood seeping out from underneath her.

Seeing the other knights in such a bad situation, Den let out a bestial roar and charged the group. Ash was stunned at the raw power Den was putting off, but even with his anger fueling his sword, he was still quickly surrounded, forcing Ash to chase in after him.

Once again, Ash’s training kicked in as he moved. He no longer had to think about his movements, they came as easily as breathing. He used no abilities or skills just his sword as he cut through the large number of bandits. The only thing he looked for, was to see if any of them had been marked by the goddess, but the few he saw were too far away and he could only hope that he would have a chance to get to them before the others.

The battle flashed by like a dream. One moment he would be facing one bandit, but his sword would flash and the man would die only to be replaced by the next target. Soon the field was littered with bodies of the dying or dead. A few bandits, noticing that they had no chance to win fled the camp and into the woods.

When the last bandit fell, Den and Ash checked on Maria’s status. Ash breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed that she wasn’t dead, only heavily wounded. She had taken a sword blow to her side and seemed to have a few broken ribs as well as having lost a large amount of blood. Den quickly forced a light purple potion into her mouth then sat back as he wound slowly closed and the color slowly began to return to Maria’s face.

With the person in the most danger safe now, the others began to tend to their wounds. Ash was no different. He hadn’t received a large wound, but he had received a few nicks and cuts as well as a where the high level bandit’s dagger had hit near his collarbone. It was sore and hurt any time he moved his left arm, but it was already healing fast.

Now that he had time, Ash started to look at his new abilities as well as thinking of how to place his new points. He also started to think about the meaning behind a level. No matter how he looked at it, there didn’t seem to be much meaning behind the rise in levels. Sure one could get stronger, but five points didn’t make much of a difference. For the most part, unless you were like Ash and had a way to increase your stats greatly then even at level one hundred you would still only be slightly stronger than the best strongmen of his previous world. The main meaning behind levels seemed to be the experience one gained from the fights.

Ash had gained twenty-one levels meaning he had one hundred and five points to allot. Ash’s first thought was to put it all in luck, but he was slightly hesitant to do so. In a fight it was the most useless stat, but for rewards it was the most useful. When you coupled it with the bonus he received from his job, then it was still useful. Furrowing his brows, Ash forced his hand and put all of them in luck before he could argue with himself anymore. As soon as he finished Ash noticed that the bonus quit increasing after it reached +999. Ash didn’t know if it stopped increasing or if it just stopped showing it so he started trying to do the math in his head. He wasn’t sure but it seemed that he still got the increase even if it didn’t show it on his status board. With his status situated, Ash looked at his new gained abilities.

[Mana Manipulation: Cost: 40MP- able to manipulate pure mana and give it form. Level 1-0%]

[Fire Affinity - cost of using fire related skills and abilities will be reduced by 10% and power of fire related skills and abilities will be boosted 5%. Level 1-0%.]

[Hide: Cost 10SP- erase your presence.]

[Boost: Cost 50%SP- Double all stats.]

[Blood Drain- ability to absorb 1% of a person’s experience by drinking their blood after their death.]

A few of the abilities seemed useful but the last one was simply disgusting. Ash wanted to raise his level, but the thought of drinking another’s blood revolted him. Seeing the ability Ash now understood how the bandit had been able to have such a high level.

With the battle over, everyone simply sat around recovering their strength. While they sat around, Den searched through the tents bringing out a number of chests and other items that the bandits had looted. Since this was a knight mission, Ash wasn’t granted any of the spoils even though he had helped but since he had gained so many levels the thought of losing a few coins didn’t bother him. As night fell, they built a large fire in the center of the bandit camp and rejoiced in their victory even though it had not gone as they had planned.

“You did well today,” Den said, sitting down beside Ash.

Ash looked at Den then scanned his eyes to the others. Marilyn was sitting close to the fire drawing while Maria sat close by watching her. The other two were drinking not far away, laughing and joking. It seemed to Ash that it was as if nothing had happened. It was as if they had not just killed and drug the bodies of countless dead people off the side to burn. During the first Ash hadn’t given it much thought. He hadn’t had the time to think he only had time to act and react. Now that the battle was over and he had time to think he felt his stomach churn and a sharp pain in his chest as he looked down at his blood stained clothes.

“I did what I had to,” Ash replied after a long moment of silence.

“Do you know much about the knights?”

“Only a little,” Ash replied honestly.

