28 Chapter 28 - A Trial? (1)
A teenage boy with bright golden hair opened his puzzled blue eyes to an unfamiliar environment. He glanced around confusedly.
The youth found that he could not recognize where he was or even who he was.
The boy sat up before checking himself. He was wearing a coarse tunic and simple pants, sitting on an ancient wooden bed covered with a mattress. His cloth was quite old, with traces showing that someone had washed it many times.
'Who am I?' he wondered bewilderedly before a wave of memory rushed into his mind.
The youth clutched his head in pain and groaned distressingly; he felt as if bugs or something weird were crawling recklessly inside his brain. It took a while before the pain subsided, and he was grasping heavily, lying on the bed with his body covered with sweat.
He remembered now.
His name was Theodore; he was sixteen years old and was a newly recruited city guard who would start working today.
Theodore then tried to recall his past; it seemed he remembered everything clearly.
When he was very young, his parent died in an accident, and his uncle sent him to an orphanage.
Later he got adopted by his teacher, Nathan, as a disciple.
Theodore grew up by his teacher's side; however, his teacher recently got ill from a strange disease. The doctors he previously invited could not solve the illness, leaving him and his teacher disappointed.
He joined the recruitment of the city guard to save enough money to have a better doctor to treat his teacher.
After adapting to the memory, Theodore felt strange about his previous amnesia and reaction.
He soon shook his head to stop his distracting thought and assumed it was because of a lack of sleep.
After calming himself down, Theodore looked at the table nearby; on it were a folded dark blue uniform, an old breastplate filled with marks, and a rusty sword. They were what he received from successfully being a city guard.
Although it was a small job, Theodore was proud of passing the recruitment as a commoner.
Lost in thought, Theodore heard a knock on his room and a voice calling him out to eat.
"Wake up quickly. It's time for breakfast." A kind and familiar voice urged him from outside the room.
"Yes, wait a minute," Theodore immediately replied as he quickly changed his cloth to the attire on the table.
When Theodore left the room, he saw a middle-aged man with a pale face and sickly composure setting up a simple breakfast for him. It was a piece of hard bread and a glass of hot herbal drink.
"Teacher, you should rest. I can do this myself." Theodore protested with concern after sitting down. In his opinion, Nathan's condition was not good; he hoped his teacher would rest rather than burden his body with this kind of thing.
"Alright, alright. I will not do it next; I do it this time only because this is your first day of work." Nathan agreed casually.
Theodore sighed and began eating. From Nathan's reaction, he knew that his teacher would not listen.
After finishing eating, Theodore took the utensil back to clean. Originally, Nathan wanted to do it, but Theodore strongly objected.
When Theodore finished, he walked to the door and put his boots on. Before leaving, he told Nathan, "Teacher, then I'm leaving."
Nathan waved back annoyingly at Theodore, signaling his disciple to go already.
When he saw Theodore close the door, Nathan secretly prayed, 'May my disciple be blessed with a nice and successful day.'
Just after he finished praying, he covered his hand to his mouth as he coughed heavily. When he stopped, he saw a blood-red sticky liquid staining his hand.
...
Theodore walked to the gathering place, the training ground near the city lord's mansion, and reached the location half an hour early; however, many people had already arrived.
He walked to a place without people and seemed inconspicuous.
People came to greet Theodore from time to time. He lightly talked back when someone approached him. He rarely took the initiative as he was not good at communication.
He listened to people talking around him.
A group of people were discussing the possibility that the city lord decided to expand the city guard because there was news that a nearby city would soon attack.
Some people were even more daring and said that the newly recruited city guard was a reserve force intending to delay the enemies in case of emergency.
Theodore did not know which was the truth; he only quietly listened when he noticed someone extraordinary walking in.
"Quiet!!!" A loud voice attracted Theodore. It came from a majestic middle-aged man wearing extravagant armor.
Everyone looked over and stopped talking; they guessed that the newly arrived person should be someone of high status that they could not afford to offend.
"Gather here and line up." The armored man commanded as he pointed at a place.
Everyone quickly obeyed.
After lining up, Theodore quickly counted and concluded that more than forty young people lined up with him.
"Good." The man lightly commented. He then introduced himself; his name was William, and he was the city guard's captain.
William then explained the task the recruits needed to accomplish: patrolling the city in groups with the senior members.
He then called out some old city guards and called the name of the new recruit to join the team.
Theodore walked over when he heard his name. There were five people in his group, with one being the senior city guard named Lucas, who was also the leader of this small team.
Lucas clarified to the team about the training, the scope of the activity, and what everyone needed to do.
There was training in the morning and the patrolling task in the afternoon.
Lucas explained that there were three rotation times in the patroling task: in the morning, afternoon, and night. The team shift was in the afternoon, and the newly recruited could not participate in the night patrol.
Theodore listened and was quite clear about what he had to do.
Lucas then led the team to start training with the others.
Everything went well during the training, and Theodore was satisfied with his job.
The benefit of the city guard also included free lunch, even though it was just a simple and small rough bread. Theodore looked at his friend in his team; everyone was also in high spirits.
Lucas then called everyone from his team to come over and get ready for the patrolling task.
Theodore walked with his new friends to Lucas to prepare before starting the patrol task with his team in their designated area.
