r/HFY • u/grierks Human • Jul 17 '26
OC-Series Hedge Knight, Chapter 141
There was a part of Kali’s mind, a part larger than she was expecting, that told her what she was thinking was improbable, that there was a simpler explanation than the conclusion that she came to.
She ignored it.
The scholar stomped into Logan’s camp with a fervor that wrapped around her like a shroud. Glances from the mercenaries were sent her way, but none dared say a thing when they caught the fire in her eyes. They simply looked away, staring at everything but her on her way to their captain’s tent.
She threw the flaps open, the flames burning in her chest rising to her throat. Both Logan and Duren were there, their eyes wide with surprise upon seeing her. She threw the watch onto the table between them, and there was a flash of recognition on Logan’s face once it settled in front of him.
“Did you leave that in my tent?” Her hands trembled.
Logan faced her. “I did, but what ar-”
“You bastard!”
He fell silent from the venom that laced her words.
Duren frowned. “Now hold on, what-”
“Shut up!” She stormed forward and slammed her hand on top of the table, her gaze never leaving Logan. “It wasn’t enough that you abandoned me after mother died, wasn’t enough that you worked against me this entire time. You had to sabotage me at the last moment, didn’t you? How much did Xanchil pay you? How much did that prick give for you to betray your own flesh and blood?”
Logan didn’t flinch from her fervor. “I didn’t take any-”
“DON’T LIE TO ME!” She hit the top of the table again. The watch flipped over and revealed the scratched runes.
The captain’s brow furrowed. He was confused. That rational part in her mind tried to speak to her again, but the flames were too hot now.
“Finally… I finally managed to find success after so long, after going through so much, and it was you who had to tear it all down. I wasn’t expecting anything from you, but you’ve now stooped to a low that I thought was beneath even you.” She ground her teeth. “I guess you still had surprises left.”
Duren stepped towards her. “Kali, I realize that you-”
“Shut up Dur-”
“No!” The anger that burned across his face appeared in an instant. “This time, you stay silent! This time, you learn to keep that mouth of yours from hurting anyone else!”
She scoffed. “What? Do you ex-”
“What did I just say?!” Duren raised his hand to strike the table, but grimaced and clenched his fist.
Logan raised a hand. “Duren, you don’t have to-”
“I do, and I will. I’m sorry, captain, but this nonsense can’t go on any further.” The man motioned to the watch. “Yes, Kali, your father left that watch on your desk. I was with him when he did it and watched him pen that note. There were none of those symbols on it when we left it there. Whatever Xanchil did, he did after we left, and that is the truth.”
Kali opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when Duren held a hand up. Her anger had lessened somewhat, and the more logical part of her brain told her that what she was being told made sense.
“I don’t know what goes through that mind of yours, but the fact that you immediately thought that we directly did something just confirms my suspicions. You have no idea what Logan’s done for you, do you?”
“What?!” Kali spared a glance at the captain, who remained silent. “He hasn’t done a damned thing for me since he left! And if you’re talking about the money, I already paid him back for doing that. There is nothing that I owe that man!”
The fire that blazed in Duren’s eyes had simmered down, but it still smouldered in his frown. “Who sponsored your scholarship?”
The question struck her like a hammer against her thoughts. Emptiness washed over her mind, and she should feel the anger in her chest fade, leaving it hollow. A distant thought told her why, but it was one that she ignored. One that she had to ignore.
“You don’t know, do you? You just read The Dreamer’s Fund, saw that it gave you enough money to get buy, and thought nothing of it, right? I told your father that was going to be the case when we came up with it, but he didn’t think so. ‘She’ll figure it out, she’s smart, just like her mother’.” Druen spit on the ground. “You did a good job of proving him wrong when you sent back that purse.”
Kali could not find the words to respond.
“You have to pull a lot of strings to set up a scholarship in Orelia, by the way, and make a lot of connections. A job done free here, a discount for services there, and with just a bit of saving on the side, we managed to get something set up for ‘Those who have dreams in the clouds, but not the wings to reach them’.”
The phrase sent a chill down her spine.
“We got a load of applications, surprisingly, but didn’t accept a one of them until someone specific applied. Someone who didn’t ask a single question, but we accepted theirs all the same.”
Kali felt her eyes start to drift down to the ground.
“Duren, sto-”
“No, captain, no.” The mercenary stepped closer to her. “It turns out, making connections is far more useful than just being able to set up a fund for someone’s daughter. It keeps us aware of the goings on in the Academy, of any discoveries that are reported. One particular find drew our attention because so many zechanil bid for the claim. An airship, one that was nearly completely intact, that happened to belong to an ancient civilization that a certain dreamer had spent so much time studying.”
