The Palace Guard (MxM)

XI

"At this point I might as well assign a second guard to your post."

"That sounds very unnecessary and a waste of resources. It wouldn't look right either."

"Having one of my guards absent for half the day doesn't look right either!" Herval snapped. He had pulled Nikkol away during morning training to talk, something he'd been meaning to do for a while but things kept coming up. His absence once again the night before had finally made Herval do something. "I don't know what you're up to and it's not like I can punish you because it's Prince Setial himself that's taking you from your duty, but I need to do something! Takkoria has the best security and soldiers and even one not being there makes us all look bad!"

Nikkol knew that his situation was hard on the head guard, but he really couldn't do much to change it. Well, he probably could if he asked Setial if they could stop, but he really didn't want to. "I apologize for any stress you're put under, but it's not like I can disobey the prince." Nikkol said, trying his hardest to sound understanding and apologetic.

Herval nodded. "Well now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with you. If I moved you then that might anger the prince and I can't have too many guards at your post..." he sighed, bringing his fingers up to rub the crease between his eyebrows, "problems I'll have to figure out later. I have to give the announcements."

The announcements consisted of Herval getting everyone's attention and passing reminders and any information that affects most or all of the guards. Mostly it was him telling them to have a good day or any big announcements the King would give. He'd also give updates on the war, which was good because most of the guards didn't have the time or resources to keep up with that stuff.

There had actually been a lot of really big updates recently. There was the one about a group of knights being sent of to Nobera of all places for undisclosed reasons and then the one a few months later when they came back with the newly found out King's bastard son.

Herval moved to the head of the large group and loudly called for attention. The guards took a few minutes to crowd themselves into a half-circle around him.

"Today King Pythal is giving a supposedly very important royal announcement. That means that a lot of people are going to be in the castle, although the actual announcement is taking place in the courtyard. So stand extra tall today and keep alert for any suspicious behavior." He didn't say his usual but about having a good day or making him proud, but he really only did that when not much was going on. "Dismissed." With that all the guards marched off to their posts, no words being exchanged as they were officially on duty.

Nikkol went back to his exact same post, mind still reeling from how nice Setial had been to him the previous day. And night too.

Still, the mind can only run for so long. Nikkol found the same deep boredom creeping up to him before long. He tried remembering some of the games he'd sometime play in his head to pass the time.

There was one where he'd try and come up with a story and background for every person that passed him, but remembering the royal announcement, he knew that would be exhausting to try and keep up.

There was another where'd he pretend it was a game to run along the cracks between the stones on the wall in front of him and he'd try and find the fastest way down.

There was another where he'd try and create a tune in his mind, more often than not the song a bard had played, and he'd try and subtly move a single finger or the tip of his toe to the beat.

He ended up deciding on none of these, mind too active yet tired for any of those. So he settled on staring at the wall like normal, forcing himself into stillness as he tried to think of nothing at all.