Chapter 253: The Journey Begins
Shortly after the news of Irene’s move into knighthood, another announcement came in the summer. However, this one was from King Alfred—something that certainly shocked all of Chemois.
For many, it felt like they were only worth the trouble when they were winning wars for him. It wasn’t the first or last time they would feel cast aside by that man. Such was the history of the north.
The announcement still gave a shockwave of happiness throughout as Lord Arthur Litharion was chosen by His Majesty to act on his behalf in bestowing the honor of knighthood on the apprentices who earned it through the war. In the south they would also have a formal knighting ceremony.
None of anyone from Chemois wanted to be involved in such an event so they all opted to remain in the north and attend much less official proceedings. It would suit the uninhibited temperaments of the northerners more anyway.
However, the announcement meant Irene had to face the others much sooner than she had prepared herself for.
How strange it was that for the months she had been healing and then retraining, all she wanted to do was be back with the other knights and spending her time the way she had for the past years before the war. Every second of every day was spent wanting to be back.
Yet when it was truly presented to her, she had so much resistance to it. She stressed about the fact that everyone undoubtedly knew that she was a girl now. It wasn’t that Felix would go ahead and tell everyone but there was never a straight answer to who else was there in the infirmary tent outside of Felix and Stanley. There were others but they were nameless.
She felt she couldn’t ask Felix since he had never responded to her letter. Or, rather, he was likely too busy to. Finishing off of a war was no small feat certainly.
There was a subdued knock at Irene’s open door and she turned quickly to see her father leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
"You look handsome, dad," she complimented him.
He held out his arms and looked down at the thick, dark red tunic he wore. While the material itself was durable because he refused to wear something that wasn’t, there was a finely embroidered golden stripe along the edges of the sleeves, neckline, and around the base.