16 Knight's Revenge
The next day, all the knights were outside taking some medicine to reduce the swelling from yesterday's beating. Also, the knights who got drunk we're being scolded by their senior knights, for getting hammered and starting a commotion that resulted in their beating.
Alter,
"You damn fools, especially you Schwanz . How dare you harass the master maid. If it wasn't for your idiotcy, we wouldn't have ended up like this. If it wasn't for the lord stepping in, who knows what could've happened. The worse part is that you tried to harass the lord's maid. Did you think it was fine to make move on your superior's childhood caretaker?!?".
Ever since Jacky explained what happened after they got knocked out, the knights started showing more respect to Ritzy. They couldn't believe that their lord who was supposedly a spoiled brat that was lucky to become a mage, was able to easily defeat someone they couldn't defeat together.
Schwanz,
"I'm sorry, I drank so much I didn't know what I did. If it wasn't for the maid looking like she wanted to be approached, I wouldn't have done it!".
Alter,
"You dare make excuses! You know what!?! You will be punished harshly. As punishment, your left hand will be broken!"
Alter then grabbed the young knights and pulled him to a nearby table. Schwanz was screaming and trying to escape.
The other knights because if they let the knight go unpunished. They would be punished as well.
The group dragged Schwanz to the table and placed his hand firmly on the table. He then grabbed his sword and smashed the hilt side on Schwanz's hand.
Unfortunately, Schwanz was struggling so the hit was perfect. It ended up only breaking half his hand. Even though it didn't completely break it, it didn't mean it hurt any less.
Schwanz,
"Aghhhh, you bastards. How dare you do this to me. I come from a long line of valiant knights. Show me the respect I deserve and ask for an apology!".
The knights just ignored Schwanz and continued holding him down. Alter then held his sword up high and then smashed the hilt on Schwanz's hand again.
The hand was now completely broken. All that could be seen was what resembled mushed meat with broken bones popping out and blood all over.
Schwanz didn't yell anymore. Instead, he just passed out from all the pain.
...
After ten minutes have passed Ritzy finally arrived at the scene with Jacky and the new slave behind him. When he arrived, Alter and Junger approached to receive him since they were the knights most familiar with him compared to the other knights.
Alter and Junger bowed simultaneously and said in unison,
"We welcome our lord and are ready to serve".
Ritzy,
"At ease men. Are we ready to depart?".
Alter,
"Yes sir, we have all taken our medicine, carriages have been prepared, and punishment has been dealt to the knight that caused the trouble".
Ritzy,
"Good work, and what was his punishment?".
Alter,
"Per code, we were originally supposed to break only a finger. But since he decided to disrespect you further, we broke his hand as retribution".
Ritzy didn't care about the brutality, but it did interest him a little on how something so little warranted a little brutal punishment.
Ritzy,
"I wonder, what will happen to him now?"
Alter,
"His knighthood has been removed and he has become one of our gifts for the war effort. He will be sent to the front lines with only some leather armor and a pike. He will no longer be related to us after we offer him to the army".
"He will be with us on the journey walking the whole way with no shoes. His equipment has already been removed so we only need him to wake up so we can throw him off the carriage".
...
The journey began and it didn't take long for Schwanz to wake up. Once awake, his waist was tied up and being pull along by a knight while he walked.
As they continued the journey, they faced off with many enemies from bandits to beasts. Unfortunately, the same formation was used. Since Schwanz was being held by a knight, he was in the front line as well.
Schwanz was weaponless and had no armor for protection. All he could do was hoped the knight holding him would save him while he ran around like a wild dog.
Ritzy was seeing all this play out while he was in the back acting as support. He enjoyed every minute of seeing the knight suffer. He found the most hysterical part was when the knight was almost killed and barely saved by him.
The scene was that the knight was on the floor with a wolf on top of him. The wolf had a magical bolt through its head and its jaws around the knight's face. Schwanz was so terrified that he drenched himself.