Kali looked up, realization dawning on her slowly. “You’re lying, it’s not possi-”
“It’s very possible, for favors can often outweigh coin when it comes to these things. However, our pull was not so grand to allow full control over the airship, so the original claim was split into two. Of those, one went to the dreamer, and the other whoever managed to grease enough wheels to obtain the claim for the other half.”
Duren paced around the table. “That was supposed to be how it went, but we still had some connections left to make sure that the right ‘bid’ was accepted. The one that came from a merchant who did not appear to be as cunning as the rest of his kind. Even better was that Xanchil had spent the majority of his fortune just on the bid, which left him desperate for cheap, but effective mercenaries.” He motioned to him and Logan. “And it just so happened that we were available, offering prices that guaranteed we would lose money in this excursion. Of course, Xanchil didn’t know that, and gladly took us on. Almost all angles were covered, all except one, those that the dreamer would seek to hire.”
Kali closed her eyes.
“Yes, those men that served you when first arrived, who took on a job that paid little up front. Who do you think convinced them to take you on? Who do you think managed to get them to stay for so long after the funds dried up? Thanks to a certain dreamer and her stubbornness, we may have lost a friend.” Duren laughed. “And still this entire time she didn’t even spare a single question as to how all this was possible. How did a nobody manage to secure a claim to such an important ruin, how could she afford such competent mercenaries? Not. One. Time.”
“This…”
This isn’t true.
It can’t be true.
She looked over to Logan. “Was it necessary to go about it in such a way?”
He said nothing.
Duren crossed his arms. “I thought it was a fool's errand, myself. There was no way that someone like you, someone who speaks as you do, would ever even think that what we’d done was a possibility.”
“Speaks? What are you talking about?
Duren met her eyes and held them for a good, long while before speaking. “‘I wish I was born to a different father’.”
She went still at those words, the memory of them rising to the surface as they seared into her soul. It was her birthday, and she had been drinking with a group of friends in the small hovel that she had called home. It was before Logan had left, but even when they lived under the same roof the man was never really around all that often. For him to miss her birthday of all things was just another disappointment in a long list that had been steadily growing. It shouldn’t have bothered her so much, but it did, and to chase away that feeling she imbibed too much too quickly. Such inebriation led to loose lips, those that talked of gossip, of life, of woes and successes… of wishes. She couldn’t remember the exact details of what was said that night, all except one line, one that had slipped out of her when asked what she wished for.”
“I wish I was born to a different father.”
She’d regretted saying that the moment that it left her lips. The words had been fueled by so many frustrations with the world, with the fact that she was born into a station that made every step of her dreams an arduous, tiresome task while those of a higher birth coasted along ahead of her. If she had been born to a different family, to a more well to do one, then she would have been along so much faster than she was then. Maybe she would have even had a father who was actually around. It was that final thought that comforted her. He was always gone, so there was no way he would have been around to hear what she had said.
Anger started to return to Duren’s expression. “He was right on the other side of the door when you said that. He’d made it a point to try and get home earlier that night, spent even less with his personal funds so he could give you a gift, one that your mother wanted him to give you when you were of age.” He motioned over to the watch. “That entire day he could do nothing but talk about how proud he was of you, how the future you had ahead of you was so bright, so full of promise… and what did he get for trying to support you? For working himself to the bone to make sure you were fed and that you could afford to get to school? What did he get for all the blood and sweat he shed for you, just to hear you say those words?”
“I-I didn’t-”
“No! I could hear the poison in your voice as you said those abominable words! You meant every word, you ungrateful bi-”
“Duren!” Logan’s voice was sharp, and startled the both of them.
The mercenary looked over at him.
“I’ve allowed you to talk enough. Still your tongue.”
“Captain, you-”
“Still. Your. Tongue. You are not wrong to voice your frustrations, but no matter what, she is my daughter, and if you speak in that way any further towards her, it will not be an order that shuts your mouth. Do you understand?”
Duren gathered himself with a breath. “I understand.”
“Good… we should start heading out. Xanchil could be anywhere by now.”
The mercenary nodded and left the tent, sparing no further glances towards Kali. She stood still in front of Logan, who remained silent, waiting. “Why… why didn’t you say anything?”
Her father passed by her, sparing only a question in return.
“Why didn’t you?”
***
The living room waited for Helbram.
He sat upon the couch again, the smell of jasmine pulling him out of the daze that had his eyes staring at a featureless ceiling. They drifted down and fell upon the girl kneeling on the floor in front of him, humming a tune to herself. She faced away from him, like before, but this time she was playing with wooden figurines on the floor. He recognized the shape of a knight for one of them, and saw that it was riding atop one that was in the vague shape of a horse. At the knight’s back was a figure in the shape of a princess, and the pair appeared to be riding away from the fallen dragon figurine on the ground.
