Knight of Song

Chapter.3: Ammama village

After enough time, the songstress and her knights reached a small village. The village was best known for its fine brewing. From wine to beer, even juices. Uura was truly proud of the Ammama brewing, leaving other nations envious of it. The village is even named after the Ammama wine, which was made by Ammama herself a good century ago. But she was at least able to live her life to the fullest and continue the next line of Brewers, all of which she gave birth to herself, before passing away in old age. The village was also at the front entrance of the wall surrounding the entire Uuralia county.

When the Songstress and her knights reach the entrance of the village, the villagers instantly welcome them; well aware that the princess would be passing through. They quickly rushed the princess to the mayor's estate while the knights were escorted to the bar to have a nice hot meal and a good refreshing drink. The horses, on the other hand, were taken to the stables with the other animals, where they could be properly fed and get a nice drink.

Sitting in a line at the table, the knights chatted away while they waited for their meal, however, the blonde knight sat quietly, keeping to himself. The women thought of the blonde knight to be something of the cool quiet type, although this was also something some of the other women hated or found to be rude. Regardless, the girls were kind and gracious despite his rude and thoughtless behavior. The other knights on the other hand always thanked the women for their hard work and smiled at them kindly...but one knight, in particular, couldn't sit by and ignore the blonde's rude behavior towards the kind women. Being a married man himself, he hated seeing men treat women with no respect; he loved and respected his wife, just as all women should be treated.

"How can you treat these women so coldly?" The man asked, glaring at the blonde knight with his sharp blue eyes. The young musician, however, did not respond, in fact, he hardly even glanced at the redheaded knight.

"These women had kindly given you food and water! You should be thanking them!" After hearing the older man, the musician glanced over and answered flatly...

"They don't matter to me."

"Why you!!"

With the knights dining back in the bar, the songstress stayed in the company of the mayor, under the roof of his estate. She had known him since she was a child, as he was a good friend to her father, making him almost like an uncle to the young girl. So they chatted for hours and dined in together just like old times when she was a little girl.

"Just be careful Ursa, out past Ammama's gates are demons running around..." The older man informed, worried for the young girl, wishing he could bear the burden for her.

"Please, don't worry about me. My father chose our strongest men to accompany me" The young songstress smiled, taking a sip of her tea, hoping to put the man at ease. The older man smiled and was relieved that she would be in good hands but the two were startled when one of the women from the bar had barged into the room with a distressed look on her face.

"Mr. Mayor, there's a fight going on outside the bar!"

"What!?" The two answered, both standing from their seats.

"It's apparently between two of the princess's knights" The woman explained. The princess was more worried than shocked. She was well aware of how the other knights felt about Note...but they had never started fights with him before because they were better mannered than that...so why now were they starting a fight? The princess and the mayor quickly headed off to the bar, only to witness the blonde knight and redhead going head to head in a fistfight. The blonde, however, was winning by a long shot, so much so that the redhead had fallen over in defeat. Outraged, the other knights jumped in to protect their fallen comrade. Despite being at such a disadvantage, the young musician was still able to hold his own against them all with swift reflexes as he listened carefully to every movement before striking.

"That's enough!" The mayor called out. He had seen enough, causing the knights to cease their fighting. The princess quickly summoned her healing magic to aid the wounded man who received the worst beating out of the bunch, glaring at the blonde knight.

"You're horrible! You shouldn't be picking fights like this!" She bellowed at the young musician.

"Did you start this fight boy?" The mayor asked, glaring at the ill-mannered knight.

"..." The blonde was silent and his expression made it very clear that he had no intention of responding to anyone, much less defend himself as his amber eyes looked directly into the older man's deep earth-colored ones. The mayor sighed, annoyed, and angry with the boy, figuring it was the fault of the king for spoiling him at a young age.

"Princess, I apologize...I shouldn't have let that ill-mannered child for a knight get the better of me" the knight said, standing back up to his feet before kindly offering his hand to help the princess back up, giving her a kind smile, grateful for her aiding his wounds from earlier.

"Albur, what happened?" She asked the knight, as she knew the other knights hated Note for many reasons...but he does nothing to justify himself, so there was no defending him and it's not like he ever shows anyone kindness, so it was easy to put the fault on him.

"He was being rude to the kind women that were serving our food and drinks. I just couldn't let it slide" The knight answered, sending a glare towards the blonde knight. The songstress didn't know what to do; she knew how the others all felt towards each other...and with the blonde's attitude towards everyone, it was far too easy to pin him as the bad guy...

Looking at the knight beside her, she knew she couldn't let the blonde knight get away with hurting a fellow ally or for behaving so far out of line, especially if he had been as disrespectful as the red-headed knight had claimed him to be. The mayor wasn't in a position to punish him and her father was back at the castle, so it was up to her to show the knights that the musician couldn't get away with such disrespectful behavior under her watch. She marched right up to him and slapped him hard across the face, ignoring the stinging in her palm as she immediately scolded him.

"Just because my father isn't here, don't think you can do or act as you please. Now all of you, head for your rooms and rest for the night...We leave at first light" She ordered just before heading back inside with the mayor. The knights, of course, do as they're told but as they did so, they chattered and raved about the princess and how the blonde knight got what he deserved...but the musician could care less about what the princess said and wasn't even fazed by her slap; to him, her words were nothing but the hollow echoes of her father, the king.

With the moon up in the night sky gazing down at the world, Note sat alone in his room, sitting on his bed as his fingers gently tugged at the instrument's thin strings. However beautiful the melody was, his thoughts were filled with irritation towards the king and his daughter; they were annoying to no end...He sighed before setting down his harp and removing his chest plate along with the shoulder plates and lied back onto the bed to try and relax, but his mind was still muddled with frustration, and it felt worse knowing that even the beautiful sound of his harp could not ease his troubled mind.

He tried to clear his mind but his thoughts began to flood with memories of his past growing up in the knight academy. He of course always kept to himself but because of his skills, the king always made sure he was praised for his swordsmanship...while the other children grew up hating him. They hated how he was so talented despite not wanting to avenge his parents, to fight for his country, only wanting to play music, and of course, they resented how the king treated him, going so far as to call the blonde boy spoiled...He hated all of it, so at the age of 13, he demanded the king for his freedom...but the king said he couldn't let Note leave until he was the age of 15...but when that time came, his release continued to get pushed back until the day came where he was asked to be part of the royal guard to protect the princess on her quest...It was clear the king couldn't let go of such a valuable tool...It was unfair and so cruel, all because the king didn't want to spend the funds to repair the orphanage...He never imagined losing his parents eleven years ago would have affected his life so much, he never knew how much freedom he really had before, how good he had it...and now that was all gone. He was shackled, forever made to serve the king until death would come to take him...He had thought about running away once but with someone as important as him, he would constantly be hunted down, and since all he would want to do is play music, he would always be easy to find...so running would sadly never work but living in peace, playing his music, was all he wanted...His frustration boiled so much sometimes that he often thought about killing the king but he knew that wouldn't give him a quiet life, though it would almost be worth it after everything the king had done to him...