Chapter 11: The Surprise Visit (Part 1)

"A journey of thousand miles begin with a single step. The journey of a hero begin with a single knock on the door."

- Anonymous

The piece of paper that Captain Rizzou completed for me earlier was now in my hand. After I rested for a while; taking my afternoon nap, I took the paper and read through it.

A simplified version of the documentation of my registration which contains not much of a detail though I do wonder about the so-called Council of Knights. What or who were the Council anyway?

Ahh well, thinking about it by myself will get me nowhere. I better ask Captain Rizzou later about it.

The sun was setting as I looked from my room’s window. This room was located in the western wing section of the Elemental Circle, the castle-like Headquarter of the Royal Elite Knights.

I’m now feeling hungry. I had forgotten all about my lunch as I was too excited about being here. I should have asked Reena to prepare my lunch as takeaway before I left the house earlier. As I wondered how and when I will have my dinner, I heard a knock on the door.

“Sire, your dinner is ready!”

Talk of the devil.

I opened the door and saw the maid who brought me to the room earlier with a tray covered with a metal cover. However, even with the metal cover, I could still smell the wonderful aroma of the food that was being served. My stomach made a sound, which caught the maid attention. She chuckled as I blushed.

“Sorry about that.” I smiled at her while trying to keep my courtesy a little intact.

“Sire, I’ve come to serve your dinner. Please let me in and prepared it for you.”

A room service?

I never had my food brought to me before. It’s the first time ever. I feel good and thankful that she remembered to bring it for me. As I let her in, I looked at her from behind. She briskly prepared the food, setting them on the desk beside my table. She sure reminds me of Reena, professional and elegant in her duties. As she finished setting my food, she looked at me.

“Sire, your dinner had been served. Please eat it while it’s hot.”

I nodded and I thanked her for her effort.

“When you are done sire, please leave the plate and the cup outside the door. I’ll come and pick it up later.”

“Sure.”

She bowed down to me and excused herself. As she left the room, I thought to myself.

Life in here sure was different compared to the Brotherhood’s guild-city. I had to eat in the canteen which now had become mess hall. I can’t bring back any food to my room. The fact that someone brought me my dinner right to my room without even having me telling, asking or even reminding anyone tells me how much the difference between my new life and my previous ones.

Though I dare not complain about my previous life, what Captain Rizzou said to me somehow rings true. Perhaps this was one of the benefits and the perks of being an Elites.

I thanked my lucky star that I saved a princess the other day, not some pauper. Nothing wrong with saving a pauper, but saving a princess has its own merits. No wonder most boys and men would love to save a fair princess one day in their life.

The perks and the benefits of saving one outweigh the risks, as I nearly lost my life in return for saving a princess. If the princess happens to fall in love with her saviour cum hero, that would have meant that he might end up as a King. Or at least a prince.

Not bad.

But I do wonder if Princess Sierra would fall in love with me? If that ever happens, I’m set for the rest of my life.

King Claude Leonheart the First, Ruler of Elsigardia.

Hmm… again, it’s not bad. I like the sound of that. I could imagine myself sitting in the carriage with my queen, waving to the public as they cheered up for me.

“Long live King Leonheart.”

“We love you King Leonheart.”

I could hear the scream of fair maidens calling out for my name as my Queen looked at me, riveting to her seat as she admired my presence. She would blush and I would kiss her on her cheeks then lips, publicly if possible.

Wonderful! It would be wonderful, indeed.

Ahhh, perhaps it would come true one day. Even if it did not, it was good to have a dream. Rather that, than being a walking raincloud, pissing on own and others’ dreams. I was sent back to reality as I heard another sound. This time it was the grumbling of my stomach. I think I need to feed myself already. I could always indulge in my fantasy later on.

Though I still have long, long way to go and I just started today, having a dream like this sure makes me smile. I’d saved a princess already, so that’s one step forward. Like they say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Ahh, again my stomach grumbled. I better eat or else I won’t even have the energy to walk another step. I took my seat and smelled the aroma of the food that was being served to me.