Along the journey, they faced more beast. On one particular battle, they were fighting small bear-like creatures. One of the bears charged forward to kill the knight holding Schwanz. On accident though, the rope holding Schwanz was cut.
Throughout the whole journey, he felt humiliated and had a deep desire to kill Ritzy and Alter. He had no more loyalty so he just desired to run away and they later in the future to take revenge. By being tied no more to the knight, Schwanz saw his opportunity and ran as hard as he could to escape.
Unfortunately for him, he was extremely tired and his feet were bleeding. He felt as if he was dying every second he ran. His legs were in excruciating pain from all the walking that resulted in his feet to be filled with blisters, blood, and cuts.
The knight that was holding him before finally caught up, and jumped on Schwanz. He started hitting him no stop. Giving him bruises and breaking a tooth.
When the rest of the group arrived, they saw Schwanz tied up to the knight again. Though this time he was a complete mess.
Once the group was reunited, Alter jumped off his horse and approached Schwanz and the knight.
"We can't have him escaping again. This would be a huge embarrassment to the household reputation. We need to tie him up securely on the carriage this time".
The knight then jumped off his horse as well and helped Alter tie Schwanz to the servant carriage. This time Schwanz wasn't tied by his waist, but by his wrists.
Resuming the journey, Schwanz was cursing himself and venting. After a while, he got bored and started looking around. Eventually, he looked at what was inside the carriage. He wanted to see and curse the maid that got him into this predicament.
He saw the Jacky and was about to curse but then his eyes became bloodshot and filled with rage. He saw that Ritzy's new slave was sitting right next to Jacky.
Schwanz mind,
'What in the ******* world, why the **** is that pathetic, useless slave doing inside the carriage. Wait, are those cat ears. What is a beastkin doing by being with us! Even more, why am I out here while that worthless piece of **** slave doing in there. She should just be killed in the spot for being alive! Especially if we're going to go kill beastkin'.
It was mid-day and they were gonna take a two-hour break for lunch.
They were all doing their tasks of setting up a makeshift kitchen. The servants were clearing the area, some knights were patrolling, others taking out the materials out for cooking, Ritzy doing nothing since he was a noble, and Jacky and the slave were sent to refill everyone's water pouches.
Schwanz was just tied to a tree and only given a piece of stale bread while he was still tied to the carriage. He was currently eating all his lunch in anger.
'**** damn those women. Who does the maid think she is to cause me this trouble, even more, the slave by taunting me while she rode leisurely on the carriage'.
As he was cursing to relieve his anger, he saw Jacky and the slave waling alone to a river not too far away.
'This is my chance for revenge. If I don't do it now, I'll never get a chance again. I'll most likely die on the first day of battle since I won't be given proper equipment and be used as a sacrifice to tire the enemy out'.
Schwanz started thinking of ideas to get untied but couldn't think out of anything. Having no ideas, he started seeing if he could reach for anything inside the carriage. Having has hand mover around randomly inside the carriage, he finally felt something. He pulled the object out and it turned out to be a stake that is used for securing a tent.
Having no other choice, he placed the stake between his hand and through the rope. He then stabbed the stake on the carriage and started pulling back. Schwanz started pulling back and causing the rope to become tighter and tighter. Luckily the stake didn't budge so he could add more pressure. Unfortunately, the rope was too sturdy so instead of the rope breaking. Schwanz's right wrist was pulled out.
Schwanz wanted to scream from the pain but the desire to take revenge held him back.
He was finally free but his left hand was still broken from before's punishment and now his right hand had a pulled wrist. His only functionally hand was his left hand that was broken.
He didn't mind though, he just wanted to take revenge. He then pulled the stake out with his broken hand and ran towards Jacky and the new slave. He ignored the excruciating amount of pain coming from his broken hand holding the stake.
Ritzy had no idea what was happening, he went to talk with Junger who was patrolling around the temporary camp to get rid of his boredom. He was too far to sense what was happening.
