I Will Be the Greatest Knight

Even though grabbing a bow was a knee-jerk response to hearing her fellow apprentices were in possible danger, Irene was grateful when she made it to the edge of the city and saw that the group fighting off the goblins was even further away than that. 

Her green eyes darted around her environment and she saw a ladder going up one of the sides of the buildings in the area. It seemed like someone's residence, but she wasn't going to waste the opportunity for higher ground. She only hoped if someone was inside they were understanding that all she was trying to do was protect their township from the goblins. 

The girl put the bow over her head and shoved the arrows messily into her belt, hoping she didn't ruin the feathers so they would still be aimable. 

Without hesitation, she took to the ladder and pulled herself on top of the small platform. 

To her horror, a goblin emerged from one of the fields and approached Felix who was none the wiser to the threat. 

Even if the goblin wasn't lifting the broadsword very effectively, all it needed to do was drop the sharp blade over the apprentice and that would be enough to slash down the teenager—even worse, it could possibly kill him. 

The girl needed to do something.

"Look out!" she cried as she pulled the bow off of her shoulders and aimed for the goblin. 

But it wasn't enough to yell. The apprentice didn't have enough time to rearm himself. It was a grave mistake to sheath a sword when there were still monsters out there. 

Regardless, Irene became nothing but a response to what she as witnessing and held her breath as she lined up her shot. Fortunately, she didn't have much wind to consider and had a vantage point that would give her a good advantage. 

The girl tried her best to shoot from such a distance, but there were a lot of outer forces at play. 

After a thwip! that sent her arrow flying, she was at least satisfied to see that the arrow made it to the goblin's stomach. She was aiming for its head but that would have to be enough because it bought Felix enough time to attack.

He parried the goblin's sword which was aimed far less decisively the second time around. It was easy to disarm since the weapon was too heavy for it anyway. 

Once it was without a weapon, Felix then gave a forward thrust of his blade that entered just above where Irene's arrow had hit. The monster was skewered through its dark heart and into the storehouse. Dark blood spewed out but at least it was silent. 

Felix clenched his jaw as he pulled the sword out of the monster which was more difficult than normal considering the tip of his blade was embedded in the wood. He kicked the monster to the side before wiping the blood from his sword onto his pants. 

"Disgusting," he uttered.

His words were a front for the fact that in any fight with a goblin, all he wanted to do was silence it. Even nearly a decade later, the sounds that goblins and ogres made still haunted him. He heard the noises in his sleep sometimes but at least he had the power to stop it when he was awake. 

Rather than assuming the worst was over, Sir Phillip slashed down a few of the overgrown bushes in the trees and made sure that there were no goblins left for them to worry about. When the forest was clear, he was much more careful as he stepped into the small cornfield and made sure there were none hiding in there either. 

"Since when have you been a bowman, Iro?" a surprising voice said from below. 

Irene looked down to see Sir Gunnar coming from an unexpected direction. 

Before answering, the girl quickly climbed down, jumping the rest of the way to the gravel underneath to hurry. When she was on the ground, she flinched to see the knight had brought two more goblin bodies with him. 

She had been wondering where he went considering he left the blacksmith first, but it seemed he found another pressing matter at hand. 

The knight looked down at her expectantly. 

"I'm not quite sure," she admitted and scratched her short red hair. "My grandmother has been trying to teach me for as long as I can remember." 

Gunnar nodded slowly, considering this information. While there weren't many knights in the order who were adept with a bow, it was a useful skill to have. 

"We will permit you more time to practice archery," the knight said. "It is useful to be able to attack from a vantage point where people and monsters will least expect it. On these trips, you ought to bring a bow with you as well." 

Irene had only ever approached archery casually. Her practices were simply to see what she could hit and how far away. The first time she ever used it as a tool was hunting the rabbit. In her first life, she never had the pleasure to explore it further.

"I will keep that in mind, sir," she responded dutifully, keeping her chin up. 

However, once acknowledged, her eyes darted to the goblins again and she took a few steps away. 

For some, it might seem casual, but it was the first time Gunnar had seen her so unsure of something and he couldn't help questioning her reaction. Goblins were the easiest and most common monster. The apprentice would have to get used to it if she wanted to be useful for the knighthood. 

"Pile up the bodies away from the crops," Gunnar announced to the other apprentices and knight. "We will have to burn these before we can return to the town square." 

"Excuse me, sir," Irene spoke quietly so the others wouldn't hear. "Why would we do that?" 

Since goblins were especially uncommon in the valley she grew up in, she hadn't had a chance to understand the ins and outs of everything regarding the monsters. 

"You have a bit of studying to do," Gunnar returned with a chuckle. "We burn goblin bodies so that necromancers can't find use for them even in death. An undead army is something we want to avoid considering brute force won't defeat it. There aren't enough mages nearby to handle something of that sort." 

Before Irene could respond to the knight, she felt a hand on her shoulder and she was forcefully turned around. 

"Archery!?" Felix exclaimed and pulled the bow off from over her head since that's where she had secured it once again. "Since when?" 

Sometimes she felt shy about being manhandled. 

"Be careful!" she cried. "I took it from the blacksmith." 

"Took it?" Gunnar asked, suddenly interested. "Did you get permission?" 

Irene faced the knight with wide green eyes and she quickly bowed her head. It seemed she needed forgiveness for more than one thing that day.