Den laughed and sat down and leaned back with his eyes focused on the large fire in the center of the camp. “When we pick a squire, there are a lot of rules. One, they have to be younger than ten yet older than seven. The reason we want them young is so that they aren’t as dependent on their parents, but still young enough to instill the virtues we want. We are taught from that young age that one must never question the knight’s path. Each knight has their own way to teach, but one thing remains the same and that is the knight’s code.”

“Knight’s code…Is that some sort of oath?”

“In a way,” Den said with a restrained laugh. “It is more of a way of life than just an oath, though it is simple in its own way. I as a knight, shall overlook no injustice to the people of the kingdom and give my life to the noble whom holds my oaths and the people they serve. It is said that many knights go their whole lives pondering the truths hidden behind the oath.”

“Spend their whole lives just pondering the oath?” Ask asked skeptically. “It sounds fairly straightforward to me.”

“That is how things work,” Den said with another laugh. “The simplest things are those that invoke the deepest thought. If it was overly complicated then people wouldn’t look deeper into it, but the simple things those are what keep people awake at night as they try to make it more complicated than it really is. At least that is what my master told me when I first asked him what the code really meant. He said it was best just do keep it simple. Kill what needs killing and protect what needs protecting. At the end of the day let those who have idle time figure out the deeper meaning behind the words that bind us.”

After he finished speaking, Den left Ash sitting alone. He didn’t know why, but the older knight’s words had calmed some of the thoughts of self-loathing that had sprouted in his mind after the battle.

7-3

The next morning Ash and the others started to make their way back to the city. Their speed was decreased thanks to the added burden of the spoils from the bandit camp and the wounds that they had acquired. Potions and spells could heal most wounds, but broken bones took a lot more effort and even then it left ghost pains behind that kept Maria wincing with every step.

Ash was in a slightly better state than many of the others. He had refused healing the night before for his own wounds thinking that it would be a good reminder that no matter how strong he became, that death was waiting around every corner for those who let their guards down and became overconfident. His shoulder hurt and every now and then the wound would tear open sending small tendrils of warm blood and puss running down his chest and back. With his knowledge from the previous world Ash knew to wash the wound and keep it clean while making sure that it didn’t show any signs of infection. Each time he felt the skin pulling and the dull ach of pain he felt like asking to be healed, but he always quickly pushed the thought aside.

Though the night before everyone had acted happy now that they had a night’s rest a solemn tension hung above them. Ash had always read books in his previous world when he had time. He had read a number of stories and no small number of them had to do with war. Right now it was almost like one of the war stories he read about. During the fight everyone acted on instinct and shortly after the sheer knowledge that they were alive made them excited. It was only long after that the truth fell on them. In one book that Ash remembered reading about a soldier as he told about his personal experiences. He called the time after a battle when one truly thought about the battle the reflection period. He said that unless you were able to make peace in this period you should stop being a soldier otherwise the rest of your life you will be stuck in a perpetual time of remorse and reflection. When Ash had first read about it, he had been slightly skeptical but now he only started to understand.

With each step, Ash thought about the day before. The countless faces of the bandits didn’t bother him. The only part of the battle that bothered him was when Den killed the young sleeping woman, but even that was only a passing pain. What really bothered Ash was that he was not bothered by the piles of bodies? He could still remember the feel of the cold bodies as he pulled them away from the center of the camp and into the edge to be burned. The smell of the burning flesh still made his stomach clench but even that was more to do with the simple smell than the fact that it was from bodies that he had killed.

It was true that it was not Ash’s first battle, nor his first time killing another human. He could still remember the first human killed by his hands. He still thought about it from time to time but it was not something that kept him awake at night. It was just one battle in the mist of many others.

Ash started to think back to his life ever since he had been reborn. It seemed like it could be told by one battle after another. Then he took a closer look. It was true he had spent most of his time fighting but it was the brief moments between those battles that had truly been important. Meeting Emelia in the back of a carriage after he had been injured. Buying Yuki and then her mother Shina. Those few moments of peace seemed short when he tried to remember them, but they were what truly shined. His life before had been relatively peaceful, but it had also been lonely and dark. Now, only when he was in a world filled with danger did he fell as if he was truly living. As Ash thought that, he remembered the knight’s code that Den had told him the day before.

Just as Den said, the knight’s code was a simple yet oddly complex thing. The more he thought about the code, the more he remembered that the knights in the middle ages had their own codes. No matter what time period, it seemed that all fighting forces had their own code of valor and honor. As he thought about it Ash thought that he should come up with his own code but no matter how he thought about it, coming up with a code was no simple thing so he decided to just take it one day at a time.

