Dawn- An age of Darkness

It took me a few weeks to fully recover but I bounced back up and we resumed my training. The old man didn't become even the slightest sympathetic. He went all out with me. Not only was he strict but he was cruel too. However, deep down he was just as kind. At least I hoped he was.

All the sweat and tears were worth it. Even running around and dancing at the siren's songs were worth it too: probably. From here on out, things moved fast. My daily routine included practice drills, fishing, and sleeping. But then there were the weekly drills that required me to run around, hunting sirens. I never forgot about why I was here and I never forgot about what I was going to do. But for now…. I felt at ease.

On the 62nd day, we officially dueled with bamboo sticks. The old man had gained a few kilos. I had similar gains. Though most of my new weight came from my muscles. Perhaps I could finally stand tall, saying I looked decent.

I watched the old man closely and waited for him to strike. He taunted me and came straight for me only to move back at the last second but I didn't fell for it.

"Good. You've gotten much better. But you've got much to learn," he said.

"What are-" I fell on the ground. What just happened? When did he? "Hey, how'd you-"

"Better pay attention next time," he sneered. "But I must say you might actually pass for a normal knight with all that skill." The old man went away laughing.

I got the feeling that the old man didn't mean that as a compliment. It took a minute to get up, catch my breath and head back to camp. This old man was not easy. Why'd he had to be so dramatic over everything? Or maybe I was the odd one? I probably wasn't, at least not to me.

We had dinner. More fish and rabbit. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if he started slaughtering kittens. I loved cats too, so I expected him to. It was probably a good thing that there weren't any kittens on this island though.

"Old man what's your relation with the holy knights?"

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"Where'd that come from?" I'd been wondering that for a while. Gorgan said some things about his training back in the capital but from what I heard, the church made sure that there were no leaks. And yet the old man knew this. Plus he called the holy knights fake. Something was up.

He fiddled with the fire. Wonder if he'll ever catch fire. "I was a holy knight candidate once."

My jaw literally fell. My mouth gaped in surprise. "What!?"

"Don't make that face kiddo. It was over forty years ago. I was too young." How frigging old are you, damn geezer! I never dared to ask that though.

He continued. "I volunteered for the training but after a while, they told me that I didn't have it. That pissed him off ya know!"

I can picture that. "SO…?"

"I sneaked in. obviously." He talked like it was the most obvious thing in the world. But frankly, it wasn't.

"Then what happened?"

"They found me out and kicked me out of the capital."

If it were me, I'd have you executed though. "Did you find out anything?"

He sighed. "They… They use an artifact. Very old."

"Artifact?" I was clueless. I didn't know much about the world and the old man wasn't very sharing. He still occasionally dropped the info bomb. So I had to keep my eyes and ears wide awake.

He scratched his head. "Let's just say, they are forbidden by the nations. If elves for example knew that we use an artifact for ourselves and make fake holy knights, they'd be furious and we'll have a major issue."

"You mean war…"

"Exactly. It's a very serious thing. This particular artifact used to magnify the users mana if they were suitable. Now you're wondering why they didn't kill me, right." The old man's grinning face was on full display. I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I hated his smile though.

Don't worry. I wondered that a long time ago.

I didn't have to reply. He continued. "I was supposed to be executed outside of the country to avoid suspicion. But when push came to shove…"

"You ran…" It was obvious. If you knew, you'd be executed, you'd run like the wind.

"Yup! I've been on the run ever since, traveled across the world, and had all sorts of fun. They've probably forgotten about me though. So I think I can go back now." He seemed pretty optimistic about it.

I sighed. "Only if we could get off this rock that is."

"Yeah… we'd probably see at least some ships in the near few days."

The old man was awfully optimistic about this too but I wasn't. "What makes you say that?"

"This place is perfect for hiding treasure, at this time of the year."

Something about his tone felt ominous. More like creepy. So I ignored it. My bag looked a little fluffier than usual but oh well.

"Say, so there are no gods alive?" For the last couple of months, the old man had been avoiding the topic. This time I wasn't going to let go.

"Well since it came from me, take it with a grain of salt. I've neither seen nor confirmed any of the stuff I told you. But I've seen enough in my life to conclude that." He sighed and stopped talking. He was done on the subject. A few minutes passed and he looked at me again. "After seeing how fruitless the country's methods were I began building my own. I searched far and wide for the power. During my late part of my travels I met the prince and you know the rest." There was this awkward silence between us. I didn't know what to say. "So don't get your hopes up. There could still be one of those shitheads out there."

Never heard anyone call gods by that before. What is this, a new discovery? "…" I kept quiet but never in my life, had I laughed that hard.

The next day something unbelievable happened. The old man's ominous predictions came alive. There was a ship very close to the island. It was big and looked quite fancy- in a very dark way. As our smoke signal clouded the sky it turned towards us and I saw a wavering flag swimming with the breeze. The flag had a skull face and it was crossed with swords.

"That isn't what I think it is, right? Tell me that, that symbol is some sort of fetish in this world, right? Hey?" I questioned the old man with every ounce of my doubts.

He only chuckled and looked at the horizon. "Our ride has arrived."

Oh boy.. Here we go again! And so my everyday life on the island came to an end.