Honest Mistake

"Still! I can't believe that people were selling children! This is why the knights exist to put a stop to this sort of thing and protect the people of the empire.

Khio seethed with fury, her knuckles turning white at how harshly her hands tightened around the reins. Even Rhetta who kept a level head held a look of distaste and some kind of darkness burning in her eyes.

'Florian is very calm in spite of the topic...Most noble ladies who suffered a minor offence would suffer from being traumatized and enraged for days.' Rhetta thinks back to before she earned her title as the strategist. Back to the time when she was a lower ranked knight doing grunt work. There was a case she assisted on; a case of the abduction of a noble lady who had called off her engagement. The ex-fiancée in question had 'kidnapped' her. For an afternoon she was subjected to stay with the man and have tea with him. When the knights arrived all ready for a fight to the death, imagine their surprise when there was no struggle whatsoever. The man let her go without a word of complaint, later, it had been discovered that the lady was the one to accept an invitation from him and agreed to be escorted in his family's carriage.

The lady had found the incident so traumatic she refused to participate in society for three years. Rhetta was not fond of the case, thinking the young lady had taken the circumstances out of context. It was not due to trauma, in fact she had no trauma. The entire event was orchestrated from the broken engagement to the kidnap story all to earn the attention of the man she actually fancied in the hopes he would pay attention to her.

The truth of the matter being that the nobles had the luxury to choose their struggles, and even the luxury of faking a terrifying incident, whereas many are caught in these situations without the means to protect themselves. This seems driven by the manner in which Florian recalled the memories, she discussed it without flinching. Without any visible sign of past fears rising at the mention, she passed it off as another daily occurrence.

Rhetta even considered the idea that Florian may have lied about the situation but after everything they'd seen it was easier to accept the sad truth. The truth of it being a common occurrence for those that had neither the privilege nor shelter that money, status or even a guardian provided.

The reason why Basil had sent Florian became apparent. She was meant to be a guide, not in the directional sense but in the sense of taking them through what life had been like outside of the high walls that enclosed the capital city from the world outside.

'It was not for her strength, or knowledge of the ancient language. It's because she can help us through and see the side of the empire we don't know.' Rhetta reflects on this information, everything had been a sheer dump of newfound knowledge.

"What about the others? Are they...similar to you?"

Florian shrugs her shoulders, unable to provide an answer for the people she had yet to meet.

The distant sight of Kilerth village came into the groups view, before any relief could be felt at finally navigating their way to the village...The sound of commotion from ahead caught their attention.

The horses stopped with the beckoning of their riders, Khio dismounts and offers a hand to Florian, who still managed to fall off despite the clear instruction. Khio signalled towards Rhetta who climbed off her horse and held their reins. Khio walks forward peering into the distance to find the source of unrest.

They watch her running back as quietly as possible and grabbing the reins of the horses. "Come on!" Khio whispered frantically. She leads the horses, urging Rhetta and Florian to follow suit as well. They pulled the horses out of sight and hid alongside them, covered by the line of shrubbery and trees. They peek over to maintain their view of the road.

"Khio's what's going on?" Rhetta asked noticing the signal she shows, they turn their attention back to the road.

A small group of imperial knights tread along the road.

"What the hell is up with all the imperial knights everywhere!?" Khio grumbles in a hushed tone.

"I agree, it's strange...Imperial knights rarely ever leave the capital unless it's for subduing rebel forces."

"Or...Subduing you two." Florian added onto their conversation.

"Shush, shhhh" Rhetta places her hand over Khio's and Florian's mouths the moment the knights come into close proximity.

"This damn place stinks! It's disgusting, the people here are not any better than vermin." The knight spits with disgust, swatting away the flies that pester him.

"The beggars are annoying, can't they just crawl off and die somewhere without bothering us." Another knight says

"I want to go home and take a long bath after this, I hope I don't catch anything strange."

'Wouldn't be that way if the emperor cared about people like us.' Florian thinks bitterly.

"The last few villages have been crawling with imperial knights..." Rhetta comments, thinking it to be strange especially seeing that this lot is from the first division, one which is only comprised of nobles.

Khio grumbles at the sight, "It's annoying. They're making it difficult to get around."

Rhetta surveyed their surroundings thinking it would be okay since none of the knights had seen them. Khio soothed the horses and kept them calm and quiet, while Florian's fixated on something further down the road. Her attention not deviating and the look of worry as she glanced between the knights and whatever she was looking at. Rhetta turned her attention to see what Florian looked at so intently.

Two children walking towards the village, one younger looking and smaller than the other. Their real age probably had been obscured and different from their appearances due to lack of many things a growing child needed.

The children struggled to carry heavy and overloaded baskets, the older of the two carried more. From the state of dress she guessed the older one could be a young boy, and the smaller child, a young girl.

The similarities they shared in appearance of messy and wavy black hair, and soft grey eyes led Rhetta to conclude they were siblings.

"They're runners..." Florian whispered

"Runners?" Before Rhetta could inquire further the knights were walking in the same direction, the children shifted to the edge of the road to stay out of the knights way. The knights in comparison paid no mind and walked wherever they desired on the narrow road.

The young girl, weak from exhaustion and hunger, sways with every step. The loss of balance accidentally makes her stumble into one of the knights. Obviously, it had been nothing but a light bump, no damage nor pain could have been inflicted with such a minuscule collision. The man stopped in his tracks, scowling at the child with intense hatred and revolt in his eyes.

His appearance morphed, and in his blind rage, he kicked the child to the ground. Contents of the heavy baskets spilled across the road while the knight screamed his lungs out at the frightened and trembling children.

"You filthy rat! How dare you!? Do you know who I am!?"

The small child picked up her aching body and took on the posture of a subservient bow. She placed her head to the ground in apology, followed by her older brother who mirrored her actions.

With the scene of small, defenceless children begging for forgiveness over an innocent mistake before these daunting knights was enough to spark something violent in the group who remained hidden.

"You think begging will be enough? Look at this! You see this stain? It wasn't there before, you brat." he continued to shout only further frightening them.

"I-I'm very sorry sir...Please forgive me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" She sobbed

The knight showed no intention of forgiveness and drew his sword, without a second thought- the older child sprung up from his bowing position and covered the body of his younger sister with his own. They waited in fear, anticipating the moment the sword would fall.

Seeing the defiance of the child he grew angrier, this child was nothing more than a rock on the roadside. He kicked and stomped on the back of this unyielding child, he refused to give in despite the pain he was in.

Florian grit her teeth, Khio's nails dug into the palms of her hands and drew blood from the force. They tried to charge out from their hiding spot, jumping head first into the fray, but hands seized their shoulders. The horses began to whinny at the hostile unrest. Rhetta held them back.

"Khio, give me your sword." Rhetta's words were filled with poise and composure.