She was looking up waiting for the Knights response. "No thank you, you are one strong foe yourself, facing you would be a disaster for the city."
'Did he really just say that? What's up with the voice…' she was not affected by the sense manipulation skill, she even smelt him, he smelled like an ancient corpse that has been rotting but had decided to stop while decaying.
Allowing the stench to build up over the years, she did not know, just how right she was. 'I think he really thinks that he can have a fight with me without dying instantly, must have one deadly power, or maybe something powerful behind his sleeves, come to think of it I haven't seen his sword.'
"Good to know that you are modest."
The Knight then remembered the other questions and quickly thought of an answer, "The reason I chose now, was because I had trained off alone to learn a power that would make me a reliable knight."
She was surprised once more. 'He already knows how powers work and learned one on his own. I am not fully convinced about the knight part. Sounds almost like he means be reliable knight, not become one. Either way, we could use this fine talent on the front lines.
I was expecting an arrogant child, but it feels like I'm talking with an ancient fossil, who has been through the ringer, and put in the effort to become so powerful. As long as he becomes a knight, he would be put to full use, not yet though…'
"I have made my decision I would like to name you a Commander, but things would be problematic because you would not have a crew post, so I have decided…"
She hesitated for a while, "that since you are such an anomaly, I will put you in charge of a group of knights that have refused any other Commander since they lost theirs a few years back. Truthfully, they are a troublesome bunch, and headquarters sent them here with me, so that I should look after them.
They have potential, but they are hard to work with. They are disciplined and get the job done so, at times, they even look like they do not need a Commander. I could make you a junior knight Bachelor, but there would be another test to be taken for that. They are a difficult squadron, but until you get the chance to apply to become a junior knight Bachelor, this is the best I can do for a man of you standing.
Part of my decision is that in this time, it will allow the system of knights to assimilate you, so that when you become a knight Bachelor, it's not a difficult issue to process. So, with your time, you should make sure to become a venerated knight."
They did not talk much after that, there was no need, she was busy, and the Knight had noticed Tyun's skill not working on her, so it was trying to come up with a way to make it look less suspicious naturally. She just had one more question, "Is your name really just Knight?"
The Knight thought about it, after all its name, more accurately its title sounds like that of a monster, a void creature to be precise, but humans do not know the difference. The Knight just chose to just say it, after all it had not in all this time. Two hundred years without a single being knowing its name, made the Knight seem more like the unnamed baby it once slaughtered. "My title is Vile Knight. My creators did not like the conception of my soul much."
"Commander Vile, Nice to meet you I'm Banneret Vice. But I guess Knight will do just fine."
The Knight was walking in the hallway; Zuri was leading it to the food court.
Once there the Knight would pretend to throw food into the slightly lifted helmet, to avoid them seeing its face. Then before it touched its face the Knight would send it to its inventory. Then the Knight went to another room.
This one was larger than the war council room. It was filled with the knight who handle patterns, the Knight had made them a knife from one of the souls, and they gladly gave the Knights a necklace with a pattern making things smell good. They were not wearing armour; various tools lay around them.
Chisels, drills, heavy solders and more, even a strange box, which seemed like a miniature version of the huge one in the village, connected to some of the tools. They were more like craftsmen for the knights. That is why they were so perplexed by the knife the Knight gave them. It was intricate, no patterns, yet it could use a property and as an added bonus it was masterfully crafted. And all they had given for it was a simple scent neutralising charm, one hell of a bargain.
This was not the knife the Knight used to fight the Nared hunter, it was another, less useful to the Knight. The Knight was too strong for most of them. At least the vessels of the five evolved along with the Knight, each was at level 250, something had capped their growth, at least their skills had evolved as well. The Knight had run a couple more errands and at the dawn of a new day it went to see Commander Campbell.
The Knight entered, looked at him, not a word was said, then Campbell looked at him too. Before he could even say anything, the Knight pulled up an armour it had crafted from a level 150 soul. It was a dark silver, with the ability to heat up the weapons, probably will be a help with his skill.
The Knight had become a professional at making soul armour. Giving one away seemed to be nothing like the Knight, but in reality, it was. The Knight realised that it personally does not know much about knights, but if one held a grudge, it would make looking for information harder than it has to be, and the Knight was not keen on wasting time on things as simple as revenge. So, it made this armour to replace the one it had destroyed. And in that same silence the Knight walked out, leaving the armour there.
Then it was time to meet the squadron of knights that need a Banneret to look after them.
The Knight entered the room. There was a chair, large enough for the Knight, and around it was about a hundred knights, and as expected, each was above level 120, some even reaching as high as level 160. If the knights have such an impressive force, that made them less targets for monsters.
That even explains the admiration of the people and their confidence in them, even their desire to be like them, like Folisha. The two trainees the Knight met were at level 70. Meaning that if Folisha worked harder she could have one day, she did die, was slaughtered, at level 40.
The Knight looked at them. They all looked up, even while seated, the Knight was still opposing. The Knight then spoke. "I am Commander Knight. Ask no question if you have no answers to those I will ask to follow up on yours."
