Honorable Knight: Life after Death

The vast grasslands, it is usually a beautiful sight with some wildlife living there.

Now, this is not as usual.

The sound of metal clashing against each other, the deafening cries of war, to the sorrowful screams, all of it come together to vibrate the air along the stretch of grass. The green grass was stained with bloodstains splattered from the bodies that had been separated from life.

There have been so many soldiers who have fallen from one side, but that doesn't stop them from being discouraged to keep fighting against the opposing forces that have not seen a lot of declines.

From one point, a person seems to be surrounded by many corpses. The corpses those are in the same uniform as the one worn by the opposing forces have been knocked down by a sword in his hand.

With a slightly heavy breath, the man calls out to his troops "My honorable warriors, let us fight together to the end!"

"YAAA!!!" cry all his remaining troops with still burning enthusiasm.

Facing the next wave, that's when the struggle ends.

It isn't that they are less skilled than the opponent, but that the number of the opposing armies is beyond comprehension. A small kingdom that only has thousands of soldiers must desperately fight the onslaught of troops that number up to hundreds of thousands.

Indeed, from the opposing side, the number of troops does not appear to have decreased, but it is still two to three times the number of those who died compared to his side.

"ATTACK!!!"

With the remnants of strength fueled by the embers of an unquenchable spirit, the small army shook off the incoming wave of troops. Successfully overthrowing one, there is no longer any more power to prepare to ward off another attack.

So quickly, one by one the soldiers die.

Now, he is left alone and is still defending against several soldiers at once with the remnants of his strength. Two people have been knocked down by his sword, but his body is no longer able to move as he wishes.

Then once hit by a sword slash, another slash begins to be engraved on his body.

With his body covered in wounds, blood dripping incessantly on the ground, he plunges his greatsword to support his body.

No one dared to approach rashly, for they are afraid of being hit by a surprise attack even though they know it may be the last attack. However, they still love each other's life. Let someone sacrifice to get the final victory.

Closing his eyes without fear of being attacked, he smiles so calmly and full of regret. Taking a deep breath as he looks up at the clear sky as opposed to the pain above the ground, he says quietly "I'm sorry, my Lord. I can't do my job well. Maybe after this last breath blows, I will trouble you. Oh, my Poor King..."

Feeling a cold gust of wind, it is then that his last consciousness gradually faded away with the wind. All the pain disappear and are replaced with comfort as the feeling of being tossed about in the wind made him fall into a deep sleep.

The cowardly soldiers are still reluctant to approach, even though the man they are surrounding is in fact no longer alive.

"Pst! Shall we attack together?" one of them gives advice.

No matter how cowardly they are to face one person a dozen at a time, they still want to maintain their dignity. Attacking someone they are ganging up on while in such a seemingly defenseless state makes them feel like they are going to be even lower.

They look at each other, hesitant to accept his suggestion.

But after hearing a cry from behind, the cry from the war knight leader makes them rush over to the lifeless body.

One, two, three...!

The swords pierce the body that is standing stiffly supported by a large sword. There is no reaction from him, not even a moan of pain could be heard. This makes them feel even more inferior that they are actually feared by a single body.

"Geez, isn't he a hell of a knight?"

...

In a room that is rarely visited by people, not even servants, a young man has just desperately hurt himself. He is really able no longer stand the pressure exerted by his family and people. In his mind, only death is the best way to solve his suffering.

So much blood come out of the wound that was made. Not long after convulsions due to lack of blood, the body lay stiff as a sign that his soul had left the body.

The empty body with no one to take care of it becomes an easy target to be possessed by a lost soul, and that's when his fingers seemed to move a little.

Suddenly, his eyes are opened. His eyes scan the room in confusion. Sitting down to take a wider view, then he is confused again by something unfamiliar in his memory.

He looks at her slender body, clearly lacking strong muscles.

"Blood?" he mutters in surprise, then he looks at his wrist which looked like a scar that was the origin of the splattered blood. He is even more confused, especially when he remembers he shouldn't have woken up in a room.

