I Will Be the Greatest Knight-Chapter 481: Clearing Her Head

"What did you and Dad talk about?" Irene wondered.

It was clear it was time for Henry to leave as they both naturally started moving towards the door. Although their words didn’t cease. They didn’t want to leave the other for the night.

"Admittedly, not a lot," Henry explained. "Though I should probably head back to the other knights. Would you like me to return tomorrow once I’ve done a walk through the village?"

Henry opened the door, and Irene followed him out.

"I want to go with you and do my duty as a knight," she insisted. "Then we can come back here."

"I wouldn’t have it any other way," Henry admitted.

They made it to their two horses, who were still standing around and snacking on whatever they could find. The two knights went between the animals, and Irene was shocked when Henry leaned down to kiss her without warning. In the last moment, she gently grasped the front of his tunic.

"Goodnight, Irene," Henry said. "I’ll be thinking about you all night."

"Goodnight, Henry," Irene responded. "It’s the same for me."

However, despite the proximity to her family home, Henry couldn’t help himself as he wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips against her forehead. He wanted to stay by her every second to ensure that he didn’t have to see her as sad as she was before.

Irene melted into him for a moment, finding his comfort so warm and inviting. She hoped for a day when they could just love one another for everyone to see. Would it be too forward for her to admit this to him?

She never ended up having the courage as Henry pulled away and got onto his horse.

"I’ll see you in the morning then," Henry explained. "As early as you would like to meet us. Feel free to rest up if you’d like."

Irene waved as the knight turned to leave.

Heavy was her head from all the things that happened that day. She might actually take him up on the offer to sleep in late. She could feel how exhausted she actually was now that Henry was gone.

Dutiful to her horse, she untied him from the post and made sure he had a comfortable place to stay in the stables. He was with his family once more. There were plenty of other Sünstoian horses here and through the village.

However, Irene wasn’t exactly tired as she walked towards the front door of her family’s home. Despite all the traveling she had been doing, there was a storm in her mind that was brewing a night of restlessness for sure.

Instead of reaching out and opening the door as she intended to, the knight walked backwards and then around the side of the large house. Despite it being the end of the season, she could still smell her mother’s garden. Even though the lilac blooms were gone, there was a particular scent in the greenery that reminded her of her childhood.

They were the very bushes she would hide inside of while sneaking around the yard and spying on the knights in the practice yard or her grandmother and father sparring in the lush fields.

The knight’s feet kept moving, and she found herself passing the garden and wandering further until she was in the long grasses, as she remembered. Since she had taken off her gloves long before, she could feel the grass tickling her fingertips as she moved forward. Her eyes lifted to the sky, and she was happy to see stars despite some areas of the sky having clouds.

During a particularly heated moment, Henry had told her that the freckles on her shoulders looked just like the stars in the sky. Despite never having found beauty in her own markings, she felt elated to be compared to something so vast and wonderful.

Irene’s face was hot, and the man who gave her such thoughts was nowhere to be found.

In an effort to burn off some steam, the knight unsheathed her sword and held it out in front of her with the tip of her blade pointed slightly outward.

"There hasn’t been much of a reason to use this lately," she whispered.

Chemois was one of the largest regions in the kingdom, but it was also one of the least desirable because of how monster-filled it was. Yet Irene had been noticing an alarming lack of goblins, the most parasitic and common monster of all.

It was a given that knights had to look out for goblins the way that cats looked for mice in their barns, but it felt like their entire purpose for being there was dwindling now that they had an overzealous dragon burning up all the lands to take down the population of monsters.

Henry truly was creating a safe duchy, but what would be left of the knights if they lost their purpose of fighting monsters?

Irene took to swinging her sword in sharp slices. She held her blade with both hands so that her arms were piloting the sword equally, and her shoulders would also be equally burning by the time she was finished with her sword dance.

By the time she had finished, she fell down onto one knee, and her sharp blade sank into the hydrated dirt beneath her feet, showing that it had rained there a few days before their arrival.

Irene was out of breath, and her shoulders heaved as she got a grip. At least now her mind felt clear. Burning energy truly was the way to make everything feel straightened out inside of herself.

For a few moments, all the knight listened to was the pulse in her ears and herself panting as she got herself back together. She must have worked harder than she realized because it wasn’t as if she was out of shape.

However, soon there was another noise that struck the quiet environment and caused the pulse in her ears to only grow louder.

There was a thump on the ground and a rushing of wind.

Irene’s sword was raised in front of her, and she was surprised at her own reaction time in facing the danger that had just presented itself.

As she refocused and got out of flight or fight, Irene realized Sylaron was there with her wings back and neck rigid and lowered, scared as if she was the victim in this situation.

Despite everything, laughter escaped Irene’s lips, and her sword lowered.