Then one of them walked forward and said, "I am Yrik, a level 160 knight. If you do not mind, some of us were on duty during your fight, so we would like to challenge you sir."
"Like I said if you cannot answer my questions, do not bother asking any. Why?"
The knight that had walked forward, closed the distance between its legs, and said after taking a prostrated stance, "Our Commander said that we as a squad should find a worthy Commander. This is the last thing he asked of us Sir."
'This squadron really does not have problems with their assigned Commanders; they just seem to have a wish from their dead Commander. Who knows? Their Commander could have just been saying that all Commanders are worthy, he is dead now, not like he could explain it to them if there was a misunderstanding. By challenge are they really planning to fight me together, no wonder the other Commanders refused. Even if it's not impossible it is highly impractical, maybe it's just a bluff, if it's not, I am not crafting any of them new armour after I crush them, I have to keep these souls for trade in the void.'
"I will honour your challenge, so where? The coliseum? Are you sure that all of you can even handle it?"
There were a couple of murmurs; they had not quite expected an acceptance, maybe it really was bluff a bluff to scare away a new Commander? But now they had no choice but to fight, it's too late to take it back, after all one of the Commanders had actually agreed to their absurd demand.
This time in the training room, with only a few spectators, being made up of the passing knights coming from duty. It took a couple of minutes, but they were all on the floor soon enough. It was especially easy because none even had a power yet. The Knight has been in a rumble with monsters more plenty, more feral, and each stronger than it, of course, back then the Knight had its army with it.
Now, the vile army was outside the city awaiting orders. So, with their coordination it took the Knight longer to deal with them, that it did with monsters of their level. They individually were not a match, the knight had teleport, it had not even used the void or its powers.
And best of all the Knight kept all their armours intact. If they had been monsters while the Knight was in the dungeon, it would have become an almost impossible task, but now, it was just a chore. Just one of the Knights followers could handle them. And if the Knight was going all out it could do it in a…
One of them had already gotten up and recovered, and picked up his sword, prompting the Knight, disturbing its train of thought. The Knight kept beating them up over and over, and even left some dents in their armour, not enough to need replacing, just some refurbishing. The Knight even kept them from being out of commission, they did have duties to attend to.
They never gave up, even persisting when the Knight went even harder. Monsters at their level would be dead by now, the knights reminded the Knight of itself, fighting monsters stronger than itself, beyond limitations every single time. By the look in their eyes, the knights knew no defeat. Even against them, they had forced the knight to even use visage of terror.
They kept pushing until they dropped when the Knight made a deal with them. The Knight would have to fulfil this deal once it became a knight, Bachelor. They collapsed instantly, evidence of just how much fatigue they were pushing through, 'the knights huh? Are sure one interesting bunch.'
***
The first week they were just sent to patrol the city, the looks the Knight was getting from the people were filled with awe, and all the Knight could think of is just butchering them all, strange really. Then on the second week their duty was to kill some of the monsters nearby to help the travelling caravans, none were strong enough to make the followers want their bodies as vessels, they did not even want their skills.
Then the third week they were in charge of the patrolling the void part of the city at night. The Knight felt at peace in the void. Then on the fourth week they were tasked with scouting on the outside of the city, the void side of it, to check for signs of danger. The Knights followers have been just avoiding the patrollers. Unlike the knights, they could see perfectly in the void, so they stayed clear of the humans.
They were fed with monster souls, so they were not complaining, not that they ever did, except when they refused to heal the Knights dislodged arm until it fed them some monster soul, back then when the Knight fought the first Nared hunter. They could just abandon their vessels and join the Knights body, but they seemed to enjoy the freedom.
This four-week cycle was like this for the whole year. By then the Knight had fully adjusted to the humans, still avoiding questions, after all it would be suspicious, a strong person shows up out of nowhere, and starts asking questions. They were already not asking too many questions themselves about the Knights identity, it did not provide them with details of identification, sticking to the story that it's from one of the outcast villages.
The Knight had not been just idle though; it had continued to increase its wellspring of commonplace knowledge about the world. This even gave the Knight three levels. It was all slow, because some of this information, Folisha had already explained most, the book of souls had elaborated even more, the information was public, thus most of it was not even true.
The whisper of darkness has been generous as of late. It has been accommodative and chattier, not enough to hold a conversation though. Mugaw though has been an almost constant source of conversation. The humans could not hear Mugaw, so to not become labelled as crazy the Knight would respond in thoughts, or not at all sometimes.
It had also built a repour with the city, its people, and the knights. Even the Commanders. The Knight had not talked to the knight Bachelor, he is always busy, so was the Banneret. A familiar face was Zuri and Campbell. Those two hold long winded conversations with the Knight, even if most tend to be one-sided.
Even the squadron had come to terms with things. Turns out, their Commander never said all that, it was just their way of avoiding a new Commander until one of them became strong enough to become their Commander. They still continued with the whole thing though.
Once a month on their day off, the Knight would beat them senseless. This also gave them a misguided sense of pride; their Commander was now the strongest one at the academy. The Knight had even been named senior Commander after a while. It chose not to apply for junior knight Bachelor just yet. Mostly though, things have been going well.