To Balrund, his entire first day wasn't packed the way he wanted it.
Three of the chief guards were incapacitated. Five more unknown people as well as the designated staff for the courthouse for the special courts were all injured. Some minor, some fatal.
Those were the only victims of this multiple target attack on Erten. Several more courthouses used for the special courts were as well decimated.
Not all, but many.
"This is going to cause a lot of problems," Balrund bit his lip as he wrote down the summary of the damages in the inside of the city walls.
Priests, physicians, surgeons and nurse-priestesses frantically with precision went from one patient to another. Some of them stayed by a few cooing them like babies. Their whispers of assurance and calm nature became a symphony.
His breaths, every damn minute he glimpsed any one of the patients, shivered.
'I can't lose my temper,' Balrund scolded himself, 'not at this. Not on Erten.'
Balrund's morning act after being introduced by his senior Capital's Knight Requa to the populace of Erten was simply supposed to be him navigating across all the land designated as part of the city.
The night went by as the patients were being treated at Lady of Repentance's Hospital Church of Erten. Balrund in the meanwhile after receiving reports from each of the uninjured Chief Guards went to the sites of the attack.
Even the Chief Guards were able to deduce how the buildings were attacked. Balrund knew it because Requa pushed him instantly as she felt something happening in Erten. Her exact words to him in front of the nine Chief Guards, "Balrund! Go now! We can't have another city be decimated."
Her fingers pointing at the descending columns of flames bursting through the clouds.
Balrund hadn't noticed it. His revelation did not catch it. Requa did not have revelation. Balrund knew that. He remembered how much well regarded Requa is among her peers.
Morning came and Balrund was back at the hospital church visiting the victims. Many were awake. Balrund thanked the nurse-priestesses as they came and went.
This hurt his ego even when he understood he could not do anything about treating someone. He had never learned even the most basic aid.
A nurse-priestess tending an empty bed caught his eye. He approached her and thanked her first before asking. "Has someone been relieved?" His pupils pointing at the empty bed while his left hand resting on the pommel of his sword.
"I am grateful to be help of a Capital's Knight." She bowed. "As for the one who was here, he has only went out with the Priest Honr to the church's garden."
"What about his injuries? And name?"
"His injuries haven't been anything more than minor." She straightened a fold in the bedsheet. "His brown overcoat caught most of the damage. That thing is tough. As for his name," she thought a minute and then said, "it is best you ask him."
And then she left Balrund and the bed alone.
Priest Honr had been conversing on the distinctions among the servants of the Lady of Repentance with the wanderer in the brown overcoat.
"The steel cuffs on the wrists are?"
"Symbolic understanding between Her and the divine servant," the boy carried a tiny bit of wavering qualm.
Honr's gaze stayed on the south-western horizon. Light igniting the sky there.
The boy followed his gaze. The beautiful shades of white and blue didn't let any clouds to let the sky become distinguishable.
Honr could tell apart several colours of it, however it was far less than the amount the boy could witness.
"You asked what it means to be The Sword of The Lady?"
The boy nodded in affirmation. Honr didn't have to see it.
A playful smile crept and went by. "Some priests considers that being the sword means the Servant depicts justice. And since every Servant is one more way to bring The Repenter to their morals," Honr squeezed within his heart a thought, "or kill her."
The boy turned his eyes away from the horizon to the Priest Honr.
"Thus, no Servant is an active depiction of justice. At least that is what I understand."
Same playful smile returned with a memory of a far away cathedral playing in Honr's mind. "Except the Messenger of the Lady of Repentance."
Eyebrows creased on the boy's forehead, his brown overcoat's pockets held his hands within them.
"Many agree that the Messenger is not a Servant. But rather a later period addition to them." Honr's head tilted to his left, side-eyeing the boy. "If you ask my opinion, the Messenger is a Servant of the lady. And he represents deliverance."
The mural of the Rigac Cathedral plastered itself in the boy's mind. He asked, "What of the Servant that wore crystal boots? Or has a sling?"
"Hmm, those are talked of more in this kingdom." Honr let out a tiny cough. "In the study of Itonriel, he discusses how the Servant wearing the crystal boots is the real Messenger of The Lady."
His eyes took the leave of the horizon to gamble a peek at the boy. The boy similarly was already staring at the priest, yet his mind had blurred out the image in front of him.
It simply was because he heard 'willfall.'
The boy had begun hearing of this term again only after stepping out of the castle made of black crystals.
And right now, it was the eleventh time since then.
Honr placed his left palm on the boy's shoulder.
Being a 15 year-old, he instinctively looked up at the priest's wizened eyes. It did not hold the secrets of the world. But it held something equally important.
'How to handle nuisance.'
A couple of iron footsteps echoed in the garden. To the boy, that was an odd detail.
According to what he had learned in Beret, echoes should not be happening this easily in a crowded space like the garden.
The footsteps? They were of the Capital's Knight Balrund.
And he asked, "Priest Honr." His salute significantly different than any the boy wanderer had ever read of. Balrund too gave a momentous peek at him faster than when Priest Honr did earlier.
"The victims require your guidance." He bowed and walked away. Balrund's heart begged itself to join in on the boy in the brown overcoat's personal lesson.
Yet, he was also the Capital's Knight.