Or even, would he really wake up again after being convinced that it was his last time alive?

The pain in his wrist is of no concern, but he feels weak to just stand up. An amazing thing, the body that has lost a lot of blood is still able to move with simple movements.

Holding onto his injured wrist to stop the bleeding, he comes to a still rough conclusion.

"It seems, I have indeed died and am now in a new body. Is this what is called reincarnation? Obviously, this isn't my body and the place where I woke up too..." he says weakly as he's looking around.

Suddenly, he looks a bit shocked. Then he briefly grimaces, before the other hand immediately massages his temples.

"This... This is someone else's memory? Is this the memory that comes from this body?"

A memory, where he seems to have done something embarrassing appeared. Not only that, memories of other things also slowly invaded him. It is so painful, that his brain feels like it is going to burst. Because after all, another memory forced him to merge with him. His soul gives a refusal but slowly begins to accept the foreign memory.

Enduring the stinging pain in his head, he is just silent and closing his eyes. Not even a grimace is heard since that first time, only because he was startled by the sudden appearance of pain.

"So, this body is called Alexander. And, he was a truly pathetic person. In fact, he was willing to commit suicide just to escape the reality of life? Tch!"

Instead of feeling sorry for the memory of how his new body had suffered the humiliation of everyone and was cruelly treated, he feels irritated instead. As a knight, surrendering and running away was something only true cowards would do.

"It's still natural for him to just run away to get back to fixing things, but committing suicide means he really ran away and doesn't want to come back..." he says looking up at the ceiling, hoping to see where that cowardly soul really is.

He slowly gets up, forcing the frail body to move in search of cloth.

After much effort, finally, the wound on his hand is wrapped in the cloth he has obtained. The new body is so weak that it is difficult for him to control. What's more, he is sure that not so much blood has been lost. In fact, he had lost a lot of blood during battles and had never been this weak.

"No wonder people underestimate him, he is indeed a very weak person. Because of that, I have to give hard training to build this slender body..." He clenches his fist tightly, while the other grabs the doorknob to open it.

His new body, named Alexander, requires a lot of nutrients. For now, that's the thing to do before starting to train the body.

The residence is empty, not a single servant in sight, just like in his memory. Even though there are no maids, the residence that is only occupied by him in fact looks clean and tidy. This is evidence of his new body having side skills that make him underestimated.

"I have to change this sad life. Just watch wherever your soul is, how much you will regret choosing to leave your body!"

Behind the yard, you can see a puff of smoke. There, a young man is grilling seasoned meat. He seems to be enjoying his activities without noticing that there are beads of sweat on his temples from the wildly smoldering fireplace.

Observing the roasted meat for a moment, he immediately put the meat back on the fire. Apparently, the meat is still not cooked. The scent smelled so good that it has time to deceive him.

A few days pass, and he lives as Alexander. It is really difficult to be in a different body, especially the since current body is too weak to control.

Just only eating it should really be considered.

Alexander is one of the descendants of the exiled Baron Leville. Even so, in fact, he is still cared for. Once a week, the waiter will come to bring ingredients to use for the next week.

His residence is in the countryside which is still in Baron Leville's territory. It may seem alienated from other people's eyes, but this Alexader with a different soul knows one thing after adapting for the past few days. His father, Baron Leville actually still loves Alexander. The reason he's exiled is that Leville would not feel hurt when he sees this one child being treated badly by other people, his own brother, or even the servants.

In the end, the real Alexander thought everything was the same.

"Here, I will be able to practice freely. Just wait for five-... no, in two years I will make this body many times stronger than it is now!" says Alexander firmly after he finished eating his grilled meat.

The sun has just risen, but Alexander had been sweating profusely.

A weak body is still weak, no matter how strong the soul of a noble knight who is now one with him, still he can't train too hard physically. It's too dangerous to force it. The fatigue felt completely different, feels so overwhelming that it even makes Alexander feels like he has fought hundreds of people at once.

