6 Chapter 6: Eric Asquith and family

Two hours before midnight... Evgrad's castle.. A bearded man with silvery-white hair, in dark blue military tunic and brown leather armor, is standing on top of the gatehouse with his arms, crossed. He looks to be in his mid-fifties, but still has a posture of a proud man. Rudick Gallahan is staring down at a lone rider, 50 meters away, trotting down in the middle of the main road towards the castle gate, with considerable concentration. "Spencer!", Gallahan called. A younger-looking man with blonde hair and a handsome face wearing the same outfit arrived standing few feet behind Gallahan. Spencer gave the older soldier a salute by banging his right fist towards his left chest and placing his left at his back, now the young man is standing in attention and waiting for orders. "Get down there and instruct the guards to open the gate. The third young master has arrived. make sure no one makes a fuss". Gallahan sternly said. Spencer responds loudly, "Yes sir" he then turned and walked down to enforce the order. Several minutes later... The gate is raised halfway which is enough for a mounted knight to go through, the guards are standing in attention on each side of the passageway, while a young knight among them looked to Eric and placed his fist to his chest. Even though the guards hesitated a bit, they still copied Spencer and made a salute to Eric. Eric nodded to Spencer, and hopped down his mount, "so Gallahan ordered you to arrange a welcome for me? you even woke some sleeping guards?", Spencer chose to not directly respond to Eric's question, and just said, "welcome back and sleep well young master". Eric knew that Gallahan would do something like this as long as he's in charge of the gate's security, and at the same time, no other important person is around. This young man didn't think highly of Eric, in fact, almost no one does, but at least this person doesn't look down on him, unlike most of the knights and soldiers in Evgrad. Eric thought that it is mainly due to Gallahan's influence on this young man. Eric continued walking towards the keep, he went through two more gates before he finally reached the castle entrance. An attendant appeared hurriedly and took the horse to the stable, Eric patted his horse and said "see you later girl", instead of the main entrance, Eric entered through a side door that leads to the kitchen, he then started cooking a meal for himself. After a while a chubby woman appeared and asked looking at the third young master's back, "who might you be?". Eric turned and looked at her then went back to what he's doing, "young master! let me do the cooking sir". "I'm almost done, I've brought magros meat, store it and if anyone wants some, give them some", then he pointed at the thing placed on top of the table, the kitchen hand bowed and took the magros meat covered with cloth. After a while, Eric can be seen eating meat soup in a bowl bigger than his palm in the kitchen table, he taught himself to cook over time and tried different spices to enrich the flavors of his dishes. He can still remember the taste and aroma of the delicacies in his life dream on planet Earth, which made most dishes in this world less appetizing to him. Then the kitchen door opened with a slight creak and a man stood with armed crossed, leaning the side of his body to the door's frame, "The earl will be back from meeting the duke in three days at most, with the young lord (referring to the eldest son, Eric's older brother and the heir to the earldom), do you still want to join the duke's army?". Gallahan gave Eric a questioning but somewhat concerned stare, yet the teenager just looked at him lazily, yawned, and eventually responded, "I guess so, I don't have anything better to do, so.... At least I know how to fight a little, and unlike my brothers, whose exceptional at a lot of things, so might as well." Gallahan stayed in his position for a minute then made a deep sigh, ". . . " "So be it," the old knight eventually walked away. In Eric's chamber.. Instead of laying down on his bed, Eric is now sitting on the floor leaning his back on the stone wall facing the opened window, he covered himself with a thick fur blanket, whilst looking beyond the open window. 'Is it real or did I just really dream, but it felt so real. It's been eight years since then, but he still kept asking himself or someone invisible around him, for answers every now and then. "I feel like I'm an old dude after experiencing all of that, is there even an answer to all of this?". **************************************** Eric Asquith is the third son of earl Wilrock Asquith , 44 years old, he has the Asquith's signature dark brown hair and tired green eyes, his earldom is located at Northeast of Beltir kingdom, with two town's and more than a dozen villages. The earl has a standing army numbering of about 2500, each of his towns has a garrison of 200 men, and 95 riders patrolling the several villages, with 25 amateur knights (including Eric and four of his younger half brothers) and 12 professional knights (which includes the earl, his eldest and second son). Eric was still considered an amateur knight until now since he hasn't been properly evaluated. Women, by the way, aren't allowed to hold any position and were not considered for awakening. The earl's firstborn and his heir, Brugeur Asquith is 22 years old, a professional knight. He is your typical quiet military man, uptight, serious, and aggressive. Just imagine a thick and muscular Viking with dark brown hair and green eyes, (just like those WWE wrestlers on planet Earth) who mostly speak with only two or three words, like "okay, let's go, I agree, No". However, it is said that he is a highly effective commander in Duke Pelham's army, where he spends most of his time at the moment, (Earl Asquith is a member of duke Pelham's faction, one of the three main factions in the kingdom, vying for supremacy). His mom, the earl's first wife died when Brugeur was four, during childbirth to his brother supposedly the second son, (his mom and brother passed away). Maevlek Asquith is the name of the earl's second son, he had a twin sister, Maevlyn Asquith, both are 19 years old, their mother is the earl's third wife and the current lady of the house. Maevlek is also a professional knight, he is the scholarly scheming type, even though he wears his emotions on his face, he has light brown hair, green eyes, and a trimmed goatee. Maevlyn, on the other hand, is your typical bored noble lady who likes to live in luxury, currently, she is engaged to the son of one of the earl's allies. Currently, the earl has one legal wife and four mistresses or concubines, twelve sons, and five daughters. Eric's mom died when he was two, so he doesn't have any memory of her, she was the second wife, while the current legal wife (Maevlek's mom), was initially a mistress since she was from a merchants family, later she became the lady of the house when Eric's mother passed away. The military strength of the earldom is considered to be slightly above average among the earldoms in the kingdom.

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