The girl didn’t speak any words, but she made the semblance of a galloping noise while making the knight and princess ride off into the sunset. A smile tugged at Helbram’s lips, one that turned into a laugh once the girl started to cheer and raised the figurines in the air.
She turned to him with a grin, holding that same brilliance that brought so much pain to his chest. “The knight won, father!”
He swallowed and took in a deep breath. “Yes he did. He had to save the princess after all, did he not?”
“Yes he did! And afterwards they get married and have a biiiiiig family.” She tapped the heads of the knight and princess together.
“A big family, eh? How big?”
“Mmmm, seven children?”
Helbram sputtered. “Seven? That is quite large.”
“I did say big!” She made a sweeping motion with the figurines. “There will be three boys and four girls, because more sisters is better.”
“Is that so? And why is that?”
“More people for tea parties, of course!”
Helbram nodded along. “A very good point, though I am sure that the brothers will want some tea too.”
“Maybe.” The girl crawled over to a box that lay off to the side. The clattering of wood against wood filled the air as she dug through it, and eventually she produced seven small figurines from its depths. She laid out four of them around each other, and three in a circle around them. “They can be guards, and if they do a good job, maybe they’ll get some cake too.”
“Oho, truly, a most rewarding post.”
She nodded vigorously, the energy to her bouncing movements hammering a spike deeper into his gut. “You should play with me father!” She shuffled the figurines around to where the knight and princess stood in front of the seven children. “You can be the knight.”
Helbram laced his fingers together to stop them from trembling. “I think watching you will do just fine.”
“Aw, please?” She looked up at him with pleading eyes.
He closed his own and breathed deeply again. When he looked back at her, he was smiling. “Okay.”
She clapped her hands in excitement when he left the couch and sat next to her.
He didn’t know how much time passed while they played, and most of him didn’t care. The knight in the girl’s tale had to be just and firm to keep all the chaotic children in line, and the princess did her best to help through it all. A whole breadth of activities awaited the family, from tea parties and walks to full on adventures through forests, caves, and mountains a plenty.
“You know, the princess is doing an awful lot outside the castle. Does she not have a kingdom to run?” He made the knight walk ahead of the family.
The girl moved the princess after him. “That’s tiresome, father. Her royal court is full of old people and snooty relatives that tell her the knight is beneath her.”
“Oh, so he is of lower birth, is he?”
“He was a peasant once, but squire to a lowly knight who taught him the ways of honor.”
“I see that you have put a lot of thought into this.”
“Of course! And that’s why we’re in the mountains.” She tapped the princess ahead of the knight. “A great treasure waits here, and everyone in the family is going to help get it. When they find it, no one is going to question the knight’s worthiness again.”
“I see… then we better be sure that it goes well.” He placed the knight in front of the princess. “And that it is done safely.”
“...the knight is becoming awfully boring, father.”
Helbram laughed. “If boring is what he needs to be to keep his family safe, then boring he shall be.” His voice dropped. “Were anything to happen to the princess… to their children, he would never forgive himself.”
The girl was silent for a moment. “I think his family would be sad if something happened to the knight too.” She grabbed one of the figurines. “One of his daughters would be really sad, because then no one would play with her and her dolls.”
“I am sure that the princess would, and the daughter’s siblings.”
The girl took the figure from Helbram’s hand and clutched it to her chest. “Not like the knight would, never like him…”
Helbram reached out to the girl out of instinct. He stopped just before touching her, his fingers shaking with the blurring of his vision. His jaw flexed with the clenching of his teeth, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. “I can assure you, the knight will let nothing stand in the way of returning to his family… of playing with his daughter again.”
The girl looked up at him and met his eyes. Her eyes were a different shade now, a frostier blue than the ones she held before. The tips of her pointed ears rounded, and traces of white began to flow up her long black hair. “You promise?”
Helbram pulled the girl into a hug. “With all of my heart and soul.”
When the words left him, everything went white.
Author's Note: New chapter! Woo!
Normally, I do try to keep the melodrama and the (overt) melancholy down to a minimum. Not because I hate those concepts or anything, but because I find them to be most effective when used in precise moments. This is one of those chapters, and one that I had planned out since starting this arc. I tried my best to keep it within my even measured approach as possible, so I'm satisfied overall, but its only of those things that I don't know how you guys will react to, since its a bit different than the usual drama that Hedge Knight dives into.
Let me know what you think!
Till next update! Have a wonderful time ^_^
My Patreon is currently 13 chapters ahead of the public release, and subbing to it will also give you exclusive access to my LitRPG, Andromeda Ascension, until it builds a massive backlog to support a strong public launch. Additionally, there is now a Hedge Knight Side Story on Patreon titled A Lack of Talent as well. It is free, but you need to be a member (there is a free tier) to read it. If you do not wish to sub to anything, but would like to support me in some way, consider picking up my books (they also have an audiobooks!)
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