It's a day like any other, the sun shining brightly, and Nikolai is over to mingle with my parents yet again. A regular day for the Schmidt household.
Having forced myself off the bed earlier than yesterday, I had quite the free time before evening training with father, and such, I bid my family & Nikolai a good time as I left the house to wander the village.
The name of our village is Grimsby, a village whose closest neighboring town is Aysgarth; and both of these small specks of civilization are located in the Knightdom of Legatoria, North-West of the Knightdom, in fact.
Compared to a large majority of the nations, Legatoria is actually relatively safe, mostly due to a particular law that each of it's citizens is required to uphold.
Legatoria was founded by a number of the first-generation Knights, shortly after the "Great Rise". At its essence, the Knightdom is supposed to raise Knights of future generations, consistently. To that end, every citizen of Legatoria must learn how to wield a sword from when they're first able to take one.
What classifies as being able to wield a sword? The very same training I keep doing daily, knowing the very basics of combat, what a slash is, parrying, and more. In a way, Legatoria encourages every citizen to stand up for themselves, regardless of their gender, or their identity. Naturally, whenever Beast Tides occur, Legatoria will help protect it's people, but that's besides the point.
Back to the village, my steps were light as I walked through the streets of this well-established village. Many of the villagers I see are good folk, happy people, even.
"Good morning Miss & Mister Eclair!"
"Morning child! Tell your mother to pick up our buns later on!"
"Yes, when I get the chance!"
Conversations such as this one breathed in life for my little outing and reminded me yet again, how precious all these people are. It made me wish that people all over were this happy. Of course, it didn't take long for my attention to be caught by something more specific than some couple of greetings.
"Oi, kiddo!" A familiar shout of a middle-aged man came to my attention as I look around to see a skinny, well-dressed figure waving at me. Smiling as I see his face, I didn't hesitate walking up towards him. "Hello, Mr. Bramble!"
"Oh please, stop with the pleasantries and call me Adam already, kid."
"Right, sorry Adam. Why did you call for me?"
A mischievous smirk was plastered on his face as he mysteriously spoke. "Well you see, my little Elise went out to read in the fields and I've figured you'd want to know about that." Unfortunately for me, he wasn't wrong as I stuttered through my thanks.
Do I know if I like her? No. Does she mean someone special to me? Yes.
The Brambles are a small family of merchants, not particularly rich nor poor. They trades fairly, and always have just enough money to do whatever they need to do, part of the reason why the people here also love them.
In any case, Elise was one of the children my age that loved to learn just as much as I did. While learning to read was a necessity of every citizen... not every single person did it out of fun, per se.
However, she enjoyed it. We've been friends since childhood, and while we both made friends with other kids and played with them, when it came to reading a new book or talking about one that we both read, I guess... it was special.
Which is why if I have free time, as does she, we are both more than happy to keep each other company. With that said, I took a much quicker pace as I made my way towards the fields, and among some trees growing around the place, spotted her within an instant.
To say she wasn't beautiful, would be a lie. Though, yet again, it depends on what you classify as beautiful. I mean... the best way to describe Elise is to call her a tomboy, really.
Elise had the same, golden hair as I did, though her eyes were of reddish color. She had a slim figure devoid of any muscle or fat, as if she was frail. As for her clothing, she loved comfy things, and would often wear some pants and a shirt like the rest of us boys.
I wasn't really surprised when she didn't see me, and if anything, it made me smile. With her being top busy reading her book, as I walked towards her, she didn't even realize I was there, not even when I was right next to her. Naturally, she needed a bit of a punishment.
That being the case, I raised my right hand towards towards her head and... flicked her forehead. And of course, what followed was obvious. "Ouch- Oh! Chris!" A smile quickly formed on her lips as she tilted her head. It was an adorable sight, one that I too, couldn't help but smile after.
"Yeah, it's me. Sure took some time to notice me, hm?" What greeted me as a response was nothing less than what I expected. She hastily picked up the book, and reached her body forward as she placed down the book on the ground before me in just a few quick actions.
Sitting down on the soft grass, my legs criss-crossed, I first took a quick glance on the cover. "The Beast Tides... written by Leo Richards, huh?" I couldn't help but take a quick glance at her, and it didn't disappoint. Her eyes were glancing between me and the book, full of anticipation of how I'd react to it. "Well then, let's see how good this is."
As my hands slide towards the bottom edge of the book, I finally start listing through. Reading quickly all the while understanding what you read, is a skill I picked up over the years of my reading. After all, it is not always that you have time to fully read everything, such as now. Calling it a skill is honestly giving it more credit than it deserves, it's more-so a trick, even.
All you've got to do is alternate between what you read, and what you skip. What I found that works for me is reading a few sentences or so, and then skipping some more. Sometimes, you can afford to boldly skip half a page, and still get away with it.
Either way, the contents of the book written by Leo Richards is actually quite interesting. Really.
Beast Tides occur whenever a new Beast Lord is born, and that usually happens right about every 10-15 years. When a Beast Lord is born, all of the beasts go on a rampage towards the closest human settlements.
That is why, according to Leo Richards, the most important thing, more than protecting the people during Beast Tides, is culling the number of beasts before a Beast Lord awakens. While the theory can never be truly proven since making counts of the beast population is impractical, there have been fewer casualties after implementing procedures.
Beasts are dangerous creatures, at the highest level, they are much stronger than an average Knight, let alone a solo swordsman. Though thankfully, over the year's of Leo's research, he determined that going on a rampage is an instinctual feeling that only lower ranked beasts get. In simpler words, only beasts without intelligence go on a rampage.
Said beats were always found to be easier not only due to their weaker constitutions, but also because of their fleeting intelligence. Making countless traps surrounding human settlements is what gives people breathing room, considering the beasts are stupid enough to get caught.
Why not vacate people to bigger settlements so they can stay more safe? That too, is explained in the parchment of this book. Many researchers, including Richards himself have unilaterally agreed that moving people into towns & cities increases potential risk. The beats that would otherwise attack smaller villages instead group up to attack the few towns and cities, and that, didn't particularly turn out well.
If you ask me, the status quo is the perfect representation of what it means to divide and conquer. By fortifying villages beforehand, as well by sending reinforcements, the amount of overall risk is decreased. After all, the number of beasts attracted is strongly correlated to the number of people in said settlement.
Weird, if you ask me, I see it as a sort of test that we have to pass. A test by the world to see if we're worthy of keeping our land... or something like that anyways.
While being engrossed in the reading & contemplation of the book before me, it didn't even cross my mind that there was still a lovely girl sitting beside me. A seemingly satisfied one, at that. Not until many hours later, was I interrupted by a flick on the forehead as well, accompanied by mellow words. "You seriously need to stop being a hypocrite, Chris."
Despite how harsh the words may have sounded, all I could see as I left the little world of beast tides was a girl I know too well tilting her head, smiling. The setting sun which highlighted the color of her hair, as well as her eyes, didn't help one bit in finding something to retort back with. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, you gave me a good read, and I just couldn't help it, heh."
Unfortunately, admiring her was the least of my worries at the moment as a mischievous grin found its way to appear on her face. "That reminds me, Chris. I wonder how your father will be like after hearing how you skipped a few hours of his training just because you were reading, hm?"
Subconsciously letting out a gasp, I spring back onto my legs, and as I start hastily making my way home, bid my goodbye with a few words.
"I'm sorry and see you later, Elise!"
Truly, time really does seem to fly by when you enjoy the things you're doing.