After more moments of chatter from the knights, Greyve finally spoke up once more.

"Silence!"

The Lord Knight's voice was stern, but did not necessarily expressed anger. He continued when the knights' attention was focused on him again.

"I understand your uneasiness in this mission. So, let me be honest with you. You all are the more inexperienced ones in our Order, which was why you were selected. This is a chance for you to broaden your horizons and apply everything you have learned on being a knight. Be this kingdom's sword! That is all His Highness is asking of you. And I believe that you all will be successful!"

There was no hesitation in his voice.

"Yes, sir!"

Everyone replied with the conviction that was not present mere moments ago.

---

"I can't believe I get to spend the last moments of my life in paradise with you."

Stevan was shaking his head, holding his face with his hand.

"What can we do? They told us to enjoy ourselves."

Jaegar had his hands behind his head, looking at the sky.

"I want to enjoy by myself, if you don't mind."

Stevan made a side glance at Jaegar.

"Where's the fun in that? If I'm around, you're sure to have a good time!"

Jaegar placed his hand on top of Stevan's shoulder and smiled at his friend.

"I highly doubt that. And you've never shown much interest towards the ladies in the tavern anyway—"

"Help us!"

A voice of an old lady's scream came from behind an empty alley. Stevan and Jaegar instinctively ran toward the source of the plea. When they reached the empty alley, there was an old lady lying on the ground, covered in her own blood.

"Hey, are you alright, ma'am?"

Stevan ran towards the old lady's side and grabbed her shoulders.

"Please... Save my... granddau..."

She fell silent.

Jaegar was surveying the area. He saw there were some footprints made of blood that headed further down the alley.

"It seems they headed that way."

He looked back at Stevan, who now was standing up.

"What do you want to do? These footprints don't seem from humans to me."

Stevan furrowed his brows as he looked at the blood-soaked footprints.

"What else do you think?"

Jaegar smiled back at Stevan.

"Go back and ask the senior knights to take care of this?"

Stevan was still staring at the ground.

"Huh? No! We'll go after whatever did this!"

Jaegar momentarily looked at Stevan and then gazed at the dark end of the alley.

"What? That's not how you usually think. Especially if you're not ordered to do something—"

"But we've got our orders! This is definitely a monster's doing. And that means we've got to eliminate it."

Jaegar smirked as he punched his other hand's open palm.

---

"So, this is a good time in your vocabulary, huh? I should have known."

Stevan was covering his nose and mouth with his hand from the foul smell coming from the sewer water. The two of them followed the footprints inside the sewers.

"We're here to save someone. Who knew those prints will lead us to the underground sewers?"

Jaegar was walking in front of Stevan with only a few steps distance.

"Don't you think she's... dead by now?"

"Who knows? Though I think this is part of our mission as knights. We have to do it anyway."

"So, any ideas about those prints?"

Stevan floated the question to Jaegar while the two of them kept on walking through the sewers. There were, fortunately, oil lamps lighted on the path they were taking.

"Definitely a monster. Could be more."

Jaegar kept on turning his head to look around the sewer.

"Yeah, it can't be anything else—"

Then, Stevan heard water splashes from a distance.

"Hey, did you hear that?"

"Don't worry about anything. Those monsters can't do a thing to us… You hear that! So just show up already!"

Jaegar stopped walking and shouted.

"Hey, stop that!"

When he tried to grab Jaegar's shoulder, Stevan saw something from in front of them heading to their direction. It was moving very fast. Without thinking, he ran and overtook Jaegar to protect his friend from the thing that was coming their way.

Jaegar saw in the corner of his eye that Stevan was running past him. He also noticed the creature running towards them. He thought that Stevan was not prepared for whatever that was coming at him, and that he might die.

Jaegar's body froze, his mind remembering a similar scenario though very vague. His senses felt a very familiar feeling of... regret. All of that happened for a split second.

Before the creature's pincers could reach the head of Stevan, Jaegar quickly moved past Stevan and punched the creature's body towards the wall. The cockroach-like monster's body was crushed by the force of Jaegar's punch and the wall it collided with. The creature's innards and blood splattered all over Jaegar and Stevan.

