I Will Be the Greatest Knight

While the family who raised you could never be replaced by anyone else, Irene found warmth being surrounded by her brothers in both knighthoods. The amount of alcohol she consumed so far also helped her situation bit by bit.

The room was warm and getting warmer with each drink and each bit of food consumed. The Duke's chefs had given the knighthood the best "Welcome Home" by cooking all the Chemoian favorites from fish, to boar, to wild fowl, a few dishes of carrots and potatoes, and pastries and bread that excited Irene the most. However, she recalled all the lectures by her father and mother that meat was what was required to restore her energy fully and continue on with the high energy tasks she liked to get up to.

Each laugh and cheer, she couldn't help peeking at the Commander and wondering if it was all a facade after what she had seen in his drawer. While she was drinking because of loneliness, was he drinking to get rid of his feelings?

If that was the case, perhaps they had even more in common than she realized, or perhaps that was simply wishful thinking.

Cutting through her thoughts came the booming voice of Sir Trenton, so very much like her father and further pushing the theory that he could possibly be Sunstoian.

The massive knight looked at the Commander's cup and found it no emptying as fast as the other's

"Being in Chemois has made you forget how to drink," Trenton observed. "I thought for sure it would have been the opposite."

At that, the Commander raised his chalice and gestured for one of the servants to top him off. Irene's theory of his drinking that night was further confirmed.

"If you aren't careful, you're going to rile me up just like you did in the castle a while back," the Commander responded and took down a few gulps.

Irene and Felix couldn't help looking on in curiosity. The Hydrogian knights seemed to know very well what the Commander was talking about.

At his second and third in command's questioning gazes, Henry felt he ought to elaborate.

"A banquet in the palace," Henry began after another drink. "You can imagine the stiff sort of environment a place like that requires. Yet Trenton here, who has never once tried to control his alcohol intake due to his absurd size, decided to take the Royal Family for all their worth by emptying their barrels. He then challenged me to a swordfight in front of everyone. This was a short while after sustaining an injury that took me out of regular knight duties for weeks on end due to Commander Lothian's request. Of course, I had to accept the challenge." The Commander finished off with a sigh. "Fortunately, I won."

"Only because I was drunk!" Trenton justified. "Otherwise I would have knocked your head off of your shoulders."

The Commander's dark eyes narrowed and a smirk appeared on his lips as if wanting to take him on again and proving his worth with the sword.

However, the massive red-haired knight placed his chalice down in front of a maid and chugged it down quickly. He then took Henry's chalice and had it refilled as well.

"We'll save the sword fighting for another time," he insisted. "Drink up."

There was a moment of pause as the challenge was presented, and all the eyes at the table seemed to be traveling between Trenton and Henry as those on either side waited for an answer.

Since he had all of the knights who were meant to follow him around, the Commander felt backed against a wall and he downed the glass full of dry, white wine as if he didn't have any responsibilities at all.

However, rather than finding him an immature idiot, the knights on either side of the table and eventually all throughout the dining hall began to cheer at their Commander suggesting that they were drinking a lot that evening. A few of the older knights gave cheers but they were certainly more reserved and were inching closer and closer to their beds, knowing they didn't want to stay up and challenge those still young and unafraid of a hangover. Even the apprentices knew they were going to have to shy away from this challenge despite their strong urge to participate.

Pastries were passed around and those who wanted to eat had eaten and gotten up. There were only a few left in the dining hall who were still interested in drinking with the Commander. They were becoming more rowdy as time went on.

"Let us take this out of the dining hall so that we don't destroy any of the maids' hard work in this area, shall we?" the Commander directed. "Bring your glasses."

At the far end of the northwestern wing, there was a great hall that had been styled into more of a sitting room since neither past nor present duke had any desire to host things that would require such a place to be decorated as anything but a convenient place to chat.

The knights who were still up for a challenge followed the Commander to his area, and a few servants rolled another barrel into this area so that the attendees could still have their fun.

"Move the furniture aside," the Commander directed. "You're going to find what it's like to have peasant fun with so few things to entertain yourselves except for alcohol and one another."

Chalices were placed off to the side and the couches were all pushed to one of the walls. When the Commander had the attention of the knights once more, he crossed his arms over his chest, but his dominant hand still held his chalice as he spoke to his knights.

He let out a thoughtful "Hm…" as he looked around the room.

"I bet one drink that Lady Irene can jump higher than Sir Maximus," the Commander challenged, picking the two because of their similar heights. "Who is willing to go up against me?"

Ever willing to go up against his best friend, Sir Felix stepped forward. "I bet Maximus can jump much higher." He smirked at Irene.

"If I'm right, you have to drink," the Commander explained. "If you're right, I'll drink."

Irene was shocked to be pulled into this out of nowhere, but the alcohol was making her feel up for a challenge and she handed off her drink to Felix even though he doubted her abilities. "How shall we test this?" Irene asked, instantly accepting the challenge.

Since Maximus wasn't about to lose to a girl, he looked around the room after handing off his own glass to Trenton.

"What about measuring where we can touch on the wall?" he suggested. "The window would be a good tool for measurement. We can count the bricks."

"Fine with me," Irene stated. "I'll go first."

"Whatever it takes for you to win for me," Commander Henry responded with a light laugh.

Irene nodded and she walked towards the windows along the wall. When she had her eyes on a place next to the window she was going to try and touch, she let out a light huff and narrowed her eyes as she focused.

"Here goes nothing," she muttered, worried that the amount of alcohol she had already consumed that evening was going to inhibit her athletic abilities.

The woman wasn't warmed up but her heart was racing enough for the sudden challenge that she didn't feel it made much of a difference. She then got into a half squat before shooting herself upwards and reaching as high as she possibly could with one of her pale hands. She was pleased when she was only three bricks lower than the extremely tall arched windows along the wall that had been covered with oiled paper as the maids began to winterize the entire small castle.

When she landed back on her feet, there were a couple of impressed mutterings of various people around.