No matter how mentally trained he is, feeling intense exhaustion is enough to make him feel dizzy that he wants to sleep right then and there.

With a body full of sweat and breath that feels very heavy, Alexander lays his back on the grass in his yard. The clear sky is indeed an effective medicine to reduce fatigue.

Just recovering a little stamina and resting for a while, Alexander gets up again. This time it is not for physical training, but for practicing his sword techniques. It is really strange, in this residence he found a real sword.

In his previous life, it was very difficult to get a sword that was no exception even for baron-level nobles. However, here it seems different. It was obvious, that the sword that was stored here would only be for display. If real swords are hard to come by, isn't it impossible for Baron Leville to let that precious sword go to waste here?

Staring at the sword still in its scabbard for a moment, Alexander doesn't take it. He chooses a wooden sword in addition to the real one to use in his sword practice. He has tried, his body is too tough just to lift a sword.

"Still so stiff..." Alexander complains.

Indeed he was very good at using the sword, but that was then. In his current body that lacks experience in his sword technique moves, of course it would still take practice to get used to it. In addition, the muscles are still too fragile to bear heavy loads.

After only a few dozen swings using a wooden sword, his arms can no longer be moved. His body reaches its limit again to continue practicing.

The swordsman does not only rely on his sword swing, but also on agile body movements. For that, Alexander is now changing his training by doing strange leg movements. A move that looked similar to when he fought many troops before finally dying, that was the move that became the foundation for him as a knight capable of overthrowing many opponents.

His mainstay footwork is very tiring, Alexander is not even able to complete half of all his flagship movements.

Then, he also lays back down on the grass to look up at the thin cloudy sky.  Done this!

Many days, there is no time to relax other than to rest the body, eat lots of nutrients, and clean up. Alexander didn't even have time to clean the house or tidy it up. He was too focused on oquickly making his body back to his old body, although later with a different facial shape.The servants who regularly came to deliver groceries were surprised, because this was the first time they had found Alexander's residence so unkempt. Isn't it just cleaning up the residence that is Alexander's daily activity? Thought the waiter who came to bring food supplies.

Afternoon with scorching sun is the right time to run up the hill. During this half year, he had only a month ago been able to run without resting halfway to get to his peak. The stamina that had been built up was far better than the initial body condition, or even beyond compare.

Thanks to all that self-training, Alexander now has the appearance worthy of being called a man. Only the villagers noticed the change in Alexander's appearance. The servants who delivered the food did not pay much attention to it, because they were only carrying out their duties of bringing food and arranging it in the warehouse of the Alexander Residence.

Just finished cleaning up after running down the hill, a loud voice came from the door of the house. Alexander frowned as a memory appeared, the memory of someone who always came to make noise and cause trouble.

"Wow-wow... What's the matter, Sis George coming here?" said Alexander who saw a man looking around as if he was looking for something while frowning. Then, the man, George immediately glared at the direction where Alexander came.

"It seems your dashing Brother saw something different from my Loser Brother..." George smiled sarcastically with a raised eyebrow.

"I take that as a compliment..." Alexander touched his chest as he said so.

George looked like he wasn't a descendant of royalty, looked uneducated, he spat in a house that clearly wasn't his place. "You're looking more and more annoying, Loser-..." he stopped, because Alexander cut him off.

"I have a name and I am your sister. Can Sis George act like a big brother?"

George was stunned by Alexander's different attitude. He looks braver like he's not alone, he thought. Let's see how much courage he has gathered...

Walking over to Alexander with footsteps that were deliberately heavy to the point of shaking the floor of the room, George glared at him after the distance from face to face was close enough.

"Starting to dare to say that to your dashing Big Brother, HEH!?" asked George in a deliberately heavy tone of voice.

Alexander without feeling pressured by George's treatment questioned him back while still being casual and looking innocent. "What are you afraid of? Do you think that Sis George himself is very scary because of the valor that Sis George has?" he asked.