"What just happened?"

Stevan's confusion was understandable. He was running to save Jaegar, and in the next moment he was covered in monster remains.

"I just saved you. You're welcome, by the way."

Jaegar was wiping the blood and monster parts from his armor.

"The heck? If you weren't too loud, maybe we could have dealt with that monster with cleaner armors afterwards!"

"Stop complaining."

As he was continuing on wiping his armor, Jaegar saw a piece of tattered clothing stuck on his chest armor. It seemed like the clothing of a child.

"I guess we were too late."

He grabbed the piece of cloth and showed it to Stevan.

"Oh..."

Stevan stood quietly as he stared at the torn cloth.

---

The two of them reported the incident back at the Garrison and were congratulated for their efforts. Afterwards, they went back to their quarters inside the Garrison.

Later that night, Jaegar was walking around the hallways and stopped in front of a large wooden door with metal frames.

"I know you're outside there, Jaegar. Come in."

A deep voice spoke from inside the room. Jaegar then opened the door and entered the room. There, a large and burly man was sitting in his chair reading a book. Jaegar stood in front of the man from a distance.

"Lord Knight Greyve."

"Jaegar. What is it? Don't tell me you don't want to leave tomorrow?"

"No, it's not that."

Jaegar's face was serious as he stared directly at Greyve.

"Are you going to miss me? Is that where this is going?"

Greyve closed his book. He also had a serious look on his face.

"Never. That's my true feelings."

Jaegar still had the stern look on his face. Greyve couldn't keep up his serious look and then laughed loudly.

"That's good, then. Ever since I picked you up when you were a kid, you really weren't the emotional type."

Greyve wiped a tear from his eye when he stopped laughing.

"Still, I am grateful. I may not have found a purpose in life if it weren't for you and the Knight's Order."

Jaegar bowed at Greyve.

"What's with this sappy talk? And why are you talking like you're already a full-fledged knight? I still always wonder how you made it this far in your training…"

Greyve scratched his beard while looking at Jaegar.

"I will be, once I complete this mission."

Jaegar stood straight again and looked Greyve directly in the eyes. Greyve's face went back to being serious.

"As your superior and the one who raised you, I..."

Before saying what he wanted to say, he stopped himself.

"...wish you the best. This will be a long endeavor for each and every one of you."

"Thank you. That was all I wanted to say. I'll take my leave, then."

Before Jaegar could exit the room, he turned back once again.

"Oh, and about what happened earlier. What the heck are the knights guarding the city doing? Letting monsters inside the city? Maybe I should just stick around here, you know?"

He then finally closed the door and left.

"That guy, when he wants to, he can speak properly like a real knight."

Greyve had a faint smile on his face, feeling proud of the person that stood before him. He then stood up from his chair and looked outside the window, staring at the moon.

"Still, it is troubling that monsters have been able to enter the city. As the king said, we have the finest knights guarding the Capital of Unowne. Yet, this incident happened..."

Greyve clenched his fists as he stared at the night sky.

---

The following day, Jaegar and Stevan met at the city gates.

"Well, see you around, Stevan."

Jaeger was offering his hand to Stevan. His friend was just looking at the hand Jaegar was offering.

"To be honest, you're nothing but trouble. But you are like a brother so I guess I'll have to save your behind once in a while."

Stevan finally shook Jaegar's hand. Both of them went their separate ways once outside the city.

After a while, Jaegar kept on walking by his lonesome.

"Now, where should I go? I've never had this much freedom to do anything I want."

While walking with a small bag on his back, a pack of wolves ambushed him and stood in front of him. They had their fangs showing while they snarled at Jaegar.

He stood still for a moment while looking at the wolves. Moments after, he continued to walk.

"Should I get a sword? I never really had any use for one. It'll just slow me down, I guess."

Jaegar looked up at the sky while pondering his options. All the wolves were now lying down and dead as he walked past them.