My Throne of Light (Seven Knights Fanfiction)

Chapter 5: Evan's Apples

The roosters sang to the first ray of daylight. Kris woke up on his bed, reminded that this day was a start of his new routine. Instead of heading to the castle courtyard to train, he was supposed to go to the post in the Mystic Woods. He had to train with Rudy under Commander Aragon's supervision. Starting from today, his hands should be used to handling a real broadsword rather than a practice sword. Also starting from today, he would be in constant danger with the monsters crawling outside the walls of Terra.

After making himself presentable, he went downstairs to eat with his family. Like usual, his parents were giving him empty praises about being dubbed as a Knight of Light. He would play along, but he paused at one advice his mother said.

"Please make friends out there in the post, Kris. You seem to be faring well on your own, but you have to remember, there are things you can't do by yourself."

Kris left the house with these words in his head. His fragment was once again whispering atrocities at him, especially about cutting down the enemy. Monsters? No. It meant Rudy; it meant his rival to the Throne. It was not like he was not interested for such glory. He would love to be the dubbed the Protector of Mystic Woods. Then again, it was too early to take Rudy seriously in this kind of competition. They were both at a lost with their powers. It would be best to help each other out.

They should be friends, at least. The idea just made him shudder.

He soon reached the marketplace and found a little surprise. He walked towards the fruit stand and watched Rudy and a kid check for apples. He placed a hand on his waist. "You should be heading to the post. Why are you still shopping for apples?"

Rudy turned to see him and greeted him with a smile. "Hi, Kris! Evan wants to get some for his mother today so I promised her I'll go with him before heading to the post." He patted the child's head covered in dark locks. "You remember him, right? Sir Aragon's son?"

"I do." Kris hesitated patting the child's head after Rudy took his hand off.

"That would be 500 gold." The vendor smiled as they held a hand to collect.

"Isn't that too expensive for apples?" Rudy gasped, remembering the prices were not that high yesterday when he was sightseeing in the market.

"Traders can't deliver that much so we had to raise prices. If you can't pay up, you can't have the apples."

Rudy looked at Evan who was just staring at three 100-gold coins that his mother gave him. The brunet had nothing on him, too. Kris stared at the sad kid before reaching inside his pocket and dropping two more coins on his hand. The kid looked up at him with his eyes with the same hue of his hair- and smiled. They checked out the apples and walked back to Evan's home. After that, they started walking towards the post.

"I wished I could earn some money, too. There seems to be a lot of things to be bought here." Rudy chuckled. "Like a house for example."

"I think if we're very careful, we could kill the monster without vanishing it." Kris sighed as he humored the brainstorming. "We could sell the hides or even just the horns and tusks. You won't make much, but you'll earn nonetheless."

"I like how you say 'we', Kris. You don't have to burden yourself with this."

Kris twitched inside him. He turned to the smiling brunet before looking ahead again. "It's a good way for us to learn how to control our power. I'm not going to be careful because I want to give you something to sell." He spoke louder, "It is part of the training."

The brunet laughed out, making Kris scowl at him while trying to hide the faint blush. Rudy then jogged ahead of him and waved his hand. "We're running late, Kris! Race you to the post!" Without any delay, he ran off.

"Oh, no, you're not winning." Kris momentarily smirked before bursting into a full sprint, catching up to Rudy in no time.

Needless to say, they were still late. And they were exhausted from running. However, Aragon had to apologize to them instead because it was partially Evan's fault that they were. Since they were already 'warmed up' by their race, the commander just asked them to work on proper swings and stances. Kris had to show off what he learned from 'school', and Rudy had to show how fast he could learn.

There was a lot tocatch up for the brunet, but the day ended up being fun rather thanexcruciating.