George almost choked on his own spit which of course would make him feel embarrassed, he immediately covered it by pulling the collar of Alexander's shirt roughly. Then, he began to lift it high to suppress and shake Alexander's courage.

"I think your Big Brother should punish you before I finish my business here..." said George in a half whisper.

Alexander did not feel disturbed that he was treated like that. He himself knew what was going to happen next when he saw George's fist ready to be launched at him which he didn't know which part of the body to hit.

"You look more and more worthy to feel my fist..."

George, who still didn't recognize Alexander's changes, including the changes in his physical body that he had also noticed, just hit Alexander's stomach on the solar plexus not too hard. He himself immediately released his grip on Alexnder's collar.

Acting as if he felt sick from being hit by that blow, Alexander slightly bent down while holding his heart in one hand. He wasn't very good at acting, so that was all he could do. Of course, he who didn't know what expression to put on also lowered his head so that his face wouldn't be seen so clearly.

Apart from that Alexander wanted to honor George as his older brother from this body by pretending to feel pain at having himself hit, he also wanted to hide his true abilities to show later and surprise everyone.

"Hmph! Don't think, that just having courage will make your life better. Take care of your attitude when you come face to face with this Big Brother of yours!"

Finished with his words, George tossed an envelope with the stamp of Baron Leville on the right corner of the body of the envelope. Then, the envelope landed gently on the floor coincident with the floor where Alexander was looking straight down.

George left without saying goodbye like how he came.

The letter contained a party invitation for Duke Kinston's engagement event, all family members are required to come to enliven the event.

There's still a week to go until that day arrives.

If it was Alexander in the past, maybe he would panic to get an invitation like this. Because in the crowd, he will feel tortured. However, he is now not the real Alexander's soul. Attending a party is something he used to attend before, so the rough idea is that he knows what to prepare for the party.

When he opens the closet, that's when the thing he feared in his memory happened.

"Alexander is the saddest human being I have ever known. Just in choosing clothes alone, he can not afford them. Or, could it be that his tastes are like this?" Alexander grumbles to himself.

In the closet, none of the clothes that are suitable for use in attending a party can be seen. Everything is casual attire, too ordinary for a noble. It doesn't matter that he is only a descendant of a noble, keeping appearances is important. At least, one of the clothes is formal wear.

Putting that aside, it's also good like this. The real Alexander hoards the monthly budget he receives in the vault. As he recalls, buying some party clothes will cost him half the money.

After so long in the residence alone or just touring the village, there was finally a reason to go to the city.

...

You can really feel the village atmosphere.

You can see a stretch of field, several fruit trees are deliberately planted, then you can see housing that is far from one house to another. It is peaceful, there is no loud noise from the screams of the people in the market or the city guards who are calling for an order for the citizens who violated it.

Or, people gossiping in the streets.

Here, they are more comfortable in serenity. Farm, raise livestock, fish in a nearby river, or say hello to each other. From time to time, several people gather to have lunch together after being tired of crouching in the fields.

"Ah! Mr. Alexander..." greeted a farmer who noticed Alexander's presence walking on the path between the fields. "...Thanks for the help yesterday..." he continued.

"Yes. Thank you for the fresh vegetables too!" said Alexander with a smile.

Lately, Alexander has been traveling around the village frequently to get acquainted with the residents. That's because he likes to socialize, help people, and so on. In addition, he likes to see children playing, he who devotes himself to the king really misses the figure of the baby who is only his shadow.

As a true knight, not only master the battlefield but also must be able to protect the community. When people need help, he will come when he gets a call. However, using a pair of hands and feet it was impossible to reach many people. In an alternative way, he educates all his soldiers to be a person who is beneficial to everyone.

The king actually did not restrain him to the point of prohibiting marriage, and vice versa. The king who also took care of his honorable knight who was so loyal and versatile had asked him several times to marry. However, the knight was afraid that later he would neglect his duty.

Not only is he afraid of neglecting his duties, but he is also afraid of making his wife and children suffer because he is not cared for properly by him. The image of that worry always haunts him and makes him strongly reject such a relationship.

