Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 27: The Lies We Tell For Others

As Erec approached his dorm, he heard loud yelling from inside.

“Don’t you dare tell me where to put my things, wench!” Colin’s screech passed the thick wooden door and traveled into the hall. Erec winced and paused outside the room, wondering if he wanted to head in.

“Your dirty boots have no business leaving a trail all around our shared living space; I was kindly informing you of our standards.” Olivia’s voice responded in a polite tone. The type of tone that was well used by maids to deal with belligerent and unwieldy nobles. “I suggest you begin to learn common courtesy before others make you.”

“Don’t you presume to tell me what I should learn or not learn. Do you know who my father is?”

“Of course she does,” Garin said and let out a long sigh. “We all do.”

Well. Erec squared his shoulders and opened the door. All heads shot in his direction. Colin’s face blazed red, and he had his chest puffed up—but as his eyes landed on Erec, he froze. A bit of panic—his posture shifted from open and confrontational to guarded.

“Y-you aren’t worth my time.” Colin shot another angry sneer at Olivia before turning and slamming the door to his room behind him.

Olivia gave a soft chuckle and shook her head. “I believe I shall be taking a walk. While warned of this behavior, witnessing it firsthand is another thing entirely. May his ancestors weep for pity at the end of their renowned line.” Olivia swept towards the exit, pausing to give Erec a small smile. “Oh, I do hope your conversation with Boldwick went well! Sorry that this was the state which you came back to.” She gave a slight curtsy before walking past him.

Erec’s eyes trailed her as she walked down the hall. She moved quickly but in a collected manner. It’d be hard to tell she was even angry over the whole affair if not for her tensed shoulders; that practiced, and precise movement did wonders to hide her feelings.

How long had she served as a maid to the Luculentus estate? Since she was a little girl?

She’d found out he met with Boldwick. Erec glared at Garin and raised his eyebrow as he strode into the room. “How’d she find out where I was?” They both knew the answer.

“She was interested in why you left in a huff. Didn’t think it was a secret. Besides, you were acting moody ever since we got back from the fight. Can’t blame her for wanting to make sure you were okay. Are you? Okay, that is?”

Erec took a deep breath. He would’ve preferred keeping the business with Boldwick to himself, but it didn’t matter too much. So what if she knew he met with Boldwick? It was normal to ask about how people were doing, especially if you were going to be living with them for the next two years.

If he was going to use this Divine Talent, everyone would know about it eventually. Not like he could do a very good job of hiding it without putting others at risk.

Along those lines… “I am okay. Thank you. I’ve got a confession to make—“

There was a bang inside Garin’s room. Suddenly Garin jumped to his feet, eyes wide and a panicked expression on his face. He ran over to the door, yanked it open—and a ball of fur rushed out. It headed straight towards the open exit.

“Close the door!” Garin screamed.

Erec acted quickly; he sprinted to the door, slammed it shut, and threw his body between whatever ran like hell out of Garin’s room and the exit.

A squirrel skittered to a stop, frantically backpedaling away. It darted underneath the couch. There was a tense moment as both of their eyes went from the couch to Colin’s closed door and then to one another. Nothing moved. Silence hung in the air.

“So uh, I have a confession to make too,” Garin said quietly, reaching in his pocket and pulling out chopped-up bits of a smuggled carrot from the canteen. He threw it into his room and stepped away—a second later, the squirrel made a mad dash back inside. He closed it behind the animal and then let out a long nervous laugh. “I brought a pet.”

“…You stole a squirrel from your father’s bio-cavern?”

“Hey! It’s not like that, okay? I didn’t mean to. I was headed back for decontamination, and this little guy—Munchy is his name, by the way—followed me back. Each step I made, he kept coming along. And well, he was so damn adorable. He even let me pet him, then he let me hold him, then… he let me take him out, fell asleep in my hand.”

“So you stole a squirrel from your father’s bio-cavern.”

“Yes?”

It was beyond irresponsible. Even given that the squirrel population was out of control, and those little bastards got regularly culled to reduce their numbers. Sure, one squirrel wouldn’t be missed. But that wasn’t an excuse to nab an animal from its ecosystem because it was cute. If taking those sticks had been wrong, this was three times worse, at the very least.

Yet Garin had a sly grin as if it were no big deal.

“Do you even know how to take care of a squirrel? Garin, they aren’t meant to live in a dorm room.”

“Most of the time, he’s chill! All calm. Sits on my desk and munches on whatever I bring back to him. I even gave him a little bowl with water—“

“We are definitely not allowed to have pets.” Erec fought to keep his temper in check and his voice down. It would’ve been impossible if he hadn’t been a massive dick earlier today and already felt bad about how he acted. He owed Garin an apology for his behavior and an explanation. This wasn’t the time to dig into his friend’s carefree attitude and the risk it posed to himself and now Munchy.

“Keep this a secret between us? Munchy is adorable, and I don’t want to set him out in the wasteland!”

