The Paladin Order Reformed

With their sacrifice, we were able to kill 700 demons within the city and capture another 300. It was a great achievement that everyone was proud to accomplish. We brought an extremely important a.s.set back to the Order"s fold and freed thousands of occupied human civilians. This victory was the stepping stone to freeing the Lord"s Union southern territory from demon occupation.

The platoon commander, whose name I would learn was 1st Lt. May, was good on his word. After giving his briefing of the mansion siege, I was called into our battalion commander"s tent. I pa.s.sed through the canvas flaps and was greeted by Lt. May and the 12th and 9th battalion commanders.

I froze in the middle of the doorway, not completely knowing how to approach such high ranked officers. The two battalion commanders were brothers from the Order but still, I was panicking internally. The 12th battalion leader cracked a smile at my internal confliction, motioning to the seat positioned in front of them.

I slowly sat down and waited for them to address me, my heart was racing and I was sweating buckets, what did I do? I"m don"t think I"ve done anything wrong, unless.... Do they know about me playing my mandola late at night? Is that why they called me? c.r.a.p..... I thought my [Noise Suppression] Field would work. I can"t get in too much trouble for that, right? I guess I"ll just take my punishment like a man.

My battalion commander started speaking, but I lowered my head and quickly said.

"Sir before you decide on your punishment, please know I thought I wasn"t bothering anyone. If it"s what you want, then I"ll stop playing entirely. Just don"t punish the men in my squad, they all just wanted to hear me play, it wasn"t their fault."

A dead silence hung in the air until finally, the 9th platoon commander asked. "I"m sorry son, but what in G.o.d"s name are you talking about?"

I looked up questionably, asking. "You were going to reprimand me for playing my mandola at night, Right?"

He looked at me, then to the other commander and to 1st Lt. May. Then the three burst out laughing, unable to contain their surprise at my stupid a.s.sumption. I looked at them in disbelief, not understanding what was happening.

The 12th battalion commander finally answered once he was able to suppress his laughter. Wiping a tear from his eye he said.

"No, although I wouldn"t punish you for that anyway. I guess if that"s the only thing on your conscious, then you couldn"t have be doing anything I"d actually punish you for. But anyway."

He regained his composure and a.s.sumed a commanding tone. "What we called you in here for is your outstanding achievement when capturing the archdemon.

We want to promote you to a platoon commander, but before that, we wanted to see who it was who could actually beat an archdemon with his bare hands." He looked me over saying.

"If it wasn"t for Lt. May"s testimony, I wouldn"t belive you were the one to do it. You"re so.....young, who were you a squire to?"

I easily reply. "Paladin Knight Sir Richard."

Everyone in the small tent looks at me with shock and surprise, the 9th battalion commander rubbed his temples with his head resting in his palm. "Of course he was, I should have expected that old coot to raise such a monster." I glare at him not fully appreciating or understanding his comment.

He continues. "It doesn"t matter, I can"t ignore rewarding the hero that beat an archdemon with his bare hands, so you will replace 1st Lt. May as commander of the 4th platoon and your current squad will be incorporated into it. So I need you and your men to rep...

I quickly interrupt, "Sir with all due respect, I don"t want to be promoted just yet. I want to continue leading the squad I have now, I don"t have enough real experience and I don"t think I would be able to lead a larger force effectively just yet."

He looks at me with surprise and a hint of respect, "I"ve never had anyone deny a promotion before, qualified or unqualified. I"m amazed that you have enough self-control to know your own limits, I respect that son. But that presents a problem, we need to reward you, otherwise, it"ll lower the moral. What to do....what to do..." He mumbles.

Deciding begrudgingly, he asks with caution. "If you don"t want to be promoted, what is it that you want?"

I think about it for a few moments, but I can"t find an answer. I don"t really want money, it"s hard to keep up with on the front and will just be more to carry. I"ve never been one to care too much about wealth anyway, but what else could I ask for? I think hard, then it hits me. I don"t have to use it for myself, I look quickly to the commander and say.

"One of my men is a convict that"s serving to reduce his sentence, he helped immeasurably during the operation." Stretching the truth slightly, but not exactly lying. "His efforts were so commendable that I want you to reduce his sentence completely, I want you to free Jake Parsons and give him a month of paid leave."

They again look at me with shock and surprise, like they can"t believe the words coming out of my mouth. I look at them with determination, my eyes set stubbornly.

After many long seconds, warming to the notion he grins and says.

"You"re a very interesting person, more than I ever antic.i.p.ated, selfless too. Sure, compared to capturing an archdemon freeing a convict isn"t a bad trade. Heck, I"ll even throw in 100 gold coins as compensation for bringing him in alive. That sound fair?"

I nod enthusiastically, he sticks his hand out and I shake it with grat.i.tude, sealing the deal.

Jake is going to be so happy when I tell him.

I walk through our camp barely able to contain my excitement, almost prancing with a stupid grin plastered on my face. I quickly walk to where my squad is set up, looking for jake. I find him in his tent fletching some arrows. I give him a serious look and motion for him to follow me.