Seeing children playing is the thing that cures his loneliness.

"Whoa! There's Alex..." a child points to where Alexander comes from after he saw him while he is playing with the others.

"Uncle Alex! Here and here..." another child waves.

A radiant innocent face is really beautiful to look at. Its beauty is comparable to the blue of the sky, able to treat fatigue.

Alexander gives a small smile before he walks over to them.

"Oh? You guys seem to be playing?" asks Alexander who is gently stroking the heads of the two closest children.

"We're playing ho... ho what is it?"

Children forget the name of the game they are playing. The game that Alexander had mentioned, explained, and demonstrated in the last few days turn out to be their favorite game.

A game in which each player takes turns jumping over a square of land that has been made using one foot is a game that is new to them. The game is from Alexander's previous life. Turns out, the kids didn't know it at all. This unique game has become an irreplaceable game, children are so comfortable playing it.

"Hopscotch. Don't forget that, OK! If you make new friends, you will be able to explain the game later. When they ask the name of the game, you won't be as confused as this..." Alexander looks one by one at the eyes of the children.

"Yes! I will never forget it, Alex..."

"I also!"

"If it is me, I'll always remember it..."

"Cheating! I am the one who will always remember it... Hmph!"

Alexander smiles happily at their behavior, his heart really wants to have a baby. He wishes he can stay here with them for a long time, but there is something he needs to do right now.

"You guys are fine playing huh, don't fight! I want to go first..."

The children are waving, they compete to see who can wave the highest to be seen by Alexander who is going further and further away.

Alexander who occasionally glances at them just shook his head.

Between the countryside and the town that is the center of Baron Leville's domain, the village where Alexander lives is the village that is the furthest away. But as far as the countryside is, it won't take up to half a day on foot which would be roughly three hours, to be exact, to get to town.

And even then, because the village where he's exiled is located at the foot of the hill or it could also be caused by the location of the city which is in the lowlands. Who knows. To be sure, from the city to the village will take a little longer.

Starting down the hill from the village, you will see from behind the thick leaves of a city that is blocked by a high fortress. Looking at it from afar, the shadows of the city's atmosphere that seemed scary from his memory had appeared.

"Is it really like that?" mumbles Alexander in surprise.

From afar, just looking at the majestic-looking fortress has given off a very special impression. Like, maybe there the cost of living will be high with a level of comfort to live that can make everyone feel at home. The impression he gives of the majesty of the fort alone conflicts with his memories.

No matter how Alexander tries to forget the bad memories of the city atmosphere, his body's response is honestly telling him that he is afraid to enter the gate.

"So sad..." Alexander sighs.

No matter how much Alexander complains about himself, the dark history of the body that had fused with his soul cannot be changed. He just has to face whatever was coming his way.

As Alexander comes out of the dirt road that was squeezed by trees and shrubs, a clearing with a road that has been replaced with a cobblestoned road appears in his vision. As seen, in front of the gate there is a fairly long queue.

After passing the crossroads, then Alexander joins the queue.

If you look further, only Alexander is queuing with not much luggage. Or he doesn't even carry anything at all, except for a bag of silver coins that dangles and a sword that is neatly sheathed on each of his left and right waists.

Carrying sharp objects, especially weapons is not a strange thing. In fact, there is no written legal prohibition for people to bring it in public. No one complains about it, including ordinary people. Even though sometimes there are those who abuse this freedom, there are city guards who always keep intruders safe.

Almost on every street, there would be a pair of guards patrolling. So, there is nothing to worry about intruders. People will think twice before deciding to take them to court where they will receive a punishment commensurate with what has been done.

A nightmare if you get a prison sentence or become a slave for his criminal actions.

Slowly, the queue draws closer for it to be his turn to check-in. When it arrives, Alexander surprises the gatekeepers who didn't expect Alexander's arrival after a long time not seeing such a pitiful person like him.

Surprisingly enough indeed, a timid and weak Alexander dares to come alone to the city.