The cold tension hung above the group way into the night and carried on into the next day with little being said. The first person to seem to break free of the melancholy was Maria who grew excited when Marilyn started to draw late the night before.

Maria’s energetic attitude started to carry over to the others and by midday everyone seemed to be back to how they were during the beginning of the trip. When they reached the place where the horses had been tethered and hid, they were all laughing and joking about the battle that had happened only a few days before. Thanks to the heavy load, no one rode and they all walked while the horses carried the extra weight. Thanks to that it would still be two days before they reached the city, but with the lightened mood the slowed pace didn’t seem to bother anyone.

As they walked once again, Den walked next to Ash though little was said. Ash found it slightly odd that Marilyn was his go between, it was Den that he spent his time with during the journey. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Marilyn, but that he had so few male friends and didn’t want another female in his life. He had enough trouble dealing with Shina and the others and the last thing he wanted was another headache.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” Den asked as they walked.

“Go ahead,” Ash said without hesitation.

“What are you planning with the fort?” Den asked. “I can see the use, but even though the Hawkwing duchy is large, it doesn’t border any enemy nations. Even if it did, you have placed the fort near the duchy capital instead of near the duchy borders. I just don’t understand why expend so much coin and work just for the sake of a fort that will most likely never see use in your lifetime or your kids.”

“I don’t know why I thought about it, but it just seemed like a place where the duchy’s forces can gather and train. I know they need to be out and about to guard the roads and towns, but seeing that a war might be coming the duchy needs a large force, but it needs to train. Once the war is over, it will have to keep those knights and having a place they can live will reduce the overall strain on the duchy. It might not seem prudent now, but I think it will be of great benefit in the long run.”

“I can’t say that I see it, but you are the lord and I am just the sword,” Den said with a thin smile. “That said, you are pretty good with your own sword. I don’t think that any of the knights could easily take you on. Do you plan to train with the knights once the fort is finished?”

“I don’t know, that is still long into the future,” Ash said trying to imagine it. He had to admit, part of him dreamed of a large group of knights training like one would see in the movies, but he knew that reality would be far different. There were no true heroes that shine like a star in the night. All there are people trying their best to live while protecting what they believe in.

“For what it is worth, I think you would make a fine knight,” Den said slapping Ash hard on the back. “Too bad you become a gambler, but I guess even luck has its place in the world. My teacher always said nothing in the world could beat a lucky man…though he only said that after he came back from the bar after a night of tossing dice,” Den added with a hearty laugh.

“You talked about the knight’s code last night,” Ash said. “I have been thinking about it since. I don’t think I would make a good knight since I hate to follow orders. I think being a gambler is a little more fun.”

“All life is a gamble so maybe gamblers have a one up on the rest of us,” Den said without faltering. “But since you are the lord, then the only person you would have to listen to would be your wife and I think that you already have to do that.”

“You are right there,” Ash said laughing along with Den.

After talking with Den again, once again Ash started to think that he needed his own set of rules to live by. It was simple to say that he would just do what was needed, but that was it made it too easy for him to go along the wrong path. The longer he thought about it, the more problems he ran into. If he made the rules too strict, then he might find himself breaking them time after time but if he made them too lax, then they wouldn’t serve their purpose. In the end, he came to the same answer, that it was best just to leave it day to day. As long as he didn’t do something he would regret, he would be happy.  That was the moment it hit him. That was the meaning behind a code it was something so complex that the only way to put it into words was to keep it simple and since it was a personal code, there was no reason to put it into words.

Even though Ash had settled his own thoughts on the code, his mind still argued about the meaning behind it. It wasn’t so much that he was questioning his own code, but if all humans had their own unspoken code that they lived by, whether they knew about it or not. That line of thought was what was on his mind as he was carried off to sleep.

The next morning everyone was in high spirits as they were expected to reach the city by nightfall.  Though the knights were used to spending their time outside of the city, each time they had the chance to enter one they were happy about it. The knowledge that they would get to eat something other than travel rations and stale bread was always welcomed.

As they walked, Ash couldn’t help but listen to the knights talk about their plans once they reached the city. Since they had taken out a large band of thieves they would get a small portion of the spoils and they all were planning how they would spend it. Listening to them Ash was sure that within two days their purses would be empty once again.