We walk until we"re secluded in the forest where no one could eavesdrop. Finally, I drop the news.

"Jake, do you know how we just captured an archdemon?"

He nodded with his arms crossed, seemingly disinterestedly. "Yeah, I was with you. How would I not know about it?" He quips.

I smiled like an idiot too happy to care about his insolent comment. "Well, the battalion commander allowed me to choose a reward for capturing the archdemon. So I chose to have you set free, you"re a free man Jake. You"ll have 30 days and 100 gold coins to go save your mother and sister. Aren"t you happy!"

He stares at me dumbfounded, he can"t speak for several seconds. When he does, he can only ask quietly. "Quick trying to fool me, there"s no way you would do that for me. We haven"t known each other for that long, there"s no way you would do that for me. Would you?"

He askes himself more than me, but I confirm anyway. "Of course I did, I"ve never lied to you guys yet, have I?" I say in an energetic tone.

Jake sinks to his knees with tears streaming down his face. He doesn"t react to them, he"s too overwhelmed to do anything but stare at me through glazed eyes. I quickly kneel and grab his shoulder.

"Jake! What"s wrong? Isn"t this what you wanted? Why are you crying man, come on try to be a little bit excited at least." I plead desperately. This was not the reaction I was expecting.

"Why?" He asks quietly while looking at the ground. "What? I didn"t hear you."

He looks up with tears flooding from his eyes and his face wrenched in distraught from the horrors in his life. "Do you realize what I"ve been through, how many people I"ve killed? No one has ever done anything like this, why should they? I"m not worthy of it, I"ve done so many terrible acts. Why? Why would you do this for me?

I"ve done nothing for you, I"ve questioned you from square one! Against everything, I hated you for having such a better life than me. You"ve never had to kill someone to feed a starving sister, that fancy order has always kept you fed, right? You"ve trained just to kill for your order, but I had to do it to survive. I"ve harbored jealousy for things you couldn"t even control, so why did you do that for my sake?" He looked up to me through tears, his eyes desperately asking for an answer.

I smiled with acceptance warmly saying. "Because I don"t care, I couldn"t care less what you"ve done before. You told me you regret everything you did, right? So it doesn"t matter to me. You"re my friend, that"s what matters. You"re my comrade that"s fought tooth and nail right beside me, you"ve followed me despite your animosity.

That"s because deep down you don"t really hate me, do you? No, you"ve just been dealt a bad hand and you hate the things that you cant control. You hate that other people have better starts than you and you think you"re weak and worthless for the things that you"ve done." I shake my head to contradict the thought.

"You"re not Jake, you"re strong, really strong. I don"t know what you"ve had to do, but I"ve seen all the fear and self-loathing in your eyes. I know you hate everything, but you hate yourself most of all for what you"ve done.

I can see it in your eyes, in the way your hesitant around others. You don"t want to be around others because you"re afraid they"ll figure out what you"ve done, that they"ll figure out who you really are, and judge you because of it. Am I wrong?"

He looks to the ground, nodding his head, not trusting his voice.

"I want you to know how much I respect you." With this, he looks up in complete confusion.

My smile broadens. "Really, I"m telling the truth, I respect you. Everything you did was for your family, you did everything to support your mother and to keep your sister from having to live the way you did. You"re so selfless, I don"t think I would be able to do the same thing I was in your position. I don"t think that I"d be able to take it, I would snap for sure.

Even after everything, you"re still holding on. You confirmed it when we were at the tavern before we left the supply post, you regretted all of it. You have a conscious, you"re selfless, and you love your family. I just wanted to help you if just a little bit, because you"re my friend. We are friends, right?"

He was awestruck, he couldn"t decide if I was the world"s biggest idiot, or not. In the end, he just shook his head, stood up, and offered his hand to help me up. I took it, once in his grip he pulled me up and wrapped his other hand around me in a tight hug with our arms in-between.

"I don"t know why G.o.d"s being so nice to me now, but I can say this is the happiest I"ve ever felt. Thank you, Christian, I owe you a life debt. I owe you more than I could ever repay." His words were heartfelt and br.i.m.m.i.n.g with emotion.

I dismissed it saying. "You don"t owe me anything, I did this as a friend. The only thing you owe me is a visit with your mother and sister once you get them. I want you to take those 30 days of leave to go get your mom and sister, there"s a small town 200 miles southwest from the supply post. There"s a Paladin Order stronghold there, it"s the only town that has one for hundreds of miles.

Go there and ask for a man named Sir Richard, tell him that you"re a friend of mine. He was my mentor, he can set up your mother with work and housing until she can buy her own. That money should be enough to settle any debts you have, travel back, and buy a house. Did you get all that?"

He looks dazed like his head is reeling from the lengthy instructions, I say. "I"ll write everything down, so don"t worry about anything ok."

He just smiles and thanks me. That"s the day a simple act would give me a friend for life.