Chapter 23: Abandoned (3)
At 8 am sharp we lined up. In front was the Crown Prince with two men beside him, one is Keaton and the other is Valentine, he seemed to haven't recognized me, great.
*dingg!*
'Haaa… so that's why he's like this, what a pathetic bastard.'
*dingg!*
Tch. Again with the strength over status… then why did you treat Veronica worse than a bug, when she didn't even try to get involved with you?
"Everyone, shortly the group of young Duke Devon, from the Colombelles House will arrive in accordance with the royal order." The Crown Prince started.
"Knights from Cavelier House and the 2nd platoon of royal knights will be led by Sir Keaton from Cavelier House. Knights from Eckardes House and 3rd platoon of royal knights will be led by Sir Valentine from Eckardes House. The first platoon of royal knights will be led by me and Sir Yoren, the Grand Summoner." He looked at all of us intently as he continued.
*dingg!*
'Haaa… What a joke. A Grand Summoner with trashy stats like that? Rotten bastard, all of his fame/achievements should belong to Amelia.'
"Everyone will wait on the 0th floor as Sir Keaton's platoon will raid 1st-10th floor of the dungeon, Sir Valentine will raid the 11th-15th floor, when the platoon of sir Devon arrived he will be assigned to 16th-25th floor, lastly I will have 26th and so on... After everyone finished their respective floor, injured one's will go back here and be tended by the remaining healers, anyone who can still fight will have to go follow us in the frontline. Knights of Cartania! Do you understand clearly?!" He explained well. I, who doesn't know the plan, had a gist of the idea just by listening to him.
I brought my booklet, it has all the information of the dungeon from the book. Since they decided that different platoons will take a certain floor, that means I also have to divide the information to give to the leader of each platoon. With these, they won't struggle to get surprised if they encounter the monsters of each floor. I won't be worried about the thousand deaths that are supposed to happen.
'What I'm worried about is the undiscovered part of the dungeon. There's a part in the book where it was mentioned… but the MCs chose the other route so in the end it wasn't revealed even after they conquered the dungeon.'
"YES! FUTURE SUN OF THE KINGDOM!" I was brought back to the reality where the knights answered in unison.
All of the knights including Keaton and Valentine kneeled before the prince… except me because I don't know the routine. Even though I'm late, I kneeled and copied everyone. The prince was about to say something when the group of knights came marching. …Wew, I'm saved. I'm sure he was about to humiliate me, if it's not for the matching sound approaching…
A man who's riding a horse leading the platoon is definitely sir Devon. A certain face flashed in my memory but I shrugged it off, there's no way he is the man I encountered in the Clothing shop that agreed to be a model of a failing business.
Prince Polestar greeted Sir Devon when he unmounted the horse. They talk to each other, I assume it was about the plan. When I got a better look at sir Devon's face, my spirit left my body in shock.
*dingg!*
He is HIM! It's such a small world…! The first was meeting the cruel Crown Prince, next is Amelia, next is Yoren and now him. Author, are you perhaps manipulating the story I'm intending to revise? Tch. How come the Devon of Clothing shop is the same serious noble from Colombelles Duchy… What a coincidence.
After they talked, sir Devon scanned the knights who were kneeling… and unfortunately, he spotted me.
"Sir Randall?" He approached me, a cold sweat trickled down my face and when I looked at Keaton, he's frowning at me. "It really is you. What are you doing here?" Devon asked cheerfully.
Everyone's mouth dropped. This Sir is respectable, who excels in both fighting and commanding. And seeing him acting so cheerfully after seeing me will definitely leave a new impression of him. What have I done to deserve this? Tch. I have no choice but to stand up and greet him.
"It's my pleasure to have you remember me, Sir Devon." I bowed. I can feel the curious stares from the knights… haaa. Too much attention for today.
"You know him, sir Devon?" The Prince asked in disbelief.
"Yes, he is a model for the clothing brand I went to last time. He's an acquaintance of mine." He answered, and a brow from the Prince raised to his hairline.
