6 Learning the Sword (2/2)

Not much was said as the group walked up the private street, which Casey learned was called Knight's Lane. He was in the middle of wrapping his injured hands when a group of men cut in front of them. They wore the same armor as the knights that confronted him and Ronin on the first day. The only difference being that instead of the blue cloaks, they wore grey cloaks similar to the ones the rider recruits were wearing.

”That's some accomplishment you had there. Managing to eat dirt every single time you pick up a sword.” One of the men, clearly a greater noble, sneered as he jabbed a finger in Casey's direction. ”Just what kind of noble are you that can't even hold a sword?”

Casey balled his fists but didn't say anything. This kind of confrontation had been happening fairly often over the past few days. Apparently the conflict between the two orders had extended to the recruits.

Lia, who had been walking to the side of Casey, stepped forward and slapped the man's hand away, ”Why don't you lot head back to whatever hole you crawled out of?”

To Casey's surprise, this was echoed by the other recruits with a chorus of ”Yeahs!” and ”Get out of here”s.

The lead man grasped the hand that had been slapped, it seemed like she had hit him pretty hard. ”How dare you, a commoner, slap me! Do you have any idea who I am?!” His face had gone red in anger and he fixed her with a scorching glare.

The other knight recruits were clearly taken aback by their behavior. They were all nobles of higher rank who had recently joined the Order of the Ram. It was probably the first time that they had ever been rebuked by anyone of lesser birth. Several of them had already pulled their swords from their sheaths.

In response the other rider recruits unsheathed their own swords, as Casey just watched bewildered at the turn of events. The situation was spiraling out of control and he didn't understand why. After all, for him it was just a minor insult, nothing worth actually exchanging blows over.

Before he could do anything to diffuse the situation a sharp shout rang out over the two groups. ”Just what is happening here?! Put away your weapons immediately!”

Everyone froze and turned to the speaker who had appeared out of nowhere. Standing with his arms crossed and a bow slung across his back was a large man with an intimidating scar stretching from his right eye to his jawline.

At the sight of him, the entire group sheathed their weapons and brought their fists to their chests in a salute. Casey didn't recognize him but from the reactions of the other recruits, he was clearly an important figure. He decided to mimic the salute.

”Sir! These low-borns insulted us,” Pausing, the leader of the knight recruits thrust his finger towards Lia ”and that one even had the gall to strike me.”

”I do not care what happened, you do not draw your weapons on allies.” The man with the scar scolded.

”But cap-”

”Are you trying to talk back to me recruit?!”

The recruit paled and stammered, ”N-no S-sir!”

”Good.” Turning to the rest he continued, ”I will be having a conversation with both knights in charge of your training. It seems that discipline is lacking. Now get out of my sight!”

Fearing further punishment, both groups immediately separated.

After the knight recruits had disappeared Casey finally spoke, ”I would like to thank all of you for stepping in, but you really didn't have to.”

One of the other recruits whom Casey knew as Garth draped an arm around his shoulders and said. ”Of course we had to, they were insulting a fellow rider. Besides, I never liked that guy anyways. Even for a high noble he's a prick.”

”He's right, you might be new but you're still a rider like the rest of us.” Lia continued.

Casey was shocked by this sentiment. Even on Earth, there weren't many people who would step in like that. It wasn't that he was a loner exactly, it's just that most of the people he knew weren't interested in going out of their way to help him. He'd only been in Decra for five days and yet these people were willing to face down a group of high nobles for him.

”Ha well thanks again.” Casey said while scratching his cheek ”Anyways, who was that guy who stopped it from becoming a fight?”

”Wait you don't know who that was?!” Thomas asked, his eyes widening in bewilderment.

”That was Sir Rodgerick. He is a member of the King's Royal Guard, and an expert marksman.” Lia answered.

”They say he can hit a fleeing rabbit at over 600 yards!” Garth added.

”Wha! 600 yards!? Is that even human?”

”Haha yep. I wonder if we'll ever be as good as him?” Thomas asked with his eyes shining.

Garth placed his arms behind his head, trying to seem nonchalant and said. ”Maybe someday, ya never know.”

”Alright we better hurry it up. If we're not careful, we might miss lunch.” Lia said prompting us to pick up our pace back towards the palace.