AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.
We, the outgoing troops, marched our way to the rear, towards home. When we reached the outskirts of my hometown, Glenfell, there was a contingent of royal guards waiting for us.
From there, we handed over the reports, the once glowing swords that were used against us in battle, and command of the troops that were not directly under Dad's command.
The royal guard in charge of the command takeover saluted Dad and told us to expect a royal agent to debrief us once the reports were sorted out.
As the royal guards led the troops away we stayed behind to see off the soldiers that we served with. After the last man passed us, I slipped a hand inside my pocket and touched the dragon scale, [The swords have been handed off, they are now on their way from my town toward the capital.] I mentally reported to Professor Sageira, who gave me a short mental pulse of acknowledgment.
Now that all this war business was behind us, it was time to see the rest of my family. As we entered the town, the citizens came out to greet us. But even if they were happy to see us, they were also saddened to see the caskets on the wagon behind us, each with the kingdom's flag draped over it.
It did not take a genius to know who was in the caskets. The citizens were familiar with Dad's Knights and saw us leave town for the fort. All they had to do was see who was not riding in on their horses to know who was inside the caskets.
When we neared the estate, Dad told me to go home ahead of him. He had one last task to do as the commander of his men, and I did not envy him this task. Dad had to inform some women that their husbands were dead.
***
When I reached home, Mum and the house staff were there to welcome me. "Hi Mum, I'm bac- hmmm~"
Just as I greeted Mum, she wrapped her arms around my neck and buried my head in her chest while crying, "My baby is back!"
I relented and let her hold me there until I was almost out of breath and extracted my face out of her boobs.
She then looked at me with teary eyes and a smile on her face, "Where is your father?" she asked.
"Some of our Knights died in this battle. He went to tell the news to their families." I replied.
This dampened the mood, but Mum nodded resolutely and turned to the head butler, Humphrey, "Humphrey, make funeral arrangements for the fallen."
"Right away, My Lady." Humphrey replied before waving some house staff to accompany him.
"Come, tell me about your experience. Your father is going to take a while." Mum said as she guided me inside.
After the servants poured us some tea, I gestured for them to leave the room, as there were some things they were just not meant to hear. Once the servants left, I scanned the room and even used Air Instinctive Magic to create an air barrier so no sound vibrations would escape the bubble we were in.
"Now, Mum, promise me you will not be angry at what I am about to tell you." I said sheepishly.
The sentence caused her to narrow her eyes on me like a bird of prey before slowly replying, "No promises on that. Now out with it. If you have to start your sentence with that, I already am not going to like what comes after."
Damn it! I just shot myself in the foot out the gate. "Now now, it is not as bad as you think." I reassured Mum as I began telling her an edited version of what went down. Especially the part where I got stabbed through the chest. I had the fort's blacksmith mend and polish the entry and exit holes from my armor so Mum would not lose her mind upon simply taking a look at the hole in my armor.
I just hope that Mum takes my word for it and does not actually read the detailed reports or if Dad and his knights rat me out. But that is for future Luke to deal with. As for me right now, my immediate freedom from Mum's maternal instincts to keep me safe is on the line.
When Dad got home, he was greeted with a hug and a kiss from Mum and she informed him about the funeral she was arranging for the fallen Knights tomorrow.
After that, I spent the rest of the day catching up with Mum and getting stuffed with snacks by the maids, who kept saying I was "Nothing but skin and bones."
It is good to be back home.
***
The funeral was a private affair for mine and all the knight's families, and at the end of it, the widows were given a widow's dowry. With the money from the widow's dowry, the widow and their kids would be able to live off it for a few years if they spent it wisely. But there was no way Dad was going to allow the family of his brothers-in-arms to live the rest of their lives frugally.
But as much as Dad wanted to support the families of his brothers-in-arms, he, as a new baron, was nowhere as wealthy enough to do so for all the families of the fallen knights. What he could do, though, was help them out in other ways.
He offered some of the widows and their children work at the estate or introduced them to local vendors who needed assistance. In one instance, he helped a widow, formerly a bar wench, use her dowry as seed money to start a tavern, complete with generous tax exemptions, of course.
***
It has been a week since I came back home, and I have been doing my best to laze around to the best of my ability. The best part was that in this whole week, there were no emergencies, no reports of bandits, no monsters attacking cattle or sacking farms.
The main reason for this lull of activity and the absence of threat to the fiefdom's security was because of the large number of troops moving through our territory towards the border with the Valorhelm Dominion to do some good old-fashioned saber-rattling
Any would-be bandit, monster, or wild beast would not be making any noise if they had two brain cells to rub together. Otherwise, they would end up very dead at the spears of a marching army.
As for my family and its knights, we were rotated out and not to be deployed unless the kingdom was in a dire situation.
So, this late morning, as I lazed in bed, I turned to the nightstand and saw Professor Sageira's dragon scale pulsing white light. "Huh, never seen it do that before." as I picked up the scale, I had an angry dragon lady mentally shouting at me.