The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

LEO

I was a little excited, a little nervous. We sat in darkness by the window in a small abandoned house that was across the street from the bigger house we were supposed to look at.

We were wearing black cloaks with hoods over our heads (which made us look pretty cool) with newly provided, clean, white—and REAL!—Royal Knights uniforms underneath. Mathias said we had special permission to wear them today as we were to work as Royal Knights for tonight.

I had looked down at the uniform at least ten times since we put it on. I knew it was only for tonight, but it still felt different from wearing the training uniforms at the Academy.

With us was Sergeant Becker, whom we met in Hoffberg, who also wore a cloak and didn’t say much. He mostly directed us to sit, move and position ourselves with hand gestures, which everyone else seemed to understand a little quicker than I did. So I did the next best thing and just looked at and followed what Mario did. I couldn’t go wrong doing that.

It was approaching late at night, almost ten o’clock, and we had been sitting by the window in silence looking at the house across the street, with nothing really happening. I was getting bored, but every time I tried to say something, Sergeant Becker and Dorian took turns to shush me, so eventually I stopped trying.

Thomas had barely said anything either, which was strange for Thomas. Isabelle sat next to him with her hands together between her knees. She had been quiet ever since we left the Academy. I wondered if she was nervous too. I wanted to tell her I was nervous, so she wouldn’t feel alone, but Sergeant Becker had already shushed me three times.

But once the clock hand ticked over ten, we could see that suddenly people started to arrive. Most came in groups of two to four, while some came alone. Some came dragging their feet, looking tired even in the dark, while others wobbled as if they were drunk.

"Get ready. We are moving in after thirty minutes," Sergeant Becker said.

I looked around at my friends—and Dorian—and they all looked rather tense under the moonlight that shone through the window.

Some more people went into the house we were watching. There was a tiny bit of light seeping out through the curtain they drew over their window, but otherwise we couldn’t see what was happening inside.

It was bad things, though, I was convinced by this point, although it took some talking and explaining from Mathias for me to realize what was so bad about it.

In any case, the mission was going to be simple, we were told.

Get in. Take off our cloaks and present ourselves as Royal Knights. And people will follow our orders.

What for? I asked Mathias then.

Because they were doing illegal things and they knew better than to challenge Royal Knights, I was told.

What illegal things? Thomas asked.

Gambling—a vile trap that bites onto the heels of the poor and keeps them poor, making them ruin their lives forever as they sink deeper into debt.

Eh? I was a little surprised.

Gambling?

We did that a lot in Erdville.

We made bets on who could skip stones more. We made bets on whose cow could run faster. Playing cards with bets each round was a common pastime for adults on weekends, sometimes playing for the whole day.

Nobody’s life was ruined, as far as I remembered.

No, no, Skylark. It’s not like that here—Mathias shook his head.

But there are gambling establishments around the capital, Thomas said.

"Licensed gambling houses are run responsibly by responsible people for responsible people," Mathias said.

These guys in that house now were gambling, apparently. It was a ’gambling house’ run by bad guys. Guys who took money from the poor. People work all day every day and are lured here to lose all their money. Only to come back and do it again the next time they get paid.

When Mathias explained it like that, it did sound like something that had to be stopped.

And that was that.

Our roles were clear.

Dorian would approach the house first. He would put the ’guard’ at the front door to ’sleep.’

How?

Dorian knew how, and he was good at it, apparently, Mathias said.

I didn’t know Mathias and Dorian were friends.

Then we would rush in, Mario would kick the door open—because he can—and we would all barge in together, decloak, and shout, "You are all under arrest for violating the Imperial Order!"

I imagined we would look super cool.

And the bad guys would cower while those poor people who were forced into gambling would cheer in joy as they were freed.

Maybe they would even thank us afterward. I imagined some tired man in dusty clothes shaking Mario’s hand and saying we had saved him. Mario would probably say something very knightly and serious. I should think of something knightly to say too, just in case. But well, it was another thing that the Academy hadn’t really taught us yet. I wished they did.

As I was thinking this, Thomas had other questions.

What if anybody resists? Thomas asked while Mathias was explaining.

"Use force where necessary," Mathias said. "You will be equipped with crowd control batons, and that should be sufficient. No lethal weapons necessary," he said.

It was then that Thomas asked, "What is Leo going to do? Tickle them with batons?"

Mathias laughed.

"Maybe that will pacify them even better."

Even I could tell he was joking. But nobody laughed except me and Mathias.

Oh well.

"Everyone, out."

Sergeant Becker finally gave us the order.

We moved out of the house swiftly, but kept our postures low and hid ourselves behind the low fence in the front yard.

"Dorian. Go," Sergeant Becker whispered.

Dorian didn’t acknowledge, but he got up and moved toward the house. He was very fast but incredibly quiet. And at some point after he crossed the street, I could no longer spot where he was anymore.

"Get ready," Sergeant Becker said.

Then Dorian emerged, like literally, out of darkness, by the door of the target house, and seemed to land a quick hand chop on the side of the big, bulky guard’s neck. Dorian caught him before his body fell to the ground and laid him down gently. I was amazed, but knew better than to say anything. We had to move quickly anyway, though, as Dorian raised his hand slightly to give us the signal to come over before he disappeared into the shadows again.

"Go. Go. Go."

Upon Sergeant Becker’s command, Mario got up first and began to sprint, and we all followed. Mario first, Thomas just behind him, and Isabelle next to me, while Sergeant Becker ’had our back’ as he promised us he would.

Once we arrived at the door, Mario didn’t stop. He managed to kick the door open in one go—as I knew he could!—and ran in. We flooded into the room all together.

As soon as we entered, all the heads turned to look at us. There were maybe thirty or forty of them, most of them sitting around the tables, each of which seemed to be set up for different kinds of games. Dice and cards and all that, with stacks of chips.

For just a second, nobody moved. I spotted a man with dusty trousers sitting at one of the tables. Just as I imagined. But he didn’t look happy to see us. Actually, none of them did.

"What—who the hell are you?!" a rough-looking man with a red beard, who sat by a desk at the back of the living room, jumped up from his seat and shouted.

As if on cue, we all threw off our cloaks and shouted in unison,

"You are all under arrest for violating the Imperial Order!"

The room went dead silent, but my heart was thumping.

This was the most hero-like thing I’d ever done in my life. And it was all really happening!

The red-bearded man looked shocked at first, but then he gritted his teeth and yelled out.

"Don’t let them get out, lads!"

Then a few men who were standing around by the walls, whom I only noticed then, were all much larger and more heavily built than Mario—almost Dimitri-like!—and took out their...

WEAPONS?!

I immediately cowered in fear as I saw that they were holding swords and axes, some even a massive hammer with a shaft that was longer than half of my body.

This was definitely not the part where the poor people cheered.

"We must retreat," Isabelle said urgently.

"Sergeant?" Thomas turned to look at Sergeant Becker.

He wasn’t there.

Then we heard the door close behind us. The very door that Mario just kicked open less than a minute ago.

The last thing I heard was Dorian’s voice.

"Oh, dear."

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