Yeah, that would be the only place Munchy could go now. It wasn’t like they’d have time or permission to head off campus and back down into the Baron’s bio-caverns. Besides, how would they even justify a trip like that in the first place?

Munchy, for better or worse, would have to stay with them.

“Goddess damn it, Garin.” Erec rubbed his forehead and walked across the room to collapse onto the couch. “Fine. We’ll keep it a secret. What have you been feeding Munchy?” I get rid of one, and have another forced on me. Goddess above.

“Little bits from here and there. He really liked the synth-meat-maple sausage we had the other day.”

“…Do you feed him a balanced diet?”

“He eats what I eat.”

No. Of course not. He doesn’t even know what a balanced diet for a squirrel looks like. Garin wrung his hands and glanced at his door before joining Erec on the couch.

“Is that wrong? I don’t want the little guy to get sick.” Garin cleared his throat, getting a little choked up.

“We’ll work out what to feed him, and I—I don’t know how, but figure out some way to get him proper exercise in your room. That’s… Well, not fine, but it’s what we’ll do.” Erec put it tersely, doing his best to stem annoyance and instead contribute positively to this situation. If they were going to secretly keep a squirrel, then they’d damn well better make sure it was well taken care of. “Listen. Let's put Munchy aside for now—“

There was a bang from Garin’s door as Munchy slammed against it.

“I think all the yelling from Colin got him worked up. Normally he’s a lot more relaxed, I swear.”

Well, go figure that shrill yelling would work up a creature in a foreign space. Erec sighed. “Yeah, after this talk, it’s best you go… calm him down? I’m sorry for earlier. After the fight, you and Olivia were trying to make sure I was fine, and I was trapped in my head and acted like a total dick.”

Garin shrugged, taking one more glance at his door. It seemed that Munchy backed off from his siege to conquer the living room. “You get like that sometimes. Not really new. I didn't get offended."

“The truth is that there was more going on than you think. Bedwyr didn’t ask for me to take a swing at him. I… I’ve got a Divine Talent; it makes me lose control in a fight, puts me in some kind of… battle state? I took a swing at him because, well, I wanted to fight. He was the only one left and was approaching me.”

There was a silence as Garin took this in.“Yeah, that seems… difficult to deal with, sorry. So you were scared or worried. Is that why you tried to keep it bottled up?”

“Yeah, I wanted to keep it secret because I thought that sort of thing might get me kicked out.”

“And what did Sir Boldwick want?” Garin leaned in. His eyes took light to them as he dug deeper. When his friend got like this, he’d demand an answer to every question until he felt satisfied and understood the situation.

So, Erec gave it. He shared the contents of his meeting with the Master Knight without hiding any details. Including the fears still circling in his head and the private concerns that it would affect his mission with the Duke as well.

He already knew he couldn’t manage his temper well, but now with it being a hair trigger on a mindless state of anger, what if he hurt someone? There were too many unknowns about the situation for him to handle alone confidently.

But, at the end of a thirty-minute talk, during which Garin mostly listened and asked pointed questions, his friend looked him in the eye and smirked.

“Y’know what I think? It’ll work out fine; there’s no point worrying about the what-ifs and worst cases. Work with what you have. This could be huge for you! If it makes you better in a fight, then that’s amazing! You’ll figure out the downsides and how to work with them. I know you will.” Garin said.

He ended the speech with a careless thumbs up. Then he got up and stretched, eyes trailing to his door.

“Try to work on telling me things that are bugging you, okay? Getting all trapped in your own head isn’t good for you. I’m here for you.”

He’s right. Damn it all, no more secrets between them.

“…There’s one more thing. I found a ma—“ He spat out words as fast as possible, but before he could finish, his tongue went numb.

He’d tried to reveal VAL. And failed. Erec spat out, still trying to force the words out despite his jaw and tongue refusing to work.

[Bad Intern. My processors run much faster than your brain. Cease your attempts to violate our non-disclosure agreement.]

Garin gave him an odd look. “…Right, okay. Is this you teasing me? Saying there’s nothing more in your head, or pretending—“ His eyes squinted. “Something wrong?”

[Now lie, or my assistance will be withdrawn.]

His tongue began to regain feeling. His heart clenched, but the thought of what VAL had done for him. And the sudden spike of fear of what VAL might do if he sided against it.

“…Yeah, sorry, I was making a joke. It was… a weird one. Go take care of Munchy.” The words came free a bit sloppy as if VAL tensed to stop him at any point.

“Riiiighht…” Garin walked over to his door, taking one last look at Erec, before heading inside.

[I had thought we concluded this nonsense. Query. Why is it you wish to violate our contract so earnestly? Is your benefits package not rewarding enough?]

Erec didn’t answer the machine. Working his numb tongue in his mouth to regain feeling. For a while there, he’d thought that… maybe they’d become something like friends. But that was naive. He knew that now. VAL didn’t make friends; he didn’t know what VAL really wanted.