CHAPTER 270: GETTING WARM

Her knighthood was used to Irene, but the average person was not. As the first of her kind, she figured she should have expected as much.

As much as people’s glances were enough to grate Irene, they were never outright rude to her, so she never demanded they fix themselves. Even if Felix gave her permission to defend herself as she saw fit, she was hesitant to draw more attention to herself.

However, it was clear that wearing armor was a different story. Knowing she was a knight made people keep their mouths shut. Without it, she merely looked like a rough village girl.

When the reeve doubted her merely because of her gender, she had no choice but to keep moving on, or she was certain she was going to snap at him. It was almost lucky they faced goblins shortly after because then she could take her irritation out another way.

As she swung her sword at the first goblin, she was relieved to see not a bit of intelligence behind the creature’s eyes. They were empty-headed as they were supposed to be. Since these sorts of goblins were so easy to handle, it was less than two minutes before she was able to go after another who was running towards buildings at the edge of the village.

It was small and fast, but Irene was much faster without her armor.

Easily enough, she dove onto the goblin and skewered it to the ground. It screamed until it was completely bled out.

She was deaf to its noises as she dragged it to the pile that Felix had already started.

There were no weapons to take from the monsters who fought with useless wooden clubs, so they decided to start a fire and get rid of the corpses. The village certainly didn’t need necromancers to deal with, especially during autumn when spirits were said to be closest to the living.

"Our first goblins," Felix muttered as he stared into the fire.

However, the reeve’s interruption came suddenly, even though he walked there so pathetically and slowly.

"You will have to forgive me for such a remark," he apologized.

Irene kept her lips sealed, and Felix took the lead.

"She will not have to do anything," he insisted. "It is you who will have to prove that you’re not disrespectful towards knights. Even before I was in this position, I spent much time in this place helping whenever I could. While it’s against the code of chivalry to receive payment for helping others, it isn’t unreasonable to expect respect."

The reeve seemed even more distraught at the knight’s words. He bowed his head further.

"The two of you are soaking wet," the reeve said. "I would like to open up my house for the two of you to rest for the night. Dry off by the fire. Our guest rooms are large and warm while autumn settles in."

However, Felix looked towards Irene for this one. He wasn’t going to accept if she felt uncomfortable.

"How kind of you," Irene responded flatly. "We will take you up on your offer."

Even though she felt the urge to be petty and tell the man off, she knew it wouldn’t be wise for the wider picture. Reeves or village leaders were who the knights had to interact with often. For her own sake, she was going to be kind until they could leave.

Luckily, their horses had been taken by young men in the village to the surrounding stables, assuring the knights that their horses would be taken care of by the villagers. The same young men had also carefully placed the knights’ plate armor in the reeve’s home for safekeeping.

Considering the respect that knights garnered, no one would dare do anything to harm their armor or steal a piece of the valuable metal.

After being assured that everything was taken care of, the two knights were then led by the reeve to his family home—the largest home in the village.

As promised, the guest room was quite large. It had three beds inside it and a massive stone fireplace on the wall. It seemed that the family took in travelers quite a lot, for there to be a need for such a place.

"My wife will have supper ready shortly," the reeve assured them. "Please relax in the meantime."

He bowed at them with a hand on his chest, showing how horrified he was at his own behavior by lowering himself to ’only’ a woman.

When the door was closed to preserve the warmth in the room, Irene couldn’t help smirking faintly when the man was gone. She wasn’t upset anymore, rather, she found the man to be pathetic.

The fire in the fireplace was roaring, and she stood in front of it with her hands in front of her. They had been cold since the sun was low on the horizon, and she was forced to fight without her gloves, which had been soaked by her dip underneath the water.

"Satisfied?" Felix asked.

She turned around and faced her second in command, but what she thought was his sarcasm turned out to be a serious question.

"I am, thanks to you," she responded. "I don’t believe he would have been happy to hear what I would like to say."

"You have gotten more level-headed now that you’re nearing adulthood," Felix complimented her.

That felt more like sarcasm to Irene, and she narrowed her eyes at him, this time facing away from the fire so that she could warm her back.

"I wasn’t that bad before," she insisted. "You’re the one who could use a lesson in level-headedness. You were far worse than me when you were my age. Strange to think that the age I am now is how old you were when I met you."

"Birth dates pass without notice past fifteen," Felix responded lightly.

"I’m not sure if that’s happy or sad," Irene admitted. "Although I suppose only the Royal Family makes trouble over their birthdays."

Felix nodded.

In the meantime, Irene sat on the ground in front of the fire and removed her leather riding boot. Her stockings had been soaked all the way through. When she turned the boots over, she wasn’t expecting the entire river to come pouring out, but when it did, she widened her eyes.

"Wasn’t the best idea to completely submerge myself, I suppose," she muttered.

Felix chuckled faintly and shook his head. "Still solved their problem better than they were going to."

It was time for him to worry about himself, despite not being nearly as wet as Irene was, since he hadn’t submerged himself.

He started peeling off the wet tunic, and he hung it over the cage that surrounded the fireplace. However, the realization that Irene was there occurred to him. He turned to her.

"Would you like me to step out so you can get into something else?" he asked. "I will put on my extra tunic quickly and get into sleeping pants later."

He strode to her and offered her his hand after her stockings and boots were both off and hanging over the cage as well. When she was up, he decided to sit down and take off his own boots and stockings, then replace them with thick, dry stockings that were in the saddlebags that had been brought to the room.

She took his hand and stood up on cold, bare feet.

"I would appreciate that," she admitted.

"Then I will visit the reeve’s family in the meantime," he responded with a nod.

And he left the room without another word.

Situations such as that felt significant throughout the trip. Felix was the epitome of someone she could trust. She wanted him to be loved and cherished the way he deserved, yet life had thrown him such a massive test that she was amazed each time she looked at him and still saw him lifting his head and pursuing each day.

The girl got into dry clothing and found stockings that would keep her feet warm as she joined the others.

As soon as she was in the hall leading to the heart of the large home, she smelled something wonderful and was thrilled when she saw a meat pie in the center of the circular table. She could smell something rich. Not only was the meat fatty, but there was a depth of something else—perhaps cooked wine.

When she was able, the knights enjoyed food alongside the reeve’s family. Despite how it started, the day finished off on a high note.

As they rested in warm quarters and were able to get themselves together to face the next day, they still felt happy despite the fact that the sun had once again hidden and clouds covered the sky. At least it wasn’t too hot, Irene thought.

However, the joy they had established was quickly taken away when they made it to the furthest east township that was at the edge of Earl Auden’s lands.

"I thought the Earl’s knights were still in the eastern region!" Irene shouted as she forced her horse into a fast gallop towards the town.

"They were!" Felix responded.

They were their last line of defense in this area. Of course, they had to be handsomely paid for their work.

However, her voice was caught in her throat when she made it through the buildings and saw a square covered with goblins, both dead and alive.

Was it the poison again?