"A model?" Then he frowned, "A model who wants to raid a dungeon?" A deep scary tone from him followed by a terrifying laugh, escaped from his mouth. "Do you expect us to protect you while you pose inside, young sir?"
*dingg!*
'What? Prejudice? Is he just insecure? For what reason? So unprofessional...'
"Crown Prince, please..." sir Devon tried to stop him but he got ignored.
"Hahahaha! The Cavelier Family is getting bolder and bolder these past days. First was the lady who was my brother's fiancée who happened to kill a vampire. And now a cousin who's just a mere model wants to raid a dungeon?! What's with your family, Sir Keaton?" The Crown Prince looked at Keaton with smug smirk.
*dingg!*
'Punch? Hah! ...I want to beat him up...'
*dingg!*
'What the-! Haaa...'
I clenched my teeth and looked at Keaton who was not bulging and kept kneeling with the knights. I already expected this, with all this attention, I knew my loner brother by now was having a panic attack and feeling ashamed, he doesn't have any guts to speak up, even for the family. Not that I hoped he would stand up for me…
I can feel the hostility from the other soldiers and knights, those glares and stares are like knives that are thrusting at me from the back… but fortunately, I am 'ME' and I'm already used to that kind of look.
"…How annoying…" I silently said and sighed deeply while staring at the Prince with my uninteresting eyes
I clicked 'No'.
This Crown Prince is openly belittling me in front of everyone. He's aura is telling me to run, otherwise he won't spare me mercy and kill me on the spot. I know I don't have the chances of winning if I fight him.
'Be wise, this isn't the time to find trouble for myself. I should back down for now, if I don't want to die again.'
*sigh*
"I don't have any intention of holding you down, Crown Prince Polestar. But I also don't have the intention of going back because I made a deal with someone to find her brother inside that dungeon. Sorry for disappointing you, but I have no intention of joining you." I bowed.
Then I turned to Sir Devon instead, of all people present, only sir Devon is a decent one here. I handed him the booklet with the information from the book, I stayed up late to gather those, tch. I'm confident he'll use it wisely.
"Sir Devon, from my personal connections, I have gathered some other information about this Dungeon. I want to give this to you as we are both employees from the same establishment. In exchange, please look after my cousin, Keaton and the Cavelier knights during the raid." I said with a bright smile. Sir Devon looked at me with a sorry and worried expression, and without waiting for his reply, I turn around and went my way to the entrance.
'Polestar. I'll make sure to teach him a lesson once I level up enough to match him. I can turn a blind eye just this once. Just you wait. I won't forget this humiliation. Way back on 'Earth', I always get even with my enemies, it won't be different this time on 'Georana'. '
I can feel the danger creeping out just from the entrance. But before I stepped inside… I looked at Keaton, a little bit hopeful he would join me… but disappointingly, he didn't even bother sparing me a glance.
'Hopeless. When will you have the courage to accept me, dear brother? I don't know what kind of grudge you held over Tania… to the point you chose to turn away from me even in this kind of situation.'
I can feel my heart throbbing… this must be the feeling when you are neglected by your own relative… this is a first for me.
*sigh*
As I was about to take my last step… I heard a voice.
"Wait for us, young master!" I turned around, and I saw one… No- there are three men running towards me.
Efren, Drio, and Selek.
"What are you doing?" I asked in surprise. Keaton didn't even dare to run after me, why them…? "Aren't you afraid of the consequences after doing this? You all are neglecting your duties, if you aren't aware of that." The three suddenly kneeled before me.
"Young master, we swore to protect you with our lives, simple consequences can be tolerated. But protecting you has become our sole purpose in life since we swore an oath." Efren stated.
This is… unexpected. Really really unexpected. The power of a knight's oath shouldn't be underestimated, once they swore, they are bound to devote their life to protecting it. It can't be taken lightly.
'Just… what's up with these guys, really. They're unexpectedly too loyal. But it wasn't a bad feeling, rather I'm relieved.'
"Arise." I said with authority and gratitude, "You chose to follow me, so suit yourselves. From now on, you'll live a rough life."
And we entered the dungeon.