My god, this smells good. I could not wait any longer. In the privacy of my own room, I gobbled up the food like a hungry barbarian and leave nothing on the plate.

Burp!

Man, that was good. I could have eaten this sort of food every day and won’t even get bored. For someone my size, I could be considered as a glutton.

The meal consisted of potato stew, a slab of roasted lamb shanks sprinkled with herbs and spices and served with black pepper sauce. As for dessert, I was served with toasted nougat dipped in custard pudding made from snow pear. And last but not least, the drink that completed the meal was my favourite, Elsiberry sweet ale, served chilled. This meal sure beats having that fatass chef’s Stew of Death anytime.

I then placed the plate and cup outside my door as told by the maid earlier. Not long after that, I could hear someone walking and the picked up the empty plate and cup.

Wow, she really came and picked it up. The service here is top-notch. I should say my thanks to her for bringing me the food and collecting my plates and cup when I see her the next time.

And also to the cooks who had prepared my food. They sure had put effort into preparing my dinner. I’m not some spoilt brat who just eats and criticize the food they ate. I knew my manners better than that. The cooks and the maid had put their efforts into making me feel so welcomed, and I’m honoured. And at the very least, I should also honoured their hard work with a clean plate and word of thanks.

The last thing they need was food critics, who for me, are a bunch of all talks but can’t even cook a simple dish to fill their own stomach. There seemed to be certain rising trends nowadays that the people would talk more than they eat. They would criticize everything, from the presentation, the taste, the colour, the texture blah blah blah.

But one thing they all have in common was that they can’t even cook. They don’t even understand the cooking process and the effort to prepare the food to be served on their plate. All they did was to look at the food, pick up their fork and spoon, take a bite and then off goes their mouth complaining.

I can’t fathom for the very life of me what these people think anyway or what goes inside their chef-wannabes brain. If the food was bad like how the fatass chef served, sure go ahead and be my guest and complaint. But if the food was as good as was served to me, perhaps even half as good, then what’s with the deal with all the yappings. The next time I see someone complained about a perfectly cooked meal, I’ll sure to give him or her a piece of my mind. Even if she was a princess.

For me, food was life and life was food. It’s my passion and I often went into a self-rant like this. As I lie on my bed, my mind wandered off yet again.

What should I do after this?

Should I shed some pounds by training my sword skills? It has been 2 days since I last touch my swords and puts it into proper practice. All I had been doing prior to this was some basic movements. Basically just a sweat-jerker. Now I believe that even a second could make all the difference. That’s what inspired and motivated me to push my training to another level. Even if I can’t see immediate results, but in a real battle, a second was all it takes to determine the victor or the loser. And in most cases, the losers end up dead too.

It’s starting to get dark outside. The room was timely lit by a magical device that served as a candle of some sort. Nothing too fancy. There were some devices that can lighten up the whole building, but for my room, this small magical device was sufficient enough.

Besides, I don’t really like my room to be too bright anyway. I can focus my thought better in a dimly light room. Not too dim, but with just enough lighting.

I held up my sword, the one that was given to me by the old geezer at the Chamber of Solaris. Now that I had the chance to hold and felt it properly, I noticed that the hilt was engraved with the Brotherhood’s crest and underneath it was our Brotherhood’s motto. And at the other side of the hilt, were my name and my journeyman rank inscribed.

There’s my name on the hilt of this sword? Wow.

I never knew about this. Suddenly, the sword felt special for me. I smiled as I gave the sword a quick slash. I focused my eyes on my sword, from its hilt up to its tip as I tried to enter the state of trance. A trance state was just like the meditative state, but with more vigours and emotions whilst a meditative state would be more calm and connective to the surroundings and its universe.

I gathered my thought power as I practice the Movement of the Sun Sword from the First Movement up to the Fifth Movement. Though I can practically use only the First movement, in my mind I’m already reached the Fifth movement. Even though I was just practising in my mind, because of the trance state that I entered, I sweat a bucket load. I took off my shirt and hang it on the chair. I wiped my sweat away and sheathed my sword away.

As I sheathed my sword, I suddenly heard a knock on the door.