Final Exam
There were still several days before graduation, but even though lessons were over, the cadets wouldn't just be lounging around. The Red Revelries had begun, and Noah and all the other cadets were recruited to suppress the violence. They were given the day to rest and save their strength, and once night fell, they left the academy and gathered before the royal palace. They met an army of two hundred knights there, mostly bronze-rank, with several silvers and a few gold, the majority likely brought in from outside the city for this.
Seeing the knights in their polished plate armor, the cadets, garbed in chainmail and leather armor, couldn't help but feel a bit miffed and intimidated. Despite their feelings, they stood at attention as gold-ranked knight Sir Leuca Aithorn paced before them. The elven warrior had an icy personality, and Gideon, having tangled with him during the previous Red Revelries, wisely kept his hair covered with a helmet and his eyes downcast.
"This is not a lesson, nor is it a game. This will be live combat. All of you standing here before me, steel yourselves, and be ready to kill and be killed. After the damage caused last year, no mercy is to be shown to anyone caught fighting in the streets. The punishment is death, and should any of you be caught withholding that punishment, know that I will make it my mission to bar you from ever entering the knighthood."
"Easy, Aithorn. You're starting to sound like Gradius."
All eyes turned to the new voice, and gasps of shock were heard. "Adwith Tarnas!" many exclaimed under their breath as the mighty paladin approached. In Uther, he was as famous as Valia Zodiac, and commanded immense respect from everyone in the country, minus a few exceptions. Prince Seraph was one, scowling at the man's arrival and looking away.
"Sir Tarnas, I didn't know you would be joining us so soon," said Aithorn.
"You know me; I only consider myself on time when I'm early, and Knight's Day is my favorite time of the year. Now, cadets, as Sir Aithorn told you, the stakes are far higher than ever before. We of the knighthood need to do our absolute best to ensure not only that the city is safe, but the citizens feel safe. Their faith in us and the kingdom hangs in the balance. The royal dungeon has been rebuilt, and anyone who surrenders peacefully is to be arrested, but anyone who attacks you is to be killed. We may be in the streets of our capital, but tonight, this is a battlefield, and we can't afford a repeat of last year. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" all the cadets chanted.
"That's what I like to hear. I trust you all know what the Red Revelries are, the midnight violence, and I trust you know why you stand before me. Your job is to put these rabid beasts down. This bloody festival has to end, and with your strength, the madness will stop. Tonight, you will be keeping the peace in every sense of the word, performing your duties quickly and quietly. You are not to shout or use any spells that could draw attention. After what happened last year, the citizens need to know that we can protect them and ensure order, and the sounds of battle outside their windows aren't going to do that.
Now, for these next few evenings, you will each be assisting a knight on their patrol. Follow their orders, and they'll keep you alive and share their wisdom, but they'll also be making sure you do your job successfully and honorably. You are not true knights yet, not until you prove yourselves, but I have faith in your abilities and integrity."
As Tarnas read off a list of names, Noah looked around for Valia. Unsurprisingly, she wasn't present. After the destruction Valon caused and his heist of the kingdom's relics, she was probably under close observation and kept out of the field.
Similarly missing was Gradius, the royal executioner. Last year, at the peak of the Red Revelries, all of the brawlers kept in the city dungeon managed to escape and wreak havoc. As a result, he went on a blood-drunk rampage and destroyed the dungeon, as well as a significant portion of the city. Had Tarnas not intervened, he could have easily incinerated all of Colbrand. In the end, he saved the city by extinguishing the fires caused by the escaped prisoners. Still, the difference between the destruction he caused and the destruction he prevented was rather narrow, and his wrathful insanity and explosive powers marked him as too dangerous to continue serving in the capital. No one knew exactly what happened to him, but there were plenty of rumors.
One by one, the cadets and knights split off into pairs and departed to begin patrolling the city. It was all going fine until...
"Cadet Noah?"
Tarnas paused, with many of the knights still present perking up at the sound of his name. Suffice to say, it was rare for someone to carry so much infamy without being imprisoned or executed. He had skirted the law, and his name was one of the most recognized in the city, with the absurdity of his actions blurring the line between fact and rumor. Many cadets made faces of disgust at his depravity, while others beamed with pride, glad they could say they graduated with the man who cucked the prince and fucked a duchess.
"Cadet Noah, you will be assisting Sir Holmes tonight."
Before the Knight Sheath burned down, Noah remembered Holmes as a frequent customer, but rather than sleeping with women, he seemed to prefer sleeping alone. He could often be seen napping in the corner of the parlor, like a cat by a fireplace. This was how he took breaks during his patrol duty.
With lanterns in hand, the knights and cadets left the castle and began their walk through the dark city streets. They'd travel in groups at first, but as they moved farther into the city, they had to fan out to cover more ground. As soon as they were alone, out came the questions from Holmes, and Noah didn't see a point in hiding anything.
"So what exactly happened between you and Prince Galvin?"
"He challenged me to a duel and lost, so I took his fiancée for the night as my prize. Unfortunately, he lacked the intelligence to understand that it was his own fault and believed himself entitled to revenge. He burned down the Knight's Sheath with me inside, but I survived."
"How did you know it was him?"
"One of his friends was the lookout and confirmed Galvin did it. I decided to punish him by publicly screwing the duchess, and there was no better time and place than the reopened Knight's Sheath during a special evening party. It was all a matter of building her arousal to the point she could barely contain it. After that, getting her on stage and spreading her legs in front of everyone was easy."
"Damn."
"Anyway, Galvin went crazy and chased me into the slums, but I ditched him, and apparently, he got mugged by some vagrants. He and his mother returned to their territory and that's the end of that story."
"Consider me impressed. I was wondering-- Oh, hold on, I think I hear something."
They turned a corner, finding two men dressed in black and fighting in the street. This was what the Red Revelries were, blood-drunk warriors coming to Colbrand to fight each other in the moonlit streets, all for the sake of the kill and the thrill. What had originally started as rowdy academy applicants looking to stave off boredom had turned into a festival of blood, attracting murderous deviants and battle junkies.
"I'll show you how it's done," said Holmes as he stepped forward. "Halt! You two are out past curfew and under arrest!" Shouting was forbidden, but he announced himself just loud enough for them to hear.
The two men spotted Holmes and then bolted, scurrying off into the darkness like cockroaches.
"I don't suppose you want to chase them down, do you?" Noah asked.
